Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 333, 8 June 1869, Page 2

Local and General.

Magisterial. — There were no police cases at the Christchurch Magistrate's Court this 1 morning. A large number of petty divil actions were heard before C. C. Bowen. -Esql,' K.M. T. Court of Revision, Mount Herbert.—-^ Mr E. J. Lee held a court this morning, ai. the Resident Magistrate's Court, Lyttelton There were no appeals against the objections' •which are sustained. ' i . ; Lyttei/ton Municipal Council. — The nsual weekly meeting toot 'place last night Present— His Worship the Mayor, Councillors England, Allwrigh't, and "Ward. These not being a sufficient number to form a quorum, the meeting was' adjourned until Thursday evening next. Tne Late Wrecks at Tekaru.— We are glad to note that the sum of £278 has been | collected in the Timaru district, for the . "widow and children of the late Duncan "■■'■'Cameron, who was drowned while doing gallant service in the life boat. Captain Gibson, harbour master, .will- gladly receive contributions to the fund.

Provincial Gazette. — A Gazette dated on Saturday, but not receiTed at this office until yesterday afternoon, notifies that Messrs A. C. Knight, W. H. "Wynn Williams, J. T. Peacock, and J. Evans Brown, having resigned their seats as members of the Executive, his Honor the Superintendent has been pleased to accept such resignation. The resignation of Mr Knight as Provincial Secretary and Secretary for Public Works, is also accepted. His Honor has appointed Messrs E. Jollie, W. H. Wynn Williams, R. H. Rhodes, and A. Hornbrook, members of the Executive Council, the first named to be President. Mr E. Jollie is appointed Provincial Secretary and Secretary for Public Works. Rifle Association. — A meeting of the Council was held at White's Hotel last eveniug. Present : Messrs Murray-Aynsley (chairman), E. B. Bishop, Simmons, Mundy, Barnes, and Alport. The report of the committee appointed to make arrangements for the presentation of the prizes was read and confirmed. Votes of thanks were passed to Mrs Rolleston, E.B. Bishop, H- E. Alport, A. J. White, City Surveyor, the Chairman of the Literary Institute, — Savage, Messrs Wilson and Alporfc, H. P. Murray-Aynsley, and Petersen. The collector handed in £6 6s 6d on account of subscriptions. Several accounts, amounting to £24 2s 9d, were ordered to be paid. The secretary reported verbally, that on application at the Government offices, he found that the reserve for the rifle range had been made by the Provincial Council, and that a Crown Grant would be issued to the Superintendent, and the Association would receive formal advice on the matter from the Provincial Secretary's office in a few days. It was resolved " That the President and Messrs Bishop, Alport, Mundy, and Simmonds, be appointed a committee to communicate with the commanding officer of the district as to arrangements to be made to utilise the new rifle range, and to report at the next monthly meeting." Hau-haus at Tehuka. — Our Timaru con temporary of Saturday last contains the following:—On Saturday evening last the good folks of Temuka were thrown into a state of great alarm by a report to the effect that the Maoris residing at the Arowhenua pah contemplated an attack upon the township. Whether the report was a hoax played off by Europeans upon their neighbours, or whether the report emanated from the Maoris themselves, we are at present unable to state, but it was no joke in the eyes of the denizens of Temuka at the time. We are assured that the volunteers turned out en masse at the call ot duty, and held a meeting to Bee what was to be done in the face of so serious a crisis. Pistols, long rusty from disuse, were brought out and burnished for the fray. Those of the inhabitants who did not possess the regulation fire-arms as issued to Her Majesty's forces, at once betook themselves to their kitchens, and armed themselves with the domestic irons, in readiness for the melee. The inhabitants valiantly guarded their houses for some hours, and towards midnight the alarm subsided, owing, no doubt, to the bold front shown by the gallant volunteers, who deserve our most sincere gratitude for their brave and noble conduct on the occasion. The enemy did not put in an appearance, and it is well for them they did not 1 Our correspondent gives publicity to a few of the reports which were current, but he does not say how they arose. We believe Sergeant Ramsay has set matters right, for he called upon the Maoris at the pah, and requested that they would not again frighten the inhabitants of Temuka. Acclimatisation op Salmon an© Trout in Tasmania.— The following letter on this subject from Mr Gould, in Landand Water, will be read with interest, and is especially deserving of attention from the salmon experimentalists in New Zealand : — " My dear Buckland, — No one but yourself and our indefatigable friend Mr Youl could be more pleased than I was this morning when I received a letter from my son Charles (who, as you are aware, is making a geological survey of Tasmania for the Government), dated Jan. 2, 1869, in which he says : — * Mr Morton Allport caught for our club dinner to the Governor four trout, weighing together 181 b, a very pretty dish of fish even for England. The Derwent will be thrown open for angling in the course of a few days, when we may hope to hear of some large captures, and possibly see our first salmon hooked.' You will perceive by this latter passage, that no salmon have yet been caught, and I still adhere to the opinion I have often expressed to you that, in my time at least, we shall never hear of this partially sea-loving fish being established in the Australian waters. To render the attempt successful lam quite sure that no trout nor any other predatory fish should be introduced into the same river, in which respect a great mistake has been made in Tasmania. Let this hint be taken advntaage of when attempting the introduction of salmon into the rivers of New Zealand, in which country and Tasmania only is there any chance of success'-. The trout, I have always told you, might be acclimatised, and so also, I think, may the char in the deep isolated mountain lakes of both countries. Noneof the ►rivers of the Australian continent are, in my opinion, adapted either for trout or salmon. The introduction of the trout I consider to be a very great boon to the Tasmanians, but that of the salmon, if it ever be effected, will be a vastly more important one. Many Australians even now, I believe, spend some of their summer months in the more temperate island of Tasmania, and if to its other attractions that of salmon fishing and salmon eating be added, it would doubtless be resorted to by far greater numbers. It certainly possesses the finest climate I have ever, had the good fortune' to live in, and the air of no place nearer their home could be more genial and invigorating to the Australians than that of this, tb'them, southern sanatarium. Sincerely wißhing the Australians and Mr Youl may be rewarded for their praiseworthy exertions, I remain^ my dear Buckland, ever yours •sincerely, John Gould."

