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Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 514, 22 December 1877, Page 2

A paper erroneously entitled Truth says : —"Sir Hercules Robinson, G.C.M.G., will return Home from Sydney early next year, and report names Lord Normanby, at present iu New Zealand, as his probable successor in the Governorship of New South Wales. The appointment would meet with much approval, for Lord Normanby has fully earned the confidence of the Colonial Office, and his popularity in New Zealand is beyond question." We are pleased that Sir Hercules Eobinson is about to return Home, and wish him a pleasant voyage and much future happiness. We have not the honour of that gentleman's personal acquaintance; but, whether intentionally or otherwise, he is probably relieving this Colony of a great load, inasmuch as the Marquis of Nsrmanby will likely be his successor as Goven.or of New South Wales. It would not surprise us if the Governor's popularity with the Home Office secured for him the Governorship of the whole of Australasia.

The amalgamation of the Armed Constabulary and the police, like the majority of the reforms initiated by the late Government, has been a failure. The former will will now be reigned over by Colonel Lyon, in consequence of the resignation of Colonel Moule, who, we presume, is retiring into private life voluntarily in order to save the Government the trouble and unpleasantness of informing him that he was no longer required. Commissioner Weldon will be the head of the police in the Middle Island, and Commissioner Shearman will act in that capacity in tile North Island. This arrangement will be found to work much mpre satisfactorily than that which is just being abandoned.

At the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, before T. W. Parker, Esq., E.M., James Logan, alias Stuart, was fined 10s. for having been drunk and disorderly iu Thames-street yesterday afternoon. We were gratified by the perusal of "A Constant Reader's" letter ; bnt, for the sake of expediency, we have withheld from publication.

A late A'ew Zealand Gazette contains the j rules under which the next colonial prizefiring is to take place. The substance of these have already been published in our telegraphic columns. The LSOO voted by the General Assembly for prizes has been divided pro rata amongst the Volunteers in the different districts, the amount to be competed for by those in the Oamaru district is L 29 ss, of which sum L 24 is fpr adults, and Lo ss. for cadets.

A summoned meeting of Court Pride of Oamaru, A.0.F., will be held at the Oddfellows' Hall on Monday evening, at 8 o'clock. It is notified in another column that the usual weekly drills of the Artillery Volunteers will be discontinued until further notice.

Notwithstanding the heavy easterly sea which has been expending its fury against the Breakwater during the past two days, not the slightest impression has been made upon that structure, whilst the vessels which were lying under its shelter were as secure as they would have been in any other part of the world. What will the evil prephets say to this? As we have before pointed out, the Oamaru Harbor possesses one important advantage which many others lack, and that is the facility with which steamers can enter and depart in all weathers.

We would direct attention to an advertisement elsewhere, announcing the arrangement of services to be held in St, Luke's Church to-morrow, on the occasion of the Bishop's visit.

Mr. Cogvin has adopted a new role. His experience of gambling leads him to the conclusion that it is a very shocking habit, and the rattling of the "bones" is as distasteful to that gentleman as is sly-grog selling. His temperance hotel has caused him trouble, he having been charged with dispensing something stronger thau water, through which he was necessitated to unloose his purse strings to satisfy the demands of the law; and he wouldn't sell anything stronger than water for the world—not he, by Jove ! When a man loses money by the adoption of any particular system, he very naturally regards that system as his enemy. Mr. Cogvin therefoie abhors sly-grog selling and its accompaniments ; not that he ever indulged in it, but because people thought he did, and relieved him of a load of guilt by making him pay the penalty. This sufferer, like a good man that he is, actuated by true philanthropic principles, thought it not improbable that iihose who are allowed to enjoy the privileges denied to him because tbey pay for them, were given to permit gambling in their houses. The idea was repugnant to his feelings. Did they not assist in shewing him the of his ways, and lead to enabling him to make reparation, and he felt constrained to acknowledge the kindness of his benefactors by liberal donations, at the request of our worthy magistrate. He fears that others may fall into the errors which caused him so much trouble, and, in the fulness of his generosity, he employs " a friend " to arrest them in their downward career, and pays him to do it out of his own pocket—out of the money base calumny says was acquired by the very means that he deprecates in others. He may incur opprobrium ; but people can say what they please; they cannot affect his character. Like most other excellent men, he has to sijf}'er the persecutions of a wicked world. Some will, perhaps, say that he had self-interest in view when he engaged Mr. Tennant to endeavour to catch the publicans napping, but the result proves that such was not the case. Did he not sacrifice L 5 in order to secure the services of a man whose word could not for one moment be doubted. What had previous convictions to do with the question ? He may have been guilty of the paltry charges brought against him ; a man may ill-use an elderly woman, and he may make a mistake by lifting and carrying away a pitchfork that somebody else called his ; but this renders him all the more suitable for carrying out the duties likely to be required of him by Mr. Cogvin. All we have tq say against Tennant is that he has a memory so bad that it requires the cold walls of a dungeon to develop it. It would be rather awkward if it became a system to convict on the evidence of such men and their associates.

This is what the New Zealand correspondent of the Melbourne Age says : —"Now that thq goldfields are practically done, I do not think the resources of New Zealand are very large. It will always be a fine agricultural and pastoral country, but it has no minerals to speak of, aud its coal is little bet er than lignite." This is serious. We were not previously aware that the goldfields of this polony v/ere "practically done," and we suspect that it will be news to most people ; but it is a very serious matter. We are also informed that our resources are not very large. This is not quite so alarming, be' ause we presume tjhat the far-seeing correspondent of the Age meant that our resurces were not so large as those of say Great Britain or America, or some of those older countries. He is about right. Nor do we doubt his assertion that New Zealand " will always be a fine agricultural and pastoral country," but we are disappointed and grjeved to hear that that is not worth much to us, and that our coal is little better than lignite.

A writer in the Nelson Daily Times says : —" It may not be out of place to mention the gift bestowed by Mr. Larnach ou the children of St. Mary's Schools. It was not a munificent donation, but it was the first spontaneous offering of the kind given by a person in power. Governors and Superintendents have visited the schools in days gone by, smiled graciously on the children—smiles are cheap—rattled the coin in their pockets, and kept it there. It is not for the few pounds the Honourable Treasurer left behind him that he deserves thanks, but it is because he had the powe-- of making a lot of little hearts joyful, ap i he exercised it. The happiness given is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.