News of the Day.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9, 30 January 1869, Page 3

News of the Day.

The Anniversary Holiday. — Monday next, being the twenty-seventh anniversary of the settlement of Nelson, will be kept as a general holiday, and more than the usual sports have been provided for pleasure-seekers, so that it is to be hoped the weather will prove propitious. Tho programme put forth by the Foresters' Committee gives full particulars. The following day, Tuesday, is devoted to pleasure also, and the Regatta and* other sports will be certain to draw tho greater part of the population of the oity to the Haven-road and the hills which overlook tho harbour. All that is needed to mako both days pass off pleasantly is fine weather, and we hope there will be no disappointment on that score or indeed on any other.

STori'AG-E of Traffic on the Haven-Road. — A notice appears in our advertising columns from the Surveyor to the Board of Works, announcing that no vehicles will be permitted fo pass down the Haven-road below the Custom-house on the day of the Regatta, after nine o'clock in. the morning. The Weather.— For a week past the weather has had a very unsettled appearance, and although no rain has fallen worth mentioning, the sky has been a good deal clouded, with at times a threatening aspect. As we are now near the date of fhe occurrence of heavy floods witnessed for three successive years, a good deal of anxiety is manifested by those most interested, as to whether we shall escape the recurrence of the disasters which a long-continued rain and a flood must cause in the midst of the harvest. The barometer has fallen considerably within tho last few hours, and the wind being from the S.E., there than it was last year, and a good deal of corn is saved, so that the crops would not be likely to suffer co much as they did on former occasions should a heavy rain now come. But for the interruption to harvest, rain would be highly acceptable. Sittings in Bankruptcy. — Mr. Justice Richmond, who returned from Hokitika in the Charles Edward on Thursday last, sat in Bankruptcy yesterday. Eugene Desaunais came up for flnul examination and received his discharge, as also did Richard Percival. On the application of Mr. Kingdon for the discharge of Richard Sutcliffe, Mr. Pitt opposed on behalf of several persons from whom tho bankrupt had obtained accommodation bills. After a long examination, the case was adjourned until the 12th of February. Death in the Lunatic Asylum. — A man named Cornelius M'Carthy, who had been an inmate of the Lunatic Asylum since the 26th of October, 18G7, died suddenly on the 27th instant. By a post mortem examination it was ascertained that the cause of death was pleurisy supervening upon old standing inflammation of the lungs. First Gum Tree planted in Nelson. — Many persona will regret the disappearance of the fine blue-gum tree which stood in what was formerly known as the Bank-gcarden in Hardy-street, but at present occupied by Mr. T. Newton. This garden was the first piece of ground to receive a plough in this island, which was held by the lato Mr. John Eerr upwards of twenty-six years ago. The tree spoken of was, wo believe, the first blue-gum planted in Nelson, and hus been growing about twenty-four years. It was felled yesterday, and was found to measure nine feet in circumference at the butt, and to have stood eighty-four feet high. We believe a larger gum tree is growing in front of Mr. Ti7iline's cottage, on the Beach-road, but that is not so old by several years. Customs Duties at Westport.— The Times, of Tuesday last, publishes the following return of the duty collected at the Custom-house, Westport, from the Ist October to tho 31st December last, as follows :—": — " Customs duties, £7,B72 17s. lid. ; merchant shipping act fees, 65. ; arms act fees, £19 3?. ; light house dues, £32 14s. 6d. ; gold duty, £3,297 12s. 3d. ; total, £11,222 13s. Bd. The amount collected at the Warden's offices during the same term for miners' rights, business and publicans' licenses, .and as miscellaneous receipts, was £5,554 175. 2<1., making a total of £10,777 10s. lOd. This docs not include the amount realized on Jand sales in the district." The Picton and Blenheim Railway, and Mr. Whey. — It will be remembered that some- three years ago Mr. Long Wrey induced the Grovernment of Marlborough to advance him £1,000 with which to proceed to England, where he undertook to get parties within a year of his arrival to undertake to construct a railway between Picton and Blenheim. The terms of the arrangement were, that should Mr. Wrey succeed, the £1,000 was fo be considered as a bonus to him for his labour, while if he failed, the money was to be returned, the Marlborough authorities taking a mortgage over sundry property of Mr. Wrey'a to secure itself against loss. Mr. Wrey i having from various causes failed in what he undertook to get done, and not having reimbursed the Marlborough Government, which stands greatly in ! need of funds, the latter foreclosed its mortgage, and tiie various properties were disposed of by auction on Thursday last, when the whole netted only £135 los. The following were the