NEWS OF THE WEEK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 128, 15 October 1875, Page 11

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

The entertainment in aid of the Library Fund of the Juvenile Contingent, H.A.C.8.5., will be held on Thursday evening next in the schoolroom. Mr. Cbas. Sykes will preside at the piano, and we hope to see a crowded house. The " unemployed" of Dunedin, in public meeting assembled have resolved to send a petition to the Dunedin M.H.R.'s, asking them to use their influence to stop immigration from Great Britain. Tongabieo has recently been very active, which has caused some speculation in scientific circles. The 'Post' assigns two plausible theories, one a determination that Iceland shall'not outdo New Zealand in the matter of eruptions, and the other that the Maori giant being a strong smti-Provincifilist, and disgusted at the dilatory action of Parliament in re abolition, is determined to take the matter into his own hands. But miglit not the hypothesis be hazarded that with land jobbings, miners' rights' swindling, Hall's mail service, and banking disclosures, his bowels are troubled for the future of the country. The theory we advance is, we submit deserving of more weight than the other two, and we believe' will be accepted by our politicians. ' It appeared during the late criminal sessions, that most of the Chinese in Otago are Buddhists, and believe in the transmigration of souls. ° In Herbert v. the Otago Waste Ltmds Board, in -which the defendants moved to dissolve an ex parte inj unction restraining defendants from dealing with certain deferred payment lands on the Heriot Hundreds, His Honor Mr. Justice Williams has given judgment. His Honor was "clearly" of opinion "that the plaintiff had°no equity to come to this Court for an injunction, and that the injunction must be dissolved." So ends the ca,se, the motion for attachment in which caused so much excitement, and under which Messrs Reid Clark and Bastings were to be " committed to the common gaol."' However, if it is any consolation, as martyrs these gentlemen will doubtless bear "keeping " till some future time. Good men are rare and we must preserve our land law reformers. ' His Honor the Superintendent of Ofcago is to be entertained at a banquet on his return from Wellington. At a meeting, at which the banquet was resolved on, it was agreed unanimously, " That while we admire Mr. Macandrew as a public man, we especially approve of his late action in relation to the Abolition Bill." It is the intention of a dozen of Auckland's best chess-players to take advantage of the Government offer of the free use of the wires after the session to challenge a dozen of the Dunedin players to a chess tournament by wire. Sir George Bowen's " blowin' " tour is about drawing to a close. He leaves for his own dominion on December Bth next Once move Victoria's proud vice-regal halls will rasound to flowing words of sunny Greece, varied with egotistical gush of " Whnt T <:«>w mmy travels. Sir Julius Vogel— we don't know if there is anything in the coincidence— is to return with him, and the same shm which brings to sorrowing Victoria its lost governor will bring to equally sorrowing New Zealand its once icloliserl financier. TnE chief political event of the week has been the evidence of Mr. Bridges, now of the National and formerly of the Bank of New Zealand, before the Public Accounts Committee. Mr. Bridges declared it to be his opinion that by some corrupt means the Govorn- ' ment had been induced to give more for the Port Chalmers railway line than it was worth, and refused to be more specific unless indemnified. Subsequently, before the house, Mr. Bridges made a retractation, in which he said that he had since found his statements had been made on erroneous and insufficient grounds. This, however, was not considered satisfactory, and the matter i 8 to be pushed, or 'at all events is to be apparently p.ished further. We shall see. The 'Guardian' has numerous sub-leaders, verbose in dull prose, intermixed with stale poetical quotations, " lugged " in anyhow. These sub-leaders arc almost as flat, fearful, ancf wonderful as" . those in the ' Daily Times ' on municipal topics. While members of the Dunedin Harbor Board are agitatin* for . honorariums, Rattray street wharf remains unlighted, and passengers 1 arriving after dark run imminent risk of having limbs broken or being drowned. Surely this state of things should not be allowed to exist unremedied. Messrs Robin & Co., of the Octagon, have lately built a splendid landau for a Dunedin gentleman. It is much admired, and, with the increase of wealth in the country and the spirit of social rivalry, will no doubt lead to others being built. As a work of entirely colonial industry it is deserving of high praise. Certain Green Island colliery proprietors, taking example apparently from the Harbor Board and the ballastmen, have waited on the Deputy Superintendent, urging that the sliding scale according to which coals are conveyed long distances be altered to a rate to be°the same per mile over any number of miles. They wore afraid, it was very evident, of competition from the " Real Mackay " and Kaitano-ata. His Honor plainly told them he thought the Government would'not agree to their request.