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Thames Advertiser, Volume VIII, Issue 2172, 13 October 1875, Page 2

Onr Parliamentary telegrams laßt night did not mention what was done in the House of Representatives yesterday. The Press Agenoy has now gone from one extreme to the other. Afire broke out -in -the dwelling of Mr Seagar, Mermaker, Haven-street, last evening, at 8 o'clock, which, but for the prompt measures adopted by Mr Seagar and others who came to his assistance, would have terminated disastrously.' It appears that at the time mentioned Mrs Seagar went out of her dwellinghouse, leaving two children; whom she cautioned not to interfere with the fire. It joes not appear that they did so, but a. candle which was on the table, fell over and set fire to a window screen. From thence the flames were communicated to the wall-paper and lining with great rapidity, and when the flames were extinguished it was found that the lining boards were badly charred. Fortunately Mr - Seagar and his assistant were close at hand, and rushing into the house, they pulled down screen, paper, and canvass, and thus prevented the spread of the flames, and other assistance arriving in the meantime, the fire was effectually extinguished, There 'was no fire alarm rung. , Professor Bruce gave his second seance at the Theatre Royal last night. There waß a fair housq. As before, his delineations of character were remarkable for accuracy, and this fact was acknowledged by the audience present by repeated applause. His mesmeric entertainment' was hardly so successful. There was not so much reality, nothing which appealed to the sympathies of the audience in the same degree as in the phrenological department of the seance, Professor Bruce is, We believe,- an adept in his profession, and his delineations are made to possess a peculiar. interest from ths ready manner in which, without hesitation, he at once pronounces the leading traits of the subject whose head is submitted to his inspection, and his conversational powers, which aro not by any means of ordinary character, serve to add interest to the lecture.; , The time for receiving tenders for reclama*tion in- the Auckland harbour has been altered from the 19th to the 26th instant. The Auckland Star's Hokianga correspondent records that on Saturday Hokianga was visited with tremendous.floods. The Whirinaki Valley was completely inundated, and the hotel narrowly escaped being swept away. The whole of the cultivations have disappeared, and nothing but gravel and debris is left. At a meeting of the Auckland Institute ou Monday, a paper on quaiftz crushing, by Mr J, Goodall, 0.K., read at a previous meeting, was again brought up for discussion.' Mr Goodall said that two letters had appeared in the Thames and' Auckland papers reviewing his contribution, and. referring to bis apparent neglect of the question of machinery, but those who had criticised his views had not dealt with the main point-r-the mode of saving the gold. His calculations had been questioned, but on going over the data again ho felt satisfied that his theory was borne out by fact. The machinery on the Thames Qoldfield' was excellent, and could not be excelled in any part of the world. Still the gold was ground up with the quicksilver and the sulphide?, and a cossiderable percentage of it was washed into the sea.—Mr James Stewart, 0.8., disagreed with Mr Goodall as to the machinery being excellent, fle'thought there could not be worse. The object sought to be attained, he thought, was in how short a space of timo a battery could be shaken to pieces. The vibration in some of the batteries was enormous, and might be obviated by a fly-wheel on the shaft. One of the -batteries he found working was actually wasting about three and a-half tons of coal per diem.; The question of economic working in respect to coal and labour was quite as important as the saving of gold.— Mr Goodall replied /that/the' evil Mr Stewart referred to, in-respect to vibration, he had noticed in : the Golden Crown battery, .but it was afterwards removed, At the Manukau mine they bad used a eecendary shaft which obviated the abore defect, and although the foundations of the battery were not particularly strong,, the machinery had worked well.—The President remarked that there was no doubt that a large percentage of the gold was lost in the amalgamating process and swept on to the Grahamstown mud flats. Years hence those rand flats would well repay the attention and labour of the diggers. It was not to be expected that for commercial purposes they could extract the gold with as much nicety as the banks or the chemist. ( :

The p.s, Hauraki, which has been laid up for a low days for repairs to hsr nmchincry, resumes her/trips between Aucklaiid and the Thames to>day. • v ( ®>« foHowing are- the passengers by. the 'White Eagle' from London Saloon—Mesara H. F. Symonds, A. Woodward, Khos. Jolly, William H. Hopkins, Thomas Baldwin, George Holcroft, H, Holcroft, Harold Smith, Thomas & f Chaee, and Charley Harringtob. Second cabm—Mr Mrs A. Field und infant, Messrs William Blaikie, James 8.. Austin, James McKenzie, John Geary, William Moore, Charles Levine, H. Petry, andK. Cchn. The following items of, native news arc from the _ Waihto Tim There is a bit of a ' shino' amongat the Ngatiraukawa natives about the sale of a block of land all Tairua to Mr Buckland, and Major. Mail- has been to TeWaotu for the purpose of inquiring into the matter. Jt is not expected that any harm will come of it, except that a good deal of time and pork mil be wasted. Messrs Mitchell and . Gilbert Mair. hare had it very successful meeting with the natives near Titiraupenga, between Alexandra and Taupo, and have Becured a block of land, and; better still, an expressed determination not to permit any interference with the lands by Bewi or Tawhiao,' An amusing affair'occurred at Tapaeharnru lately. A certain agent of ;the Government, notorious for his philorMaori sympathies, had borrowed a rug from a settler at Te Awamiitu, in "which to repose his weary limbs. While at Loffley's baths,: he saw a Maori for whom he "entertained brotherly love, and lie presented -her with the rug. He was afterwards (jailed upon to return the article by the settler who had lent it, and another European, who had seen the rug with the native woman, mentioned the fact, The other then whined out; a text of Scripture affirming his belief im the Trinity, and denied having given the rug away, "You may believe in the Trinity," said the other, "but I am