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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4191, 26 August 1874, Page 2

It is understood that His Excellency Sir Jame 3 Fergusson will be entertained at a banquet on Friday evening by members of both Houses of the Legislature. The San Francisco mails for "Wellington and the South Island are being brought from Maiiukau by the steamer Murray, and are to be transhipped at Nelson to the steamer Tararua, which arrived at Nelson last evening, too late on the tide to enter the port. The Tararua is mentioned in our telegrams as likely to leave Nelson at seven o'clock this evening. She proceeds thence on Friday with the Suez mail. Among the votes taken last night in the House, under the General Purposes Loan Act, were the following :—£21,500- for new public buildings (in timber) in Wellington ; Ministerial residence in Molesworth Street, £SOO ; guard-room at Government House, £3OO ; Parliamentary furniture, House of Kepresentatives, £2500 ; Colonial Museum, £3OOO. While the House was in Committee the Speaker called attention to the necessity of increasing the size of the Parliamentary Library—if more books were to be ordered ; and also of some attention being paid, if only for the sake of common decency, to the necessary out-houso accommodation. Mr. Richardson said that as "soon as the new buildings were sufficiently advanced, fresh arrangements would be made in the present Parliamentarybuildings. Some conversation took place as to the material of which the. new buildings should be constructed—whether of brick, cement, timber, or iron—the Minister of Public Works adhering to his opinion that on the score of safety and cheapness timber was best. Among the amounts on the Supplementary Estimates for 1874-5 passed in the House last night wore the following : —Expenses of witnesses attending Committees of both Houses, £•100 ; new presses and machinery for the Stamp Department, £3OO ; expenses of furnishing Bellamy's, £l5O ; for the honorarium of members, £SOOO ; Colonial Museum, Loudon, £2OOO ; observation of transit of Venus, £3OO ; purchase of a stoamer, in addition to proceeds of the sale of the Luna, £SOOO ; sea wall of Taurauga cemetery, £2OO ; working the Inspection of Machinery Act, 18C4, £500; defalcations of John Blair, late clerk to the Registrar of the Supreme Court's office, Dunedin, £llß 18s. Bd. ; contribution to Defence expenditure, payable to Defence Loan Account, £65,000 ; contribution 1 to Road Boards grant, £25,000 : special allowances to officers of the Civil Service, £15,000; purchase of hulk Omega, for store ship, £1950 ; hulk-keeper'B salary, £IBO ; contingencies in connection with the hulk Omega, £3OO ; survey of Mikonui water-race, £2000; and for preliminary expenses for additional lighthouses, £2500. Owing to the disagreeable weather last night the attendance at the Theatre Koyal was only very moderate. Loyal performed the wonderful act of wheeling a bycicle across the tight wire with Zuila hanging head dowmyards on a trapeze suspended from the machine. This sensational performance met with much applause. An amusing afterpiece, entitled " The Dancing Scotchman," which, although very absurd, caused some laughter, concluded the entertainment. To-night is the last appearance of the Loyals, when they play in connection with the Towers Company for Mr. Prank Towers's benefit. Miss Rosa appears to-night in two pieces, "A Widow's Freak" and "Aladdin." The s.s. Phccbe, which arrived in harbor yesterday morning from Northern ports, has gone on to the patent'slip to receive an overhaul, consequently her date of sailing is postponed to the 27th.

