News of the Day.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 80, 30 June 1866, Page 3

News of the Day.

The Telegbaph. — Communication with Picton by electrio telegraph was resumed yesterday afternoon. Expobt o* Gold.— The South Australian, which left this port on Thursday morning, took with her 1,450 ounces of gold, shipped by the Union Bank of Australia. Postponement of the Assembly Ball.— For reasons which it is scarcely necessary to state, the assembly, which was to have taken place in the Provincial Hall, last evening, has been postponed till Friday evening next. The painfully exciting intelligencerespecting the late murders, made public yesterday, would not have harmonized with the enjoyment to be looked for at a public ball. Pakawau Coal Mining Company. — Applications having been made by the directors of the Pakawau Coal Mining Company for a renewal of their lease at Pakawau (the conditional one held by them having lapsed), the subject was considered yesterday by the Waste Land Board. Three other applications for tho ground were before the Board, but the expenditure which the company had incurred in its search for coal, was considered to entitle them to the preference, and the new lease was therefore promised to the company. Although hitherto unsuccessful in discovering a workable Beam of coal at Pakawau, in the opinion of competent judges such will certainly be found at a greater depth than has yet been tried. There is a prospect, we believe, that the capital for further testing the ground will soon be forthcoming from Melbourne. West Wanganui Coal Field.— We have been informed that, since the trial of this coal at Melbourne, the capital required for working this field • has been subscribed for in that city, and that the works will be entered upon forthwith. [ Coal at the Aoeebe. — We were shown, a few [ days ago, samples of the coal recently found at the t Aorere, a little above Collingwood. As far as ap1 pcarances go, it is of first-rate quality, and the seam 1 gives five feet of pure coal. MABLBOBOrOU GOLD-FIELD DISCOVERY BONUS. — ' The following resolution was passed by the Marl- • borough Provincial Council during its late session :—: — . "That his Honour the Superintendent will be i pleased to proclaim and advertise in each of the newspapers in the province, a bonus for the discovery > ol a gold-field in this province, not nearer than > eight miles to the Wakamarina, on the following r terms : Providing a gold-field is discovered yielding . 2,000 ounces of gold, the discoverer to be paid the sum of £250, and also a sum of £1,000 is to be paid if a gold-field is discovered yielding 16,000 ounces of - gold." » Bull-stalking. — The Lyttelton Times, of June > 19, says : — " We have received from Mr. G. Williner - a short account of a day's expedition to hunt and shoot wild bulls on Greta station. Mr. Willmer was r accompanied by a young man named Richard Mill, and fell in with five wild bulls together. Mr. Will- " iner shot one, and, reloading, fired a long shot at 1 another and brought him to a halt ; loaded again B quickly, and, after warning Mill to get on the high t ground, fired at and struck a third. The wounded , brute ran down-hill, and rushing on Mill threw him ' down, ploughing up the ground as he went, but " fortunately the horns were wide apart, and the onlj 8 injury sustained by Mill was a severe blow from the l, forehead of the animal, which bruised his bacli ] severely. It was a narrow escape. Mr. Willmei soon dispatched the third bull, and wounded i c fourth out of the mob. In one diy he killed eight • wild bulls from the bock of a mare, trained by him ' tcLf to tho work) and a perfect huntross."

Wab Rcmock3. — The New Zealand Herald, of the 19th, contains the following :— " New Plymouth as usual is crying out War ! War ! when there is no war. In its summary for Europe on the 16th, the Herald says : — ' In this North Island, however, though there is etill progress, it is comparatively trifling, the effects, direct nnd indirect, of the war being still heavily felt; and they will be so felt until tbe war is fairly over. Some people say the war is over, but only those, it is to be feared, who are interested in saying so, or who have not the means of judging. Unless we are content to give up what we have been fighting for, the natives will renew the war at their convenience That was tho determination come to at the late meeting of the hostile tribes at Haugatiki. " Wait till the tide has ebbed, and we shall be able to walk with dry feet on land now covered by the water," — that is, " wait till the troops are gone, and we shall be able to regain without trouble the land taken from us." But even Sir George G rey will not bo able to keep the troops for ever, or for a very long time, against the expressed will of the English Government, and when they are all gone, something more than Mr. Stafford's letalone policy will have to be adopted if we are to hold our own. The Ngatiruanuis have long expressed the same determination as their Northern allies, while the remnant of the Taranakis are actully still carrying on the war in a mild way by firing every now and then at the garrison in the Warea redoubt.' We, New Zealand Herald, can assure the Taranaki people and press that the people of this province will never allow the Maoris to retake one acre of the Waikuto or East Coast lands. We have young men enough trained to the use of the rifle to uphold the interests of this province against any enemy within the colony, and when ' the tide has ebbed' they too will, perhaps, ' walk with dry feet on land now covered with water.' The Province of Auckland, left to itself, will have no difficulty in holding its own." The Panama Mail Service. — The Olago Daily Times, in a recent article on the new mail service, has the following : — " As a mail service, the Panama has yet to establish its reputation in the face of great difficulties. The boats will have to do what has never before been done — they will have to run nearly 15,000 miles without repairing. In their course from Wellington to Panama and back, they will hare no means of procuring repairs. If they break down they will have to make one of the ports north or south of the Isthmus for repairs, or come back under sail. Even as regards Wellington, it is somewhat of a fiction to talk of their repairing there. As yet, the means are only very partially at hand, and it appears, owing to a dispute with the home contractors, it may be a long while before Wellington will be able to offer facilities for anything but trifling repairs. If, as it is likely, New South Wales will insist that Sydney be mode the head-quar-ters, the route out and back will be some 18,000 miles— a very long distance for vessels to run without the means of repairing. We do not mention these facts to throw a gloom over the new service, but rather to warn people from expecting too much. The undertaking is of a vast nature, and the contractors have gone into it with the utmost spirit and enterprise. It would be too much to ask that this new service, any more than, as far as we are aware, any other new ocean service, should succeed at once ; and it would be unreasonable if much disappointment should be expressed in case of unforseen difficulties arising, or occasional irregularities, whilst the company is maturing its experience. Granted this, it is folly at once to pit the new line against its old established and powerful rival, and which, by the bye, now that it has a rival, seems to be determined to do all it can to place the Australasian service upon a better footing. We have every hope that the Panama Service will ultimately prove a great success. Shortly, there is likely to be a Graving Dock at Port Chalmers, at which large vessels will be able to undergo thorough repairß, and Otago may then be expected to be the starting-point of the homeward service, an arrangement to which New South Wales would readily yield. To meet the difficulty of the long distance out and back, the company will probably soon find it necessary to run their steamers on from Panama to San Francisco. This would give a direct service between California and Australasia, and there is no doubt it would soon develop itself into a paying one. At any rate it would repay the company, by saving the otherwise enormous strain upon the vessels consequent upon running to Panama and back, without repairing. We have only to add that, as a passenger-line, there is very little doubt the Panama will become a favourite one. The first boat ie likely to have a considerable number of passengers." Taxation. — The Lyttelton Times has the following remarks on the course the people of the colony Bhould adopt, in the event of the Government proposing to increase the taxation of the colony :—": — " We strongly recommend the public to resist direct taxation to the utmost j to compel the necessity for increased funds to be clearly proved • to take nothing for granted ; and, in case of the worst, to surrender the provincial share of Customs rather than adopt the expedient of a new impost for the purpose of finding the money. The whole proportion need not be surrendered, for the Customs three-eighths amount to a larger sum than any direct taxation can possibly produce."