NEW ZEALAND

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 275, 22 February 1881, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND

(Per Press 'Association.) An Abrupt Departure. Auckland, To-day. Mr. Alexander, of the Australian cricketers, has received, a cablegram announcing that the return match between the combined team of Victoria and New South Wales is definitely fixed for the sth, 7th, and Bth March. The cricketers consequently leave here for Sydney to-mor-row, by the Arawata. Gone for Gold. Wellington, To-day. A number of people left for Terawhiti this morning for the purpose of thoroughly prospecting the district. Assault on an ex R-M. Mr. James Coutts Crawford, formally R,M. of Wellington, and who only returned from a visit to England on Sunday, was assaulted in the street this morning by a man named George Styles, who hit him with a whip. Styles has been arrested. The reason of the assault is believed to be in a decision given by Mr. Crawford two or three years ago. A Store Burned. Fabian’s store, at Greytown was destroyed by fire this morning. The Education Act. Dunedin, To-day. A meeting of ministers was held yesterday, at which a resolution was passed in favor of the Education Act being amended so as to afford facilities for religious instruction to be imparted to scholars by ministers or their deputies for an hour each day during ordinary school hours. A proposal for the reading in part of a secular course of historical Biblical selections was made, but it was withdrawn. The motion carried is to be embodied in a petition and forwarded to Parliament. A Dividend. The New Zealand Drug Company declare a dividend at the rate of ten per cent., and carry forward L3,43G.