properties sold and the prices realized : — Lot 1, about 180 acres, district of Upper Motueka, £S0 ; lot 2, about 5 acres, section 98, A., on square 6, of the Province of Nelson, £5 55. ; lot 3, about 8 acres, district of Motueka Valley, £6; lot 4, about 2-1 acres, district of Upper Maitai, £10 10s.; lot 5, about 94 acres, district of Maitai, £18 ; lot 6, about 72 acres, district of Maitai, £16. This sale affords unmistakable proof of the scarcity of money, and the disinclination of people to make speculative investments. Visit of General Chute to New Zealand. — With reference to General Chute's visit to New Zealand, the Argus says : — The recent departure of Major-General Chute, X.C.8., commander-in-chief of her Miijesfy's forces in Australia, for New Zealand, has occasioned some erroneous surmises that his visit had reference to the Maori disturbances. The fact is that he left Melbourne on Saturday last per Hero, for Sydney, en route to Auckland, in order to inspect the troops stationed there and elsewhero in New Zealand. The whole affair is merely one of routine. Taupo.— The HaioMs Bay Herald, of the 23rd instant, speaks of a mission to Taupo, but with what object is not generally known. It says: — "On Thursday, at noon, a small party, consisting of S. Locke, Esq., Lieutenant-Colonel Lambert, two or three of the Armed Constabulary (one of whom to act a3 Lieutenant-Colonel Lambert's interpreter), and twenty natives under Hohepa and Paora Hape, recently armed by order of the Government, toolc their departure for Taupo. Mr. Locke's mission is a political one, he having, on being requested by Mr. Richmond, at once expressed his willingness to take the journey. Of the nature of LieutenantColonel Lambert's duties we know nothing, but suppose them to be of a militai-y character." Effects of the Native War. — The Hvwlce's Bay Herald remarks :■ — " Industrial pursuits are fearfully on the decline during the continuance of native disturbances, and the effect is experienced by all classes-of the community, save those who find a chronic state of war to be a ' paying game,' and don't really care how long it may last. There is something very attractive in the mystical words ' pay and allowances.' But the people generally groan under the depression which is caused in part by that want of confidence which is inseparable from the circumstances, and which shuts out capital and crushes energy. No commissariat expenditure would ever compensate a community for the losses it sustains through war being in its vicinity. Were peace restored, and had the public faith in its being permanent, the busy hum of industry would soon be again heard in our rural districts. Properties at present too large for the means of the occupants would become subdivided and improved, and a condition of comfort and plenty, if not of very large means, would become general." Murder of a Maori Woman. — A Maori woman named Atterea has been murdered at Rntopiro Wairoa, near Auckland, by a man named Ruka, for causing his brother's death by witchcraft. The case had been investigated by the chiefs, and the woman had confessed, when Ruka tomahawked her and escaped. Meteor.— "On Sunday night, 17th instant," says the Wanganui Times, " about eleven o'clock, a meteor might have been seen sailing across the sky — ' unhasting but unresting' — shining with a subdued splendour which was very beautiful." DEATn fhom Drowning. —We {Wanganui Times) deeply regret to have to record another sad bereavement which has sorely afflicted the family of an old and respected townsman, Mr. John Garner. It appears that on the afternoon of Thursday, the Uth instant, Master Tyrrell Garner, son of the late Mr. Thomas Garner, went with other boys to bathe in ; the Wanganui River, nearly opposite Putiki, and j was accidentally drowned. The body was discovered 1 on Saturday morning near Churton's creek by Mr. \ Ward, aud taken to the Steam Packet Hotel, where lan inquest was held. The jury returned a verdict of j " Accidentally drowned. "

Otago Fine Arts Exhibition.— This Exhibiis to be opened about the Ist February. Wairarapa Races. — The annual race meeting under the auspices of the Wairarapa Jockey Club, is announced to take place on the 17th and 18th February. Accident. — A man named M'Kirdy, who had only come out of the hospital at Westport on Saturday last, after recovery from an accident by which he broke his leg, met with another accident on the same day, and again broke one of his legs. The Charges of Brutality. — The inquiry into the charges of brutality and mutilation of a Hauhau man and woman, raade by Mr. Booth against the Wanganui Cavalry is closed. Major Edwards reports the charges to be quite unfounded. Canterbury and Westland Public Debts Akbiteatios. — We oiiaerve, in the Zfew Zealand Gazette of the 13th instant, that "E. C. J. Stevens, Esq., M.G- A., has been appointed by the Superintendent of Canterbury toarbitrate as to the apportionment of public debts between that province and the County of Westland." Fruit Crop in Tasmania.