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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4238, 20 October 1874, Page 2

We understand that over 36,000 shares have been applied for in the new issue of - the New Zealand Insurance Company. This only leaves 14,000 for allotment, out of which the applications from Australia, not received yet, will have to be supplied. Very few shares have been applied for in Wellington. This is rather remarkable, as there can be little doubt that the shares, which can be bought, for £4 10s., will ultimately become worth £lO, and dividends be paid on that sum. For some years the fortunate holders of: shares which cost from £3 to £2O, have been receiving dividends on their shares valued at £4O, and latterly they have been saleable in the market at from £BO to £9O. The Board of Education held a meeting at the usual hour yesterday forenoon, and after a short sitting adjourned till four o’clock, p.m. Unfortunately, information of the meetings being held uot rrjnrh us in time, to enable a

By the s.s. Otago, yesterday, Mrs. Vogel and family sailed for Melbourne, where they will join Mr. Vogel, for the Voyage to England. Miss Vogel accompanied Mrs. Vogel. Dr. Pollen, Sir Donald McLean, the Hon. Mr. Richardson, and other friends of the Premier, and many lady friends, attended to wish good voyage to Mrs. Vogel.

It is intimated in the Provincial Gazelle that Hia Honor the Superintendent of Wellington has appointed William Acheson to be lighthouse keeper at Somes Island, and George Long to be assistant keeper at the same place. These appointments are under date 29th September.

The progress of Mr. Foster (chemist) towards convalescence has not, we regret to say, been such during the last few days as his friends could wish. On Saturday and Sunday the unfortunate sufferer was in a very precarious state, but we are glad to say that yesterday afternoon the symptoms became more favorable, and last night he was somewhat better.

Mr. McAllister and Mr. Thorn were the members of the Queensland Government who visited Sydney for the purpose of consulting with Messrs. Parkes and Vogel on the Torres Strait mail service, and the submarine cable between Now South Wales and New Zealand.

We regret to learn that Mr. James Duigan, brewer, of Wanganui, has thought it necessary to commence an action for libel against the publisher of the Wanganui Evening Herald. The alleged libellous matter was contained in a letter published by that journal We mentioned yesterday that a member of one of the Launceston firms who have lately found themselves unable to meet their creditors, had left Tasmania surreptitiously, by the barque Natal Queen, for Lyttelton. We find the following on the subject in a late number of the Melbourne Argus ; The police have received the following telegram from the Launceston police :—“ William Wilson White, of Launceston, auctioneer, charged by Mr. Moton .Moss with misdemeanor, has absconded. Warrant issued for his arrest. He may escape in a coasting vessel, Rubicon, to leave Mersey for Melbourne. Inquire for, and, if found, keep him under surveillance. James Coultek, superintendent of police.” Mr. H. Clapcott, travelling sub-commis-sioner for the Government Insurance, intimates by advertisement that he will give a short explanatory lecture on that subject at the Odd Fellows' Hall on Wednesday evening, when the Hon. John Johnston, M.L.C., will preside. Apart from the fact that there have been many and very important alterations made with regard to the working of the scheme, such as making all insurers participators in the profits of the department, there remains the fact that the importance of the subject is one of such magnitude to the whole of society that all who have not insured should at least attend Mr. Clapcott's lecture and hear the matter explained. We notice that at the close of the lecture Mr. Clapcott will give selections from his popular readings. We can safely predict, from the way in which these have been received in other places, that Wednesday evening will bo’ not only interesting but enjoyable. Perhaps with the hope of gaining their support to Ids arguments in favor of insurance, wo observe Mr. Clapcott gives a special invitation to the ladies, and we hope to see many respond, and feel sure they will have, when the evening closes, no cause to regret having attended.

The following appears in the Ncu> Zealand Heralds San Francisco correspondent’s letter : —“A man named Kelly, a seaman, employed on board the schooner Alice Merrick, arrived from a port in the Bay of Islands for this city, has been arrested for killing a seaman named Brown bn the 15th of August. The vessel arrived at Vineyard Haven. Brown was buried at sea. He was a native of Prince Edward's Island."

A soiree was given by the Volunteer Artillery Band last night, in the Odd Bellows’ Hall_ A alight shook of earthquake, we learn, was experienced at Queenstown, in the South Island, on Sunday last, at twenty minutes past three o’clock.

We observe that Mr. John Smith has sailed ‘with the Combination Troupe . for Manilla, from Port Chalmers, in the ship Bunker’s Hill.

