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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9137, 20 August 1888, Page 4

Some of the more important items of our cable news this morning come from Australia. There seems no likelihood of the settlement of the strike in the coal trade ab

Newcastle, and, in all probability We I~J, hear to-day of the men having reallv out. The Railway Department in c |?" e are making arrangements for the wo "t* and have been : promised a supply t> Tasmania.;• New Zealand coal has ad va ,f ° m 15s per ton. In Friday's impression we £ i a cablegram stating that difficulties h risen with the shearers on Brokoi, " R f, <.' New South Wales, who had severe^ 0 /! , treated the station hands. A numb» shearers belonging to the Union had s -I ° several non-unionists, and held then prisoner?. These Union men seem "to h % besieging the place, and bloodshed is feared There seems to be no end of evict" struggles, and by cable we have ur x .l'° of a more than ordinarily determined r * sistance at New Boss, ' Wexford wh re earthworks were erected and trenches d** round the houses. The police have'maJf twelve arrests of men concerned in th resistance. By a collision at sea, off Jfn • Scotia, between two steamer.?, 105 Iiv 68 \, I been lost. An attack by the Tibetans & the British position at'Guatong i«\h ° tened. '' * ea-

It is notified by the officer in charge o" the Telegraph Office that mails for South America, United Kingdom, Continent f Europe, &c, per Coptic, will close at Lvt telton, on Thursday, the 23rd day '<■" August, at half-past one p.m. Ordinary telegrams for the above should be lodged not later than half-past twelve p.m. and urgents not later than one p.m.

We are sorry to learn that thefts of ntw= papers in the Free Library paper-room still continue,'thus preventing continuous rile< c,f papers being preserved. Visitors should aid the officials, or the committee will t;.-- c l to keep the room open only at such hours as attendance of some officer can be o. sured.

By the'arrival of the s.s. Richmond, from Papeete, Apia, and Tonga, the maii brine ing island nev/3 is to hand. In another column will be found an interesting marj' of Tongan items from our own'corre*. pondent. In the other groups things are generally quiet. Matters in the Society Group between the French and the natives of Raiatea and Huahine are much in the same condition as recorded in o;:r previous advices. The French are holding possession of the main portion of both islands, and are carrying out their colonising operations but the natives still keep aloof in their fastnesses in the hills, being evidently very little disposed to come to amicable relations with their conquerors. In regard to Raro~. tonya rumours are still flying about concerning the designs of Louis ArnaaJ (" French Louis') in endeavouring to '_'•--: Mere Paa to concede a protectorate of the island to France on condition of bein* named supreme ruler, and having Xgata*ngiha harbour made the port of entry to: the group. It is believed that the/e reports are without substantial foundation, and that " French Louis"' is not accredited by the French Government, but the natives evince great dislike to and distrust of 0r. , .- polite Gallic neighbours, and are anxious that a British protectorate should be established.

An interesting match, 15 men a-side, was fired on Saturday afternoon between teams of the Wairoa Rifles and the "A "Battery of Artillery, resulting in a victory for the visiting team by 82 points. The Wairca team were entertained at a smoke concert at the Imperial Hotel on Saturday night by the members of the "A" Battery, and a most enjoyable evening was spent. Areturn match is to be tired at Wairoa on a day to be fixed, and Captain Hewson and the owners of the steamer Waitoa have generously offered to give free passages to th'j members of the Battery to and from Wairoa. provided they get a week's notice of the day they propose to fire the return match.

The following Auckland patents have been applied for during the past week :— George Fredk. Vazey, of Auckland, porter, for polishing, cleansing, and generally renovating all kinds of metal work, to be called'• Vazey , s Patent Universal Metal Polisher ;" David Jones, of Auckland, for an automatic blind cord rack, to be called " The Eureka Automatic Blind Rack," and for the automatic fastening of window sashes, to be called "The Good-night AnnBurglar Automatic Sash-fastener."

On Saturday, Captain H. M. Haywari proceeded to Sydney by the mail steamer Zealundia, for 'he purpose of acting on behalf of the Oceanic Steamship Company, should any collision arise with the members of the Maritime Labour Council or .Seamen's Union in regard to the action of the charterers of the Zealandia in still employin? Chinamen as coal-passers, etc. The Zealandia goes to Sydney better prepared to act independently and ignore any demands made by the Union than either the Mariposa or Alameda, as from the large quantity of coal taken on board here she is freed from the necessity of coaling in Sydney. In anticipation of not being able to secure any lumpers to assist in her discharge, a dozen extra hands were engage.'. in Auckland for a month, and by these precautionary measures Captain Haywarl has placed the Zealandia in a position to completely disregard the "boycotting' , tactics ths.t are almost sure to b-. pursued by the Union men in Sydney. Mr. G. F. Stuart, who rendered Captain Hayward welcome assistance during the trouble with the Mariposa, also went by the same steamer.

