THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2784, 16 January 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1878.

Albert J. Allqm, Esq., Eeceiver of Goldfields Eevenue has been authorised by His Excellency the Governor to collect rents, &c-,< under the Goldfields Acts.

The s.s. Durham, being laid up for boiler cleaning, will not make her usual trips during the remainder of this week.

Me John Leydon sold by auction today a cottage the property of Mr M'Connell, held under miner's right, situated near the Queerc of the May Company, for tlie sum of £30. The cows, pi#», milk ran and other effects realised good prices.

The cutting down of the Waiotahi Creek road from its junction with Pollen street is now nearly completed, and the gradient is made much easier than it was before. This work has been carried out under the supervision of the Borough Foreman of Works, who has also marked out another section by which the Borough portion of the Creek road could be further improved, and the worst portion of the present road avoided.

His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to amalgamate the Thames Engineer Cadets with the Thames Scottish Cadets. *

The cricket match Australian Eleven against Otago Twenty-two ended in a draw. It was raining heavily at the end of the match.

The floor of the new.fire engine shed at Shortland is being covered with asphalt. The erection of this building has very much improved the accommodation for fire appliances and firemen in that portion of the Borough.

Mb W. H. Pbabce, late of the Wharf and Eoyal Mail Hotels, intimates through our advertising columns that helms Mtered upon the Commercial Hotel, Hamilton West, Waikatc, and would be glad to see any of his former patrons. From personal observation the writer can say that Mr Pearce has acquired one of the best hotel properties in the country districts of Auckland. The house has oniy been built about a year, and it waaputup regardless of cost. The arrangement of the interior is superior to many of the best hotels in .Auckland. There is a large dining room which is often made use of as an assembly room for balls, <&c, but under ordinary circumstances is divided by a moveable partition. The halls are spacious, the staircase wide and well arranged. . There are suites of rooms for families, comfortably, even luxuriously furnished, and the whole appointments of the house are first-class. The hotel is situated about a mile from the railway station, and on the direct line of Waikato traffic. Any of Mr Pearce's Thames friends paying him a visit may be informed that if they leave the Thames by a night boat, and take the first train for Waikato, they may dine in Hamilton next day. The trip is a pleasant one, and is iuexpensire. Mr Pearce is so well known as a genial host that wo need edy little more to recommend his liouse to visitors to Waikato.

The following was telegraphed to the Auckland Star from Dunedin : The Star has a stiff article oh Proud foot's case* in course of which stiwys: "From first to last there has been a mis-carriage of justice, and that gold has dipped the scale of her evenly-adjusted balance is a shameful fact, but so it would appear to be that wealthy reprobates can break the most sacred laws with impunity; the midnight ravisher cf those in his own household can walk the streets in insolence of impunity. His victim was bought off, and the forms of law prostituted to his escape. The excuses of the Crown Prosecutor did not aid the prosecution in the preliminary stage, and not insisting on the case being tried by common jury, as no light of trial by special jury was allowable in cases of felony. Dr Murphy's conduct was severely criticised, the article concluding thus : " The decision arrived at by the Cabinet was quite in accordance with the objection of those who knew the " wire-pullm " and " wire-pulled," a decision which we venture to think will invoke unpleasant notice when parliament meets; and will certainly have to be deferred, and justification attempted. This was clearly a case in which a nolle prosequi should not have been entered ; but in the interests of public morality, and in vindication of justice, another trial by a common jury with a change of venue, should have been ordered. The girl, if she has left, should be brought back. The plain fact is that in a case where evidence was so clear that no doubt was left upon the public mind ; so clear that it satisfied the committing magistrate, the grand jury, and, at the very least, fourteen out of twenty-four Dunedin special jurymen, the Crown has stepped in to save the criminal from the consequences of his guilt. It stands now on record that under our boasted free institutions, and by a Government whose watchword is the equal rights of man, it has been proved to demonstration there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. Stripes and dungeon for a Gately, and delicate handling and perfect impunity for a Proudfoot.

The New Zealand Press Wows says: Mr Montague Browne, whom our readers will recollect as the " Born Journalist," of the Corotnandel Mail, has retired from tho aub-editorinl chair of the Otago Daily Times, and is now, we understand from our "devil," chef itobosquotulam (whatever on earth that may mean) to the Soldenc Opera Troupe. His literary and mechanical brethren hare not put on sackcloth and ashes, and the business places of the city have not been closed. What can the people be thinking about, and what is tho Times doing. Surely the public do not fully realise the fact that a literary man has loft the ranks, or other-

wise Browne would certainly have had a testimonial. Alas, poor Browne ! Ungratelul public 1 O most ungrateful Eeed.