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Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3869, 29 July 1873, Page 2

According to an announcement made last week by the Premier, the Financial Statement will be delivered to-day, most probably on the House resiuni'ng at halfpast seven. According to a return presented to Parliament "showing the expenses in the colony of each immigrant ship," made up to May 31st, 1873, the total expenses amounted to £11,875. Of this large 3um no less than £2022 was incurred for quarantine and medical attendance. Commissions of inquiry cost £107, and £294 was incuiTed in the payment of clothing ordered to be burned by the Board of Health. The balance is made up of gratuities to captains, surgeons, and matrons, wharfage, cartage, and forwarding, and £322 for demurrage. To-day will decide whether the last device to improve the hearing in the House of Representatives has been successful or not. Since the. rising of the House on Friday evening lines of intersecting wires have been stretched across those put up last week. It is said that sounds are now conveyed with great distinctness to the ear, but as we canuot personally vouch for the statement, - we shall reserve judgment in this case till to-day. Like leaves before the last blast of autumn, the old band of colonisers who arrived here under the auspices of the New Zealand Company are falling away before the heavy hand of time. Among our obituary notices this morning is that of Amelia Roe, who died in Oh'ristchurch at the advanced age of seventy-three. The deceased was well known in Wellington as the wife of Mr Edward Roe, one of the earliest pioneers to Wellington, with the press of which he was connected for a great many years. One of those incidents peculiar to the liquor traffic occurred yesterday morning, which will make a great many people ask themselves the alternative questions — What is the duty of a publican in such a case? or, What ought to be his duty? The facts of the case are simple, and may be allowed to speak for themselves, as it is not improbable that a different version may be forthcoming. A man named Robert Miller arrived by the Rangatira on Sunday. He put up at the Commercial Hotel, kept by Mr William Miller. The particular physical or mental state of the man at the time he went to the hotel does not appear. At an early hour, however, the next morning he succeeded in getting out upon the roof through a skylight, and he walked along in the gutter of the V roof to the end of it, when he jumped on to the rafters of an old house which is in course of removal. His intention, apparently, was to jump into the yard. When he was extricated from his position on the beams he was bleeding profusely, so much so that it was difficult to ascertain whether he was wounded in the fiace or neck. He was taken inside. A policeman was sent for. The wretched man was given in charge just as he was. The constable conveyed the poor fellow to the Hospital as he best could at that time in the morning — it was two o'clock. The Hospital was full : not an empty bed to be had, and "shakedowns" appear not to be recognised in the establishment. Back came the constable to the Commercial and knocked. He says he knocked twenty minutes, and doubtless he did his best otherwise to awaken the inmates (all this time the poor sufferer was bleeding) ; but he elicited no sign of life. Thinking there was every prospect of being allowed to knock and exercise his lungs, the officer was reluctantly compelled to take off to the cell of the station an object that stood more in need of a doctor and a bed. The men in charge of the station at that hour did all they could under the circumstances to assist the unfortunate man. In the morning application was made to Dr Johnston, and admission obtained for the man to the Hospital. It appears that the poor fellow is very much depleted, but his life is not considered in danger. An obituary notice in our issue of Monday last announced the death of Mr Alexander Alexander, of Rotowhenua, near Napier. It is new several years past since Mr Alexander's . name has been much before the world. It was, however, at one time more widely known all along the East Coast, between Castle Point and the Bay of Plenty, than that of any other European. As early as 1844, when the district which now forms the thriving province of Hawke's Bay, with a European population little short of 8000, was inhabited by natives only, Mr Alexander was engaged there in trading operations of an extensive character. When, subsequently, Mr M'Lean, as Land Purchase Commissioner, went down to Ahuriri with the view of acquiring a landed estate for the Government -there, he received from Mr Alexander willing and effective assistance. Had he encountered opposition instead, it is doubtful whether the district would have been settled to this day. Afterwards, again, as the pioneer settlers began to pour into the district from the South, it was to Mr Alexander that they went for advice in regard to the selection of country for sheep runs and for assistance in negotiating their leases with the natives ; and it was to this advice and assistance that many of them mainly owed their subsequent success in life. Mr Alexander was a member of the first Provincial Council of Hawke's Bay, after the separation from Wellington. Since then he had retired altogether from public life. His death will cause universal and profound regret among his European neighbors ; and, indeed, regret not less universal or profound among the Ahuriri natives, with whose leading chiefs he was connected by marriage, and by whom he was generally looked upon as a friend and a father. The usual quiet of the beach was rudely disturbed yesterday by the bolting of four horses and a wagon, the property of Mr Wilford. The animals took fright opposite Mr Lowe's saddlery shop, and, though the driver sawed at the reins with might and main, the horses dashed madly along, swerving and tilting the wagon in a dangerous manner, until when opposite the theatre the driver was thrown out. He fortunately escaped with a few bruises. The horses kept on the same break-neck pace until running upon the footpath opposite the shop of Mr E. W. Mills Beyond being a little blown, the horses were none the worse for their mad scamper.