— The late hot season in Tasmania, though bad for cereals and potatoes, has produced a fruit crop unrivalled in almost any former year. From the Huon district alone 200 tons of jam have already been sent down to Hobart Town, the total amount exported from that place last year being 600 tons. Narrow Escape from Drowning-. — The Wellington Independent, of the 20th instant, says :—": — " On Sunday afternoon a man of the name of Eobert Donelly fell off the wharf, and would have been drowned had not a rope been thrown to him by some persons who saw him as he was about to sink, which he managed to get hold of, and was by this means pulled to the shore, apparently more dead than alive, and laid out on the gridiron until removed by the police, and consigned to the lockup." A Princely Donation. — Bishop Monrad, formerly Prime Minister of Denmark, and who resided for a short time in Nelson before taking up land in the neighbourhood of Wanganui, has just returned to Europe. Before leaving his Lordship presented the New Zealand Museum with nearly 600 valuable etchings and engravings by eminent artists, including works of Claude, Van Dyck, Poussin, Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt, Salvator Rosa, Rubens, Teniers, and other great Flemish and Italian masters. New Zealand Flax Rope. — An instance of the adaptability of the New Zealand flax for rope-making is furnished by the Bruce Herald, of the 12th inst. That journal says: — Many people were dubious as to the durability of the rope manufactured from New Zealand flax, but a vessel which was a short time since in Dunedin harbour has her main braces and a great part of her standing gear made of New Zealand rope, all of which is as strong as when put on board the vessel, which has been a voyage home via Callao, and returned to Dunedin, and is now on her way home again." Daring Burglary.— The Wellington Evening Post, of Tuesday last, states :—": — " A daring burglary was committed last night at Colonel Reader's office. A pane of glass was removed from the window, and a cash-box, containing a number of valuable documents and about fifty pounds in money or cheques, abstracted through the aperture. The box, forced open, was discovered this morning in front of Dr. Featherston's house. The thief was evidently acquainted with the premises, as the pane of glass was immediately above the place where tho box was accustomed to stand. Those active officers, Sergeant Monaghan and Constable Fraser, have secured two of the supposed culprits, one having some of the stolen property on him when arrested." Suicide at Canterbury.— The Lyttellon Times snys :—": — " On Saturday evening a young man, named Thomas Cook Martin, committed suicide, by poisoning himself, at the Devonshire Arms Hotel. He had been in the employment of Mr. Hart, as barman, for a considerable time. He was noticed to be in low spirits on Saturday, and was standing in the kitchen, about six o'clock, when he fell suddenly to the ground. On enquiries being made as to what was tho mutter with him, he stated that ho had ! poisoned himself, and Dr. Iliffe having been sent for he administered an emetic, and ordered deceased to be conveyed to the hospital. Deceased was placed in a cab with the utmost despatch, but he expired on tho road. Aurora Australis.— The Lyttelton Times, of the 22nd instant, observes:— "About eleven o'clock on Wednesday night this phenomenon was to be observed in the southern part of the sky, and continued with greater or less intensity up to three a.m. The phenomenon consisted of a number of vertical rays, rising about ten degrees above the horizon, and covering about the same space in breadth. The rays changed from red to a pale blue, and again to green, flashing occasionally with greater brilliancy, and then becoming paler and almost invisible. On both sides the rays were most vivid, the eastern side being brightest. An observer compared it to a striped ribbon, of which the borders were the most distinct. At 2-30 a.m. the rays were less frequent, but a diffused pale green light could be seen which continued until daybreak." Seizure of the Offices of the Panama an d New Zealand Mail Company.— The Star and Herald, of the 25th December, says : — " A good deal of excitement was created on Sunday, by a posse of judicial officers and merchants taking possession of the premises of the Panama, New Zealand, and Australian Royal Mail Company in this city, and after inventorying the stock on hand, placing the judicial seal upon the doors. The cause of this step is, we believe, the desire on the part of certain persons to recover the payment of protested Bills of Exchange amounting to about £15,000, purchased by them from the agent here, and returned from England ou account of the company's inability to meet them. We understood that the company had made arrangements some time since to have all these matters promptly settled, and it is to be hoped that the incoming mail from Southampton will bring the means to take these drafts up and save further trouble and delay here." Narrow Escape.