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Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2958, 8 August 1878, Page 2

Thebe was a clean sheet at the B.M. Court to-day. Mb William Bowe, M.H.E., was a passenger by the Botorua, which left Auckland for the South last night. The steamer Southern Cross, 139 tons, under the command of Capt. Holmes, arrived off Tararu this morning from Napier with a consignment of 340 sheep ancr6o head of cattle for Banks and Co. She left Napier on Monday. She will leave Tararu at 12 o'clock to-night conveying passengers to Auckland. The business of the Native Lands Court yesterday and to-day has been confined to the hearing of evidence in the Arakakotu block case of 373 acres. Turu Bona and others are the claimants, and Wiremu Te Ha'a and ethers, tho counter claimants.

There appears to be consternation amongst the publicans over the beer tax, the brewers having put on ten shillings per hogshead to the price of beer. In Auckland we hear the publicans are protesting, as they argue that the reduction on the sugar duty should compensate the brewer for the If d per gallon on beer.

As an evidence of the appreciation which the gentlemen members of Mr and Mrs Addey's select dancing class have for their instructors in the "light fantastic," they have presented them with a very handsome Chinese cabinet, " as a mark of esteem and respect to their instructors." This must be very gratifying to Mr and Mrs Addey. The presentation was unexpectedly made at an evening parly held on Monday night last.

Me W. C. Dennes' Branch Sewing Machine Depot, Pollen street, attracts all passers by the five handsome prizes now on view, aod to be drawn for after the grand lime-light exhibition of over 200 views, entitled " A Trip through Ireland and America," which is to take place at the Academy of Music on Tuesday next.

The New Zealand Volunteer Service Gazette, a journal edited and published by a Dunedin gentleman, as the volunteer organ of the colony, has reached its twenty-second (monthly) number. So far from the publication languishing for want of support its circulation is steadily increasing : the proprietors now offer a prize of five guineas for the best written essay on "The Reorganisation of the New Zealand Volunteer Force." The essays must reach Dunedin not later than the 28th inst.

A Sottthebn contemporary says :—The public are gradually becoming convinced that the promoters of railways under "The Counties Act" do not care much about whether the railways pay or not, as they have a lien upon all the land about them, so they are sure of their interest upon the money invested.