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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4213, 21 September 1874, Page 2

We feel compelled to revert to-a somewhat personal matter, and do so with reluctance. A charge waif made a day Or two ago against the. Times , through the JVcio Zealand Herald , that on tho occasion of the late dinner to His Excellency the Governor, this journal, uninvited to the banquet,. accepted a permission given to reporters to attend in the gallery and report the proceedings. To that allegation, and to others in the paragraph, we made answer that they were altogether incorrect; The Eeminy Post of Saturday supports the Herald ,' accuses us of “ deliberate falsehood,” and gives a version of what passed on the day previous to the dinner which is partly true, but not all the truth, and which does not in the least touch the accuracy of our statements. We do not care to follow the example. It is sufficient for us to repeat—and ■it is easy to prove the accuracy of our statement, if that : wore heeded—-that to the New Zealand Times- there was sent by the Committee an invitation to join the inner guests on the occasion. The Tribune was, we believe, similarly invited ; the Eveniwj Post was; not. Why tho usual courtesy was not extended to that journal is no concern of ours. It is an indignity which is too exceptional to be without significance, and may suggest the reasons for the rarity and brevity of any reference to our contemporary in these columns. A fortnight ago it was reported that a man named Archibald Sinclair, a quarter-master, on board the ship Euterpe had been missing for two,days, or since the sth inst. ; and it was feared that he ' had by some accident fallen into the harbor at night. These fears proved only too correct, as yesterday about one o'clock, his body was found on the beach near the baths. Information waj) given to tho police, who removed tho body to the Morgue, where an inquest will be held at two p.m. to-day. A Maori named Tohua was sentenced at the Resident Magistrate's Court, Wanganui, on Saturday to eighteen months’ imprisonment with hard labor for. stealing from the person. Tenders are invited for the construction of section six of tho Waimea Water-race, which includes piping, and is about two miles fiftyseven chains long. ; - At tho re-opening of tho Church of St. Benedict, Cambridge, lately, the Bishop of Ely made a speech in the course of which he stated that 3520 now churches had been built in England within the last thirty years. Nearly all the old pariah churches bad: been restored,, and about fifty Colonial bishoprics had been founded. He spoke of tho revival of tho Church dining that period as forming a most important epoch' in its history.

The public will have' an opportunity this evening of renewing their acquaintance with •Miss May and the English Opera Troupe, by whom they were so much delighted a short time ago. Since their visit to Wellington the company have completed highly successful engagements at Auckland and Napier, and they •now contemplate a short farewell season, in the course of which they will perform a selection of operas, and produce both “ Martha” and “Faust.” The company arrived yesterday by the Rangatira, and will appear at the Theatre Royal this evening in “Satanella,” which proved so great a success on their late visit. The impression they then loft was so favorable that they will undoubtedly be well received. ■“ Satanella” is, one of Miss May’s finest impersonations. The prices have been made more popular, and the speculation now is entirely Mr. Allen’s own. We understand that an Entr’ Acte will be published each evening and circulated extensively in the theatre. Itvvill be brought put under the care of Mr. Raphael, and is intended to lighten the intervals by providing pleasant reading for the patrons of the opera while the curtain is down. The only case of interest at the Resident Magistrate’s Court on Saturday was an interpleader by Mr. R. J. Duncan, to restrain Messrs. Plimmer, Reeves, and Co. from selling by the bailiff certain goods and chattels of a person against whom they had obtained judgment for money due, oVer which goods Mr. Duncan held a bill’of sale. -Mr. Brandon appeared for Mr. Duncan; and ML OUivier for Messrs. Plimmer, Reeves, and Co.; and the case was argued at considerable length on both sides. The third party in the affair, who had executed the bill of sale, underwent a long and close examination at the hands of Mr. OUivier. It appears that he. had been doing business with Mr. Duncan for some time past, and for the purchase of goods had given acceptances, which, when not retired at maturity, were either renewed or