SUMMARY OF SOUTHERN NEWS.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1702, 8 July 1862, Page 4

SUMMARY OF SOUTHERN NEWS.

Taranaki. —In the Provincial Council, the Loan Bill for £25,000 for public buildings has been considered in Committee, when — A proposition was made to reduce the amount of the proposed loan from £25,000 to £lo,ooo', which was carried, but a subsequent vote of the Committee brought it back to the original sum. The schedule to the bill enumerates the purposes for which the money shall be applied, as follows: 1. For Public Offices, Supreme Court, Gaol, &c., £SOOO. 2. For Hoad Compensation, £SOOO. 3. For Harbor and the improvement of the Town on and near the Sea Beach, £15,000.

We are glad to find that sounder views of the “situation” are being taken at Taranaki. Here is perhaps the secret of the source from whence our “telegraphic operators,” as the Yankees call their disseminators of falsehoods, derive their cue ; we quote from the Taranaki News of the 26th ult.:— Six months ago some said there would be fighting within two months. Now, winter is intervening, but with the spring strife will assuredly recommence. While others who take a more favourable view of things, consider that whatever may come oat of dealings of the Government with the Natives in the North, that here we have done with all strife in the neighbourhood of the settlement. It would indeed be very desirable to ascertain how this mass of contradictions accumulates, to sift it particle by particle, and ascertain the true worth of each particular statement, but this is impossible. A little inquiry and consideration may, however, detect in the channels by which the bulk if not the entirety of our information arrives, much to shake our faith in its veracity; and it is desirable to do this, not with any view of diminishing the vigilance we are bound to exercise on the coarse of events, for no doubt our uncertain situation demands the utmost caution, but, simply to prevent us placing too much faith in the rumours which week by week are imperceptably to ourselves inducing in our minds belief in a state of things very from real. Nearly all, if not all our impressions of coming mischief are derived from the Natives themselves, who find their interests in sustaining a state of alarm out ot which all of them have profited largely, and many are still profiting. It is no secret that very many of oar so-called friendly Maoris are in communication with those who are in rebellion, and who have been the instigators or actors in the mischiefs and atrocities we have suffered, and it happens not unnaturally that they aid in disseminating the views of those of their compatriots whose great object it is to magnify the sum of further injury it is still in their power to do us, when at the same time they find the scheme also ensures for themselves support out of the public purse, and consideration which would not otherwise belong to them.

From the same journal, the Taranaki News, of the 26th instant, we learn that—

During the present week a large quantity of the Iron Sand has been boxed for shipment to England via Sydney. The amount is we hear, about 50 tons, and the object, experiment on a large scale, which will be duly reported on. Wanganui. —The Volunteer movement seems active in this settlement. There are two “town companies,” numbering more than sixty men each. A third company was being organised by the residents in the Matarawa valley ; there is also a cavalry corps, in which twenty members have been enrolled and attested. Major Rookes, in his district, appears to have evoked a spirit which, at Raugitikei, appears to have carried some of the Militia out of the regular grooves. We read in the Chronicle of the 19th ult., that —

Considerable dissatisfaction has been occasioned here by the apparently neglectful manner in which this force was treated on Monday last week, on which day, agreeably to the notice given by Major Hookes, about 80 men assembled at Bull’s Hotel, some of them coming from a distance of 15 miles, to bo attested as Militia men. They expected Major Rooks to be there to enrol them; but neither he nor any substitute made his appearance, in consequence of which a day and all the trouble and expense of assembling was lost to the settlers. Not only so, having nothing to engage their attention, a few of them drank rather more than was good for them, and one man had his arm broken, while one or two others received wounds less severe, in a quarrel which arose. The inclemency of the weather, we believe, prevented the gallant Major from leaving Wanganui; but in order that no similar disappointment should again happen, he has appointed Mr. John Jordon of Koreromaiwaho, Captain of the Rangitikei Militia, and that gentleman will attest men in Major Hookes’ absence.

