GENERAL ITEMS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 582, 10 February 1882, Page 2

GENERAL ITEMS.

Some members of the Alpine Club arrived by the Te Anau. The English Cricketers were passengers by the Mai! steamer for Sydney. They won every New Zealand match easily. The Press correspondent telegraphs from Wellington : —I hear that his Excel lency the Governor purposes paying another lengthened visit to Canterbury. The Colonial Treasurer also contemplates an early visit to the South Island. Major Atkinson will most likely start next week for Lyttelton, and will make a complete tour of the Island, remaining absent, from Wellington about a month. The Premier is not expected back in Wellington for another fortnight. All the members of the Cabinet will, it is understood, assemble in Wellington next month to consult aw to programme tor the approaching sesMiwi !.<■' Parliament. I h";ir, on good ivitbority, and from various we 'J inlynnod that ihere, is every ;>m>])k:« of m! oxr;-:-ii;nt riuig.-.'t. January tinu i'Vunrary (so fur) have i>een even better periods for revenue thai! ttie previous nine months, Persons best qualified to judge anticipate that the Customs will be nearly, it not quite, £60,000 above the estimate, and January also will show very well, although the latter are necessarily trenched upon by the postal revenue, now that postage stamps can be used for receipts, etc. The property tax is already coming in most satisfactorily, and bids fair to exhibit even better results proportionally than lastvear. The only item of revenue likely to fall short of the estimates is the railways, but this was palpably overestimated from the first, and it is feared that the less favorable grain harvest likely to be secured this year will cause the receipts to be still further behind. At present the gross receipts do not seem likely to materially exceed £870,000, and there is hardly the remotest prospect of their very closely approaching the estimated £910,000. Fortunately the working expenses have been more under the estimate than the receipts, so that the nett profit still promises to be very satisfactory."

Some little fear is expressed by those best acquainted, with Native peculiarities that a little too much fuss has been made with Tiiwhaio, and that it has not been clearly enough conveyed to him that he can never be more than a mere subject of the Queen. Croakers predict more future disappointment from this cause, as they are appehensive that Tawhaio's ideas of " a little time," may prove much too wide to suit European aspiration for rapid progress.