taken up by money advanced by the drawer, andj)thers given,, until a considerable debt was incurred, which, upon amounting to something over £IOO, was secured by the bill of sale referred to over the goods. Messrs. Plimmer, Reeves, and 00., subsequently proceeded to levy on the goods' through the bailiff. The interpleader was then lodged by the holder of the bill of sale. It was argued by Mr. OUivier that the amount owing to Mr. Duncan was secured by current bills of exchange, and that the bill of sale was thus rendered void, and therefore his clients had the prior right of levying. He quoted numerous authorities on the point. Mr. Brandon, on the other hand, argued that if the case had been for a trustee in insolvency under similar circumstances the bill of sale might probably have been set aside; but.when on behalf of another creditor the bill held good. His Worship stopped Mr. Brandon at this stage, saying that the proceedings and arguments involved were out of the jurisdiction of his Court. He should order the bailiff to withdraw. Costs were allowed. A very neat and useful little card, after the fashion of that containing a timetable for the San Francisco, Suez) and Torres Strait mails, has been issued from the Government Printing Office, containing the times of arrival and departure of „ trains on the Wellington and Hutt Railway. It has, as' had the previously issued one,,on the reverse side an almanac for the current year. Like its predecessor, it may be carried in a gentleman’s ordinary card case. - The following tenders were received by the Commissioner of Public Works for the Port Chalmers contract —Dunedin and Moeraki Railway : Accepted.: William Straohan, Wellington, £47,968. Declined: Hawkins and Co., Dunedin, informal; W. P. Pearce, Dunedin, £51,000 ; ~D. Proudfoot, Dunedin, £53,000 ; J. and N. Campbell, Dunedin, £54,353 ; Brogden and Sous, Wellington, £65,036 ; Matheson Bros., Dunedin, £56,825 ; Mackenzie Bros., Dunedin, £66,415 ; Hunter and Allen, Tokomairiro, £73,549 ; Bauohop and Ritchie, Dunedin, £84,699. A meeting of the committee of the Wellington Florioultural ’Society was held on Friday evening, in the Maori House, at the Museum. " It was then decided that the date for receiving entries for Mr. Fergusson’s special prize, for the best laid-out and kept garden, should be postponed. We understand that it is probable the date for receiving entries for Mr. Lang’s special prize, will .also be postponed. The next Shpw of the Society will be held in the third week of November. The want of a cafd, after the continental order, has been felt for a longtime in this City, and has now been supplied. Mr. Donecker has fitted up the large lower room of the Union Hotel for the purpose, and with the help of an experienced artist (Mr. Massey) has made it very snug and attractive. The room has been screened off into four compartments, each of which is comparatively private, but large enough to permit a number of friends to assemble. The paintings on the screens are chiefly from scenes on the Rhine, but the Wellingtonian will recognise with pleasure a view of Evans’ Bay, done in Mr. Massey’s best manner. Books, newspapers, &0., are provided, and games of chess, draughts, &c., are possible of an evening. At the last meeting of the Otago Institute, Captain Hutton, in reply to Mr. Ross, who asked what steps had been taken by the Institute for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus across the sun’s disc, in December, said that the Provincial Government had agreed to let the Chief Surveyor go down to meet the American party at the Bluff, on their arrival there. The General Government had been asked to reinstate the Observatory at Caversham, so that while the English party was at Lyttelton, and the American party at the Bluff, the longitude of Cavei-sham might be checked and ascertained. The Wellington correspondent of the Otago Guardian makes the following reference to the publication of fabricated telegrams in the Thames Advertiser —“ With regard to the Ward-Chapman Committee, we now very seldom hear it alluded to; but I regret to see that there has been another very disreputable scandal relative to telegrams as exposed by Mr. James Mackay's letter to the Evening Star at - the Thames, and which you have of course got in full detail by this time. It has had a most damaging effect on the minds of the public as to the reliability of telegrams as published in the papers, as, although it is not likely that any respectable paper would knowingly lend its aid to any such nefarious attempt at extortion as that indicated in Mr. Wilson’s letter to Mr. Vogel, still the fact that the fabricated telegram was published remains, and