The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 268, 11 February 1879, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11.

"Stella," writing from Paris to the Sydney Morning Herald, under date of November 22, has the following striking paragraph : —" It is . rumored that the police of London has reason to suspect that the policy of regicide has been distinctly adopted by the leaders of the International, and that the attacks successively made on reigning personages are directed by a special committee, appointed to prepare these cowardly villainies, and residing in London as the most convenient centre for their operations. It is highly probable that such is the case, for though each of the perpetrators of these murderous outrages denies, as a matter of course, all connection with the dangerous association alluded to, thsre can be no reasonable doubt that the systematic attempt to get rid of monarchy by killing the rnonarchs, adopted by that association, is the prompter of these successive crimes."

As bearing on the subject of secondary j education •which has been raised in our correspondence columns we notice an article on the subject by Mr M. Arnold in the November number of the Fortnightly entitled. %i Porro unum est necessarium." The gist of it is that in the matter of secondary. education they manage things better in France than in England. While in England only some 20,000 boys have a secondary education guaranteed to them, in France 150,000 are so privileged. There is a singularly high tone in the middle class in France. Indeed, they make the same demands upon life as the small upper class T in England. Exactly what we are now trying to do in New Zealand the writer urges should be done at home. Let there be, he says, a " proper, supply of secondary schools throughout the country, with proper buildings and accommodation at a proper fee, and with guarantees given in the shape either of an University degree or of a special certificate for secondary Instruction."

The following satisfactory telegram relative to Mr Conyers' state was received on Saturday by Mr Hannay. It is dated from Gore, at 10 a.m.:—"Dr MaCaffer says that Mr Conyers is out of He was up yesterday, and doctor hopes to send him home in a week."

Regarding the recent wreck on the Ninety-mile Beach, yesterday's Press says: —"The schooner Clyde is at present lying high and dry on the beach at Taumutu. She is in charge of Captain Dunsford. The crew have come to Christchurch, being furnished with free passes through by the general railway manager. A considerable part of her cargo has been recovered, some fine blocks of Oamaru stone being still on board. Her timbers are very much strained, and, even if got off, her hull will have sustained such secrious injury as to render her comparatively valueless. While the vessel was deserted, a few articles of the seamen's wearing apparel were abstracted by Maoris and fishermen, and more would probably be taken but for the vigilance and promptness of kSergeant' Barlow. Detective Benjamin has been in search of the thieves, and if he has his usual success, it is probable a good account will be rendered of them."

A correspondent of the New Zealander signing himself "Agricola" writes in a remarkably outspoken manner as to the causes of European Socialism. After enumerating some of the painful problems which present themselves for solution in the old country, as a consequence of the widespread distress there existing, he goeß on to say:—"But we need not go into the future while we have plain duties before us. Our plain duty as men aifd citizens is to see and insist that many of these indigent and hard-working poor at Home shall have a chance to obtain food and raiment in the new lands that we are peopling, and that our land legislation shall take the form of settlement alone. An agricultural population in a temperate climate is the most independent on earth, and their m»ans of obtaining abundance and ease the least liable to instability. As freeholders only be it remembered or as tenants from the Crown. The individualization of land title has ultimately proved first the bane and then the curse of every community among whom it has obtained. The land is as much the common heritage of all as 'the rain from heaven 'or the light from the sun, and in no country where the land is unequally distributed can social happiness be generally diffused. The creation of large landed estates and the bondage of serfdom for our children was the leading feature of the past Administration programme ; and they would fain reproduce in this South Britain the poverty and misery which exists in the older Britain, by giving over the lands, of us all to the possession of a few, and inaugurate the inequalities of social life which in Europe have begotten Socialism. H we do not as a people individually resist such action the sin will be upon our heads, and the consequences thereof on our children's children." That thoughtful men : entertain such opinions should make others pause, before they contemptuously' condemn them as "nonsensical rubbish," "revolutionary," &c, epithets so freely indulged in by a few whose interests are perhaps inimical to those of the million, and unfortunately also by many who are content to take their opinions second hand, and consider it highly " respectable " that such opinions as they do profess shall be eminently " aristocratic." The question of the acquisition and tenure of land is no mere theoretical idea, but one on which the welfare of the race pre-eminently depends.

An accident which might have been attended with anything but pleasant results, happened to the cutter Red Rover on Thursday morning last, at Wainui Jetty. Captain Thomas, after having loaded his vessel with the usual freight.of firewood at the jetty, started on his voyage to Akaroa, after having invited Mr M'Gregor, who happened to be on business in connection with the Land Tax Department in Wainui, to accompany him on the voyage. The cutter had only proceeded about five cable lengths from tha jetty, when it 'was discovered that the vessel was sinking. The deck was encumbered with firewood ,- making it difficult to move about on the sinking craft. After putting the cutter about, the wharf was headed for, and signals made to those on the wharf to send off a boat at once. It so happened that

not a single boat wag available, and no assistance could ,be got from the shore. The wharf'was at last reached, after great difficulty, and'no" sooner was this done than the Red Rover sank from under the feet of her crew. It being about high, water at the , she was got on the beach near the Pilot Reserve, and afteV her cargo was discharged, was afterwards brought to Akaroa, where it was found she .had sprung a leak from knocking on. the piles of. the jetty. It is certainly time' something was done to improve the accommodation at this wharf before a serious accident occurs. The stringers' project a considerable distance 1 beyond*"'the- wharf piles, and. should be seen to. Every local body in the Peninsula, with the exception of the Akaroa Borough Council and the Akaroa and Wainui Road Board, have taken over their respective wharves, and it remains for the exceptions mentioned to do the same, so that their maintenance and improvement may be attended to.

A meeting of the new Wainui School Committee waß held in the schoolroom, last Thursday evening. All the members were present, and after four hour's discussion, the vexed question of the school site was again relegated to the Board of Education.

Friday next will be a gala day at the Head of the Bay, two extensive cattle sales being announced to take place on the same day in that locality. Our local auctioneer, Mr C. W. Bridge, will offer over a hundred head of cattle, of various ages,. including milch cows, working bullocks, young stock, and a number of superior calves, also some fine fat sheep. On the same day Messrs Ford and Co., instructed by Mr Shadbolt also announce an extensive sale of fat cattle, fat sheep, two-year olds and yearlings. Two such sales coming together will no doubt attract buyers from all quarters, and as the prospects of winter feed are not so bad as was feared, we expect to hear of keen competition.

We are requested to call the attention of horse-owners to the fact that nominations for the handicaps for the forthcoming race meeting of the Peninsula Jockey Club close on Thursday evening next, at 8 p.m. Final entrances close at the same hour on Monday, the 17th. In both cases entrances must be forwarded with colors and money to the Secretary, Mr M'Gregor,

Akaroa.

A cricket match will be played at Robinson's Bay on Thursday next, Feb. 13, between sides chosen from the married and single players of the Akaroa Club. The following are the players selected :— Married — Wood, Lambert, H. Bridge, C. W. • Bridge, Guthrie, Masefield, Barry> Billens, Alger, Kissel, Wilkins; emergency' Anson. Single—Barker, Davenport, Newman, Daly, Welchman, Lacoste, Munro, W. Watkins, Tosswill, W. J. Hughes; emergency, J. G. Hughes., The game will commence at 10 o'clock sharp. Intending players are requested to be punctual as the steam launch will leave the Government wharf precisely at 9 a.m.