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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 233, 4 December 1866, Page 2

Last night the fortnightly 1 meeting of the Nelson Band „of Hope took place in the Temperance Hall. Mr. B. Crisp, the .President, .was in the chair v and gave an instructive address to the children, after •which the magic lantern was exhibited, to them. There was a full attendance of children. To.niorrow, the trial of John Barleycorn will he repeated in the Temperance Hall. It is intimated thatthe performance- to-morrow may be expected to exceed in interest that on a former occasion, when the parts were new to several of the parties engaged, who have since acquired greater experience, and overcome the difficulties. which most feel on their first appearance in public. Only one publican's license was transferred to-day, that of & J. Cusack, London Tavern, Haven-road, to Hugh Cottier. In consequence of the heavy rain which set in- last night and has continued with little intermission through the day, the shooting for the prizes offered by the Provincial Government has been postponed. In a paper recently.read by Mr. Dob; on, C.E., before the Christchurch Philosophical Society, occurs the following passage : — The explorations of Dr. Haast at the headwaters of the.Molyneux, the Waitaki, the Itangitata, and the Rakaia, and those of the Provincial Engineer in the upper valley of the Waimakariri, have fully established the fact that throughout the eutire length of the Province there are only three real passes, viz., the Hurunui Saddle, dividing the sources of the Hurunui and Teremakau ; Haast's Pass, at the head of Lake Wauaka, which leads over a very low saddle into the vallej' of the Haast River, which falls into the sea near Jackson's Bay; and Arthur's Pass, which is nothing more than a great fissure, running, in a tolerably direct lino from the valley of the Waimakariri to that of the Teremakau. The so-called North Rakaia Pass has no- real claim to the title; its eastern face being simply a wall rising abruptly from the valley to a height of 1500 feet, aud being quite impracticable for horse or cattle, besides being at so great an elevation as to be buried deep in snow during eight months in the year. The Otago News Letter thus falls foul of the new Provincial Government : — And so, in place of Mr.- Moss and his colleagues, we are to fall back upon Yogel, . Maddock, 'Mouat, and Co.. For ourselves, we' shall only at present say we. had; gather not,: "and we think the public generally will agree with us. We had confidence in the' gentlemen who lately filled the treasury benches; but we have wonderfully little confidence in a ministry composed' of the gentlemen named, with the addition of two noa-official members. -As Samuel Taylor Coleridge, said; of the Gallic nation/so may ■.be 'said with justice, of some of our public men, that- "[like gunpowder, each, grain w,as- smutty, ..and contemptible, but . 'wlien. linked ; together, formidable;" .' -And iwithout; going, the entire length of - saying '■ -that : certain of the . new .members of Jh.e_Executive_constitute a study "which it would fake a. Darwin or a Tluxley properly to jnastei> we shall . yet assert that we could very 'well afford tomi c ? • s.oaic of