There is apparently to be no other assembly ball in Wellington this season, the funds at the command of the committee being insufficient. The Wellington Horticultural Society announce the opening show of the season for Friday, September 4, at the Theatre Royal. To-morrow the Wellington Scottish Rifle Volunteers muster for monthly inspection, and on Friday the AVellington Artillery for the same purpose. Tenders are invited for the conveyance of from 300 to 350 tons of railway iron and fastenings to Westport, a portion of the material for the Mount Rochfort railway. The employment of Females' Act introduced by Mr. Rolleston is a very short one. It proposes to repeal the third section of the Act of 1873 and substitute in lieu thereof "No person shall employ any female, at any time between the hours of five in the afternoon and eight in the morning, or for more than eight hours in any one day." Mr. Murray has given notice that, on Thurday, he will move in the House of Representative :—" That, in the opinion of this House, the indiscriminate granting of free passages to immigrants is detrimental to the interests of the Colony, and should not be continued. That after the Ist day of February, 1876, free passages should only be granted to New Zealand to persons nominated by New Zealand colonists or their duly authorised agents, to single women of good character, and to such industrial or colonising corporations' immigrants as the Government approves." The Volunteer Act Amendment Act, introduced by the Hon. the Native Minister, is to be read with the Act of ISCS. It gives power to Volunteer Corps to acquire land for rifle or artillery practice, by and with the consent of the Governor. Licenses may also be granted to corps to use land for practice or drill, supposing it to be vested in the Commissioner of Crown Lands, or belong to the Waste Lands Board, or a Municipal Council. But no license may be granted for more than seven years, and if the land be not used for volunteer purposes the license expires. The Governor in Council may make regulations for shooting or rifle practice on land acquired, and preventing intrusion on the same. The practice or drill grounds will be vested in the commanding officers of the corps, and the corps will have power to sell or lease land and dispose of the money, provided that the rules shall have been approved by the Governor in Council. The Act applies to lands that had been acquired prior to its being passed. An advertisement in another column calls a meeting of cricketers on Thursday evening at the Empire Hotel at eight o'clock, for the purpose of considering what steps should be taken for the improvement of the Wellington cricket ground. Several important matches are on the tapis for the coming season, and it behoves all who take au interest in the game to bestir themselves, and support prompt measures for the provision of a good wicket. It is rather too late in the .year to think of making material improvements in the ground in time for the forthcoming season's play, but much can be done towards forming a good wicket for matches. It is to be hoped that the meeting will be largely attended, and that all will throw themselves into the movement with interest and energy ; and a beneficial result will assuredly follow. At the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday the only two criminal charges set down for hearing were adjourned. In the civil business a great number of cases were settled without coming before the Court, and the following were adjudicated upon :—James O'Shea v. the Captain and Owners of the Steamer Star of the South.—£26. This action was consequent on the detention of a stone consigned to the plaintiff from a southern port as cargo in the Star of the South. The plaintiff claimed £2l value of the stone, and £5 for the detention. Mr. Ollivier, who appeared for the defendants, contended that the service of the summons was not a legal one ; Mr. Buckley, for plaintiff, argued that the service was proper. His Worship, under the circumstances, held with the latter argument. The defendants demanded £7 10s. for freight of the stone, and refused to deliver it unless that amount was paid. The plaintiff tendered payment at the rate of 15s. per ton, which was declined. An order was made for delivery of the stone or payment of £24. In the case Hunt v. Munt, £5 Is. 6di, a verdict was given 'for defendant with costs. On a fraud summons, Murphy v. Roberts, an order was made for payment of ss. per week. Fifty-two of the immigrants to Nelson by the Adamant, were conveyed to Westport by the steamer Charles Edward. By request of Mr. Elliott, Immigration agent, the Mayor made arrangements for their temporary reception. Messrs. Bailie and Humphry's empty store in Lyttelton Street was occupied as a temporary barracks, and the new arrivals received one week's rations at the expense of the Government. The majority is made up of single men, who will readily find work on the railway, and the married couples and two or three single females of the party, says the Times, will no doubt soon shake into their places in Westport. The fact that Mr. Moriarty has reported that by an expenditure of £95,000, the Grey River bar may be deepened so as to admit of the "entry of vessels drawing from fifteen to sixteen feet, at neap tides, seems to have greatly encouraged the inhabitants of Greymouth, and they have apj'ointed a numerous and locally influential deputation to proceed at once to Wellington. In advance of them some hundreds of copies of the report have been forwarded to Mr. Harrison, M.H.R., Mr. Curtis, M.H.R., and to the Hon. Messrs. Lahman and Bonar, so that, on the arrival of the Tararua, there should be no lack of information on the subject. The following telegram is published in the Auckland papers as having been received by Air. T. Henderson, jun. It explains why Mr. Von der Heydo did not vote on the abolition resolutions :—" I did not vote on account of my' present anomalous position, having been examined before a Select Committee yesterday, the decision of which would be given this morning. The matter was thus sub judicc. € consulted several old members, who confirmed my view that I had better not vote. I told Mr. Vogel; and it was well known to several Auckland members, that had I voted it would have been against the Government.