The annual meeting of the Wellington Caledonian Society, we observe, will be held at the New Zealander Hotel ou Tuesday evening next, the 27th instant, at eight o’clock. The proceedings relative to the Strathnaver salvage case in the Vice Admiralty Court seem only to become more confused and perplexing, to any but those immediately engaged, each time an attempt is made to commence business, and the probability of the proceedings terminating with the despatch and avoidance of delay which the legal gentlemen were at first so anxious to ensure seems to be gradually growing “small by degrees and beautifully less.” It was arranged last week that a sitting should be held on Monday (yesterday) to prepare for the taking of evidence on the succeeding Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so that as much as possible of the case might be gone into before His Honor Mr. Justice Johnston left town. When the Court sat yesterday morning it transpired that Mr. Allan, counsel for the salvors, did not wish the case to be actually commenced unless there was a certainty of the whole of the evidence on both sides being taken without an adjournment of the Court further than from day to day. His Honor appeared to be much annoyed, particularly as Mr. Travers, counsel for J the consignees, stated that they were quite prepared to proceed with the case as 1 far as possible. The Deputy Judge remarked that he thought the course now pursued on behalf of the salvors was trifling with the Court, because he had in every possible manner studied the convenience of the parties to the suit, and in order to secure the three days arranged for had postponed his departure for Wanganui until the latest possible date. Mr. Allan, he said, evidently entertained some totally groundless fear that the taking of evidence for the salvors and then having an adjournment of the case for some time, would give the defendants an advantage. He did not see how it possibly could do so, and as he had done all that he could for the convenience of the parties, accommodation which was not taken advantage of, he could now only adjourn the Court without further arrangement until its ordinary date of meeting. His Honor sketched out a programme showing that his time would be so fully occupied until the beginning of next year that it would be impossible to have a protracted hearing until after that time. Mr. Allan explained that his course was not adopted with the object of inconveniencing the Court in the slightest degree; but that he must act for what he considered the best interests of his clients. The Court then adjourned. At the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday, three drunkards were fined, and a man named John Jones sentenced to one months’ imprisonment with hard labor for stealing a jar of fat, a jar of jam, and one linen apron, the goods of Nathaniel Valentine, of the Hutt. The remanding of an assault case completed the criminal list. On the civil side no verdict was given, though twenty-one cases had been set down for hearing, all of them being either postponed or settled without the assistance of the magistrate. It is curious how naturally the sons of Erin, who are popularly suppossed to be so fond of breaking the peace when they are at home, take to preserving the peace when they go abroad. In England a very large proportion of the police are natives of Ireland ; in Victoria the force was at one time supposed to be little more than an institution for the benefit of the countrymen of Sir John O'Shanassy ; in New Zealand the number of Irishmen in the force is considerable ; but in San Francisco they would appear to have it almost entirely their own way. In that city there are four captains and ft hundred and fifty men. Of these not fewer than fifty are Irishmen born ; seventynine are natives of the United States, but mostly of Irish parentage ; twelve are Germans; and six are English. There are two Austrians, two Swedes, one blue-nose, two Canadians, one Australian —but not a Owismau ! An Industrial Exhibition is to be held at Philadelphia in 1876. The subject has attracted some attention in Victoria, and a commission has been appointed by His Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council—His Honor Sir Redmond Barry, chairman, and Mr. George Collins Levey, secretary —for the purpose of making a preliminary inquiry, with a view of ascertaining whether united action should be taken by all the Australian colonies to secure their proper representation at the exhibition. A taste for typography, after the American model, appears to have been developed in Sydney. The San Francisco journals state that large orders from New South Wales have reached the type-founders of that city. AUCKLAND. Some very fine mackerel have been caught and exhibited in Auckland, where they hare excited great interest as a new and valuable find, and as likely to add materially to the resources of the fishermen on the coast. The Southern. Cross says:—We are informed that the Minister of Public Works has declined to open the line of railway to Mercer for public traffic, and we are further told that the contractors have declined any longer to afford Drury residents the opportunity, for some time back allowed, of travelling in the trucks. Probably this action of the contractors is intended to have the effect of increasing the pressure which persons interested in the opening of the line may desire to put on the Government through representatives, and to increase the public feeling in that direction. If such be the case it is to be regretted that the contractors have followed such a course. Anxious as we are to see the line opened it is only right and just that there should be no loophole left by means of which contractors might be able to slip beyohd the four walls of their contract, or to make the fact of the line being opened, even if to be worked by themselves with consent of the Government, an argument from which to draw a conclusion that the line was fit for public traffic, since the Government would be thus allowing the public to travel over it ou payment of fares. Mr. Richardson telegraphs to the effect that the engineer reports the line to be in “in bad order, and unfit for traffic at present.” He also says that the contractors “have been working up the agitation for some weeks, hoping to repeat what took place ou the Onehunga line.” The Poverty Bay Standard says that a laboring man named James Osborne, who arrived recently from Auckland, came to an untimely end on Saturday last, while crossing the Waipaoa river at the Rangatira block, on his way to the oil springs, in company with his mates, all of whom were under engagement to the Petroleum Company. Three constables have been employed searching for the body, but without success. All that is known of the cause of the accident has been furnished by Mr. Williams, engineer to the Petroleum Company, who states that he was proceeding to the oil springs on the 19th instant, with some workmen, deceased among the number. On reaching the Rangatira crossing Osborne’s horse stumbled, and unseated his rider, who suddenly disappeared, and was not again seen by any of the party. The river was much swollen and discolored at the time. MARLBOROUGH. In consequence of the inability of Mr. Bowden to continue the periodical inspection of the Marlborough Public Schools, says the Express, the Provincial Government has appointed Mr. Lee, who acts in a similar capacity to Wellington province, the Inspector of Schools for Marlborough. His first visit will be about the latter end of November. Mr. Lee bears a very high reputation for efficiency. A petition is about to be presented to the Superintendent, praying for the erection of a bridge, independently of the railway bridge, over the river Wairau.

