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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5612, 25 March 1879, Page 2

Opinion is a good deal divided as to whether Sir Hercules Robinson and suite will arrive to- , day or to-morrow, and in the face of this uncertainty no definite arrangement could be made yesterday as to the proclamation of a. holiday. However, it is hoped that on the signal being given merchants; and tradespeople will [close their places of business ; and also that should any public bodies be in meeting, they will at anyrate adjourn until after, the ceremonies attending the reception are over. It is also particularly desired that the ladies of Wellington should turn but in force to welcome Lady Robinson to her new' home. We may mention it has been ananged that the school children of the city shall meet on the' lawn in front of Government House, to sing the National An-• them and the New Zealand Anthem. As soon as the men-of-war corns into sight oH the Heads two guns will be fired in rapid succession from. Mount Victoria, to be followed by two more when the vessels arrive off Point Halswell.

It, is understood that Sir Hercules Eobiuson will not remain long in Wellington after his arrival, . but will . almost immediately sail for Auckland, and from thence make a tour of the colony, visiting all the chief ports, in the man-of-war now bringing him from Sydney. A meeting of the heads of the various Friendly and other Societies was held in the Mayor’s office last night, for the purpose of making in connection with the arrival of the Governor. The following societies were represented:—Odd Fellows, Forresters, Hibernian Society, Working Men’s Club, Good /Templars, Wellington Fire Brigade,; Fire' Police, Bechabites, and yachting men. Nearly all the societies have ; resolved to'present his Excellency with an address. It was arranged to have a procession, the route to be the same as that adopted by the railway , demonstration. Mr. Coogau was elected marshal. It was resolved that Captain Holliday be asked to marshal the yachts to Halswell Point to meet .the men-of-war, and then to form a line of two deep from the ships to the shore.lt was decided to recommend ; to the reception committee the advisability of forming a torchlight procession, and also as to’the public illuminating their premises. A Christchurch telegram in another column says that at the meeting of the City Council the Mayor stated that he. had been informed by a very influential member of the House of Representatives that if Christchurch pressed the matter the next session of the Assembly would probably -be • held in that city. The Mayor is now going to communicate with other public bodies in the Middle Island, and a communication will be sent t,o the Government asking for a sum to be placed on the Estimates, to build a residence for the Governor there. Wellington-people can afford to allow their Christchurch brethren to take jest as earnest. It is not necessary- to remind the public that the resolution of the House last session was looked upon as a good joke by many of the members who voted in favor of it. The growth of Wellington' has been so rapid of late that in a few years there will probably be no city to dispute her right to be the Seat of Government. The'German, residents of the city celebrated the anniversary of the Emperor William’s birthday by a ball last night, held at the Princess Theatre, Tory-atreet. The theatre was tastefully decorated, and in the centre of the stage was a well executed painting of the Emperor, A good band was in attendance, and dancing was kept up with spirit until near daylight. ' - The meeting of. the Commission on Higher Education to have been held yesterday, lapsed for .want of a quorum. The members present, Professors Shand and Sale, Bev. Mr. Mulgan and Bev. Mr. Habens, decided however to go to Nelson by first steamer. Mr. O’Eorke will there be met, and it is proposed to hold a short sitting in Nelson.

The return cricket match between the Star and Wanderers cricket clubs will be played on the: day on which Sir Hercules Eobinson arrives.; If early in the day all players are requested to meet at the Pier Hotel, when they can decide whether there will be time to view the 'ceremony. The following is the Wanderers’ team:—Speed, Maodermott, Crowther, Page, A. 'W. Leckie, K. Leokie, C. Prance, P. France, Morrah, Taylor, Hickson, and Hansford. That of the Star Club is :—I. J. Salmon, J. A. Salmon, Eobinson, Mason, Hamilton, Blacklock, Houghton, Willis, Bussell, Grey, Bishop, and Munt.

Mr. Charles Bright, the Freethought lecturer, will arrive during the week from his Nelson and Blenheim engagement, and will commence his aeries of lectures on Sunday evening next at the Imperial Opera House., The subject of his lectures will in a few days be announced by advertisement. ■ ■ 1 " The Education Board holds a meeting i to- > morrow.- The chief business will be the consideration of the annual report, for transmission to the Minister of Education. , We have to acknowledge the receipt of the time-table for the Union Steam Ship Company in the usual neat and compact form.

