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Evening Star, Issue 2910, 17 June 1872, Page 2

Land Sale. — Mr James Milner sold, at the Land Office to-day, the lease, which has ten years to run, ol Run No. 257, containing 9,C60 acres. Mr John Muir was the purchaser ; the price being L3OO. Princess Theatre. —There was a good attendance on Saturday evening, when the melo-drama of “ The Wreckers of Pen Dhu” was played. To-night, a new drama by Craven, “Goals of Fire,” will be produced.

Municipal. —Mr A. Mercer has been invited by a large number of citizens to offer himself for the Mayoral chair for the forthcoming year. A requisition to this effect, which is being numerously signed, is about to be presented to Mr Mercer.

A Miser. —At Foxton, there died, at an advanced age, William Chapman, a miserable miser, worth L 50.000, which he has left; to an illegitimate son of his. His last wish was that his stick might be put in his coffin, that he might give “ Old Stratford” a thrashing with it when he met with him, because he disappointed him of buying some laud years ago ! The Circus. —We notice that Wednesday evening is announced as the last exhibition of this place of amusement. Those who have not witnessed these equestrian performances should therefore do so without delay. A last fashionable day performance is announced for to-morrow (Tuesday). This is an opportunity of which schools and families would do well to avail themselves. We can cordially recommend a visit.

On Dit.—A few days ago the son of one of our old settlers, lately deceased, imagining, with or without reason, that he had been injured by some remarks made by a well-known medical gentleman, took upon himself to administer the punishment of whipping him. We do not pretend to pronounce upon the merits of the case, which was to have formed the subject of proceedings in one of the Courts, but at the last moment was withdrawn.

Accident.— A painful accident occurred yesterday, on board the barque Medea, to a little girl, four and a-half years old, named Sarah Ann Bremner, who in stepping across the booby hatch, which was covered with a tarpaulin, fell down the ship’s hold, a distance of twenty feet. On being attended to by Dr Drysdale, one of the thigh bones was found to be fractured, and that a few contusions, not of a serious character, had been sustained. The little girl, considering the circumstances, is progressing favorably. A Select Ball.— The volunteers of Auckland are highly indignant at the conduct of their officers, who managed to convert the Queen’s Birthday ball there into a very select affair. Usually the ball has been attended by all classes of the service ; but this year the “swells” wanted to have all the fun to themselves, and accordingly carried out this scheme : —Officers only could subscribe, subscription five guineas, each subscriber being allowed to invite six friends each. The ball was necessarily exceedingly select; one penniless officer brought all his brothers—and, in point of fact, select as the ball was, the representatives of wealth and social position were chiefly conspicuous for their absence. One or two newspaper reporters received invitations, and, perhaps naturally enough, repaid the hospitality by vaunting the ball as the neplus ultra of such assemblies. It has been proposed that the local volunteers should mark their, sense of the unworthy treatment they received by resigning en masse, and for aught known to the contrary that step may yet be taken, Water Supply to Goldfields.— The Mount Ida Chronicle writes strongly in favor of a cheap water supply to that goldfield. After expressing the opinion that such a supply would be certain to be reproductive our contemporary remarks “ an able engineer has been on this place for some weeks past, instructed to report upon the practicability of a working sludge channel being constructed to the Taieri, and the bringing in of the Kyeburn river for the purposes of flushing. We have also been informed that when Mr Simpson has finished his present surveys, he will proceed to the Manuherikia for the purpose of surveying a race from that river to this field, and the possibility of bringing it in at a cost which the Government would have in their pow. r or at their command to expend. That the result of such an enterprise would be a success, at whatever cost, nobody who knows this district will for a moment doubt. The entire country between the town and the Taieri River has been prospected and proved to be payably auriferous ; and if the channel be constructed, and a larger and cheaper supply of water be brought in, we hesitate not to say that, in a short time, the population would be quadrupled, as would also the re. 1

