SUMMARY OF SOUTHERN INTELLIGENCE.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1658, 8 March 1862, Page 5

SUMMARY OF SOUTHERN INTELLIGENCE.

Tltfc. new arrangements for the 1 disposal or dmpioyiiieiit of ihe Militia at Taranaki have not been carried into effect without some grumbling and dissatisfaction. The views of the Government are embodied in the following letter : Deputy Adjutant-General's Office. Auckland, 24th January, 1862. sii ; j—Rfefefrsrig. to the letter of the number and date noted in the iriargin frdtti the Honorable Colonial Sscretary to yourself, I am directed by the Government to inform you of the following chaDges which have been determined upon in connection with the Taranaki Mihtia Force. 1. All pay issued to any of the Colonial Forces, except of the permaneat Staff specified in paragraph 7, and except as hereinafter directed, to cease one week after receipt of this letter. 2. Any militiaman desiring to be put on pay may receive the same at the rate of four shillings (45.) a §v, on condition of his being employed either in such | flitlri service as mtty be specially ordered, or on Public orks conducted under .the superiritendeilce of the Engineering Surveyor of the General Government. 3. That as many men as may be necessary for the garrisoning o' the Omata stockade (say 50 rank and file, 2 sergeants, and 1 lieutenant) shall be employed on that service till further orders. All oth»rs receiving pay to be placed on the Public Works as above. 4. That in selecting Sub-Engineers, Foremen of Works, or overseers of the Public Works above referred to, preference to be given to commissioned officers of the Militia and Volunteer Corps, provided they possess the requisite qualifications to the satisfaction of the Engineering Surveyor. 5. The arms to be retained by the men till further brd«rs; o. There are to bs only two parade's per rrOntfy for the inspection of arms. 7. A Staff, consisting ot one adjutant, one scrjeant, bile corporal, and one bugler, are to be retained with the salary appointed. (See estimates). 8. The men employed on Public Works at four Shillings' per diem will not receive rations, but those eltiployed at garrison duty at the Om'sLtd Stockade will receive' the present rate df military pay and rations as hcrctolore. 9. New Volunteer regulations and instructions have been lor warded. In communicating to you these arrangements, which will probably have the effect of terminating the present official position occupied by yourself, I am directed to express to you the thanks of His Excellency the Governor, and of his Responsible Advisers, for your valuable services, and their full appreciation of your gallant conduct whilst in the command of the Militia and Volunteers. I am also to request you to convej to the officers, BOn-commissioncd officers, and private* of the Militia siid Volunteer Forces in Taranaki, the thanks of His Excellency the Governor and the Government; and to Express the high sense which they entertain of the courage and devotion displayed by that Force under extraordinary difficulties: I have, &c„ (Signed) H. C. BalnbaVis, Deputy Adjutant-General of Militia and Volunteers. Major Herbert, Commanding Militia and Volunteers, New Plymouth. The grounds of objection of the settlers are thus given in their Memorial addressed to the Governor:—

First, the organization provided is neither military nor civil, but a mixture of both; the powers entrusted to the Government surveyor being of so peculiar and indefinite nature, that even the most able man in such position would find it impossible to perform his duties In a satisfactory manner. Secondly, the gentleman appointed to this office has proved himself, on a former occasion, unfit for the performance of similar.functions) it being an indisputable fact) that he at that time lavished a very large amount of the Sew Plymouth Company's funds in such a manner as to produce scarcely any Useful result. Thirdly, the pay not being sufficient to support a man with a family in tolerable comfort, a feeling of dissatisfaction will be produced, which will render it Impossible to obtain from the men employed a fair equivalent in work for the money actually received by them. Fourthly, the dissatisfaction will be increased by the circumstance that it is proposed to select 50 men from the whole force, who are to receive pay and rations at the present rate, which together are equivalent to 3s. «d. per diem, end are only to be employed in garrison duty, which, in the absence of hostilities, is exceedingly light. These men, who would probably not he on duty more than one day in a week, would thus be receiving very nearly the same pay as those who were fully employed every day on public works, and the result would be jealousy and discontent amongst the latter. Major Herbert, the officer who commanded the militia force during the war, had been entertained at a public dinner by the officers and men previously to his departure from the scene of his labours. Hapurona, "the fighting General" of William King, whose pride lately suffered the indignity of being made acquainted with the interior of the " lock-up" for drunkenness and disorderly conduct, had returned to Taranaki. He had threatened in his savage mood to do terrible things, and had started on his way to Waikato to see his friends, but got no further than Mokau, whence he returned, being persuaded thereto, as is said, by Tikaokao, a chief of the King party. Mr. C. W. Richmond has resigned his seat in the House of Representatives. His letter, under date January 20th, to his constituents at New Plymouth, appears in the Taranaki Herald of the 15th ult. Some of the reasons for taking this step are stated to be of a " purely personal character;" the political motives are thus given:—

