Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 1879. BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1110, 13 March 1879, Page 2

Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 1879. BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

(From ol*k own Correspondent.) Dunedin, this day, noon. Markets.—Wheat is 2s 9d to 2s lOd; Oats, 2s 8d ; and barley, 5s 9d per bushel. Beef is 30s, and mutton 21s 2d per lOOlbs. The Hon. W. Fox is in town and is endeavoring to start a Kew Zealand Temperance Alliance. Six of the English Cricketers will arrive at the Bluff on Tuesday. A tire at lloslyn has destroyed two houses insured at £9OO. Another fire burnt down Godby's brewery, insured at £1,500. No beer had been brewed in it for two years, but it contained all the plant. Sir Hercules RobinsoL—the new Governor —will reach Wellington on or about the 26th instant. The inquest on Tom Barry, fifteen years connected with the Princess Theatre and Provincial Hotel, resulted in a verdict of suicide by strychnine. Ministers of different sects are moving to stop Sunday funerals. The Marquis of Norraanby has been very well received in Victoria. At Timaru Races Camballo won the Jockey

Club Handicap and Flying Handicap ; Mata, the Tiinaru Cup; Titania, the Publicans' Plote and Tradesmen's Handicap ; Eversley, the Hurdle Race ; and Sapphira the Consolation Handicap. A fire at Tapanui, on Tuesday last, burnt Mocney and Quin's offices, and Ferguson and Co.'s building. It is supposed to be the work of an incendiary. The property is insured for £2,500, The New Zealand insurance offices have lost £95,000 since January Ist. Melbourne, (undated). The steamers Barrabool and Bonnie Dun dee have collided off Newcastle, and five ladies in the latter were drowned. London, March 11th. The attempted assassin of the King of Italy is condemned to death. The Polytechnic Institute has been destroyed by fire. Boss defeated Emraett in the Thames sculling match. The British corvette Thetis has been burnt in Plymouth Harbor. The Indian Government are treating with Yakoob Khan. The British have again repulsed the Zulus with enormous loss. The British Squadron returns to Besika Bay. The Turks have re-occupied Adrianople. The wool market's tone is relaxed, and prices have receded. The fall is most marked in cross-breds, but inferior greasy and medium good are steady. Superfine fleeces in grease are 15 to 20 per cent below February prices. Dunedin, 4.55 p.m. The San Francisco Mail has just signalled at Auckland.

The New Zealand Press News has made its appearance this month in an altered form. Instead of an eight-page demy quarto, is now a sixteenpage royal octavo. Gazette notice states that privilege ordinary tickets, and also privilege season tickets, at oue-fonrth the ordinary rates, may be issued to railway officers and employes on behalf of themselves, wives or members of their family not more than eighteen years of age, who live in family with the applicant. Little preparation seems to have been made in the district for the celebration of St. Patrick's Day on Monday next. The only attractions we hear of are a ball and concert at Skippers, in aid of the funds of the local school, and an excursion to Kingston and back in the "Mountaineer," Scarcely a short week has passed since the old custom still exist ed of clearing the down-country mails at the Post-office, via Invercargill, ten or twelve hours before departure of the steamer. Now, however—thanks to the railway and means of more rapid transit across the Lake—mail-bags are not made up till within twenty minutes cf the actual departure of the new mail steamer Mountaineer. This is as it should be, and—although scarcely necessary at the present moment—there is on'y one new improvement necessary to make arrangements perfectly satisfactory namely the establish ment of a letter box on board, whereby letters can be posted the moment before the boat leaves. Mr Conyers, Commissioner of Railways for the South Island accompanied by Mrs Conyers arrived here on Monday from Christchurch, and intends to stay some time, we hear, to recruit his health. Mr Conyers is not quite a stranger, having accompanied the Minister for Public Works to Queenstown about fifteen months ago. We are sure our readers will heartily join us in the sincere wish that the bracing air, fine climate, and equally line scenery of the Lakes will be the means of restoring him to robust health. " The Polytechnic" is the name of an Entertainment, which is announced to be given at the Town Hall, Queenstown on Saturday and Monday. The exhibition, which is characterised by contemporaries as a " remarkable show," consists of moveable scenes, a telephone, stenophone &c, the chief feature being a material picture enlivened by moving railways, steamers, rivers, and a varity of other interesting features and ingenious contrivances.

Parents here will be glad to notice that after a recess of some two months, the Queenstown School is again to be opened on Monday next. Mr Mehaffy, the new master (who arrived per the fvingarooma the day before yesterday from Victoria), comes with a tirgt-class certificate, and we trust will realise the expectations naturally formed of his abilities. A final effort is being made to revive the fortunes of the New Nugget Quartz Mining Company. As will be seen by report elsewhere an appeal is being made to shareholders for a voluntary levy of 5s per shaie, failing which the winding-up process must inevitably follow. This alternative is to be deplored, as much money has been expended, the mine is well opened up, and there is every prospect that, with good management, and good machinery, the claim would prove a reproductive, if not a very profitable one.

A meeting, fraught with no small consequence to the whole district is convened for to-morrow evening, in the Town Hal'. We refer to the first meeting of the Acclimatisation Society just re-organised. Already may be witnessed daily the fruits of previous efforts in the existence of trout, perch, quail, etc , in our midst, but much has yet to be done before we can boast either of sufficient variety or abundance, and it is therefore to be hoped that residents generally will render material aid in increasing the resources of the county in this respect. The Western Star says that a Mr Fraser has been sent down from the Thames by a number of miners to report upon the Longwood Keefs—the Thames lodes having become " very poor investments, and as a consequence capitalists are looking out for pastures new." We should advise some of the latter, if they are men of the genuine stamp, to come and inspect the Macetown Reefs, and feast their eyes on the 800 ounces of retorted gold, the produce of 600 tons of quartz from the Tipperary claim. This is not, however, the only good mine, and, provided the fine weather continues, equally good results will be obtained from other lodes if the crushing power is sufficient to meet all demands. The Gladstone and All Nations are beginning crushing, and yields equal to the above are expected. A new phase of th e potato blight has appeared in some of the potato crops of North Canterbury, which threatens to affect the Crop seriously. Some paddocks, (says the Press) are covered with this aphis on the underside of the levels of the plants. The tops die off prematurely, and from this cause the tubers ripen two soon. Considerable loss by some farmers is anticipated. This new pest is supposed to result entirely from the protracted period of dry weather.