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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 6072, 16 September 1880, Page 2

Mails for the Australian colonies and Tasmania, per Albion, close on Friday, 17th inst. at 11.30 a.m. at the Bluff.

Mr. Manaford, RM., will resume his duties in Wellington iu a few days, Mr. Shaw returning to New Plymouth. ■ The young histrionic ;who lost a watch and chain at the theatre on Tuesday evening, and was greatly disturbed by the event, found the artioics-ia ill--, pnrm-iot-jau when he got home. A meeting of the creditors of Mr. Robert Cooper, brass-finisher, was to have been held yesterday, but was postponed till this morning for want of a quorum. The liabilities are £63 15s. Id., and the only asset is £7 ss. worth of furniture.

We have received the Church Messenger for the diocese of Nelson for the current month. It contains, among other matter, a lengthy contribution on proposed Church disciplines, and a reprint from Hansard of Sir William Fox’s speech on horse racing. During the whole of Tuesday and the greater part of yesterday rain has fallen in torrents in the Upper Hutt district, while at the Lower Hutt a fresh, dry nor'-wester was blowing, and the glass in Wellington never registered lower than 30.25.

Breakwiuds are to be immediately erected at several of the most exposed places on the Rimutaka incline, which will serve to restore public confidence in the safety of the line, so much disturbed by the late catastrophe. It is evident that the erections, to bo of any use, must be of enormous strength, and therefore their cost will be a very considerable amount.

Tho Raugitikei Advocate reports that the coal prospectors at Mount Stewart, after getting down 60ft., had to come to a standstill. After going through a sand-drift they came upon rook. Here the sand from the drift kept falling in such large quantities that it was impossible for tho workmen to continue unless they put down pipes. The annual meeting of members for the election of officers of the Carterton Volunteers was held on Monday evening last, when the following re-elections took place I —Captain Snodgrass and Lieutenant Bennett retain their former positions, while Senior Sergeant Bolts fills tho vacancy of sub-lieutenant caused by the resignation of Mr. W. N. Ward, Mr. A. Bennett taking the position of senior sergeant, and Mr. T. Nichols being raised to sergeant. Messrs. J. Kay, A. Clifton, aud H. Yile were elected corporals. Reuter’s agent forwards us the following i corrections of cablegrams furnished us for publication, aud appearing in yesterday's issue :—London, September 3.—An attempt has been discovered to wreck a train on tho North Western Railway near Buahley. Dynamite had been laid (instead of was used”) by the culprits.—Constantinople, September 3. Riza Pasha has been ordered (not) to rpaist tho occupation of Dulsigno by the Montegrins. T’he larrikin element seems on tfie increase in Wellington, despite the vigilouco of tl)e city police. Windows in all parts of the town are nightly broken by stones thrown by rowdy youths to the annoyance of peaceful citizens. A favorite locality for the indulgence of tins pastime seems lo be near the residence of an inoffensive Chinaman named Leung Hoy, who resides iu Ghuznee-street. Hardly a night passes without a window or two of his house being broken. It would be satisfactory to many other residents in the district who are also annoyed by larrikin tricks if some of the offenders were captured.

Mr. Sidey’s bankruptcy and tho transfer of his business to a new firm, lias not had the effect of silencing tho well-known voice which passers in Manuers-street have been accustomed to hear reverberating through tho Arcade on sale davs. for yesterday, at the first sale of the new firm, Mr. Sidey himself was seen wielding tho hammer, and expatiating on the merits of his “lots,” with all that, SO., &c., which ia ever the &c., Ac., of the boru auctioneer, being presumably an employd of bis successors, whoso first auction was very successful.

At a meeting of the Greytowu Hospital Committee, on Tuesday Inst, the treasurer reported n balance in the bank of £94 16s. Id , and in view of necessary liquidation of various accumulating accounts, the secretary was inatruotod to write to those-bodies formerly contributing subsidies to the Wairarapa Hospital asking what steps will be taken to ensure future contributions. At the usual monthly meeting of the Maaterton Hospital Committee held on the same date, the financial^ position of tho institution was discussed, and it was decided that a systematic canvass of the Borough of Mnsterton should ba made. It was resolved also that stationholdora and employers of labor should be asked to make it a condition in engaging hands that each one should give n sum of Es. per annum to the hospital, such amount to exempt tho giver of it from all hospital fees in the event of his being admitted as a patient. The question was raised as to whether tho exemption should apply to a member of a subscriber's family, but was postponed till the next meeting of tho committee,

