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Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 159, 26 November 1872, Page 5

T .velve hundred and fifty Communist prisoners nave arrived in New Caledonia. D aring the recent race meeting in Melbourne, the amount paid in stakes was £7201, and the receipts amounted to nearly L.GOOl). A strong feeling of ant'g ni-m exists between the Governments of Sydney and Melbourne regarding the Border duties, and a settlement of the question is further oft’ than ever. Sir George Bowen is to leave for Victoria in March. Sir James Fcrgusson, our new Governor, wiil enter upon Ids duties in New Zealand in the same month, and in the interval will visit England. He is described as a painstaking, hard working man. The celebrated London comic singer, Mr Harry Rickards, who is styled “ the greatest comic singer in the world,” is in Dunedin The 1 'imes thus speaks of him His style of singing is not quite now to Dunedin, as we have had two or three comic vocalists hero of the same species. He is, however, much superior to any of his predecessors. His makeup is excellent; he is a master of the pantomimic art; with a single grotesque glance he can almost convulse his audience with laughter and he possesses a rich, powerful voice which he uses most skilfully. His abilities as actor and vocalist were very well displayed in some “Musical Illustrations,” in the course of which he hits oft’ in succession the peculiarities of tenor, serio-comic, London comique, and baritone singers, winding up with a burlesque imitation of those dreadful “negro delineators,” who torment the audiences at nearly every amateur enter tainment. Mr ilickards, however, was not so successful with all his songs. The silly “ descriptive song” styled “ I ‘like to mind the baby” was almost unbearable, while “The Bold Fisherman” was a flat contradiction to those of Mr Rickards’s critics who assert that nis singing is perfectly free from the taint I of vulgarity snpnnseb to b<> characteristic of I the modem immdrni mm;c vocalist.