The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER' 5, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 157, 5 September 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER' 5, 1866.

The Argus of the 2£th ult.,;,reports of the Melbourne -markets — Sales of breadstuff's . .. are effected at full prices-, ,• Harfc ? s Adelaide flour:has fetched £16 55., Port Macdonnell wheat 75., and Chilian 6.5. 1 Sales of maize have "been effected at prices varying from 4s. 9d. tb 4s. lid., and Victorian bran at is. 6d. In sugars rations are reported up to £26 to £27. Ordinary low congous -is. 2d. and low common ls. 4d. Malt 9si 3d. Bass's ale, No. 3, £7. Artillery Breweiy's bulk stoutj £7 to £7 os. .Bottled . stout, 10. 6d. Ports, 55.. 9d. ..Kerosine has fallen ls. per gallon, aud quicksilver, 3d. per lb. • Tea, tobacco, wines, and spirits have participated in the general depression. A meeting of. -the. members of ..the Young Men's Christian Association was held in the Wesleyan : 'School-room, Hardy-street, last evening, the Rey. J. Davis in the chair. The object -of the meeting was -to consider . the propriety of erecting new rooms, the rooms where the society met .having -been -de-. i stroyed by the late fire. It. appeared desirable to the meeting to erect a new. -buildiug without any. unnecessary delay, and it was shown that, means would be forthcoming from subscriptions and other sources for the purpose. The greatest unanimity prevailed as to the importance of increasing the efficiency of the association, whose operations have been temporarily suspended by the late calamitous fire. 1 ; ..;.;.. The Auckland. Herald, September- 1, .has an account of^.-fire... which; took place the previous -Tuesday,- and destroyed. ..eight .lead-., ing business premises, involving ■ a loss of £20.000, only £12,000 of wliich is covered by insurances.;. The Panama Star has the following notification : — We find that Australians .are in considerable confusion about the, value of different coins in Panama, so they will, do well to study the. following table, the. sovereign as a basis : — An English sovereign, worth five dollars ; English silver, worth twenty per cent, less ; American gold, four to four-and-a-half per cent more ; American silver, one per cent., more ; Mexican dollars, two. per cent, more j Mexican ounces, sixteen dollars twenty cents; French five francs silver, oue dollar ; French twenty francs, gold, four dollars ; Spanish ounces, sixteen dollars, forty cents ; Spanish dollars, two per cent, premium ; Half and a quarter dollars, par. English, French, and American gold is the best to bring here. : We (Auckland Herald) have to record a very distressing occurrence in the family of an old and highly esteemed fellow-colonist now absent in Canada — we mean Dr. Stratford. His daughter-in-law, . a young lady highly respected, committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity. The unfortunate lady had only recently been confined, and was suffering from paroxysms of puerpural mania. Two deaths of awful suddenness have also occurred during the week. A person named. Chas.. Phillips, an., .01d,58,th man, dropped dead in. the Karangahape road on Monday last.. Qn. the following day a Mr. John Norman Campbell, surveyor, drop- , ped dead, in, the bar of the hotel at which, he was staying. Inquests .*. have been held, and the" verdict' in .. each case was ''Died bythe | ~ visitation of God." *;' i The Victorian Immigration Board have been inquiring into a' charge jagainst one of the officers of the ,ship Golden Empire,, of the ; Black Ball line. /.The charge is similrr to ; that brought, against the P^lm'-Tree, biit of a • mucli more serious nature.* No action will •be laken in the ~ matter " r uutiL the evidence 0 adduced before-the board -lias -b^eri laid before the hon/ the Commissioner of Customs- for his opinion. '' - '" "'"Jj__, . ' 1 i The Independent says ":*-^No despatches of ~ - any great importance have been received by .. His Excellency from/England- by-.'thevpre- '• sent mail.--- Theiiremainderofthe-islf-millioh^ ban has been taken up at 91.

