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New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4372, 17 November 1875, Page 2

The boating season, which was opened so successfully on Saturday last, promises to be a very good one. Next week the members of the Auckland Rowing Club will meet and pick crews for their different boats, and practice will then be carried on in earnest. The North Shore Club will also commence practice, and, with their new gig, will prove themselves no mean adversaries to those whom, they are pitted against. The members of the Telegraph Department will also commence work with their new gig, which has been built by Mr. C. Bailey, of the North Shore, for them, and, like all work turned out of his shop, is a very creditable production. The Bank of New Zealand gig will also be out, and what with one club or the other practising, our harbour will look quite lively -until after the regatta. The men seem to have set their minds upon going in for plenty of training, and will not let the prizes given at the regatta go away without a strong effort. We notice that Napier has started a boating club, and that another—the Wellington Club—has opened the season, and the rowers of the Empire City are setting down to work with a will. We should like to see an inter provincial gig-race got up at one of our ports, in which boats from all New Zealand could compete, in the same way as the match between Sydney and other Australian towns. The annual meeting of the New Zealand Wesleyan Home Mission was held last evening, in the Pitt-street Wesleyan Church. A report of it is given in another column. It may not be out of place to direct attention to the work which is being accomplished by the society, and consequently its claims upon the sympathy and assistance of the public. The funds of the mission assist in maintaining three European ministers to the Maoris, three Maori ministers, several j Maori teachers, two home missionaries in the district of Auckland, one Scandinavian minister in the district of Wanganui, one Maori minister for Wellington, and one for the Canterbury district, besides giving assistance to several sparsely-populated dis° tricts. The fund is applied solely for the purpose of providing religious ordinances and for the promotion of the spiritual welfare of the inhabitants of New Zealand. A meeting of the Harbour Board was held yesterday afternoon. The business was short and unimportant. Several letters were read, and the reports of committees adopted. As usual the fortnightly statement of finance was read aud received. A report appears

