Untitled

Thames Advertiser, Volume IX, Issue 2334, 18 April 1876, Page 2

The Hon Dr Pollen arrived at the Thames last night by the ' Durham,' on business connected with his department.

Mr James Mackay was amongst the arrivals by the 'Durham' last night. Prom the frequent enquiries which we have heard for tlr's gentleman recently, we take it for granted that his presence in the district will be acceptable to all classes of the community. We understand that his advent here is in connection with the Land Purchase Department-, as relating to the Piako block,

We have beca requested to draw particular attention to the sale of the property of the Nonpareil Gold Mining Company, which is to take place on the mine to-morrow. The machinery, we believe, is amongst the best on the field, and the whole showd realise more than sufficient to cover all liabilities,

We acknowledge the receipt of 5s from Mr E. Lowe on behalf of the widow and children whose cases were represented in yesterdaj'fl issue by "Waiotahi's" letter, Understanding that Mr A. Brodie was receiving subscriptions on account of this family we have handed the donation to him. He informs us that he has received a donation of £1 from Mr John Read towards the same object. We shall be happy to acknowledge further donations towards the relief of this very manifest case of distress. Since the above was written, we have received the following subscriptions to the same fund from persons who, so far as we are aware, do not even know the recipientH.P., 10s ; JP.L., ss; 0.M., 2s (id; GUI., ss, We shall hand the amount'over to " Waiotahl." At a meeting of the shareholders in the Bismarck and United Kingdom claims, Waitekauri held at Mr Thomas Horskugh's office, Thames, on the 15th instant, in pursuance of advertisement, it was resolved to form a company for the working of the above claims, under the Mining Companies' Act, 1872, Capital, £15 000, in 15,000 shares of £1 each, nil paid ' shares to be allotted pro rata to shareholders in both claims, on the principle of 500 scrip to a full share. The number of directors was fixed at five, the first directors to be Messrs John Brown, John Gfoldsworthy, Matthew Yaughan,' Christian Wick, Louis Melhose, and Frederick' I)make, and rules for the management aud purposes of the company adopted. Mr Thomas Horsbrugh wasappoiuted manager, with instructions to take tho necessary steps for the incorporation of the company,

•Ir E. H, Marshall, formerly of 'Auckland, uow of Wanganui, appears to have his hands full at present. He has written to the WoMijanui Herald respecting the of the Ghrc nklc, and suggested a horsewhipping as tho proper argument to apply to the obdurate editor. The editor of the Chronicle replies to Dr Marshall's letter, and says he is ready, and invites the doctor to " coino on." The end has not yet comc. •

Will——"'I *" The Bay ol.Plenty Tim has the following respecting the collision which occurred on Tuesday last, between tho 8 s.' Rowena and the cutter 'Vincent' :-"The Yincent was just inside the reef at Maunganui, entering the harbour, and the 'Rowena' was steaming outward?, the vessels being within a few score yards of each other. The steamer reversed her engines when she heard the shouts from the cutter, but too ] a » e to gave ft collision, and the two vessels met close under the Mount, the ' Rowena' (running into the Btarboard quarter of the 'Vincent', and making a gap in her nearly down to tho waterline. Mr F. E, Hamlin, who was steering at the time (Captain Burke being forward on the look-out) was thrown overboard by the concussion, the captain and crew getting on the steamer, as, when Mr Hamlin managed to pull himself up on board the&' Vincent,' he found no one in the vessel, and acting to the best of his judgment, steered her for the beach near the Pilot Bay, the captain aud crew arriving on shore immediately afterwards in one of the steamer s boats. The 'Vincent' now lies on the beach where she was stranded,"

The correspondent of a contemporary writing from Opotiki records the following:—''An amusing incident is going the rounds which is too good to be lost. A well-known and highlyesteemed coasting skipper, being windbound here, borrowed a horse and went cut with some friends for a ride. Arriving at a shallow stream, the horse appears to have considered it incumbent upon itself to leap oven This feat being entirely beyond the calculations of the son of Neptune, he came at once to grief in tho middle of the rivulet, and rising from his watery bed, and shaking his fist at his retreating horse, he critd in a voice both loudandstern. 'Ah, you brute, if I had you in five fathoms of water, I'd pay you out for this.' This beats the man who came into the store the other morning and brought three basins; one for himself, one for his mate, and one to veer and haul on,"

Regarding the Lake country, a correspondent writes to the local paper:-"The numerous baths in the,district, and especially those at Sulphur Point,' continues to attract numbers of persons possessed of almost all the ills the flesh is heir to, in order that they may obtain the relief or cure which everybody declares will result to them if they only determine to give the baths a fair trial. The names given to gome of these baths is puzzling. We have the Oil, Coffee Pot, Stonewall Jackson, Cameronian, McFlugh's, Pain Killer, Kill or Cure, Knock me Over, Last Resource, together with numbers of others I need not trouble to mention. I understand that some wonderful cures have been effected, thus inspiring confidence in those whose cases appear slow, or at least they think so. It is a great pity that a proper analysis of the various springs has not been made, in order that persons affected could be advised by their medical men which baths were most likely to bo beneficial for their individual case. Now, the inTalid has nothing to do but to try all the baths, thus experimenting on himself more for the benefit/possibly, of posterity than for his own personal benefit. The geysers at Whakarewarewa continue to be very active, and altogether the visitors of late have had no cause to complain, and ; lam certain they do not. Old Tikitero must not be ignored, neither will it be, for I hear that several of the old hands are about returning there. I fancy a change about for the invalids during this fine weather will act most beneficially for some of them at least.

