LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3141, 7 March 1871, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

« The Pbovinciaii Council meets at the Odd Fellows' Hull this afternoon at 5 o'clock. SUPBEME Ootjet. — The eases adjourned from yesterday will be proceeded with this morning. The prisoners in the remaining cases on the calendar were brought before the Court to plead, the plea in each case being " not guilty." The Court meets at 10 o'clock this morning, and it is probable that the cases against Morton Quin will be the first called on. Telegraph Line Down. — The following notice was posted at the Telegraph Office yesterday afternoon : — " Napier line down north of the Hutt." A Meeting of the Anniversary Regatta Committee will be held at the Pier Hotel at eight this evening. M" .Z.S.N. Company's Meeting.— A general meeting of shareholders in this company will be held at the Athenaeum to-day at 2 p.m. to receive the report of the liquidators, appoint an inspector and examine the accounts of the company. Sale of Hohses. — We have been requested to intimate that Messrs Bethune and Hunter's sale of horses, advertised to take place yesterday, has been postponed until Friday, the 10th instant. Land Teansfeb Act.— A printer's error having obscured the sense of our notice of the operation of this Act in Otago, we beg to explain that property to the value of £25,000 came under the Act there in the month of February, and it is expected that a still greater quantity will be put on the register during this month; Mr Main's appointment is no sinecure. We may add that one legal firm has not signed the advertisement referred to in our last issue, but of the reasons for their dissent we are not yet sufficiently informed. " Robbing Petee," Etc. — The advantages expected to be derived from the lighting of tho city with gas are not altogether without their detractions; It unfortunately happens that ever since the commencemeut of the breaking up of the roads the weather has been perpetually " soft," and as a result the passage of tho principal street has been anything but a pleasant matter to pedestrians. The toonor the gas authorities make an attempt to put things into their former condition the better. , Philological Filtration. — An amusing incident oropped up in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon on the calliug on of the case of Franciß Roohez alias Manilla, who is charged with a breach of the Arms Act. It appears the prisoner is a native of Manilla, speaks little English, but claims to speak the Spanish language, pure and simple. The difficulty then appeared to be the finding of an interpreter, and on Mr Izard mentioning the name of a Mr Lawranca for the office, his Honor inquired of Mr Izard where tho gentleman named was to be found, whereupon a sepulchral shriek, approaohing that of a wail of lamentation from a " departed sperrit" at a spiritual seance, discovered' the indispensable Mr Lawranee to be at the back of tbo crowd in the top gallery. A few preliminary questions from hiß Honorrevealed Mr Lawrance to bo a native of Gasoony, in the south Jof France, and that he based his knowledge of Spanish on the fact that ho waß born within sight of the Pyrenees. Being rather dubious of Mr Lawrence's fitueßß for the task he had undertaken with such willingness, his Honor suggested that the two should undergo a preliminary "jabber," which they did, though not in a very satisfactory way, mutilated English having to do service in the explanatory parts, in which it appeared that Mr Manilla was just abouta match for Mr Lawrence. For the moment' uncontrollable risibility reigned around. All the witnesses in the case being Maoris, and the prisoner a professed Spaniard, the prospect of such*! Babel was not pleasant, and his Honor confessed himself in a quandary. On his Honor notifying to Mr Lawrance that he thought he was not equal to the task, that gentleman offered to make a small bet with ! him that he would translate all that was to be said into Frenoh, Spanish, or Latin, with unerring certainty. This his Honor declined, and cut the gordian knot by postponing the matter, telling Mr Izard that he would expect him to provide a competent interpreter, if there was one to be got. Tea Meeting. — We would remind our readers that the tea meeting in connection with the anniversary of the Woßleyan Sabbath School will be hold in the school- room, Manners atreot, this evening, at six p'olock. The annual meeting will take place in the chui'oh i after tea, when several minieters and others