Wellington. —Welliugtoniaus did not feel certain, up to a very recent date, that something would not intervene to prevent the Session of the Assembly being held in the “empire city”; they have been very distrustful of us hero in the North, not unmindful of past times. Captain Campbell, the Clerk of the Assembly, and his “ cartloads” of documents, appear to have been accepted, however, as a material guarantee for the good faith of Ministers, and by this time, no doubt, Ministers themselves have put in an appearance at Bellamy’s. The Provincial Council was prorogued on the 19th June. Nelson. —Our files of the local journals present but little matter of general interest ; we take the following items of “ mineral intelligence” from the June summary of the Examiner :— CHROME. The shipment of chrome ore daring the past month has amounted to nearly 900 tons, namely, 65 tons by the Lord Worsley, 162 by the Hebe, for Sydney, and 50 tons by the Lalla Rookb, and 600 tons by the Eli Whitney, for Melbourne. The ease with which this largo quantity of ore has been brought from the mines and conveyed to the wharf in so short a space of time, at the very worst season of the year, is convincing proof of the advantage of the rail over common rdatt?. 1 But for their railway, it would have been impossible for the Dun Mountain Company to have shipped so ■large a quantity of ore in *o shots a space of tire, and during stich inclement wheather. The quantity of

chrome ore now on its way home is considerable, and, on its arrival in England, its value in the market will be fairly tested. GOLD. The state of the wheather during the last month has not bean favourable to gold diggings, nevertheless a large quantity of gold, considering the small number of diggers at work, has reached town. The more we hear gold-fields, the higher is the opinion we form both of their richness and extent. All the diggers who have stuck to their work have done well, while many have amassed considerable wealth. That we shall yet see a very large population on our diggings we are quite satisfied.

COAL. The reports of Mr. Buruett on the western coal-field, given in the present Summary, furnish some additional information on the extent and value of these fields. Mr. Burnett is still at the Buller, making further surveys of the district, so that we may expect to receive yet additional information from him. The report of Captain Clonston on the harbours of the Grey and Buller, also given in to-day’s Summary, shows that the Buller is the more preferable river for shipping, and that, for vessels not drawing more than thirteen feet of water, the latter river furnishes a good harbour. There is also another called the Mokihinui, thirtyfivc miles north of the Buller, which furnishes a good harbour for vessels of a similar class, and where the coal can be worked with, perhaps, even greater facility than at the Buller or Grey. Samples of this coal have been brought to Nelson, and a better fuel for all _ purposes cannot be desired. Engineers who have tried it declare that it is equal if not superior for steam purposes to any coal found in Great Britian. Several applications for mining leases in this latter district have been made to the Government, but unless the coal be worked by capitalists no good result can be expected.

The steamer “Tasmanian Maid” has been wrecked. In reference to this disaster, the Examiner says :

The lossof our little localstcamer,theTasmanianMaid, on the bar of the Wairau river during the past month will be a severe blow to our trade with Marlborough and Collingwood. We are of opinion that the bar of the Wairau river is far too dangerous ever to permit of a satisfactory trade being carried on with Blenheim direct, and it is to be hoped that the Provincial Government of Marlborough will come to the determination of making either a tramway or a good dray road between Picton and Blenheim as speedily as possible. Land Sale. —A sale of pastoral land, situate in the Amuri District, took place in the Land-office, on Saturday last, and realised the sum of, £10,340. The purchasers were Mr. Duppa and Mr. Rutherford, but Mr. Duppa was by far the largest purchaser, as he paid into the Treasury above £9,000. There was no competition for any of the lots. Marlborough. —Our friends in the model Province are suffering mildly from the election fever, members for the enlarged Provincial Council having to be chosen. At an election meeting at Picton, the following question was put to a candidate :

Mr. Beauchamp asked Mr. Seymour whether ho would support a motion for subsidizing the Inter-colon-ial steamers to run direct from Sydney to the port of Picton.

fTo this tho candidate replied that hewould.be prepared to vote a moderate subsidy for that purpose.] In the next column of the Marlborough Press, from which we cut the above morsel of a report, we find the following, which reads somewhat strangely beside it :

Sometime since, Capt. Rough, Collector of Custom, at Nelson, recommended the Commissioner of Customs to appoint the Port of Picton as a warehousing port. The Superintendent has been lately informed that the Commissioner “ cannot comply with the request, as the step would inevitably involve the expense of a locker which the finances of Marlborough will not bear.”

