Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 4021, 1 October 1874, Page 2

In another place in our columns will be read with. much, interest by all who are concerned in the equitable adjustment of the claims which the United Pumping Association make upon the various mining companies, the report which has been agreed upon by the three arbitrators — Mr. W- C. Wright, Mr. Alexander Dewar, and Mr. James Ivemick. The arbitrators appear to have given a long and close attention to the claims set forth by the Pumping Association, and we are not in a position to dispute the decision arrived-at. There are several elements in connection with the claim which, the arbitrators had to take into account, and which it was almost impossible for tliem to apportion with anything .like exactitude. One mistake is, however, apparent. Ti,i s Js the making area of ground a basis of calculation. Fifty men's ground might not require an equal cost for drainage that would be required from that of five men's, or it might be vice versa. Area has nothing to do with the matter in. dispute. We r.re, however, inclined to give the arbitrators ;>U credit for having decided according to the best of their judgment after having taken al' the evidence obtainable.

Tlie annua* meeting of the Auckland Total Abstinence Society was held in the Temperance Hall, Albert-street, last evening. The attendance was not large. Dr. Nicholson occupied the chair, and in the course of his speech, referred to an opinion he had previously held, that the police neglected their du.ty. He was now satisfied that the almost impossibility of getting a conviction was through no fault of the police, and hence the necessity of seeing to it that -sve had workable laws. The secretary read the report, together with the balance-sheet and auditor's report, from which it was shewn the Society had expended £1113 ss, receipts £SS4, property had been purchased, repairs had been effected, and several sums were owing, leaving the general debit balance £323 7s. The following officers wsre elected : —A. Clark, President; Colonel Kaultain, Dr. Nicholson, Kevs. P. H. Comfort, P. Mason, S. Edger, Messrs. J. Probert, ard C. Robinson, Vice-Presidents ; Treasurer, Solomon Hemus; Secretary, J. W. Carr; committee, Messrs. White, Coleman, E. Can - . D. Goldie, F. Cherry, J. J. Swinnerton, EL Hurst, J. E. Carr, C. Anderson, C. E. Hill, D. K. Clarkson, and J. Edwards. Some anxiety was caused in town last night by a report of a laxge lire burning some distance from the town. Mr. Perkins, who was returning on horseback from Kemuera, described the lire to be burning beyond the Junction Yards, and apparently that of a fai-m house. Mounted Constable Bullen also observed the glare of the lire at 11 o'clock from the barracks, and witi his usual promptitude at once saddled lis horse and proceeded in quest thereof. Aiter riding many miles he learnt ftorn the dxupant of a trap that had come from Otalnhu that the lire appeared to be at Papatoito 1 , and apparently a haystack. With this; intelligence the mounted constable returns! to town, shortly before one o'clock. Thi flames had subsided, and there appeared': no further danger of spread of lire. Bevojd the fact that the lire was in the neiglbourliood of Papatoitoi, wc are unable, at thalate hour at which the information came to land, to give further particulars. The Piako Swamp Compaiy, says the Wuilato Times, is proceeding vi£irously with the draining of the Piako coiiitry. Notwithstanding the unfavourable Reason they ' have had to contend against, anothe quality of the labour at their disposal, thi- have done i wonders. Eighteen miles of dyins are al- ] ready cut, and thirty more are lev.y e d ready to lei by contract. Fifty more ities are in course of preparation for contrac\ Large ' additions have been made froii recent " arrivals to the number employed ;V' llS meil : thus obtained,.however, are for the lost part 1 quite unfitted for the work ; havir been drawn principally from the large maifactur- ' ing towns. j ! An interlocutory proceeding tookUace in • the Supremo Court yesterday, in 1 of George Thore, jun. The question-as as 1 to allowing the bankrupt the assistai of an accountant to make up the booksXe not 1 being an accountant himself. Mr. AcCori ' mick, for the Bank of New South Vales; 1 opposed the application. Some! very 1 "animated" discussion ensued bet-ran the learned counsel, which will be found i somewhat abridged-in another partjf this £ impression. Mr. Whitaker undcrtik to ' J employ an accountant for tlie purpose! i

