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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4204, 10 September 1874, Page 2

The elections for the vacancies in the representation of the City in the Council take place to-day. There are three vacancies—one in each ward ; and there are six candidates. In Te Aro Ward the contest lies between Mr. J. R. George and Mr. Moody. We should think there can scarcely be a doubt as to how it will terminate. In Lambton Ward, Councillor Mills seeks re-election, and it is to be presumed that those of the electors who have nominated another candidate will have seen, before this, that the joke has been carried quite far enough. In Thorndon Ward, Councillor Burrett and Mr. J. M. Cleland contest the election. Both appear to be confident of success; their views are nearly the same; and as both desire that the best man should win, we hope the constituency will vote in that spirit.

A statement has obtained currency to the effect that, " owing to a blunder of the postal authorities in Wellington," all the mails for Nelson, New Plymouth, and Auckland, which were meant to be sent by the s.s. Phoebe, were forwarded by the Rangatira to Napier. We are informed that this is a mistake. Only a few bags of newspapers were mis-sent, through the error of the express driver. The greater part of the mail, including all the letters, was forwarded to its proper destination, by the Phoebe.

Mr. Von der Heyde, it appears, has again been elected Member of the House of Representatives for the Waitemata district —this time by a majority of 53. In the interval since his first election he has been converted into a subject of Her Majesty within the Colony, and there is not likely to be any further dispute as to the validity of his position as a member of the House.

It is understood that, while in AVellinoton, members of the Greymouth deputation interested themselves in more than merely waiting upon the Minister for Public Works, and that they made satisfactory arrangements for the procuring of steam colliers suitable for the trade, as soon as these can be constructed in England. Orders for several steam colliers, it is said, have been sent by the s.s. Alhambra, and anticipatory telegrams will probably be sent Home as soon as that vessel has arrived in Melbourne.

The presiding Magistrates at the Police Court yesterday were Messrs. J. Holt and W. Hutchison. The business did not detain them long, as only four drunkards were brought up, and one runaway sailor, who had deserted from the ship Dorette at Lyttelton. Mr. Ollivier appeared for the latter, aud objected to the warrant, as having no endorsement by a second Magistrate. The case was remanded until Saturday. One of the new arrivals from England appears to have brought with him not only a "new industry" but the machinery aud the capital to commence business at once. He is a shoe-black, and the first of the fraternity to settle here. He may be seen squatted at a convenient corner on Lambton Quay, with stand and brushes, after the pure London type, and offering to the mudded passenger to " Brush your boots, sir," for the modest fee of threepence. He should do a roaring trade here, for the streets in wet weather are certainly muddy enough in all conscience to promote the dirtying of boots. Hitherto the stranger appears to have found his chief patrons among the Maoris, to whom to be operated upon in the shoe-black's manner must be quite a new sensation. Port Chalmers, which, twelve years ago, and for several years subsequently, had the advantage of a court presided' over by "a Resident Magistiate, was deprived of that institution when extremely economical counsels prevailed, but latterly the influx of population and the increase of shipping have been the means of providing more than sufficient work for the members of the "great unpaid," the local Justices of the Peace, and a Resident Magistrate has again been appointed. The appointment has been conferred upon Mr. Mansford, who formerly held the same office, who discharged its duties with great care arid assiduity, and who has in the interval been a regular resident of the port. The owners of the s.s. Stormbird, Messrs. Turnbull and Co., have made a formal claim of salvage against the ship Strathnaver. Intimation of the fact is made to consignees by Captain Devey.

Tenders .ire invited for what is described as " the Oroua bridge contract," in connection with the Wanganui and Manawatu railway. Plans and specifications are to be seen in "Wellington, Wanganui, and Poxton. We are indebted to Captain Renner, of the schooner Hannah Barratt, for files of the Sydney Morning Herald down to the 29th ult. Captain Renner has made a fair passage across in the smart vessel which he has just added to the coasting fleet of Wellington. A very extensive sale of drapery was commenced yesterday by Mr. Duncan, and was continued up to three o'clock, by which time a large quantity of stock was disposed of. The sale, which is of goods sold by order of trustees of insolvent estates, is to be resumed to-day. - Mr. T. B. Gillies, one of the members for Auckland City, has already addressed his constituents. The character of his address is briefly indicated in a telegram which appears in another column.

