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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4295, 25 December 1874, Page 2

To-morrow (Boxing Day) will be observed as a close holiday by the banks. The City Corporation offices will be closed on Saturday and Monday next. Midnight mass was celebrated last night in St. Mary’s Cathedral by Bishop Redwood. There was a very numerous attendance. The Supreme Court Christinas vacation began yesterday. No business will be done in the Court till January 2. The meeting of the committee of the Anniversary Regatta has been postponed till Tuesday evening next, at the Pier Hotel. By a proclamation in the Gazette , the months of January, February, and March are declared to bo a close time as regards oysters within certain proscribed limits in the province of Auckland. The s.s. Ladybird, which left the harbor for Lyttelton on Tuesday evening, had a very long and rough passage, only arriving at her port this morning. She encountered a very strong head gale, and a remarkably heavy head sea. We are requested to mention that the coach which will convey tho Star Club eleven to Pauhautanui will leave tho Royal Tiger Hotel at 0 a.m. sharp on Saturday, not the Royal Hotel as stated by our evening contemporary. At tho sale of booths for the Caledonian sports, yesterday, the following prices were obtained:—Publicans’ Booths—No. X, J, Martin, £lB ; No. 2, J. Martin, £l3 ; No. 3, G. Crawford, £lO ; No. 4, J. Mclntosh, £5. Refreshment Booths—No. 1, W. Freeman, £2 ; No. 2, G. Dowsctt, £3 15s. ; No. 3, J. Morgan, £1 10s. Total, £53 ss.

Notice is given by the Government in the usual way of the intention of the authorities to enter into negotiations with the natives for the purchase of a large quantity of land in the province of Wellington. The Gazette, issued yesterday contains a proclamation declaring that the hulk Sarah and Esther, now moored off Tahita Point, in the harbor of Dunedin, is to be used as a public prison. The American Circus Company were favored with fine weather last night, and went through a very long and good programme with great spirit and success. There was a large attendance. They will, perform again on Saturday evening. The steamei 8 plying between Wanganui and Wellington have more to take away from that port just now than they can stow away in their holds, and a number of bales of wool have in consequence been placed on deck on several occasions. Mr. Buchanan, who is about to leave the management of the Wellington branch of the Bank of Australasia, to become Inspector of the National Bank of New Zealand, has accepted an invitation to a public dinner, which will take place on the 12th of January. “ Our American Cousin,” and the roaring farce of “ The Quiet Family,” were repeated very successfully at the Theatre Royal last night. On Saturday the sensational drama, “The Streets of New York,” will be produced. A number of casks of spirits, which had been stored in the Auckland Police Court after having been seized by the Custom-house authorities, are said to have leaked immensely since their seizure, and the Star says that it is an invariable consequence, no matter how sound the casks may be. Jonas Woodward, Esq., lias been gazetted as superintendent collector of agricultural statistics in the province of Wellington. Henry Taylor, Esq., of Johusonville, has been appointed a coroner within the colony ; and Charles Alfred St. George Hickson, Esq., to be chief clerk and accountant in the office of the Commissioner of Stamp Duties, vice H. E. Brandon Esq., and Charles Lewis Wiggcns, Esq., to be clerk to the Deputy Commissioner of Stamp Duties, Wellington, vice 0. A. St. G. Hickson, transferred.