. Tha Pleasant Creek 2Tw (Yictoria). is responsible for the followiig good story :— '•'A most unfortunate exchmgeof property is reported to havo occuiTedhere recently, as & consequence of the jovality of two residents of this district."' Tley had been spending the day at Stawell in'the' transaction of business, and when eveoing * came passed a few hours in social intercourse. The night was far advanced they . left the hotel they had chosen as a rendezvous, and when they mounted their horses at the door the animals were more intelligent than their 1 masters, who, as they separated, allowed their steeds to choose the road. The nags were used, to this work, and one cantered off towards Great Western, while the other trotted soberly on towards another outlying centre of settlement. Unfortunately in the dark each l»d mounted the other's horse, and when the spouse of Mr. B. rose on hearin" the well-known sound of old Snrefoot's hoof, and went to admit her husband, she found a stranger. Her trouble was in no way lessened when she found that A- was unable to explain, and in fact fell fast asleep in a chair as soon as he entered the house. Meanwhile B. fared even worse. He jogged along on his friend's pony until he reached the lattcr's residence, and pulled up in due course before the door. Mrs. A., however, as a lady of spirit, felt it incumbent upon her to punish drunkenness in her spouse, and before her supposed husband had time to notice that he was in a strange country, she belaboured him soundly with a stout switch. He roared lustily, and became I almost sober by the time his assailant discovered her mistake, and mingled her apologies with enquiries for her missing lord. Messrs. A. and B. have since arranged that they will never again ride horses of tlie same colour when coming to Stawell to spend the evening." Some curious statements were recently made to the Melbourne City Bench, relative to a boy named Ernest F. Freiboth, aged 12 years, who was charged with being a neglected child. Mr. Thorbourne, who kept a sewing-machine establishment in the Eastern Arcade, employed the sisters of the boy, who told him that their father ill-treated the boy, and kept him in " hobbles." They brought the boy to him on Wednesday morning with heavy handcuffs on his ankles, and he had the boy taken to the court with the shackles upon him. The father, who is verger at the John Knox Church, Swanstonstreet, was in court. The boy said that he was discharged from his situation on Monday last, and that when he went home his father accused him of telling a lie, put the handcuffs on him, and kept them on him ever since. His sister stated that a good while ago she had the handcuffs on her legs for three weeks or a month, in consequence of misappropriating some school money, and that her father beat her sister with a cat-o'-nine-tails till she was black and blue for not cleaning her teeth. The "cat" was produced, and consisted of about 18in. of indiarubber hose split into five or six strips; and Mr. Frank Stephen said it was a brutal thing to beat children with. The father said he was most unfortunate in his children. He had a boy in the training ship whom he used to beat and put in the "hobbles" for misconduct. He could not remember "hobbling" the girl, though he might have done it, and had beat her. The case was dismissed, the boy being reminded, by the Bench that " sparing the rod would spoil the child." A female correspondent, writing to the Melbourne Argus on " Slavery in Victoria," says:—"A poor woman who makes shirts for one of the warehouses in Flinders-lane has just shewn me the work for which she ■■ -~mL, It is a full-sized man's shirt, ana out ot tlie oa has to pay for thread, which costs id, so that positively all she gets is 4£d. JS'ow lam very quiCK at machine myself, and I am' positive that jc could not make more than two of these shirts were I sitting close at it from nine in the morning till ten at night. So that at that rate ail that a woman can make at this sort of work is 4s 3d a week ; and yet we are paying our cooks £40, our housemaids £30 a year, with board and lodging. When will our young women come to their senses—or rather when will the mothers come to their senses? For as to girls who have already committed themselves to this slavery, their constitutions are generally so enfeebled that they are unfit for domestic service. But let mothers who have girls yet at school take warning by what is now passing around them. Which is best—to see their child starve on 4s 3d a week over a sewing-machine, or to be a domestic in a respectable family ? to see her health steadily undermined by her occupation, or to sec her grow up a strong healthy woman t"

