THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 1876.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2048, 28 July 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 1876.

We learn that Cap lain Eraser lias received a telegram from Mr Header Wood ■with reference to the amendments suggested in the Agricultural Leases Regulations for Ohinemuri, proposed at the conference which took place on Monday last, and which, tho Warden and Mr D. A. Tole agreed to recommend to the favourable consideration of His Honor the Superintendent. Intimaiion has now been received that the alterations suggested have been approved of by Sir George Grey, The clause providing for surveyors' fees is to

be struck out; the rent is to be reduced to one shilling per acre for the first seven years. The question of area will also be left as agreed upon, namely, that the first applications should bo restricted to fifty \ acre areas, and Tuesday, next is to be the.'. last day for receiving applications under this arrangement.. We are pleased to be able to bear testimony to the fact that all through the negotiations for bringing into operation these regulations for agricultural leases, His Honor the Superintendent and the Warden have evinced a desire to meet the wishes of the people in every way, by conceding any point that could bo suggested if it did-not interfere with, or run counter to the agreement with the natives. The terms of lease as modified, will be more generally acceptable, and if we could discern the slightest probability that lesces would be able to acquire the freeholds of their allotments within a reasonable time, and at a fair price, we should say that the amended terms of the leases, were extremely liberal. There would be abundant encouragement to settlers to engage in agricultural pursuits if they had any hope of being able to buy the land at a reasonable price when they have improved it; but as long as that hope is denied it will serve as a drag upon the industry of many. It cannot be.' expected that men will erect substantial' dwellings or enter upon improvements of a permanent character on leaseholds, especially in a now country like this, where, to the bona fide settler, good land and cheap ought always to be accessible. While regretting the peculiar position in which intending settlers are placed by the anomalous tenure under which Ohinemuri is held, we do hope that ere long the purchase of the country will be completed, and then we shall have that impetus to settlement which is, unfortunately, entirely wanting at the present juncture.

The love of what are called "International contests" seems certainly on the increase, and we learn that England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and Prussia have all expressed their-acceptance of the challenge issued by America, to take part in a contest for a challenge cup offered to all the world to be fired for in New York next year. The authorities which be also express a hope, now that they have seen what scores colonial shots are capable of making, that the Australian colonies will also be able to send representatives with a fair prospect of being able to hold their own. If they are able to do so—that is, send men —it will, whether they be successful or no, add a great stimulus to the healthy desire now so generally felt of excelling in the use of the.rifle, and, by affording tne colonists a fair means of coming to an accurate judgment of the capabilities of themselves as rifle shots, in comparison with others firing .at the same time, same place, and under the same circumstances, be an excellent test of the relative superiority or inferiority of the mother country and her children. We certainly, hopG that the " ways and means"—which would, not require so very a large sum when divided among the colonies of Australia—may be made to be forthcoming, and that a good representative team may have an opportunity, of showing to the world at large of what stuff, the younger offshoots of England are made. But as regards these international contests themselves, which now. seem of almost yearly occurrence, one cannot help being struck by the fact.that hitherto they have been almost exclusively confined to representatives of the AngloSaxon race. France, indeed, some years ago contrived to raise a small amount of interest by endeavoring to play with twenty-two against eleven cricketers of the I. Zingari; and the Belgians sent over volunteers to be fed and feted by the Rifle Association and others at Wimbledon. The chess tournament between London and Vienna can hardly be denominated ".international," neither can that in which the French giants, Dubois and Le Boeuf, wrestled against Jamieson and Wright of the North Countrie at the Agricultural Hall, as to pass ,over the grave suspicions entertained as regards the bona fide nature of the contest, the wrestling was conducted partly iv the fas'lion of one country and partly in that of another, each country winning when the wrestling was in its own style ; so that in reality all contests styled international which have created any amount of enthusiam have been those between Great Britain and those who have gone out from her. No doubt the public interest was as great, and the desire of success as keen, when Saycrs fought Hecnan as it would have been had Heenan been a Frenchman or a German instead of an Irishman; and if Green had beaten Chambers from Putnsy to Mortlake the mother country would have found it small consolation to say to the victor with the man in the play " Bless the boy, I taught him." But still the fact remains the samo, that in all athletic contests of a purely physical nature, no one of the continental or other nations have been able to enter the lists with the Anglo-Saxon or his descendants with even a hope of success; and hitherto the children have been unable to show that in any sport or pastime common to both they are any whit better than their fathers. Much has been said, especially in America, about the Old Country standing still. It has hitherto, however, kept pace not only with other countries, but with the " rapid strides " of its own offspring, and we look forward with every, hope to see it at the head of the list of the rifle competitors of 1876, followed by her children, and, at a respectful distance, by other nations of the world.