AUCKLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 1343, 25 August 1877, Page 6

AUCKLAND.

A languid interest is becoming visible in the PROCEEDINGS OF THB ASSEMBLY, but it must grow very much in intensity before it can produce any eflect. Still it is an improvement on the complete apathy at the opening of the session. A meeting of the unemployed is to be held to-morrow evening, but I do not know who are the people en- | gaged in it, nor how far it is a bona fide affair. I should not be surprised to find it take a protectionist turn, for there is a j strong feeling in that direction, especially among working men. Much will depend, of course, on the character of the meeting, and the genuineness of those concerned in it. That many have been out of employment, or their earnings much curtailed by bad weather, there can be no doubt. BUSINESS OS ALL KINDS is unusually dull, if one may judge by uni versal complaints, and yet the Customs revenue shows an increase on the same quarter of last year. The deposits in our branch of the Post Office Savings Bank show a deficiency of £2556, as compared with the withdrawals; bat the Thames office shows a balance of £526 on the other side, so far as that special district is concerned. THE MINING INTERESTS are sufficiently flourishing to account for this, and hold out tbe fairest prospect of sound growth they have yet offered. This is largely owing to the success of the deep sinking, which has created new confidence and stimulated enterprise afresh. A good deal of money has been circulated by dividends, and there can be no doubt that we shall soon have the Moanataiari agam in the field. Rich gold has been taken from the winze, and there is every sign of the shot being recovered at the lower levels. Even the Thames Mining Company 1b recovering

itself, and has not only paid off its debt of nearly £4000, but accumulated £2604 as a reserva. This is owing partly to the Moanataiari, but also to the Alburnia, in which the Company holds a considerable interest. New mines are being worked at Tairua and Coromandel, and a company is being formed with considerable capital to prospect thoroughly the whole peninsula. A CASE OF SOME INTEREST has just been decided by Judge Gillies. Application waß made, on behalf of the trustees in a bankrupt estate, to set aside two deeds of transfer executed by the bankrupts within three months of their insolvency. It was maintained by the applicants that the trustee is entitled to the custody of all deeds in the estate at the date of adjudication, and that his rights extend back by the doctrine of relation to any previous act of bankruptcy. The case turned upon the question whether a deed of arrangement between debtor and creditors, not preceded by the statutory declaration of inability to meet liabilities, is an act of bankruptcy. The Judge decided that j it is not, and that the deed only gives the trustee power over the property assigned j by it to the creditors. His Honour decided, however, that the trustee, acting on behalf of the creditors, might have the parties to the deed examined, in order to ascertain. if there were any fraudulent connivance, and that he might also, upon good ground shown, be able to make the deed of arrangement itself an act of bankruptcy. The trustee would then be able to take advantage of the provisions of the Act, but not until then. The decision is admitted to be sound, in so far as the acquiescence of credi> tors in such a deed removes it from the Bankruptcy Act ; but it is new and does aot invalidate transfers of property by the insolvent, on the ground that they are made within three months of the insolvency. To effect invalidation it is apparently necessary to show fraudulent connivance, and on that ground only can such transfer be made void. The Volunteers have had their SHAM FIGHT, and it was so successful that they are arranging for another al an early date. The whole force of rifles and artillery were in the field. The Naval Brigade played a conspicuous part. A landing was effected under the guns of the latter. Then there was abundance of skirmishing, retreating and advancing, marching and counter-marching, attempts at outflanking, and at cutting off in all kinds of ways. Finally, there was the grand attack, and the euectual defeat of the invaders, who retired, however, in good order, and re-embarked safely in their boats, which we trust no real enemy in the. same circumstances will ever succeed in doing. THE DISTRICT SCHOOLS. The Roman Catholics, aa a body, hold aloof from these schools. They cannot do bo in the country districts, where they are not in sufficient numbers to provide their own. They also Bend their children to the Grammar School in town, where the education is strictly secular. But in all tho centres of population they have schools of their own. Among the most active and earnest of the j promoters of these schools is THE REV. FATHER PAUL, who is held in high estimation by all sects, and regarded with affection by those who have the happiness of personally knowing j him. Father Paul has set up the Onehunga schools largely by his active collections, but as largely from his own pocket. Lately he bought a disused set of telegraph apparatus from the Government, and has fixed it vrith wires in the school, and in full working order, to instruct the children in telegraphy. Oq his birthday, last week, the children of all the Roman Catholic schools were assembled to do him. honour, and the proceedings were conducted with a degree of taste worthy of note and imitation. Each school had its present — an inkstand, a fern book, or some similar trifle — bnt the most pleasing attention was the last, when many of the children presented a flower or bouquet of flowers with wishes for the health and happiness of their ' t pastor. One of the little ones wished he ' might live "as long as Methuselah," another that "the angels might take him vp 'to heaven," and so on. The hearty feeling exhibited on all sides showed that it was no mere ceremony, no mere lip service, in which they were engaged, and Father Paul, with his massive head and thoughtful, benevolent face, seemed a proud and happy man that day. But "Father Pauls" are scarce in all churches. If they irere not, we should hear little of fights about denominational or secular education. People would be only too happy to leave the education of the people to their clerical pastors. But in the nature of things that cannot be, and the State, for its own safety, muat do that which would otherwise be very ill done or nob done at aIL