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New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1434, 22 June 1868, Page 3

The Homeward Bound claim (Tapu), adjoining the Full Moon, are operating on a leader in the creek which runs into the Full Moon, and then returns into their claim. Gold appears in another place near the surface which requires sinking to produce payable results. Tn a drive of 100 feet some hard stuff is met with impregnated with quartz, with good promise. Near another boundary a good leader has been hit which appears to run into this claim. Wharf Lights.—General notices have appeared in our columns with regard to the lights on Queen-street Wharf. We have now learned from the Gas Company that the absence of lights on the occasions referred to was caused by the derangement of some of the apparatus connected with the supply of gas, a circumstance wholly unavoidable, and reflecting blame upon no one. Waitakebei. —An accident which might have been serious happened to Mr. Gamut, a settler here. On the 14th inst., proceeding from Muddy Creek to his farm, by some means the horse went through one of the bridges intersecting this country and threw its rider into the creek. IMr. Garrett sustained.some injury, though hot dangerous, and is now better.

A most interesting Account of the proceedings of Mr. Commissioner Mackay during his late successful mission to Hokianga will be found in our columns of to-day. Mr. Mackay seems to be most peculiarly successful in his dealings with the natives of this country. His long experience, and intimate acquaintance with the Maori, character, have combined to render him oue of the most successful negociators in matters of native difficulties that, perhaps, New Zealand ever possessed. It was, we may say, entirely owing to this gentleman that the Thames gold-fields were first opened ; at Coromandel, Waikato, and numerous other places, his indefatigable exertions have rendered incalculable service- to the province. In this last and by no means least undertaking, his efforts have been unmistakably crowned with success. Many persons in Auckland conversant with the Maori character, had predicted his failure, and our friend Paul of Oralcci, when told of tho brilliant denouement of Mr. Mackay's expedition, exclaimed in Maori Credut Judsaus. It is by the tact and energy of such colonists as Mr. Mackay that we shall be able to steer safely through the intricate shoals of native difficulties, and it is by such prompt action and firm decision that we shall avoid in future those unhappy intestine quarrels which have so often racked our adopted land. A Party of prospectors arc, we are informed, at work upon the lioteo block where they have found auriferous stone of considerable richness. It was from the lioteo block, Provincial Government land, that the rich specimens lately shown to us by Mr. JFaslett were obtained. The party is, we believe, steadily working there. If.M. Gaol, Mount Euex.—Weekly state ending June 20,18(iS. —Awaiting trial before the Supreme Court, 2 males ; prisoners sentenced to penal servitude, 33 males ; hard labor, 91 males, 10 females ; in default of bail, •!• males, 1 lemale ; detained for imprisonment, 2 males ; debtors, 2 males ; discharged during the week, IS males, 2 females ; received during the week, 2 males, 1 female. Total in gaol, 134 males, 11 females.

A bobbery was committed at the Thames Hotel last evening. A person taking some refreshment was relieved of £13. Information of the occurrence was given to the police.— Thames Axleer/iser, June 20. Another KnmiEnp.—On Thursday afternoon, about four o'clock the tent of the Cremorne, on the rise, Karaka, was burglariously entered and 17s. in cash, a railway rug, blankets, and other property were stolen. The matter is placed in tho hands of the police, and as two men were seen to enter the tent at the time of the robbery, it is likely the guilty parties will bo brought to justice.— lbid. General Government "Gazettes" were published on the 10th. and 12th inst. They contain no fresh intelligence of interest here, save a proclamation which declares that all that portion of the Middle Island of Ncvr Zealand, lying to the north of the Hurunui river, and of a straight lino from the source of that river to tho County of Wcstland, the County of AVestland, and the Provinces of Otago and Southland in the Middle Island, and the Provinces of Auckland and Tarauaki in the North Island, shall be deemed to he infected districts within the moaning of the Act. and cattle are not permitted to be brought into Canterbury therefrom, except first placed on quarantine ground. The Tiiamks. —We have received a copy of the Thames Advertiser of the 20th instant. Some important claims, it seems, have suffered from the overflow of water caused by the late rains.

