Local Intelligence.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1860, 25 April 1863, Page 3

Local Intelligence.

Prospective Town Boabd. — We are as yet not aw.ire into whose province the lighting of the town will fall. But it certainly strikes us that the sooner some action is taken in this matter the better. A stranger passing by the site of the proposed New Zealand Bank the other night, might have narrowly escaped the chance of interring himself nolens volens, as what appeared to be a grave lay open there a few nights ago. Considering •• the burning and shining lights " of the Province are about to be gathered together shortly in Council, the least we can do is give them some facility to avoid personal intra — mural interment, especially as their light " being of a mental and not physical character, it is unavailable for the purposes of guiding them through the pitfalls with which the streets at present abound. We hope to find them principals in useful legislation, not in coroner's inquests. Branch Post Office. — The branch post office *t Mr Crease's shop in Willis Street is now fairly established and open for the use of the public. The letter box is, we believe, cleared twice a day, at 11 and 3 o'clock, but it would add much to the efficiency of this institution if the letters were taken to the chief office, say, half an hour before the despatch of the mails. Accidental Death. — We regret to record that j Mr Kirwan, jun., whose accident we mentioned the other d»y, died on Wednesday afternoon from the internal injuries he had received. The N.Z.S.N. Company— We understand that the Company have bought the plot of reclaimed land having frontages to Grey-street and Larnbton Quay. This corner block, exactly opposite to the Odd Fellowa' Hall, will give the Company a com - manding site for every description of wharf and steamboat business. Elrotro-Bioloqt.— The public wfll be glad to luaru that Captain Wihon having returned from his tour through the other Provinces, now intends giving another, lecture in the Odd Fellows Hall on Tuesday evening. Truth stbangeb than Fiotioh. — In another column will be found the extraordinary nariative of, the wreck of the Peruvian, on the northern coast of Australia, and the escape of one of her crew from a captivity of seventeen years. About five years ago, two white girls aged about 18 and »nd 10, were discovered on an island near Port Curtis, the only English words they could speak being apparently their own names " Maria " and •• Kitty." Theae girls are still in the Benevolent Asylum at Sydney, and it was at first thought probable that they might have bum the children ofaomeofthe Peruvian's passengers, as the distance of the island from the shoal where the ves■el was lost, is only 300 miles and easily traverse able by boats. This expectation, it will be seen by the nerrafcive, is wholly disappointed, and the circumstances connected with their parentage &c, remains as great a mystery as ercr. The Nk&son Gold Fields. — The Examiner of the 15th inst. has the following :-« " The party of diggers referred to in our last at intending to prospect at the head of the Wangapeka, and probably in the Karamea, until a tract is opened for them to the Lyell by Mr Rochfort, left town yesterday for Wangapeka, a supply of stores having preceeded them on Monday. The party were eighteen in number, and they are as fine a body of men as could anywhere be met with. We shall regard with interest their attempt to open the new ground which will first engage their attention, of the richcess of which such favourable opinions have been expressed. A small party of men, also from Otago. but unconnected with those already spoken of, have engagedjto prospect the Karamea by crossing the range at the head of the Baton, or about twenty miles north of Wangapeka, and a public subscription has been made to assist the undertaking. This is the pass spoken of by Mr Hough, and will bring the men directly at the foot of Mount Arthur. We believe that further arrivals from Dunedin may be looked for daily ; and letters have been received iii Nelson from diggers on the Arrow river, making inquiries concerning the Boiler diggings, evidently with the intention of paying them a .visit. It is to be regretted that this tide of arrivals had not set in earlier in the season. Ominous. — Those who have faith in omens will read the following with interest. Alluding to the foundering of the American iron-clad Monitor, the Sydney Morning Herald says: — " This ignominious end to a vessel from which, and from the imitations of which, so much was expected, contrasts unfortunately with its rather presumptuous name. It was called " Monitor" by Mr Ericsson as an admonition to England and Franco that their naval power had departed. ' Leave the Gulf,' ho said, 4 with your frail craft, or perish.' Ib was on the way to that very Gulf that the Monitor herself has perished." The Law of Apprehension. — Just now, through fear of bushrangers, special constables in the out districts of N.B. Wales have been sworn in and armed. "As it is a matter of great importance (says the Herald) in the present Btate of the country that the law with reference to the arrest of criminals should be thoroughly comprehended ; that on the one hand there should be no hesitation where the law for solid reasons has permitted action, and that there should be no rashness or indifference to human life where the law fails to authorise or to justify, their Honors in giving Hentence at the late trials clearly stated the law, evidently with the intention of pointing out the duty of the public in reference to criminals at large. Sir Alfred Stephen said,—* Lastly, it may be well to caution men engaged in a robbery, that every individual attacked by such a person has the immediate right of resistance. Actual or attempted violence, in such cases, may be instantly met by violence. The threat, or other first clearly manifested design to rob, may be opposed at once ; and, if the death of the assailant ensue, the . act will be held by law to be perfectly justifiable. The law is similar with respect to robbers endeavoring to escape the pursuit of justice ; who, if the jr cannot otherwise bo apprehended, may be killed by the officer pursuing them.' " As Om> Mania Revived.— ln the great centres of civilisation, people are periodically seized with a mania for something or other; nowit isDutch tulips, next ancient bits of crockery are the rage while sometimes an insane desire is shown to collect "postage stamps, and young fools send all the way to Auck land for them. The last fashionable folly as patronised by the French Empress, is thus described by the Paris correspondent of the Ntlson Examiner :~" The prevailing furori of the season now opening promise to be private theatricals and old china. The Empress, who is a steadfast pa--troness of the former, professes a boundless passion for the latter, which she is buying up at fabulous prices, and with which She is filling her private apartments. As a specimen of the length which her graceful Majesty is pushing this new fancy, I may cite an old plate of Sevres porcelain, said to have belonged to Madame de Maintenon, for which she has paid the sum of £4A sterling. The example oet by the Empress finds, of course, hosts of imitators, both in the Court and beyond that magic circle. Ladies who habitually rise about noon, now subscribe to a little paper called The Moniteur which contains particulars of all the auctions about to take place throughout the city, get up at incredibly early hours, and rush off to any sale at which old china is to be disposed of, keeping up a fierce competition for any desirable lots, and paying absurdly high prices for the same. The gentlemen are as zealous in pursuit of porcelain as their fair rivals, and push their competition for any rare dish or platter with slight regard to gallantry. In the salons of Paris, from which political topics are generally banished, scarcely any thing is now heard but disquisitions on old porcelain, with endless gossip about the adventures of the speakers and their friends in search of the same, the prices paid for certain pieces, tha triumph of one party at the acquisition of some rare feature, the despair of another at having missed it, and so on, through the wholo evening. Even the Jeunesse doree of the Faubourg St Germain is bitten with the same madness, disserts learnedly on the subject of ancient pottery, asserts the superior beauty and inteveat of old porcelain over every other work of art, ancient or modern, and pays down out of its pocket money, withont winking, five and twenty pounds for « vase or tazza,"