The sunfish'which. was caught off W&ngarei on Friday';lastj'-"and brought up, by the schooner Clyde on Tuesday, was ou: exhibition atiMivAnderson's shed on the'Queenstreet Wharf yesterday, and was inspected by a large number of the curious. The fish is the firat of the kind that has ever been caught in these waters, and is of very large .proportions, weighing about 12 cwt. The fish will continue to be on exhibition at Anderson's" ah'ed," 5 and is well worthy of a visit, although not on account of its beauty. Its scientific name is orthagoriscus, and it derives its name from the, peculiar brilliant phosphorescence of its sides. The skin is like that of a shark, and its liver will yield from' 10 to 15 gallons of a peculiarly fine oil, said to be very valuable as a remedy for rheumatism. The fish will be'sold after to-day, . and will be well worth acquiring for a museum, as it is very rare and is a remarkably fine specimen. We would draw attention to an advertisement in another column. The anniversary soiree of the Presbyterian Church, Thames, was held on Monday, at St. George's HalL There was a very large attendance, about 350 sitting down to tea. The Rev. J. Hill, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, presided, and on the platform were the Revs. R. Laishley, J". T. Hinton, and Mr. Pulljames. The Rer. J. Hill, in his opening address, said that when people came to the colonies they were not sc much concerned, many of them, as they used to be in the old country in Divine ordinances. It was discouraging to preach to empty benches. If the Presbyterians took into consideration the effect upon the congregation and the minister, they would be more regular in their attendance. This nonattendance also diminished their collections. The Rev. Mr. Laishley (Independent) and Rev. Mr. Hinton (Baptist) afterwards addressed the meeting. ' The much-talked-of assault case, in which Herbert Hampton was charged with assaulting Mr. Robert Graham, at Ellerslie, on the 9th instant, during the sports there, was heard at the Police Court'yesterday morning, and occupied the time of the Court until after two o'clock.' His Worship the Resident Magistrate, m giving his decision, commented very strongly upon Mr. Hampton's conduct, expressing an opinion that he ought to have at once, even taking his own statement, to have tendered an ample and public apology through the newspapers. Had it not been, his Worship further said, that he believed Mr. Hampton had committed the assault in a moment of passion, while smarting from an accidental blow from Mr. Graham's whip, he should not have considered that a fine would meet the justice of the case. A full report of the trial. appears in another portion of this paper.. An inquest was held at the Provincial Lunatic Asylum yesterday morning, upon the body of a patient named George Laveridge. The evidence adduced shewed that the deceased, who was forfcy-two years of age, was admitted to the Asylum on the 13th of November, 1873, suffering from insanity. Hβ remained in his usual health for about six months, but from that time he grew worse. In the latter end of September last, he took to his bed, and died en .the 13th inst. ' Dr. Aicken's evidence was also given, and in accordance with it, the jury returned a verdict of "death from, general paralysis." A special meeting of the Board of Education was held yesterday (F. L. Prime, Esq., Mayor of Auckland, in the chair), to consider the sum to be asked of the General Government for the school-building requirements of the province. The discussion is interesting, and will be found fully reported in another column. A resolution was come to that the Board should ask of the General Government £20,000, of which one-half will be recouped out o£ the proceeds of the sale of debentures of the old Supreme Court site, Queen-street, and the hospital endowments. The Thames Advertiser says:—lt is just as we expected. The goldfields are not to receive a single penny, either as a "special allowance" or as a subsidy upon the goldfields revenue or " rate" of last year, out of the money voted for Road Boards and Municipalities at the last session of the General Assembly. Yesterday the local bodies at the Thames received a telegram from Mr. O'Conor, the Provincial Secretary of Nelson, to the following effect:—" There is no provision for giving effect to the subsidies provided in the Abolition Bill." This our local bodies knew before quite as well as Mr. O'Conor. There i 3 no provision for paying any subsidy tojlocal bodies upon the basis of last year's rates, as the Abolition Bill is not yet in operation, but the Colonial Treasurer told the members of the House that he would distribute among the Road Boards and Municipalities one-third of the " endowments" contemplated under the Act, and he obtained a vote to enable the Government to carry out that promise. What did Major Atkinson really mean, and why have the Government invited all the local bodies to send in returns of the rates actually received by them last year ? We all know tha'tit is that these rates may be subsidised; and the subsidies are to be allotted upon the principle laid down in the Abolition Bill, the Road Boards receiving double the amount of the Municipalities. Then, why, we ask, should the only other " rate" under the Abolition Bill be excluded from this piece of generosity on the part of the Government ?. We contend that after the deductions provided for in the 15th clause of the Abolition Bill have been made, the balance should be subsidised as a "rate," and it would not be a difficult matter for the Government themselves to sit down and shew what that balance really was last year. We contend, further, that if any principle of subsidising the local bodies in accordance with last year's rates is to be adopted, it must be made in some way to reach the case of the goldfields. It requires no provision by law to hand over money voted by the Assembly for the local bodies to those bodies, and the coming into operation of the Abolition Bill does not alter or change our argument. We ask for a fair share of the £50,000 —or whatever • sum was voted—but under the proposals of the Ministry we are not likely to receive anything of the kind.

The following letter from the late manager of the Tairua Company appears in yesterday's Advertiser : — " In thig morning's Advertiser appears a ' report' of the proceedings at a meeting of the Tairua directory. Tn reference to the allegations therein reflecting upon me, I must ask my friends and the public, your columns, to withhold their judgment in the matter, until my solicitor has time to carry out my instructions to have the matter investigated in a Court of justice.—Yours, &c, John B. Beeche. Grahamstown, November 15." The Advertiser remarks : —" We hear that ono large shareholder and director is about to bring an action against two other shareholders for conspiring together to sell him shares in an improper manner." The following incident is related by the Timaru Herald on the occasion of the opening of the Timaru and Temuka railway :— As tho passengers were alighting by the , train, a surly-looking young man was heard to remark : —"There's one queer thing about these New Zealand towns , there are always six children to every two grown up people." [ Sir George Grey turned round and said, I "My dear fellow, the time will come when you will be only too glad to realise that there are ten children for, at all events, one couple of grown-up people. Why, then, should you complain nf six ?" Sir George's remark, which was uttered by no means sotto voce, caused much laughter. ] Under the present arrangement for Subsidising last year's highway rates, the Waio- ' tahi Board will receive the magnificent sum of £13, out of money voted by the Assembly for local bodies. The same district contributed nearly one-third of the gold duty which was collected last year. The Waiotahi district have a genuine grievance this time, and we recommend them not to lose sight of it. Advertiser. Mr. John Sheehan-left Wellington oa Wednesday last for Napier. Mr. Sheehan: is travelling overland. Wo may state that the Very Rev. H. J. Fynes presided at the examinations oil Monday last, at St. Miuy'n Conreat..

