Untitled

Southland Times, Issue 105, 20 November 1868, Page 2

On Thursday evening last, the Nathan Troupe made their re-appearance to an Invercargill audience at the Theatre Boyal. The house was well filled, especially the lower portion. Since this talented company left Invercargill, they have travelled throughout the greater portion of the Australian Colonies, almost in every case gaining fresh laurels. Without exception Little Marion has elicited the admiration of a'l by her inimitable and versatile acting. Whereever this accomplished little lady has appeared, the press has invariably spoken in the most flattering terms of her wonderfully accurate impersonation of some of the most difficult Irish characters. She seems in a man" ner born to the stage. In her deportment she appears intuitively to realise the author's conception, whilst her delivery is so perfect and free from overstraining, as to command the attention of the audience, and it is only after the curtain falls that one realises the fact that it is comparatively a child which exhibits such extraordinary cleverness. Although most of the programme was gone through on a former occasion, yet the continued laughter from all parts of the house testified the enjoyment of those present. Mr Young, well-known to Australian playgoers, occupies the place of Mr Small, and, we need hardly say, the other members of the company sustained their parts well and accurately. We hope to see Mr Young in some of those burlesque parts which he is said to excel in. The performance will be repeated this evening. A meeting of the Directors of the Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association was held yesterday, to make final arrangements for the Show on Thursday, the 26th Nov. The attendance was good. The report of the Yard Committee, amongst other things, stated that one-half of the Association's ground had been substantially fenc- d, and the interior arrangements were, being actively proceeded with. After some discussion it was resolved to give extra prizes, viz. : —For the best shod draught horse, £3 ; for the best shod roadster, £3 ; and for the best set of cart harness, made by the exhibitor, £2 The forthcoming Show will, there i3 every reason to believe, be even a greater success than that of last jear. It is the intention of the Directors to endeavor to obtain the consent of the Government and the Banks to make the day of the Show, Thursday, 26th November, a general holiday.