— The Grey River Argus, of Tuesday last, reports :—": — " A most foolish action was committed on Sunday, by which a man named James Small nearly lost his life. He had been drinking during the early part of the day, and as the weather was rather warm, he in the afternoon went to one of the sets of steps on the embankment, took off his clothes and jumped into the river, with the intention of swimming to the Nelson side. When about midway over he was heard to call for help, and was seen to sink. Dr. Morice, with some other, ran to a boat and put off to the rescue, but the man had disappeared before they came up to him. A pole was put down into the water, got underneath the man's arms, and his body was raised to the surface, dragged into the boat, and the usual means of restoration were immediately used by Dr. Morice. The man soon recovered his senses, and was conveyed to bed in rear of Kilgour's hotel. It is probable that an information will be laid against him by the police for an indecent exposure." Poverty Bay. — The HaiuMs Bay Herald says : — " Intelligence reached Napier on the 23rd from Wairoa. There is nothing new from that district ; but a native letter had been received from Poverty Bay, dated Murewai, 18th instant., containing expressions which would lead to the assumption that Ngatipa had been re-occupied by the enemy, or by an enemy of some kind, large fires having been seen on its summit. Though there is nothing improbable in the Hau-haus again entering the district — seeing that it has been so suddenly evacuated by the Colonial forces — it is hardly probable that Te Kooti would again enter the place where so many of his people lie dead. The Uriwera, certainly, may have done it ; but the story wants cofirrnntion." The Wellington Evening Post, of Monday last, states :—: — " The p.s. Sturt, arrived in port early this morning. She left Poverty Bay on Saturday, at 1230 p.m., with Colonel St. John, Inspectors Newland, Anderson and Gascoigne, and eighty-eight rank and file of the Armed Constabulary, bound for Wanganui. She brings no news of importance, everything being quiet at Poverty Bay ; sixty men remain there to hold in check the remnants of the broken Hau-haus."

The Mauritius. — The Argus says :—": — " From our Mauritius files (which come down to December 4) we observe that serious disturbances had occurred in the island of Reunion. Political causes were supI posed to have been at work, but it was also stated that reprehensible conduct on the part of the clergy had not a little inflamed the mind of the public. Is there anything in the character of the season which has affected the clergy nearly all the world over?" Population of Queensland. — According to an official census just published, the total population of the Colony of Queensland, on the 2nd March, 1868, was 99,312. The social condition of the popnlation is declared as follows: — Married, males, 16,619 j females, 15,705. Widowers, males, 910 ; widows, 993. Single males, 42,686 ; females, 22,399. Totals, males, 60,215 ; females, 39,097. On the Ist ■January, 1861, die population wus 61,640 ; tho increase since that time, therefore, has been upwards of 38,000. Q-eog- at. A Wedding-.— A correspondent of the Wagga Wagya Advertiser writes :—": — " I was present at a wedding party, which broke up on the 26th December, the knot having been tied by the Rev. Mr. Harpur, at Wagga Wagga, on Christmas Day. Besides the happy couple, and a goodly number of bridesmaids, there were fourteen of the sterner sex, including your humble servant, present ; and before we dispersed wo consumed 114 bottles of grog. lam half-dead, but you may rely upon this interesting fact being true." TnE Darling. — The latest reports from the Darling district and the Paroo, which are to the 24th December, more than confirm former advice 9 as to the drought and heat. Thousands of sheep are starving from the absence of feed. The shepherds are unable to keep their flocks together. They are perpetually straying in the vain search for grass. There will be a total loss of some of the flocks unless a good fall of rain comes speedily. The river rose considerably a few days ago, indicating that a heavy rainfall had occurred in the upper district. The heat is fearful on the plains, the thermometer often standing 110 in the shade. Setting- Fire to a House, toe Convenience. — The Melbourne Age gives an account of a tragi-comio occurrence which took place at Rosedale on Christmas Eve :—": — " During the evening the officer in charge of the police station perceived a large fire at the western end of the township. Hurriedly proceeding there he found the hut of a well-known resident in Gipps Land, William Farley, in a blaze, the proprietor coolly standing with his back to the fire, and his hands behind him, enjoying the warmth, his wife and children being in a state oipuris naturalibus located at a waterhole a few yards off. Mr. O'Connor asked Farley who had caused the fire, and he replied that he had lit it himself for his own convenience. The man, evidently being non compos, was taken into custody." A Eeal " Brickfielder." — The Melbourno Leader states : — " As the afternoon train from. Echuca, on 24th December, in proceeding from Eochester to Runnymede, was going at the time probably at the rate of thirty miles an hour, it was overtaken and passed by an enormous mass of dust which must have been whirled along at a rate exceeding forty miles an hour. When first seen approaching in a westerly direction, it looked like a dark cloud extending from the earth to the zenith. It was described by a passenger as resembling " a black mountain of incalculable size, and apparently as solid as granite." The train was left in such a state of darkness for fully a quarter of an hour after it had passed, that it was found impossible even to make a memorandum. At Runnymede, roofs and verandahs were stripped during the passage of the dust storm, and the windows were blown out of one shop." The Shall-Pox in Melbourne.