SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

Evening Star, Issue 7475, 20 March 1888, Page 2

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

CHEAP BEER,

CHRISTCHURCH, March 20. Beer was at a discount in Christchurch yesterday. An auctioneer was instructed to ell fifty-eight hogsheads of beer in an insolvent estate. Many of the hotels are in the hands of the brewers, and the result >vas that the highest bid for the beer was LI per cask, the excise duty being 13s on each cask. The auctioneer refused this bid, aud then offered the lot as empty casks. In this form he received a bid of 17s 6d for each cask. This was accepted, and the beer poured out into the street channels. A few persons who did not like to see such waste obtained some bucketfuls of the beer cheap. RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT PROCEDURE. In the Resident Magistrate's Court, Mr Beetham said he would make it a rule that disputed civil cases in which counsel were engaged should take precedence of those in which the parties appeared on their own behalf. This is in order to obviate the necessity for lawyers having at times to wait so long in the court till their cases on the list are reached.

THE AGENT-GENERALSHIP. AUCKLAND, March 19.

Referring to the reported intention of Sir G. Grey to leave the colony, and the suggestion that he be appointed Agent-General, the ‘ Star' has an article deprecating such an appointment, saying: —“ We much mistake Sir G. Grey if he would not infinitely prefer to live and die in and perhaps for New Zealand, instead of exiling himself from the colony, to the repugnant and uncongenial atmosphere of London. He has all his life been a steady and faithful worker, and it is characteristic of the true worker that he wishes to die in harness. Let us look back for a moment across the gap of forty-two years, and consider the circumstances of New Zealand when Sir George (then Captain) Grey first set foot upon its shores. The handful of scattered settlers were menaced on every hand by a hostile Native population in open insurrection. In the north, the first capital, Rorarakaia, had been burnt; in the south the settlers had been murdered, and a plot was maturing that menaced the young settlement of Wellington. Colonisation appeared to be in its death throes, and the advent of Captain Grey was hailed by the settlers as that of a saviour. Through his energetic action and wise administration order was quickly restored, and the foundations of the colony were so well and truly laid that all the subsequent vicissitudes through which we have passed have not seriously shaken them. What more appropriate recompense for lifelong labor, what more just, than by the popular voice to place Sir G. Grey, in his declining years, once more in the position which he filled for so long a period with distinction ? We have confidence that a monster petition coming from this colony, requesting the Imperial Government as a special act of grace to New Zealand to nominate their old and trusty officer as successor to Governor Jervois would be treated with respect. In throwing out this suggestion we do not contemplate that the position of Governor named in the constitution of the colony should be in any respect changed, but that a change will come we have not the slightest doubt, but it will be slow of development. Sir G. Grey may have many years of life—we trust that it is to ; and should it be the will of Providence to remove him from our midst, we feel assured that he would die a happier, and possibly even a better, man as Governor of New Zealand than if he removed himself from amongst those by whom he is beloved to an atmosphere where he would simply bo worried and harassed to death. We pen this article in the hope, and, indeed, in the belief, that our petitioning the Imperial Government to appoint Sir G. Grey our next Governor has only to be suggested to be calmly taken up by the people of the colony. We look to those who are the true hearted friends of Sir George Grey to take the initiative. It would be no infringement of his duties for the Mayor of Auckland to convene a meeting to form a committee for the purpose of drafting and circulating a petition. The citizens of Auckland would not bo backward in endorsing his action; indeed, we are confident that the occasion would be made one of the most enthusiastic popular demonstrations ever witnessed south of the Equator, and that what Auckland began would move the great heart of New Zealand from end to end until the desire of the people has been attained.” THE ELTHAM MURDER. AUCKLAND, March 20. The ‘Star’ says that John James Pook, cousin of the printer who was accused of the Greenwich murder, is in the employ of Mitchelson and Co., of Auckland. Walter Pook at last news was working with his father at Greenwich, having returned seven or eight months after the trial. J. J. Pook and his father were both discharged from their situations at Greenwich because of their relationship to the suspected lad. STACK FIRE. MOSGIEL, March 20. Two stacks of oats and one of straw, valued at Ll2O (uninsured), were discovered to be on fire at 1.30 this morning. They were the property of John Taylcr, of Woodside, near Mosgiel. With the assistance of neighbors the fire was confined to the stacks, the stable and other buildings being saved.