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Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2544, 13 April 1871, Page 2

Political. —We are authorised to state that the resignations of the late Executive have been accepted, and that a new Ministry lias been formed, which we think calculated to give unmixod satisfaction, , The appointments are as follows : -Air E. B. Cargill,- Provincial Secretary; Mr George Turnbull, Provincial Treasurer; Mr .0. E. Houghton,- Secretary for Land and Worjcs .(including charge of goldfields) ; and Mr Duncan M Arthur, of the Southland members, holds office, with- 1 out a portfolio.

Educational. —Tire -young men’s evening classes at the Afjhemeuin, arc now in operation. These .classes', embracing as they do all the ixffire important educational branches, should be joined by all really interested in -improvement. ; Presentation, —The Rev W. G. Gilbert, who has' for, many yogi’s labored in the Clutha district, is about to bo settled at Eangiora, Canterbury, before leaving- the district he was presented' with a purse of forty sovereigns by his late parishioners. Spouting. —A trotting match'against time, distance two miles, has been arranged for LlO a side, between Mr Davis’s Tommy and Mr Johnstone’s Shamrock, and comes off to-morrow. The ground over which the horses are to trot is tne main road, from; the late racecourse, Waikouaiti, to Mr Neil’s. Considerable interest is taken in the race.

The’ Incoming Mails The City of Melbourne, uith the San Francisco mail fqy Mai cb, is due at Auckland to-morrow. ’ Tho Suez mail, with detailed news up to Feb. 24, and with telegraphic nows up to March 17, is due at Melbourne. Tho Lew Zealand. -portion of the mail will, in all probability, be brought by the steamer leaving Melhouuie on April 15. It may be looked for at Hokitika about the 20tb.

Princess Theatre. —The repetition of “ Milky White ” and “ Aurora Floyd ” did not draw a very large house at the theatre last night; hut for all that, the force of the actors was in no way diminished, nor did tho performance pass off with less eclat than usual. The Aurora Floyd of Miss Carry George is an excellent assumption and well deserving the applause it meets. The programme is unaltered for this evening. Scarlatina.— -The Humid admits the painful fact that this fever lias made its appearance in the Waikouaiti district, though not in either of the Hawkesburys, in a malignant form, and that several deaths have already occurred through it. In one family -that of Mr Sutherland—three children have sunk under if, and in another, a wife, s ster, and child have fallen victims to its virulence. - In Palmerston four deaths occurred in one family during last week, and there are sumo others who are'down with the fever.

‘‘Agricultural Statistics.—The full returns of land in cultivation in the Province in February last have been published. Before the union of Otago with Southland there were 2,446 holdings ; hut the number in the united Province is 3,016. There were 22,811-4 acres sown in grass, the estimated yield being 656,0454 bushels ; in oats, 66,217 acres—estimated yield, 2,213,1384 bushels; in barley, 4,7364 acres—yield, 144,892 bushels ; in grass hay, 7,4171 acres —estimated yield, 12,6011 tons ; in potatoes, 3,200 acres—estimated yield, 16,609, | bushels; besides uhich there was of last year crops remaining on hand when the forms were filled up—wheat, 42,2/8 bushels ; oats,

31,370.1 bushels ; andbarley, 52,618 bushels. The returns only include holdings which wcie under grain crops ; the number of holdings is, therefore, much less than in the accounts for 1870, which included land under pasture and all other crops, and as a necessaiy consequence no fair comparison can he instituted between the number of holdings returned for 1870 and those returned for 1871.