Mr. Moorhouae took his seat as Mayor of the city for the first time at the meeting of the Council yesterday. The proceedings jn'esented no remarkable features, nothing but purely routine work being taken, at the conclusion of which the Council adjourned till Thursday next, when some important matters will bo brought before the Council, amongst them being the report of the City Auditors upon the position of the Corporation’s finances. A large number of civil cases were on the list for hearing at the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday, hut most of them were settled amicably previous to the sitting of the Court. In the following cases judgments for amounts claimed and costs were given ;—W. Hutchison v. M. Mosley, claim, £8 19s. Bd. ; J. ind H. Barber v. E. Belcher, claim, £llfis. Od. ; H. E. Liardet v. J. J. Stevenson, clain, .-Cl 10s. ; C. Mclntyre v. T. Bush, claim, £8 4s. In Burton v. Edwards, I Os. was paid into Court, for which judgment was givei, plaintiff to pay costs, 9s. Wsare glad to know that a French professor is sti.l to remain in this city—one who has long been a resident of Paris, as M. Bourgeois has. Mr. Curtis, the conductor of the Te Aro Grammar school, who is thoroughly experienced in the ait of teaching, has done well in associating with I.im a Frenchman as professor of his own language; and there is no doubt that the pupils taught by M. Bourgeois will acquire the gift of correct pronunciation to perfection. Most, if not all, pupils who receive lessons in French from an English professor, even when they know how to translate passably from one language into the other, can neither speak it, nor understand its intricacies and the true spirit of the language. The Resident Magistrate of Hew Plymouth, it is reported, has given judgment in the case against Messrs. Brogdeu and Sons for obstructing the navigation of the Waitara River with the wreck of the p.s. Paterson. His Worship refused to hear any evidence as to transactions subsequent to the wreck, holding that the registered owner at the time of wreck was liable, although the wreck itself had been since sold. On the other side, it was contended that it was the actual owner at date of notice who was liable. A fine of £SO was inflicted, and notice of appeal was given. The case Mull come before the Supreme Court. Colonial wines in the land of their production uniformly supersede the continental article, simply because the people themselves have confidence in their freedom from impurities, and because their reduced cost brings them within the roach of the masses. For many years past the vignerons of Victoria and South Australia have had the markets of those colonies all to themselves ; so great indeed has been their success that for some time past a considerable trade has been done with the two leading provinces of the south, Dunedin and Canterbury, where large quantities of South Australian wine aro now annually consumed. A shipment of these wines, carefully selected, has just been received direct from South Australia by Messrs. Stevenson and Stuart, who aro willing to give customers positive proof of their excellence. Tho samples offered are six in all, three white wines, and three rod, the white being muscadine, verdeilho, and tokay, tho red being hermitage, mataro, and constantia. Tho latter is already favorably known, hut even its excellent quality is excelled by two of the six named, muscadine being a very' full-bodied wine of splendid flavor. The introduction of these wines has at least this advantage, that they can bo drunk as beverages without leaving any of the deleterious effects too commonly experienced by those who indulge even to a moderate extent in some of the imported wines.' It will ho remembered that tho Colonial Parliament has more than once had its attention directed to the subject of a reduction of the duty upon Australian wines with the avowed object of supplanting some of the decoctions at present retailed as port and sherry. Such a step would of course place them within tho reach of the very poorest; but even as it is they can be obtained at loss than the Home article.

The want of a suitable dwelling-house, says . the Wanganui Herald, has occasionally driven new arrivals to strange, and in some instances, rather amusing' shifts. An immigrant with a largo family, having failed to obtain a house, noticed that the tunnels driven into the hill between Turakina and Wangachu, for the purpose of obtaining gravel, were not at all unsuitable, and he accordingly put in a few stays, so that the roof would not come down, and then took his family into it. He was, however, unfortunate in his choice, for nearly all the drivers ou the road remonstrated with him, saying that his children might frighten some of the teams and send them down the steep hank, but as he understood very little English, he assured them that ho was a practical miner, and that there was no fear of the cave falling in. Through tho agency of the police he was at last compelled to leave his comfortable dwelling. The steamer Maori called at Jackson’s Bay, Big Bay, and Milford Sound, on her late voyage round the Middle Island, and supplied tho diggers there with stores, which were running short. Speaking of Martin’s Bay, tho purser in his report says :—“ Found the settlers there to be short of stores, which were supplied to them. They all, however, speak in very high terms of the climate and capabilities of the district. Payable gold is obtainable all down the coast. Several lots of gold were taken in exchange for stores, and the settlers all had plenty of gold in. hand, which, however, they did not care to sell.” Tho Maori brought Mr. Williamson from tho Big' Bay and Mr. Beckham from Martin's Bay, who iiavo with them some very fine samples, some of which wore obtained down near Milford Sound. This is of a very nuggety character. There appears to bo very little doubt that all that part of tho coast in tho neighborhood of Martin's Bay is of highly auriferous character, but tho inaccessible nature of tho country renders prospecting a very hazardous and laborious undertaking.

