WEEKLY EPITOME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 45, 7 March 1874, Page 7

WEEKLY EPITOME.

Tms is what the ' Timaru Herald ' thinks of MV Q-. E Barton : — <( He is an Irish barrister of the spitfire type, and a politician of feverish activity. A quick, clever, restless,, spiteful bird-like little fellow, who gives a peck heie, and a scratch there s and generally manages to pick up a grain worth having from the most unpromising lieap-ofichaif. He is a man of birth and breeding, -with great acquirement^ and exquisitely cultivated tastes, and he is moreover one of the boldest and most original thinkers- we know. He has rare pluck, and untiring energy also, and as far as mere intellectual advantages go, is infinitely •uperior to two-thirds of the members of the House." Feom October 23 to the 19th ult., 2038 immigrants have been nominated through the Inveroargill Immigration Office. On the arrival of the Carnatie at the Otago Heads with 250' passengers, a great many of whom were children, it wns found that measles and scarlet fever had broken out, and that sir deaths had ensued. The Scimitar has arrived with over 4CO' passengers, and 26 deaths occurred on the voyage. At an extraordinary meeting, of Pt. Joseph's Branch No. 73 ( held last Wednesday evening, it was unanimously resolved to celeorate St. Patiick's Day and the fiist anniversary of the Branch with a, supper in St. Joseph's schoolroom ; and- it w-as determined not to confine it to the members alone, but that their wives, families, and friends, both Catholic and Protestant, be admitted. Bro Kobb. Carroll (President of the Branch) will occupy the chair, and R. A. Eioughnan, Esq., the vice chair. A very pleasant and successful evening is anticipated. MbHoixoway, the representative of the English Lab rera' Union, has started on a tour through Otago. He is, on behalf of the Provincial Government, acoompanied by on officer of the Survey Department, Mr Samuel Thompson.. They will spend a day or tuo-in each of the agricultural disjucta of Tokomairiro, Clutha, and Mataurp, on their way to T-nveicargill. After visiting the western and other farm- \ ing districts of Southland, they will proceed via Kingston to the Lake district, and from thenco will return by tho valley of the Clutha, taking the Teviet aH Tuapeka districts on the way. Mr ffolloway has already been to the Taieri district, and it is believed that he will reserve the examination oi' the northern and Oumaru distikfea u.itil he proceeds to Canterbury. ME McKkllar, the newly-appointed Provincial Auditor at Wellington, hating refused to certify to any warrant for the payment of money irom the Provincial Treasury, the matters in dispute between tho General and Provimial Governments aro to be relegated to the Supreme Court. Mb Vogel, :it Auckland, said in reply to a deputation against Sunday trains, that a large number of peisons, including many clergymen, opposed the trains. ITo instanced that the Bishops of Christchurch and Dunedin were nmong the first who tiavclled oa Sunday i when the lines were opened Soutli. He taid that personally lie had ! endeavoured to co-opeiate with the religious section of the community, and had therefore stopped Sunday post office work. ' He had refined to renew i lie Sunday work although petitioned by the officials. He would use his influence towards reducing the number of trains to m<vt the necessary traffic only, and preventing special inducements for Sunday travelling. Mb Geoegb PnorcrooT has purchased the coal pit at Green Island recently belonging to Messrs Waugh and Todd. The seam cf coal is nearly 20 ft. thick, and exterds over an area of some 300 acres, which is supposed to contain a million tons cf coals, whioli, reckoned at a profit of 2s a ton, would yield £200,000. It is the intention of the owner to fcinU another pit without delay, and also to ereot cottages for the workmen. Thb barque Anazi, fiom London, went ashore at Donald's Bny, three miles beyond Lake Takapuna, at four o'clock on Sunday morning.. The accident is unaccountable, as it was a bright moonlight

