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Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2594, 10 June 1871, Page 2

Soiree. — A soiree took place iu the Christian Disciples church, Great King street last evening, Mr FJborn presiding. After tea, addresses iwere delivered by the chairman, the rev. Mr Fergus pastor of the Christian Disciple congregation at Hampden, and by Messrs Stokes, Butters, Stewart, Batson and Haig. Dunedin Hifle Clue.—The first squad of the above club fired at the North Dunedin butts this morning at 7.H0. Giving to the inclement vreather there were only eight members present, and the shooting, with one exception, was anything but good. Allowance, however, must lie made as a thick driving, mist prevailed tvhich at times quite obscured the target. The ranges were 200, 400, and 500 yards, five shots at each range—standing at the first, Hyfho at the second, and any position at the latter. We

have not received the scores, but believe that Corporal M‘Gregor, No. 1 C.G., was the highest scorer in the first squad with 45 points.

Provincial Council. —The House was in committee the whole of last evening on the first of the Government land n solutions, which affirmed the necessity for the immediate repeal of the Hundreds Kcgulatiou Act. The principal speakers were the Provincial Solicitor, Or Webster, the Hon. J. M ‘Lean and Mr Cargill. A division took place a little after eleven o’clock with the following result: —Ayes, sOp Allan, Armstrong, Ban-, Barton, Bastings, Bathgate, Bradshaw, Brown, J. C., Brown, F. C.,-, Cantrell, Clark, Cutten (teller,) Daniel, Duncan, Gillies, Green, Henderson, Hickey, Hutcheson, Lumsden, D. H. Mervyn, Hon Dr. Menznes, Mollison, M ‘Arthur, Reid (teller), Robertson, Shand, Shepherd, Smith and Sumpter. Noes 7 : Bell (teller,) Galbraith, M ‘Clash an, M'Lean (teller,) Reynolds, Seaton and Webster. Supreme Court.—The following is the list of civil cases for trial by common jury, on Tuesday the 13th inst.La’ iiach and another v. Bird—W. D. Stewart for plain!iff; W. W, Williams for defendant. Coste v. M'Donald—B. C. Haggitt for plaintiff ;B. Sicvwright for defendant. Holmes v. The New Zealand and Australian Land Company, Limited—Allan Holmes for plaintiff; James Anderson for defend ant. Wilson v. Annan—J. H. Harris for plaintiff; W. IT. M'Kcay for defendant Special jury cases Brig 1 1 and another v. Camp! cl —J. ' nderson for plaintiffs; Allan Holmes for clef ndant. Bathcatc (trustee) v. The Bank of ( Hago, Limited—G. E. Barton for plaintiff; J. Anderson for defendants. Prii chard v, Gibbs—fixed for 2(lthJune—Allan Holmes for plaintiff ; G. E. Barton for defendant. The Great Extended Sluicing Company, Registered v. Hales and another—fixed for 27 th June—B; C. Haggitt for plaintiff; P. H. M ‘Coy, Howorth and Hodgkins agents, for defendants.

Princess Theatre.—A “very large audience was drawn together yesterday—the occasion being, according to the house bills, a “Grand and Fashionable Fight.” In all essentials the programme was new, and gave as much satisfaction as any previous entertainment of - the troupe. Mr Barlow, as usual, was full of life and spirits, and appeared to enjoy equally with his audience the merriment caused by himself;' the dancing of Messrs. Holly and Buckley was as effective as over ; and the songs and “make-up” of Mr Bromley in various characters elicited the usual rounds of applause. Altogether the entertainment was .as successful as any previous efforts of the company. The programme will be repeated tonight.

Grain Statistics. —The agricultural statistics published by the Victorian Government, and received by last mail, show that there is a deficiency of about 2,800,000 bushels in the last crop of wheat. This represents about 70,000 tons of flour. The Government statistics recently received from Adelaide show that the last harvest, though a good one for S nith Australia, only yielded a surplus of 110,000 tons of flour available for export. As the colony of Victoria cannot supply its own wants in the way of breadstuffs when it has an average harvest, and as New South Wales and Queensland always draw largely upon Adelaide, it is clear that this year there will bo no surplus in these colonies for exportation to the United Kingdom. But as a considerable quantity of wheat and flour has already been exported since la=t harvest from the various colonies of Australasia to the United Kingdom, it follows that our food supplies may run short before next harvest.

