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Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 197, 18 March 1865, Page 2

To-day the postponed Consolation Stakes will be run for, together with a match for £3O between Easy Chair and Nelly Gray. Several other races will also come off, and the settling will take place at Powell's Family Hotel on Monday night.

An earthquake occurred on Wednesday eve ning about seven p.m. The shock was very severe. Several minor movements of the earth have since taken place in the shape of rolls. The following letter has been handed to us for publication.:— Provincial Secretary s Office, Dunedin, 9th March.

Sir,—Referring to the memorial from the licensed victuallers of Queenstown, which you forwarded to His Honor the Superintendent in December last, I have now the honor to acquaint you, that in order to assimilate the license fee on the goldfields as nearly as possible to that paid by the inhabitants of towns, &c, His Honor has, by a proclamation in the «Gazette' of the Bth inst., increased it to £3O, and has further issued instructions that £lO is in future to be charged for a night license. Any other steps which may require to be taken with reference to the license for a billiard or bagatelle table, can only be effected by an amendment of the existing law. With regard to the evil effects of sly-grog selling complained of by the memorialists, I have only to remark that the Government possess no machinery, in the shape of revenue officers, to lay information against offenders of this class, neither does it consider expedient the employment of persons whose duty it would be to induce others to commit a breach of the law. Further it has been held by a Resident Magistrate of Dunedin, and since confirmed by one of the judges, that a person proved to have induced another to break the law, is equally guilty and liable to punishment. I have to add that as a remedy is provided by clause 3 of the Goldfields Amendment Act, 1863, and by the 46th clause of the Licensing Ordinance, 1864, it is within the power of the licensed victuallers to protect their own interests; and that, should that body be willing to give information and undertake to prove that a breach of the law has been committed, there can be no objection to the police laying the information and prosecuting the offender. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, Jas. Paterson, Provincial Secretary. B. Manders, Esq., Hon. Sec. Licensed Victuallers Assoc., Queenstown.