} The inquiry which was to be held oh board the. William Tapscott yesterday did not come off, owing to some reason or other, . but we believe it 4 will be commenced to-day. The total revenue of the Port CJialmers railway for three months' was £3929 Is Bd, and the expenditure, £2244 16s sd. A meeting of the Pioneer Lodge of the Order of Good Templars was held at the Lodge-room, Manners street, last night. The usual business of the Order being transacted, eight new members were enrolled, including the Hon W. Fox. The usual weekly meeting of the Education Board was held yesterday. The I business transacted was of a routine character. As was previously announced would be the case, the ]ast batch of immigrants left on Somes Island was released yesterday. The immigrants and their "household gods" were taken on board the Luna yesterday morning and conveyed to the Hutt beach, where they were landed. Wagons were in waiting to convey them to Masterton, where they will be located with their compatriots who are already settled there. " The Australian School Review and Educational Advertiser" is the title of a monthly magazine launched in the interests of education, and the receipt of the first number of which we have to acknowledge. The issue contains 32 pages, and as a sample number holds out more promise that the " Review" will become a useful addition to the magazine literature of the Australian colonies than one would expect from a publication coming from Yass, a small town in New South Wales. Yesterday afternoon the Ladybird took the Rangatira in tow to the. Patent Slip. Both steamers will be taken on the slip to-day. It is not expected that the requirements of either will occupy more than a couple of days, as both steamers are advertised to sail on Saturday. I The members of the various cricket clubs of Wellington are to meet this evening at the Empire Hotel. They have invited Messrs J. C. Crawford, G. Crawford, and Buchanan, the trustees of the new public cricket ground, to attend, so that the present unfinished and unsatisfactory state of the ground may be properly discussed, and, if possible, remedied. It is to be hoped that the meeting will attain the object for which it is called. The criminal sheet at the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday showed the usual Monday morning's list of persona who were sprawling or bawling incapables the two preceding nights. Charles Lawson and James Ferguson were each fined 5s for drunkenness and incapacity of locomotion. John Hill, Edward Dickenson, George Blues, and John Gibbs, who were pot-valiantly drunk and eager for a fray, were each fined 10a. James Cornwall,, charged with being illegally on the premises of Mrs Harper, was dismissed ; and thereby hangs a tale. It appeared that until a few days ago defendant kept a lodging-house. Coming in suddenly one day he surprised his wife sitting upon a young mana knee. Upon remonstrating with his wife (who is the mother of seven children) upon the impropriety of her conduct, she became offended, and forthwith left the house in high dudgeon. The noxt day her friend, the young lodger, and his companion also left the house. By a strange affinity the trio all sought board and lodging at the house of Mrs Harper. The disconsolate husband happened to be passing Mrs Harper's house a few evenings after, and he accidentally saw his wife and her friend the young lodger indulging, in the same kind of harmless caressing as had evoked Ms displeasure a few days before, in his own house. The door gave way to his shoulder rather suddenly, and war took the place of love. The force of numbers prevailed, and the husband was ejected. A repetition of the scene occurred subsequently, the husband again being worsted. Hence the charge of being illegally on the premises. His Worship, after learning the antecedents of the parties, probably thought that the husband was more sinned against than sinning, and i dismissed the case. Stealing prayer books from church pews appears to be the latest form of kleptomania which has developed itself in Dunedin. The following notice is said to have been posted up lately in a pew in a certain church not a hundred miles from the Octagon :— "Pew 21. Notice. — Three hymn-books having been stolen from this pew during the last six months, the owner of this book respectfully remindu any persons who wish to exercise their thievish propensities in the same direction, that hymn-books are of no usa to them where they are going, as their time will be more fully occupied in that endless and not too pleasing occupation, of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.— July 7, 1873." A girl has been fined for wheeling a perambulator on the footpaths of Auckland. The fine was sixpence, but the costs increased the amount to twelve shillings ; since which the Mayor has directed the police not to interfere with perambulators unless in.cro wded thoroughfares. The Auckland "Star" thus speaks of the preserved milk, manufactured by Mr J. E. Stratford, of the Whau. The milk is preserved without the use of chemicals, and is a much superior article to the condensed milk commonly used on board ship. The sample forwarded — which we are informed is a week old — is as fresh as when taken from the cow. It is in fluid form, and has all the appearance of new milk. The manufacturer informs us that it has been put to the teat, and he warrants it to keep in any climate. Such an article, it is needless to say, will be invalnable on long voyages. The boring of Artesian wells is steadily increasing at Blenheim. At Mr James Holdaway's farm, from a depth of ninety feet, a flow four feet high was obtained. The flow at Mr Redwood's, on the other side of the river, was not obtained until the boring reached 102 feet, while at Dr Home's farm, about a quarter of a mile below Mr Holdaway's, 150 feet of piping has been put down, and the spring has not yet been tapped. At a sitting of the Southland Waste | Lands Board on the Bth, a telegraph was received that the price of land was increased to £3 an acre, on which the Commissioner immediately made it " known that sales from that moment would be at the increased price. The result was that the total acreage granted at the new price was 23,816 acres, and 3477 acres at £1 an acre. .+ Town Mouse and Coumtby Mouse.— Unsophisticated Cousin — What do you mean to be when you grow up, Jack? Jack— O, I mean to be a soldier; and you shall be my nurse. Unsophisticated Cousin—- "Well, but soldiers don't have nurses, Jack. Jack— O, don't they, just! That shows you've never been in. the parks! Why, I don't think I ever caw a soldier without one ! • „„,.