The whole of the inhabitants of the FailIsle, one of the Orkney and Shetland group, are on their way out as immigrants for this province. The annual meeting of the Marlborough Club was held a few days ago. Seventeen members were present out of a roll of fifty. The report read showed that the institution was in a flourishing state. The Superintendent was re-elected President, and Mr. W. F. Hall, treasurer. OTAGO. Magpies are increasing in. the district of Clutha. A monthly mail service has been established between Dunedin and Martin’s Bay, by way of Queenstown. . A man has been drowned in the Waiwera river whilst watering horses. He was only known as “ Billy.” The total amount received to date by the trustees of the fund raised for the benefit of the widow and children of the late Captain Hart is £1602 2s. A drunkard, who was found by the police in a gutter in Dunedin the other night, had in his possession £37 ss. 6d., a handsome silverwatch and chain, and other valuables. A survey party (says the Tuapeka Times) have arrived from the Provincial Engineer’s. Office, Dunedin, to lay off the railway line from Lawrence to the Beaumont. They will no doubt complete the survey as far as Roxburgh before returning to town. 1 The Otago Education Board has decided upon omitting from the list of subjects of examination for candidates for provincial scholarships, “ English History” and “ Reproduction from Memory.” We hear, says the Times, that an action for libel will shortly come before the Supreme Court, in which a member of the Provincial Government will be the plaintiff, and a member of the Provincial Council the defendant. Scientists, remarks the Guardian, have laid it down as a rule that in this province there can bo no regular gold-bearing quartz lodes. The latest answer to their theory is supplied by the last fortnight’s returns from the Cromwell Company’s claim at Bendigo : 2300ozsfor six weeks’ work, and a prospect of a speedy yield of 15,0000z5. more, is a remarkably practical answer, and may be said to have effectually demolished the theory, if previous answers of a similar character had left any life in its miserable body. The miner does not care for science ; he never consults the learned in his search for gold, but depends entirely on a species of instinct he has acquired in the course of a long and varied experience. The Otago Guardian says : —According t» a statement of the transactions of the province of Otago for the quarter ending 30th ult., the receipts during that period amounted t0£189,033 £189,033 17s. 2d., while the expenditure for the same period was £139,466 Is. lid. One of the most noticeable features on the revenue side of the account is the large number of Crown land sales that have taken place, particularly in Southland, during the quarter. On account of the land sold in Southland, the sum of £101,251155. 7d. was realised, and for that disposed of in Otago £43,865 14s. Id. was obtained, making a total- of £145,117 9a. Bd. received for land sold in both parts of the province. The railway receipts also for this, the dullest quarter of the year, are encouraging : the total amount received on behalf of the Dunedin and Port Chalmers, Southland, Mataura, and Caversham and Green Island lines being £11,193 9s. 10d., or an average for the year of £45,000. A large sum of money,, also, £91,988 6s. was expended during the quarter in connection with roads and works and railways.