A warrant, says our Wellington special correspondent, was received by the Wellington police authorities some time since from Auckland for the arrest of a man named Henry Barnaby, who was wanted for embezzling monies from Mr. J. Lumpkin, butcher, of Newmarket, Auckland. The Northern detectives had traced their man to this city, where he relapsed into obscurity, and for the time completely baiiled the efforts of the local police to discover hLwhereabouts. This morning, however, a telegraphic message was received by Inspector Thomson froin Tenui, on the East Coast, informing him of Barnaby"s arrest at that place. He will probably be brougaß into town on Monday next, and remanded to Auckland. Bamaby'e defalcation; m≤ said to amount to £50 or £60.

Under the heading of "The Solid Colony the Sydney Evening News ha the following :—" A capitalist from JSevf Zealand had a very important conversation a few days ago with one of the editors or a city contemporary relative to the condition of affairs in New Zealand, Victoria, South Australia and New South WalesHe said that the one common verdict of New Zealand business men ami capitalists of New Zealand was that the one solid safe colony for investment was New South Wales. He said, speaking ° the present boom of Victoria, that tna colony was experiencing the same transieni vitality which New Zealand did during tm Vogelian reign, but he added that whet the settling comes Victoria will feel Ml recoil more severely than did New Zealand, for the reason that the inflow of extraneous capital to the latter colony was accom panied by a stream of immigration, whereas no such accompaniment is toun<with the inflow of capital to Victoria. Much the same words were used by u. New Zealander with regard to the future o South Australia. The gentleman referreu to concluded with these words : * Oil. } » l ; just been in Melbourne; everything • booming. But I've been through it before. We know it to our cost in \ ictorw. " new money in Victoria has not been earn*, in fact the earnings last year were" millions sterling less last year, but «u-_ has been done is a mere revaluation or pr perty, which has to be paid for. i < going back to New Zealand, and like many others, when I can sell out, I will invest my money in business, or some enterprtea your colony. This is the solid colony Australia. , These words have a tremendous significance. They are justified intne less significant continuous l ive f™«' a i e3 Melbourne money in New Soutn enterprises, &c." _ As will be seen by a reference to o Police Court reports, the Resident - -. trate, Dr. Giles, ruled on Saturday teg«J e occupiers of houses were responsible w »reunclean state of privies and t>lo h ~[m [ . mises occupied by them and not rul lords or owners. This is an »' o£ ing in the present unsatistimk"? sw 0 { things, and under it the nt course create the nuisance nave . a warning that they are liable and** d landlords! for- the proper empty"„ nightsoil closets. _ haS Mr. Rollinson, the bicydiec. ur . been giving some wonderful ana ous performances at the orm ance to Rink recently, will give agf Rink, Onenight ab the Eclipse Skat r* fllD hung* and we have no.doubt afforded by this clever and com ace . I will afford vast amusement to the a

We have received from our special correspondent at Melbourne two large photoi lS _one of " the New Zealand Mineral f'mirt (at rear of New Zealand Court), the v rest display of minerals of the colonies, *howing a stand with loose lumps of quartz thereon;" the other of "the Tasmanian Mineral Court, showing attractive trophy *> Tasnianian bars of tin, etc." The photographs prove conclusively that our mining fxhibita are a failure, at any rate when compared with Tasmania's display. The photographs also show that our court is extremely crowded, and that consequently, if our mineral exhibits are to be increased, some other exhibits will have to be sacrificed. Another thing to be discovered in the photographs is that our mineral display jt not even '' pretty." The Tasmanian show, on the other hand, judging by the photos, is very beautiful and eye-catching, the tin trophy being particularly striking ■uvl artistic. On the other hand, the New Zealand trophy apparently consists of a pyramid of black coffins, with lumps of iiuartz, coal, and building stone displayed on the steps.

At noon to-day, at the Onehunga Borough Council, nominations will be received by the returning officer for candidates to fill the extraordinary vacancies caused by the resignations of the Mayor (Dr. Ereon) and councillors Hills, Clark, Rowe, and Hill. It was not publicly known up to a late hour on Saturday night who were to be nominated by the opposition party, who it will be remembered defeated the Council on their proposal to borrow £2000 to pay off the remaining liabilities in connection with the waterworks. Rumour has it, however, that Messrs. Robb. Hastie, Kcehan, Kemp, and Yates are the selection of the opposition, and that being so, there is not likely to be a contest, the water party feeling convinced that there was no way out of the difficulty except borrowing.

Mr. D. Crawford, of Wairoa South, has drawn our attention to another anomaly in the railway tariff. He recently got down half a ton of seed potatoes by train from Tamahere, a distance of 74 miles, and was charged at the rate of "JSs per ton, but had, there been two tons the charge would only have been 10s Sd per ton.