A special meeting of the Hutt Count; Council will be held to-day. The annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce is convened for to-morrow. The “ Coast Review tr states that the Zealand Insurance Company, under Mr. Craig’s management in San Francisco, is obtaining a fair share of the business -on the Pacific coast. The dispute between the master of the Hermiene and the Collector of Customs will probably come before the Supreme Court sitting in banco to-day. The Stewarts drew another crowded audience at the Imperial Opera House last night. The songs, dances, and comicalities of the troupe were as amusing as ever, and as usual loudly .applauded. - ' No tenders were sent in for the N.Z.S.S. Co.’s steamers which have been advertised for sale during the past week. The liquidators attended at the -office yesterday for the Purpose of opening any which might have been sent in, but found none to open. The “Australian Insurance Record” says; —“Drought and bad times appear to tell their own story in the list of fire losses. Our summary of casualities is longer than any we have published since the establishment of the “ Insurance Record.”

• A meeting of the committee of the Choral Society was held yesterday afternoon at the. Athenaeum, when the hon. sec. produced a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure for the balance of the season, —two more concerts having yet to be given to subscribers. It was found that there would be a deficiency of about £6O, caused by the additional expenditure of rent for a practiceroom, and from the fact that the usual Christmas concert had to be given to’subscribers, instead of the public, as heretofore. A suggestion was made by the conductor that the evening of Good Friday would be a most suitable occasion for performing “ The Messiah,” and it was resolved that a public concert, to consist of that oratorio, should be given at the Imperial Opera House on that evening ; and farther, that Mrs. George Cotterell’s services should be secured for the purpose of singing the principal soprano solos. We think the committee have acted very wisely in coming to the above decision, and we feel confident that a crowded house will result, particularly with the attraction of Mrs. George Ootterell, whose public appearance is always warmly welcomed by a Wellington audience. A.crioket match was played on.the College cricket ground on Saturday afternoon between’ eighteen of the Victoria O.C. and the second eleven of the College C.O. The former went in first, and only scored 21, the bowling of Jackson and F. Morrah being too good for the batsmen. None of the players succeeded in snoring double figures, the highest score being 5, which was scored by Hutchison. The College eleven then went in, and fared little better, only scoring 24. Jackson was the only player who got into double figures. F. Wallis longstopped well. The Victoria Club iu their second innings scored 57, Wallis and Hutchison being the highest scorers with 12 each. This left the Collegians 55 to win, but they only managed to make 34, Duncan and A. Young bowling excellently ; Jackson and Bishop played well for their scores. The Victoria Club thus won by 30 runs. ■ ; The concert at the Athenaeum last night for the benefit of the Kaitaugata Relief Fund was not particularly well attended. The programme was of a miscellaneous character, and had evidently been arranged to suit all tastes. «The song of the miner,” with descriptive chorus, was very well rendered, and fairly took the house by storm. The Scotch ballad/ “ Alton water,” by a lady amateur, and the “ Shadow Chorus,” also by a lady, with children’s voices heard in the distance as it were, came in for a large amount of applause. The ■ duet, “ Larboard watch,” by two gentlemen, was very nicely rendered. So also was the duet, “The swallows,” by a lady and gentleman. The concert, taken altogether, was most enjoyable, and it was a pity there was riot a more numerous audience. The proceeds amounted to about £2O. : The Times does not take a cheerful view of the prospect of au Australian confederation. In its issue of January 16th it says :—“The truth. ia, that the Victorians are too busily engaged at present with their constitutiorial quarrel to occupy themselves about a policy that could only be successful by the co-opera-tion of all parties, as in Canada. Unless some compromise : can be. discovered under which Parliamentary government may be carried on smoothly in Victoria, the prospect of union with a State so. racked by political commotions is not, likely to ■ prove inviting to other and more settled communities.’’

