We have received the eighth half-yearly report and balance-sheet of the South British Fire and Marine Insurance Company, presented at the general meeting of share holders, held at the office of the Compauy, Auckland, on Monday, October 9tb. The premium receipts have been £52,778 13s 3d; interest received and accrued £3713 13s 8d; transfer fees £21 ss; which, added to £11,783 Is 6d brought forward from last half-year, make a total of £68,296 13s sd. The losses paid and outstanding have been £25,562 6a 8d: re-insurances, £8815 3a lOd. The invested funds of the company amount to £100,018 3s lOd. The balauce to credit of profit and loss account at the close of the half-year was £22,020 2s lid. The "directs have carried £12,500 of this, being equal to Gs 8d per share, to paid-up capital account, which now stands at £75,000, being £2 per share paid up, and they recommend the payment of a dividend of 2s per share, being at the rate of 10 per oent per annum ou £73,000. Our telegram last night stated that Captain W. C. Daldy and Alfred Buck land, Esq., had been elected directors. The Canterbury Press of October sth has an article on the Mew Zealand Uni versity, in the course of which it agrees with the views put forward by us (New Zea land Times) as regards the connection of grammar schools with the University. Our contemporary says : — The North Island suffers greatly from the total absence of collegiate institutions, in couneotion with the University, suoh as have been established in Otago and Canterbury. For want of anything better, it is com pelled to accept the miserable substitute afforded by the grammar schools which the University authorities have very unwisely, as we think, but, we suppose, from sheer lack of auythiug to take their place --consented to affiliate. The result is doubly mischievous. Nothing could be worse for intending students, who are thus debarred from any chance of a University training. And nothing could be worse for the cause of education. Tho influence of these schools upon the Uni versity must, from the very nature of the case, be enervating and depressing to the last degree. 