;' Messrs. KennSrd and Co£, of Londqn.l have^ contracted to make, and erect the Wangtfnuv '(iron)'bridgftf<Db : £l9,l27. "'"' ~ vV The Jewish- Synagogue at Hokitika is being ! rapidly, proceeded w course of a week or, two will make, .another ha'hdsome addition to the- ecclesiastical structures of, Hokitika. .Very great .credit, is_due. to the members, of, the Hebrew faith _for the ..spirit and liberality they hare displayed in providing, themselves with an appropriate place of worship. :..'"' ■ The ; G. R. Argus reports the clever ture of a highwayman. A miner was walking along the edge of the scrub just beyond the reach of the surf on the .beach. , . When about a mile below the /Ballarat Hotel, two* men rushed out and demanded his money-. He called out for his, mate, who was not, far off, and although only a small man He tripped up one of his assailants and managed to hold him until his mate, .came up, when they pinioned him hand and foot and brought him to the camp. The other robber took -to his heels, .and.has.jno.t . been since heard of, although the .police hope to arrest him. The prisoner, whose 1 name is. J. M'Gee, was brought, up before the Bench; but at the request of the police, was remanded,., In reference to the Kanieri Tramway Company the Times remarks, £4,000 is the nominal, capital pf ( the company, of whiqh £I,OOQ has been paid u p.in shams, and the' 'greatest part of .it expended. The first, mile of way cost £900 ; the second is estimated at £600 ; but . Tthisj "third/'will , be' more expensive, >& several bridges, must/ be jiwilt, and parts, of the line will entail heavy cuttings -At. each end &., terminus will be established, and we have no doubt but that the Hokitika and Kanieri tramway will prove a very.- pay-., able speculation indeed. One considerable source of revenue will be derived from ballasting ships, which can be done at 2s. per ton, and a handsome profit secured. The W. C. T. of the 3rd says, last Tuesday evening a tea meetiug was held at the,Wesleyan Chapel, Tancred street, its object being * to clear off a debt incurred in erecting a parsonage. Since the, Wesleyans,. first congregated for religious purposes in. .this town, between £800. and £900 has been paid into the building fund by them, and their present neat little place of worship and the minister's residence are the result of this very, liberal contribution. It, however,, failed to quite cover the cost of both buildings, and a tea meeting was decided upon as a means whereby the outstanding balance against the committee might be liquidated. . . This amounted to £150, but the proceeds of the meeting, we are happy to say, reduced that sum to £60, and it is proposed by the ladies of the congregation to hold a fancy bazaar, to free the committee from the. remaining. liability. .... , The report of the sergeant in charge at Rosstown, Totara, states that -four large water races have been lately completed in the district, and the greatest activity prevails amongst the miners there. The town is still extending. Wages for hired men are quoted at from £5 to £6 weekly. . The Hokitika correspondent of the Melbourne Leader thus describes the mining - community on the. West Coast -r— As may be s'upposed, where mining is the industry ou whi ch its prosperity depends,- the same * charac ter istics that Victoria presented some years ago are reproduced here, though in .a. greatly modified degree.. The . lucky digger still "shouts" for whole companies, he still gets locked up at .times with hundreds, of pounds in his pockets, .he Js.. still. .as... amatory. as_of yore, and he -generally manages to. muddle away his hard-earned gains in as. unsatis-factory-a way as ever.* But the.days^of skittle;champa'gne.are pastj our newly elected members, $o/not ; bestride ch^rgier^ sandwiches are not • now . fashioned ; with £5 notes, and wholesale "knocking down a pile'' is rare..,. Whether ..'tlie more chilly^cqast of New Zealand as/c^^ •^ith/th'e^i'ident sjuns of Victoria^occasions ,tlus_ma*i^.-ti<>n,. or whether diggers like other* people, livo and ' learn, and gro^v, .in soihe. .tfe^sure-;at. f l|Ba&t,--Tj-iser as'they j_|rbw older, it^s^fpr^ippie'iiag'e persons than nryseJt.tQutell^^b'ut;. certainly a "' change, and a change for-vthe- better,, is servable amongst the mining class, and the

1. * . ' '.. '" **•***—** " ***g= orgies th_t ih yeats 1 gone by were* -the most inevitable - accompaniments of .successful, mining" enterprise are comparatively speak-'; ing unknown. Since the 16th August, says the Times, a period of a fortnight, the amount of gold cleared at the port of Hokitika to the present date has been 1 1,000 ozs. This is exclusive ofgold shipped from the Grey, and also exclusive of that waiting clearance to-day for the Gothenburg, which amounts we ' believe to a large quantity. It appears from the General Government Gazette that during the quarter ended June 30th, 1866, Dunedin exported, within the limits of the time covered bythe return, a grand total of 45,000 ozs., of "the"' value of £174,406; whilst the exports from the West Coast, for . the same period, of gold the produce of the gold-fields of Canterbuiy, amounted to 103,883 ozs., of the value of £402,856— exclusive of 30,130 ozs., of the value of £116,754 cleared from Greymouth, the produce of the Province of Nelson. The port of Hokitika alone exported for the quarter, nearly double the quantity shipped from the Province of Otago, the' comparative figures being Hokitika 83,400 ozs., Dunedin 45,008 ozs. The Taranaki Herald, Sept. 1, grumbles as follows : — The Panama mail arrived in the Rangatira yesterday, just six days after its arrival at Wellington. Truly, a well conducted mail service is a great blessing ! The Gothenburg left. Melbourne on the 25th ult., and arrived at Hokitika on the Ist inst. The Otago left the same port on the 28th, reaching Hokitika on the 2nd. Both ships brought a. great number of passengers for the West Coast. In Victoria the elections for the Upper House are just going to commence. Last year the deposits in the. Melbourne Banks were £8,163,245. This year they are £8,799,962. As this amount is exclusive of the sums deposited