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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4175, 7 August 1874, Page 2

The “ beginning of the end ” has evidently come. In the House of Representatives yesterday great progress was made with the private Bills before the Chamber, some dozen or more of them having been read a second time, or committed, reported, and read a third time. It has been arranged between the “ high contracting powers’' that there shall be an evening sitting on Monday for the purpose of discussing the measure proposed by the Government for the amendment of the Licensing Act. The matter will probably be mentioned in the House to-night. Mr. Vogel laid before Parliament yesterday a letter from Mr. Thomas Russell, on the subject of the penalties incurred by Mi*. Webb in connection with the San Praucisco mail service. .He stated, at the same time, that he had informed the House earlier in the session that the Government would not determine what course they would take in connection with this matter until they had an opportunity of consulting Mr, Russell. The Ministry had now come to the conclusion not to risk the expenditure of money in an endeavor to recover those penalties from Mr. Webb. Some discussion took place in the House yesterday on a motion by Mr. Taiaroa, “ That it is desirable that the reserve at Port Chalmers, No. 402, should be restored to the Maoris for whom it was originally made. It appeared that the section in question had also been granted some years ago to the Presbyterian body of Port Chalmers. The Native Minister suggested that it should be left to arbitration, that the matter should be settled by compensation, or otherwise. This course was assented to by Mr. Taiaroa, and agreed to. The Waimea water-race is evidently a work involving a large expenditure, which it is sincerely to be hoped will he found to he justified by the auriferous character of the country over which it will distribute a water supply for sluicing purposes. For months, numerous small craft have been engaged in conveyingenormous iron pipes from Wellington to Hokitika, and more are expected to hand from England. The ship J. A. Thomson is understood to have 160 or 170, pipes among her freight, and for the landing, storing, and conveyance of these tenders are to be called in a few days. The Hon. Captain Eraser, who takes a lively and practical interest in the management of the lunatic asylums of the Colony, has given notice ,of his intention to propose, to-day, tho following motion in the Legislative Council; —“ That,. considering the _ great importance of adopting, where practicable, the modem system of treating cases of insanity by placing the patients under the immediate superintendence of a resident physician specially qualified by education and experience in tho treatment of such forms of disease, it is expedient that the Government, before taking any steps in regard to the appointment of an Inspector-General of Insane Hospitals, should ascertain whether it would not be more advantageous to adopt tho modern system in the larger establishments of the Colony, leaving the smaller establishments for a time to he daily visited, as heretofore, by a local physician.”

The Te Aro Reclamation Bill was read a third time and passed in the House last night. The further consideration of the Wellington Land Payments Bill was postponed for a week. A considerable accession to the German population of the Province was made yesterday by the arrival of the ship Reichstag, from Hamburg, with 350 immigrants on board. The vessel has made a comparatively rapid passage to the NeW Zealand coast, having been only out 85 days,- diming eleven of which she has been working along the land., to her port of destination, There occurred only one death during the voyage, and there was one birth. The immigrants will probably be landed or transferred to other Provincial ports to-day. The acoustic properties of the Chamber were again the subject of discussion in the House of Representatives last night. During the day the red curtains had been removed because, as Mr. G. B. Parker explained, hou. members complained that the color of the curtains was offensive to the eye and productive of inflammation of that organ. Mr. Buckland complained that by the removal of the curtains it had become impossible for members sitting near him (the farthest corner on the left hand of the Speaker) to hear a word of what was said. Mr. Fox said the removal of the curtains had made the acoustic properties a hundred per cent, worse than they were on the previous day; while around him (the front benches) there had been for some days an intolerable smell of gas; he was living, in fact, in an atmosphere of sulphuretted hydrogen, roost damaging to the constitution. Sir J. C. Wilson said the House in which they sat was, he believed, the very worst House in the world in which any deliberative body met to discuss public matters. He hoped curtains would be restored, but that the House Committee would make a, proper selection in the matter of color. Blue might make hon. members look somewhat ghastly, green was unpleasantly suggestive, yellow was equally so, but he did not know what would be the effect if brown were chosen. There is no doubt—speaking for the occupants of the reporters’ gallery—that the removal of the curtains has greatly aggravated the difficulties of the short-hand writers. The echoes are numerous, and almost as wonderful ;n their effects as the celebrated Irish echo. Sound is thrown from side to side, like a shuttlecock, and becomes so confused that accurate reporting is well nigh impossible. An addition to the engineering skill available in the Colony has lately been made by the arrival of ' a gentleman, Mr, T. M. Hardy Johnston, who, judging by a number of valuable reports which we have been permitted to peruse, seems