Forbury Park Company. At a. general meeting of the company held last evening, a statement of its affairs was submitted, from which wo learn that the receipts of the company up to the present time have been nearly L2OO, which the directors do not consider represents anything like the income ultimately to be derived from the property. The late race meeting proved the ground to be admirably adapted for the purpose; and the directors are strongly of opinion that the undertaking will yet prove .a success, and will not only be a great boon to the ’ citizens of Dunedin as a place of recreation, but remunerative to the shareholders. In accordance with the suggestion contained in the the report, it was agreed to lease 20 acres of the Park, fronting Albert road, to be brought under cultivation. Messrs Marshall, Larnach, and Taggart were re-elected; and Messrs G. Elliott, Dowse, Beany, Pritchard, Walcott, and Stephenson elected directors. After transacting some formal business the meeting adjournal. The High School. — The Rector, in his annual report, states “The average attendance for the year was 88, showing an increase of 18 over the average attendance of the previous.year. The system of entrance examinations recommended by the High School commission was brought into operation at the beginning of the second quarter. At the various entrance examinations held during the year, 24 boys presented themselves for admission, of whom 12 passed to the satisfaction of the examiners, and twelve failed. Had all who were desirous of cuter ing as pupils during the year been .admitted, the average attendance would thus have been 100 ; but while the entrance examination has thus been instrumental in keeping down the numbers, it has had the effect of raising the standard of the lower forms, a result which in the course of time cannot fail to prove advantageous to the school. The work of the school during the year has, on the whole, been very similar to that of the previous year. It will consequently be unnecessary for me to enter so fully into details as I have done in previous reports. The school was divided into four forms, and the subjects taught are the English language and literature, history, geography (political and physical), • rithmelic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, bookkeeping, elocution, Latin, Greek, French, and natural science. During the years 1869 and 1870, a much smaller poition of time was devoted to the study of the classical language in all the forms, and especially in the fifth and sixth, than was previously the care. As far as I have been able to learn, the time apportioned to the time of study of Latin and Greek previous to 1869, was about 15 hours out of tlm 25 ; while,since that date these subjects have received at the most only sevi n hours, and for a considerable time only live hours a week. The change was considered necessary, in order to pro? vide additional time for the teaching of a number of important subjects, especially in 1

he English and mivthcnuticaE departments, which must otherwise havc,been to a great extent neglected. In consequence of this arrangement we have been able to reach a ’ much higher standard in these two departments of the school than would otherwise have been possible. This result has not. of course been effected without some diminution in the classical work of the school; but this diminution has not affected cither the quality of the work done or the interest of the pupils in their classical studies. The stimulus which these studies will shortly receive by the opening of the University of Otago, combined with the additional time which I intend to give to them during the present year, will be quite sufficient to enable us to reach a high classical standard in the course of a short time ; while our pupils in the meantime will have the advantage of a thorough drilling in the higher mathematics, and will have acquired a large amount of information in .natural science and other subjects, which will be of considerable practical use in afterlife,” The Rector reports very favorably of the Provincial scholars.

Gaol Return. —The following is the state of H. M, Gaol, Dunedin, for the week ending 10th June :—Awaiting trial, 0 men, 1 woman ; under remand, 1 men, 0 women ; penal servitude, 90 men, 0 women ; hard, labor, 47 men, 15' women ; imprisonment, Omen, 0 women ; in default of- bail, 1 men, 0 women; debtors, 2 men, 0. women. Total maies, 141 ; females, 16. Received during the week, 9 men, 11 women. Discharged 10 men, 5 women. A meeting of the Union Permanent Building Society, for the purpose of receiving subscriptions, A'C., will be held at the office of the Society on Monday evening next, at seven o’clock. The Right Rev. Dr Moran will give service on Sunday, the 11th instant, at Port Chalmers, at 11 a, m. The usual fortnightly meeting of the Commercial Building and Mutual Investment Society, for receiving subscriptions, ■&c., will be held on Monday evening, June 12, from six to eight o’clock. The Rev. T. S. Smalley will preach in the Wesleyan Church, Port Chalmers, tomorrow evening, on the Temporal Advantages of the Sabbath.” We perceive, by announcement, that Dr Carr has determined to again appear before the people of Dunedin. Should the coming seances meet with similar success to those of last winter, the Dr will never have cause to regret.