The Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3747, 25 February 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1875.

The Opera Company is doing good business in Invercargill, and if time will permit Mr Allen will pay a visit to Riverton before he leaves the district.

A newly-arrived immigrant tells the Southland papers that before leaving the Old Country he was informed by Mr Adam, the Provincial emigrant agent, that he had up to that time despatched two thousand specially selected immigrants to this Province.

The general average of the crops throughout the Waikouaiti district exceeds in quantity anything that has yet been obtained ; und the yield of grain is (says the ‘Herald’) anticipated to be proportionately good—from thirty to sixty bushels per acre in wheat, oat;, being predicted as an unusual yield.

The annual picnic of the children attending the Port Chalmers Congregational Sunday School took place to-day in Mr Smith’s ".-iddock at Sawyer’s Bay.' The children, with their teachers and a number of friendsj wei-M conveyed to the site by the 11 a. in’ ‘ 'a.n, and spent a most enjoyable day’s outing. J

The ship Wellington, which arrived from London to-day, brings 184 immigrants. Subjoined is a list of their trades and occupalions :—General laborers, 7 ; farm de, 26 • miners, 2; ploughman, 1; navvies, 2* sawyer, 1 ; joiner, 1 ; carpenter, 1 ; mill’ vright, 1 ; blacksmiths, 4 ; platelayer, 1 • agricultural machine-maker, 1 ; mason, 1 • slaters, 2 ; bri-kmaker, 1 ; bakers* 2 ; stockman, 1 : shepherds, 3 ; shoemakers, 2 • collier, 1 ; potter, 1; butcher, 1 ; horse' keepers, 2; engine-driver, 1 j grooms, 2 • mechanic, 1; tailor, 1; waiter, 1; total, 7J.’ Single women—General servants, 10 ; machinist, 1 ; midwife, 1 ; dressmaker, 1 • tailoreas, 1 ; dairymaid, 1 ; total, 15. ’

Last night the Dunedin Presbytery met in Ihe Caversham Church for the induction of the Rev, Mr Russell to that charge. The ministers present were Messrs Blake, Greig. TvV<\f fS Stuart, Copland, Sutherland, M Naughton, Mackie, Watt, and Mr W. C Johnston. There was a large congregation present, and the Rev. Mr Blake preached an excellent and emtable sermon, from the words He that winneth souls is wise;’’ and afterwards gave the right hand of isUowßbip to tho aevrly-induotod minuter,

as did also all the ministers present. Dr Stuart then addressed Mr Russell and Dr Copland addressed the congregation, and at the close of the service Mr Russell received a hearty welcome from the congregation. The great Waikoikoi land sale came off at the District Land Office, yesterday, and was to all intents and purposes a failure. Of the fifty sections only seven were sold, and these at the upset price of L2 per acre. The number of acres sold was something short of L7OO, and the amount realised about L 1,30 *. We have heard it remarked that the upset price is too much for the land, and the result of this sale would almost warrant such a conclusion. Those sections sold, as may be surmised, are the choicest of the lot. The land on Bellamy and (Smith’s runs, which was thrown open lately, continues to be taken up bydegiees. During the past week, upwards of 2,200 acres have been partly purchased and partly applied for under the agricultural leasing regulations. The * Tuapeka Times ’ states that if settlement progresses at the present ratio in the Tuapeka district for the next few months, it will be absolutely necessary that the remaining portions of the two runs referred to be also thrown open. The Hon Mr Hastings, the representative of Good Templary, who will be in Dunedin in a couple of days, and purposes making a tour of the Province, is a member of the United States Legislature, and a P.D.R.W. G.T. of the Order of Good Templars. He left A merica on the invitation of the Grand Lodge of Victoria for a twelve months’ tour in the Australian Colonies fur the purpose of placing the Order on a more satisfactory basis, and giving lectures upon Good Templar subjects. The great distance the lodges in this part of the world are from the parent lodge, and inexperience of the members of the Order in these Colonies, rendered a visit from an officer of such experience as Mr Hastings very desirable, and there can be no doubt that, apart from lecturing, he will be able to do a great deal of good to the Order during his tour. That he is capable of carrying out all that is required in both respects, may bo gathered from the tact that he was elected Right Worthy Grand Templar for the world—the highest office attainable in the world—no less than five years in succession. .The Grand Lodge of Victoria not only pays the expenses of the tour, but a so guarantees Mr Hastings a sum of Ll,ooo for the twelve months.

