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Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3503, 17 March 1880, Page 2

The complimentary ball to the Carbine Champion and the Thames shootists at the late Nelson meeting will take place this eTening at the Academy of Music. A large number of tickets hare been sold, and a very pleasant evening is anticipated.

Thebe was a clean sheet at the K.M. Court to-day.

A foot race for five pounds aside took place at Parawai this morning between George Taylor and A. Thorburn. The distance was 150 yards, and the race was closely contested. .Taylor won by about two feet, t

,'. Intending competitors are reminded that the Scholarship Examination in connection with the Thames High School takes piaee to-morrow.

The manager of the Alburnia Company is calling for tenders for the erection of a cottage near the mine ; further particulars can be learned from the advertisement.

The Hon. Mr Kolleston, Minister for Lands and Education, will arrive here this evening by the Rotomahana. He will be received by the Mayor.

Oub cablegrams some time ago mentioned that the Duchess of Marlborough had spoken in Dublin against Mr Parnell and his statements relative to Ireland. By our files we learn Her Grace is reported to have said the '♦ parest charity could not escape Mr Parnell's misrepresentations, but that was not surprising, seeing that he who slanders Her Majesty the Queen, by, daring to say that Her Majesty gave no help in the famine in 1848, should as unjustly aocuse the Duchess Fund as being used for political purposes, and not for the relief of the distressed country."

Captain Thomas O'Malley Baines, of Fenian renown, has gone to Australia by the steamer City of New York, for the. purpose of raising a treasure of £60,000, buried by Frank Gardiner, a notorious Australian bushranger. Gardiner, prior to his imprisonment, had buried the swag obtained by countless robberies about half a mile from the Fish River, in a clearing between Goulbourn and Bathurst, New South Wales. After his release he came to San Francisco, the vigilance of the Australian police compelling him to leave his booty behind. Here he has become a total wreck. The only person who befriended him was Baines, and knowing that he had but a short time to live, he confided to him the whereabouts of the deposit, which is said, to

consist of gold coin, bills, and jewellery. He has furnished Baines with accurate plans and diagrams of the buried treasure, which is to go entirely to him, with the condition that he shall provide for Gardiner during his lifetime.

Mb Hubbard, member for the City of London, presided at the twentieth annual dinner of the King's College, London. In proposing the toast of the evening the right hon. gentleman spoke of the affinity of religion with education, attributing the absence of charges of corruption, suspicion, or unworthy motives brought so often against public men in other countries to the general observance of this principle among the educational establishments of England. During the whole of his public life he had never heard such a charge brought against an Englishman who had served the Crown, and he could not help thinking this was due to the teaching of the religious element with that of education.

At a recent meeting of the Free Church of Dundee, a motion was submitted in regard to the Tay Bridge disaster, acknowleding the voice of God in the event, expressing sorrow with the bereavfd, and urging increased liberality towards the fund for the relief of the sufferers. Mr Niven, an elder, hoped the motion would not he passed without the insertion of a clause anent the breaking of the Sabbath by the running of Sunday trains. The Rev. Mr Waterson hoped the motion would be passed as it stood, because there was such a thing as breaking the fourth commandment by giving an unworthy interpretation of the things of God. The motion was then passed.

Oue readers will be glad to learn that the hon. the Premier has recognised the long and faithful duty rendered to the colony by Chief Judge Fenton, of the Native Lands Court, whose services will be retained. As a well-trained barrister, a ripe scholar, and a gentleman with a peculiarly judicial mental b?nt, riot to speak of long years of assiduous study of the intricate questions affecting Maori lands, Judge Fenton is pre-eminently fitted for the post he now occupies, and his resignation would have been a loss to the colony. Whatever opinions may be entertained as to the relative positions of the Europeans and Maoris, there can be no doubt that the Native Land Court will be a necessity for many years to come, and it is fortunate for the Colony that it is now presided over by an impartial, painstaking, and conscientious gentleman. The Premier has given general satisfaction by this action.—Star.

Lobs Deebyis much against the new expedition to the North Pole in which balloons are to be made use of, and gives it as his opinion that the scheme is an impracticable and suicidal one for those engaged in it. The proposed expedition, which is described as a British and Canadian expedition under Commander John Cheyne, 11. N., is estimated to cost £30,000. Commander Cheyne proposes to ascertain by balloon which of the two channels was most open in the first week in June. These balloons would leave the ships with provisions for fifty-one days.'

We have added a reading and smoking room to our establishment; all the Provincial and Intercolonial papers filed for reference. Business and other men will find this a convenience that for a long time has been very much felt.—Lawless & Co., Tobacconists, &c.