TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4245, 28 October 1874, Page 3

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

[Press Telegraph Agency.] Auckland, Tuesday. The schooner Pearl, from Fiji, has arrived. She brings a special despatch announcing that the cession of the islands is effected. The British flag is to be hoisted on the 10th October. The cession took place on the 30th September, at Nasora, situated two miles from Levuka. Maafu, who stands next the King, has not yet decided as to what course he will adopt; but it is believed he will offer little or no opposition. Sir Hercules Kobinson, after the ceremony of cession has taken place, has requested that the Government of the islands may be carried on until his return from the Windward Islands, where Maafu resides, in the same manner as previously. Great fears are entertained for the safety of the fore-and-aft schooner Ivanhoe, which left Auckland on the 26th of August for Levuka. There have been no tidings of her since. She is owned by Cruickshank and Co., and is insured for £IOOO, but is valued at £ISOO. Charles Dyer, for the murder of Elizabeth Battersea, will be executed on Friday morning. Joseph May has been returned as a member of the Provincial Council. Grahamstown, Tuesday. A miner named William Sterk was severely injured by a fall of earth in the Queen of Beauty mine this afternoon. That company (the Queen of Beauty) are expected to pay £2OO per share for the last fortnight. A meeting will be held this evening to organise races to be held during the Christmas holidays. The Mayor will preside. Wanganui, Tuesday. A boy was accidentally shot through the hand and the side yesterday. Two fingers were amputated. Christchurch, Tuesday. At a meeting in the Superintendent’s office, yesterday, an influential committee was appointed to collect subscriptions and frame regulations for the establishment of a female refuge on a more extended and permanent basis than the present one. Nelson, Tuesday. Arrived—Chile, with 217 immigrants. All well. One woman and three children died, and one birth occurred, on the passage. Dunedin, Tuesday. Mr. J. Eattray, late president Dunedin Cricket Club, was yesterday presented by the club with a bat with an ornamental silver plate and inscription. Ho leaves for Europe tomorrow. The Eevs. O’Leary and Walsh, Eoman Catholic clergymen, are passengers by the Calypso, from London. The second half-yearly meeting of the National Insurance Company shows the total receipts of the past half-year as £29,160 Bs. 2d., and expenses £13,518 18s. 6d. ; leaving a surplus of £15,641 9s. Bd., after deducting £7588 19s. Bd. for losses for the half-year, this leaves a balance for the year on the profit and loss account of £23,086 Bs. 6d. ; of which the directors recommend that £15,000 be set apart for the formation of a reserve fund, and that a dividend of 10 per cent, be declared, and the balance to be carried forward to the next half-year. The dividend will bo payable on the 17th November. Some ballasting trucks were left on the Green Island line this morning, and a passenger train ran into them. Niue of the passengers were seriously injured, and others severely bruised. The fault lay with the Company’s locomotive foreman, who was immediately dismissed.

Port Chalmers, Tuesday. The whaling barque Splendid sailed this morning on a cruise. The Tararua arrived at eleven o’clock, a.rn., from Lyttelton. The whaler Chance put in hero for an anchor on Sunday. Her papers have been detained by the Collector of Customs, under the PUmsoll Act, until she has been thoroughly survcyed.