We sincerely regret to learn, remarks the Lake Wakatip Mail of the 6th, that Mr. B. Hallenstem, one of our members for the Bakes, broke his leg this morning—the result of a capsize from his buggy while going home from his farm to Arrowtown. When proceeding up the new cutting on Paterson’s hill, in company with Mrs. Arndt, the horse shied and pulled the buggy over : the sideling. Fortunately, Mrs. Arndt who suffered little, except a shock and slight bruising, was able at once to give the alarm, and Mr. Hallenstein was taken to the residence of Mr. W. Paterson, awaiting the arrival of Dr. Douglas, who was immediately sent for. —Another member has also suffered a serious mishap. The Lawrence correspondent of the Mail says :—Mr. G. F. 0. Browne, M.P.O. for Waitahuna, met with a very serious accident a week ago; the wheel of his dray passing over him, and causing severe injuries. Dr. Halley from here was soon in attendance, and did all he could to alleviate the pain of the sufferer; but it is feared that he will have a hard time, and doubtful whether he will get over it. The Council of the Acclimatisation Society held a meeting on the Bth instant. It was decided that the Provincial Government should be requested to declare the ensuing months of December, January, and February an open season for brown trout fishing ; also that a fee of £1 be charged to any person desirous of taking out a fishing-license. The meeting appointed a, sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. Mason, Murison, Hepburn, Fulton, and Begg, to arrange for the distribution of the young trout throughout the province. It was further resolved that the Provincial Government be requested to issue a proclamation, in terms of the provisions of the Salmon and Trout Act, 1867, prohibiting netting near the mouths of streams on the Northern seaboard, from Otago Harbor to the Waitaki, during the months of May to October inclusive. Avery fine sample of Angora wool, from a goat the property of Mr. James Wheatley, Kakauui, was produced. It was stated that the wool, which was of ten months’ growth, realised ss. 6d. per lb. in Melbourne. It was reported by Mr. Fulton that he had seen little chaffinches, linnets, and goldfinches in his garden at Caversham. At the time of its occurrence, we related the narrow escape from death in a snow storm, made by Mr. Robert Glen, of the Junction Hotel, Upper Taieri. On the evening of the 3rd ult., Mr. Glen went out on horseback in search of his cows. Having been unsuccessful in finding them during the forenoon he returned home, and started afresh after them on foot about noon, thinking they would be much nearer home than expected. Shortly thereafter he was overtaken in a snow storm; but knowing, as he thought, every inch of the country, his self-confidence nearly lost him his life, as he continued his journey until reaching a piece of ground which seemed strange to him. He then thought in vain of reaching home, every fresh effort made to secure this purpose leading him the further astray. Thursday night was thus fruitlessly spent; Friday, also, had well nigh gone, and he had given up hopes of rescue. As he was about to succumb to his fate, after his long and hard struggle, with death staring him in the face, a shepherd’s hut unexpectedly met his view (the only one in that part of the country), which he managed to reach, and where he met with a most kindly welcome. They adopted every means in their power to overcome the severe chill that had all but overpowered him ; put him to bed, and by hot water baths and heated bottles applied to his body, nursed him to so good advantage that the following (Saturday) afternoon they were enabled to convey him to his home, where he was delivered at six o’clock, and welcomed after an absence of over two days, by his wife and child, who had despaired of his return, the neighboring runholders and all hands having scoured the country in his search without avail. No doubt Mr. Glen owes his life to his being able to continue travelling on foot to the last until the shepherd’s hut was reached, as, had he once rested and allowed sleep to overcome him, death was unavoidably certain. Mr. Glen, who is nearly sixty years of age, is of opinion that he must have walked fifty or sixty miles at least, he is unable still to say where, but thinks he must have got in among the Lammerlaw Ranges some twenty miles from his own home. —Bruce Herald. Convulsions in Teething.—None but anxious Mothers know the worry of ‘‘Teething Time," and the nursery has no more innocent help than Mrs. Johnson's far-famed American Soothing Syrup, which, applied to the Infant's Gums, relieves the pain and prevents convulsions. None genuine without the name of “Barclay and Sons, Farringdon Street,” on the stamp. Sold by all Chemists, at 2s. Bd. bottle.—Advt.