WELLINGTON.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 266, 6 March 1873, Page 5

WELLINGTON.

(From, a Conespendent)'February 17thThe- elections; for the Provincial Council are not ov.er, some of the country districts having yet to return representatives. The Provincial Secretary, Mr. Bunny, Btill retains his- seat for Wairarapa. For Wellington. city s one of th& recently elected members is -a Mr. Carter, carpenter, formerly of- Dunedin,. who has vehemently declared himself to be " the friend of the_ working man," and has enlisted the eym-' pathies. of" a sufficient number of that class to return him. Tf the rapid utterance of an unintelligibly heterogenous mass of words is worth, anything, thisgentleman will prove a valuable acquisU tion to the Couucil, to the province, and to. the colony at lar^e. Of the other successful candidates nothing at present needs be said. We must wait for the sitting of the Council, and by their works judge them. T-lkeopmsUuptloiv of. th& raiMay from.

the city to the Hutt is proceeding at a very slow pace. The line ha 3 been let, Bub-let, and sub-sub-let over and over again to the navvies, and the time when we shall hear the shriek of the iron horse seems very remote. The Messrs Brogden do not seem to have hit upou a hajpy speculation in their importation of navvies, many of whom have left town to seek employment up-country, being dissatisfied with the low rate of wages offered by the firm. Several cases have appeared in Court, in which Brogden's agent has sued some of the "new importations" for non-fulfilment of their contract, and no doubt many more will follow. The lowest tenderers for the Upper Hutt Railway were Messrs Proudfoot and Co . of Dunedin ; but, as their tender was found to be informal, the contract was given to the next lowest, Mr M'Kerdy, of Wellington, whose figure was £19,970. Tenders for the remaining portion of the line will shortly be invited. Chief amongst the items which come under the head "City Improvements" are the alterations and additions to the General Government buildings, which are being rapidly proceeded with. During the last session of Assembly great anxiety was manifested, owing to the rottenness of the timber, at the possibility of the. roof of the house falling in, in the event of an earthquake, and damaging the pates of hon. members. The fear, however, of such a catastrophe is now dispelled, and next sessiou our representatives will be able to sit in solemn conclave without the dread of a sudden collapse of walls and roof. The new public hall, which has been in the hands of the contractor for the last six or seven months, is at length completed. This is a spacious and capitally planned building, being equally suitable for a theatre, ballroom, meeting hall, or for any other similar purpose. A theatrical company has engaged it fur a season, and called it the Theatre Royal, by which name it will no doubt in future be known. This company gave their opening performance on Thursday, the 13th nit., the piece played being "London Assur mcc," which was witnessed by a numerous auditory. I hear, however, that their efforts to attract public patronage will not be successful for long. The idiosyncracies of the Wellingtonians resemble those of an overgrown booby. They are "pleased with a rrtttle and tickled with a straw ; " yet they soon tire of their plaything, and cast it aside as having no further attraction. • Thare are few other buildings of recent construction worihy of much notice. I must, however, mention the recently-erected steam mills of Mr. Tonks, brother of Mr. E. Tonks of Lawrence, who carries on a large business as a corn, timber, and coal merchant. (Another brother owns a ship, which is engaged in conveying coals from Newcastle.) Mr. Tonks new premises, which are two storeys in height, are immediately opposite his old place of business in Man-ners-street, and are as commodious as they are substantial. Something novel in the way of cricket has just transpired. A grand family reunion match was played on the Te Aro cricket ground-, the players being composed entirely of the members of tbe Dixon family, whose number in the colony alone exceeds 130. Many of the players hn/& probably never handled the willow before, and great fun was excited by their awkward exhibitions ; but the affair altogether passed off very pleasantly. In the evening t;he Dixonians sat down to a substantial supper, and passed a few hours together veiy merrily. Much excitement at present prevails amongst boating men, who are actively training and making preparations for the coming Interprovinciiil Regatta, which takes place next month. Had a sports-man-like enthusiasm and unanimity pervaded the various boating clubs all through the season, Wellington would have been prepared to maintain an honorable—if not a first position, in the forthcoming^ contest. As it is, owing to continual squabbling instead of steady working, it is scarcely to be hoped that our men will pull off" any of the principal events. The Canterbury crews, on the other hand, (as is always the case in that truly sporting province), have been going into the work of training in a manner which leaves little doubt as to their taking first honors in the regatta. With a fine sheet of water liko Wellington harbor, and the modern appliances at their command, our men will surely feel their position keenly when struggling in a stern chase after their opponents, who have not had the same natural advantages to assist them while training. The Wellington races, which have been suspended for a number of years, owing to the apathy which the people here appear to manifest in all such matters after the first excitement is over, have been revived, and, come off immediately after the regatta, on the Hutt course. A good mcct — at least for this slow village— is anticipated. Your readers will not have forgotten the wreck of the City of Newcastle with the then supposed loss of all on board. In connection- therewith^ Imay mention an incident, which may not prove uninteresting. When intelligence reached Wellington, supplemented by the apparently ti'nthfnr report of the swamping of the boat containing the passengers who had put off from the sinking ship, a resident here, whose wife was one of those who were deemed to be lost, gathered his - five little ones around him, and assumed the sombre garb of mourning, and wept " for the wife and mother, as for one who had departed to the ** silent land." When, however, news arrived" of" the survivors having been picked up by the John Knox, and conveyed to Sydney, the father, in his excitement and joy, became nearly beside himself. One of his first acts was to hurry out of sight all signs of mourning, dress his children in their gayest attire, and pack them off to the circus, which happened to be performing here at the time. The porr fellow, who had before received the condolence of his friends in moody silence, now listened 1 to. their congratulations with a beaming countenance. The motherha3 since returned to her anxiously expectant family ; and' she rather thinks j Bhe won't venture to sea again in a- great hurry. I don't blame her.. Another gentleman here,, whose wife was also one of the shipwrecked people, had inserted an obituary notice in the local papers,, stating where, when, arfd the manner in which she had met with her death. He Uftji ajgp written. iett^s tq. the. gapera.