will address the meeting. It is gratifying to witness the earnestness displayed by the memhers of this ctinroh in bringing about so frequently those pleaßant reunions among the young and old of the congregation. The large attendances with which those anniversary celebrations are usually honored and the pecuniary I benefit the funds of the association have j derived from them, are "sufficiently conclusive that the sympathies of the congregation at large are in their favor. We trust that the attendance this evening will be as fall as ia usual on those occasions. j Effects of' the Gale.— The effects of the j gale which was blowing last night when we j went to press, and of the deluging downpour '■ of rain of the last two days, have doubtless been destructive to roadways and bridges in many parts of the provinoe, besides what we know of in the more immediate vicinity of the city. Wo learn that the Ngahauranga bridge, which has been in rather a dilapidated Btate for some time back, has taken a trip out to sea. Though it was roportod about town last night that the Hutt Bridge had been carried away, we believe the real fact of the matter is that the eccentric water power of the Hutt River during flood time has again taken the liberty ■ of appropriating another allotment of land on the west approach to the bridge, of course putting a temporary 6top to the traffic on the road. The whole place is under water, public housee and private residences being equally well deluged. The telegraphic official reported last night a foot and a half of water in the office, and still vising. Our readers interested in Wairarapa news will this morning miss our usual correspondent's letter from that district, which is now doubtless on the other side of the river awaiting transmission. Messrs J. and H. Barber, butchers, were very fortunate yesterday in removing 100 sheep they had depasturing in Mr Fitzherbert's paddock, just, before the whole of the paddock became submerged knee-deep by the overflow of water from the river. From various parts of the city we hear of numerous minor instances of damage by the heavy rainfall, the most noticeable one being that the wasting away of nearly all " the filling-in" of the newly formed footpath in Molosworfch street;. As the rush of water at this point is very strong in cases of rain-storm it would be advisable next time to put in a few boulders at the bottom to prevent scouring. Besides the usual allowance of ancient and rotten fencoß and palisading, which have been blown down clouds of mildewed shingles and a few of the large crystal squares, so popular among drapers, have succumbed to the vibration of the blast, chief amongst which are a square in Mr Burn's draper's shop and a window out of Mr Brown's Thistle Inn, at the coruer of Sydney and Mulgrave streets. We hear from various private sources that the province of Canterbury has been visited by equally severe weather during the past week. More Dogs.— 'Yet another batch of dog oases is down for hearing at the Eesident Magistrate's Court to-day. Unseasonable Bathing. — Numerous complaints have lately been made against persons bathing at advanced hours in the morning, alongside the Hutt Eoad and afc Brown's wharf. The result has been that several arrests were made, and the cases brought beforo the Resident Magistrate yesterday. The cases, however, were dismissed. We truet that our young boys, and, we may add, older ones, will take this hint, and refrain from this practice of unseasonable bathing. A Cbicket Match will be played on the new cricket ground on Saturday next, the 11th inst., between the Caxton Cricket Club and the Star Cricket Club, play to commence at 2 o'clock. The Coming Supeeintendent. — Who is to be the next Superintendent, is a question in everybody's mouth. The general feeling seems to point to the Hon. Mr Fitzherbert as the coming man. A large and influential requisition, we understand, is in course of signature, and it cannot be doubted that if he accede to it his return is certain. Several others have been mentioned ; but none have anything like the prestige which attaches to Mr Fitzherbert's name. Judicial Colloquy. — A juryman, having discovered an objection to serve, initiated the following conversation between himself and hiß Honor Mr Justice Johnston. Juryman (a redundant old gentleman with rubicaud countenance) -. " I've no business to be here, sir ; I don't own this property they've got me down for." Judge : " But you are here ; never mind about the property." Juryman : " But I've no business to be here ; I'd better go." Judge : " No,' you'd better stay where you are." Juryman : " But this property doesn't belong to me ; it's all a mistake." Judge : " Well, what do you want me to do?" Juryman: "Send mo away out of this, of course." The occurrence created a good deal of laughter, and his Honor good-humoredly instructed the old gentleman to take his stand with his brother fortunates, at the same time instructing the officer to be more careful in making out jury summonses. Auckland Gold Expoet. — The amounts of gold exported per Hero for Sydney were : — Union Bank of Australia, 