We did not expect to find Mr Armstrong. M.P.C., anything other than a determined opponent of the present system of education. At Naseby, last week, speak m.; on the education question, he is reported to have said: —“I believe that in a country like this we should have no State education ; every man here is able, and should be made to educate his children—just as much as he is made to feed and clothe them. The very poor are fed and clothed at the public expense, and they should be educated at the public expense } and then it should be unsecular as the State itself is, or should be secular. I do not think it is the duty of a Government to establish schools to feed the mind, any more than it is its duty to establish provision shops to feed the body or clothing establishments to cover it. Sufficient that the law declares it criminal for a parent to neglect his duty on either point, and punishes accordingly, but leaves him the choice ©f obtaining from any school or provision store wliat he deems best for his offspring. To compel people to send their children to a school—State school, or otherwise—to which they object on religious or conscientious grounds is, in my opinion, the greatest tyranny; to make them contribute towards schools to which they cannot send their little ones is robbery.” “ Paraonal allegiance ” is the subject of a letter in the ‘N.Z. Times’ by Mr J. K. Fitzgerald, the Controllor-General, who declares Archbishop Manning’s letter, in reply to Mr Gladstone’s expostulation, “ painfully unsatisfactory ” if he is to be a cepted as the mouth-piece of English Catholics. But although persuaded that the Archbishop is not so, yet as he is the exponent of a large party of the atholicbody in Europe, Mr Fitzgerald calls attention to the political immorality of the doctrine his Eminence asserts. The doctrine, “ That the civil allegiance of no man is unlimited, and, therefore, the civil allegiance of all men who believe in God, or are governed by conscience, is in that sense divided, is either directly contrary to all political duty, or it is disingenuous and beside tiic question. If it is meant that a man, in obedience to what he believes to be the higher obligations of a divine law, is sometimes justified in disobeying or opposing the laws of the land in which he lives, submitting to the consequences of his act, the doctrine may admitted. But that is not the question raised by the discussion on the Vatican decrees. Tt is whether the allegiance of a subject may morally be divided between two national powers, and this is utterly opposed to all political morality. In this sense a man’s allegiance is not limited either by his belief in God or by conscience. -Should the two principles conflict, an honest and honorable man has hut one course, namely, to transfer his allegiance and his person to some other State, allegiance to which is compatible with his sense of personal duty. , . Any honest English Catholic, therefore, who does not recognise his undivided allegiance to the Queen, ought, in my view, to become a naturalised subject of the Pope, aud to become a foreigner as regards his status in England.” A telegraph station is now open at Southbnage (Canterbury). The usual monthly meeting of the Permanent Building Society of Otago will be held tomorrow evening. The monthly meeting of the Imperial Building Society will be held to-morrow evening from 7 to 8 o’clock. ® A special meeting of the All Nations’ Lodge 1.0. G.T., Port Chalmers, will beheld on Saturday evening, at eight o’clock. A meeting of the Star of Otago L. O. L. will be held in the Oddfellows’ Hall, George street to-morrow evening, at 8 o’clock. A meeting of shareholders in the New Zealand Titanic Steel and Iron Company will be held m the Provincial Hotel at 8 o’clock this evening. . 'l'hn annual meeting of the Permanent Buildin? ? ociety wiU be held at the Society’s office High street, to-morrow (Friday) evening at 8 o clock.