We have received a little pamphlet entitled " Practical Hints to Gas Consumers," published by the Southern Cross Electric Li-rht Company, the sole agents in Sew Zealand of the Stott Self-acting Gas Governor. His apparatus can be seen in operation at Messr?. E. Porter and Co.'s shops, and full particulars can be obtained everv afternoon at the olhce of the company, 7 ">, Queen -street. Auckland. The pamphlet, which is for free distribution, is a very bright and attractively printed little publication, and is one more instance of how rapidly our local industries are acquit - - intr the old world qualities of "style ami rinish." The printing was done at the Hkrald jobbing works.

It intended to hold an important public meeting , at the old church, Wade, on the ■_'.">;h inst. , at three p.m., to further the retrenchment policy scheme, on the lines of the meeting held recently at Otara, the object being to support the resolutions carried at that meeting. It is expected that delegates will be present from the Otara Vigilance Committee, the Waitemata County Council, the boroughs of Devonport slid Birkenhead, and from the road districts of the Lake, Northcote, and Kaukapakapa, and no doubt some representatives from the Political Financial Reform Association will also be present-.

The " Pirates of Penzance" vras repeated at the Opera House on Saturday evening by the members of the Auckland Amateur Opera Club. There was a. large audience. The performance was characterised by uniform excellence, the principal characters being frequently encored in the more f.imiiiar numbers. The opera will be performed again this evening as a complimentary benerk to Herr Cari Schmitt, in recognition of his gratuitous services to the club jv.- musical director and conductor.

Thtrre was a large attendance at the meeting of the Devonport Mutual Improvement Society last Thursday evening, Mr. R. Logan occupying the chair. The Rev. J. Bates was unanimously elected president for the present session. After the ordinary business was disposed of several members (rave a display of their elocutionary powers. Messrs. MeCallum, Dunne, McKenzie, and Logan favoured the audience with recitations, which were duly appreciated ; whilst the readings of Messrs. Little, Hooker, A. Logan, Hammond, Brown, Mitchell, and the Rev. J. Bates were instructive, and suitably rendered.

'• Wellingtonia est delenda" is the cry raised by the Taranaki Herald. In a leader on the position of the New Zealand Harbour Boards, it says : —" Although Wellington may have a ' boom' at the present moment, her turn will assuredly come, when she will feel the pressure, as other places do at the present time, and, as we have said, seek assistance from the_ Government, which is already being milked freely by that city of log-rolling and corruption. Wellington is always having a pull at the public purse, and grudges any other portion of the colony getting so much as a bawbee. The powers there have been working the wires so as to make Wellington the ' Empire City;' but Auckland and Canterbury are not likely to allow that. They are not going to be sacrificed in order that Wellington may prosper; and the city nosed for its mud, wind, and corruption will before many year 3 are past find its level. If the seat of Government was removed from Wellington, and the power centred at Auckland and Christenurch, *e are afraid it would be a poor look out :or the 'Empire City.' It will come to ihat, for other communities will not remain 3uiet and see Wellington picking all the plums out of the colonial pudding-. It Deeds no prophet to foretell the future of Wellington. In a few years one of two thinp will happen : either the district will be disfranchised, and thus retain the seat 01 Government; or political separation of tne two islauda will t&ko place, with Auckland and Christchurch as the chief centres."

We notice that Mr. Thomas Lonergan, son of Mr. Lonergan, Wyndham-street, is amongst the successful candidates at the la;-e examination at Dunedin of candidates to be admitted to practice and to be placed on th« New Zealand . Dentists' Register. Mr. Loijcrgun was for six years with Mr. Tratford, ;»nd has since had the soie charge wd management of Mr. T. B. Hill's dental chambers, Queen-street. He returns to Mr. Hill's in a. few days.

Speaking of the Victorian Budget, a correspondent of a Southern paper says : — " Poor Duncan Gillies ! He is a martyr. He has shaken hands at the lea-sb with a thousand well-wishers since the publication ofkU marvellous balance-sheet; he has had the words ' budget' and ' surplus' hurled at him, whispered at him, simpered at him, to him, shouted to him, and eulo»Ued to him, that I am sure it would be decidedly unsafe to mention them now in Hs presence. Never before has an Australian Premier had such a triumphant to enact, and never before has he hud Such cause to cry 'Spare me from my friends.'"

A correspondent to a Sydney paper points °ut that the mother colony has lost a Rlorious opportunity in not having the Exhibition there. He calculated that at least 120,000 persons would visit Melbourne during the first fortnight, and if each of them only spent £10 that means £1,200,000 Jeft bc-hind in a fortnight. But the Exhibition lasts six months, and this takes in Cup week, and he thinks it no stretch of the imagination to suppose that 1,000,000 strangers will visit Melbourne, pnd this number, at £10 a head, a very low estimate, tomans £10,000,000 spent in Melbourne before the season is over !

