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Evening Star, Issue 3362, 28 November 1873, Page 2

It is reported in the Cromwell district that the price of gold will be reduced on and after the first of December from L 3 16s to L 3 15s an oz. Mr George Miller, one of the masters of the Scotch College, Melbourne, has been appointed Rector of the Invercargill Grammar School, vacant through the death of the late lamented Mr Fleming. The lad whose convictions at Lawrence for larceny were recently mentioned in these columns, has now been committed for trial for a third offence, which he freely confessed. The amount stolon was L 23. His Honor the Superintendent has received intimation that the twenty immigrants who went to Invercargill were engaged straight from the railway station, not even having seen the bairacks. Two hundred more could be engaged. The example of the Rev, Mr Menzies in inaugarating Hospital Sunday in Tuapcka, has been productive of very beneticial results. The rest of the clergymen in the district have decided on a simultaneous collection at their respective churches for the institution. “The Crown Prince,” with Mr Hydes as Peter Stork, preceded the burlesque at the Princess Theatre last evening. It is almost needless to say that the part received ample justice at Mr Hydes’s hands. The performances of the Bernard Brothers on the horizontal bar and trapeze were again well received. To-night the burlesque will be preceded by the drama of the “Soldier’s Return.” The last crushing of the Cromwell Quartz Mining Company wai 318 ozs. from 110 tone of stone. The An/us says :—“ Three shares in this company cannot have paid their fortunate possessors much less than the handsome sum of a piece for the last twelve months ; and this, be it remembered, in the face of the stoppage which the company experienced list summer for nearly six months, on account of the scarcity of water ami the break-down of the water-wheel.” Our Tuapeka contemporary says the commencement of the Lawrence-Tokomairiro railway is to be commemorated by a viceregal ball during the Governor’s visit to the district; and to the ball admission will not be refused to gentlemen wearing coats of a cut other than swallowtail, provided that the color is dark, and the appearance “dressy;” but the ladies arc expected to dress in their •‘very best.” To which information is added that “ his Excellency is what may be called a ‘hereditary’ gentleman, and will thoroughly appreciate a graceful and gracious reception.” His Honor the Superintendent has received a telegram from the Honorable Dr Pollen, stating that the necessary steps are being taken to bring the. Licensing Act, 1873, into operation, so that licenses may be issued in accordance with its provisions (see 13th and subsequent clauses), for the year commencing on Ist July proximo. In the meantime, any licenses tnat expire before the 30th June proximo may be renewed under the local Ordinance, with the understanding that the licensees must take the necessary steps to obtain licenses under the new Act at the proper time in March next, and that a proportionate deduction from the fee for the new license will be made for the unexpimi term of any license that may be required to be issued under existing circumstances, A “Waipori Minor” writes to the Taa[idea Thais “ Agricultural and pastoral districts have their periodical shows, which satisfy feelings higher and more profitable than those of mere curiosity, and their utility suggests the idea ol extending the area of exhibits. For eAample, why should there not be

an exhibition of gold ? Why should not the various goldfields of New Zealand compete in one grand annual exhibition of the precious metal? In such a show wc could have an exhibition of both golden quantity and golden quality ; and, in view of the fact that our escorts, owing to obvious causes, are almost as fallacious a test of our mineral wealth as the census returns are of our floating population, 1 consider that an annual exhibition of the best samples of gold, silver, antimony, iron sand, precious atones constitutes certainly a desideratum, and would probably, in England and Australia, be looked upon as a commercial necessity. As a stimulus to future effort — for comparison is the stimulus of genuine health rivalry—such as a show as that hero suggested would, I think, he productive of consequences which would be litera ly incalculable.” Our morning contemporary—the Guardian—indulged this morning in a very uncalled for attack upon the uses to which the guard’s van on the Port Chalmers Bailway is put. One would imagine the of the paragraph was a dismissed railwayguard seeking to justify his leaving the service by detailing tbe miseries he had to endure. On no other ground can we account for interference by, we presume, a passenger, with a department with which he has no concern. Our personal experience of many years of every-day railway, travelling justifies ns in saying that on no line have we seen more comfortable or better keot carriages, or civiller officers, than <m the Port Chalmers line ; ana if for convenience, or even economy, occasionally a basket of fish of an animal is put into the guard’s van, that is the business of the manager, not of the public, who have no right to complain 80 long as they and their belongings are safely and comfortably conveyed to their destination, The writer of the paragraph, for what we know, may have supplied it to the Guardian with very good intentions ; but we commend to him tor bis future guidance the well-known rebuke given by Apelles to an incompetent critic —sufnr ultra crepidam. The Harbor Company's steamer Holden Age will make an excursion to Port Chalmers and the Maori Kaik on Monday, St. Andrew’s Day. The llt'th monthly meeting of the Permanent Building Society will he held in the offices, Temple Chambers, this evening, at seven o’clock.