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Thames Advertiser, Volume XI, Issue 2929, 31 May 1878, Page 3

An information for assault, with damages estimated at £100, has been laid in the Distriot Court, to be held here on the 13th proximo. The circumstances are snch as show an aggravated and unprovoked attack by a number of natives upon a half-caste engaged at the Kauwaeranga bush, It appears that plaintiff was present at the Shortland Hotel, when Taipari and others assaulted him in a • violent manner, knocking him down and jumping upon him, to the imminent danger of his life, and it is alleged without the slightest cause, as no previous acquaintance between the parties can be shown. Mr 3. N, Brassey is retained by the plaintiff, and a jury ,is to be empannelled to try the case. Y?e stated.a r few days ago that the Borough footpath-menders would .very likely involve the Corporation in an action for damages through the bungling way the asphalt is joined to the old'footpaths, leaving sundry man-traps for unwary:,.pedestrians,. M instance occurred lasi night..' The respected incumbent : of St. Giorge'awas escorting one of the members of his choir home, when, opposite the Queen's Hotel he was forced on to his kneei, and compelled to maintain a recumbent attitude for a few seconds, through the uneveriness of the new path where it joins the old. We are glad to learn that the rev gentleman was not strioußly hurt. It will be seen from an auction announcement elsewhere that the sale of the surplus matarial of the Thames water-race has been Itopped for the present, under instructions, no douM, from the .Government, who, , by this found out that the property belongs to the Thames County, instead of to the Government, A correspondent at Ohinemuri sends an account of a fracas which he alleges took place there between two gentlemen from the Thames, but for obvious reasons we deoline to publish the same, We hear that one of the members of the broking fraternity (Mr D. B. Gellion) is about to add to his business that ol a "knight of the hammer,' and has rented the premises known as the Exchange, with the exception of the offices held in that building by the one-and-a-quarter man (Mr J, D, Wickham). We learn with regret that Mr E. H. Power, the Registrar of Births, lleaths, and Marriages, is about to tender his resignation of the office, and to leave the district for Auckland. Mr Power is one of our oldest residents, having opened the Bank of Australasia in Shortland within Bix months after the Thames was proclaimed a goldfield in 1867. The question of a recreation ground for the Thames was again discussed at a special meeting of Councillors last evening, and an offer for the purchase of ihe Parawai Gardens at £50 per acre was agreed to be submitted to Mr Spencer, the owner. The intention of the Government in purchasing such lands is to assist in providing an endowment for the Borough. The schooner' Marion,' Captain Austen, was expected to arrive last night from Auckland to load timber at the Hauraki Saw-mills for Lyttelton.

The quarterly licensing meeting for the district of Thames and Hauraki will be held at the Court House, Grahamstown, on Tuesday next, the 4th inst. Thero are 41 applications for renewal of licenses in the Thames district, and seven in the Hauraki district, The Dunedin High School Board have received a telegram from Sir Julius Vogel that Mr MaoDonald, second master of the Edinburgh High School, has been appointed rector of the Dunedin High School, He (Sir Julius) says that the Board was fortunate to secure Mr Mao Donald's services, At tho Temuka Police Court Riohard Bell, farmer, Geraldine, charged with sheep stealing, was committed to take his trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court at Timaru. The Herald says the Premier has received a telegram from Kewi, announcing his arrival at Mokau on the 27th instant. Bewi adds that he will be at Waitara on the 20th June, and concludes by saying, "Strive to meet mo there." Miss M. B. Martin, daughter of Mr John Martin, J,P., is the only girl south of the Line who passed the Cambridge local examination last year. Her name stands at the top of Class 111. in honors; Colonel Blewitt, of the 65th Regiment, which corps was for so long in New Zealand, has retired, after a service of upwards of twentyseven yeirs spent in the regiment, He took farewell of the regiment at Dinapore, in India. , The Waitemata County Council have struck a rate.of one shilling in the pound on the rateable property in the Connty, except in those districts where the Road Board system is in force. Wellington on Wednes-"ilSyiw-mpier and Auckland, Passengers:— Messrs Carlott, Clark, Constables Taton and Palmer, Mr and Mrs Dalzell, and Mrs Knowles, The brigantine 'Active' cleared at the Auckland Customs on Wednesday for the Friendly and Navigator Islands, with a large general qrgo of merchandise./ Passengers :— Messrs E. P. Gribbon (supercargo)/ C, Butler, E. W. Parker, and E. P. Dunnergue.' The handy little s,s. 1 Tam o'Shanter' orossed the Manukau bar on Wednesday, on. her way round to Auokland. On arrival she will be put into the Wade trade. A fire was observed on the premises of Messrs Brown and Barrett, in Durham-street, on Wednesday. Mr Hugheß, the Superintendent of the Fire Brigade, says that he observed that one of the beams of the upper story was on fire, with other portions of the wood-work, and a large quantity of paper bags which had been piled on the top of some casks.' Mr Hughes and those who were with him entered through the window; Some buckets of water were promptly fetched, and with the aid of a hand-pump the fire was. soon extinguished. There was a light in tha counting-roora, Mr Geddes, one of the partners, having been engaged in business np till within a quarter of ' an hour of the discovery of the fire. He had left the lieht burning, intending to return. It' is surmised that the fire was caused by rats, j