6,2550z. j Bank of New Zealand, 15,2210z. ; total, 21,4760z. Total value, £78,317. Baseless Rtjmoes. — A correspondent writes as follows from Tauranga on the 20th instant : — " No rumors of war, or native disturbances in this district. The overland mail arrives here from Auckland with regularity, notwithstanding the numerous reports we see in the Auckland and Thames papers of its being frei quently stopped, or the mailman stuck up. [ These reports are most of them without foundation, and got up, no doubt, for a purpose." An Alcoholic Blow-up. — An Auckland paper says that Mr Abraham Cohen, the proprietor of tho Albion Hotel, Q-renfell, had a very providential escape from death a few days ago. He was engaged in tapping a cask of rum, assisted by a lud who was holding the candle, when the cask exploded with a ttrrific report, blowing out one side of the premises, but not injuring the parties, who had apparently overlooked the danger of carrying a light in the immediate vicinity of such strong spirits. DKAGON Flies. — Immenseswarmßof dragon- ' fiies have recently appeared in and about Ballarat. " These," remarks the " Star," " are hawks among the insects, and catch even the largest flies upon tho wing. They gobble them up as they float about (i without stopping just as gold- j fish swallow tho much minuter infusoria) in the element in which they live. This year, so far, there ia a great absence of grasßlioppers, and tho beetle very erroneously called the cockchafer — both probably because of the ex- J cessive moisture. Dragon-flies in myriads have also appeared in the neighborhood of Sfcawell."! j Undeoajtableness of Gunpowdeb. — In a j late copy'iof the " Obau Times" we find re- ! corded particulars of the discovery of gunpowder preserved in a rock for 150 years. It says : — " A very remarkable instance of tho undeoayablo nature of gunpowder has lately been biought to light in the slate quarries in tho western part of Argyleshiro, Scotland. On the estute of Ballachullish there are two veins of slate, the west one having been the first opened, but for upwards of 100 years hud j ceased being worked. Mr Pitcairn, the present lessee of the quarriea, began tha old quarry again a few years ago, and not long , since tho men came upon an old bore with a \ woollen rag in ito mouth. The workmen, j being interested in every fragment of antique remains, . carefully searched the bore, and found that it contained blasting powder, whioh, when brought out and exposed to dryness, took fire like any other powder. It has since been aeenrtained that the part of the quarry where these remains were found had not been worked for tho last 150 years." Dhess. — The Lancet hiiß the following upon j dress: — "Why do not the members of our profession Bet a good example by clothing themselves in a rational manner during, the present weather ? We learned from Franklin a century ago that the solar heat is absorbed with greater or less facility according to the color of the objeot exposed to the rays. Every-

one remembers how he put piecoa of cloth, similar in texture and size, but "different iv color, upon fresh-fallen snow in the sunlight, and how he felt the snow melted under the pieces of cloth quickest when the cloth was black, less quickly under the blue, green, purple, red, yellow, in the order enumerated, and very slowly indeed under the white. Every day's experience shows us that we do not need to be made of snow in order to melt rapidly nnder a black coat. What we require for comfort is of course a white material, in order that the heat rays may be reflected as much and absorbed as little as possible. The material should be porous — should imprison, that is, large quantities of air in its texture, and serve, therefore, as a very bad conductor of heat, while at the same time facilitating evaporation of the moisture from the surface of the body. These qualities are possessed in the highest degree by white flannel, and there is no reason* that we can find why this material should not be adopted generally in place of the atrocious costume which fashion inflicts upon suffering mankind." LOED LXTTEMON AND FEMALE EDUCATION. — Lord Lyttelton, Chairman of the Endowed Schools Commission, recently presided over a publio. meeting in the St. Pancras Vestry Hall, to establish an institution to supply the want of good and cheap education for girls of the lower middle classes in the district of Camden town. His Lordship said it was a great disgrace that for the last two or three centuries all the great endowments of education of this country, with which the Endowed School Commission was concerned, should have been monopolised for the education of boys, without any advantage whatever for girls. It was a great and crying evil, but was in course now of being diminished, he hoped, by the operations of the Commission to