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Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 224, 5 March 1866, Page 2

We have tested the quality of some coal from the Grey River. It is decidedly the best yet produced in IS'ew Zealand. It burns with a brightness and throws out a heat equal to the best Newcastle. If it can be obtained in quantity, and we understand it can, it will be a valuable addition to the resources of the colony. The cargo which has arrived is being disposed of at £4 per ton. We are in receipt of Sydney papers of a late date. The news generally i 3 not interesting, the papers being filled with the evidence taken in the case of murder against Burtram and Mrs. Kinder. The verdict had not been given, but the impression is that they will be found guilty. The Church of England Bazaar was continued during Friday, and Saturday, and notwithstaning the numerous purchases which had been made, up to shortly before closing on Saturday evening, the stalls were well supplied. The attendance has been large, and we believe the receipts will nearly liquidate the debt now existing on the church. It is always a source of great satisfaction to us to notice a new local industry, however trifling it may at first sight appear. We have been shown a rope of native flax which is exceeding well adapted for the purposes intended — wool binding, clothes lines and the like. It i 8 a strong and to all appearance a durable article and can be sold at less than half the price of the imported rope which has hitherto been used. Small as this beginning may appear we should not be suprised if it eventuated in a large export business being established in the town. The manufacturer is Mr. John Scott Clyde-sect. The Poverty Bay correspondent of the Sawke's Bay Times, writing to that journal says : — " On Thursday, the 18th January, a Maori was made prisoner by order of the officer commanding, and confined in the Gt-uard-room of the Wilson Redoubt. lam not very well informed as to the crime of which he is supposed to be guilty, but so far a3 I can understand he is suspected of having written and sent a letter to one of the Hauhaui at Wairoa, advising that they should .come here and attack the forces, stating that as there are not many men, they might easLy kill the lot. He is one of those who surrendered and took the oath of allegiance at Waeranga-a-hika, and has been ia receipt of Government rations since. A person cannot help indulging in conjecture as to what, supposing tb/j charge clearly made out against him, will be deemed the proper punishment. If, ' being fattened ' is the proper punishment for an ordinary Hauhau, then it would follow that this one, having shown special zeal in the cause, ought to have extra rations allowed." The telegraph line to Hokitika was opened on Saturday and messages sent right through for about an hour, when communication was, by some accident to the wires about twenty miles beyond Christuhurck, stopped. The Wellington Advertiser has given currency to a report that Mr. Justice Richmond was likely to resign bis judgship and seek to return to the G-eneral Assembly. The Press thus pithley and wisely comments upon the report. It saya : — "We have heard the report referred to, but refrained from noticing it, because we did not believe it. We cannot but express a hope that the whole rumor has arisen from a mistake. It would constitute a precedent of the worst kind should the judges of the Supreme Court be mixed up with politics of the day. Mr. Richmond quitted public life, and resigned his seat in the Assembly. He was shortly after raised to the Bdnch, and has filled the position with the utmost satisfaction to the public and the profession. If the principle were once admitted that a Judge could descend from the Bench and engage in party struggles, it is impossible but that the chance of some day doing so would be more or less present to his mind during the time he filled the office. Even if the Judge could wholly emancipate himself from such an idea, the public would always be embarrassed by the feeling that the possibility of again interfering in party politics more or less tendered to fetter the independence of the Judge, and that he "was not wholly free from sympathies with one or other of the parties into which the colony is divided. We cannot help thinking that these would be the views entertained by Judge Richmond himself on this question, and that the report referred to has emanated from some who have allowed their wish to see him again in public life, obscure their judgment aa to tha consequences inTolved in ewh a fiteju"

The Sydney Mail; thus comments upon the Victorian Parliamentary "dead look." It says:

— "The decision of English, opinion # has been given on the crisis in Victoria. The late mail has brought out the condemnation of the conduct of the Victorian Ministry in trying to destroy the independence of the Upper House of Parliament, and in attempting to spend unappropriated public - money. It is often difficult to get a colonial question understood in England ; but when this Victorian question was once fairly comprehended, censure was inevitable. All the Constitutional feelings that have so deep a hold on the educated classes in the mother country, and all their antirevolutionary instincts, rise against such a stretch of arbitrary power. Nearly all the English journals condemn the Ministry, The manager of the Bank is said to have been reprimanded, and the recall of the Governor has been determined on. Meanwhile, the Ministry, which is responsible to ' a colonial and not to a distant authority, has appealed to the people, and received a triumphant condonation. The result of the elections is overwhelmingly in favor of the Ministry — so much so, that there threatens to be no opposition at all in the Assembly. The minority everywhere is unrepresented. One would think that the whole colony was protectionist, and the constitutions forms had scarcely a partisan in the country, but that we know how, in times of excitement, people get misled. It is certain, however, that the Ministry, thus fortified by their appeal to the people, will again bring forward a protectionist tariff. The New Zealand Herald makes the following statement with regard to the reduction of the number of the troops Jn New Zealand, but without any authority for it : — Peremptory orders, we understand, have been received by the Commander of the Imperial forces by the mail from England, insisting on the immediate reduction of H.M, troops in New Zealand, to a strength of 3,225, officers and men. This force will consist of three regiments of Infantry, the 12th, 14th, and 18th, one battalion of Artillery, and a company of Engineers, with the necessary Commissariat Staff ! Corps. The regiments first on the list for home are the 43rd and 63th — the 40th, 50fch, and 52th are to follow immediately, as soon as ships for their conveyance can be procured. This order is said to ba independent of any wish the Q-overnor may have in the matter, and is beyond his interference to control, let the circumstances of the colony be what they may.