night .with only a moderate breeze. The. •hip is retting on a sandy bottoro, and not leaking. The steamer ftolaen Grown has gone to endeavor to tow her off. Tti© cargo is rallied* at £47,000. Bhe bar twelve passengers, bat no Government immigrants. It is doubtful whether the vessel can be got off. The Anaei it insured. Her voyage fVonv London dbeytioff seem-' Wo have been a pleasant one. One ton of picked stone from the Golden Ridge plaim, Amatoi, Collingwood district, yielded 4T'o>u'iices of gold. The stone had 1 to be' carried on men's back's 35' miles. Mil' S. LocSB has concluded the purchase of 62,000 acres of valuable Native land in and on behalf of Wellington Province. It isthe residue of the Seventy-Mile Bufehl The ship Qheen oPthe Age, has- arrived' at Auckland, with 165 Government immigrants on board. Frederick Holmes, a Beaman/wnf lost overboard. W. Penny, aged 44, died' of dysentery. There weier no other cases of sickness. Seven of the crew have been arrested for brojf'hkvj caign. Haparona, a great chief who fought against the Europeans, hasdiod at New Plymouth, aged GO* At the end of the last cession of the House of Representatives, on? the motion of Mr O'Neill, member for the Thames, it was ordered " That in the opinion of this House it is desirable that the G-overn--ment should, not less than three months before the commencement -of next session, cause a Gold MSnin? Bill to be prepared 1 and circulated throughout the Colony." The time' has nearly elapsed and the Bill 1 has not yet been circulated. It is tab© hoped that the Ministry will not fail to- carry out its pledge and obey the order of the House. TnE tender of MV BVuce, Waiinate, Canterbury, for the erection of the Waitaki bridge, has been accepted. The amount has not yet transpired. Messes- Herbert, Mcttat & Co's Victoria Steam' Saw Hills, Ta« pauui, weie destroyed by lire a few mornings ago. The * Marlborough Express' says : — " During the last quarter 73 s vessels, of a total tonnnge of 2,550' tons, had cleared from the port of Havelock, containing 1,726-000 feet of timber, being a large increase' on any previous quarter. At-' a meeting of the member* of £he legul profession practising in Dunodin, which" was- held' at' the Supreme Court-house, resolutionswere passed' that an' address be presented to Mr Strode, R.M., on the occasion of his retirement, and that Mr Strode be requested to have anj enlarged portrait of himself taken by a photographer at the expense of the profession ; the portrait to be hung in the Resident Magistrate'sCourt, with the sanction of the Colonial Government. The Thames Railway Committee has waited on the Superintendent cf Auckland, respecting tho Thames Valley Line. The Superintendent said he and the Executive were favorable to the construction of the line, and proposals would be submitted at the next meeting of the Council, authorising the Province-to go to Parliament' to borrow the requisite- amount. Afterwards,. a Deep Sinking Drainage Deputation waited on>the Premier, and l laid the plans and- report of the proposed works before him. The question was fully ventilated, Mr Vogel made a reply, the tenor of which was favorable. It His been- determined, at a large meeting of seamen held at Lyttleton, that the rate of wages for home shsll be £10, and Inter* colonial vessels £B' per month* InE long delayed Dullam Tower has at last arrived at Port Chalmers. A tradesman in Westport (says the local paper) 1 when calledi upon lately for a donation to a projected)' Catholic Church bazsar, gaVe a whole hatful of wt.tch.es, which had " accumulated in his safe as unredeemed pledges for borrowed' notes ami unpaid account*, the owners having died, skeddaddledor become hopelessly hard-up." Tns choirs of the two Catholic churches of Shortland and' Grahamstown (says a late Thames paper)? save an entertainment last evening at the Catholic School-roo^n, Willoughby street, free of charge, to the members of their congregations. The Rev. Father Norris gave a brief address at the commencement. The entertainment consisted of a musical melange of comic and sentimental songs and* recitations-. The house was crowded, and the c itertainment passed off agreeably. The Northern and Southern Ota^o Escorts brought to Duneduv the following quantities of gold: — Qluenstown, 935 oz 5 dwts j Cardrona, 338 o? ; Arrowtown, 522 oz 9 dwts ; Cromwell, 1619 oz 2d-wts; Clyde, 134 oz 1 dwt ; Alexandra, 326 oz 18 dwts ; Tevior, 557 oz 7 dwts ; Blacks, 600 oz ; St. Bathans, 225 oz ; Mount Ida, 4&3 oz 5 dwts - r Macraes, 83 oz 8 dwts ; Palinorston, 37 oz 11 dwts; Waikouaiti, soz lOdwts ; Lawrence, 1037- oz 18 dwts ; Waipori, 90o& 19 dwts ; Waitahuna, lGsoz 7 dwts ; Tokotnairiro, 200 oz ; Switzen,, 1121 oz 2 dwts. Total : 8568 oz b dwta. Of thi3 300 oza is to ba forwarded to the Victorian Mint,