Our Contributors.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 516, 24 June 1881, Page 3

Our Contributors.

DUNEDIN.

[from our own correspondent.]

We have opened our;exhibition with all the honors-— conclamatum est; poculatum est. We have bowed and skipped and _ pirouetted ; we have complimented our- , selves until, in bur own opinion, we aie j the biggeßt, most successful, most ener- , getic, most industrious community on the earth. Every iidjec'tive must be in the superlative; we - don't condescend to recognise any positive or comparative in our adjuncts. Really there is too much . of the " lick creation "in all this. Doubtless the show is a good one, but we should not take advantage of it to display our own verbose and exurbant' Vanity. Mr Bathgate ia only too ready to look at everything through his own rose-hued spectacles, and many an unfortunate from the old country regrets having listened to his seductive wouds. Mr Bracken read the inaugural poem of his own composition. I regret to have to .say that r I have ________k read better productions of his clever pen. my opinion the piece is stilted aDd as if the divine afflatus was absent for the moment from the author. Of course we had a prayer itom Dr Stuait, and of course he knows more than an ignorant layman, how the Deity should be addressed, and therefore is above my criticism. The exhibits are in general first class, and are well worth close inspection as the production of a colony which has not yet completed its seventh lustrum. It would occupy too much of your space to even mention the names of all the exhihitors but if any of your readers come down to, see our '• Fair," I should recommend them to examine the shows of Mr Burt, of the m Mosgiel Woolen Factory Company, of tbe New Zealand Clothing Company, of Mr V. Almos, the Princes street Hatter, of the Milton Pottery Works, and of Messrs * Kempthrone, Prosser and Company, and I shall promise that the time taken will be well employed. Agriculture is not well represented. The collection of seeds is very small, but it is certainly of capital quality. In agricultural machinery, Messrs Reid and Grey are the principle exhibitors, and they deserve a high position for their double-furrow plough with two coulter.-,, which should prove very interesting to the farmers about Ak.roa. A beehiv^

exhibited by Mr F. Naumann is also well worthy of inspection. I don't know if bee-culture occupies the attention of the Aksiroa folk, but the country seems to be admirably suited to that profitable speculation, and this hive seems specially adapted for the climate.. I am horribly afraid of the little beggars myself, or I should invest in a few swarms, and if any one will insure me immunity I shall do so as it is, but a youthful experience under present circumstances is too vivid in my memory.

The Dunedinites have been somewhat startled by the discovery of the existence of a daring band of housebreakers in their midst. Operations seem to have extended to Christchurch, and it was possibly through the jewelry robbery in that city that the gang may have, it is hoped, got its quietus. It has been my opinion that criminal organisation is far more extensive in its ramifications than is commonly supposed. I notice that in Melbourne there was a very extensive robbery of watches and other articles of value, from a shop in Swans town street —a most public thoroughfare — and, taking the Christchurch affair into consideration as well as the mysterious disappearance of the £5000 in gold on board the Tararua, and the equally mysterious attempt on board the Te Anau, one is driven to the conclusion that thero are some clever heads at the direction of affairs, and that justice only reaches the subordinate ruffians. There is a sort of completeness and efficiency in the transactions—the discovery ot spoil in the jewel robberies can be only considered accidental —which proves thorough workmanship of the Jonathan Wild stamp, Perhaps we have a genius of this class in the colonies, ahead—centre of illegal borrowers. 1* will be rather awakened if, as in the Butler scare, we shall have to look and furbish our desueta anna revolvers, blunderbusses' etc., to protect the domestic hearth. The Otagoans are determined by "hook' or " crook " to have their Central Railway. A most voluminous report on the matter has been handed in by the countries' Railway Commissioners, in which we easily regogni.e the facile pen of: the glowing Mr Bathgate. This gentleman has the peculiar power of only seeing the bright side of everything, but unfortunately for the accomplishment of his wishes, this perversity of his mental vision makes other folk suspect the evidence of his senses. Making allowance, however, for some pardonable exaggeration, there is every prospect of the line opening up a district of the country which possesses resources of no ordiuary value to the colony, and, though the burden of the construction of the line will undoubtedly not be undertaken under the present regime by Government, the speculation should be sufficiently alluring for private enterprise. One is almost forced to the conclusion that the northern parts get more than their share of tho good things, the geds bestow.

We had a pleasant interchange of compliments between our junior member, MrW. Downie Stewart, and the Otago Times. Which of the two came oft' best, I am at a loss to say, but in my opinion they fought with very equal arms. The Times editor did not see so much in Mr Stewart's address as I did.

We have had some discussion about ;overnment grants for the endowment of econdary education, and certainly if manimity in correspondence is any crierion, the mind of the people is made ip to appropriate these grants for the leople's use. When we consider that here is some £350,(00 devoted to the tupport of schools entirely in the hands )f the rich, who could afford to pay the lull value of the education of their mildren, and that.the grants to primary iducation for which Government is responsible, may have to be reduced, and :hus the efficiency of the public schools impaired, we readily admit that the noney might be put to a better use than n supporting what is in reality a class monopoly. It is pretty .certain that the matter will be brought before the legislature, and we may then see what defence the supporters of the system can make for it; at present they are dumb.