Beach Workings. —lt Is reported tli.it the parties engaged working on the beach near Port Molyneux ore at present doing remarkably well. There arc tv/o parties close to the beach, while others liivo selected ground farther up into the bush. One of the former is said to be making the handsome sum of L'-'O per week per mm ; while tho others arc making good wages. All appear to bo highly satisiicd with thou returns, and there is every prospect that the .eround in the locality will afford good wages for a hvge number o£ miners. l x Memoiuam.—Permission has been obtained to icinovo “tho mound ’ in the Presbyterian portion of the Cemetery, for the purpose of erecting a monument in memory of tho late Iviv. Dr. Burns. It has been designed, by Mr R. a, Lawson in the Scottish baronial style. Thy height of the monument from the base line is intended to he 50 feet, on a base of 15 feet square. On each of tho four sides will he a recess, panncllcjl into one of which a marble slab will be placed, bearing an inscription;. Each rcI cess or bay will he surmounted with a moulded segmental arch. Above each arch, the “burning, hush, - ’ the,emblem of the Free Church of Scotland, will he sculptured. The lower part of the monument, to the height of' 18 feet, is intended to form a pediment, if needful, for the,reception of a statue; moulded shafts being continued from each of the angles until they meet in segment'd arches . corresponding with those below. Battlemcated copings project, on which mottoes may be inscribed, and at each amde a turret in the Scotch style will he placed. Flying buttresses with stepped finish - fng converge to the centre, a short distance below tho summit, oh which is placed a crown pinnnacle, with shields on each face. The leading idea is a watchtower, emblematic of the dev. Doctor’s sacred calling. The cost is estimated at LSOO. ACGIMA'WSATION SOCIETY.—At this afternoon’s meeting there were present Mos-u's Murison (in tho chair), Thomson, ami Tnrton. The chairman reported that six red deer and 12 brace of partridges had been sent to Oamam, 11 brace of partridges, to tho Clutha, and tho remaining chaffinches had been liberated at the grounds. The blackbirds and thrushes had been Alighted, and would shortly be read.y for liberation. Stock received —I silver cock pheasant from Captain Black of the Prospector ; two pairs of these b rds had been shipped by the Whirlwind at Hong Kong, for Dunedin, but three had died on the passage. Letters were received from the lion, secretary of the Canterbury Society, iu reply to a letter from the Otago‘Society, applying for English pheasants ; and the writer intimated that the. Canterbury Society had decided forward six brace as a present; from Mr vV, -Stradian, applying for Californian seeds ; from Mr W. Pill mis. Clutha, stating that the partridges were liberated on Inch Clutha, and that they appeared strong on the wing ; also that notices had been posted up in the district, intimating that those birds have been tunned out and warning persons against molesting them ; from Messrs T. B. Ulph, Dunedin, C. :W. Adams, Lawrence, and John Reid, K.iderslio, with reference to Californian seeds ; from Mr'W. Dorritt, Oamaru, asking that some thrushes might be sent to that district. After transacting some business of minor importance, the meeting adjourned. ; ■ Chamber of Commerce.— The quarterly meeting of the Chamber was held this afternoon, Mr E, B, Cargill in the ; chair*. There were also present M< Walcott, Bathgate, Turnbull, Ihilterworth.'Sise, and Neil. The chairman explained that during the past quarter the committee had not been very active. ••Therc-wore one or two matters which required Attention, -particularly that of registration of: bills' of-sale. • Other Chambers had taken the matter in hand with a view to some action being taken at the approaching cession of the Assembly, Mid it might be-well if the Chamber made' a rpprosentati- non the siibjcct. Th(,?eoopld he no doubt the present syistom of registration of bi Is, by which their nature was kepkeouc alcd from " the public—no Heiress : being given to them' except on asking jfor a partibular name —was a wrong one, There: should be free access to the Registry, • bo that any person : interested could obtain the fullest information as to the ' hills placed oh it.' Tho Auckland Chamber had adopted a pretty strong petition, and ho : thought sumo similar action should ho taken by the Chamber. Another subject for consideration was the proposal by tho Melbourne ■ Chamber that the cental system of weighing ’ grain should be lireught into use here, 'the system up doubt would he a groat convenience and improvement in many wayp, but it -was one of those matters of Very , great difficulty to get : tiic public to move but of old customs; The ‘committee had not felt themselves at liberty to deal- with the mat-, ter, and remitted it to the chamber, In Melbourne, where every effort had been made to bring the system into use, it had proved a failure The Government had given notice of their intention to bring in a new Bankruptcy Act; and it was desirable that the Government should bq asked to furnish the Chamber with a copy of tho draft, in order that it might ho considered before the Assembly met. It was resolved, “That the Assembly he petitioned for a revision and amendment of the law afflicting the registration of bills of sale, which would permit of the earliest possible publicity being given to bills of sale, and allow of tho public searching the register,;! for a single fee.” No action was taken regarding the cental system, and the chairman’s suggestion, n; the now Bankruptcy Act, was adopted.

Du. Moran’s Prohibition. The effect of tiie right rev. gentleman’s recent address to his flock, on the subject of education, is being felt in many parts of the Province. We are informed that there lias been a large withdrawal of Roman Catholic children from the Dunedin district schools ; and the same proceeding has been adopted at Tokomairiro and Waikouaiti. On Monday, it is said, a priest was actively engaged intercepting the children on their way from Fairfax towards tho local school, ami throughout the day the parents were all visited at their homes, and remonstrated with against allowing t)je children to go to the schools. Tiie Jln'ukL says he was successful in most cases, although in some a direct refusal to comply with such an arbitrary injunction was said to have been given,

and the children still continue to atttod the school. In an article bitterly (jojukiujning- . the Bishop’s action in the mattdT.jpur cop- T temporary remarks l—“ iNever ftbhld the Roman Catholic population wish for, and never could they nave a bettor opportunity to vindicate their independence, their freedom from control, from the dominance in the affairs of life of the priesthood, and to let the pried,hood know that the intelligence and progress of the nineteenth century preclude the laity from being treated by the priesthood as they were treated in the dark days of the middle age? —treatment which igno - ance, and its offspring, superstition and cowardice, could alone have made men to submit to. It is such treatment that the Bishop has threatened to our Roman ' atholic population if they dare to differ with him in the matter of education. Well may they ask—ls this a matter that falls within his commission, and is ho warranted to exorcise his spiritual office, as a Christian Bishop, -so as to deny to all who may differ from him on such a matter as ths such Christian privileges as fail to a Christian Bi-diop to administer? Is cocrc'on in ths matter the right of an ecclesiastic? Is it right that submission be rendered under fear of spiritual deprivation ? Is the withholding of spiritual or Christian privileges, as a means of ecclesiastical coercion, boiitting action on the part of a Christian Bishop in such a matter? Shall the Christian parentage be compelled to submit to ccclesiastical'dictation as to how and when their offspring shall be taught, and what instructions alone they shall receive ? We have more confidence in the intelligence and manly Christian independence of the Romish laity than to suppose for a moment that in this matter they will tolerate tile Bishop to ride rough-shod over them.” Dr. Moran left town for Tokomairiro yesterday, for the purpose of making arrangements fbT the establishment of ft school there, and was to proceed in the afternoon to Tuapoka.:

An entertuinmEnt will be given in the Lecture Hall of the Wesleyan Church, this evening, commencing at 7.30, the proceeds' to he devoted to the Church Building Fund.

, This first annual general meeting of the Third New Zealand Building and Mutual Investment Society will he held in the Masonic Hall to-morrow (Friday) evening at’B o’clock,'when the directors’ report and balance-sheet will bo presented.