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New Zealand Mail, Issue 761, 1 October 1886, Page 16

Mk. Thomas Hardy, the well-known South Australian wine-grower—indeed the largest in that colony—and a member of the Jubilee Exhibition Committee, is now on a visit to New Zealand, in the hope of enlisting sympathy with the object of the Exhibition, and of securing the active co-operation of this Colony. Mr Hardy is, we understand, much impressed with the possibilities of a large trade between New Zealand and South Australia—-even-in New Zealand frozen meat, which is greatly superior to that of Australia ; and our New Zealand made doors and sashes could be profitably exported to Adelaide. Mr Hardy has had interviews with his Excellency the Governor and with Ministers, and is in hopes that New Zealand’s participation will be agreed to. The matter is to come before the Cabinet on Monday next.

Sir Julius 'Vogel has received a telegram from Mr Suttor, the PostmasterGeneral of New South Wales, in which that gentleman informs him that he has cabled to the Chairman of the Eastern Extension Company in a similar strain to the telegram sent by Sir Julius. The latter message was indeed founded on a previous communication received from Mr Suttor. With regard to the excitement on the subject alleged to exist in Melbourne and Sydney, Sir Julius has received ho telegram nor any information relating to the matter generally, excepting the two telegrams from the Post-master-General of New South Wales above alluded to. Sir Julius has, however, received auother telegram from the Chairman of the Cable Company, in which that gentleman combats the views embodied in the message he had received, and claims the right to raise the tariff, but goes on to add, “ Company will postpone raising tariff until Ist January next if you choose to reconsider proposals with a view to amicable arrangements.”

The news of the death of Mr William Hoskins will be read with very widespread regret. No man has done so much for dramatic art in these Colonies as Mr Hoskins, and no actor who has ever visited New Zealand was so great a popular favourite. Mr Hoskins had no living superior, even in Great Britain, as an interpreter of the standard school of high English comedy, while he was equally capable of thrilling an audience with the impassioned declamation of such a part as Richelieu. Indeed no finer impersonation of the famous Cardinal, as depicted by the late Lord Lytton, than that of Mr Hoskins has yet been seen in these colonies. But it was in high comedy that he was seen at his best, and many of our readers will vividly remember how admirable was that “ best.” Perhaps Dr Pangloss in Colman’s fine old comedy “The Heir at Law,” was on the whole his finest, as it was his favourite part, but Wellington play goers will never forget his masterly readings of such characters as Chrysos and King Phanor in Gilbert’s delightful plays “Pygmalion and Galatea” and “The Palace of Truth oi his Mr Puff in Sheridan’s “Critic;” his Major Jorum in Boucicault’s “Formosa,” or his Charles Surface in “ The School for Scandal.” In all these he was simply inimitable, and we are not likely soon again to see his equal as a humorous, finshed, and scholarly actor, while his kindly and genial disposition, large experience, and great conversational powers rendered him a universal favourite. No man has as yet done so much to raise the character of the colonial stage, and no man will be more genuinely missed or sincerely lamented in dramatic circles than William Hoskins.