Many people will learn with regret that .a' change in the head of the relief of .the poor! department has been'made. We learn from' private sources from Wellington 'that the con-; nection of Mr J. Graham, Relieving Officer,with the Government will terminate at the end' of next month. Mr Grahani has for several 1 years occupied the position of Relieving Officii in this city, and the manner in which he per-' formed his duties has earned for him the, gratitude of the poor with whom he was! brought in contact, and the respect of the! public and the Government for the systematio 1 and discriminating manner in which public relief was distributed.—Herald,

At the end of last year the ship 'City of J Auckland,' Captain Ralls, and the ship' Famenoth.' Captain Auld, sailed from Auckland within a day or two of each other. Great interest was manifested relative to the sailing qualities of the vessels, and a considerable amount of money was laid as to which would reach home in the shortest time. From papers to hand by the Suez mail we find that both vessels made an excellent passage, the ship ' City of Auckland,' however, proving the victor, making tho run toGravesend in' 93' days, and the 'Famenoth' in 94. The 'Cit} of Auokland'sailed from hero on-the 31st December, arriving at Gravesend on April 3rd. The 'Famenoth' sailed on the 2nd January and arrived oh April 6th,—Herald,. '

A correspondent sends the following biographical sketch, which explains an item of news in the Suez mail;-"In the Suez mail summary there appears the following' A trial, exciting much interest, was held last week in. the Court of Common Pleas, on which a wellknown milliner, Madame Bosalie, .sued My Thistlethwaite, a gentleman, with about£3o,ooo a-year, for £980 for goods supplied during eight months to his wife, who used to in publio, and whose debts he had paid on several occasions. The.jury found for the defendant.' It may be interesting' to some of your readers to know who Mrs Thistlethwaite was, though if there was anyone here who' was quartered in Dublin about 1848 i or who waa at the Great Exhibition in 1851, he will, no doubt, immediately recognise her. Mrs Thistlethwaite,' alias Laura Bell, first appeared in Dublin about 1848, and was from the North of Ireland, and supposed to be of good family. She soon became a leading star, owing to her great beauty and quiet manners, In 1851, during the Exhibition, she oame out in London as lueen of the demi-monde. She generally appeared in Botton Bow in the morning riding a magnificent chesnut horse, which showed her beautiful figure off to great advantage. In the afternoon, elegantly dressed, she drove a most re»i cherchepony carriage with asplendid pair which she managed with consummate skills She Boon became the rage, as she far surpassed' all her colleagues, though there were many beautiful women in London at that time. Shp soon became notorious for her intrigues with the Nepaulese Ambassador, an affair which was greatly talked about at that time ai' the different dubs. She shortly afterwards: married Mr Thistlethwaite, quite a young man, who had just come out in London, and retired into private lifo about the year 1865. She appeared again in public, preaching on Sunday afternoons in the Hanover Square Rooms, where everyone rushed to hear her, and the square being filled with fashionable carriages, more as jf for a popular concert than a Sunday afternoon lecture. She generally appeared on the platform dressed in blaok silk, with plain white collar and cuffs, which showed off her still beautiful figure to great advantage, She lecturod with great ability, and told many home truths to the fashionable world, and was then very popular. It was said at the time that she did a great deal of good, and interested herself greatly in try--IDg t0 "claim fallen women, and that her «rf -j i to what she was doing, Ouida is supposed to have taken her aa one of her principal characters in a celebrated novel. The foregoing paragraph in the Suez news seems to contradict the idea that she had altered altogether for the good."-Eerald. Through the Timaru police not having first obtained a warrant they failed to arrest James Blythe, the commercial travoller of Dunedin out on bail and awaiting trial, charged with embezzling monies belonging to the Albion Brewery Company. The police traced the abEconder to the barquentine 'Annie Bow,' getting ready to sail for Sydney. Before the boat reached the vessel the absconder spied them and took flight to another boat, the 'Mendoza,' Oa the arrival of the police officers on board that vessel, Blythe went down into the cabin and did not come up again. One policeman went down, but was assaulted by Blythe and the crew, the latter wanting him to show a warrant for the arrest. Shortly after another boat with private people came off, and the police called on them in the Queen's name to assist. They refused, and eventually the police returned ashore to get a proper warrant to arrest Blythe. Before it could be obtained the vessel sailed for Sydney with the absconder on board,

The barques' Cerastes' and 1 Martha Fisher' cleared at London for Auokland on April 9th and 10th respectively; and the barque • Lang. Btrae, was oa the berth for Auckland.

