INTERPROVINCIAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIIL, Issue 199, 20 September 1878, Page 2

INTERPROVINCIAL.

fPBESS AGENCY.] Ddnedin, Friday. The Caversham County Council last night decided that it was advisable that tramways should be extended from Dunedin to Caversham. The students of the University have passed aresolution disapproving of J udge Bathgate's proposals to dissociate the Otago University from the New Zealand University. Wellington, Thursday night. Mr G. Thomas reports produce prices: Flour (Adelaide) £17 in good demard ; Colonial^ 11 5s to £1 1 10, market overstocked'; oat 3, stocks very low and prices firm at 4s 9d to ss; bran Is 9d, and market full; -wheat 4s 3d to 4s 4d; hams 9d; bacon B'd; cheese 7£d; maize 5s 3d; pollard £7 10s; potatoes £4 15; butter lid, scarce. A deputation consisting of Messrs Barff, Reeves, Woolccck, Gisborne, Bonar, and Lahmann waited on the Minister for Education to-day asking for an increase of Government aid for the Wetland" educational

i S « 1C S' Mrßonar said the teal difficulty X If ?? a t rd Kvia the scattered nature or -be district and the absence of large centre* ot population, which necessitated the fcsbl ™ c . Qt of a la Tge number ot smalt schools, wnich, ia proportion to the attendance, were «»ach toore expensive than large ones.— Mr Balance said Mr Bonar had hit the right nail on the head. The great fault of the present system was that it made no distinction between thickly settled districts like Otagoand Canterbury and sparsely populated districts such as Westland, where education was proportionately much more expensive. Th'b aim of the Legislature was rb secure uniformity of ed.ucatfob, and this might have been accomplished had it not been" for the strou£ wish for local self-Goverument, which would have made tho people of Westland cry out against amalgamation with Canterbury. He could hold out no hope of any exceptional aid being granted to Westland. Last year it received a total of £5,92? in excess of its proper grant of £9,342, and they were still in debt, aud had largely anticipated the building grant of this year. If special aid were granted to them, eVery Board in a similar position in the 'Colony would have equal claims to consideration. No doubt the Education Act must he amended, as its working was far from satisfactory, but it would be well to consider the present system for another year when its faults would be more clearlyseeti, and consequently more easily remedied.— After some further conversation the deputation was withdrawn. Auckland, Friday. Mr Binney reports business still maintaing the same quiet tone. Flour is without change and shows no firmness; holders would submit to a reduction of 10s on quoted prices for aline; parcels move ofi: at £11 to £11 10s; wheat dull at Us 3d to 4s Gd; bran and sharps enquired for at £7 10s to £8; oats, ordinary feed, plentiful at 4s 4 Ad; heavy 3orts of seeds are inquired for, the'market being bare, at 5s Od; maize arrived in quantities from the Islands could be purchased under 4s; oatmeal and pearl barley £22 and £24; potatoes are coming forward more plentifully and the market is not so firm; business done at £6 10s per ton; butter continues scarce at lstols2d ; cheese7Jd;toßd; bacon 7d to Bd. Mr Buckland reports fat cattle prices fully sustained at 45s to 50s per lOOlbs; fat sheep lower a halfpenny per pound, fourpence being the ruling price; lambs free of sale at 10s to 14s.