Some of you will recollect that in 1855, when you first elected me your representative, I expressed my opinion to be strongly in favour of the maintenance of the Imperial control over Native affairs. I believe there is a short note in the Taranaki Herald of what I said at the hustings. I remembor declaring that, as the relations of the two races must continually involve questions of peace and war, and as the colony was as yet unfit to sustain a struggle with the natives, without the aid of the mother country, it followed, as a matter, of course, that tho Colonial Legislature must not grasp at the power of directing native policy. I have ever since, both as a minister and a member of the House, acted consistently with this opinion, and have never claimed for the legislature, or for the Eesponsible Ministry, anything beyond a secondary position in reference to native affairs. I have done my best towards working at the hard problem set us by the framers of the Constitution of 1853, always keeping in view the maintenance of an Imperial control over Native affairs. Experience has only strengthened my opinion as to the importance of this point, and it has become my fixed conviction that a Parliamentary opposition to the Native Policy of the Governor is unfit and dangerous. I am satisfied that the opposition in the House of Representatives to the measures of Governor Browne was most pernicious in its effect upon the mind of the natives, and I am not prepared to take part in any similar agitation. A great light has thus undoubtedly been withdrawn from the House. Those who differed most widely from Mr. Richmond on political points were, perhaps, the most ready to acknowledge his talent and to admire his character. Wellington.—Preparations were being made with that hospitable elan for which Wellington is noted to-give Sir George Grey a hearty welcome on his expected arrival there. The disappointment and, possibly also, the indignation of the people will be very great when it is known that, thanks to the caprice of Commodore Seymour, Her Majesty's Representative in New Zealand cannot command the services of a single ship to enable him to make those visits to ports in the Colony where the exigencies of the public service require his presence. The deep-water wharf is iu progress; the first pile was to have been driven by the Governor. The workmen at the Lion foundry have been unusually busy for some timo pajst, in, making castyjgn for thi iron work required for the new whatf, beside* nu-

merons priTate orders. A short time since two monkeys were cast for the pile-driving machine, weighing upwards of 18 cwt. They are very clean castings and reflect credit upon the workmen. We understand that the pile-driving machine is to be worked by steam power ; that a steam engine has been purchased and that the necessary machinery is now in course of being fitted lip. The VV^HARi I PileS.—The first dray Itfad of piles for the wharf came into town Oh Tttesda*/ Consisting of five 32 feet lengths. They are from the saw taills at Greytown (late Hall and Terry's). The supposed difficulties of the Remutaka and Muncaroa Hills were found to be very trifling, the worst point having been cut away during the last few months. The want of a bridge over . the Pnkuratnhi was in some measure lessened by a diversion, or rather straightening of the road on the Reih'utakri side.

The Honourable the Postmaster-General, Mr. Crosbie Ward, who is engaged in endeavouring to organize an Inter-Colonial and an luter-Proviucial steam postal service better suited to the growiug wauts of the community than those which now exist, met the Chamber of Commerce and detailed the plana of the Government. The principal points in the scheme are the proposed establishment of monthly steam communication between Melbourne and Otago, and between Sydney and Auckland ; and fortnightly, or even more frequent communication, between the chief ports of the several Provinces. A project that New Zealand should endeavour to establish the Panama line was also broached and favourably received.

