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Evening Star, Issue 3282, 27 August 1873, Page 2

“The Honeymoon” and “High Life Below Stairs ” were Repeated at the Queen’s Theatre last evening,' To-night Mr Hoskins’s benefit takes place, when “The Hi vale” and “ A Happy Bair” will be played.

On Monday afternoon, a boy, two years of age, son of Mr J. Dobson, in the employ of Mr A. J. Burns, was accidentally drowned by falling into a small creek about a foot deep He had only been away from home about ten minutes, but when found was quite dead. In to-day’s Gazette it is notified that certain provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1867, have been extended to the municipality of Naseby ; that Mr Walter Watson, of Lcestream, has been appointed an honorary inspc 'tor of sheep ; and that Mr L. G. Holmes, town clerk of Lawrence, has been appointed inspector of licensed carriages in that town.

Some people who know other people’s business much better than their own have been at pains to circulate a report that our telegrams from Queenstown, referring to the Shotover ■ ornpany's claim, come from an interested source, and are therefore unreliable. We should not have noticed the canard but that a few fo dish people have been persuaded that V there was something in it”; and for their information we may state that our correspondent never had nor does own a single share in the company ; and his reports may be relied on as being thoroughly trustworthy. The eleventh anniversary of the Pioneer Lodge, 1.0.0. F., was celebrated by a soirde and ball at St, George’s Hall last evening, and the entertainment proved a thorough success. Nearly 120 persons sat down to an excellent supper provided by Mr Donaldson, of the Glasgow fie House ; and at a later period of the evening the room was cleared for dancing, which was spiritedly kept up till three o’clock. In course of the proceedings the financial position of the Lodge was stated to be as follows Total receipts during the year, 1.340; disbursements for sick ciaims and members’ fees, LlB9 ; working expenses, L 43. The comparatively small balance to the credit of the Lodge was attributed to the sick list being unusually heavy. The R.W.G.M. Bro. Michie presented the Lodge Treasurer (Bro. Thompson) with a heart shaped locket, bearing a suitable inscription on one side, and the emblem of his office surmounted by the letters 10.0. on the other, as a token of the esteem in which he is held by the brethren. The question of whether a livery stable keeper is a “tradesman or other person” within the meaning ol the Act of Charles 11., prohibiting Sunday trading, was discussed in the Supreme Court, Victoria, recently in the case of Carton v. Coy. Signor Coy hired from Mr Garton. on the 11th May last, a horse and buggy, with the implied agreement that be was to return, them. An accident happened, however, which led to the death of the horse and the damage of the buggy. Mr Garton then sued for their value. The defendant, among other pleas, set up for the defence that the contract was made on a Sunday, in the course of Mr Garton’a business as a livery stable keeper, and was therefore illegal. The plaintiff objected that this was no defence, and it was contended on his behalf that the Act of Charles 11., was not in force in this Colony —that it avas purely a local Act, applicable to England only ; and even if it was in force here, a livery stable keeper was not a tradesman within the meaning of the Act. The Court reserved its decision.

By the last mail from the North we received a small pamphlet advocating protection to Native industries. It is a copy of a lecture read before the Colonists’ Protection League Society in Auckland. It is evidently the production of one utterly incompetent to deal with the subject. One of the moat ludi rous inconsistencies in it is the condemnation of “the system of giving bonuses” because they are “paid out of the public funds,” as if protective duties were not more objectionable because of their abstracting annually an unknown amount from private pockets and returning comparatively a very trifling sum to the revenue. A bonus is paid once and for ever, and is a mere fraction, perhaps of a shilling, upon each man’s income, while a protective duty is a perpetual burden —a sort of pauper tax to bolster up trades that would not pay, and therefore ought not to be followed. The bonus may enrich a country by inducing a profitable industry ; a protective duty makes a few rich, but tends to make the masses poor. We should recommend the Auckland “ Colonists’ Protection League Society” to learn a few elementary principles before they assume the position of teachers to the Colony.

This is an extract fiom an article in the Hew Zealand Herald on Mr Dargaville’s candidature for the Auckland Superinlenfleucy, which has led that journal into an action for libel-“In plain, toMr Dargaville, regarded as a puppet who dances while his forjper employers pull the wires, these defects are of no importance. But as .Superintendent, their owner would be neither a credit to the Province nor to the discernment of its people. On pur way through life we have learnt to mistrust the men who are always boasting most loudly of their honesty or their independence, and it will be odd, to our minds, if Mr Dargaville proves an exception to the rijle. What the Province requires in its Superintendent is not so much a man who can save it a few pounds here and there, but one who can command the confidence of its members in the Assembly and be their natural leader. Mr Dargaville, even with bis intense splf.-esteem, cannot have persuaded himself that he is either by training or ability fitted for that position. It is neither becoming to the position nor the dignity of the Province that it should have a Superintendent rash in statement, ridiculous in ideas, and prominent only for the loudness and unscrupulousness of his selfassertion.”

Mr Clapcott will give readings at the North Dunedin Drill Shed to-morrow (Thursday) evening, at eight o’clock.