The Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXV, Issue 3752, 28 July 1869, Page 4

The Daily Southern Cross.

LUCIBO, NON URO. 1( 1 hfcTS bioa extlogutahed, yot there riia A thoaiaad beacon* from tht ip»tlr I bor«.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28.

The question of opening up Oliinemuri and the Upper Thames again is one that must cause a good deal of speculation, until it is settled finally by the accomplishment of the wishes of those who desire to have it opened to European enterprise. The past history of the efforts that have been made in this direction is a singular one. It includes as many irregular ana foolish proceedings on the part of those who should have known better as any undertaking of which we remember to have heard. No sooner had it been made evident^ that there was gold in considerable quantities in the Shortland district than there was at onoe a cry raised to prospect the Upper Thames and see what was to fee found there. Of course there was no lack of intelligence as to the merits of the new field. Everybody know somebody who had prospeoted it, and could " lay them on" to something surprisingly good. To judge by the tales current as to the amount of information in the hands of the mining public about the gold in the Upper Thames, it was almost impossible to doubt that a large mining population had been at work, testing the merits of the new field, for at least six weeks. When pressed, no doubt, the believers in the wealth of Ohinemuri would profess that the work was done in the most secret manner by a few stealthy diggers who prospected the district under the noses but

without the knowledge of the natives. By ' means of stories like these, and even more unlikely, a good deal of excitement has been got up more than once about the opening of ( the tipper Thames. Deputations of the | wildest character have vied with the Native Commissioner in their efforts to move the obdurate heart of old Te Hira or of his sister or aunt, whichever relative the voluble lady who haa undertaken to represent the old chief on several occasioas. But although for months lingering on the very verge of a grand solution of '■■he difficulty, we never got any nearer to the opening of Ohinemuri. Hundreds, if not thousands, of miners who waited in an eager state of expectation for the opening of the upper country a year ago, and neglected for the time the work necessary to develop the lower country, giadually ceased to expect, and went to work with a will, preferring to try their luck amongst the quartz reefs of Shortlancl that were accessible, to waiting and sighing for the alluvial iields of the Upper Thames, which might perhaps exist, but which were clearly out of reach. And now after a year's work, during which many who were eager to seek their fortune on new fields have been able to find fortune on the field that lay ready to their hand, the prospect of opening up the upper country is revived. It is said that now there is every prospect of the thing being done, and not simply talked about. And although we are not so sanguine as this, we think there is a reasonable prospect of negotiations soon assuming a more definite shape, and actually leading to something. That there will and must be a very great deal of talking about the matter before it is done, any oue who knows anything of Maoiis must know. There must be koreros with this chief and that chief's relations, there must be proposals and counter-proposals, spiced with the usual amount of arrogance and loud talking on the part of the natives ; but in the end we think there may be success. We do not form a hopeful view of the case merely on the faith of reports as to the changed state of feeling amongst tho owners ; reports of this kind are easily set on foot, and very readily passed from hand to hand, gaining certainty and strength as they go. To make any of these reports worth attention, it requires that we should have some independent reason for thinking them probable. In the presont case this is not wanting. Independently of tho well-known tendency which always exists in a small minority gradually to merge its views in those of a majority, there are other and special reasons in this particular case. Everything thab could encourage the party of progress has been happening day by duy for the last twelve months. The^wealth and success of their Shortland neighbours, the continued absence of any quarrel in Waikato, the discontent of those kept out of wealth and its pleasures, and, most of all, the fact that we have ceased to urge them to come to terms — all these have been strong predisposing causes in favour of opening up the Ohinemuri lands for gold- seeking. And if these causes only continue to operate for a little longer, we do not doubt that the thing will be done. But we arc only sanguine under these conditions. "We do not believe that a renewed system of meetings and deputations, now from the G eneral Government, and now from the Provincial, and a third time from the diggers, will hasten tho business. A very little of this sort of thing will go a long way towards closing the Upper Thames against us for a year or two more. A year ago we were far from sorry to see the failure of what appeared to us a premature attempt to open a new field when we had not at all prospected the old. And to some extent the same objection remains to this flay. There are thousands of good claims within the range of the field lying round Shortland never yet developed, or even fairly tried, better by far than we have as ye t any evidence of as existing at the Upper Thames. Still matters are now much further advanced than they were. The wealth of the lover Thames field is not now a doubtful question, but is a well-known and recognised fact both here and in the neighbouring colonies. We do not therefore look with any anxiety upon the possible opening of a new field at Ohinemuri. If opened on equitable terms, we can see many advantages likely to spring from the occupation and working of a more inland field. But it should not be forgotten that, while a successful opening of the field may be a considerable advantage, bungling attempts to get it opened are certain to prove a very serious disadvantage not only to tho field but to the colony at large. The great point to be borne in mind by those engaged in any negotiations on the subject is that there is really no hurry, and that this is exactly one of those cases in which the most haste may be the least speed,