Nelson.—The opening of Dun Mountain Railway is the event of the month. The Examiner says-^

The railway to the D\in Mountain, the first completed railway in New Zealand, dnd from which so much material good is expected to arise to the Province of Nelson, was publicly opened on Monday, Feb. 3. Eight trucks, laden with chrome ore, nnd accompanied by several of our townspeople and a band of ■music, left the Conipany's depot, in Brook-street, at about twelve o'clock, and proceeded, amid the cheers of thenunierods persons by Whom the several streets were thronged, to the port. After the chrome had been deposited on the wharf the trucks again returned to town and, at about three o'clock, the local directors, and some friends, the engineer of the line, and the workmen employed in construe! ing the line, amounting to about 180 persons, sat down to a cold luncheon, which had been provided in Mr. Everott's usual style, at the Freemason's Hall

We extract from the same journal the following notice of the West Coast " diggings" :

Mr. Nancarrow, of the Tasmanian Maid, which returned on Thursday from the Buller river, has favoured us With the following facts:—The passage from Nelson to the Buller appears about the same length as to Taranaki; with a south-east win J, however, it will be performed in less time than the latter, and quite as qtlickly witli wind in the' north-west. I The Maid will steam there in hours on an average. The Buller is well protected at its mouth from the south-west and west by the promontory of Cape Foulwind, and by a long reef which runs out from that point two or three miles in a direction about west-north-west. The bar is close in shore and has nine feet of water on it at low tide. A deep creek or open lagoon near the west head of the river affords a berth for small craft secure from the freshes. The country to the northward appears well suited lor settlement; there is level land several miles in breadth between the sea and the Papahaua mountains covered with scrub and heavy timber. The point to the westward of the river's month is also level land, partly swampy, partly covered with pine, rata, and other timber. Digging is going on actively about five miles off, at the Waimangaroa, the first stream of any size to the northward of the Buller. The diggers are satisfied with theif prospects) most of them are getting an ounce a day. The men who landed from the steamerwere full of spirits. Mr. Nancarrow has some of the gold, which he considers not more than an average sample. It is scaly and noggety, containing frequent pieces weighing six pennyweights.

We are glad to observe that our contemporary, the Examiner, begins to develope views of the work of colonization .not consistent with the operation of the New Provinces Act.

Marlborough.—New light has broken upon the Press, just, we are afraid, too late. We discover in the columns of our contemporary the following heresies respecting public lands. What will the Staffords and Richmonds and Monros, and the others, say to it ?

Then as to the land, are we to continue the system of disposing of the pastoral lands of the province at ss. per acre ? Now, although it may be granted that the independent or isolated purchase of ss. of mariy portions of this kind of land would be a bad investment, yet in most cases the acquisition of it has become necessary to the squatter, upon whose run unsold land still exists, therefore, a market is open to the Government either for the sale or lease of these lands upon favourable terms. Why, then, should the Government not make the most of its commodity ? Upon what system of mercantile ethics can the disposal of the public property at less than its marketable value be defended ?

It will not be denied, we presume, that if A. or B. i can let his run for £I,OOO a-year the Government will find no difficulty in leasing a great portion of the public domain upon nearly equivalent terms, and such being the case we have a right to ask upon what grounds the present system is perpetuated ? Other communities here and elsewhere have found out the value of their pasture land, and the advantage of deriving an income from it in preference to parting with the fee simple when the circumstances are favourable to this operation ; and are we so much above the necessities of other provinces that we can afford to overlook these considerations, and with the means at our disposal of replenishing an exhausted Treasury disclaim their employment and appeal for help to the money lenders ? As a question of abstract propriety and expediency, nobody, we imagine, will be found to gainsay the truth of these propositions. It is only when self-inlerest interferes to warp the judgment that we may expect opposition : not, certainly, of a noisy and demonstrative kind, displaying the skeleton in the closet of squatterdom, but quiet and obstructive, using words lew and t well chosen, of which the magical terras " public faith," " vested interests," &c, &c, form the dictionary.

It is for the good sense of the people and their representatives to say how this matter is to be disposed of, and for them to remember that time presses, that while they deliberate the land passes from their control,

Canterbury.—The Provincial Council has been prorogued. After the ceremony, the members of the Council met at dinner at the British hotel; the Speaker occupied the Chair, Captain Westenra acting as Vice. The Superintendent of the Province was happily able to speak thus of the leader of the " opposition" : -In returning thanks, his Honor expressed the deep sense of his obligation to all parties in the state for the kind and liberal spirit manifested towards him. Later on in the evening, Mr. Mcorehouse rose and proposed the health of the absent members, coupling with the toasts the name of Mr. FitzGerald, from whom he had that day received a note apologizing for his absence, on the ground of the shortness of notice of the event, and the great depression from which he suffered on hearing of the death of Mr. Godley. His Honor pronounced a high eulogium on Mr. FitzGerald. He deeply regretted that on that occasion he had not the pleasure of meeting him in this agreeablo reunion, and he regretted still more the melancholy event which had taken away from life one of Canterbury's eldest and best friends, Mr. Godley, and had caused the absence from the festive board of his and their friend, Mr. FitzGerald.