against the can*ain of -ho i'l- • accusing him of cnJpa' h< .• , ■ j and demanding that he should b t - p. i: i,UV to the utmost extent that the law allowed. However, as his wife has_ returned to his bosom, I have no doubt these f clings are assuaged. The increasing scarcity of coal, caused by the strike of the Newcastle colheis, is cusing no small amount of anxiety amongst consumers. Stocks are becoming exhausted ; and should no supplies be forthcoming, there will soon he no fuel for our steamers, factories, mills, nor for private use, and no -material wherewith to supply us with gas. This crisis, however, has had one good result. It has had the effect of causing a large number of in flnential gentlemen in Wellington to form a joint-stock company for the purpose of developing the valuable coal deposits on tbe West Coast ; and no doubt, before long, the colony will be supplied with abundance of coal from the Grey equal to the Newcastle article, and a large quantity exported. From a telegram received by the Government from the Hon. Julius Yogel the other day, it would appear that there is a probability of the American Senate <Tanring a subsidy to Mr. Webb, of £100,000 a year for ten ye;>rs. Probabilities, hmvovcr, arp never certainties, and ti;is rr>».v prove a delusion and a sii«r e# Shares in the new National "Hank ar-- , being rapidly t iken up. Thbtnt:i „!>> , ber of apt'liei r ions now a».'-n 40,200, and, Mccordinij to a ivl nr - "„-,- •rvAva. from An'klaml. a lar«.'e number if additional applications are expected from Australia. A general fealing of disappointment at present exists at the conduct of those who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of cataviiiii ioe itu* pn^tie amusement at the new theatre. The Magnet' Troupe having announced their intention of shortly performing in Wellington, the "parties" above mentioned ~ have secured the only other public hnll in the place, (the Oddfellows' Hall), and demand that the troupe shall pay them a third of their takings, with the alternative of being prevented from performing. Sharp pract'ce, isn't it? Whooi ing cough, has been, prevalent. amongst child -en, but is now subsiding. A proposal has jnst been made by Messrs O'Neill (M.H.R.) and Thomas, to construct a street tramway through the city. The matter is at present under the consideration of the City Council.