THE Otago Daily Times. “Invaniam viam aut faciam.” DUNEDIN, FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1865.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22790, 27 January 1936, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. “Invaniam viam aut faciam.” DUNEDIN, FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1865.

SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO.

There has not been a mail from Europe for some months past that has brought so little political news of a startling character as the last. Instead of that feverish restlessness among the nations of the old continent which has characterised their condition for some years past, there appears to be an anxious desire on the part of all Governments to secure for their subjects the blessings of peace. To what this change of policy is immediately owing it is impossible to say. It probably is not the result of one cause alone, but of many operating in the same direction. Last year at this time all was anxiety with regard to Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein, Poland was in a state of insurrection, and the question of peace or war, so far as England was concerned, hung in a balance. All this is changed.

. . . The startling announcement that Russia has marked the Australian Colonies as the first point of attack in case of a rupture with England loses its point, so long as no quarrel between the two nations is imminent, and although occasions of war must at some time or other inevitably arise, they will henceforth be less frequent and far more likely to be amicably arranged than before the principle of non-intervention was adopted.

The “Argus ” states that the exclusive right of publishing Mr Charles Dickens’s new work, “ Our Mutual Friend,’’ has been accorded to Messrs Wilson and Mackinnon by the author and his London publishers, Messrs Chapman and Hall. “ Maritana ’’ was charmingly given at the Princess Theatre last evening. . . .

The yield from the NevV South Wales gold fields last year, according to the “ Sydney Morning Herald,” “ fell short of that of the previous year by twenty-five per cent. At an average price of three pounds ten shillings per ounce, this represents a diminished accumulation of wealth to the extent of about L 380,000. . . The “Argus ” says:—“ It is stated by a New South Wales paper that the entire sum paid by the Government to Detective M'Glone for the capture of Gardiner was Ll 5, and that his position in the service is no higher now than it was previous to that event. When the performance of special and dangerous duties, such as the arrest of the most notorious bushranger that even New South Wales ever produced, is thus inadequately recognised, there is little inducement for what in the navy is termed ‘ zeal for the service ’ in the police force.” Yesterday afternoon, an adjourned meeting of the General Committee of the Southern Separation League was held at the Provincial Hotel, Mr W. W. Wilson in the chair. There was a full attendance of members, and several fresh names were added to the Committee. . . . The Correspondence Committee was instructed to attend to the framing of the petition to his Excellency the Governor. It was further resolved < - get up a requisition calling on the Otago members of the Assembly to give an expression of their opinion on the question of Separation, for which purpose a public meeting would be held in the Princess Theatre, on Wednesday, the Bth of February.