Erratum. —The motion of Mr. Hunter was, in our issue of Saturday, by a mistake, put in the place of Mr. Cheese-man's amendment, which went only to the extent that the plant on No. 1 section of the Auckland and Drury Itail\ray should he returned to Mr. Grace We arc given to understand that the immediate reason of the departure ol'our indefatigable Commissioner of Police for Shoriland, is the series of complaints in the Thames Advcrtisa; of the insufficiency of the police in that district. Detective Tcrnnhnn has accompanied Mr. Naughton, and as it appears that several late inmates of the establishment at the mountain have lately been discharged, and suddenly disappeared, we expect shortly to hear something more of them; especially <-onsidering the rapidlv increasing number of robberies that have lately taken place at the Thames. Some of these robberies are of a mist daring nature, and only the other clay a man was " bonneted" in his own house by two men, who came in to liave a " quiet yarn," and was robbed of everything about his person. Literary.—We would call the attention of our readers to the sale of books to be held this day by S. Cochrane and Son. A more select library for study or reference has never been offered to the public of Auckland. Supreme Court (in Chambers). —Our Saturday's issue contained a notice of the case of T. S. Weston v. East. We have since been informed that the proceeding in this ease were set aside on the ground that Mr. Weston had inadvertently allowed twelve days to the defendant, within which to appear instead of ten days as allowed by the Act. The costs of the proceedings, which were stated at £10, some £6 of which was paid for mileage, were allowed by Mr. Kissling, the Deputy Registrar, which is a sufficient explanation. Wc hear that Captain East has since paid the amount of his dishonored cheque, which is evidence that Mr. WesLou had not had recourse to law without sulficicnt grounds. ' Several petty robberies have been reported as occurring at Waiotahi during the past week, calling for the attention of the police in that locality. At Mr. Thornton's, Victoria boardinghouse, a blanket, which was lying on a bench outside the house, where it had been laid after washing, was stolen last week. <>n Tuesday night, five pairs of boots were stolen Irom the new store opened by Mr. Levy; and a few nights previously a large marquee, the property of Mr. McDonald, was carried away, lhe marquee, it appears, had blown down during tlw storm, and although it required three men to lift it into a dray when packed, the thieves appeared to have made a clean sweep of it when saturated with wet, without any person detecting them. The poles, ropes, and olhec httings wero likewise carried off. — Thames J'Uerliser, "fncoi "a recent return issued by the linkers' Clearing House, we iind that for the month cndiDg December 25 there were cheques and bills to the amount of £102,395,000. The whole of the London hanks do not come under this system, there are many who do their own clear-

Great Fraud on Udekwhitehs.—Mr. Calvert, late her Majesty's consul at the Dardanelles, was convicted, at the Supreme Court, Constantinople, on the 21st inst.. on the charge of conspiracy and attempting to defraud the underwriters at Lloyd's of the amount of certain insurances £12 000, effected, bvhim on a certain ship named the Possiedon, laden with oil, which had loaded in Turkish waters iov the United Kingdom, and which he falsely alleged was destroyed byfire off the island of Lcmnos. The frauds, it will be remembered, were committed in the early | part of the year 1862, the accused, Mr. rt > j then holding the important oikce of her Majesty's consul at the Dardanelles. Ho had represented that he had been employed to effect the £12,000 insurance ou the Possiedon and her cargo by a person named Hussem Aga, a lurlnsn friend of his. A chain of evidence, however, showed that there was no such person as Hussein A en, and no such ship as the Possiedon—neither shipper, agent, nor cargo, but that the whole was a fraud to obtain the amount of the insurances.—The court found the prisoner " guilty, and he was sentenced to two years' penal servitude.

Sib Habbt and. Lady Parkes have ascended Fusyama, the sacred mountain of Japan. Lady Parkes is the first Englishwoman who ever attained its summit. The net profits of the gaming tables in. the little State of Monace (Germany) during 1866-7 amounted to two millions, which are paid to the reigning Duke. i Thk Hoyal Mail Steam Packet Company lmve, we believe, purchased two additional vessels, so as to ensure efficiency in every branch of the service—one is entirely a new ship, and is upwards of 3,000 tons burthen. The Rhine is intended to take the place of the ■ Rhone on the transatlantic route, and the other is the Corsican, belonging to Cucard and Co:, and will probably be employed in the Intercolonial service. In one of the churches of Vienna, a very successful collection has been made on behalf of the people. The Emperor and Empress of Austria gave 2,500 fl., the Archduchess Sophia, mother of the Emperor, 5,000 fl.; the Archduke Charles and Archduchess Munziata, 2,500 fl.; the Duke and Duchess of Modena, 10,000 fl.; the infant Alphouse, and the infant Maria Beatrice, 2,500 fl. Altogether from the Royal family 45,000 fl. The King of Siam has conferred upon Sir John Bowring the title of " Phraya Siamitie Mahia Yesa," for services rendered to the Siamese. This is the highest dignity that can be borne by a foreigner, Sir John is a native of the County of Devon, but has seen great service in China, for which he was made a K.C.B. Panama. Railway.—ln. the year 1866 this railroad carried across from sea to sea 31,700 passengers, 63,114,113 dols. of treasure, 67,262,679 lbs. of freight, by weight, 2,309,201 feet of freight by measurement and mails weighing '881.907 lbs. The general average of mails being 380 tons annually. The income of the railway in 1866 was 2,424,977 dollars, and the expenses 1,205,364 leaving 1, 216, 613 net proceeds. The total tonnage across the road for that year being 107,508. The length of the road is 47 miles and the journey can be performed in 4 hours and "a half. Suicides in London. —The number of suicides in the metropolis in the last seven years has ranged only between 251 in the' year and 267; the returns for all England, completed only for the first five of the seven years, show a range from 1,317 to 1,392. In the year 1867 the number of suicides in London was 260, or 1 in 11,850 out of the population ; 47 occured in the first quarter of the year, 77 in the second, 66 in the third, 70 in the fourth. The last return for all England, in 1805, shows 1,392 suicides, an unusually large number, amounting to 1 in 15,080 of population ; and in that year the number in London was unusually high, being 267 or 1 in 11,212 of population. The SoutJi Londcm Press says that two bank notes, each for £'1000, wero dropped into Mr. Spurgeon's letter-box, one day last week, by " A.B." —an anonymous donor who has before given £1000 in like manner—one for the Pastors College, the other for the Stockwell Orphanage. A Coubageous SebvantGirh. —At the North-