venue derivable alike from special mining and ordinary taxation.” oSigns op the Times.—The Wellington Independent of June 5 says : —The colony received about fifty thousand pounds more for the second instalment of the loan than for the first —which fact is, doubtless, a fitting subject of congratulation. But a curious series of compensating circumstances are at work -which amongst other results will prevent our receiving the full benefit of our improved credit and the abundance of money. The demand for all articles used in railway construction, and especially iron, has become so enormous that railway iron alone has gone up nearly fifty per cent, above the price ■which ruled at the time the original estimates for the New Zealand railways were made. And it appears tolerably certain that the high price will be maintained for an indefinite period. All the manufacturers are gorged with orders, and the wages in the iron trade have increased about 15 per cent., so that there is no probability of any important alteration for some time to come. This means a very serious addition to the cost of our railways, and the Government will have to take the responsibility of in some cases exceeding the authorised cost of the lines and of postponing the construe• tion of those with regard to which the colony can well afford to wait a few years. The L 50,000 saved on this loan will not go very far in covering this increased cost, but on the other hand the Colony gets fully a million for the year in the increased price of wool alone.

Native News. —After loafiing at various settlements of the Kingites, Te Kooti, with nine or eleven followers, all in wretched plight and looking just like other escaped felons, arrived at Te Kuiti on or about the 23rd of last month —i e , on the same day on which the Defence Minister, left for Waikato. Te Kooti and his tail were closely cropped, urged thereto by certain “familiar beasts.” When Kooti formerly visited Upper Waikato, he and his little band were attired a la the old Defence Force, even to the white bands on the caps. Kooti says he will settle down quietly if we will not molest him. Indirectly, he wrote to Government about two years ago, “ Cease your pursuitof me,”and it must beownedthat he has led a truly miserable existence almost ever since he made that confession of weakness. It is said that a small section of Kingites would not hesitate to give him up ; this may be so, but some acquaintance with Maori ideas leads to the conclusion that a large majority of the Kingites prefer to shelter him. Te Kooti escaped into Waikato by crossing the Kangitikei, where it is next to impossible, I believe, to watch all the fords. The liangitikei here alluded to falls into the sea at Matata, on the Fast Coast, and is usually looked upon as the northern boundary of the Uriwera hills. It would appear that of all the men who once followed Te Kooti, none—with the exception of these at present with him and a few who surrendered —remain alive; fighting and famine have cleared off the others. —Lyttelton Times Correspondent. Our Army.— When Colonel Brett’s mythical privateer, about which he recently spoke at Christchurch, arrives under the command of some nineteenth century Paul Jones, we ought to be prepared to give him a warm reception. If we may judge from the New Zealand Army List, an unpretending but instructive brochure quietly launched upon an unsuspecting public last March, we must be in possession of a paper army, equal to any emergency. If the number of men is in anything like just proportion to the quota of officers, New Zealand must be the proprietor of quite a colossal army of citizen soldiers. The raw militia absorbs 3 colonels, 15 lieutenant-colonels, 47 majors, 198 captains, 13(3 lieutenants, 117 ensigns, 21 surgeons, 10 assistant-surgeons, and 4 quar-ter-masters, in all, 551 officers—a regiment by themselves. In addition to this posse of lame, halt, and blind, there are 279 volunteer officers, and 79 vacancies remaining to be filled up, making 358, Adding to these 30 officers of the Armed Constabulary, we arrive at the respectable grand total of 939 “ officers and gentlemen” whose names are immortalised in the Colonial Hart. If wo may offer a suggestion to the distinguished military authorities who rule the destinies of this noble army of captains, we would recommend a searching investigation into this list. If 191 captains require 31 surgeons, how many lieutenant-colonels are necessary for 186 lieutenants ?—a rule-of-three sum which will tax even Mr Stevens’s mathematical ability. The Police Pay.—The cost of the police in the Middle Island is L 40,403, or about 4s 6d per head of the population. The Dunstan Times, in an article which goes to show the necessity of men employed out of towns, and especially on goldfields, receiving a higher rate of pay than is given to city police, says that in Otago, with two exceptions (Cardrona and the Arrow), the uniform rate at which first-class constables are paid is 8s 6d per day, irrespective of locality or consequent price of provisions. A man is thus supposed to live as cheaply at Cromwell or Alexandra, as at Tokomairiro or Mosgiel. It must he patent to the meanest understanding that in localities where wages vary from 20s to 40s per week, an injustice must be inflicted on a class of men subject to a uniform rate of wage. The Nelson Government recognised this fact, the senior constables in the city being paid barely 8s per day, whilethesenioreonstableon the goldfields is paid 12s per diem. The sergeant in the city is paid Ll6O per annum, or less than 9s per day ; while on the goldfields he receives 13a per diem. The same principle is recognised in Westland, the pay being apportioned to the district in which the man is located. In Westland the warders receive the same pay as the ordinary police, LlB4. To have an efficient police force, the men must be treated well—be paid according to their merits and the work required of them. Sub-inspectors should not be put on sergeants’ pay ; nor the substitution of one officer for another a pretext for curtailment of salary. Compared with Westland, our police rate is wonderfully small. Compared with Canterbury and its rate of wages, a greater difference occurs ; while, as miners’ wages iu Otago and Wesstland are about the same, and men can live as cheaply on the Kaneiri or Westport as at Clyde or Alexandra, the different manner in which the police are paid becomes more transparent. Suicide at the Bluff.— Our telegrams last week conveyed the information that a man named John Eoddam had committed suicide on board the Rangitoto while the vessel lay alongside,the wharf at the Bluff. It appeared from the evidence adduced at the coroner’s inquiry, that the deceased arrived at the Bluff from Dunedin by! the Rangitoto, on the 9th inst. His name

