THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 1877.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2577, 11 April 1877, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 1877.

It is very much to be feared that the

sitting of the Native Lands Court now going on t in Shortland—which, ifc was hoped, would bring about a settlement of the long standing disputes regarding the ownership of the Ghinemuri and Te Aroha lands —will fail in accomplishing that which was expected. Owing to the late quarrel between the Ohinemuri and Aroha natives, which originated in an insult offered by the latter to the former when Hapata's people were proceeding overland to Cambridge t.o attend a sitting of the. Lands Court there, only one section of the claimants is represented at Judge Fenton's Court, and he—rightly or wrongly—declines (so we are informed) to enter into any question in which both-parties are interested. As far as we can make out, this gives offence to the party in attendance, and may possibly lead to their offering opposition at some future time. Besides this, we believe that many persons who have been looking forward to this Court as likely to lead to a settlement of many outstanding claims will be disappointed— perhaps seriously inconvenienced, and the opening of the land for settlement will be indefinitely postponed. The,,orily solution of the difficulty seems to lie in removing the blockade, and effecting a reconciliation between the belligerent Natives.

By the arrival of the Wakatipu at Wellington last night, from Sydney, some further English and Australian news is to hand. Though not later than calograms already published, it furnishes some particulars of English parliamentary proceedings of a later dale than the mail news. As a matter of course, during the present crisis in Turkish or Eastern affairs, the state of the army and navy of Great Britain forms a fertile source of questions in the House of Commons, the answers to which appear to have been satisfactory. The estimates for these services also appear to have elicited information from those Ministers specially charged with looking after them. Her Majesty's title of' " Kaiser " in India has been the subject of remark, and an inquisitive M.P. has been informed that the word, is Arabic and not German. A difficulty, not altogether unexpected, has arisen regarding the right of the British Government to exercise votes in the management of the Suez Canal Company by virtue of its recent acquisition of stock. It is probably the result of French jealousy of England acquiring an overwhelming power in the management of the Canal Company's affairs. It will most likely be settled in favor of the demands of England being

conceded, Great Britain being the power most largely interested in the Suez Canal traffic.