umberland assizes Kobert Adamson and Thomas Finey, labourers, -were charged with having, on the 19th March, broken into the house of James Halliday and HobertHalliday, and stolen various articles. Tie prisoners are the same who were convicted on the preceding day, having, on the 24th October, 1867, burglariously entered the dwelling-house of Sarah Maughan, an elderly lady, wbc occupies the farm of Bark-side, near Haltwhistle. They were prevented from stealing anything from Mrs." Maughn's house by the courage shown by a servant woman named Elizabeth' Storey, who thrashed the prisoners with the handle of a brush, fired a gun, and eventually made a run for it. She was loudly applauded while giving her evidence. The judge awarded her £5, and she also received other sums in token of her bravery. The prisoner Finev was also charged with having broken out of the house of correction, at Hexham on the 27th December, and pleaded guilty. He was farther charged with having, on the Bth December, committed a violent assault on Sergeant Mark Young. The jury found the prisoners guilty. Both had been formerly convicted, and his lordship sentenced them to eight years' penal servitude each for breaking into Mrs. Maughan's house; Adamson to a further term of seven years for committing the burgiary to which he had pleaded guilty; and Finey to seven years for the assault on the police-sergeant—making the total term of penal servitude for each fifteen

years. . Gbass Seed in Wheat.—As many farmers find considerable difficulty in extracting grass t seed from wheat, we give the following from the Western Examine)'. Probably the same plan i would succeed in the case of drake seed, another 1 great trouble to the farmer:—"l believe the j following to be the simplest way in ths world to ' take rve-grass from wheat. ' Take the screen of < an ordinary winnowing machine, and set it up < an angle of 35 or 37 degrees, ihen let a person . take a common dipper, and allow the wheat to fall slowly from it across the highest part of the ' screen, while a second person keeps lightly tapping the under part of the wires with spread : finders and thumb. Two boys of ten years of ■ age may by this method take every single rye- • trrass seed from 40 bushels of wheat in one day, allowing there to be, say, three quartz of ryegrass in every bushel. The reason this simple [ process takes out the rye-grass so well is, that [ when the seeds are rolling down the screen across ; the wires, the tapping underneath gives them a longitudinal position, and they pass through. L The topping should be easy and often, so as to keep up a gentle and constant tremor of ail the t wires. I showed a person this process who was . accustomed to hand-pick his wheat for seed, and ! he gave me to understand that ho would handP pick no more while he could borrow a screen. T I send you this for insertion, as I believe a know- ™ ledge of it may save some of your readers a great t many hours of tedious finger-work. Its correct- \ nessmay be verified minutes by any B person who has a screen." Patent French Tiles—The Sydney Morning i Herald has the following :—" A company formed s in Sydney for the purpose of manufacturing a a peculiar description of roofing tile, has recently s commenced operations and produced an article s which is much superior to the tiling hitherto used . here. The company has established a manufac- ' tory on the Botany Road, Waterloo, where these i' tiles, which are constructed upon a new plan, li patented in Franco and protected here, are proi duced. They arc exceedingly elegant in appeare ance, and shaped and compressed by machinery, is are very solid and durable. By means of small , grooves, and the peculiar manner in which one tile laps over another, a roof constructed ot them

is perfectly water tight. It is -impossible that | ruin can either beat upwards through the interstices, or t-an find its way way between the Joints. Should the water get underneath the outer edge, it is caught in a groove or small trough, aud runs away—should it even overflow the first groove it only gets into another, which also carries it clear off. At the same time ' lap is not great, and therefore these results are attained without adding to the weight of the ioof. The tiles themselves are heavy, but when laid upon the battens, tbey are much lighter than ordinary slates or shingles, by reason of the slight lap requisite, and the few battens that need be used. These tiles are very cheap—a roof built of them costs about -|rds as much as a slated roof—they are very cool, very healthy, wear very well and look very well. No rails are required to fasten them - to the battens, as they arc firmly secured by means of a small notch or ledge at the upper end of each tile. A terrace of seven houses on the South Head Eoad, Paddington, just completed for Mr. Ji. Vickery, are roofed with these tiles, and they 1 certainly look very elegant-muchmore.sothan most roofing constructed of similar materials.