A committee meetiug of the City Board of Commissioners was held yesterday to decide on the ten» dera flfor quarrying, stalling, and feeding for the stone- breaking machine, Mount Eden. The following tenders were received : —Nelson Ireland, 2a. 4d. ; John Withridge, 29. 3d. ; John Hedley and Chailea McGregor, 2g. 3d. The last^mentioned tender was accepted. We have received No. 18 of the Illustrated Neto Zealand Herald, a weekly journal published in Dunedin, and whch ia a most creditable production, containing several well-executed illustrations, the most interesting amongst whioh are a view of the Citmes mines, and the interior of a battery-house on the same field. The usual monthly Bitting of the Court of Petty Sessions was held yesterday, when nine Justices of the Peace were present. Four per^on3 were fined for drunkenness, and John Mawnon, charged with indecently exposing himself in Queen-atreet, was dismissed with a caution. Eliza Yorke was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for vagrancy, and Thomas Boland and William Mitchell were fined 10s. and costs for negleotiug to have the names of the owners legibly painted on caits driven by them, Notics is given elsewhere that a call ef two and sixpence per share ia made payable thi3 day on shares in the Auckland Consolidated Gold-minjng Company (Limited), A meeting of the committee of the Thames Total Abstinence Association was held on Monday evening in the Home Institute, at whioh all preliminaries were arranged for the grand inaugural publio meeting to be held within the next three weekß. We have been informed a half equal share in the Jupiter Claim, Hape Creek, changed hands yesterday for £350.— Tims, July 27. The lecture by Mr. Henry Ellis ou " Man and his Masteri," whioh was formerly postponed on acoount of the inolemenoy of the weather, was to be delivered ou Tueiday evening at the Home Institute, Thames. The p.a. « Royal Alfred' took up 3,5000z. of gold for the Bank of New South Wales on Saturday night.~~Advei)'tiBer, July 27. The annual general meeting of the Auckland Gas Company will be held at the office of the company, Nelson-atreet, on Monday, the 2nd August, at three o'clock, to receive the annual report, to elect two directors, and for the transaction of other business. Mr. Joseph Newman will in future hold a weekly auction of gold-mining shares at his room, Queen- { street. The firit sale will take place tn Monday next, at 11 o'clock.

Tne New Zealand Agricultural Society's annual Crtttle Show will bo held on the 9th November next. The evening school In connection with the Auckland Grammar School will be commenced on Tuesday next, at 7 o'clock p,m, Each candidate for admission will be required to pasa an examination in reading, writing from dictation, and the elementary rules of arithmetic. A meeting of the members of the Auckland Troop It.C.V. wa3 held last ereuing at the Auckland Hotel, Captain Carey in the chair ; when the capitation allowance due to the members was paid. A code of Jmles coueiderdd and agreed to, a uniform committee appointed, and several gentlemen enrolled aa new members of the trsop. A correspondent writes to the Otago Daily Times that lie has invented a machine for brushing boots. "The brush is fixed upon the periphery of a small wheel turned by a hand crauk. A few shillings would purchase the whole apparatus, inoluding oue bnish for cleaning and another for polishing. It will be particularly useful for hotel?, as a person could throw in a cargo of dirty boots at one end, and they would come out cleaned at the other. All that has to be done is to work the apparatus by the foot." It is customary for the Maoris residing at Stewarts Islaud and Ruapuke, near the Bluff, to visit Poit Chalmers, Waikouaiti, and Moeraki every year about the beginning of July, with supplies of the mutton bird, whioh they exchange with other Maoris for flour, sugar, dried fish, &c, A number of them, male and female, are on a visit to Dunedin at present, having completed their " kio-ki" or exohange. The | Maoris visit the small islands frequented by these birds about the mmth of Marsh, and remain until the end of May, taking the young birds only, which they dig from holes iv the ground. The following is the favourite method of putting them up for market : — The bones are taken out, and the fat is extracted by boiling ; the birds are then packed in seaweed bag*, and the oil is poured in with them, after which the bags are sewed up. Another method is to split the birda down the back,! salt and smoke them. — Otago Daily Times. The Melbourne Herald 'has the following : — ''The velocipsdean mania has already extended to New Zealand, as v/e hear that a niauufriofcuring firm in Melbourne have received au order for a considerable consignment of these vehiclts. The New Zealandeis appear to have taken kindly to the new movement, and we may kear by a future steamer that Te Kooti was seen skedaddling from a p* on a bicycle, pin sued byadetachmentof Forest Hangers on similar vehicles." The Portland (Me.) Argus says that an officer arrived there on Thursday morning from Boston on the way to Gardiner, Me., having in custody an old woman dressed in black aud palsied by the infirmities of age. The charge on which she was arrested is that of murdering her husband, Suspicious circumstances arose at the time of hi 3 doatb, and a post mortem examination of his body proved that ho had been poiioned ; but his wife had previously lefb the State. He was the fourth husband the woman had had. The circumstances of their several doaths confirmed the belief that she had poisoned them all. Prepared specimens of the kakapo and the kiwi have bsen forwarded by the barque 'Bjorviken' from Dunediu to the museum at Christiauia. This donation is interesting, from the faut of its hiving baea made by the mo3t southerly museum in the world to one of the most northerly— Helsingfors, in Fiuland, and Tronjem, in Norway, being, we believe, the only towns to the north of Chmtiauia which possess museums. The naval service is somewhat pleasingly impressed with the idea that a welcome Order is about being promulgated granting permission to the modern British lions to wear the beards and moustaches with which Nature has furnished them. We (Army and Navy Gazette) once heard an advocate of this movement amusingly remark, iv arguing the point, "Shave a lion, the most noble-looking animal of the forest, and you will at once convert him into a most con-tempcible-lookins; ol ject." It is so in tome measure with man. In this ago of hairy manhood, smoothlyshaven countenances seem to have lot>t caste, aud beco'iie depreciated specimens of the lords of the croation. Beards and moustaches h*ve been long since advisedly sug^ented by medical < fficers on eanitary or physiological grounds ; and, indeed, in our opimou, few seem to have more urgent reasoua for their protective influence against togs and dismal swampe, bitter atoims, and trop'cil sunshine than oiir st.imen. A permihshe Order of the kind would be hailed with pleasure by our naval men of the present day. Then we should hear U 3 more impre--cations against blunt lazors and cold water in a lively ship and a heavy aca. Edmund Burke, tho Irish orator, was telling Garrick, ons day at Hampton, that all bitter things were hot. " Indeed," said Garriok, " what do you think, Mr. Bnike, of bitter cold weather '?"