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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 149, 24 June 1881, Page 2

A match for £25 a tide, distance ]_ miles, was run on the Wakapuaka course to-day between Mr Bolton's Half Caste and Mr Blower's Doncaster. The latter went away with tbe lead, maintained it throughout, and won aa he pleased. The first of the second series of pianoforte reci'als to be given by Madarhe Summerhayes will take place at the Harmonic Hall this evening. A meeting of tbe members of the Southern Star Lodge will be held at the Masonic Ha 1 this evex iv? to celebrate the festival of St. John the Baptist. TnE football match, old Collegians t). all comers, which was postponed for a fortnight on account of tbe unfavorable state of the weather, will be placed to-morrow afternoon (weather permitting) beginning at 2.30. A large muaier of players is expected, and tbe maich promises to be closely contested. An Auckland paper, in quoting come of (he heaviest rainfalls in New Zealand gives the following as having occurred in Neison: — 6th November, 1804, G 080 inches, 6th May, 1865, 6-350 inches; 28th Juno, 1567, 9400 inchesj fith February, 1868, 7*030 inches; 23rd July, 1868, 8 200 iuch.s. Tub Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Star says: — "An effort will be made during the session to bave the next meeting of the R'fle Association at Christchurch or Auckland." After all the expense ihat has been incurred here on buildings, &c, and with such favorable weather as has always prevailed during the meetings this would be a most unwise stap to take. The Wellington,correspondent of the N.Z. Herald says: — " It has been a matter of much comment that each member who bas assumed anything like an Opposition lead h<_ been pointedly ignored and " dropped " by his side. Nobody bas supported him. Sir G. Grey opened the ball on the Address in reply, bufc met with not the slightest support. Mr Moss tried a mild amendment on the Hospitals and Charitable Instituiions Bill, thereby, it is understood, intercepting Mr Ormond, but nobedy backpd him up." The Auckland Star, we find, holds precisely the same views that we expressed upon the probable working of the clause in the Licensing Bil', which now provides for an elective Licensing Committee. Our contemporary says : — The amendment carried in the Licensing Act, by which the Bench is made elective, is rather a daring experiment Sir W. Fox is certainly consistent as a Local Optionist in moving it, but it may not work so well for the proposer's views ss he anticipates. An election contest for men to exercise judiical functions is always open to objections ; for to whichever party the victory may fall, if a partisan be elected, he will probably prove incapable of holding the scales of justice with well-balanced hands. The Licensing Victuallers, goaded by the instinct of self-preservation, must work tooth and nail and bring all their persuasive arts to bear in the election of the Commissioners. Against them will bo arrayed the teetotal phalanx ; while those of the public who hold views midway between the two, will be perplexed by solicitations to lean to the one side or the other.