the public do not hesitate to draw conclusions more or less wisely. We often hear a good deal of the censorship of the Press, as indirectly exercised by the operation of the present ‘ law of libel; ’ but when a newspaper pledges its guarantee for the ‘ substantial correctness of what now turns out to be an undoubted fabrication, and one, too, tending to bring the Government of the day not only into contempt, but also into possible collision with, an excitable body of men like the Thames miners, the evil results of whifch to the Colony generally it might be difficult to estimate, surely no one, not even the most ardent lover of liberty, could think that Government overstepped the bounds were they to prosecute such conduct to the uttermost,” Tho following story of clerical innocence and horse-dealing smartness is told; by a correspondent of the Bruce Herald'. —“I do not think tjie simple-minded gentleman, who did what I am about to tell of, was the first who had done such a thing, but I cannot help that. He is a good country clergyman, and his parish is between the Waitaki and Martin’s Bay, so that I expect everyone will know, him pretty well He was recently the proprietor of a horse, about which, as an article of .exchange or barter, he was as innocent as the Vicar of Wakefield. Latterly, he got dissatisfied with the appeai-auce of his horse, as being too shaggy and heavy, so he sold it, r and waited to ■ buy another. And he presently came upon quite an airy-looking steed, with such short hair that its skin looked -like cotton velvet, and he bought it.. And now he has found out that he is possessed again of his former.horse, with its hair clipped; and the clipping has cost him,- indirectly, a matter of £7 10.”

Ten hares were seen at one time a few days ago on Hagley Part Cricket Ground, in Canterbury. A train is now run by the Pennsylvania Railway Company, from New York to Pittsburg, a distance of 444 miles, in eleven hours. Only three stops are made on the journey, the longest run being 132 miles. The locomotive •dips up water from side troughs at the different stations along the road' without stoppage. ' We learn (says the Waikato Times) that the p.s. Luna will shortly tow a hulk of about 600 tons into the Waikato Heads,, to be used as a depot for railway and bridge material, large quantities of which will be brought to their destined place by river. Ninety railway companies in the United States have suspended payment of interest on their bonds, and the total amount of -bonds, thus dishonored- amounts to nearly three hundred and fifty millions of dollars. Is.- it any wonder, asks the New' York Herald , that American credit abroad ,ia no better than that of Turkey or Brazil ? There is an old saying, remarks an Auckland contemporary, that a man born to be hung never gets drowned. It sometimes happens -that a man who escapes hanging runs the risk of meeting his fate by the other process. This was exemplified on Saturday, oh the arrival of the Eowena with the murderer Te Wake on board. On the steamer coming alongside the wharf, Te Wake, in attempting to land, fell overboard. He was not, however, drowned, for assistance, timely rendered, saved him from a watery grave on this occasion., “ The merchants of Germany and Belgium,”, ■writes the Southern Cross , “are endeavouring to induce the squatters of Victoria to ship their wool direct to Antwerp and Hamburgh, instead of pouring every bale into London. They state that hot only would more money be obtained in the Continental ports, but that the expenses would be considerably less. There is no mistake about the charges. Air account sales for 100 bales of greasy wool realising 13d. a pound showed that, the charges in Antwerp were £33 15s. Id. less than would have been the case for a similar parcel in London. The British merchant must come down in his charges if he wishes to retain his trade.” The extent to which Wellington is dependent upon Dunedin brass-founders is illustrated by the following particulars, which appear in a paragraph in the Otago . Daily Times'. — Messrs. A. and T. Burt are at present turning out a large quantity of plant of various descriptions for different parts of the Colony. Tor the Wellington Water Works they are malting a double hydrant and' single hydrant, for fire and street-watering purposes. One of them has the universal joint similar to that in the Dunedin hydrant, and has also what is called the half-turn, by which the labor of screwing the water on and off, and, what is - valuable at a fire, time, are saved. This hydrant is similar to those used in the Glasgow Tire Brigade. A set of brewers’ corking machines and bottling syphons has been finished for Messrs