The Nelson Colonist, we observe, has passed into the possession of a company. The English Opera Company commence a season of twenty-four nights at Dunedin tomorrow night. They open with Cinderella. On the late voyage of the steamer Maori round the Middle Island only Greymouth coal was used. It was found that four tons of it were equal to five tons of Newcastle coal. A piece of crystallised gold, one of the rarest mineral specimens in the Dunedin Museum, was recently surreptitiously remo’ved from a glass case by some thief. A dead sperm whale has been washed ashore on the North Beach, Greymouth, about a mile from the flagstaff. It has been taken possession of by a party of men who intend to try out the oil. Two enterprising settlers at Bull’s are each erecting a number of houses “on spec.” They have all, says the Wanganui Herald, been engaged at high rentals, which will probably induce them to erect more. The Wanganui Evening Herald says “ Miss T. Corlett, the daughter of Mrs. Corlett, the authoress of ‘ Claribel, and other Poems,’ appeared as a piano soloist in Miss Aitken’s last entertainment in Wellington, and is very highly spoken of.” Our contemporary has been misinformed. Miss Corlett did not appear.) “ The jovial spree” of the holiday time has increased the average number of inebriates who usually make their morning call upon Mr. Crawford. Yesterday morning about ten drunkards were brought up, some of whom were let off with nominal fines. There were others whose offences deserved special treatment. John Allen, for drunkenness and the commission of another offence, which shall be nameless, was fined 20s. Thomas Murray, alias “ Tommy the Snob,” alias “ Tommy the Dancer,” was charged with being drunk and disorderly, and resisting the police. The offender is an old Wellington notability who has absented himself for some time, but upon his return he began to pay his devotions to the whole female population of the city, whom he accosted wherever he met them. For this freak he was fined '2os. and costs. Farquhar Anderson, for disorderly conduct and drunkenness, was fined 10s. 0. J. B. Ooomber, who was found lying full length in a roadway incapably drunk, also made his appearance before the Court for about the tenth time. On all previous occasions Mr. Coomber protested his innocence of the charge, and explained that his peculiarity of demeanor was attributable to fits. Thistime,however,hecandidly confessed that he was drunk, and drunk he was beyond a doubt, for the strongest man in the force was selected to carry him to the lock-up on Ilia back. Coomber was fined 10s. John Orr forfeited his bail, £l, and did not appear. Philip Durand, for being drunk on board the ship Soukar, was fined 20s. There were some other cases of trifling importance. A curious incident (says the Otago Daily Notes) has been the means of showing how very rapid is the growth of the brown trout in New Zealand streams. Last year a number of these fish, about six weeks old, were placed in the Kuriwao, a fine stream in the Popotuuoa district. From time to time they have been observed by Mr. F. Roberts, whose station is in that neighborhood, but until lately he has had no opportunity of ascertaining the size to which they have attained. A few days ago Mr. Roberta noticed a very large black shag—a bird seldom seen in the district—chasing something in the liver in front of his house. He took out his gun, and as the bird appeared above water he fired, killing the bird, and at the same time a fine trout, 15in. long, and weighing three-quarters of a pound. It is satisfactory to hear of the successful naturalisation of these fish in all the streams in which they have been liberated ; and we trust that the narration of the above incident null induce country settlers to wage war against shags, kingfishers, and other enemies of the trout.

The native who was adventurous enough to descend the Crown Prince shaft to examine the workings of tho mine, writes to the Thames Advertiser a letter, of which we give the following translation : —“ December 15, 1874. At three o’clock in the day, I went to a claim where they mine for gold, tho Crown Prince. That claim is a good one. The name of the Captain is John Beeche. There was the reef carrying the gold plain enough, but what would put the Maori all wrong was its great depth below the surface. If the Maori had good brains, it would be all right. Well, indeed, how the thing has been lying unused. Our ancestors were ignorant, and we are so also, and we continue mistaken. Tho man who is right amongst the Maoris is the man who has money in the bank.—Hobra te Mimxha, of Ohinerauriri.” A young lady, the daughter of Mr. S. Brown, of Hobson’s Park, Parnell, has had the misfortune to be precipitated over the cliff in St. George’s Bay, a distance of twenty feet. She was picked up in an insensible condition by a gentleman who was passing, and who was attracted to the spot by the screams of the young lady’s school companions. Dr. Goldsbro’ found that her skull was fractured, and she was bleeding profusely. Having bandaged her head, he ordered her immediate removal to the hospital. The patient was still lying in a precarious state at the date of the latest news as to her condition. From the Japanese- Mail wo see that in October last Chiarini's great circus company was performing with much success in Yokohama, Japan. Tho Mail, speaking of one of the performances, says:—“A larger number of people than have, so far at least as we know, ever come together in Yokohama under one roof, attended the performance given by Signor Chiariui for the benefit of the General Hospital. Not only was the whole foreign settlement there; considerable numbers of the Yedo residents were also present, and everyone must have felt surprise at the extraordinary number of foreigners who came together on the occasion. There was not a vacant seat in the house. Nor were the attractions which brought this large assembly together unworthy of it. Signor Chiarini’s circus has certainly made good its claim to be by far the most remarkable establishment of the kind which has ever visited this place. Its resources, its extent, the variety of the entertainment provided, the really noble stud of horses trained to an astonishing degree of perfection, the acrobatic feats, the dashing or graceful riding of the various members of the troupe, the orderly organisation, the propriety and excellent management which characterise it, combine to produce an ensemble as admirable as it is creditable to the proprietor.”