A well attended meeting of the Star Boating Club was held at the Pier Hotel last evening. Eleven new members were admitted, and some routine business transacted ; arrangements relative to the opening of the season being left for discussion at a future meeting. On Saturday week, Mr. Brewer took twentyone immigrants from Wanganui to Marton, and they found immediate employment, inquiries being made for more. There is no district in the Colony, says the Herald, which has' shown greater labor-absorbing capacity than this. Throughout the winter there has been not only a steady demand for hands, but a kind of dearth, which the quotas sent us have been unable to satisfy. Now, since the spring has set in, we shall probably soon find that the demand for labor is greater than it has ever been known before.

During the week ending the 21st ulfc., the shipment of coal from the port of Newcastle amounted to not less than 28,842 tons. Of that quautity, 8259 tons went to Sydney, 4-147 to Melbourne, 1328 to South Australia, and not less than 2061 tons to New Zealand. New Caledonia was a customer to the extent of 466 tons ; China for 1922, Manilla for 1200, and San Francisco for (3792 tons. These figures should give confidence to the steam-coal miners at work on the Grey River. At the Waitemata nomination, Mr. Stainea, an elector, asked Mr. Von tier Heyde if he voted against the clause introduced to regulate the hours of barmaids ? Mr. Von tier Heyde said : I voted against it, because I believe that barmaids, just as well as anyone else, know when their work is done. —Mr. Staines : Does not the Legislature interfere with factories ? Mr. Von der Heyde : I have no doubt that the young women engaged in factories, &c, would work after hours if they were paid for it. Ido not think it is a question for Legislative interference. There are domestic servants who receive 15s. per week, and frequently work from six to twelve. Barmaids receive from 30s. to £2 per week, and work from eleven to eleven ; and if they chose to continue to do so, I do not see why we should interfere.

The Sydney papers state that His Excellency the Governor of New South Wales had not, up to the latest date, received his final instructions on the subject of the Fijis, although he had received a further communication from the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the subject. It was anticipated that His Excellency would be in a position to proceed to Fiji in the early part of the prppnnt month.

From the local journal we learn that a preliminary meeting has been held at Picton with' a-view of celebrating the anniversary of the Province by a regatta. Notice of the following motion was given by the Mayor of Westport at the last meeting of the Borough Council: —" That an address be prepared and forwarded to the Honorable the Premier, expressive of the satisfaction of this Council at the initiatory action taken with a view to the abolition of Provincial institutions."

It appears to have been established to the satisfaction of the people of Sydney that their capital is built upon a great coalfield, the deptli of which is calculated at 960 ft. It appears probable that an attempt will be made to work the field, as the depth is trifling compared with those of many coal mines now worked profitably in England. J. A. Froude, the eminent historian, is about to leave England on a visit to all the English Colonies all over the world. Mr. Froude will begin with the Cape of Good Hope and he will end with Canada. Mr. Froude's absence from England will extend over two years. " I have no doubt," says the Loudon correspondent of the New Zealand Herald, "that you will welcome Mr. Froude to New Zealand ere many months are over."

At the animal meeting of the Caledonian Mining Company, held last week, the balance sheet showed receipts—by gold, £12,156 ; tailings, £1227 ; receipts from other sources (including £3400 balance from last year) made a total of £17,086. Expenditure : Permanent works, £1705 ; on claim, £7374 ; battery, £2239 ; Puniping Association calls, £4OOO ; honorarium, £144 ; balance at bank, £1362. The chairman said the report would show that the past year had been spent in prospecting the mine. They had taken out a fair quantity of gold, but it had been absorbed in tiie ways detailed in the report, more especially in the payment of £4OOO to the Pumping Association, through whose assistance alone they had been able to work the lower levels of the mine. He did not see why theshareholders should not see a return of their good old days. The Resident Magistrate at Wanganui haslately spoken rather severely on the character of some of the immigrants that arrive in theColony. A Woodlark immigrant of the name of Gain snmmoned Wirihana Huuia for wages due to his wife, but it appeared that the plaintiff had only been married about a week,, and therefore could not recover. The Magistrate, in dismissing the case, is reported by the Herald to have said : —A great many of the immigrants who come out to this Colony imagine that they have arrived in a land of savages. Here we see our own race disgx'aced by acts that the Natives would not commit. Half the crime during the last three months has been committed by people emigrating from the Home country. Whatever they might have done at home, they had a fresh career and fresh chance open to them here, and should make the best of it.