;In reply to inquiries on the subject of the electric light, the following is an extract from al letter received last mail from London by a resident in this city With reference to your inquiries as to the electric light, we may mention that the experiments hitherto have proved failures, and though it certainly had an effect bn gas shares for a time, yet it was only temporary, and, the market value of the •shares of the various companies has again risen to the old price or thereabouts. If wny further improvement takes .place we will at .once advise ybu aud supply particulars.”; . .“With the new year, says the Pall Mall Gazette, “ a page has been added to the navy list, ■ published by authority, which will save much trouble to those who wish to ascertain . the strength of pur squadrons or the names of bur men-of-war on any foreign,station. ■; It has always been possible to obtain such information by searching through the list of ships in commission, as the stationpn which each,vessel is employed is printed in small letters below -its name ; but now on a, single page a list of stations is given, and under each a list’of the ships actually oh that station. Thus it can be seen at a, glance that on the Ist of January, 1879, there were 28 men-of-war belonging to the Mediterranean fleet; while four others, forming the Channel squadron, were also temporarily in the Mediterranean. Of the vessels of the Mediterranean fleet, again, nine—namely, the Achilles, Alexandra, Invincible, : Monarch, Pallas, Besearch, Bupert, Tbmbraire, and Thunderer—are ironclads, the remainder being small unarmored vessels, with the exception of the Baleigh, a frigate of 5200 tons displacement. -The four vessels of the: Channel squadron—the Agincourt, Defence, Minotaur, and Shannon— are all ironclads. Oh the North American station there are, it appears, 14 men-of-war, one of which, the Bellerophon, is an armored vessel. On the Pacific station there are nine ships, one, again,’ the Triumph, being an ironclad ; on the West Coast of Africa there are H ships ; on the East India station, 12 ; on the China station, 21, all small craft with the exception of one ironclad, the Iron Duke ; and on the Australian station, 9. Three vessels are employed on particular service, six on surveying service; iwhile' TO, two of,' which are ironclads, are ordered home.” . ,

A Hibernian had purchased a house and lot fori 3000 dols.,' and entering the office of the company he made application for 30e0 dols. insurance.- The ,clerk said to him, “ Yott don’t want so much !” “Faith, and I do; where’s, the prisideht ?” The president heard the Irishman’s story, and said to the clerk, “ This is all right—this man wants 1500 dols. on the house and : lsoo’dels, on the lot.” “Exactly,”, says Pat, “ that just what X do want.” The Lyttelton Times says “The fishing season for trout closes on the last day of the present month. The season has been a fortunate one for many holders of licenses, one gentleman alone having killed with artificial flies over 500 trout, weighing from Jib. to 6JIb. These were all taken from the Avon. Two gentlemen have landed from- the same l river nearly a like number.; betweeen them, and several others have taken between 50 and 60 each. The fish have been in splendid condition the whole of the season, and with a few exceptions —known to the majority of the licenseholdoraTTrtbe urtifioial fly ahdmatural minnow l have been used throughout.’.’ ' i ' The price of wheat this year (says the Witness) is from Is. 3d. to Is. fid. per bushel lower, than last year at this time. Whether the removal of the duty, has had the - effect of inducing additional caution in buying oh the part of .the 1 millers, and so diminishing competition, or whether the low price is entirely due to the state of the Home market, which is the ultimate outlet for our surplus, we are not prepared to say ;. but that 3s. and 3s. 3d. per bushel is an inadequate price to the grower is very evident. We are aware that losses were made last year in. sending, Home wheat at 44. fid. per "bushel, but there is a wide margin... between that • price- and’ the: present; and with ; freights at 30s. per ton, and New Zealand wheat selling in liondbn at latest dates at 48s. per,. 4961 b., we ♦Uinlr 3a. fid. the lowest that ought tobe takeufor good wheat .at port of shipment.: At that price it seems to us that it would be safe to ship, as there ; is eyery probability, if wheat' keeps its present level at Home, that 3s. 9d. to ■4s. would. be -netted by shippers at a 80s. freight’.'' At all events there ia nothing in the present aspect of the market to justify the extremely,' low prices at which the 1 market

opened. Another week should give us the chief agricultural returns, which will afford some idea of the yield. This is turningput, better in some districts, especially in‘South; Canterbury and North Otago, than atone time was expected. Mr. Peabody, being invited to speak at” the Sydney Exhibitiori Commission, said “By the last mail he received a paper from home, containing a speech made by a late Governor of Massachusetts, on bis departure, and the statistics hr it would be interesting here to show the amount of manufactures carried on in one of the smallest States. ' As he had good authority for the’figures he would quote them. The State of Massachusetts contained 7800 square miles, and 1,600,000 inhabitants. There-were’ 22,000 manufacturing establishments, with a capital of 280 million dollars, and the value of . the annual product was 525 million dollars, or, includingl farms,- about 600 million dollars, or about two million dollars for every working day of the. year. . Massachusetts, though one of the smallest States, was the centre of one of the manufacturing districts of New England. The western and southern States were more producing than manufacturing. The bulk of the exhibits would come from the New England States, and some opinion might be formed from the figures he had quoted of the number of exhibits which could be sent. He would be glad to facilitate the carrying out of the wishes of the Commission, and from now till the close he would feel the greatest interest in the Exhibition. It certainly had his best wishes. (Cheers.)"