was not on the passenger list, nor did it appear that he had paid for. his passage.When found he was hanging from the inside gangway of the steamer* suspended by a rope attached to his neck and immersed up to the waist in water. He Was quite dead. On his clothes being searched by the sub-inspect >r of Customs (in the absence of a policeman), the following articles were found Some silver, a silver watch which had stopped at 6 30 a, m., and a pocket book containing sundry papers, besides a draft on the Bank of New South Wales for L 297, issued in favor of John Roddorn. The evidence showed that the deceased had been walking about the deck all the night before, that at three o’clock in the morning he partook of some coffee along with the night watchman on the wharf; that in the course of conversation he said there were several detectives on board looking f after him ; and from other pecularities in his remarks, the watchman was of opinion he was of unsound mind. A verdict that deceased committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity was returned. The Mount Ida Chronicle has the following reference to the affair :—The deceased was a carrier of long standing in this district, and very generally respected, possessing at the same time very considerable interest in horses and drays. The teams of deceased, which wore on their road to this place when the event occurred, are alleged to have been purchased by Mr Pritchard, of Dunedin some few days back. Two agents of Mr Pritchard made their appearance here on Wednesday, and attempted to obtain delivery of the team. This was resisted, on the ground that there were other claims against the teams previously to their alleged sale. Up to the time when we write affairs are in static quo ante, a great deal of excitement in the matter pervading the public mind. A mystery there is somewhere, and an explanation of that mystery we trust to be in a position to publish in our next issue.

A meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of New Zealand, S.C., will be held in the Masonic Hall, on Wednesday evening next, at 8 o’clock.

We direct attention to a notice by the Immigration Officer in another column. The immigrants per ship *• William Davie ” consist of 34 domestic servants ; 1 cook ; 10 farm laborers; 1 quarrier ; 7 dairymaids ; G lahuorers ; 1 coppersmith; 3 ploughmen ; 1 nursemaid ; 1 teacher ; 1 machinist; 2 fitters; 1 navvy ; 1 bootmaker j 1 blacksmith.