• A Gisborne correspondent of the Bay oj Plenty Times writes" Keiha, a native scoundrel, one of a dczen who seized Walker's cattle, defies the summons issued by ihe Resident Magistrate. They have taken shelter in Keiha's whare, which' they have fortified, and swear they will oppose with force any attempt to take them. Captain Porter is in active communication with the Government. Great caul ion is required to prevent bloodshed. A later report has just been circulated that Governor has promised to settle matters by paying the natives c'aiins, and condone their contempt for civil authority."

The Bay.or Plenty Times of the Bth instant contains an article severely condemnatory of the. way the General Government carry out the arrangements fot their land sales. It concludes thus" This hole and comer business is simply disgraceful, Another matter in connection with this forthcoming land sale which is most unwarranted is the excessive upset price set on much of the land to be offered for sale;—for instance/ condemned fifty-acre blocks, actually considered unfit for allotment to military settlers in former days, are put up at a reserve of £1 per acre,' sections which we unhesitatingly say are not worth at the outside 5s an acre. Another proof, if any was required, of the loose manner in which the schedules for land pales under the New Zealand Settlement Land Act, 1863, are compiled is afforded in the fact that many of the sections notified as for sale in the Gazette referred to are the property of private individuals! We reiterate, verily, 'something is rotten in the state of Den» mark, 1 "

About three weeks previous to the death of yice-Presulent. Henry Wilson, of the TJnited States, he visited the residence of Mfa Mary B, Hardy, the well-known test medium in Boston, and held communication with his wife Harriet and son Hamilton. They then informed him that he would soon be sick, and warned him to be extremely cautious in regard to mental labour, or he would speedily come to their side of life. Although a believer in spiritualism, the information he received was so startling that he doubted its correctness, and after the seance had ended, and he had taken up his hat to leave the house, he turned to Mrs Hardy with this enquiry, "Has your experience as medium led you to place implicit confidence in the reliability of spirit communication 6f a prophetic nature ?" Mis Hardy replied that Buch had been her . experience on several occasions, but that spirits of a high order seldom made predictions concerning the future; that when a spirit did so positively, and she was satisfied as to the reliability of the spirit, she should have no hesitation in believing'. "Should such a Bpirittellyou," said Mr Wilson, "that you would soon be very sick, perhaps die, would you believe it?'' "I should not hesitate to do so," was her answer,

It will be remembered that two gentlemen named Hampden and Walsh hare had a long pending controversy upon the rotundity of the eartb. The matter has been before the Queen's Bench, and the Lord Chief Justice, in delivering judgment, said this was an action to recover back the sum of £500. The plaintiff entertained viewß contrary to the convexity of the world, and be published a challenge that he was willing .to deposit a sum from £50 to £500, and defy all philosophers, divinei, and scientific professors in the United Kingdom to prove the rotundity and revolution of the world from Fcripture, reason, or fact, or that they could exhibit to the satisfaction of any intelligent referee a convex railway, canal or lake. The challenge was accepted by a Mr Wallace, who undertook to Bhow, visibly aud by measurement in feet and inches the convexity of a lake. The money i was deposited in a bank in Mr Walsh's name as a stakeholder, and an agreement was entered into that if Mr Wallace proved the curvature of any canal, railway or lake by actual demonstration and by measurement to the satisfaction of the defendant and another gentleman and, if they differed, to the satisfaction of an umpire, Mr Wallace was to receive the two sums of £500 deposited, .but if he failed the money was to be paid to the plaintiff. If, however, no decision was come to, owing to the death of either of the two parties, the agreement was to be annulled, or if the experiment could not be tried owing to the weather, a further time than that specified was to be given for the experiment. The referees differed, and the defendant, who had first been apnoiufed one of the referees but resigned, was called upon and acted as umpire, and he decided in favour of Mr Wallace. The plaintiff objected to the payment of the money to Mr Wallace, and demanded his money back, but notwithstanding that Mr Walsh raid the money to Mr Wallace, and the question was whether the plaintiff was entitled to recover back his £500 from the stakeholder. The court, after reviewing all the authorities bearing upon the question, were clearly of opinion that this was a wager; but that as the plaintiff repudiated the bet and demanded the money back before it was paid over, that an action was maintainable for its recovery, and their judgment in the case wflsior the plaiutiff.