Count Zaba, who has been lecturing in Auckland, intends to deliver his address on "Poland" at the Thame* on the 7th proximo (this day week), in aid of the funds of the Mechanics' Institute. The lecture is to be interspersed with music and singing, in which several Thames amateurs will assist. At the Auckland Supreme Court on We:lnes' day, an application was made by Mr George to declare the complete execution of a deed of arrangement in the estate of Lewis Brothers. The deed was signed by the several arranging debtors except Mr Gabriel Lewis, who is in England, and the deed purported to be signed by his attorney, Morris Jjewis, with power of attorney from the debtor, The deed was an assignment of the estate to trustees, with power of sale.—Mr Hesketh (amious eurira) said there was some doubt (1) ri to whether the bankruptcy proceeding could be carried on under power of attorney; (2), as to the sufficiency of the power of attorney.—Mr George thought that the learned Judge of the Supreme Court (Mr Justice Gillies) had decided the point by ruling that a power of attorney, when without any limiting condition, gave the fullest power to the attorney to act for his principal, even to the selling of his property.—The Registrar thought the determination of the question had better be referred to the Court upon the return of Mr Justice Gillies from the Court of Appeal. The Registrar adjourned the further hearing of the appli< cation for a week.—Herald,

The public have been somewhat astonished at the large prices paid for country land in the Poverty Bay district. By the late sale at Gisborne the Government will be enabled to net a large sum of money, while good will be done to the whole colony by land being opened for settlement and cultivation. We understand that there had been purchased for the Government some 300,000 acres' of land in the district between Waiapu and Poverty Bay, but that nothing is - being done 1 to make it available fiir settlement, (owing to some disagreement between Ministers and the Land Purchase Commissioner, Mr J,' .Wilson, who holds certain native agreements till his claims are satisfied, Surely the Government can find means of settling with Mr Wilson, or ot compelling him to give up the 1 documents he holds, if he is detaining them : wrongfully. The land, we believe, is of first-, clats quality, and if put up to auction would; undoubtedly bring a high price, probably £1 an : acre,

The Native Lands Court opened on Wednesday in the large hall at Cambridge, which the committee placed at the disposal of the Court free of charge, There were about four hundred natives present, who behaved in : a most orderly manner, Each hapu had appointed : certain of their number to keep order, whose duty it should bo, at once to turn out any person causing disturbance. But' their services as yet have not been required. The first case taken was the subdivision of the Mangawhero Block, applied for by Mr William?, He had purchased the intercstsof twenty-seven out of thirty-twoowners, and applied to the Court to define those interests. ■ There were 6,178 acres in the block, and the Court adjudged 5,223 acres to Mr Williams —being the quantity to which, according to the evidence, he was entitled. TheMaungakaretu Block was then taken, but the owners applied to have the claim dismissed, as there had been several surveys made of portions of it, and they wished to make separate applications for each of the surveys. Hungahunga, No. 3 block, near Te Aroha, containing 1,229 acres, was next taken. This was keenly disputed between the Ngatiteoro, Ngaiterangi, and Ngatitawhaki hapus, who applied in tho afternoon to have it adjourned till to-monow to try and settle it amongst themselves. Te Ngakau, the King's secretary, was present to-day, and addressed the Court with respect to certain lands in which he was interested. Query: Is this the first result of Sir George Grey's visit to the King ?—Feraß

The Lyltdton Times of the 10th inst. says: —"In consequence of the telegram published yesterday relative to the oalling out of the militia, Mr R. J. S. Harman telegraphed to Wellington as follows:—'Christohurch, 9th May, 1878.—Hon. J, 1, Fisher, Wellington,— Will you kindly lay this be'ore Defence Minister, and obtain reply. lam asked, as an old volunteer officer, to call a meeting of old volunteers and others desirous of offering their services to Government. Before doing so I wish to ascertain whether Government desire such offer of service.—R, J. S. Harman,' To this he received the following reply' Government Buildings, 9thMay.-R, J. S. Harman, Christchurch.—Much obliged for your telegram re defence. Until it is definitely known that war is Government would not be justified in moving in volunteer and militia question, but will be glad to have on hand any expression of opinion from officers and men of experience re volunteer extension and enrolment.—J. T. Fisher.' "