Amongst the other toasts of the evening were the health of the Provincial Secretary, the Provincial Solicitor, the Speaker and Provincial Council, the Army, Navy, and Volunteers, Mrs. Moorehouse, the Ladies, &c. About midnight the National Anthem was sung, and the party broke up.

Christchurch had been proclaimed a municipal district, and the undermentioned gentlemen had been elected " Municipal Councillors" —Messrs. Donald, Aynsley,. Hargreaves, Grubb, Peacock, Ballestie, Willcox, Fyfe, and Genet. At the first meeting, Mr. Donald was chosen as£Chairman. "It ii reported," says the^MWW, —

That the general state of health in Chrisfcbftrch is by no means satisfactory. Fever cases are on the Increase, several deaths having lately occurred from this cause.- Dysentry is also prevalent. The warm, damp weather, has doubtless assisted in promoting this,- aided by the exhalations from the river. A contract, it is said, has been taken for the erection of the Electric Telegraph between Lyttelton and Christchurch; it is expected that within three months the Telegraph will be in operation. The Canterbury races came off oti the 12th February and subsequent days. Our Auckland horses, Deception and Barbara, owing, we believe, to their having just come from on shipboard, did not sustain the reputation they had earned on other fields. Nelson horses carried off the larger proportion of the prizes. "Never," says the Press, Have there been better fields since Canterbury had a | race course, never has the quality of the horses been so good, or the racing so close; the subscriptions have been unusually large; and when we say-that the Giand Stand receipts were nearly double what they were last year, the attendance speaks for itself. Otago.—Riches bring care and anxieties to our friends down South. A "defence meeting," said to be one of the largest ever held there, took place at Dunedin, the Superintendent in the chair. A gentleman named Walker proposed the following resolution:— That, viewing the unsettled state of affairs in America, and the rumoured probability of war between England and theFedeial States, this meeting considers that the colonists should assist the mother country by adopting every means of defence at their disposal, so that, in case hostilities break out, it will not be necessary to rely entirely upon Imperial assistance. —Judging from the report, considerable pugnacity appears to have been displayed at the meeting. Speaking of the changes which have followed the recent visit of. the Colonial Treasurer, the Colonist says— Within the last month some important changes have ma-le. The departments of the Besident Magistrate, Registrar of Deeds, and Registrar of Supreme Court, have been placed on a distinct and separate basis, and provided with a stafF of officers equal to the efficient discharge of the increased and increasing duties devolving respectively upon them. The Post Office and the Custom House have been temporarily enlarged, and are undergoing still further additions. The staff of both these departments has been largely augmented, and the salaries of the different officers placed on such a footing as to remove, in a great measure, the temptation which previously existed to leave the Public Service the moment the slightest inducement presented itself.

i Greater accommodation had also been provided in the public offices, and arrangements have been made for the erection of permanent aad suitable buildings. A daily post to the diggings and a daily town delivery of letters had also been organized. From the Colonist and the Daily Times we take the following:— Facts and Figures.—The first export of gold from Otago was August 3rd, 1861. The current value of the gold exported since that date, up to 31st January, 1862, estimated at £3 17s. 6d. per ounce, amounts to the sum of £980,998, 6s. 6d. THE GOLD FIELDS. We are pleased to notice that the escort from the gold-fields is again increasing in amount. We learn that the escort for this week from Tuapeka and Waitahuna, which may be expected to reach Dunedin this afternoon, is as follows: Tuapeka 9748 oz. 16 dwts. Waitahuna 2031 „ 5 „ 11,780",, 1 „ To this amount should be added a considerable quantity from Waipori, which place sent down its first parcel of over 1000 ozs. last week. Reports from the Waipori speak of large numbers of men being employed over a large extent of country, and of some instances of more than ordinary success. We have been shown a very fine specimen of quartz containing gold, which was obtained from the bed of the Waipori, and from the appearance of which it is confidently believed that a valuable reef must exist not far off. GOOD NEWS FOR THE MINERS. We have seldom had a more gratifying task than the present. We nave at the same time to announce the introduction of most beneficial reforms on the goldfields, and to praise the Government that instituted them. The late visits to the mines have borne prompt fruits, as the following results will show:— Tenders have been received and accepted, for raising 1200 tons of coal, or lignite, on Tuapeka, and 1000 on Waitahuna. Sheds are to be erected by the Government, and the coal is to be retailed out to the Miners at cost price. We are not at liberty to indicate exactly what that will be, suffice it, that the cost will be littl& more than that of procuring firewood on the Victorian gold fields. In a proper fireplace, the expense for fuel is likely to be less than £1 a month. This divided amongst a party of Miners, will be comparatively trifling. Townships are at once to be laid out, and disposed of at Tuapeka and Waitahuna, at the sites indicated by Mr. Hardy in his roport. The allotments will be mapped out into % acre, 1 acre, and 10 acre blocks. The upset price is not yet fixed. The road to Wetherston's from the neighbauring gold fields is ordered to be at once proceeded with, and contracts for thousands of pounds have been accepted for repairing roads and j erecting bridges on the route to the gold-fields from Dunedin.