Canterbury. —The Times of June 14th, says :

Oar Summary of the past quarter is the histoiy of a community quietly and rapidly progressing. Fortunately there are no great calamities to record, and perhaps quite as fortunately very little political news. A general election has passed off with little or no excitement. The same Superintendent was returned again, and most of the members of the old council were returned to serve in the enlarged one. Prosperity softens men’s tempers th the verge of apathy. If the Provincial elections went off without interest, what shall we say of those for the General Assembly. It has been long known that three scets were vacant, and lately it was understood that Mr. FitzGerald and the Superintendent would fill two of them ; bur. till the election was over, very few indeed of the electors of the Avon district were in the secret as to who was to be their representative. It is very strange that electors should allow candidates to remain ‘ dark’ to the last moment, and that no enquiry should be made beforehand on the subject. Not one of the three members now elected have in any way communicated with their constituents before the day of nomination and only one appeared on the hustings on the day of election. Messrs. Moorhouse and FitzGerald were at least members of former assemblies, and their opinions were pretty well known, but who knows what Mr. Thompson’s opinions arc on subjects to be brought before the Assembly. Apathy may go too far. The Provincial Government have in the chest £IOO,OOO, with which it is said they do not know what to do; having already bought up £50,000 of the Railway Debentures, it is proposed to employ a portion of the embarrassing surplus in making a second investment in the railway securities. Of the railway itself, we are told that—

The Railway Works have made steady progress during the lust few months; the total length of heading driven being now upwards of 650 yards, whilst a considerable length of the tunnel at each end has been taken out to its full size. The contractors are quarrying for the tunnel front and bridge work in Heathcote valley a very handsome stone, which forms a dyke four miles in length, and which can be traced from the top of the Port hills as far northwards as the Heathcote ferry. Mr. Richardson, of the firm of Holmes and Co. has gone to England for the purpose of superintending the construction of the machinery ordered for boring the tunnel and to make arrangements connected with the Railway Works. He will bring out with him, on his return, the iron work for the drawbridge over the Heathcote which has been contracted for by Messrs. Holmes & Co. according to the Provincial Engineer’s designs.

Canterbury has the honor of being the first of the New Zealand Provinces in which an electric telegraph has been brought into operation. In the Times of the 18th ultimo, it is announced that—

The whole of the telegraph wire has been fixed and stretched between Christchurch and Lyttelton. It is probable that the first telegram will be despatched to-day. The opening of the first telegraph in New Zealand must be considered an epoch in the history of the colony, and it is no small gratification that Canterbury can claim the credit of being the province to introduce this last great wonder of civilization into New Zealand. Considering the very unfavourable state of the weather for the past month, great credit is due to the contractors and superintendent of the works, for having completed the task in so short a space of time. Great inconvenience from scarcity of fuel was beginning to be felt in some parts of the Province. Otago.—Separation appears to be “ going out.” Our “ Melbourne-minded” comempory the Otago Times finds that he has not yet caught the tone of colonial feeling in New Zealand. Having come down from Melbourne on spec, the Times appears surprised that the old colonists of New Zealand should talk sentiment about New Zealand, should have any “ patriotism” or should hesitate to accept the views of the diggers’ oracle, on the subject of separation, as final and conclusive. The conceit of the “oracle,” in this and other matters, is indeed,'highly amusing.-Jt •«• ; The - weather ‘ continued - ' bad, andthe country roads impracticable. The condition v of the streets in Dunedin brings down hourly 1 anathemas upon the devoted Town Board.