THE Thames Advertiser. THURSDAY, SEPT. 24, 1874.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1866, 24 September 1874, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser. THURSDAY, SEPT. 24, 1874.

Mm do ..not know r why Mr IJeeves; 'should be speciallyrhonoured'by the; Press Association, in having a resume! of his.speech telegraphed throughout the i 'colony/ but ; wV<think that a little better j discretion might in future be observed j by the agents. Mr Reeves is, no doubt, j and a fair! average member of the Assembly, but l as a Minister of the colony he was a| 'most ''lamentable failure. Hiss public; utterances may be of great interest to; the electors of the Selwyn district, and; may even be of some little interest toj the inhabitants of Canterbury, but they j are of none to the colony 'afc.Jarge. Mr; Reeves is well known to be a rabid j provincialistj.andjifgr .this,causer- jnd j not on account of his leading , {Wfts,- by the; Superintendents to move an amend-: ment to Mr ."VjogeVs tions. Bub ia this instance also he; was a failure, and quite unequal to; .the occasion. Now the "newspapers ofy the colony are asked to pay the expense: of again airing MLc Reeves', opinions on the provincial question, and are really compelled to puff himj I into prominence. Should our own member honor us with an account of his stewardship—and again we are assured that he intends to do so—we shall expect to see in the Southern papers a column of telegrams devoted to Mr O'Neill. As for the opinions of Mr Reeves, we' see nothing, new,in them. He talks wildly about the provinces being ready to "meet the I requirements" of the General Govern- ! ment if they are reasonable, by handing; over a portion of the land fund! Mr Reeves can, however, see what the abolition "of the" North Island provinces, means. He sees the land fund of th| ( South in danger; and does not fail tjt point,out ,tha(».!the abolition of the provinces m the South must ■ soon follow those of the North. We hop|i I Undoubtedly there will be great public curiosity to see the scheme of contributions for pumping Messrs Wright, Da war, and Kernick. It was not conceived, we think, by eitlier'party, l that these assessors should have entered into the whole question, and have drawn up a scheme of assess-, ment, and applied it to every claim withiri\the area drained. 1 . '-But'there is much to be said lor. the course they bavo taken 5 ' ■ Wheti^k'ed'• to ! say how' much one claim should piy s they were compelled to look about for some basis, not, .4ecide._on ,asum by chance even for one case, and'when a' basis wasioundit.wasisiinplo enough to apply it over the whole field. We believe- that much-good: may result from this reference. There was a good deal of accusation against the scheme 6f the Pumping Association, and no doubt there was much; to be said, against is.

This scheme gives them all the money they claim, only'assessing it in a differ-. enb way. We are sure that threebetter men than Messrs Wright, Dewar, and Kernick could not be got, and the public/and those interested In other claims will probably be /more ready to acquiesce in their conclusions than in the scheme of assessments drawn up by the Directors of the Pumping Association, because the latter are both claimants and assessors. Confidence is reposed in these men as being thoroughly honest and independent, and at all events no one would dream that -they had any-bias- against - the. Pumping Association. The.directors, of- the; Pumping Association 'ought; carefully to.consider. the scheme.. There, is no use in them, sticking obstinately to their own, which we "need hardly remind them has not the force of law, ;and is being opposed solely on the ground of its unfairness of assessment. Besides,, when the. Association /proceeded 'against the Waio-Karaka claims Mr. Whitaker said that the scheme contrived by him was the best he could think on, but that if anybody else could contrive,"a"better, he was quite ready to consider it. Here is a plan devised by the very best men within' 'audi great ;;weight:isientitled to be attached to it. If it is'-'a scheme which can be accepted by both sides as ; afair'solution of 'the'difficultyj it will be the means of saving many hundreds?of,pounds in law ;; expenses, and will at once put an end to .the present' vexatious litigation.;

Owing to the strong weather yesterday the steamer' Golden Crown' did not make her usual trip, and some anxiety was felt respecting the Thames mails for transmission by the 'Hero.' Our Auckland telegrams do not state whether the departure of the ' Hero' has been postponed!; but the'' "postmaster J hire' would probably have arranged for sending them for-: ward had not this been the ease.- It is to be hoped that the mails by the' Hauraki' to-day will be in time for the Australian steamer.

- Yesterday, the.: Provincial Seeretaty.visited; several of the public schools in the district. We are glad to hear that our local Choral Society his been strengthened by the formation of a band, and that the; rehearsal on Monday was well attended and very satisfactory. An advertisement appears in, our columns, inviting the 'assistance"of' several:'aaditional'"iaßtrujmentalists.'

~, The, Magnet Variety Troujie,.gaye an, enter-, taibmenfc last'night'in"tile American .Theatrei* Shortland, when there was a good house. The features of the entertainment were, the gymnastic performances, .which were'execute'd with a grace and finish by the members of the troupe that would,do.credi ( t ( to old professional acrobats The''trapeze-''performances were particularly sensational. The interludes were filled in by comic, singing, step dancing,'and negro eccentricities, was oh the whole such a one as deserved a large amount of support. The company will reappear in Shortland again to-night. "

"If will be seen from our advertising columns that the cab fares between Qrahamstown and 'Shortland are to be raised on Monday next to sixpence each way.

The Union Bank of Australia are abouHo ■erect' handsome and 7 /commodiods' (biickidpremises at the corner of Albert and Queenstreets, to replace the wooden buildings which were destroyed by fire some mouths/ago.;!,-; In addition to the banking premises, there will'be agents' residence, and a fine brick melting house in ..the rear,, fitted r with, every, convenience I '. "'ln' front ''of^ihe^'premises'?, asphalt pavement is to be laid down, and when the entire work is completed it will add greatly to the'appearance of'Gfrahamstownv; hil uvLqi -; We are told by a New England paper— "QeorgeFrancis.Train ia.understood to have been bo powerfully -i affeWed by the wish of Canon Kingsley that some American might be buried in Westminster Abbey, that he has determined^t6 ; >abandon. v .hisiprospeoti of the Presidency, never so flattering as now, and go over to London to furnish the requisite corpse, Only a great soul could be capable of such an act. ...::..-.,-....■