eminently fitted to advise in the undertaking of the many works which in several cities and Provinces are now in course of construction or are about to be constructed. Such circumstances as the sending to other Colonies for engineering advice, as in the case of Auckland and Greymouth engaging Mr. Moriarty to report upon local works, may be excuse for us referring specifically to Mr. Johnston’s experience as an engineer, now that he is settled in the Colony as an accession to the limited staff of civil engineers which it as yet possesses, unconnected with the Government service. From a perusal of the reports before us, relating to public works of all descriptions at Home and in India, we notice that among the more important works upon which Mr. Johnston has been engaged were the Chester and Holyhead railway, under Mr. Robert Stephenson, the Caledonian railway under the late Mr. Joseph Locke, and the South Devon, Cornwall, and West Cornwall railway and Plymouth Great Western docks, under the late Mr. I. K. Brunei, F.R.S., besides numerous railways, docks, harbors, &c., throughout Great Britain. Of Mr. Johnston’s Indian experience the same reports, show that he was Resident Engineer upon the construction of the Madras railway for eleven years, Acting Eugineer-in-Chief to the Government of Traveucore by the appointment of Lord Napier, Executive Engineer under the Supreme Government of India in the Indus Valley, and Consulting Engineer and Secretary to His Higlmess the Nizam of Hyderabad. In connection with each of these appointments, Mr. Johnston has made reports which may be read with interest by others than engineers, exhibiting as they do some of the resources of India, and the progress of its public works. In European and Indian cities, Mr. Johnston seems also to have been associated with other eminent engineers in extensive works for sewage, drainage, and water supply, and in the study and supervision of some of the largest harbor works in the world. Doubtless the services of an engineer of such experience will not be unappreciated in this Colony, particularly at the present period, when skill and practice in his particular departments of the engineering profession are much more in demand than they are abundant in supply. At the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday Michael Revel, charged with a breach of the Merchant Shipping Act by disobedience of orders and assault on boai-d the barque Frowning Beauty, was sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment. William Harrington, for stealing a pair of boots on board the steamer Taranaki, received a sentence of three months, with hard labor. In the civil business, one case was adjudicated on—McDowell v. Ah Gee, £7 18s. 6d. ; order for £5 18s. Gd, and costs. A.number of cases were settled out of Court. Although upwards of £OOO had been realised by sales at the bazaar during the previous two days, the stalls yesterday presented a very gay appearance. There remained a variety of articles of tasteful design and beautiful execution, but these were during the day disposed of to purchasers, with the result of securing another large amount to the funds of St. Paul’s Church, the object for which the bazaar had been instituted. The ladies who have so kindly interested themselves in the good cause must be congratulated on the success of their exertions. The receipts were, Tuesday, £355 ss. lid ; Wednesday, £3O-1 16s. ; Thursday, £237 6s. Bd. ; total, £897 Ss. 7d. We understand that there are still several sums to be paid in, so that the proceeds of the bazaar, and of the indefatigable exertions of the ladies by whom it was originated and conducted, will exceed the handsome sum of £9OO. We learn, by a prospectus, just issued by Mr. G. D. Barraud, of this City, that he proposes publishing a collection of chromo-lithographs and wood-outs of New Zealand scenery, with descriptive letter-press, to he executed in the best manner by a London firm. His object will be to depict, as far as possible, the various lands of New Zealand scenery, particularly introducing those of well-known interest, such as the principal harbors of the Colony, the lakes and hot springs and mountains of the North Island, the lakes and plains of the Middle Island, and the West Coast Road through the Otira Gorge, &c. To enable him to carry this out; he wishes to secure a certain number of subscribers, to whom the hook will be issued at a cost not exceeding £6 6s. per copy, or less if practicable. He has already secured a number ;of subscribers, including His Excellency the Governor, the Government of the Colony, Ministers, and many of the leading Colonists. The City Corporation of Dunedin, says the ' Daily Times, are enabled by their patent stone-crusher to macadamise many roads that otherwise might remain, to be ploughed with constant traffic. The machine is at -work near the extensive quarry at the foot of Union street, and does its work well, keeping the residents round about in- perpetual cognizance of its crushing whirr, and the violent puffing of its six horse-power steam-engine. A number of drays are employed carting the boulders and broken rock to it, which are heaped up, and the feeder is kept continually filling the crusher with it. Passing through a rotating sieve the small stuff falls in one heap, the two and a-half inch metal into trucks, and the larger stones are shot out into drays ; thus about forty square yards being passed through in one day. “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin ” was repeated at the Theatre Royal last night to a much , better house than on its first representation, and as the piece was judiciously curtailed, the performance was over at a comfortable hour. Tonight is another, and the last, of Miss Rosa Towers’ free invitation nights to children, and there will doubtless be a groat attendance.