There is to be a trial of skill between local “shootists” at the Upper Hutt, on Saturday next. Mr. W. Whiteman has purchased 500 rounds of ammunit’on for the 000 ision, and the match is to come off on the rifle range opposite the railway station. The criminal sittings of the Supreme Court ended with the sentencing of Mary Garrison to two years, for larceny, at noon yesterday, having lasted a shorter time than any session for some years. The civil business will be begun on Monday next, the case of Parkes v. Harp coming first. To morrow the Chief Justice will sit in Chambers, and on Tuesday, at noon [not to-day, as misprinted in our last issue], there will be a special sitting of the Bankruptcy Court, The Bombay branch of the East India Association have presented a petition to the House of Commons, in which they point out that nearly 50,000 picked troops, British and native, maintained wholly out of the revenues of British India, are engaged in field service far beyond the frontiers of India ; and this fact affords uumistakeable demonstration that the military armaments as kept up for many years past under the Government of India are far larger than are needful for the maintenance of order in India and for the defence of the natural boundaries of the empire. A meeting of settlers interested in land taken for the West Coast railway line will be held at Johnsonville at 7.30 o’clock this evening, for the purpose of considering what steps should be taken in the matter. A large number of landholders gave their land without asking for compensation, and now that the line is not to be gone on with for some time to come many of these feel aggrieved at having their land cut up for no present purpose. A coach will start from opposite the Government Buildings at 6.30 p.m. conveying Wellington residents to Johnsonville. i Respecting the Wellington-Eoxton railway, Sir William Fox, in a letter to the Rangitilcei Advocate, Bays “There is, lam sorry to say, no hope for the West Coast railway at present. The Government is willing to band over the work and material at present on hand on liberal terms to any company which might be formed ; but a clause which was proposed to be added to the Railway Construction Bill to enable it to bo done was lost with the Bill. It is certain, however, that the West Coast must have this railway—it is only a question of time ; and if the settlers between Wellington inclusive and Taranaki combine in earnest, I hope the next session may enable us to get it.” The Wanganui Herald, writing in advocacy of a direct timber trade between the colony and England, says :— *' The Manawatu district is the home par excellence of the rimu and the totara, and for a foreign trade Wanganui is the only port. On this ground alone harbor improvements assume the proportion almost of colonial magnitude. The expenditure on the Greymouth harbor comes from the Colonial Treasury, and it is justified on the ground that the development of onr coal industry is a colonial work of exceptional importance. But if a large foreign timber trade can find an outlet through the port of Wanganui, there is at least an equal claim. We may, however, require no assistance ; we have undertaken to raise the money on our own securities for harbor improvements, and we see no reason why we cannot complete what has been begun. The inauguration of direct trade, with a first-class harbor, means that Wanganui must rapidly become one of the principal centres of population.” Nautical enquiries, as a rule, prove the dreariest of dreary Magisterial proceedings. That which was held in the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday proved no exception to the rule until Captain Fairchild had . stepped into the box and was being cross examined by Mr. Chapman. After a few commonplace questions, Mr. Chapman asked—“ I suppose with a little bad steering you can take a vessel almost anywhere ?” “ Oh, of course, with bad steering there’s no saying where a vessel might get to !” The]next question was hardly more successful. The learned gentleman, bolding a chart in one hand, said II Now, which way would a vessel go ’” referring presumedly to that part of the channel in Manukau harbor in which the collision had occurred, but without saying so. After waiting for an explanation of the question, the astute mariner replitd that it generally depended which way her head happened to be. But the crowning point was undoubtedly reached when the w.rthy skipper said that the shook of the collision pnt Ids quarter in a little, meaning that it had pushed the stern of the vessel further out of the channel. His interrogator thought he meant that a dent had been made in the plating of the vessel, and therefore enquired whether the witness had examined the spot. “ No,” was the reply ; I have’nt been there since.” All this passed in the greatest possible good humor, and the amusement was by no means confined to those concerned in the one side of the case. Captain William Jackson Barry is still amusing the lieges down south. The Otago Daily Times says he was on the Forbury Bark racecourse on Saturday afternoon, and made the fact known to all and sundry. Whoever has read “ My book ” knows that adventures on horseback detailed therein are only exceeded by those on the fins of whales. Saturday saw another horse exploit. The captain had been vainly hankering after a mount during the greater part of the afternoon. In the “ Hurry Scurry,” however, someone mounted him upon a piebald pony, that, to use his own phraseology, “ couldn't go a yard.” Having no colors himself, “a flag of truce” in the shape of a white handkerchief was affixed to the pony’s tail, and all unconscious of this the ga'lant captain took his preliminary canter past the stand. Turning, the breeze bore the flag into view, and cleverly the captain, leaving not his saddle, but bending low after the fashion of the Indian huntsman, removed it. Perceiving that his steed was not a “ right-’un,” the captain discreetly waited in the straight till the finish, hoping to make a neck-and-neok thing of it ; bnt he waited too long, and covered himself and pony with something very much the reverse of glory by coming in a straggling third. Of course the incident caused much fun, and equally of course, when the “ Ups and Downs” are continued, the third position will have blossomed into a glorious first, and the pony into a pedigreed racehorse. We learn from a West Coast contemporary that a meeting of persons interested in the construction of a water-race at Mapourika was recently held, and at such meeting Mr. Antonio Eala, the original prospector of the auriferous ground, the opening up of which caused the recent rush, produced maps and plans of the proposed race, which was already surveyed, and iu part constructed, about 35 chains out of the entire length (160 chains) being now made. The total cost of the work to be done, including all liabilities of the work so far completed, was stated to be about £IBOO or £IBOO, and the present project was to form a company representing a capital of about £2OOO, to complete the race, which would carry from 17 to 20 Government heads of water, being supplied from the unfailing source of McDonnell's Creek. It was pointed out that the race would be of a highly remunerative character, and also that it was impossible that the goldfield at Mapourika could be properly developed without the race, which was the only means of supplying the diggings with a copious supply of water. We have not yet seen any report in print showing that further action in the formation of the proposed water-i ace company has eventuated in success, but the information given may he accepted as tolerably conclusive that until the talked of race is made parties from a distance need not hurry on their intended trip to Mapourika. Datest reports from the Wairau Valley diggings are, according to the_ Marlborough Express, not particularly cheering. All the payable ground on one side of the creek is private property, and at present occupied by nine men, and the ground on the terraces at the back of the claims has been all prospected and proved of no value ; the only possible ground to work is on the new ground on the fiats, which would be both deep and wet, and would take a large amount of time, labor, and money to attempt the work. The correspondent who furnishes this information also wr it ea : ‘'l don’t think that any more men in Armchair Creek or in the vicinity are making anything like wages; and as the place has been prospected during the winter by a good many experienced miners, we think it wrong to bring men over here on false pretences.” Another correspondent, writing from the same place, says :— 11 There is a little gold getting by a few parties, and four or five claims are doing very well, but there are a good many men up here not making anything. There has been a great talk of a to Mount Patriarch, but one of the claims that was supposed to be a good one was sold for £5, so it is evidently not so good as reported. A party of three men have struck gold in a branch of Bartlett’s Creek, but it seems to bo of no oxtent, as holes have been sunk all round tho prospectors’ claim, and no one else can got on gold.”