sure the Trinity do not believe in jou." Dr Jackson was sent Jfor and recommended change of air and diet, The Auckland Star says':—",Mr Bridges' refusal to relate in what way improper pressure had been exercised is the cause ult his being summoned to the bar of the House, and we think the public will fully agree with the neccessity for the course pursued by the Committee. As the matter now stands, Mr Bridges has distinctly asserted that on a specified occasion pressure was brought to bear upon the Government, nnder which they purchased a railway at a much higher price than they would otherwise have done; that he knows the way in which this pressure was put in force, and the persons concerned in it, but refuses to tell; It is preposterous that so grave a charge should be allowed to rest where it is, By the letter from Mr Murdoch,; Mr Bridges has been relieved from any restraint of honour, had such feelings operated to deter him from exposing matters that only came to his knowledge as a confidential servant of the Bank of New Zealand, The removal of this bar, we maintain, effectually clears the way for a full and unreserved statement of the whole circumstances of the transaction; for, if the statements of the witness are true, and capable (if proof, he need be under no fear of legal proceedings from any quarter. The old maxim that' the greater the truth the greater Ihe libel,' under which Mr Bridges shelters himself, is no longer true; that a truth told in the public interest is not a libel, the merest tyro in legal knowledge knows. If, therefore, Mr' Bridges' statement is true, it is for the public good ,that it; should be substantiated ; if it is not, it ought never to have been insinuated. But, true or false, to make such a statement and then refuse'to throw further light upon it, but to leave it so that a thousand damaging suspicions may be entertained, without, perhaps, a shadow of foundation, is a posi'ion which is wholly untenable on any principle of fair dealing." The ordinary general meeting of the National Bank of New Zealand (Limited) was held on August 19, at the City Terminus Hotel, London, 'Mr C.Magniac, the chairman, presiding.' The report, an abstract of which appeared in the limes, was taken as read. The chairman, in moving the adoption of the report and accounts, regretted that the accounts had not been in the hands of the shareholders earlier, Although in this respect there was a slight improvement over the last occasion, and he had no doubt it would continue. Mr Bridges, who had worked very advantageously in the interests of the bank, had been appointed in the place of Mr Burns in the colony. It was not thought advisable to. renew Mr Burns' engagement, and his resignation had, th'refore, been accepted by the Board. The election of a general manager was now under the consideration of the directors. At the formation of the bank a number of gentlemen were appointed as local directors at the different places, and at first the arrangement worked very advantageously for the bank; but it had since been deemed advisable to alter 'the system, and the resignation of all these gentlemen had been placed in the hands of the directors. Last year there was a report that the bank would sustain a loss of £10,000 through a bad-debt at Nelson, The directors considered the amount had been greatly exaggerated, and thought they might lose some £2,000, as he stated at the meeting; but in the end their loss was oi)ly £800. There, had been other losses in the year, but had more care been exercised, these bad debts would not have been so' large, and th» directors had expressed a very strong opinion in this respect to. those in the colony. .They wished to do a safe and steady business. Turning, to the accounts, he said the capital stood the same as before, and at present they had no intention of making a further call, nlthJugh, of course, farther capital would be required should there be a large increase in the business of the bank.., As to note' circulation, they now atood second tnly to the Bank of New Zealand. List year their liabilities - were . £680,000;. on the present occcasion they were £920,000, showing an increase of £240,000, which he considered highly satisfactory. The _ next item —bills payable and other liabilities—also showed a very large increase, and the item "bills received for collection" was very satisfactory, On the side of the account, "landed property, premises, 1 furniture, fittings, &c., showed a large increase over tho previous .year, Referring to "the profit and loss account, he thought the most satisfactory item .in the account was that they had written off '£4,646 for preliminary expenses, the whole of which had now been off. (Hear, Hear.) They might, perhaps, have,paid more than three per cent, for the half-year,'but they considered that 6 per " cent, per annum, particularly, under present circumstances, was not a bad dividend, and they would be enabled to carry forward £6,850. The report was adopted unanimously; and a dividend at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum declared, The retiring auditors, Messrs Quitter, Ball, and Co., having been re-elected, the proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks to the chairman, ' Ihe Melbourne Herald.publishes the following extract from a letter received from Mr A. D, McTavish, Sandy Creek junction, Palmer goldfieldVj—"At present, although Ihave invested more than I ought to have done in claims, I must Btrongly advise you against being misled by glowing accounts of rich quartz in this quarter; there is no such thing. Thfc whole of the claims yet opened are barely payable, and require extreme judgment and 1 economy to make them oven that. There will, however, be a large field opened here, where auriferous cement combined with quartz mining will require a large amount of machirieiy, and involve a large ' oxpenliture of capital. I have just returned .from a lengthened examination of this quarter, which is as yet only being opened up." Mocking birds are valuable pels in a family of girls. It has been discovered that they can imitate to perfection tho sound of every species "of kiss, from the inspirational and devotional to the' paroxysmal.' When'paterfamilias hereafter hears any suspicious "swee-peep" from the parlour, Angelina will explain that "it was only the mocking-bird." It is said that a ' bird well-trained in this accomplishment will bring 200dols. in Brooklyn. : ," • Hint about Courting: The man who courted n investigation says it isn't so good as an girl.