— The Melbourne correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, writing on the 16th instant, says : — " The great ' small-pox question " is still agitating the minds of the medical profession, and of the public generally, in this city ; and I shall deem myself exceedingly fortunate if I meet with the unqualified belief of your readers when I tell them that out of a council composed of half-a-dozen of the leading men of the colony three at least of the number don't know how to distinguish between the symptoms of the dreadful and devastating disease of small-pox, and those of the comparatively mild and harmless ailment called chickenpox ; and yet this is simply a fact. Dr. M'Crae, the chief medical officer of the Grovernment, together with two or three of those amongst his brethren of the profession who have been consulted with reference to four or five cases in the Melbourne Hospital, have pronounced as positively that the patients are suffering from the latter compliant in au unusually virulent form, as Drs. Crooke, Thomas, and others have decided that they were under the influence of the former malady. Rather an alarming illustration this of the old saying that doctors will differ. Fortunately, however, whether suffering from small-pox or chicken-pox, the patients are now in a fair way of recovery, and no new cases have been reported." Sjiall-Pox at San Francisco. — The Panama papers, of the 25th December, state that the intelligence from San Francisco, of the 23rd November, is to the effect that small-pox continued to rage fearfully in that city, and was still increasing. Several trials in the Criminal Courts have been postponed on account of prisoners or witnesses being laid up with this disease. Bequest of Two Hundred Thousand Dollars to Soldiers and Orphans.— The San Francisco Bulletin says :—": — " In our advertising columns to-day will be found a notice of the bequest ofthelate Horatio Ward, Banker, of London, a native of New York, to Union soldiers and the orphans of those who ffcll in defence of the Union cause. Mr. Ward bequeathed the sum of 100,000 dollars to the National Soldiers' and Sailors' Home in Washington, and a further sum of 100,000 dollars to be divided among such other institutions for orphaus by the late war as had been formed in the loyal states at the time of his death, or shall bo formed within one year thereafter. A clause of the will directs that the interest only shall be used for the present but that the donations be so managed as to give orphans, as they become of nge, a sum of money to fit them out in life, and thus gradually extinguish the fund. Mr. Ward died April 28, 1867. The bequest is one of the most munificent on record, and will prove a monument to» the memory of the deceased " more enduring than brass."

Breakfast.— A Successful Experiment.— The Civil Service Gazette has the followiug interesting remarks :—": — " There are very few simple articles of food which can boast so many valuable and important dietary properties as cocoa. While acting on the nerves as a gentle stimulant, it provides the body with some of the purest elements of nutrition, and at tho same time corrects and invigorates the action of the digestive organs. These beneficial effects depend in a great measure upon the manner of its preparation, but of late years such close attention has been given to the growth and treatment of cocoa, that there is no difficulty in securing it with every useful quality fully developed. The singular successs which Mr. Epps attained by his homoeopathic preparation of cocoa has never been surpassed by any experimentalist. Far and wide? the reputation of Epps's Cocoa has spread by the simple force of its own extraordinary merits. Medical men of all shades of opinion have agreed in recommending it as the safest and most beneficial article of diet for persons of weak constitutions. This superiority of a particular mode of preparation over all others is a remarkable proof of th& great results to be obtained from little causes. By a thorough knowledge of the natural laws which govern the operations of digestion and nutrition, and by a careful application of the fine properties of well-selected cocoa, Mr. Epps has provided our breakfast tables wifh a delicately-flavoured beverage which may save us many heavy doctors' bills. It'is by the judicious use of such articles of diet that a constitution may be gradually built up until strong enough to resist every tendency to disease. Hundreds of subtle maladies are floating around us ready to attack wherever there is a weak point. We may escape many a fatal shaft 'by keeping ourselves well fortified with pure blood and a properlynourished frame." 218.