—G. VON. DER Hevde." The following is the letter which was lately referred to in a telegram as having appeared in a Napier contemporary, as to the means of steam conveyance between Wellington and that port :—" As one who is in the habit of shipping goods from Melbourne for Napier, I have to complain that, in consequence of there being a want of jjroper steamer accommodation along this coast, my goods (and no doubt those of other Napier importers) often lie for weeks together at AVellington. The only available steamer between the "Empire City" and Port Ahuriri is the Rangatira, and she alone is not sufficient for the trade. Another boat is greatly wanted in addition. The Rangatira is also in the habit of stopping in port for such a very brief period that she has scarcely time to discharge her cargo and ship another. The steam service along the East Coast of the North Island appears to me to be quite inadequate to meet the demands of the rising trade and commerce of Napier, Poverty Bay, Tauranga, and other places on thp East Coast route between Wellington and Auckland. It is an injustice to the Melbourne merchants who send their goods here, and to the consignees here also. If better communication is not established via Wellington the Napier importers will have to make other arrangements to get their goods by way of Sydney and Auckland, or in some other maimer, so as to obviate the delay, loss, and inconvenience they are put to by the present inefficient steam service to and from Wellington. —I am, &c, A Napier Merchant." ' It is stated by the West /Coast Times that • Captain Bisset of the schooner Onward, on his arrival at that port from Wellington, was met with the melancholy news, by telegram, of the death of his wife, at Christchurch. The deceased was at one time a resident of Hokitika, and much sympathy has been expressed for Captain Bisset, who left his wife only a few weeks ago in perfect health.

The majority of Mr. Collier's company, including that gentleman and Mrs. Collier, together with Miss Hattie Shepparde, and the members of the Asiatic and Siamese Circus Troupe, have sailed from Auckland for Sydney. The following sage conclusion is come to by the Southern Cross on the subject of the first division on the question of abolishing the North Island Provinces :—"Had the North Island members been united in opposing resolutions which in their present form are certainly menacing to the position of this part of the Colony, there would have been a clear majority against the proposals." The late severe frost seems to have been extensively prevalent. In the elevated pastoral and mining districts of Otago, it was very severe, and even in some parts of Victoria there was frost of a thickness sufficient to bear the weight of a man, and the frost was keener than had been felt for thirty-five years. It is well for those who interest themselves in the reclamation of portions of Wellington harbor, to be informed of the full result of the recent sale of sections similarly situated at Dunedin. The total area sold was 4f acres ; the average per acre realised, £3,500 ; estimoted cost of reclamation, to be borne by the purchaser, £2,000 per acre, making the price obtained equal to £5,500 per acre of reclaimed laud, and being £1,200 in advance of the price obtained at the last sale. Old residents of Dunedin will remember the name of John McLaren, who, in by-gone days, was always to the fore at open air meetings in the Octagon, or any other place where abuse of the Province and denunciations of all and sundry in office formed the staple subject of discourse. Mr. McLaren at last left Otagoin disgust. There was a world elsewhere, and he would thither go. He went. He traversed the United States, and we believe Canada also;, he wended his way to his native heath, and breathed once more the free air of Scotland; but nowhere found he any place for his foot. He enjoys the repute of being a first-class artizan, but his skill brought him no sufficient profit in those countries. So, a few months since he returned to Dunedin, and, in a letter which a]ipears in the Guardian, he makes full recantation of his past errors, avowing that he "never found a better place than Otago;" and telling how he landed here without sufficient funds to pay for a bed, and that now he has "plenty to keep him, and a little to spare." Our contemporary commends this letter to the perusal of all the discontented and desponding souls in the Province. A case heard in the Wakatip Magistrate's Csurt, in which an attempt was made to protect the bush against the operations of the goldminer, provokes the following remarks from the Mail :—" If such a thing were attempted on the West Coast or elsewhere, mining pursuits would have to be given up, so that the tree 3 might grow. Just fancy the effect such a law would have upon the development of the goli of Australia, let alone our own. What next ?"