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Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1381, 1 April 1865, Page 5

Avkhaob Fbick of Provisions ani> Livh Stoch ix Nbw Zealand.—lteference to the statistics of the colony for 1863, compiled from official records, shows the average price of provisions and live-stock in tiiis province to be very considerably less than that in any other province in the colony. For instance, beer, which {• £9 5s in Auckland per hogshead, Su Wellington is only M 10s; brandy, in this port, is a guinea a gallon; while in Taranaki, the next cheapest province, It is £1 2s 6d; bread is one fiirthing dearer per pound in this city than it is in Canterbury, it being there 2Jd per lb. Live-stock, also, is, on an average, much less than in Auckland, Taranaki, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago, or Southland. Hheep, which sell in Wellington for XI, sell in other provinces from £1 Is to £2. Wine, also, which is sold here for 14s per gallon, in Auckland i« 17s, and in Taranaki and Hawkes Bay, £1. Milk is 6d per quart all over the colony, with the exception of Canterbury, where it Is ftd. The average prices of sugar, tea. rice, tobacco, and coffee is nearly the same throughout the colony.— Wellington Indepewlent, March 9. Discovkuy ov Goi.v nhar Alkxajiwu,—Not long ago we reported that gold had been discovered near Haglan, and that the information had been communicated to Mr, Todd, district surveyor, by a native. We are now indebted to Mr. M. fcjomerville, who has just returned from Alexandra, for some authentic particulars on the subject. The locality of the supposed gold field is somewhere near Alexandra (on the Waipa), and eight men, including some experienced Victorian diggers, had started, under Mr. Todd's directions to prospect, Before Mr. Somerville left, two of these men had returned, nnd reported very favourably—viz., that they had washed a couple of cither pannikins or dishes oft the surface, in which they found gold which they produced. This gold, which amounts to a few grains, has been brought to Auckland by Mr. Somerville, who has kindly shown it to us, and he informs us that he has had it teßted, and that it is really the " precious metAl, Mr. Todd was engaged in laying out the road to Raglan, and was therefore not able to do more than point out the locality to the prospectors, but from their being experienced men, and from his belier in the he seemed to have full confldencc of their success. The two men who brought the gold had returned to continue their prospecting.—Southern Croat, Mar. 23.