Yesterday's Thames Advertiser says :— ' The high tide to which we referred in yesa terday's issue caused considerable damage j to numerous gardens along the beach, on many of which a great amount of care had t>oeu bestowed, but the tide rose to such a height that at 9 o'clock on Monday night 1 many of them were under water. Of course i the effect upon young plants and trees was disastrous, and in other respects great dami age was caused. The Tararu wharf suffered E considerably at the inshore end, where the 1 piles and stringers were lifted out of their • places. Upon this becoming known yestevday morning, Mr. McLaren, District Engineer, telegraphed to Coromandel to the Superintendent, who promptly instructed him to effect repairs without delay, so as to prevent traffic from being stopped Owing to the low altitude of the wharf, the waves i struck with such force against the deck that they fairly lifted the piles out of the ground, and had it not been for the extra strength j of the new portion, it is probable that the whole structure would have gone. As it is, repairs will be effected in a few days, prompt steps having been taken yesterday to procure the material necessary. Considerable excitement was occasioned yesterday in the usually quiet district of .Newmarket by the eccentric and dangerous conduct of a man named George Guckson, who to all appearances was suffering from the effects of heavy drinking. He had provided himself with a double-barrelled gun, and locating himself opposite the Eoval George Hotel, proceeded to load the weapon, ! which he afterwards fired in the direction of the above-named hotel. The discharge of the gun startled the inmates, and the contents were scattered about in front of the bar. Host Seeats, accompanied bv Mr. D. Page, rushed out, and the latter succeeded in making a prisoner of the man, while Mr. Sceats, who, on hearing the report, apprehended danger, with great presence of mind apprehended the gun also. Constable J-.i - sou soon after arrived on the spot, and v.ith the assistance of Mr. Page conveyed the delinquent to the lock-up.

A public meeting of the settlers of rapakura, Dritry, YVairon, Pukekohe, and , Bombay, will be held at Papakura, to-morrow (Friday), at 2 p.m., to take steps to upon the Government the desirability of at ouce opening the Auckland and Waikato Railway for traffic as far as Drury. The meeting has been convened by the President of the Papakura Association (Wm. Hay Esq.,) and we trust that the action vf tlia settlers in the above districts wall move fc'Uo Government to comply promptly with a demand so reasonable and just. This section of the W aikato Railway might with due ener-y have been available for traffic months ago. The following modest notification appears 'i S r a '" irs k '' 'ooal" in a recent issue of the jUunborouf/H Times:— '■ We are requested lo state that there are two labouring men waiting at the Immigration Depot to be hired.'" The annual meeting of the shareholders of the Golconda Gold Company, which was to have been held at noon yesterday, was adjourned until twelve o'clock this dav, in consequence of a quorum of shareholders, not being present. A telegraphic message was recently despatched from Adelaide to Bombay, the delivery to the person to whom it was sent and the receipt of an answer in Adelaide occupying less than eight minutes. Our telegraphic correspondent at Coromandel informs us that Dr. Hector is paying a visit of inspection to the Coromandel mines. We .shall soon know all about it •

