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Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2967, 19 August 1878, Page 2

Thbkb wns no sitting of the Native Lands Court to-day, the Court having been adjourned till Wednesday next.

The meeting convened by the Warden, on the requisition of a number of citizens to take into consideration the best.way of enabling them to show their estimation of J. E. Macdonald, Esq., who is leaving Thames for Napier, will be held in'the large room of the Governor Eowen Hotel at half-past seven o'clock to-night.

The funeral of Mr George de Thierry took place yesterday from the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel, the interment taking place at the Shortland Cemetery. Mr Uichard de Thierry, brother of the deceased, acted as chief mourner, and the cortege was composed of a number of friends—both European and Native.

The weekly all-comers match at the Brown street rifle gallery took place on Saturday night, and was largely attended by both Volunteers and civilians. Vol. Lawlor of the No. 2 Scottish and Mr B. O'Loughlin each made a fine score of 26 points ; this score has now been made by two different competitors in three successive matches. The shooting was steady throughout the contest, great care being taken by Mr Barlow in the loading. To-night the boys patronise the range for their weekly prize.

When the Natives adopt a European custom they not unfrequently alter it and amend to their tastes. For instance, in the custom of " shouting " or treating, they frequently do it in a very different way from Europeans. On Saturday the Whakatane Na'ives sent a polifce invitation to the Haurakis to be at Shortland in the. evening, when the Whakatanes would have the honor of shouting for the lords of the soil. The invitation was responded to, and with praiseworthy alacrity the Haurakis today returned the compliment, between 40 and 50 bottles of beer, brandy, and other "hard stuff" being purchased for the consumption of their visitors. When the Natives have money they certainly know how to make it fly.

It may not be generally known that Messrs Price Bros., ironfounders of this town, have in their hands a very important industry—the making of timber jacks. Price Bros.' limber jacks are used in most of the principal mills of the colony, having almost driven out of the market those made by other manufacturers. This industry is very important to the place, as for the last six or nine months from £140 to £150- worth on the average have been exported we.ekly to different parts of the colony.

The Rifle Rangers having invited the Engineers to accompany them to church yesterday, a good muster of both companies was obtained, the Native corps also put in an appearance in compliment to its European comrades with an unusually good muster. The Engineer band was in attendance, and played the column to and from G-iahamstown, where divine service was attended under the ministry of the Rev. R. S. JJunnatthe Wesleyan Church. The following was the parade strength : — .Engineers, under command of Captain Small and Lieutenant Barlow, four sergeants, and 38 rank and file; Rifle Rangers, under Captain Farrell, three sergeants, and 35 rank and file ; Native Corps, under Captain Taipari, Lieutenant Poona, and Sergeant-Major Grant, with two sergeants and 30 rank and file. Total of all ranks, forming a half battalion, 118.

The cement claims at Weatherstone, near Tuapeka, Otago, are attracting a considerable amount of attention. A large number of claims have been pegged out, and batteries for abstracting the gold from the clay are to be erected.

The recollection of the sad fate of the Great Queensland was revived the other day, says tho European Mail, by an application which was made to the ViceChancellor relative to the property left by Captain' Holden. A petition was presented by his two sisters, who were his next of kin, for payment of the money to them, on the ground that it was impossible to ascertain which of the two —the wife or the daughter, who were on board —had died first. If the wife had survived the daughter, her representatives would have been entitled, but not so if she died before the daughter. The ViceChancellor ruled that as it was impossible to prove which of the two legatees under the will had died first, the next of kin of the testator, who were his two sisters, were entitled equally to the property, and an order to that effect was made.

A sobt of crisis in municipal affairs has lately occurred in the. flourishing borough of Hamilton, similar in some respects to that which happened here. The Borough Council met to consider the sending of the Mayor to Wellington, and decided not to do it. In this they acted in a manner similar to the City Fathers of this Borough. At Hamilton, too,' the Mayor said going to Wellington would entail upon him inconvenience and loss. In this he resembled our own Mayor. When councillors declined to send t 1 c Mayor of Hamilton, a meeting of burgesses was called—on requisition—to urge sending the Mayor, but the burgesses of Hamilton confirmed the decision of their representatives in Council, and declined to urge the sending of a special delegate in the person of the Mayor.