their characteristic physiognomies from the " counsels of the just." The new Executive, headed by the wordy (we mean worthy) Julius, will be immediately in extremis, and will not, we are inclined to think, be like Charles the Second, au unconscionable time a-dying. Will Yogel and his political brethren occupy the Government benches a week ?— Eh ! The Evening Star has been favored with the inspection of a sample of gold-bearing quartz, obtaiued at a distance of 17 miles, in a direct line from Hokitika. It is. thickly impregnated with the precious metal, which is perfectly visible with the naked eye. With the aid of a glass, the auriferous nature of the stone is made still more manifest, a perfect cloud of specks of gold appearing distinctly under the magnifier. The " blow up,"» as the technical name is, is 11 feet across, but the leader from which the sample we have seen was obtained is only about an inch and a half in diameter at the surface, though it increases rapidly in width. The discoverer expects to see the party in town soon with specimens procured from as great a depth as can be broken without the aid of blasting, and we are promised the fullest particulars when more is known. If the reef runs out as good as the prospector expects, it will be of vast benefit to the district, as it will not only be valuable in itself, but will stimulate others to search for similar sources of wealth. The following paragraph is taken from a somewhat remarkable article in the Times, on the New Zealand wars: — The lesson, however, thus taught us is of wide and general application. The system which disabled our army in New Zealand cannot well be expected to improve it anywhere else. When fine, brave, and well-equipped troops are systematically put at a disadvantage by halfarmed savages, it is clear there must be some impediment to success in the system adopted and the tactics employed. In fact, the colonial voluuteers actually took the native redoubts, which our regular soldiers could not or rather did not take. The soldiers could have done the work fast enough in volunteer fashion but not in that prescribed to them. New Zealand wars are past and gone ; other colonial garrisons may be measured by the experience acquired in New Zealand, and while we thank our countrymen at the antipodes for their service and their example we should wish to see them liberally rewarded with the honors for which they are anxious, and which t'.iey have gallantly earned. In the Canterbury Provincial Council Mr. Barff in moving for leave to bring in a bill to regulate the qualifications of medical practitioners of medicine and surgery, said that his object was not so much to protect the interests of legally qualified medical practitioners, as to protect the lives of the public from the experiments of quacks. He might mention, that he could recollect the names of about twenty unqualified practitioners who were practising in Westland, and he stated several cases to shew these men's utter ignorance of the medical pi - ofession. He wished to introduce a clause in this bill, enforcing under a penalty, the registration of medical men. At first his intention had been to restrict its operation to Westland, but on further consideration he determined to make its provisions applicable to the whole province. He begged to move for leave to bring in the bill. Leave was given, the bill brought in, read a first time and ordered to be printed. The Otago Daily Times, in commenting on a recent speech made at Dunedin to his constituents by Mr. J. Cai'gill, M.H.R., contains the following piece of plain speaking: — We do not wish to impute to Mr. Cargill wilful misstatement, nor, in the course which he took in the House,, wilful abandonment of his pledges. That he -ratted as much if not more than any other-member, was notorious, and the subject of amusement; bat, like many another 'ratter,' .he excused by hairsplitting and nice distinctions the precise meaning of his votes. We learn from the local papers that several new companies have been formed on Kanieri and Commissioner's Flats, who propose to take up extended claims of three acres each, f\\ t] ';'!;i<v"' \\u f:] f ':i:v.? -oT *-:•!;;:•:■■.'! !-•

the centre. Gold has been found at 84 feet sinking ; afc TuckerVFlat/ for which -locality a boring machine has been procured.' Complaint is made at the'Pakihi of the low price the Banks give for gold, which is owing to the inferior manner in : which it is amalgamated, I the . loss in smelting being in some cases as much as 20 per cent, above the average. A practical test is about to .be applied to the deep ground in the' Grey districts, by means of boring. A sum of money has been subscribed^" and a complete; set." of boring tools; pumps, &c. have been sent for from .Melbourne. ' \ The N.Z.' Advertiser of the 24th reports, a gentleman just returned from the; Wairarapa reports that all- has resumed its iisual tone in the district. Ngairo and • his eighty or a hundred, followers have quitted Masterton, and the Hau-haus of -the district who joined him while he was there,- have returned to their cultivations. Ngairo has gone to Manawatu, and will not return until his god tells him to do so ; but as that is a very indefinite period to fix, it is impossible to say that there is not still every necessity for precaution. The Canterbury Press has the following on acclimatisation : — The incubator lately sent out by J. R. Hill, Esq., for this society, appears likely to answer the desired purpose, some eggs having been hatched. Much anxiety has been caused by the naphtha lamp, which has proved itself anything but trustworthy, and necessitated a great amount of additional labor and watchfulness, but which, thanks to the efforts of C. W. Cooke, Esq., have now been considerably mitigated. An artificial mother has been attached to the machine, with feeding cage, for the rearing of the young. This part of the arrangement will, however, be of little or no avail till the funds of the society will permit of a more, suitable building being erected than the draughty confined shed at present occupied by the machine, which, when advantageously situated, is considered to rear the strongest and earliest birde, and from its adaptability for small as well as large eggs, will render its acquisition an important aid in stocking the country with that hardy, beautiful, and prolific bird, the Californiau quail. It is singular enough,, that while people are always speaking in favor of colonial manufactures, they don't seem to patronise them. On this subject the -Melbourne Argus sensibly remarks : — A society to remove the discouragements to "native industry" would be a much more useful- institution just now than the majority of those associations which are established, for its protection. What it really requires is not legislative coddling, but fair play and legitimate support from the public. The causes which obstruct its progress are not political but social, and the noisiest of its champions are usually the most inveterate of its enemies. Their practice by no means coincides with their principles. The man who bawls out most vociferously "protection to native industry " commonly signifies the insincerity of his creed by clothing himself from head to foot in imported slops. He seats himself upon an American chair, eats his dinner off an - English table, washes dawn suhdry slices of York ham with ale from Burton, follows it up with a pipe of Spanish or Virginian tobacco, and makes it a point of honor to disparage everything colonial.