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Evening Star, Issue 2973, 29 August 1872, Page 2

To Correspondents. —■ Several letters are unavoidably held over. Telegraphic.— lt is proposed to open a telegraph office at Popotuuoa shortly. Princess Theatre. —The performances to-night are specially for the Port people, f< r whose convenience seats will he reserved till after the arrival of the steamer in town. Permissive Bill.—On the 20th instant Mr Fox presented a petition from 25 inhabitants of Otawatea in favor of the Permissive Bill. Mr Bathgate presented the following petitions ; - 300 male inhabitants of Oamaru, 220 female residents of Oamaru ; and 2,310 males, and 2,100 females of Dunedin and adjoining country districts. Mr Clark presented petitions, s’gned by 45 electors and 32 female inhabitants of Port Albert, in favor of tho same Bill. The Gazette. —The following notifications appear in the last number of the New Zealand Gazette :—His Honor the Superintendent to be chairman ; and Messrs J. A. R. Menzics, W. A. Tolmie, James Smith, and John Maclean, members of the Otago Board, under the Diseased Cattle Act, 18(51. Mr William Logie to he cattle inspector for Otago ; and Messrs W. H. Fielder and D. P. Bailey sub-inspectors for Invercargill and Oamaru respectively. Edmund Webber to be registrar of births, &c., Waipori ; Messrs Horace Bastings, Lawrence, and Thus. Trumble jun., to be justices of tho peace ; James M'Cartney jun. to be lieutenant in the Portobello Rangers ; and tho Otepopo contingent of the Oamaru volunteers to be called the Otepopo Rifle Company in future. The resignation of Mr John Turnbull, Tuturoa, of his commission as a justice of the peace is accepted. Telegrams. —We have borne the expense of useless telegrams for aomo time without grumbling, but are forced to complain of the bias which Grevillo and Co. import into their messages. The Parliamentary messages sent us of late have been strongly marked by a leaning towards the Opposition; and a similar feeling ha* on two or three occasions been shown in telegraphing mere ordinary intelligence. Thus we have had to publish statements of Te Kooti’s warlike intentions,' which existed only in the imagination of the correspondent; that the neoplc in Canterbury favored the handing over of the control of the Public Works and Immigration Scheme to the Provinces, when public feeling was exactly the reverse, and the proposal was condemned by thp Tress there,

Opposition and Ministerial, and have had to pay no inconsiderable sums for what must be called the political “sympathies” of Greville’s manager, which we refused to publish. Grcville and Co. may have been hardly dealt with by the Government, but that is a matter which concerns not the public, who with us require reliable information, and that only. We have taken the only steps available at pr sent to remedy this unfairness, and regret that only one side of the no confidence debate has been transmitted to us. All we desire is strict impartiality. City Council. —There was a full attendance of Councillors at last night’s meeting of the City Council, which lasted three hours. Among the business transacted was the adoption of a report from the Waterworks Committee, which stated that a communication had been sent to the Company informing tlum that the Council approved of the draft agreement of sale—the purchase to be either concluded or abandoned by January 1, 1873. H was also decided to communicate with the Superintendent and the City members of the Assemblyurging them to use their influence in getting the Waterworks Bill passed. It was decided that all the City lease's should be for a term of 21 years instead of 14 years, as heretofore. Mr Neale moved his motion, affirming the desirability of requesting the Provincial Government to obtain an amendment of the Municipal Corporation Ordinance, to provide for the division of the City into five wards, Bell and Leith Ward to be sub-divided as the Council might determine hereafter, into three wards; and the muraber of councillors to be fifteen—three for each ward. This was mot by an amendment by Mr Ramsay, who opposed the division of the two wards, but favored the suggested increase of the number of councillors. Other members spoke in a similar strain ; and the Mayor suggested that the matter should be referred to a committee, which might the advisability of altering the boundaries of all the wards. Ultimately the whole matter was referred to a committee. There was a discussion on Mr Neale’s motion to memorialise the Government to remove the toll-bars not less than three miles from the City, and that matter was also referred to a committee. Mr Bossbotham proposed, and Mr Ramsay seconded, that each committee should have the power to appoint its own chairman, but it was lost, the majority of the counodlors being of opinion that bo necessity existed for the proposed change, Mr Bossbotham was not allowed to move his motion for a committee to revise the citizen’s roll, the Mayor ruling that to again revise the roll was an illegal act, but obtained a committee consisting of Messrs Barnes, Walter, and himself, to report upon the manner in. winch, this year’s roll was compiled fxiixl whether it was necessary to make any alteration in the mode of compilation —Mr Barn 's gave notice of his intention to move the following very sensible motion at the next meeting of the City Council: “That the surveyor be instructed to examine the Princess Theatre, and report upon its ventilation, the size and number of doors, whether opening inwards or outwards. Also to examine the lower rooms of the Masonic Ball, and report upon the same. Further, to report upon the size of the passages of the now public building now being erected in the cutting, Princes street, as to how many outlets there are, and how many people it is calculated to hold.”