Velocipede Race at Liverpool. — Race fob a. Silver Cup. — The introduction of the velocipede into Liverpool, though only of a recent date, is rapidly developing itself , and a very excising eight-mile race, for a prize of a silver cup, lately came off, the competitors being members of the Liverpool Velocipede Club. About three o'clock in the afternoon, the hour appointed for the start, only five velocipedeans came up to the starting post and mounted their vehicles. Just as the vehicles got under way, one of them knocked down a little boy, but the rider kept his seat. The pace was rather slow, owing to the crowded state of the streets, but as the bicycles gained the open country, the velocipedeans began to work in earnest. The rate at which they got over the ground was astonishing, and several horsemen and carriages following the racers found it a most difficult task to keep up with them, although the road 8 were rather rough for the bicycles. At sixteen minutes to four o'clock the Marine Parade at Waterloo was reached by Mr Browne, who rode a much larger velocipede than the other competitors. The distance traversed was a little over eight miles, which was got over in 44 minutes. Beyond the mishap mentioned above, the bicycles ran clear of everything. "Pretty Preachers." — Lord Shaftesbury told a pleasant story at a ragged meeting in Sheffield, of a " pretty preacher." Ladies would be surprised (said the noble earl) what effect they could produce if they would undertake to teach young men of the ragged and forlorn class. They would be treated with affection and with reverence. In one of the worst parts of London there was an institution which he visited. In one room he found about tbirty-flve men listening to the teachings of the daughter of a small shopkeeper in the neighbourhood. She was one of the prettiest women he ever saw in his life. He noticed that there was no one present but the young woman with those rough men, and said to the Superintendent, " Are you not afraid to leave my dear little friend alone with all those men ? " He replied, " I am." "Then why don't you go to her?" " You mistake my fear. lam not afraid of their doing her any harm. They love her so much that they would kiss the ground on which she walks ; but lam afraid some person may step in, and, not being under authority, or knowing the manners of the place, may say something impertinent to her; and if he did, he wouldn't leave the placeali ye." England's Fighting Strength at Sea. On the subject of the reduction in the Naval Estimates, in connection with a possible war with France, or with the United States, an English paper remarks :— " What we look in vain for in Mr Childers' statement is a consistent and defensible theory of what the Navy of Great Britain ought to be. Taking one class of ship with another, our naval strength is, perhaps, about equal to that of France. Ought this presumed equality to satisfy us ? It is something, of course, to know that if we had to fight France alone, and could concentrate all our maritime force in the Channel, the chances would not be against us. But it will be seen that this hypothesis involves two very questionable assumptions. If England is aguii involved in a great war — and the main reason why the Admiralty exists is the possibility that she may be so involved — she may have to fight single-handed. But it is very unlikely that she would have to fight with a single-handed enemy. Whether our love of non-intervention and the general tone of our diplomacy will ultimately keep us out of war may be questioned ; but there can be no doubt that it is admirably calculated to keep us out of allies. In proclaiming our indifference to European ' complications' we are apt to forget that it may not be in our power to be equally indifferent to European combinations. A policy of entire abstention from Continental affairs is a policy which dispenses with the aid of friends ; and consequently it requires, more than any other, an adequate supply of physical strength. Supposing France, and Russia were on one side, and Great Britain were alome on the other, what would be the probable history of the contest ? Again, in measuring our fleet with that of amy other Power, it must always be borne in mind that it cannot be completely concentrated in the Channel without involfing consequences almost as diastrous as defeat. We shall have to protect our colonies and our commerce ; and to do this effectually, we may have to detach a far greater number of tthips than may be required on the part of the enemy to put them in serious peril. A small squadron, of which the destination is unknown, may give ample employment abroad to two or three squadrons of the same size just at. the moment when every ship is urgently wanted at home. The omission of this element is very conspicuous in Mr Childers' reference to- the United States. « They possess,' he says, ' no sea-going armoured ships, but they have an immense fleet available for defensive purposes.' Perhaps this is exactly what they wish to have. It must not be assumed that the want of sea-going armoured ships is, under all circumstances, a weakness. In a war between Great Britain and the United States, the policy of the latter might be to undertake no offensive operations against our fleet, but to confine themselves to the defence of their own coast, and to the destruction of our mercantile navy. For the former purpose Mr Childers tella ub they are well -equipped. What he does not tell us is how they are off with regard to the latter. The example of the Alabama abundantly shows what a few fast cruisers way do in the way of destroying commerce, and our turret ships with their 25---ton guns and twelve knots an hour would be I about as competent to deal with them as a rhinoceros would be to overtake a greyhound. At present all we know' is that a war with the United States is not, unhappily, an impossible:event,7and that : tb.e-.kind. of_:warfare which would most barass us is also the kind which would best suit American interests and th'e' American character. In these two facts there is sufficient cause for anxiety.

Payment tor Wheat. — The value of the wheat imported into England in 1868 was £22,069,353, as compared with £24,985,096 in 1867, and £12,983,090 in 1866. For Russian wheat £6,337,135 was paid last year, as compared with £9,747,004 in 1867, and £4,823,361 in 1866; for Prussian, £3,358,296, as compared with £4,359,805 in 1867, and £2,810,851 in 1866; and for American, £3,385,601, as compared with £3,254,213 in 1867, and £375,029 in 1866.