The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. F»IDAY, JULY 10, 1874.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1722, 10 July 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. F»IDAY, JULY 10, 1874.

■.;•' Th% Rev. H. M. Kennedy, who has been appointed to the pastorate of Patea in the Province of Taranaki, whither he is about to proceed very shortly, is expected to. officiate at.St. George's Church on Sunday, both morning and evening. '"Wi have received from Mr. J. H. Jefferson a copy of the Australasian of the 27th June. At a supplement is published a sheet: of portraits of members of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria, 1874, and we can vouch for some of the portraits being speaking licenses. Ok Wednesday evening, the Bth instant, . the Court Pride of Parnell pre»ented their usual quarterly balance sheet. The auditors reported that a sum of £88 17s 6d, had been , added to the funds during the past qu&rter, and that the total worth of the funds to date was £889 15s 4d. The report congratulated the. members on the good financial position of the Court. A. TBAYBIiHtB state s that walking along the beach the other day, he heard a woman calling out most lustily for Mary Jane to come home to her music lesson. Now Mary Jana happened at the limo to bo engaged in an evidently more congenial pursuit, the young lady being up to her knees in mud, gathering coal, or in cockney parlance, mud-larking ; from the arrangement of lu-r dress shegeemed to despiue appearancrs, and the deaf ear she turned to the muternal shouting, showed that Mary Jane ,did not think much of the musio leuon either.

We understand 'Jiat tho housj> of Mrs. Perritt—relict of tbo uiiforturate yeifng man whose late inelaoclioly death evoked bo much Bympnthy—will be raffled, for at the Naval Drill-shed' on tho 18th instant. . Xiiats were distributed amongst members of the Naval Brigade last night, and already a number of persons have entered their names. The subscription is 2a 6d, the number of members to be unlimited. • *-' '

The Siamese and Asiatic Troupe are to give an afternoon performance at the Academy of Music to-morrow for the. benefit of good little boys a«d girls -who go to bed early in the evening. We can promise one thing, that the entertainment is one the little folks will enjoy nearly, if not quite as much at they did the performances of the Combination troupe—providing the liberality of parents and guardians and others enable them to be present. '

DT7MNG the business at the Borough Council meeting last night the subject of regulations for licensing cabs and coaches came en for consideration. A benevolent councillor suggested a reduction in the fees on " poor cabby." Another councillor (not mercenary) was under the impression that cabby drove a thriving business: he gleaned this from observations made on the Borough Highway. Another councillor (facetioutly disposed) thought/the, cabby might drive a thriving business, but he was prepared to maintain that he didn't drive a thriving horse. He (the fecetiouß Cr.) would like a ride on a shingle-hammer or a crost-cut saw much better.

One very striking instance of the value of Resident Magistrates' ]aw, when tested by Appeal, has recently occurred. Within the last three months, thr«e Resident Magistrates, those of Wanganui, Wellington, and Ahaura, decided that tolls could not, under the authority of a ProTincial Act, be levied on vehicles carrying Her Majesty's mails, even though they also conveyed passengers. The plaintiff in the Ahaura case appealed, and Judge Richmond, in an elaborate judgement, has reversed the decision of the Court below, and sent the case back to the Resident Magistrate to have judgment entered for the tolls sued for. His Honor Judge Richmond absolutely refuged to attach the slightest importance to the idea that vehicles carrying mailß were exempt from toll as being on Her Majesty's servioe, and said that the exemption of the Sovereiga from all tolls was simply a personal one, which would also probably extend to those who were in actual attendance on the Monarch when travelling. His Honor further said that he knew of no authority which could be quoted in support of the exemption claimed. Now, if Judge Richmond knew of no such authority, how was it that the three Magistrates took upon themselves the responsibility of overriding provincial ordinances and practically deciding that they were ultra vires 1 If these gentlemen had been content to administer the law as they found it, they would have done their duty, but they intended no doubt to show their independence and knowledge, while they really exposed their ignorance and folly, by deciding that the Provincial Legislatures had. authorised, and the Provincial Governments were trying to enforce, tolls which were contrary to law. This case is a very instructive one, for like the glass carried by the apparition which appeared to Macbeth, it •• shows many more." —N. Z. Herald.