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New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 2795, 13 January 1873, Page 3

HOME ITEMS.—LATEST DATES.

The citizens of London received with much pleasure the message from Adelaide which announced the completion of the Australian telegraph. All good Englishmen desire that this closer communication may strengthen the Imperial bonds as well as greatly promote the prosperity of the colonies. It behoves me especially, as an old correspondent, to congratulate your readers, and to wish a success to the new arrangements. "We men of the slow-moving pen have found a formidable rival in those mysterious little needles, which tell to-morrow's news almost before to day is finished. It is no longer possible for us to surprise you with the first intelligence of any great event. The correspondents of many countries, whose despatches once used to send a thrill through Europe, have gradually fallen behind the telegraph. But there is much left for us oil to do. The mail steamer will never recede like our stage coach into history. There are facts of importance which the telegraph overlooks in its haste, details too costly, and sometimes too delicate, for it to repeat—phases of social life with which it has little concern, rumours which it circulates that time must afterwards verify, threads of narrative which it drops that a slower hand must take up and weave into place. November, which has closed upon us, has brought the chills and damp of winter. The sun has hidden himself in clouds ; the autumn leaves have fallen sodden to the ground ; the woodland glories have been veiled with thic'; mists ; and when the other day I sought refuge by the seaside, sky and water were almost indistinguishable in the dull, heavy gloom. The incessant rains have filled our rivers, and been followed, in the Midland Counties, by disastrous floods, covering many acres of land. It is a bad year for our farmers. Snow fell on the harvest fields in Scotland, on the sheaves as they stood waiting to bo carried, and on the still uncut corn. Further south, the potato crop has proved a failure, though the iirst reports were perhaps too darkly coloured. The cattle plague in other districts Ueeps men on the alert, and, happily, its occasional outbreaks have been promptly met by measures of repression. Now these floods are retarding all operations over large tracts of country. The Queen still lingers at Balmoral, bat the Prince and Princess of Wales have returned to town. On their way home, they stopped to pay a visit to the Earl of Tankerville, at Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland. Here the Prince enjoyed a sport that is rare in England, in the hunting of wild cattle, and shot a "king" bull, weighing seventy stone. Not content with this achievement, His Royal Highness, since his return to town, has started on auother shooting expedition to the Earl of Aylesford, at Pac'-ungton, in Warwickshire. Although all out-door agitation against butchers and dear joints has ceased with the long summer evenings, a desultory discussion on Australiau preserved meats and the argumentation of our food supplies still shows the disquietude of the public mind. The utilisation of our lakes, ponds, and rivers for the culture of fish, suggested by Mr. Frank Buckland, finds powerful and sanguine advocates in the press. The Standard has published an elaborate article on the subject, and Mr. Edward Wilson has contributed a valuable letter to The Times, in which he urges extensive aud persistent experiments in the culture of a more profitable variety of edible fish —a movement in which, he rightly contends, the enterprise of the nation should be enlisted.

It is worthy of record that the Tichborne trial and the public interest attaching to it have given rise to three journals devoted either to a vindication or denunciation of the notorious "claimant." They are called the TichbornoSazetle and Anti-Oppression Journal the Tichborne News, and the Tichborne Times. The promoters of the last-named are candid enough to say in their prospectus that finding the state of their pockets to be someu-h.it alarming, they came to the conclusion that they must do something—that, like other ■people, they thought they might as well do a " swindle ;" and, acting on this idea, they have brought out the Tichborne Times. A Tichborne episode has occurred at the Judges' Chambers on an application for an order to Messrs. Gordon and De Fiva, attorneys of the claimant Jin the case of the Queen v. Castro, to show cause -why they should not deliver up all documents in their possession belonging to the claimant. Their account, amounting to £1,203, awaits settlement until it can be taxed, which will only be after the I long vacation. Mr. Justice Quaiu, having consulted with Master Dodgson, suggested that a professional estimate should be made of the amount at which the bill might be taxed, and the documents be delivered up by Messrs. Gordon and De Fiva on receipt of such sum. The sum of £500 was fixed.

It is proposed by the National Agricultural Union to found a colony in Queensland with 10,000 able farm labourers.

The East End and West End parishes of London are contracting for Australian meat for the workhouses.

The Boston Musical Jubilee deficit was 210,000d01. A Portuguese family has been poisoned by natives in Bombay. The post-office order system between England and India is a success. The first street tramway has been finished in Calcutta.

The Jaugor Barracks, recently built at a cost of £166,000, have been condemned as useless. The various superintending engineers and officers concerned were punished. The Pope has refused to interfere on behalf of the Galway priests. He declares he-will not leave the Vatican ao long as he is able to govern the Roman Catholic world therefrom.

Mr. Anthony Trollope's antipodean letters

have appeared at more frequent intervals in the Daily Telegraph during the past month. Like most of the earlier sketches of the series,

they" are mainly historical, statistical, and utilitarian—not the character and style o£ articles we have teen taught to look for from the graphic pen of the great novelist.