Keast and M‘Carthy, and another is being made for Mr. Dodson of Blenheim. Bor the latter they are also making a double action force-pump, similar to those in use at the Distillery and Messrs. Marshall and Copeland’s. They are manufacturing a quantity of brewers’ plant foi-MessrS. Pascoe and Co., and Messrs. Shepherd Bros.', of Wellington. Brass ferrules, which are used for connecting service-’ pipes to water-mains, and which were formerly imported, are now made at the factory, and a large order for Wellington is being, executed. A water-engine is being made for Mr. Willeston, tobacconist, Wellington; and another for Messrs. J. and H. Barber, butchers, of the same place. The New York Herald, on the authority'of its Paris correspondent, says that the story of the diamond robbery in St. Petersburg “ was invented to furnish an excuse- for putting an end to an undesirable marriage contemplated by the Grand Duke. It was perhaps only natural that the Imperial family of Russia should object to the introduction ( among them of an adventuress whose record was not so white as snow.” “ If the infatuation of the Prince should continue in his exile,”, adds the Herald, “ it is' possible that he may find means of escape -and rejoin his inamorata in gay Paris. It would, certainly, be curious to see an Imperial prince imitating the Grand Mxmarque and delivering Ws name into the keeping of a lady whom strait-laced people would not care much to receive into their homes.” A very important question, affecting medical practitioners and Boards of Health, will shortly be under the consideration of the Colonial Government. Consequent upon a number of deaths having occurred in Invercargill from diphtheria, the Town Council caused letters to be sent ’ to members of the medical profession, asking them' to comply with the 17th section of the Public Health Act, by informing the Council of any cases of diphtheria or other contagious diseases. One medical practitioner —Dr. McClure —declined to comply with the request, on the-ground that when admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, he was, as a condition precedent to such admission, called upon to make, inter alia, and did make, a declaration which for ever prohibited the possibility of him obeying in anywise the specific directions of the 17th section. The Corporation Solicitor, expressed the ‘ opinion that Dr. McClure was bound to comply with the requirements of the section, but subsequently the latter intimated that he considered himself bound by the declaration he made prior to becoming a member of the Royal College of'Surgeons. In consequence, the correspondence 'which passed between the parties was forwarded to His Honor the Superintendent, as Chairman of the Central Board of Health for Otago. It was considered at a meeting' of the Board, and the whole matter, says the Guardian, now stands referred to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary. ■ Mr. W. C. Yuillo. (says the Australasian) reports having sold, privately to Mr. Coombe, of New Zealand, the racehorse Right Bower, by the Peer out of Midge, by Kelpie—formerly the property of Sir. Abbott. This horse has grown into a fine animal, and mil doubtless prove a most useful racer to his new owner. Also, by auction to the same gentleman, the game son of Peter Wilkins— Plying Dutchman—so well known for 'his grand struggle with Saladin in the Australian Cup two years ago. He' served last season at the stud, and is now as sound as a bell, and we understand it is Mr. Coombe’s intention to-run him in New Zealand. Mr. William Hay, of Dunedin, has written to the press to complain of being compelled by the Customs Department to pay duty on a bale of colored double-demy printing paper. He first complained by telegram to the Commissioner that the dctbntion was “unjustifiably vexatious.” Mr. Reynolds replied :—“You had better pay duty under protest, 1 and forward your complaint through Collector of Customs, Dunedin, when the case -will be taken into consideration.” Mr. Hay’s reply was :—“ I decline paying duty. Printing paper free. Detention arbitrary, and tyrannical exercise of power.”- Mr. Reynolds repeated“ You must make your complaint in writing through Collector of Customs. I cannot adjudge of merits of the case otherwise, and cannot interfere without full particulars.” And then Mr. Hay went into print. Circumstantial evidence is not always to be relied upon, it would appear. A late instance in which an innocent person was wrongfully accused and made a narrow escape is noticed by a New York contemporary, which says : “The last Jersey City murder, as it has,been called, makes a romantic story.' The body of a man, named James McCann, was found on the road with two bullet holes in the head. The police arrested one Prank Wagner on suspicion of being the murderer. The circumstantial evidence against him was strong. He had been on the road at the time the pistol shots were heard. He bore a bad character. He betrayed signs of fear when arrested. He denied having been out, which was proved at once to be an untruth. He had that night exhibited a pistol at a saloon close by the spot where McCann’s body was found. Finally, the bullet taken from McCann’s head fitted the chambers of the revolver discovered in Wagner’s room. What stronger case could-be made out against a prisoner ? But suddenly a

