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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4166, 28 July 1874, Page 2

The intelligence by the Tararua is not a little interesting. Though compressed into a few days its items have more interest than the news of weeks past. Chicago, it would appear, is —even beyond Auckland—the city of fires. Another conflagration, is reported as having occurred there, with a loss of little less than a million of pounds sterling. That, perhaps, is the only item of the American intelligence of much interest; but when we turn to Europe we find there are several that have local interest, while there are others that excite thought on broader grounds. The Eiji question, we are astonished to perceive, is by no means in the satisfactory state that people had supposed. Lord Carnarvon is by no means satisfied that Great Britain should accept the protectorate of the islands. There were, it appears, more objections made on the part of the Native authorities than the public had been made aware of. There are “ seventeen objections ” which are all but insurmountable, and these, it appears, Sir Hercules Eobinson, the Governor of New South Wales, was directed to proceed to Eiji to explain. This .selection, coupled with the fact that the Imperial authorities were under the impression that the Australian Colonies were sufficiently advanced to take care of the nearest Polynesian Islands, probably indicates that Mr. Disraeli’s Government will throw upon the Australian Colonies the future of Eiji. Mr. Weld, it appears, will be the new Governor of Tasmania, in succession to Mr. DuCane. News from Homo and abroad crowds upon the public. It was only in the middle of last week that the Hero, at Auckland, brought later news from Europe and Australia. She was followed early by the Claud Hamilton, with still later intelligence from all parts of the world. Then came the Otago from Melbourne (with news via Suez), and the Cyphreues, from San Eraucisco, almost simultaneously. The public had scarcely time to digest the intelligence these vessels broughtwhen the Tararua was announced as being off the West Coast with still later dates; and then again we learned that, through a remarkably fast transit of the En-glish-Suez mails with Galle, the s.s. Albion may bo looked for at the Bluff in a few hours. Without asking whether the ancient ship which is known to be high on the shore on the West Coast, and well preserved, is the ship of La Perrouso, orthe barque of some less distinguished but not less important mariner, we may congratulate ourselves on the frequency of our intercourse now by mail with the whole world, not as compared with the time when the great Erouch navigator was lost, but as it was even so late as fifteen year’s ago ! The Sydney Morning Herald of the Bth inst. contains a report that will be read with interest by all persons who wish to see the South Sea Island trade brought to the ports of New Zealand. From this it would appear that a number of influential merchants and shipowners in Sydney had held a meeting to consider the desirability of presenting a petition to the Imperial Government for the repeal of certain clauses in the Kidnapping Act that had the effect of closing what had been a valuable trade to Sydney for the last forty years. The clauses complained of only allow Natives, who are necessary as divers in pearlfishing, to be carried other than as passengers, although they had been hired at their own wish. They, it was explained, wore also indispensable in a beche-do-mer trade. “The Act,” said the merchants, “had been framed in ignorance, to prevent an illegitimate trade, but it had also closed one that was desirable to both parties to the contracts.” Five or six vessels wore instanced as having been seized, condemned and sold, to the loss of the owners and of the natives on board, to whom wages were due. Of the trade, Mr. A. Stuart said it had of “ late years risen to very expansive proportions, and it was of very great importance to the port of Sydney. It employed a large number of vessels, a large amount of capital, and many of their seafaring men; and beyond alljthat, it gave employmeut([to many

hundreds and even thousands, of natives of the South Sea Islands. It was a trade that had been fairly remunerative to those engaged in it, and it had added very much to the x-evenue of the port of Sydney, both directly and indirectly. This was a trade that it was well worth the while of any Government cultivating, and certainly one that ought not to be recklessly destroyed.” He said also, that “he had been told by a gentleman who had recently arrived from Honolulu that this branch of trade had now become a very large part of the trade of that port—the traders there are now carrying on that very trade which Sydney has carried on for more than forty years. It therefore behoved them to stand up and endeavor to get such alterations in the law as would bring back the trade which was now being taken away from Sydney.” It may “point a moral," at the present moment, if we mention, on the authority of Sir Robert Anstruther, in the House of Commons, that the efforts of the ForbesMackenzie cum Duncan McLaren party in Scotland, to promote temperance by force of law, have proved a most utter failure. The Act, from its stringency, became inoperative. He confessed that after the passing of the Prohibitory Act referred to, the consumption of spirits in Scotland “ had increased to an alarming extent.” The desire to impose a parliamentary restriction upon it, however, still seemed to rest in some minds, and therefore the baronet proposed a Bill to provide that only one licensed house should be allowed for every seven hundred of the population. In Scotland grocers can now sell very limited quantities—as small even as “a morning”— across the counter, hut the new Bill proposed that they should not he able to sell less than a quart. The debate on this Bill was not favorable, and it was followed by a measure under which it was proposed to introduce the Gothenburg system, under which a community could buy up the business of any obnoxious hotel or spirit-dealer, and carry on the business at the risk, and for the profit or loss, of the inhabitants generally. Both measures, it would appear, met with disfavor, and are not likely to be heard of more. So mote it he. Those who remember the hot and piping times of the “Disruption ” in Scotland, and who adhered to the traditions of the country—the “new” against the “auld” lights—will not be a little surprised to hear that the Duke of Richmond has headed a movement for the abolition of Church Patronage in “ the North countrie’,” and that he has received the support of not a few noblemen and gentlemen who would have been found on the other side when Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Guthrie and Dr. Gumming were joined in the Pree-Church cause. On the 18th May, in the House of Lords, the Duke of Richmond called attention to the state of Church Patronage in Scotland, and moved the first reading of a Bill which, he was convinced, would have the effect of extending the usefulness of the Church of Scotland, and increasing its hold on the affections of the people. The Bill, which he should ask the House to read a first time, he said was a short one, having for its object the abolition of all Church Patronage from the Crown downwards, and the creation of a constituency by whom the minister of a congregation might be selected. Lord Rosslyn, Lord Dalhousie, and the Duke of Buccleuch agreed with the motion, and after some further discussion on the subject, the Bill was read a first time. On the second reading the measure was defeated ; the more’s the pity, for it was in accordance with the spirit of the times. The Torres Strait and Queensland mail service is likely soon to be even more of a reality than it now is. The service hitherto has been performed by hired ships, good of their kind and tolerably fortunate, but these will quickly he superceded by vessels of a high class, specially built for the Torres Strait service. The first of these has been launched on the Clyde, and named the Somerset, and she was expected to leave London in the latter part of June, to commence the regular service. She would be followed by the launch, at dates a month apart, of three sister ships—the Brisbane, Singapore, and Sydney.