The Wanganui Herald is pleased to learn in the interests of acclimatisation, that the Borough Engineer (Mr. Millar) in the course of his late visit to Otago, has with his usual scientific enthusiasm, made private arrangements with Mr. Young, a gentleman wellknown as a successful, scientific, and practical pisciculturist in New Zealand, to visit Wanganui in course of the next ten days with the large contribution of 2000 fresh water trout ova, with which Mi 1 . Millar proposes stocking the most advisable tributaries running into the Wanganui river. Greenstone, the scene of the recent rush in Westland, can boa3t of a real " Claimant." A miner, now working in that locality, not only maintains that his name is Sir Roger Tichborne, Bart., but likewise attempts to substantiate the same by exliibiting the tattoo marks on his arms, and speaking very indifferent French. He appears thoroughly acquainted with the names of the Tichborne family, and is at present so demonstrative in detailing his own history and in denouncing the imposition of any other claimant than himself to the title, that it is not unlikely an examination will shortly be made, with a view of despatching him to England, or elsewhere nearer hand. The Sydney Morning Ifcrald publishes a long letter from Sir Alfred* Stephen, in which, he analyses the evidence in the Tichborne case, aud holds it to have been completely established that Castro and Orton were one person, and that person " the claimant." He adds to his letter an affidavit, sworn in Wagga Wagga, by a resident there, who swears that in conversation with Castro, who was then engaged as a butcher, the latter introduced the subject of Wapping, and said that his parents had lived iu High Street there, and 'if they were living were there still.

A North of Queensland journal, the Cooktown Courier —the nearest to the Palmer and Endeavor River Goldfields—states that the natives lately killed, cooked, and ate a miner who was at work in Gregory's Gully. They afterwards killed another at the Upper Camp. The latter was a native of New South Wales,, but as he was not in eatable condition the savages contented themselves with mutilating' the body in a frightful manner. It is bad-, enough to risk the chance of being starved on those far away fields without being used to keep aboriginal cannibals from starving. AUCKLAND. The City Council are applying for tenders for £20,000 secured on the city endowments, which are daily becoming of greater value. We perceive, says the Thames Advertiser, that the Auckland and Thames Mining Association are about to undertake the publication of a Stock and Share List—a work much wanted for reference for some time past. The Southern. Cross understands that something has been done, or is in course of being done, towards the formation of a Reform League in Auckland Province. What the basis of the proposed League may be is not exactly known. Prom a paragraph in the San Francisco Monitor, copied from the Cork Examiner, we learn that the Right Rev. Dr. Croke has accepted the Diocese of Cloyne. The Auckland Roman Catholic Clergy have, the Herald is informed, received no.advice to this effect. There is every probability of the report being correct, however.

A fire occurred on the night of the Ist inst. at Ararimu south (beyond Maketu, on the Great South Road), by which a four-roomed dwelling house and furniture, the property of a Mr. Parr, were destroyed. Mr. Parr, who was absent from home at the time the disaster occurred, is stated to be a heavy loser. He was insured for £3oo—the house for £2OO, and the furniture for £IOO.

The new premises erected on the site of those destroyed by the fire in Queen street, generally known as Henderson and Macfarlane'a fire, to distinguish it from other fires in Queen street, are now completed. They are a handsome and substantial block of buildings, comprising three: largo stores or warehouses under two roofs. The first store has been built for, and is already occupied by Messrs. Stone Brothers, whose premises were destroyed by the fire referred to. It comprises four floors, including the basement, under one roof. Each flat measures 33. feet by 80 feet. The second building will be occupied by Messrs. Cruickshank & Co., merchants, of Canada Buildings, and the third by Messrs. H. F. Anderson & Co., ship chandlers. These buildings are of about, or nearly the same size as Messrs. Stone Brothers.'

Some time ago a person named W. F. Crowe lost a sum of money arnountuig to about £SO. The loss was duly advertised, and a reward offered to the finder, but without success. A few days ago, says the Herald, a twenty-pound note, part of the missing money, was presented at one of the banks for change ; it was stopped, the numbers of the missing notes being known. This incident subsequently led to the apprehension of a woman named Campbell, and two young men, her sons, who are supposed to be implicated in the concealment of the money. After the arrest, Detective Jeffrey searched the premises of the accused, and found other parts of the missing money. Upwards of £4O has thus been recovered. The police are making inquiries for the man who has lost the money, and who is supposed from information received last night, to be-at preseiit in Ouehunga.

