THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2133, 4 November 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1875.

The City of Melbourne with the 'Frisco mail arrived in. Auckland this morning, three days before contract time. The news by this opportunity, although principally anticipated by cablegrams via Australia, is not uninteresting. It will be found in our telegraphic columns. The 'Frisco route is evidently coming into favor as a passenger line, the City of Melbourne bringing aboufc 90 passengers, though leaving San Francisco only two days after the Tasco de Gama, the first boat under the new contract, which has 70 passengers on board. If the boats of the new line keep up the reputation for speed and punctuality gained by the A.S.N. Company's steamers during their temporary performance of the mail service, there will be little to complain about. In fact the extra £5000 a year agreed to be given to the company, but disallowed by the House, would be well spent if it would secure the delivery of the mails two'or three days before contract time each menth. -

"With European and American mails arriving in Auckland this morning, and the prospect of the Thames portion not being delivered until Saturday, it is not to be wondered at thafc people indulged in a growl to-day. We seem to be singularly unfortunate in' this respect, and what makes the matter infinitely worse ihere is no one on whom the vials of our wrath can be poured out. It is no use blaming the steam boat owners because jbbey do not have a steamer ready to bring us a mail as soon as it arrives. It is quite a common occurrence to have to wait 48 hours for the delivery of a Southern mail, but it is not often the steamer's time table is so arranged that we have no boat down from Auckland from /Wednesday until Saturday, but this it appears is what we have to expect this week. Owing to the gale blowing in Auckland, the Enterprise could not leave last night, and now it is stated she Trill mis.s one trip, leaving for the Thames to-morrow night. The Hauraki does not make a trip to-morrow, iso, as above stated, there is no probability of our getting the mail delivered down here until Saturday—a delightful stale of things for a district like this, within forty or fifty miles of the capital. If the Post Office people would charter a smart cutter she might anticipate the ordinary means .of communication by at' least twenty-four hours. We need not expect any such an exhibition of forethought, however; and must content ourselves ■with the reflection that under the circumstances we shall probably get our portion of the mail a day before it i 3 due, but three days after its actual arrival.

A decision given by Mr Bathgate, R. M., at Dunedin, has caused "some stir among the . grocers with bottle licenses." The decision was to,.the effect that a grocer could • not recover, for spirits sold on credit, and so the R. M. takes upon himself in the most arbitrary manner to strike off £5 19a from. an account for which a grocer sued one of his customers in the Resident Magistrate's Court. The decision,' or rather the rule laid down by this decision; appears most incompreheiisible. We have a grocer who in ad4itioa to hjs ordinary businws chooses to

to add to it that of a wine merchant on a small scale, and, as is frequently the case, sells to his customers single bottles of wine or spirits, or larger quantities if they bo wish it. For this purpose lie takes . out a license to retail spirits by t|e bottle, and retails them accordingly to some of.| his customers in conjunction with other articles, on credit. His customer appearing to him to be lax in payment, he sues him for the total debt, and the magistrate decides that he must lose £6 less one shilling because he could not recover for spirits sold on. credit. Now we should very much like to know on what grounds Mr Batbgata based this decision. There is, as far as we are aware, nothing whatever in the license permitting grocers to retail spirits which declares that they shall or shall not take immediate payment for them. The whole appears to have originated in the head of tne K.M., who chose to say they could not do what the law had not said they could not do, i.e., give credit to their customers and recover for the same. It is manifestly a very dangerous precedent, too dangerous to pass unchallenged. Perhaps Mr Bathgate will take it into his head to declare that a tobacconist cannot recQTer_ ; for tobacco, or that tea, coffee, and snuff may be consumed but not paid for. If he has the right to defraud a tradesman in one case, we suppose he has in another also. The decision certainly demands the closest investigation, and the law bearing on the point the clearest, explanation.