•? h^"^ ibiti ° n *™*I™V « connection with the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition was enhvened by a burst of temper on the part of Sir John O'Shanassy. \la proposing the toast of "The Exhibition <Jo£ftm S ° sioners, Mr. Hugh Lc'nnon said:—"The true nobility of honest labour and skilTwas everywhere observable, and he had no doubt that the cominissionerg from tie other colonies would find more pleasure in returning with a new invention for some laboursaving machine; and any Inventor of such a machine would-be more proud of his achievement than if his Royal mistress had said to him, 'Rise up, Sir John; or Sir James, , as the case might be. (Cheers.) They all knew that the ' King could mak , a baited knight, and a' that, , but it was the achievements and inventions of science and industry that made the world progress." Sir J. O'Shanassy took these remarks as affecting himself, and in proposing a toast, said :—" He must confess thathe had not expected to be insulted when coming here. If Her Majesty, without any intervention of his, had been good enough to recognise hia services of 37 years in this colony, he did not. see why any honorary distinction which he had received shou'd be thrown in his teeth on such an occasion as this as a term of insult and obloquy. (Cries of 'Kb, , and 'Mistake. , No man ought to have addressed such language to him as had been used upon an occasion like the present. He believed Her Majesty's subjects in Victoria had as good a right, after performing ' honorable service, to be recognised by her as those in any other part of Her Majesty's dominions, and he, for his part, rejoiced that the Ministers of England recognised this portion of Her Majesty's empire, aud those who distinguished themselves in it." Subsequently Mr. Lennon said that nothing could.have been further from his thoughts or feelings than to have made any personal reference to him or any other person whatever. An article in a recent number of the Australasian, entitled "Government Billet Hunting," contains some useful statistics and reflections on the subject. We should like to be in a position to make a comparative estimate of the billet-hunting of Victoria and New Zealand, and patriotism and knowledge lead us te the conclusion that we should not comparatively be far behind, if we were not up to, or even beyond, Victoria. Hovir the province, or the provincial district, of Auckland would compare with the other divisions of New Zealand, it would also be interesting to find out. We have heard it stated by " the Man in the Street" that some time ago, Sir Julius Vogel said that the reason why he would not stand again for any Auckland constituency was., that there were more people seeking billets there than in any other part of New Zealand, and that, in consequence, the life of a representative, especially if he were a Minister, was made a burden to him. Whether the statement is a slander upon Sir Julius Vogel OiT upon Auckland we do not know. The Australasian states that the new applications for employment in the railway department average 47 daily, and that already there are the names of 5700 applications on the books." It goes on to point out that the vast majority of these must be for work in employments where the duties require ro technical training or apprenticeship, and where the pay is known to be very moderate or even very low. Our contemporary then shews that work is abundant throughout the colony, and comes to the conclusion that what is really wanted in these cases is not to obtain work, but to avoid it.

A rowing match took place at Napier, on. the Bth, in the Club boats, between four Auckland gentlemen visiting the province and four members of the Club. The Auckland crew consisted o£ Messrs. Whitaker, Cussen, Cussen, and Marshall (stroke), Duncan (cox). The Napier crew were Messrs. Girdlestone, Miller, Gibbons, and Liddle (stroke), Tylee (cox). The challenge, which was purely a sporting one, was given by the Aucklanders. Mr. A. JR. Eva acted as starter. Choice for places was determined by a toss, which was won by Napier, who selected the right bank, which though giving the Aucklanders the shorter bend, gave to Napier the better water. A good start was effected at 6.15 a.m. Auckland got away first, and maintained the lead for the first hundred yards, when the gradually crawled up, and a neck and neck struggle took place for some distance. The Napier crew then forged ahead, and gained a strong lead and maintained it to the finish, coming in an easy winner by two and a-half lengths.

Mr. G. W. Binney announces that, in consequence of the change in the weather, the sale of Captain Burton's and other properties will be held at'the CornjExchange, at noon to-day, instead of on the ground, as previously intimated. Amongst the properties for sale are valuable freehold sites in Hobson and Vincent-streets, and the unexpired term of lease of 50 years of building sites in. Wellesley-street, near Queen-street. An extensive sale of wines and spirits will be held to-day, by Messrs. E. and H. Isaacs. The sale ■will take place at the stores of Messrs. BT. S. Meyers and Co. (who are retiring from this branch of the business). The stock is recently imported, and consists of the best brands. Members of the Choral Society will be glad to learn fchat Mr. Brown has ao far recovered that he hopes to be able to conduct the practice this evening. A. complimentary benefit to Mr. Joseph Brown is announced, to be given by the members of his part singing class, on Monday, November 22.