LATEST FROM OTAGO.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 965, 8 February 1862, Page 4

LATEST FROM OTAGO.

By the s.s. Lord Worsley we have intelligence from Dunedin to the 4th of February. We extract the following from the columns of the ' Witness' and 'Daily News':—

THE GOLD ESCORT.

The usual weekly escort arrived on Thursday afternoon, bringing down 10,310 ounces of gold, of which 1,587 ozs. 15 dwts. was from Waitahuna, and 8,722 ozs. 5 dwts from Tuapeka. This is less than former escorts, but not less than was to be anticipated— considering the disturbance of industry caused by the late rushes to Waipori and elsewhere. It is satisfactory to find that the Waipori field is beginning to make a return for the labour expended on it. ' On Thursday evening the first parcel of gold from the Waipori reached Dunedin in charge of Constable Garvey. The quantity was 1080 ounces, which, added to the quantity received from the older gold fields, brings the total escort for the week to 11,390 ounces.

We have been favoured with the sight of a communication to a mercantile firm in this town from a miner at the Lindis, who signs himself H. M'Kenzie, and states that he lias had a lengthened mining experience in California, in which he expresses a high opinion of of the Lindis gold field. He says he has tried dry sinking in two places, and could find gold at the rate of 15s to 20s a day. Instead of being content with this, he is trying other gullies, which he considers " likely looking." He says a shepherd has promised to take him to a place where he has found 4 ozs. of rough gold, situated "partly in the old Maori pass, partly in a branch of the Lindis." He intends, he says, to get up a party to turn the river, should the ground be as stated by the shepherd. M'Donald and party, he adds, are getting gold out of their claim at the rate of 2 oz. a day. He promises to write again by next post, and although we have stated the contents of his letter', we would advise our readers to wait for further information, as the writer is evidently a very sanguine person. No doubt he believes in the capabilities of the Lindis field, but his desire seems to be to get a number of miners to the spot to prospect it.

An express waggon was sent up in the early part of the week to the Waipori with constables and tents to form a police station there. It returned on Thursday in charge of mounted trooper Garvey, bringing down 1,080 ounces of gold, .the property of the Bank of New Zealand. Amongst the quantity is the 13^ ounce nugget, reference to which has been prevously made. It was bought by the Bank of New Zealand. It was found in a "blind gully." It is to be hoped that it will be secured for the Exhibition. The mining population in Waipori is very much scattered, and the gold when found occurs in patches. Great complaints are made that the size of the claims in the river-bed is so small that no inducement is offered to work them on a proper scale. Gold has been found in some of the hills. From a tunnel carried in about twenty feet we are told of 26 ozs, being procured. The first sale of sections in the new township of Brighton took place on Thursday last, at Messrs. Morse andOruell's office, and was highly satisfactory] some of the sections realising as high as £28 to £3o' and averaging all round about £16. .'

. As a sample of the strange idea some correspondents entertain of the uses to which they should put newspaper editors, we may mention the receipt by the last mail from Victoria of a note enclosing a Victorian post stamp, and requesting us to advise the writer "of the scale of salaries of national teachers, and also of the police force of New Zealand." .

A party of miners had a most remarkable escape from death by lightning at Waipori on Friday last. Five or six men were together in a tent when the place was struck hy lightning, and two dogs, which were lying in the entrance Were killed o» the spot. The men were much shaken, and we understand that some of them were partially paralised for the time, but none of them sustained any permanent injury.

By way of Melbourne we have dates from the Marmus to the 4th of December. Cholera had broken out, and was causing some anxiety. Five cases had already been reported. In Western Australia they have offered £3000 for the discovery of a payable gold field. By the City of Hobart, which arrived on Saturday morning, we have files of Melbourne papers to January 25. J

Iho.-capital farce of "the Loan of a Lover," and the laughable extravaganza of "Colin, the youth who never saw a woman," have had a most successful run at the Music Hall during last week, and they continue to draw crowded houses Ihe extension of-the Pelichet Bay jetty is now' Being rapidly proceeded with. A large number of the piles tor the new Stuart street jetty have also been laid down ready for driving, and the cutting «>way of the Octagon and formation of Stuart street still drag their slow length along under the hands of tho hard labour men.