The • Nelson Evening Mail,' 4th Nov. says : — " From a letter addressed by the loyal Maoris of Wanganui to Dr Featherston. Mr Fox, Mr Richmond, and the members of the General Assembly, we extract the following j — ' Friend, Mr Fox, our advice is that this tribe the Ngatiruanui should be exterminated ! Not one should be left alive to create fresh trouble in this island. Do you consent to this proposition, viz., let the women b9 preserved as slaves for the Europeans, and all the chilaren be killed, lest they should grow up and destroy and eat more Europeans and natives.' " We take the following from the ' Otago Argus,' 7th Nov. : — " A very determined but ortunately unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Captain M'Kinnon, was made by one of the crew of the Tararua, whose name we have been unable to learn, as the vessel was ahout to leave Sandridge for this port. Captain M'Kinnon observi | ing the man seated on a portion of luggage, : quietly asked him to get off of it. Without say- ] ing a -word, the man drew a dagger and rushed at j captain M'Kinnon with it ; the latter avoided the j blow that was made at him, and seizing his as- | sailant, struggled with him for some time, until both fell over one of the hatchways into the hold. When they reached the bottom of the hold Captain M'Kinnon was underneath, and the man was grasping him tightly by the throat. He aimed a blow at his intended victim, and as the dagger was decending, the second mate, whose attention had been directed to the spot by the noise, caught hold of his arai, and a fierce struggle took place between them ; the latter being severely cut about the hands and wrist before he overpowered the man. The New South Wales Minister of Land, at a recent Agricultural Show, stated — " That the extension of the railway into the southern and western districts had kept the loaf in Sydney this 1 year a penny or twopence lower than it would otherwise have been ; large importations of wheat had been kept out, and a least £50,000 or £60,000, which would have been sent to California for breadstuff's, had been diffused in the colony. The completion of the line to Sutton Forest had increased the price of wheat in the Queanbean district from 2s and 2 s 3d to 7s and 7s 6d per bushel. The ' Sydney Mail,' 27th ult., says :— " Among the documents laid before Parliament is some correspondence on the Treason Felony Act. The Duke of Buckingham declined to advise her Majesty to assent to it, and remarked specially on the severity of two of its clauses. The Earl of Belmore put the despatch before his Cabinet for their advice. They stated, in reply to the despatch, that the clauses complained of were not the severest part of the Bill — that they were not more severe that the suspension of the Habeas Corpus in Ireland — that the local Executive was the best judge of the measures necessary for the public safety — that vigorous measures were rendered necessary — that the Bill had effectually answered its purpose of preventing seditious writing and speaking, and that no prosecution had been rendered necessary. They, therefore, declined to alter the Bill, and hoped her Majesty's Government would reconsider its opinion." We take the following statement oi the richness of the Auckland quartz reefs, from the ' Southern Cross,' 2nd Nov : — Twelve hundredweight of Btone from the Middle Star Claim, crushed recently in a berden, gave a splendid yield of 300oz, retorted gold. The Victoria Battery : 3,0000z of amalgam, being a portion of that obtained from the crushing from the Hobson Park Claim, retorted 5560z of gold. Souter's Battery, at the foot of the Waiotahi Creek, furnished aB the result of the last 314 tons of stone crushed by this machine the splendid yield of 3,1960z Bdwt 15gr retorted gold, quite sufficient, we should think, to assure those at a distance that the Thames quartz is not quite so barren of gold as it has been frequently represented to be. According to the Ministerial statement made by the Hon. John Hall, the Government propose to maintain a permanent armed force of 500 men, to suppress native outrages aud maintain peace. The pay is to be Is a day above the existing rate. It is proposed to give something to the officers, and the divisions are to be increased from 60 to 100 men. The cost of the Constabulary will be increased from £47,497 to £81,000, to quote Mr Hall's words : — The Government also in the presence of a great emergency would ask the House for a contingent vote of £45,000, but only £5000 of that vote had beea expended. It therefore did not follow that if a contingent vote were given, the whole of the money would be expended The amount he would ask would be £50,000, making with the balance of the last year's contingent vote, £90,000. The Government thought that they would be in a position to put a thousand men in the field if necessary. The Government proposed to meet £33,000 out of loan. It was proposed to issue Treasury Bills. There was no doubt the emergency was great. Not only were storms passing over ths West Coast, but clouds were appearing over other parts of the colony. But the difficulty could only be met in | one way, by opposing to it a united front. If that should be the case there could be no doubt as to the result. But if their councils were divided, than the prospect was extremely gloomy. The newly-elected President of the Wesylean Methodist Conference, opened at Liverpool on July 30, in his inaugural address, instead of confining himself to Methodist affairs, took a wider range, and glanced at some of the external relations of Methodism. He hoped that the Methodists would keep to their via media. Individually they had their political convictions, but they were not disposed to take political action in their corporate capicity. Any union of the Methodist connection with the Church of England was out of the question. They were not partisans ot State churches, and could cast off any church that was unfaithful to Christ. He spoke strongly against the Tractarianism and Rationalism of some sections of the Church of England, and intimated that in some way or other Borne of the questions now disturbing the public mind might come under the consideration of the conference. Mr Hall's address was listened to with great interest by the conference, and ids sentiments were endorsed by his ministerial brethren generally. About 500 ministers attended the conference. A warning to those who indulge in the practice of throwing stones is reported irom Wellington. A youth was brought up before the Magistrate there, charged with breaking one of the telegraph insulators in the Hutt Valley, by throwing stones at it. The culprit pleaded that it was merely " a lark," but the Magistrate was inexorable, and committed him for trial at the n.ex.t Session of the Supreme Court.

