The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1875.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 55, 5 March 1875, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, M ARCH 5, 1875.

Yacht Race. — We understand that the three boats, the Minnehaha, Claymore, and Star are to take part in the race on Tuesday oext, which is to be for a aweepstnke of £10 each. Magistratfs' Court. — Thomas Netoberry was brought up this morning on remand, on the charge of stealing from a dwelling, and, further evidence having been produced, was committed Jor trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court. Martin v. frtConhey Lucy Martin, a Maori, sued j. M'Conkey, of the Coach & Horses, for £1, the value of four yards of silk, the property of the plaintiff, wrongfully taken away whilst in the charge of the defendant. Mr Fell appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr Pitt for the defendant. PlaintifF was nonsuited with costs, £1 6a. Pure Bred Merino Rams. — By the Tararua on her next trip from Melbourne Messrs N. Edwards and Co. expect twenty-five pure bred merino rams from the flock of Mr Henty, of Victoria. With reference to this flock, an authority upon such subjects cays : — -" They are derived from the original ■ Hampton Court stud of George IV. \ They have been cartfully bred from pure ewes, which is more thuu con Le said

of the flocks thnt have been for some time ia great repute in Victoria, in fact, the Ercildown sheep were raised by rams got from Mr Henty's flock out of selected ewee, and the same holds pood of the celebrated flocks of tbo Gibsons, of Tasmania." A good opportunity will thus be afforded to breeders of merino sheep in the Nelaou province of improving theii stock. Samples of the wool of (eu months growth may be seeu at the warehouse of Messrs N. Edwards & Co. At a recent rneetiog of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, Colonel Packe mentioned that he had succeeded in catching seventeeu trout lately, weighing iv the aggregate IGlbs. Hozs. The Freemasons of Auckland have bought a site in Queen-street for a new hall and club, the building of which is to cost £10,000. £1200 was paid for the silo. The Press, in commenting upon the fact recently reported by tolegraph that of £90,000, the coßt of the Suez mail service to Victoria, only £16,000 had to be paid out of the public funds, the balance being met by the postage ratep, says : — We cannot help comparing this brilliant success with the melancholy failure of our efforts in the same direction. Aa a negotiator of postal contracts, Mr Yogel makes a poor figure Iby the side of Mr Francis. The experience of New Zealand contrasts [ woefully with that of Victoria. There | we find a small annual charge, leading to magnificent results ; hero we have profuse expenditure, ending in inefficiency and collapse. Jiy contracting I with a first-class company, and with regard to ordinary business principles, Victoria has secured one of the best services in tbo world for less than half the Butu New Zealand has pail for the

abortive projects that have made her the laughing stock of Australia. We may aßk further, is it wise for New Zealand to be so ind'.fTeient to the Suez liDe. The policy of our Government is to ignore as much as possible the route via Suez, and to force correspondence into the route via San Francisco. But is thiß a Bound policy ? So loug us the Suez route is the most expeditious it will be used, and New Zealand will indirectly be compelled to become a contributor. Aa it is, the subsidising of a steamer to carry mails between the southern porta and Melbourne is found a necessity. New South Wale*, on the other hand, which is btnt ou •"re-establishing the Pacific service, grumbles at the extra expense and loss of (ime entailed by the detour to New Zealand. Surely an arrangement might be made which would serve the interests of nil parties. Why should cot Now Zealand leave the two great Australian colonies to support tho tnuin steamers to Poiut de Galle and ) Son Francisco, and be content with » branch boat to Melbourne, as at present, and to the Fijis •? Tho proposal will pulmps be scouted as ignoble. We ftllow it to bo unpretentious. It doe 3 not nesumo lhat New Zealand is Queen of the Souih, or entitled to dictate conditions to Australia. But practically it docs all we wiiQt. It gives us postal communication with Great Britain, as well as with Australia, twice a month, nt the minimum of expenee. It answers our purpose and is economical as well. We might suffer in dignity perhaps, but we should gain in pocket. And are the advantages, whatever they may be, that we gather from the more ambitious policy, worth thfi^-price we are obliged to pay for /fnero ? CIIUKCn-GOING. — -Despite the sneers of little wits (says the New York Tribune) and the very more redoubtable assaults of inconoclastic thinkers, tho good which is done by regular church-going is beyond computation. The preachers are not always wise or eloquent — they are Eometiines even "Offensive to taste and repulsive to sound reason. But the vast mojority are good and earnest men, who deliver not merely their own thoughts, but the messages of an army of witnesses of transcendent power ond purity, on subjects of tl.e most momentous importance. For an hour or two at least in every week the church-goer is brought face to face with great and lofty thoughts, ia forced to contemplate a series of images and symbols which have -done more for the world than a thousand legions of soldiers could do, and is made to meditate, with more or less earnestness, upon his personal relations to his Creator and his fellow-men. There is no rule by which we can compute (he sum of the result. Tho good resolutions formed, the evil purposes relinquished, the hearts quickened to higher ends and softeued to works of charity and kindnees, on every Sunday in this country, are simply past our imagining. The music of tho thousand belle that fills the air of the morning is an audible and evident expression, of a common sentiment as sweet as it is eunobliug; but there is n far deeper harmony in tha millions of prayers ascending at the same moment from the enrth bearing tho unutterable Borrows and aspirations of men. The Christian Sunday is as much an Auglo Saxon possession as trial by jury. It would be a national calamity to see it — we will not say descrated, but — degraded. Considerable excitement hns b?en created at Dubbo, New South Wales, by the arrest of a pquatter named 0 Donohoe, on a charge of stealing (with the nid of another man) 2L thoroughbred horses, valued nt £0000, tue property of Mr BaldwiD, of Durham Court. The accused was remanded to Tamworth, bail to the ppjount of £2000 being taken.