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Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2793, 30 January 1872, Page 2

Fire. —We regret to hear that the Waikouaiti Brewery and Cooperage was entirely destroyed by fire on Sunday night. It is supposed to have caught tire by a spark from the brick kiln near to it. The Princess Theatre.—Referring to a paragraph which appeared in to-day’s issue of the Dally Timas resp cting an alleged arrangement with Mr O’Brien for the use of the Princess Theatre, we are ciiitUui-isoJ. to any ili.it no auoU engagement has at present been entered into. Resident Magistrate's Court.— Mr Edward Cook yesterday closed his case for the plaintiff in Marshall v. hord, and the Court adjourned the further hearing until Thursday. We understand about a dozen witnesses i/eiijaiu to be examined for the defence. Musical.— The Melbourne papers report that at the last meeting of the City Council of that city, an application was received from Mr A. J. Towscy for the post of organist at the Town Hall. The result of the application is not announced, but we believe it has been decided to throw the post open tocompetition. The local papers arc lavish in their praise of the vocal performances of Miss Liwie, the youngest daughter of Madame Carandini. One critic says : —‘•Talented and accomplished as are Madame Carandini and her daughters, this the latest candidate for public favor pro-, mises to eclipse the rest.” The .States company have performed in Sydney, and the opinion of their audiences is entirely favorable to them, while none but transcendant praise is applied to the primma donna, and the bapsp and baritone of the company. Miss Schiller, the pianist, has commenced teaching in Melbourne. She appears to know how to value her services, for she announces her terms—“A lesson weekly of forty minutes duration, six guineas per quarter; two do do, ten guineas,” What the Rise in Wool Means.— Many ingenious calculations have been made with regard to the amount which has been realised by the wool grower, owing to the advance -which has taken place in the price of this staple ; but remarks the Independent, it perhaps has never been noticed that the addition to the income of the Colony, owing to the increase in the quantity of wool produced, has been even greater than that which has been obtained by the rise in price. The quantity of wool exported from .the Colony in 1870 was 37,000,00(f1b5. jn round numbers ; and it may be safely estimated that the quantity exported this season will be 50,000,0001b5. Even an advance of 3d per lb. on the whole of this quantity would only realise L 925.000; but if the price of wool had not advanced at all, and remained the same now as it did in 1870, the value of this increased quantity at Is per lb. would amount to no less than L 650,000. This large increase of production, when added to the large increase of price still further increased from Id to per lb., must have a very beneficial influence in the prosperity of the country. Shortsightedness. —ln “ Talk on ’Change,” the Australa ian says : —“I have been told, on the best authority, that no class of persons have done so little by the contribution of capital in establishing pieatpreserving companies as the squatting class. The owners of sheep and cattle a e the persons who must be mainly benefited by anything which widens the market and improves the pi-ice of the commodity they produce. It is shortsighted policy not to assist in the establishment of a large foreign outlet, which can only be secured through the instrumentality of those companies. There might npw be se.yprai as successful as is the Melbourne Company, if sufficient capital had been furbished and good management obtained, The lack of stockowners’' faith fii meat companies was curiously illustrated by one of the richest squatters in Victoria giving away, for fear of calls, a couple of

hundred shares in the Melbourne Meat Pre- J serving Company shortly after its establishment. These despised shares have since paid good dividends, and are to-day worth nearly L 1000.” German Immigrants. —Apropos of I)r Featherston’s success in North Germany, the Wellington Independent is informed that Mr C. A. Curtis, of Ingestre street, in that city, some months ago, wrote to the Nord Deutsche Zeltung, the Brcslauer Zcitung, and two other pipers circulating amongst the agricultural districts of North Geimany (to the columns of which papers Mr Curtis has access), describing Dr Featherston’s mission to England, and the inducements which New Zealand held out to agricultural settlers. Mr Curtis had frequently seen large numbers of German emigrants leaving their native country for the United States ; they consisted chiefly of the younger sons of farmers, and they invariably took with them small capitals, ranging from LSO to L 250. Being of the opinion that a similar class of settlers might be induced to come out here, with advantage both to the Colony and themselves, he wrote the letters referred to, which, no doubt, coming from a fellowcountryman who has resided several years in New Zealand, have been of some assistance to Dr Featherstou. The agricultural, population of North Germany are intelligent and well educated. They are also likely to readily assimilate themselves with the customs and institutions of this Colony, Why Retrencheent is Impossible. —The General Government is bullied by its opponents on the ground of its extravagance, but if it endeavor to secure economy by the amalgamation of offices, there is at once an outcry against the unfairness of dispensing with old servants. An illustration of this is afforded by the manner in which the action of the Government in the direction of consolidating the Colonial departments in Marlborough has been received. The Government saw an opportunity of effecting a considerable saving by amalgamating various offices, but because some person had of necessity to be dispensed with, his friends immediately got up a protest, which was duly made known to the Government by a deputation of Marlborough residents, who waited upon the Colonial Secretary for the purpose of inducing him to consent to the retention of the surplus officer. Not a word could be said against the feasibility of the arrangements proposed by the Government: the only objection was that a gentleman who had for some time acted as Resident Magistrate at Blenheim (where a Resident Magistrate, one would think, was not at all necessary), would be thrown out of employment. And what makes the action of the deputation appear in a worse light is, that the course pursued by the Government has been entirely concurred in by the Provincial Executive.

.Native Lands. —We take the folio wiug from the Wanganui Hcvnld of Jan. 18 The alienation of land from the natives is a part of the Government policy which is being carried out on a small scale in this district. The natives are very anxious to sell, and all small patches of good land are likely to be acquired within a few months. Major Kemp is in negotiation with his countrymen for the block of 46,000 acres on the Turakina Paver, and Colonel M‘Donnell has had several conferences lately respecting other blocks on the Wanganui. The amount of land which is likely to be purchased in this way is considerable, and we presume the Government intend making immediate use of it in settling immigrants thereon. Colonel Fielding's experiment ip the Mauawatu country may be followed by others, and the accession to the agricultural population ought to be considerable with the next few years. There are few who can be aware of the vast quantity of confiscated land in the Colony which is now inviting population ; and strangers might possibly suppose from the purchases referred to that the land available for settlement was in preportion to the wants of the latter comparatively meagre. A return of the confiscated lands has just been published, in which we find a total area of 3,640,000 acres, of which 1,580,178 acres are now “ available for sale. v This enormous quantity of land will provide in the most liberal manner for all the immigrants we are likely to receive for a long time to come.

The Annual General Meeting of of the subscribers to the Otago Benevolent Institution will be held in Farley’s Hall, Princess street, on Thursday next, February 1, at four o’clock p.m. The Treasurer of the Caledonian Society of Otago announces that Debentures will be paid at his office to-morrow and th? interest, at the Bank of New South Wales, as usual, pn presentation of coupons, properly endorsed,