Undee the heading "A nice practitioner," the following appears in the Dunedin Age :—" There is a story going the rounds at present of a medical practitioner,.n^t a hundred miles from this city, who has long enjoyed a reputation for habits of a disagreeably amatory character. Some time ago, as report sayeth, he was called on to prescribe for a female member of a respectable family. More recently the young lady became a mother,

and the fault was ascribed to her medical adviser. Tlie patient's father threatened legal vengeance, and a compromise had to bo, amused. It. ia stated that the family physician offered £250 in cash, or the responsibility of taking charge- of the child, and that the latter offer has been accepted. If the rumor is correct the medical faculty of this part of the world might do worse than whitewash this erring member of an erratic family. Their liberality as whitewashes has been tested on more than one occasion, and it has never failed. A scandal of the kind to which we have alluded, however, calls for investigation as well as whitewashing, lost it should be the means of resolving the much vexed question, whether in the interests of public morality female doctors are not desirable.''

A vebt pretty duel is now being fought at Wanganui anent the Government advertising monopoly. The local Herald, not content with basking in the sunshine of Ministerial favor, turns round and abuses the Chronicle for not being content to stand in the cold shade. It further makes the following bold assertion*:— " The journals inwhich the Public Works advertisements are now inserted are the best and most widely circulated journals in each town. Whether in JJunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Napier, Auckland, or Wanganui this rule obtains." With this statement the Chronicle joins issue at once :—The statement, says our contemporary, is notoriously untrue as regards the very first place mentioned — JJunedin. In tuat city the advertisements are given to the Times, because it supports the Government through thick and thin—notwithstanding the fact that the Morning Herald is a much better paper and claims a larger circulation. Again, in Wellington, Ministers start a new paper, in which they are the principal shareholders, in order to try and run off an old established journal, which is in opposition; and further, to ensure a circu'ation for their o;vn venture, actually stoop to what is little better than subsidising it with Government .money." What will the "Government of all the virtues " say to this ?

THE'Minisfcry (says the Tablet) has now removed all doubt and obscurity ; and, henceforward, Catholics can labour under no delusion as to how they ought to act in reference to the several members of the present Cabinet and their supporters in Parliament. The Catholic electors of Dunedin, for example, will know what answer (o give when asked to vote for Messrs Macandrew, Stout, and Oliver, and Catholic electors in other constituencies cannot be ignorant of their obligations towards other members of the Government and their supporters. It is only at the hustings and the polling booths Catholics can strike efficaciously. We wish, therefore, to impress on Catholics two things. In the first place, they must keep in mind the names of all who opposed their claims in Parliament, among whom, of course, the members of the present Ministry now hold the first place; and secondly, they must take measures to secure the registration of all Catholics having the required qualifications. To ensure success organisation is necessary. It would he well, therefore, if in each locality a small working committee were formed for the-twofold purpose of reminding Catholics at the proper time of ihe names of their prominent ene* mies, and of attending to the registry of Parliamentary voters. It pains us very much to tin ' ourselves driven into opposition to Sir George Grey's Cabinet, but the principle of justice is paramount to all other considerations — even if the heavens were to collapse, let justice be done. All personal considerations must give way before the claims of justice; and the Catholic who supports a Ministry pledged to-wring taxes from Catholics for the purpose of stamping on them the mark of inferiority and mental degradation, or compelling them to accept godless schooling, has. forfeited the name of Catholic, and gone out into the wilderness of infidelity and godlessness.

In the game played by the Australian Kleven on Kennington Oval on June 7th, the eommitteeexpected a large attendance; in fact they had been warned that they would have a " monster " attendance, but they took no especial precautions. The some 20,000 persons who assembled were left to be managed by some half-dozen policemen and as many club servants. Sixpence was the tariff paid for admission, but no change was given at last, so that the people put down their shillings, or anything, so long as they could crush in to get a sight of the play. To relieve the turn-stiles, small doors in the fence were broken open, and some of the members of the team were busy taking money as hard and as fast as they could. Messrs Boyle and Conway were well to the front in this department, and many a shilling, and sometimes even half-a-crown," went into the box, and still the cry was, " No change given yet." " Your money ready." It will always, for the reasons stated above, be impossible to say how many persons visited the ground on the first day, and besides, there can be no doubt many hundreds got in without paying at all, so that the receipts will not prove the number of spectators, which some papers put as high as 20,000, but perhaps 18,000 would be nearer the mark.