“ Chinese cheap labor” is making itself felt about Cromwell, for the local Argus mentionsthat one Mah Hoy was the successful tenderer for constructing a dam for the Bannockburn V\ ater-race Company. Mali’s tender was for £267. The highest tender, by Europeans, was over £SOO. A statement which is worthy of notice on the part of members of the Philosophical Society, with a view to its confirmation or contradiction, is hazarded by a Wanganui journal. It is that, .whatever, may be the theory, the fact is indisputable, that the thermometer annually ranges lower and lower in this Colony, during the months of July and August, and that the difference in , severity between the winter season at Home and that in New Zealand yearly diminishes. A strange application for a goldfield’s warden to receive was lately made to Mi - . Price, Warden of the Okarito district. The story is thus told by the correspondent of a Hokitika paper :—I am given to understand that while our worthy Warden was at Gillespie’s a Mr. George Hall came to him and made rather a. novel application to get a patent for a new invention he had lately found out. This said invention was neither more nor less than “perpetual motion.” On hearing this, the Warden made inquiries at the nearest store as to whether this said inventor was considered a sane person. The answer was given by the storekeeper in the richest brogue—“ Be japers. Sir, he's as sane as I am.” I don’t know if the good folks of Hokitika will look upon Mr. G, Hall in the same light as this storekeeper at Gillespie’s did ; but this may soon be known, as I believe Mr. Hall has left the Okarito district, and will likely, ere this, have made his appearance in Hokitika, to make preparations-, there to carry out his new invention. The system of fishing for salmon and trout, which may some day become an industry in New Zealand, is the subject of a question to be asked in the Legislative Council to-day by the Hou. Dr. Menzies. According to the order paper. Dr. Menzies is to ask the Colonial Secretary,—“ Whether the Government has,, in recognition of what is likely to become an important industry, taken or will take intoconsideration the propriety of legislating on the subject-matter of the resolution agreed toby this Council on August 31, 1869—namely,. ‘That it is expedient that the Government should, during the recess, prepare a measure providing for the vesting of or declaratory of the right to fish for salmon or trout, to prohibit the erection and maintenance of fixed engines and nets in New Zealand waters, both salt and fresh’—in accordance with the promisethen given by the Colonial Secretary for the time being, that ‘ the Government would giveits attention to the subject.’ ” Residents of Wellington, if they were to rely upon the theory of a correspondent of the Southern Cross, would have reason to have very serious apprehensions as to their future in this mundane sphere. - He says :—“During the year 1873, there were forty-seven earthquakes recorded in New Zealand; of these thirty-five were experienced in the Province of Wellington, twelve in the town of Wellington, and twenty-three at Wanganui. Throughout the length and breadth of the rest of the Colony, only twelve shocks were experienced ; three at Taranaki, five at Nelson, one at Christchurch, one at Bealey (in the Province of Canterbury), one at Hokitika, and one at Queenstown, in Otago. It would seem that the Province of Wellington is becoming more and more quaky as the slumbering fires in Tongariro become less active. It is the opinion of many that the intensity and frequency of earthquakes in Wellington will increase as Tongariro and White Island become less active, just as earthquakes became fearfully destructive and frequent when the fires of Vesuvius slumbered several centuries ago. The prospect before Wellington is, therefore, anything but cheering. Destruction has been effected by these earthquakes before now, and the coast line raised many feet. Similar-dis-turbances may therefore be anticipated for the future.” Dr. Coughtrey has lately been enlightening the Otago Institute members somewhat about whaling. Dr. Coughtrey, in referring to some experience of his in regard to whales in the north of Scotland, mentioned that he supervised the outting-up of a whale, from which a profit of £BOO was made, and said that a profit of £SOO was very often made on a fish. Oil varied in price from £36 to £SO per ton, and a whale would sometimes give twenty tons, which at £4O, would be £BOO ; one ton of baleen (whalebone), say (under the mark), £100; ten tons of bones, as distinguished from haleen, at £4 per ton, £4O; fifty tons of refuse at £4 per ton, £2OO, being an estimated sum of £IX4O from one whale.