Remarking upon the candidature of Mr Pyke for Tuapeka district, the local journal says of that gentleman" He is a man of vast and varied ability, well educated, possessed of rare and pleasing gifts as an orator, while as a statesman he possesses large experience, and as an Executive officer has proved himself worthy of all the trust reposed in him. Mr Pyke came before the Tuapeka electors just after resigning a lucrative Government appointment. Of course he knew his own business best, but why Mr Pyke stood for Tuapeka when he might easily got in for Mount Ida, or some other dis trict really hard-up for a member, wo cannot imagine." Sir David Monro resigns his seat in the General Assembly for Waikouaiti, on account of illness in his family. Mr T. S. Pratt, one of the proprietors of the Waikouaiti Herald is the only candidate yet in the field, although Mr Stout and Mr Davie are spoke 1 of. Scarcely has the distressing tale of the foundering of the immigrant ship Northfleet with her living freight passed from men's minds when tidings come of another wreck of a more appaling and heart-rending nature. The steam ship Atlantic was bound for Halifax, but her captain was out of his reckoning, and mistaking a light, unconsciously hurled his steamer to des truction on tho cruel rocks of Mars Island. The " taking of the ground," followed by the terrible despair of the many, and the cool con rage of the few, the struggles for dear life, and the final cry of agony sent heavenwards from hundreds of drowning men make up a picture of shipwreck unparalleled in horror this present century. Five hundred and forty-nine perished in this terrible disaster, made the more terrible by the surrounding circumstances of robbery and dese cration of the dead which accompanied, or rather followed, this awful wreck. The Chronicle (Mount Ida) of 20th instant, says : —One of the framers of the Goldfields Bill, to be laid before tho Assembly, speaking of the miner's right, said that it would no longer con stitute an element of title, but only be a source of revenue. If that be so, the imposition is en tirely indefensible. The only excuse for its con tinuance in any shape is the privileges it con fers, and the title it affords to property. 