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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8283, 16 June 1890, Page 11

A subscription of £20 was sent on Juno 3 to the Mayor of Sydney by Messrs. Wirth Brothers in aid of the fund for alleviating the distress in the Bourko district. A farewell address was given on the 19th May at the City Hall by the Rev. E. 11. Gulliver, who left next day for Australia. Mr. A. Kelly presided. There was a large attendance. At a conference of thoChristchurch Early Closing Association with the representatives of the Friendly and Trade Societies, hold on the '21st May, the resolutions in favour of tho eight hours' system, and closing shops at 0 p.m. on Saturdays, were adopted. By the s.s. Ilotomahana on May '27 a valuable .shipment of eighteen horses were sent to Sydney by Messrs. Bradley and Co., of To Aroha and Waikato. The horses have been carefully selected in the Waikato by Mr. Bradley to meet the requirements of the Sydney market. It is reported that the acclimatisation of opossums has been a great success. The numbers have largely increased since protection by law. it may be mentioned that the skins of New Zealand opossums are greatly superior to the original stock, the dark-skinned Tasmania!! variety. During the month a great deal of anxiety was felt regarding the fate of Messrs. Donald and Edonborough's steamer Richmond, which was a fortnight overdue from Tahiti, until on May '27 intelligence was received from Russell that tlie cause of the delay was on account of the crank slfaft having broken. She was brought into harbour on May 28 by the tugboat Awhina. Te We Htni, a brother of Wahanui, died at Otorohanga recently. He was placed in his coffin next day, ami it was nailed down. The natives are considerably excited by a report that three hard knocks or blows were heard on the lid of the coffin from the inside, and that the nails were started in the coffin ltd from the force of them. Some think he was not dead others ascribe the sounds to spiritual manifestations. The many friends of Thomas Barron, an old and respected waterman here, and also well-known as an enterprising prospector, will bo glad to learn that his bravery in jumping off the wharf and saving the life of a little girl named Ethel Thomas in November last, has been rewarded by the Royal Humane Society of Australasia awarding him a honorary certificate of merit. This will be presented publicly some time during the current month. The long-standing dispute between the Petone Woollen Company, Wellington, and their hands was settled on Wednesday, the -Ist May. at a conference between the directors, the Trades and Labour Council, and the Merit Council. The directors agreed to take back at once 30 or 40 of the operatives now out, mostly young people, and make room for others by discharging hands where there are several members of one family engaged, married women with husbands in full work, etc. This is to be done in favour of the operatives now out, who are badly in want of work. Both Unions are to be disbanded, and a new one formed. The arrangement was accepted as satisfactory by all parties. The first message on the new cable laid between .Sydney and Auckland came through on May Hi. when Sir Harry A. Atkinson, the Premier of New Zealand, wired as follows to Mr. D. O'Connor, the Postmaster-General of New South Wales: —"Accept our hearty congratulation: - , on successful laying duplicate cable ; may it fend to strengthen friendly relations between Australia and New Zealand." To this Mr. O'Connor replied: "Many thanks. Heartily reciprocate your congratulations on completion of this important work, which I hope will cement the union between Australia, New /."aland, and the mother country." The "presentation of prizes to the pupils of the Hebrew School took place on Sunday, June 8, at the Synagogue Chambers, Princes-street, in the presence of a number of the parents and friends. Mr. P. A. Philips presided, and presented the prizes, with some appropriate renin to each pupil. The following were th recipients : —Class 1, division A : Israel Feldman, reading, translation; Minna Posseniskie, reading, translation, good conduct. Class 1. division 1! : Ernest Neumegen, reading, Bertie Goldstein, reading, translation, attendance ; Kate !v esing, reading, translation. Class'2: Human Hart, reading, good conduct. Class 3 : Rita Posseniskie, '.calling, good conduct ; Harry Goldstein, reading, attendance. Certificates of merit: Alfred Neumegen, Louis Mendelson, Julia Keesing, class I ; Hose Hart, class '2 ; Isaac Dart, Harry Keesing, class 3. A short address by the Rev. S. Goldstein and a vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the proceedings. The Bluff Harbour Board on May '27 considered a motion by Mr. .1. G. Ward to float a loan of £100, at, say, 5 per cent, from which to convert the present 0 per.cent, loan of £50.001), which is now exhausted, and use the balance in constructing permanent wharves, removing obstacles to the navigation, and providing a dry slip or dry dor:k. The chairman, Mr. J. W. Mitchell (Mayor of Invercartrill), gave his casting vote against the proposal. In doing so he remarked that the liivercatgill Borough Council had tried consolidation with most unsatisfactory results because the calculations were based on a fallacy, viz., that business men on the Stock Exchange in Loudon were not so smart in finance as the members of tho Borough Council. The promoters of that scheme found that nobody would give up (i per cent, debentures for 'LI per cent, on the same security, even with a premium of 10 per cent. Another handsome donation of books has been made to the Auckland Public Library by Sir George Grey, and were received on June '2 at the Library. There are about thirty volumes, including a bibliography of New Zealand ; a valuable work on Now Zealand and the Maoris, by G. L. Craik, Professor of English Literature at Queen's College, Belfast; a well-finished copy of Henri's Bouchot's " The Book," a record of the art of printing, illustrating, and binding, from .Gutenberg to the present time ; Dr. Berthold Socman's " Mission to Viti ;" the Rev. R. Taylor's "Te Ilea a Maui Mariner's "Tonga Islands;" " Life of Sir Rowan Hamilton ;" " The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens T. P. O'Connor's " Parnell Movement," and articles by various .statesmen on the Irish question ; autobiography of Frith, the well-known artist ; ' several volumes of " The Spectator," a volume containing copies of the Gibraltar Chronicle for the year 1828, and a number of old religious works, books of travel, etc., manuscripts relating to the wreck of the steamer Lord Worsley, and pamphlets on various subjects, make up this latest gift of a gentleman whose public spirit and benevolence will never bo forgotten by the people of Auckland.