As an illustra tion of this, he referred to a rumour which was current, that a certain hon. member had been appointed to go to England in connec tion with the financial scheme of the Govern ment, and argued that it would be greatly against the interests of the colony were it deprived of the valuable services of that hon. gentleman. Mr Stafford—to whom, of course, the rumour referred—took the oppor tunity to emphatically deny the truth of the rumours which had been so industriously circulated, but said he did not think it right that the colony should be deprived of the services of men who might be eminently useful. Mr Fox corroborated what had fallen from Mr Stafford, and also said that several other rumours respecting appointments made were totally unfounded. The Armed Constabulary. —The Wel lington evening paper of a recent date, has the following:—ln various parts of the colony agents are appointed, empowered to enlist men for the Armed Constabulary. Candi dates for admission to the force make application to these agents, by whom, if they are considered eligible, they are forwarded to head quarters, their passages being paid by the Government. On arrival at the depot, it sometimes happens that the Commissioner does not approve of their appearance, but they are put through the necessary examina tion, and set to work. Nothing is said as to whether they will be retained or not until enough work has been got out of them to pay their passages, when, if not approved of, they are told to go. A man, named Le Bas, who had served in the old force at one time, came down from Auckland recently, and was put through the usual process. After he had completed his period of probation he was discharged, but by some means or other the sergeant who has charge of such matters paid him £3 17s. Very shortly afterwards, this was discovered to be a mistake, and an attempt made to induce Le Bas to refund: that astute individual, however, only laughed at the idea of such a thing. He left a bag of clothes at the depot when he went away, and when he went to claim itit was refused unless he paid hack the £3 17s. 