The Financial News still continues its criudgrn of colonial finance. In its issue £ { the 29th of June it says :—" The new Queensland loan has not been received with fcf ithusi:usru. Possibly it follows too closely pn the recent New Zeaiand and Canadian ■ssues to suit the convenience of jobbers ; but there are several points about it which *?e public should keep in view. The addi- *™ of this issue will bring the total public Oebt of Queensland up to £25,821,000, or, a y a fraction over £68 per head of the Imputation ! It is true that this is the only colony pursuing a vigorous immigration ijtocy, and that the public debt, unlike l "at of the neighbouring colonies, includes practically all borrowings for municipali*les > harbour.", etc. But, on the other , a,K |, more revenue has to be raised per oead—or, in other words, the people are •*ore l leav iiy taxed—than in any other color.y; an( i yet at the en(l of bne lasfc finan . bbere waa a deficib oi over

It is understood (writes our Wellington correspondent) that the coal mining industry is looking up, and has every prospect of being brisk through the threatened strike in Australia. I learn to-day that the Union Steam Shipping Company have given an order for 300 tons of coal to the Kamo Company.-

A gentleman writing from Los Angelos, California, to a friend in Auckland says :— "Tilings are not looking quite so rosy in South California as when you left 'Frisco. In. fact the boom has gone down to a very low ebb. In San Diego the bottom has gone out of it altogether. I just wish I could send you a file of Dun's commercial reports. The contents are a ghastly string of failures and assignments. One failure alone— the Tram, Cable, and Ferry Co.— readied the respectable sum of £47,000, and as for the small fry, their name is legion. Here things are not quite so bad, but still bad enough. One of our papers, the Times, has the courage to tell its readers the truth when it says that the land sales now are not one-fifth what they were twelve months ago.

In a lecture lately delivered before the Royal Institution of <Jreat Britain, Mr. Preece stated that on a tine summer's day the sun expends an average of 1 horsepower on every 30 square feet of the earth's surface in the latitude of England, or 14">0 horse-power per acre. This great gift of energy is neither utilised nor stored by man at present, though Nature presents us with some of it in waterfalls and flowing streams. The sun itself Las been more generous. Ages upon ages ago it shone with resplendent glory on a grand luxuriant ilora of a uniform but flowerless character in a climate warm and damp. England formed part of a tropical jungle or swamp, where grasses, mosses, ferns, and sedges, Conifers, Araucariese, Equisetacea?, Sigillariai grew and flourished, perished and fell in situ, to be covered up by the following geological formations and compressed into those grand seams of coal that form now the principal source of England's greatness and wealth.

As is well known, sage is largely used both green and dried for flavouring. The leaves are occasionally introduced into a cheese, in order to impart the aromantic flavour peculiar to the plant. , Writing on this herb, one author says :—"ln mediaeval times, the plant, on account of its numerous good properties, obtained the names of Officinalis Christi, and was reputed to have been blessed by the Virgin Mary. So wholesome was the he>'b considered, that the School of Salerno summed up its surpassing merits in the line— " How can a man die who grows s&ge in his garden '{' Probably this saying gave rise to the piece of advice contained in the old English proverb— " He that would live tor aye, Must eat sage in May." " Parkinson remarks that "sage is much used in the month of May, fasting, with butter and parsley, and is held of most to conduce to the health of man ;" and Turner says that "it restores natural heat, and comforts the vital spirits, and helps the memory, and quickens the senses. It, is very healthful to be eaten in May with butter, and also to be drank in ale.' - Such at one time were the ludicrous notions held about the wonderful properties of herbs.

A fancy dress carnival for children was held at the Columbia Rink on Saturday afternoon. The costumes worn by vhe little ones were generally tastefully designed, and several were somewhat costly. During the proceedings the scene was frequently illuminated by limelight. An exhibition of bicycle-riding was given by Professor Rollinson in the course of the afternoon.

A lecture on " Love. Life, and Labour," is to be delivered at the Y.M.C. A. Rooms, on Wednesday evening next, by Mrs. W. J. Harris (''Jenny Wren "), The many friends of this lady will doubtless assemble in large numbers, thus showing their practical sympathy by making a substantial benefit to her.

A social reunion in aid of St. Patrick's Presbytery Fund is to be held at the Catholic Institute, Wellington-street, on Thursday evening next. The tickets are selling rapidly, and it is anticipated that there will be a large attendance. Complete arrangements have been made for the reunion, which should prove very enjoyable.

The committee of the Auckland Political and Financial Reform Association meet at the Victoria Arcade at half-past three this afternoon.

A vocal and instrumental concert in aid of the Melanesian Mission Fund is to be held at St. John's College. Tamaki, next Thursday, An omnibus will leave the Union Bank, Queen-street, at half-past six p.m.