: A fresh argument in favcr of these colonies is furnished iyiciys the Melbourne Economist) bv the recent" report of the Melbourne Mint. Thai institution cost w* believe, £SO,OOO, and its business is so small that its annual expenditure exceeds the in. come by £10,000. Taking the interest on the money spent, it maytherefore be reasonably concluded that we loose £14,000 a year by the concern, or £280,000 in twentv The mint was never required. One "mint is more tlian enough for Australia, with its failing gold yield. ]Sfow, if the colonies had federated, we would have been saved this needless loss. It would have been better favour miners to pay the freight of gold to Sydney at a very slight loss than for the colonists to contribute £14,000 a year to the revenue to maintain a white elephant. As days pass, the advantages of federation ar» more powerfully impressed upon our minds, and we dread the enormous provincial expenditure that will be incurred if the rivalry between the colonies goes on. Until we have federation, vast sums of money will be thrown away for no good, as has been the, case in regard to the Melbourne Mint. A marvellous story comes to a Queensland paper from •clie South Seas. We should certainly doubt its truth had we not the greatest confidence in the veracity of our informant,?, says our contemporary. It is said that a woman, a native of Tanna, gave birth to au infant. Not being satisticdlhat it was as black as it might have been, she in her disappointment and shame, buried it alive. Some six hours afterwards, the circumstance; came to the lmovledge of Mr. Hebblewhite, who, with the assistance of another settler, exhumed the body, and to their astonishment found the child still alive. The resurrectioned babe was, by latest accounts, in robust health, and Had suffered no inconvenience from its prema-. ture interment. The nominated scheme of immigration wilt be found, we believe, to work well and to bring to this colony a better class of settlens than we are likely to secure by any other system. As a rule they are respectable and steady, and have friends to receive then and give them good advice on their arrival; in many cases arrangements are made for them before they reach the colony. "We - observe in the Montrose Review that a meeting of the friends of Mr. George Carter was recently held and a substantial testimonid presented to him on the occasion of his leaving his native town for this province. A Dunedin conte.u;p-"-;ufy understands that a meeting of gentlemen connected with the Press in that city will shortly be held to prepare the preliminaries for the formation of a Press Club. Xhe necessity for sueh an institution has made itself apparent with the rapid growth of journalism during late years, and no doubt seems to exist as to its ultimate success. We believe it is intended to have billiards, smoking, and read-ing-rooms, where members can meet and spend their leisure hours, instead of being scattered as at present over the city. Some short time since Professor Sale of the Otago College was married to a lady named Fortune. In referxing to the marriage the Greymouth Star says:—"lt is not surprising that a lady with such an attractive title should secure a ready Sale in the matrimonial market, and we sincerely congratulate the gentleman in. having succeeded in reducing the number of Miss Fortunes that, alas, are too numerous in tins world." A dead body was yesterday seen by some natives floating in the river near the Piiko telegraph towers, says yesterday's Thames Advertiser. They believed it to be the body of a white man, but Ji<l :iot gonear enough to examine it carefully. On antral at Shortland they gave informatics to the police, and a boat will be se" 1 ou t by tnis mormii-'o to scarc h f, r the body. The members of th« Fire Brigade, under Inspector Hughes, met in the engine-house, Albert-street, last evening, when soaie formal business was transacted, and arrange- 1 ments made for practice. The Brigade now numbers twenty-live members, and when tie full complement has been selected it will bs fifty strong. Mr. Thc'-aas Skellie, who has been giving •xhibicions of his powers of endurance in the Waikato townships will appear before"the Thames public in a few days. It is expected he will run ten miles under the hour, in the Parawai C4ardens, as soon as arrangements are completed. As will be seen by our commercial columns, the Fiji sugar ofi'ered yesterday at auction by Messrs. Tonks and Co. brought excellent prices, considering the very depressed state of the sugar market. Five tenders were received by the Provincial Government for erecting a landing jetty at the quarantine station, Mofaihl. That of Mr. Charles Lavers was accepted. A football match took place at the Waikato ion Saturday last, between the "Waikato Bounders, and Cussen's Elephants."

A most remarkable specimen of natural curiosity is on view at the Auckland Hotel. This consists of a living fox, a native of Xew Caledonia. The little animal has a head, and body shaped like a fox, with br.t's wings. It perches while at rest, head downwards, suspended by its feet from a perch, irith its wings wrapped round its body. It appeaK perfectly docile and sociable, and will eat ont of the hand, an operation which it perform? in the position described. It is certainly 3 curiosity in these parts. We notice that the amateurs of the ICorta Shore intend giving one of their pleasing concerts this evening in the Devonport Hall) j in aid of the Trinity Church fund. This building has recently undergone some en- l ; largement, as the accommodation was fcnnd | too limited for the increasing population at | the North Shore. "We hope to hearof a eon- | siderable addition to the building fund :rom j the proceeds of the concert. j We would call the attention of all Yolpn- j teers to a paper or lecture on " Practical 3 Musketry," to be delivered in the Drill-snea I [at half-past seven this (Thursday) evening, j the question being one of the reai moneys | worth of a Volunteer or soldier. Members of the Auckland Licensed Victuallers' Association are informed by_ the secretary that the new coppers have arrived, and are ready for distribution at the Criterion Hotel, Hobson-street. The Provincial Government offices "ill closed 021 Wednesday next, the 7th uist-i being the 105 anniversary of Captain Cooks landing in New Zealand. The "race meeting will take place at Ellerslic on that day. The adjourned annual meeting ot Golconda Gold Mining Company will be no at Mr. E. Home's office, Shortland-street, at noon to-day, _ j The liftli cull of ten shillings in the Zealand Shipping Company is payable on an | after the 7th instant, as per auaouncenie " elsewhere. The assessment roll of tlif; Papakura way District is settled, and open for the spection of ratepayers.