with the Melbourne BankLg Companies and the various Savings' Banks, the total amount of the deposits may be estimated as considerably over ten millions sterling. It appears from the latest accounts that New South Wales is in a state of suspended animation pending the Treasurer's financial statemetit; South Australia continues to be a marvel of prosperity, and yet her yeomen farmers are now flocking in large numbers to secure homesteads in Victoria. Queensland is still in the agonies of her politico-financial crisis. In Tasmania the Government are attempting to abolish all customs duties except those on wines, spirits, and tobacco, and substitute an income or property tax of 5^ per cent. The Government will most likely be defeated. In Queensland the Herbert Ministry has been succeeded by one of which Mr. Arthur Macalister is chief. A petition has been signed by 3000 persons, for the recal of the Governor, Sir George Bowen. Gipps' land is proving a copper Eldorado. The Thomson River mine is said to be yielding 1,000 tons per month. The ore has to be sent to South Australia for smelting, in the absence of suitable furnaces and machinery. In Melbourne an investigation has been held on the conduct of the officers of the immigrant ship Palm Tree ; some of whom have been fined for improper familiarity with the female passengers. The Victoria police recently seai*ched the Chinese . on board the Joshua Bates, to discover the authors' of a' robbery of gold and jewels at Ballarat. The Chinese got up a riot. Most of the rioters were in possession of bags of so Weighs. aiid gold dust, one h&ving no less than 2,000 ozs. gleaned from the outer barbarians of Victoria. The Governments of Victoria, and New South Wales are still at variance. respecting the border customs 'duties, a source of discontent and heart-burning to, the people on both : sides ofthe Murray; Each. Goyernment complains that the difficulty of an amicable adjustment proceeds froin. its neighbor and not '■ from itself.. „,,7 7" Sixtcen;4eathsifroin measles were recently registered "in- one* day-at -Baliarat-rr-a^circum-stance-quite m fthe vital sta--.-;

! The Mtb-'Be^iment^th^'h^a^uarteisof I which .are,.webelieye,-statipnedjat W'anganui, .. are. under/orders to lea vei New Zealand.7 7 The Geelong Advertiser says .:******~The Vic- •. torian Lime and Cement .Company ..have esr tablished a new industry, in' the shape of filters, chiselled out of a species of limestone,- ----! called the dripping stone. - A religious revival is now going oh atCampbell's Creek, Victoria/ connected with the branch of the Wesleyan Church established there. The Mi A. Mail says : — Since the days of Savonarola there has not been such a display of religious zeal. Persons of , all ages have been caught up by the prevail- ,■ ing influence. The Queenslander says that Mr. Van Delden, president of the Batayian Chamber of Commerce, h^y written to- -them on the subject of telegraphic communication with England. He says that the Netherlands Government is not likely to spend any money in connecting the island of Java and Macassar and Macassar and Timor, by submarine cable, after the failure of the Singapore line ; and that he believes that any endeavor to lay a cable between the islands referred to would prove a failure. He thinks the best way would be to run a line of steamers from Banyu Wangi, in the Bali Straits, on the south-east end of the island bf Java, to the northern coast of Australia, and run a telegraph line across the continent. By this means Mr. Van Delden considers we should come within 12 days bf England. At the Sydney criminal sessions, Aug. 20, the Barwon robbery case was brought on. Margaret Daniels, the . stewardess, was discharged for want of evidence against her; and Smith was found guilty. He was remanded for sentence until next sessions. At Brisbane on the 21st ult., the Wild Scotchman, the -bushranger, was . placed on his trial for highway robbery under arms, and was found not guilty. He was, however, remanded on other charges. At Adelaide on the 18th nit., Wildman, the absconding secretary to the lands department, was brought up at the police, court charged with embezzlement of Government moneys, and remanded for a week. The M. A. Mail, Victorian paper, states that, on Tuesday evening, just after sundown, a brilliant meteor was observed travelling the heavens in the direction of east and west. Ifc was visible for about half an hour, was large in size, and somewhat resembled a rainbow in variety and beauty of coloring. A horrible rumor reaches us from Daylesford, Victoria — the scene of so many revolting tragedies, that it seems to have become the natural source of ghastly details. It has been stated there, as a matter of fact, that the husband of Margaret Graham, so barbarously, and mysteriously murdered about a year ago, has just died at: Ballarat, having previously confessed that he was himself the perpetrator of the crime. The camels imported by Mr. Elder in. South Australia, are answering admirably for the carriage of wool from the Far North to Port Augusta. Judge Boothby's defence went home by the last mail. He refused to send it through the South Australian Government, whom he describes as his prosecutors. The Bertrand and Kinder affair has again come forward. The Attorney-General has.obtained leave froni thei Privy Council at *i home to appeal against the decision of Sydney "'j judges setting aside the conviction of Bertrand for the murder, of Mr Kinder. His discharge has been refused. It is said that Mrs Kinder and her other paramour (Jackson) have returned to Sydney, Mrs Kinder has recently been living with her father in Hokitika, where she was. barmaid at an hotel. On the 24th. August from 9,000 to 11,000 bushels of wheat were sold in Sydney' at ss. lid, ' - _■■...,•••*. ' - Postal regulations have been issued in j Victoria -under wliich letters arid '.packets can be con veyeii ito the United Kingdom or -any; portion of America by ; the Panama mail route. _ , - : ' Mr. 'Sullivan, M.L.A., late Minister of iMines, proceeds to Panama by the next mail steamer from Sydney, pn>a sbqr.t . : yisit'td tlie .fc^mus of-Dar'ien. ; 7.