Mr Freeth seems to have been as much surprised and vexed as any at what appeared like a hoax, and there can be no doubt that he was himself de ceived in the matter through the hole being visible for the first time on the morn ing after the meteor appeared. It is pro bable that some of the horses or cattle in rushing to the house when terrified by the meteor, may have trodden on a crust of clay which covered the hole and thus led to its appcai'ance. iiISSIGNATIOXOF THE HoN Ml* WIIITAKER. — The New Zealand Herald says : — One of our oldest and ablest politicians whose public career commenced with tho earliest days of Government in ]N"ew Zealand, yestmlay resigned his seat, as a member of the Legislative Council in consequence of the combination in the legislature of tho Colony which has virtually excluded the voice of Auckland men from any voice in its councils, and because of the horrid slipshod way in which legislation has been carried on during the present session, a session made available for but one object tho spoliation of Auck land, and a general scramble by the South for political loaves and fishes, Mr Whitaker Ims felt that an}' longer to retain his seat was to retain the mere semblance of the exercise of power in the councils of the Assembly,! was to mislead the people of this Province i into believing that they were represented in the Councils of the Colony, when really they were excluded from all power by a majority of either House whose plans of combination and action were laid down and arranged at i private meetings out of doors. i

Acclimatisation. — We take the following from the Lyltelton Times of the 13th inst : — " The Wild Wave, which arrived at Lyttel ton, from Sydney, on Sunday last, brought a miscellaneous cargo. Amongst other items, there were on board forty black swans which have arrived in first-rate condition ; eighty were originally shipped, but forty died during the passage. There is also a young emu, perfectly tame and answers, as advertisements say, to the name of Jack. The swans ai'e partly imported on behalf of the City Coun cil, and will be placed in the river. 