which he belonged. He had groat sympathy with those who believed that a considerable change was called for ih the education of children, but he doubted that the mental capacity for all branches of intellectual occupation was the same in both sexes. At the same time he could not resist the appeal of the advocates of female progress that an experiment should be allowed to be fairly made to see whether, with the advantages of early training similar in all but physicalrespeets to boys, girls in after life would prove themselves as well fitted as the opposite sox for the various branches of intellectual occupation in this country. He confessed that the remarkablo results which had attended the recent elections for the London School Board showed a tendency in the publio mind to that opinion. Impoetant Leg-aii Decision upon Feaudulent Peeieeenoe. — Lord Justices James and Mellish delivered an important judgment in an appeal from the decision of Vice-Chan-cellor Stuart by the official liquidator of the Birmingham Patent File Company (Limited), who had overdrawn their account to the extent of several thousand pounds at the bank, to whom, on pressure for payment, they assigned an equitable mortgage of nearly all their property; a transaction which, in the subsequent winding-up proceedings, excluded a number of unsecured creditovs from any benefit in the assets. Their lordships held that the directors had authority, in the absence of anything to the contrary in the Articles of Association, to make such a mortgage, and by so doing they were not guilty of any fraudulent preference, or of any intention to delay or defeat the other creditors. There was a difference between bankers and ordinary creditors ; if the latter were preferred under circumstances to show that something undue or fraudulent was intended, they clearly came within the power of the act. But if an arrangement were made by a company with their bankers to enable them to carry on their business, that was not an arrangement to delay or defeat oreditors, but clearly a legitimate transaction, providing that it was not done without pressure, and that the 'winding-up was not in contemplation at the time. New Fiax Patent. — An Auckland paper says that during the past few months, Mr G-. White has been elaborating an invention for preparing New Zealand flax upon a new principle. The precise construction of the machine is not given. The length of the machine is 19in, and the width lft ; it is practically a hand machine, and may be worked by a settler without the expense of obtaining a large running gear and motive power. The inventor claims as its speoial advantages that it removes all the vegetable and gummy matte&at once, and thus prevents the necessity for much scutching and bleaching j that the fibre is split up into much finer filaments than by any known machine, while it is neither cut nor ( injured in any way ; and that the machines are more durable and less liable to get out of order than any other invention. After securing a patent Mr White intends, we believe, to commence the manufacture of flax machinery, and estimates that he will be able to supply machines made on his principle at £25 each. A Formidabi/e Foe. — A singular phenomenon is reported in one of the West Coast papers. Mr Smith, of the Tramway, Kanieri, laid down a piece of land in that district, of about half an acre in extent, in English grass, in addition to other plants. An army of caterpillars invaded this patch,hand in a day or two ate every blade of grass aslcompletely as if the ground had been burnt, j Huving completed this work of deßtruction,|tbe enemy retired, eithor into the bush or smne other cultivated ground, to commit similar havoo. We do not know whether others hav§ 'Buffe/ed from these pests, but should be glad to.learn, with a hope that some remedy may be .proposed, if such is the case i A Nabbow Escape.— The "Thames Advertiser" tells the following singular ciroumstance: — On Wednesday morning, as Mr Wiseman, of Shortland, proceeded upstairs to his bedroom, he happened to see in Mr Bach's yard,- in the rear of his house in Scaly street, Thames, the son of the latter, about two years of age, standing beside the mouth of the well, and the thought flashed aoross his mind that his position was not very safe. Remembering the accident by which Mrs Norton's child lost his life, through falling into a well, only a few days ago, and prompted by the thought, he looked out in time to see the boy walk on the cover over the well, which, not being secure, gave way, and the boy disappeared into the water, the cover immediately assuming its former position, so that oven if people had been passing no one would have seen the body, or suspeoted that it was contained therein. Mr Wiseman instantly hurried down, and succeeded in saving the little fellow from an untimely end.