An Hospital is at once to be erected at a situation nearly equi-distant from Tuapeka, Wethers tone's, and Waitahuna. The dimensions are to be 130 feet by 20 feet, and it is to be fitted up to hold forty patients. To close our interesting budget, revisions and emendations are to be made in the Mining Rules, to meet present necessities pending the formation of Mining Boards and the construction of By-Laws. The Miners, we do not doubt, will be gratified with these concessions, and will esteem the inducements'offered by the Province as not inferior to those o!' Victoiia. Southland.—ln the News we read that In bringing forward the Estimates, the Provincial Treasurer showed that the balance of £13,000 in hand on the Ist of January had been increased by £7OOO at the date of his speaking, and that by the end of that month there would be about £24,000 to the credit of the Province; that the estimate of £4OOO a month, as the revenue from the sale of crown lands, might fairly be assumed to be a safe one, seeing that in January alone nearly three months' renenue was received; and that the Customs revenue was steadily increasing, that it also promised to keep on so doing, more especially as our imports arc growingly from Melbourne direct, instead of dribbling-in coastwise from Dunedin, as' used to be the case, —and with the increase in our direct imports, our direct exports keep on increasing in equal ratio. It may seem strange that this should be the fact, seeing that, according to our Dunedin daily contemporary, (whose statements are infallible,) poor Southland has no port: nevertheless it is a fact, which the next periodical Customs' return will show out in a still more striking light. The " splendid clipper liner" Ocean Chief was totally destroyed by fire in Bluff Harbour. An inquest having been held, the jury returned the following verdict:— That we are unanimously of opinion that the ship " Ocean Chief" has been wilfully set on fire, but we have not sufficient evidence to say by whom. —The crew are suspected. Hawke's Bay.—The following resume of the census is taken from the local journals:— The Census returns, so far as this province is concerned, are now completed. The following is the return of population:— Males. Females. Under 6 years 276 240 6 and under 16 233 233 16 " 21 143 92 21 " 10 778 296 40 " 55 195 69 55 " 65 40 13 65 and upwards 2 1 1,667 944 Total of Military) ... 2,611 Disparity of the sexes 723

the above namber, that division of the province known as the electoral district of Clive has 1134, and that as the district of Napier 1477. Of the latter number, 924 reside in the town of Napier. The returns shew an increase over the census taken in April, 1860, by the Provincial Government of 272 souls, of whom 181 are resident in Napier. The increase is chiefly apparent in the column lor children under 5 years of age. Under the heads of place of birth, occupation, and religious denomination, there is no material difference since last returns. In the first, however, 839 are set down as of New Zealand birth, which was not provided for in the provincial form. Under the last, there arc set down—4 Swedenborgians, 2 changeable, 1 Buddhist, and several undecided—evidences, we presume, of practical joking. The number of acres fenced is 31.750, of which 2123 arc under crop generally, and 3721 uiider sown grass. In these respects a great change is apparent since last returns, when the number of acres in crop was 978, in grass 1562, arid fenced 10,695. The schedule of live stock shows the following numbers:—horses 1782 (490 over former return), horned cattle 8320 (2690 over former return); sheep 312,459 —shewing an increase of 89,357. Goats and pigs, on the other hand, have greatly decreased in number, whilst poultry are set down at nearly 10,000.