A Melbourne contemporary has the following : — " If our American cousins are not annexing any unconsidered trifles in the way of territory at present, they are absorbing the raw materials of nationality upon a scale that would soon people the new country purchased from the Czar. During the month of July last, no less than thirty thousand European immigrants arrived at New York. Fancy thirty thousand a month, while we in Victoria consider ourselves tolerably well off in increasing at the same rate per year. But this is not all. No less than four-fifths of the number were Germans, the remainder from the United Kingdom. We in cur wisdom refuse to allow any but natives of the United Kingdom to participate in the benefit of our immigration system, forgetting that the bulk of the emigrat 1 ing classes in these days come not from England, Scotlandj or even Ireland, but from beyond the Rhine." In an article on the general depression through- ! out the colony, the ' Wellington Independent' | ' remarks : — " The only way in which better times I can be brought about is by reducing the cost of ! Government, enforcing a rigorous economy in every public department and developing the resources of the country by the establishment of new industries. If wool does not pay to send home, then we must become manufacturers of cloth j while, instead of boiling down, we might try our hand at preserving meat for export. Candles, soap, beer, spirits, papers, and a host of other things might all he profitably manufactured on a large scale in New Zealand. Some of them are so already, more especially beer, but the trade would bear immense extension." The ' Wanganui Times ' is responsible for the following : — " It is not true that Tito Kowaru seized the p.s. Sturt in the Patea river, cooked and eat Captain Fairchild, and then died of indigestion. It is not true that after cooking the Captain, Tito Kowaru said he was terribly tough and not worth the firewood and trouble taken in cooking him. The only foundation for the report was that Tito Kowaru had offered ten thousand acres of land -with free selection, a good title, and full protection— which the Pakeha Government could not give — for a good feed off Colonel Haultain when last at Patea. Of course the gallant Colonel, deeming discretion the better part of valor, escaped under a strong escort, and is now safely lodged at Wellington beyond the reach of danger. If he has not to thank Tito Kowaru for h^s life, he may at least thank him for his thousand a year and a house to live in. Were it not for Tito the Colonel's occupation was gone." It is a singular fact that no less than seven colonial dioceses are without bishops at the present time, while tnree more are temporarily unoccupied, their bishops being in England. The New Zealand 'Examiner' remarks: — Either their work must be unimportant, or neglected. We cannot think the former, and hence are reluctantly compelled to take the latter conclusion. Truly the directors of the worldly affairs of men seem more in earnest than those appointed to look after their spiritual well-being, for we never yet heard of a Governor leaving his post in charge of a deputy in order that he might come to England for a great " talkee," or to refresh himself with a series of visits to his friends. The ' Southern Cross,' Nov., 2nd, has the following : — " During the month, various attempts, wise and unwise, have been made to get the natives of the Upp<;r Thames to open their country to gold prospectors. Mr Mackay, Civil Commissioner, had a meeting with the natives, at which he pointed out the position of matters — that there were Europeans at Shortland who wished to come up the river in search of gold, and that he desired to make proper arrangements so that there might not be trouble. The owners of the land would be paid the same terms as had been done at Kauwaeranga. Mr Mackay pu the matter in all its bearings before them — explaining his own position, the position of the Government, and of the miners. The reply to all this was, on the part of the Hauhaus, a pointblank refusal to open the land. They said: " Then let not the Government back those diggers, and leave us to deal with them." Wikeriwhi, one of the friendly natives, said that he would open his land, and he was followed by Perinike who said the same thing. Mr Mackay accepted these lands on behalf of the Government, but specially reserved to himself the right of judging when it was expedient to take possession, and stating that he would not do so at once. The Hauhaus then disputed Wikeriwhi's title to a part of the land claimed by him, and Mr Mackay said that any difference in that matter would have to be settled by the Native Lands Court. HopUious at once answered : We will not in any way recognise the Native Lands Court, or have anything to do with it. The Hauhaus then, unanimously and formally, protested against the whole transaction, and went away very sulky. Since then the miners at Shortland have held a meeting, at which twelve delegates were appointed to go up the river and see the Kingite natives ; and accusations were made against Mr Mackay that he did not really wish to open the land. The deputation did not go up, but egregiously failed. It is feared that if the miners " rush " the district in spite of the natives, the latter will make an attack on the eettlera in Waikato. The following very cutting aud satirical remarks on the subject of the Taylor scandal, appears in the ' Age 1 of the 7th inst. : — " The star-chamber still fulminates in Collins-street east. No efforts are being spared to free the precints of the conventicle from that smell of brimstone which has been all-pervading of late. Excommunication is the heaviest penalty as yet, but there are better times coming. An auto da fe under the Corinthian columns would have the merit of novelty when the baa of the church begins to loose its terrors for backsliders. They mean business, I can tell you. Let the Press beware. Let those misguided church-members who dared to disclose the secrets of the Council, when sitting in closest chapter, take heed to themselves. It at was th.- last meeting seriously proposed and delibcmiud upon, though not carried, that any member of the congregation disclosing to the Press the u;iurch proceedings or decisions should be held " guilty of misdemeanor.' and be summarily expelled ! Telling tales dosen't suit these Christian people. There are datsi by means of which one may arrive at the precise degree of enormity attributed to this newest form of misdemeanor. The congregation regard and would punish it as they do adultery and offences ia the first category of crime,"

We take the following from the New Zealand ' Examiner ' published in London on the 28th of August {— " The letter* received by the Neva occupied only 48 days in transit from New Zealand; and 54 days from Sydney, and thus not only is there a saving of 13 days in favor of the Panama ] route, as regards the former colony compared J •With the Suez arid Southampton route, but the • ' through voyage has actually been accomplished \ in four days less from Sydney. If the comparison ; be made with the shortened Suez service via Mar- ; seilles, the through time via Panama is 54 days, • against 53 via Marseilles, so that the only advantage gained by the extra post via Marseilles is the Baving of one day. It is stated that the New South Wales Government are so satisitted with the manner in which the Panama service is being performed, that they now give it the preference over the Suez lino."