man comes forward, a harmless and innocent fish dealer, Thomas Brooks by name, who tells how McCann met his death. Brooks was driving into New York for a load of fish, when McCann sprang into his waggon and attacked him. Brooks fired at him twice and passed on, ignorant that he had hit him, and thinking he had jumped from the waggon. The mystery is solved ; but if Brooks had not told the truth, would Wagner have escaped hanging !” NELSON. The Nelson Radical Reformers are—rather late in the day-—about to seriously discuss the question of the abolition of Provinces. Messrs, John Muuro, Michael* Organ, and John Corr have been elected to the Westport Borough Council. At the Lyell Police Court, recently, Elijah Green was charged by Constable Hunter with having allowed gambling to be carried on in his licensed house. After hearing evidence, His Worship pointed out that the throwing of dice, even for drinks, was illegal, but as it was such a universal practice he would merely caution the defendant to keep a more orderly house in future. . The Westport Times states that “the subcommittee appointed from the Kynnersley Memorial Committee received by the last mail a series of designs of granite monuments from Aberdeen, some of which are very appropriate for the purpose intended, and at a price within the means' of the committee. A meeting will be,, shortly held'to decide on the choice to be made and other incidental matters.” • : OTAGO. The Ocean Beach at Dunedin cannot be a very .safe place for equestrianism, if the following statement be correct :—On Saturday afternoon Mr, John Jolly, ' jun., of George Street, proceeded to the Ocean Beach by the St. Kilda Road. He states that when walking on the beach, in a direct line with the St. Hilda Road, the quicksand, which was very dry and apparently firm, gave way, and he suddenly sank to his waist, and only succeeded, in extricating himself after considerable difficulty. A prospectus has been issued of a new publication to be called the Dunedin Diocesan Journal. It is to be similar in size to the New Zealand Church News. The Corporation of-Oamaru announce that they will receive tenders, up to 11th November next, for all or any portion of an issue of £25,000 Corporation bonds, bearing interest at 6 per cent., and redeemable in 1904. The Dunstan Times states that an analysis by Professor Black of a variety of brandies resulted in sulphuric acid, in a greater or lesser degree, being detected in each. The Otago Guardian learns that the appointment of Assistant Analyst has been offered to and accepted by Mr. Saul. Solomon, a student at the University. This gentleman, at the last New Zealand University Scholarship examinations, took honors in the chemistry classes. Mr. Solomon is one of Dr. Black’s most promising pupils. WESTLAND,. Messrs. Sevan, Tabart, and Jack have been elected members of the Hokitika Borough Council. ■ . In Greymouth the voting was as follows For the Middle Ward—McMillan, 148 ; Joyce, 75. West Ward—Eissenhardt, 77 ; Wickes, 48. In the Supreme Court, Hokitika, one juror, Mr., G. White, who was absent when called, was . summoned to show cause why he should not be fined the full penalty. It appeared that the delinquent had stated to the constable who served him with ’ the summons, that he was a baker and it would not pay him to attend, on which the Judge remarked, that he would find it would not pay him not to attend. On G. White subsequently attending, he said it was a moral impossibility, that he should have attended, as he was without help in his business. He had tried Ms best to be there to make an apology, and his business was now at a standstill during Ms absence.- The Judge said heqmte appreciated the inconvemenoe to jurymen. He was very unwilling to fine, but he could not tolerate the attempt to. escape the duties of a citizen. Was a man living close at: hand to escape, when jurors were here frdhi. Ross and Waimea ? In consideration of what Mr. White had stated, he would be fined only ten shillings, to he paid forthwith;