AUCKLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 1341, 11 August 1877, Page 6

AUCKLAND.

Never has there been so cold a season in Auckland, so much frost, and even ice, as during this winter. Snow is still & stranger, but if the climate goes on refrigerating at this rate, we may have to welcome, or lament it, according to taste, before many years pass by. Even the easterly wind has taken to freezing vs — a very unusual characteristic, and one which the " oldest settler " regards as a startling novelty. The icebergs about the South Pole must have been on the lcose this year, and have ventured much farther north than usual. The weather is coquettish enough withal. On Tuesday evening there was to have been a lecture attheY.M.C. Association. The weather at 4 p.m. became abominable, blowing a gale and raining in torrents. The lecturer was a new arrival, and took it for granted there would be no meeting that evening. He went to his home in the suburbs, and found at half-past 7 that the weather suddenly cleared up, and a fine, bright, moonlight was guiding his audience over the wet streets, to a disappointment that he was much chagrined at being too late to prevent.

A curious case has just been before the Resident Magistrate's Court. The consignees of some gold leaf shipped by the Dilpussund, found it had been abstracted, and a lot of black rope substituted. Fer these 12,000 gold leaves the plaintiffs claimed compensation. Among other points set up by the defence was this : Is gold leaf bullion, specie, or precious metal, and does it, therefore, come under the liab of exceptions for which the ahip is not answerable? The defence held that it was bullion. The plaintiffs held that gold leaf was an ordinary article of manufacture. They lost their case, and the Magistrate decided that gold leaf is to be regarded as bullion, and should be shipped accordingly.

We have lately had some interesting information about the Friendly Islands (Tonga), published in a letter from a resident there to the New Zealand Herald. He is evidently down on the influence of the chief of the Wesleyan Missionaries in Tonga, who ia described as the yirtual head of a Theocracy which he has succeeded in establishing as the Native Government of that group of islands. The result in pounds, j shillings, and pence, is not satisfactory. The population is only 18,000, and of these only 6885 are taxpayers. The revenue is derived chiefly from a duty on spirAts im ported, and a tax of £5 per head on all traders. The revenue is only £11,100, and the expenditure in officials absorbs £10,500 of the money. The King is made safe with £1200. One of the Princes receives £160 for carrying on that particular trade, and another £280 as Prime Minibter. The Chaplain to the King gets £100, and other clerks aud officers £70 among them. The Chief Justice gets £260, and Police Magistrates, clerks, and scribes, £1120 among them Governors of two islands get £260 each, and of the other two, JEI4O aud £100 respectively. The Clerk to the Prince Premier gets £80, and the Secretary to Government £180. The printing office costs £300, and schoolmasters get £190 between them altogether. The Finance Minister gets £140, and 13 clerks and officials under him divide £512 for their work. The Minister oE Lands gets £140, arid the Minister of Police the aame sum. Gaolers and Police absorbes £1160, and the Koyal Navy consists of two small vessels, of which the larger is a schooner of 26 tons, carrying one gun. Such is the Constitutional Government of Tonga, as established under His Majesty, King George the Ist. Considering that these hii^h officials live in n»tivo style, and that they require very little money to pay the expense, the salaries are not illiberal. The European traders are grumbling loudly at tht> cost thus thrown upon them, and if the ; accounts published be correct, their complaiutß are not unreasonable, nor without foundation,