The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1867-04-13
NOTES OF FIFE WEEK.

, the receipt II a file Of Tie SyFaey Morning Herald.
-. The Herald Is large eight-page sheet, and appears
to be a well patronized concern. judging from the
fact that four-and-a-half pages Of it, issue consists Of
advertisements on the following cash terms-Two
lines and under. one shilling; four lines ditto. two
shillines; six lines ditto, three shillings; and 30 on.
Births. deaths and marriages. three shillingS each
insertion. The paper is very fairly but not neatly
printed, and the subscription price Is Ga (S20) u
year.
The news is not particularly important, but We
compile a summary which may he interesting TO
those Of our readers who belong to or have visited
+ that part of the globe.
\ fire occurred in the city Of Sydney. February
9th, which Destroyed a block of houses at the corner
of Essex and George streets. The loss was estimated
at between three and four thousand pounds. The
Herald complains bitterly Of the fact that the water
is shut off from the city at night, and portends that
some great confagration will yet occur, owing to the
delay in getting it let on in case of fire.
Australia is at the a~ntipodes, and while one pOr-
ton of the world is shivering with cold, the people
there, in the month of February, say that the heat is
almost unbearible, a long drouth, and grass COM
pletely persisted, and stock subsisting entirely on dry
bushes. Several cases of sunstroke had taken place,
and the thermometer in the shade had reached l25
degrees.
There is reported quite a serious falling off in the
product of the gold fields, and the amount received
at the Sydney Mint during the month ending Jan.
3lst was considerably less than during any CORES
ponding period since its establishment. The papers
attribute this fact in Il great degree to the circum-
stance of the drouth, which has been very general all
over the country, the want of water interfering with
the operations of the miners. During the month of
January, Is, 100 ounces were received, less by 1903
. +bop -ha racaip-S of rho "A month in 1876 Ii may
be fairly inferred, from the accounts which come to
hand, that the gold ~diggings of Australia, like those
of California, though far from being exhausted, are
about - played OUT so far as individual hard labor
is concerned, and will hereafter be worked by COM
panies of capitalists.
We cannot find in the papers before us any regular
prices current or thorough market report. We see,
however, by the Morning Herald of the 11th of
February, that California flour was sold at e12 per
ton-about 81 above the price for Australian-and
that wheat was held at about four shilings per
bushel. We cannot find any report as to the price
of sugar, or rice, but the colony imports and con-
sumcs a great deal of both, as will be seen by the
fact that, during the month of January, the Customs
revenue ut the port of Sydney for duties ON these two
articles alone was e9,2l2.
The Siam is 72S tons, and is bound to San Fran
cisco, with $50 tons of coal.
New PERIoDICALs-The last mail from the East
was unusually rich in Magazines, Reviews and Peri
odicals, and the matter too, is constantly improving.
To our whaling friends bound North, a good supply
of reading matter is a great comfort, and almost in
dispensabIe as a means of pleasantly and p~rofitably
passing the long hours when whales are not i'll sight.
On our fourth page will be found an interesting
sketch of A. 7. Stewart, the dry goods millionaire of
Nr- No,l- ,oD;a1 from, HorDar;S NInnthlv for Iapu
airy. In the Bookstore will be found-the Atlantic
Monthly. representing the literature and the politics
of the extreme North, alongside of De Bows Month
ly, equally extreme in its Southern proclivities, al
though somewhat toned down since the war; the
always valuable Hunts merchants Magazine; Littell
and the Eclectic, with the cream of current European
literature; the English Reviews, with their heavy and
thoroughly exhaustive articles; all the Illustrated
papers, German as well as English and American;
no end of Pamphlets, Books, reading for the young
folks, etc, etc. Truly, one must be fastidious who
fails to find some food for the mind nowadays.
The PnoT VACANCY.-Capt. Berrill, one of the
pilots of this port, last week sent in his resignation.
The appointment of pilot is in the hands of the Col
lector, and it is understood that the vacant office was
offered to Capt. James Smith, so long and so favor
ably known as a packet master between here and
san fldllclscC. Inc tdptaln, however,, IL Is report
ell, declines the post, and that it is still vacant,
though there are a number of applicants, among
whom are Capts. Rowland, Marchant, Wetherbee,
Hampstead, Babcock and John Adams, all no doubt
competent men. |
TIDAL PmExoMENoN.-On Thursday, April 4th,
the sea receded from Kahului, East Maui, six times
in succession in the space of two hours. 1t left the
reef nearly bare. The natives started to catch fish,
but before they got out the sea had returned again.
The water was about three feet above high water
mark and fell three feet below it, making a total rise
and fall of about six feet, at intervals of about fifteen
minutes. The same phenomenon has frequently been
observed on the Maui coast, which would indicate a
volcano in that region.
PoI.-Thi almost indispensable article of native
diet is getting scarce every day and of course dearer.
The poorer classes have to content themselves with
occasionally g light repast of bread and a bowl of tea
at A chinese restaurant, and there are often times
when they cannot even get that. Last Thursday,
there was absolutely no poi to be bought in town.
A year from now, the article may be plentiful and
cheap, as the high prices will induce many to plant
taro who are now lazy or a~pathetic.
PHoroGRAPHY.-We learn that certain parties are
about to purchase the Photographic apparatus and
fixtures of Mr.. Burgess, over the Commercial print
ing office, where the business will be continued of
picture making. Mr.. Burgess, while retiring from
the more mechanical part of the business, will devote
himself particularly to retouching pictures and the
pursuit of his vocation generally as an artist.
PRoGREss-We saw the other day a young man,
a clerk in a store, with a marking brush, making
some queer, hieroglyphic looking characters on a case
of goods, which on inquiry, we found were Chinese
letters and signitied the address of a Chinese mer-
chant on one Of the other islands. 1t certainly goes
to show progress when an English boy who has