It is rumored (says the Thames Keening Star) that an arrangement has been come to in the political world by which Charles O'Neill, Esq., M.H.R., will resign hi 3 position as Thames member in the General Assembly, and that James Mackay, Esq., will stand for election to the seat. How far this rumor is to be relied ■upon as authentic, we are not prepared to say ; but the authority from which it is obtained is •upposed to be reliable. Rumor has also caught up the name of Mr. William Rowe in its airy passage, and proclaims that that gentleman will contest the election; this is still more likely, a 3 Mr. Rowe lias but recently expressed his intention in a definite manner of claiming the suffrages of the Thames electors for this purpose. CANTERBURY. One of the engines on the Oxford railway was capsized at the Cust on Thursday last. It had taken up a number of loaded trucks, which were unloaded and the engine was shunting them down a siding, the driver intending to get past them, the engine running down one line and the trucks down another. The driver expected to get it on to the main line in time to allow the trucks to come on behind, but on reaching the points the trucks had come down with such force as to overtake the engine, and threw the latter off the line on to its side. The trucks ran the whole length of the line to the Plough Inn, Rangiora, before they stopped. The driver and others on the engine escaped unhurt, except one man, whose arm was slightly bruised. Mr. Taylor, the contractor, was on it at the time, but got clear as it fell over.

The value of town properties in South Canterbury seems to have lately increased considerably. The Timuru Herald, of Aug. 31, says :—The rates at which freehold properties in the town have been disposed of lately show that land has increased considerably in value during the last twelve months. Quarter-acre town sections, in convenient situations, arc now realising from £SO to £OO, and two quarter-acre allotments in the old swamp, opposite the Timaru Hotel, fetched the other day £550 each. A quarter-acre section, with small wooden house thereon, in Bank Street, realised £230 recently ; a fourroomed s'Eone dwelling-house and section, on the main road near North Street, brought £450. A small section, just off the main road in Church Street, about 25ft. in width, was gold at £l2 10s. per foot frontage. At the sale of Timaru town sections of Government land the other day, the sixteen offered realised from £25 to £37 10s. each. Mr. Roberta' dwelling-house and four acres of land on the town belt were put up to auction last week by Mr. Tumbull, but did not find a purchaser. They were bought in for £1350. Properties in all the towns of South Canterbury have increased in value lately. The Government quarter-acre sections at Waimate, at the recent sale, fetched from £ls 10s. to £2l 10s. NELSON. The See/ton Courier of the Ist inst. says : We have received information that it is more than probable that the Nelson Provincial Council will be called together early in the month of October next. The chief motive for the step is as yet unexplained, but it is believed that the necessity has arisen through certain communications made by the Premier, and which it is deemed advisable to lay before the Council as early a 3 possible for consideration.

The ceremony of formally instituting the Rev. E. J. Thorpe as Archdeacon of the Wainiea was lately performed at Christ Church, Nelson. The Bishop of Nelson having in a short address explained his reasons for again appointing an Archdeacon, namely, that ho might have an officer to assist him in the work of the diocese, called upon the B,ev. .James Leighton to present the Rev. E. J. Thorpe. Standing before the altar rails, the newlymade Archdeacon read and signed the usual declarations, after which the Diocesan Registrar, Mr. Pell, read the Bishop's letters conferring the appointment. The Bishop then pronounced the benediction. The Nelson Reform League has very naturally, by their apparent desire to dictate to the public and public bodies on every possiblo subject, provoked not very favorable comment. One correspondent of the Mail very correctly says :—" I think it most undesirable that any Belf-constituted association, no matter how meritorious may be it 3 intentions, should be allowed to dictate to the public who are to be their representatives, be it in the Parliament of the Colony, the Provincial, or the City Council, yet this is what the step recently taken by the League virtually amounts to. The League, a, society which i 3 not a representative one, numbers, I am informed, from 150 to 200 members, and, if this be the case, they can, by banding themselves together, decide the fate of any election, so that in the course of time—if it should continue to hold together—our representative bodies will actually be composed of mere delegates from the Radical Reform .League. I can scarcely think that the existence of such a state of things would meet with public approval."