Messrs. J. H. Bethuue and Co. will to-day offer, under direction of the Registrar of the Supreme Court, some valuable township sec* tions and buildings in Fielding, and most eligible freehold sections in the Wairarapa district, the sale commencing at 2 p.m. , We sympathise with telegraph correspondents driven to their wits’ end for items of news, but cannot help thinking that the unity of forbearance was exceeded last night by the Christchurch correspondent of the Press Association, who thought fit to wire the information that a bull terrier had jumped out of a window, smashed a glass verandah, and bled to death. He might at least have waited until after the inquest had been held on the do;g. At the annual general meeting of the United Cricket Club, held last evening at the Te Aro Hotel, Mr. Sunley presided. The report and balance-sheet for the past year, showing a credit balance of £ll Ids. 6d., were adopted. On account of the small attendance of members the election of office-bearers was postponed till next meeting, to be held on October 5- It was resolved that all members in arrear who have not paid up on the Ist pros, will be struck off the list. The meeting then closed. About 7.30 yesterday morning a lad named Hewett called the attention of the police to the body of a man in the harbor by the Lion Foundry. The corpse, which was much decomposed, was taken out and removed to the Morgue, and was subsequently identified by Mr,. John Lane, of Hawkstone-street (with whom deceased had lodged), as the body of a man named Daniel Sullivan. Sullivan was an unemployed laborer, a native of Cork, and he left Lane’s house at 3 p.m. on the Ith instant, being then low spirited at lack of employment, and had not been seen after. He expressed an intention in the Clyde Hotel the same day, to drown himself, and at 8.30 in the evening the police were told that a gurgling sound had been heard by a passer by at the very spot where the body was found. Xu the clothes of .deceased 7s. Bd,, a knife, and handkerchief were found. An inquest will be held at the Morgue, at 11 this morning, by Dr. Johnston. Mr. Gibbs, photographer, of Lambton-quay, sent by the Albion to the Melbourne Exhibition a large frame enclosing the portraits of the 88 members of the Lower House, the Attorney-General (to show all the Cabinet), Major Campbell, the Sergeant-at-Arms, and views of Parliament and Government Buildings. There is not a single picture of the group which is not an excellent likeness, and taken in the very best style of photo .-raphy, so that the hundreds of thousands who are expected to visit the Australasian World’s Fair will get the opportunity of seeing what New Zealand has to show as representing its national Council in the collection of photo’s of gentlemen, statesmen, psliticians, logrollers, &c., that will be placed before them It is no disrespect to honorable legislators, or flattery to Mr. Gibbs, to say that a great many of them look much better on the photographer’s cardboard than in the flesh, and therefore that the visitor to Carlton Gardens will see something considerably different from what he would view were he to walk into the House —or Bellamy’s—at 4 a.m, after a seventeen hours' sitting, and look around him. Of course, in grouping hon. members have not in all cases been arranged as they would themselves arrange the originals—-for instance, the moat aristocratic roan in the House is side by side with the greatest struggler with the aspirate, and the Great Pro-consul is nearer the ex-Colonial Treasurer than he has probably been since that memorable occasion when Mr. Ballance left office with such remarkable alacrity. Mr. Gibbs has the pictures also arranged in a folio volume, making a handsome and well got up book, and he has likewise a smaller reproduction, photographed from the framed group.