" Atticus," in the Melbourne Leader, writes:—" A lad attending one of the grammar schools was lately congratulated on his long mid-winter holidays, and asked how he was spending them. " Holidays ? " said the boy; " I wish they were over. My father gave toe the choice of working all day in the garden, or going to the nearest Stale school till the end of the ' vacation ;' and I took the latter. Thank goodness when the Christmas holidays come the beastly State schools are closed for a while." All parents do not ke3p their children's noses to the grindstone in that fashion. A man who is now very wealthy has a family of five grown up daughters, who are all lamentably deficient in every branch of education. It is said of them that it would take the whole five to write a letter, and that then it would be badly done. The father declares he is unable to account for it; that he sent his children to school every week of their lives, and that too when schooling had to be paid for. The young people when asked about it gave the following explanation: The eldest child used to be sent to school every Monday morning with the customary eighteenpence. the second would be sent on Tuesday, the third on Wednesday, and so on till each child child had its share of the school fee money. "And the worst of it for me," said the youngest, " was that my turn always fell on Friday, when they had only religious instruction and accomplishments taught in the school; so that though I am better and more highly accomplished than my sisters, they have received a more solid education ? "

An interesting table, showing the amounts collected by the Customs in England at different periods of her history, has been published by the Nautical Magazine, as follows :—I2BO, £8108 ; 1580, £14,000; 1642, £500,000; 1760, £1,969,933 ; 1815, £11,360,000 ; 1830, £17,540,323; 1840, £19,915 296; 1850, £22,264,258; 1860, £24,391,084; 1870, £21,449,843; 1877, £19.762,000. In connection with the above figures it must be borne in mind that it is calculated that 600 years ago money had a value twentyfive times that of the present day, and that in Queen Klizabeth's time it was worth seven times as much as now.

A- bepoetee on a Canterbury paper lately reported the speech of a city councillor verbatim, and this is how the speech read :—" Mr Mayor, I desire, sir, to —to —to make an explanation—an explanation. I happened—happened—happened to be one of the unfortunates who had —who had—who had been summoned for a breach of the by-law, but my case was never heard. Mr Mellish had taken the opportunity—the opportunity, from his seat on the bench, not only to—to — to— to tell the Council that their by-laws were a—a —a nuisance, which was a most —was a most —unwarrantable thing to —to do, but he had—he had also gone further, and sitting—sitting as a magistrate, he had advised me how to —to—to—to dispose of my private means." Here the Mayor remarked that this was hardly a matter for the council to deal with, and simply rested between the orator and Resident Magistrate. Curran the younger then continued :—" I mentioned, sir -I think I mentioned sir when I rose that I —that I wished to — to—to make a personal explanation. I see from the paragraphs in the papers, or at least some of them—some of them— that Mr Mellish took upon himself not only to—to—to insult this Council by saying that their by-laws are a nuisance, but also to —to—to advise me—advise me as to —to how I shall dispose of—dispose of my private means. This, sir, I—l—l consider a piece of the most unwarrantable impertinence—a piece of—piece of great —of gross—impertinence, sir. I —I—I therefore now—now from my place at this table—at this table, have taken— hare taken the only means afforded me of replying to —to—to Mr Mellish—to Mr Mellish, whose remarks I —I—I —l . consider—l consider were entirely un- | called for, and very much out of —out of —out of place."

HAVING just received another shipment of pianos and harmoniums, my stock is now very large, and offers an unusual opportunity for the selection of an instrument to suit the taste and means of a purchaser. Importing direct from the manufacturer I am able to sell them much under the prices frequently charged, and I am also prepared to give credit for a portion of purchase money on the time payment system. Inspection invited.—J. ChaiGG, Pollen street.