TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 6820, 28 February 1883, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) TaueaNGA, February 27.

The Hons. W. Rolieston and J. Bryce and Mr Gill, Under-Secretary of the Native Bands Purchase Department, arrived here by the Stella, from Auckland, this morning. Immediately after arrival they took coach for Rotorua, where they will deal with the question affecting the lands over which the Tan-ranga-Rotorua Railway will pass. A succession of earthquakes occurred at Taupo on Saturday night and early on Sunday morning. Some of them were very violent, and were accompanied by a rumbling noise. There was a dead calm, and it was raining heavily all the time. Opcnake, February £7.

Although there has been a very heavy rain last week, all the bridges have stood well. Tents at the Parihaka camp were blown down, and it is stated orders were given by Colonel Roberts to build a large sleeping whare for the men.

A rumor appears to have got about amongst the natives that Te Whiti is coming back on the 3rd of March, Many who were deported from Parihaka are said to have returned to receive the prophet. It is reported Captain Messenger again di ‘parsed a lot yesterday, natives belonging to I’ -n dca not being interfered wi ''

The llim.iki arrived this morning from 51aa..k.j and Waitara, and shipped a lot of bides, tallow, flax, &c. Christchurch, February 27.

Mr Jacobsen submitted some of his supposed New Zealand diamonds to Mr C. E. Button, who tested them, and found only one genuine. Mr Jacobsen applies for prospector’s license for 500 acres.

The brig Derwent, presented to the Naval Brigade by Hr C. W. Turner as a training

ship, will b! docked and re-co.jperod, &c. She was built iu 1334, and yet when a test was made of her timbers yesterday, ber garhoard s;reak, 13 inches of solid oak, was fouud as true as the day it was put in. The licensed victuallers have returned their candidates in the South-east Ward, in which new licenses can be granted.

la the Mag'strate’s Court, a widsw sued H. B. Nath in for £l6, moneys excessively charged and distress illegally levied. The evidence showed that ths plaintiff gave a bill for £6O, and received £49. After paying £l2 by weekly instalments she gave a renewed hill for £54 and psid £4 of this, and then renewed for £56. By February she ha 1 paid £l9 off this when the defendant required a new hill for £6O. This the plaintiff retused, aud the defendant levied a distress. The judgment, was for the plaintiff, £2O excessive ch.i’ge, aud £lO illegal distress. Mr C. \V. Turner was elected chairman of the Harbor Board. The following contributions were forwarded to the Harbor Board for a sailors’ home at Lyttelton ;—£2so etch from Shaw, Savill, aud Co., the New Zealand Shipping Co., C. XV, Tamer, and P. Cunningham. The Government has given £SOO. The board grants a pound for every pound subscribed. The Premier visited the Agricultural College, and the Hon. T. Dick arrived here today.

New Plymouth, February 27. The new Harbor Board met to-day, when Mr T. King was re-elected as chairman. Wanganui, February 27.

The body of a female child, a half-caste, apparently between two and three years old, was washed up on the beach this afternoon, a mile north of the Heads. Apparently it had been only a few hours in the water. There is no clue to its identity.

Auckland, February 27, The City of Sydney had £10,721 specie on hoard from Sydney for San Francisco. A new scheme for bringing out young girls to this colony as domestic servants from the rural districts of England, has been laid before Mr Rolleston, the Minister tor Immigration, by Mrs H. A. Slater. The Minister said he would consider it.

At the Presbyterian Assembly the overture of the Timaru Presbytery, relative lo the disjunction of certain Middle Island churches in order to negotiate for the union with the Presbyterian Church of Otago, was dismissed. Intelligence it is baud from Fiji that ■(. M. Murray, formerly of Auckland, attempted to shoot his wife, proprietress of the Royal Hotel, Levuka, from whom he is judicially sepa.ated, and then threw himself into a creek lo commit suicide. He now awaits his trial.

The propriotois of the Ouchuuga iron works have sent to America, per ma ; l steamer, for the plant for nine additional furnaces to be erected before the end of the year, fur the treatment of Manukau iron sand.

Captain Hume is effecting considerable changes in the Mount Eden Gaol to admit of the classification of prisoners, Mr Cleary, the newly-appointed governor, i< in a poor state of health since his arrival, and is recommended by Dr. Goldsbro to go south for the benefit of his health.

Mr F. A. Pierpoint, a prominent Victorian bookmaker, was a passenger by tbe mail steamer for Sau Francisco.

The Fiji papers of 17th instant state that a favorable reply has been received from tbe Union Steamship Company to tbs proposition of the promoters of the Inter-island Steam Navigation Company. The Union Company notify their willingness to undertake one-hnlf of the venture, the other half being subscribed by residents of Lsvuki. Mr Mills, who is expected here not later than April, will arrange ths details with the promoters, and in the meantime the local quota of shares are being rapidly applied for.

Hokitika, February 27. A man named Work, employed in cutting a race for the Humphrey’s Gully Gold Mining Co,, struck gold in the race between Dougbtou’s and the inlet eud of the tunnel. It is believed to be payable. It is also reported that gold has been struck in tbe Ross Extended Company’s prospecting shaft. Mr Chapman, of Hamilton and Chapman, of Dunedin, is at present visiting the various mines throughout the Westland district. Guktmocth, February 27. Mr Thomas Luther Shephard, formerly M.H.R., and lately Clerk of the Court at Charleston, succeeds E. C. Kelling as clerk at Ahanra, who is now transferred to Westport. The Kennedy brought the new light of the sixth order for this port, which will be put up near the end of the stonework.

INVBncABGU.I,, February 27.

The Prince of Wales' Hotel premises wore discovered on fire on three different occasions this morning, the last timo in the parlor, where the window-curtains were consumed and the lining was burnt. The flames were extinguished after slight damage. Appearances indicate that the fires were the work of an incendiary.

Dunedin, February 27,

To a query as to what draught of vessel could be taken over the bar, the .Secretary of the Otago Harbor Boird has replied as follows : “I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of 19th inut., and in reply am instructed to say that, under the present circumstances, a ship drawing 23ft could come over the bur easily, but the board would not be justified in giving any positive expression as to what the future may be. The harbormaster assures the board that even vessels of heavier draught than the above stated could be brought in at the present, but, to err on the safe side, 23ft is stated as the depth that may be reasonably relied on, according to the assurance of the skilled head of the department on whom the responsibility of bringing in and taking out vessels rests.” In the Police Court to-day, a firm of printers, two photographers, and a bookseller were each charged with a breach of the Copyright Act in having sold photographs marked " copyright ” without having had the copyright registered. Mr Brandon, the Registrar in Wellington, prosecuted, and was put through severe cross-examination, in which one or two rather extraordinary facts were elicited, such as that he had held out an offer to ask only for a nominal fine if the defendants would agree to pay the expenses of the prosecution. The Resident Magistrate reserved his judgment in the cases.