SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS FOR MELBOURNE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 101, 13 March 1862, Page 4

SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS FOR MELBOURNE.

The following brief summary will be found to embrace most of the local intelligence of interest since the last mail was dispatched for Melbourne per j Omeo, on March Ist. The.Lord Ashley, s.s., arrived on the evening of • March 1, the day the Omeo left: she brought i dates from Sydney to the 16th February, hut no word of the mail, much to the disappointment of many. On tlie same day the Louise arrived from Mauritius with intelligence of cholera raging on that i island. Tlie Louise was accordingly put in quar- ' antine, but has since been cleared. [ The long expected Princess' company arrived by tlie Seaman's Bride, on the 2nd March, and the tlieatie was opened on the sth. So much had been expected of this company, that it was a very considerable disappointment to many to find that instead ■of being a really good theatrical troupe, they were only a small company of mediocre performers. A splendid bouse greeted their first appearance, but they have not had such large audiences since. It is understood that some additions are shortlyjto be made to the strength of the company. A singular case of what may well be called romance iin actual life has transpired during the month. It appears that a gentleman who was for a considerable time engaged in various capacities in Victoria and New Zealand ; who had been a policeman, a splitter, . a Government interpreter, and lastly au officer J .of the land purchase department in Auckland, was the nephew of a nobleman high in tlie good graces of ; tlie French Emneror, and that recently by the death [ :of his uucle, lie has succeeded to the title and estates '. ;of the Comte de Ville. It appears that the young Frenchman had formerly been an officer of Zouaves, j and had served in Algeria, but that he had made : himself obnoxious as a partizan of General Cavaignac, and had been compelled to quit France. An aut - graph letter from the Emperor, wliich accompanied tlie intelligence of the decease of his uucle, assured him of the imperial forgiveness of his youthful indiscretions, and he is now gone hack to France to enjoy his good fortune. . :Au interesting report upon the Clutha coalfield, in this Province, was published in our issue of March 4. At the date of the report upwards of 20 tons of coals were excavated and ready for removal to the jetty for shipment to Duuedin. What gives an interest to the coal workings iv the Clutha district is tlie fact of the convenience of water communication. The writer of tlie report was confident of the coal at the-Clutha being true coal. The lignite fields in the neighbor--1 hood of the diggings are being worked for the purpose of raising fuel-for the miners during the ensuing winter, and tlie coal is to be retailed at prime cost, only a few shillings per ton. We may mention, that in some parts of the Province the coal or lignite has for some time been pretty generally used as fuel. About tlie 4th of the month the body of a man was found half buried in the sand at the Heads. An inquest was held, but the body was not positively identiiied ;it is, however, supposed to have been that of one ofthe seamen ofthe loung America. Information was received early in tlie inoptli from the Buller diggings, on the west coast of Nelson, whicli warrants the belief that there is some good ground there, although patchy. There has been, some little excitement among the Otago miners about the Coromandel, but the reliable news was not such as to warrant a rush thither. Iv both those instances, the out-of-the-way localities are unfavorable to extensive prospecting, and in tlie case of the Coromandel there is the necessity of conciliating the Maories, who have agreed to allow only fifty miners to set to work to prospect. With regard to the Otago mines, we have to notice that the miners are very much on the move, and that many, by what old settlers regard as an absurd dread of the winter, are thinking of leaving the diggings before the cold commences. This unsettled state of the mining population has had an uufavorable effect on the escorts, and has cheeked trade, but cannot be truly said to have shaken confidence, for town properties still continue to realize enormous prices. As a curious example of this fact, we may instance tlie sale of the leases of fifty-four shops in tlie Arcade whicli took place on March sth. This " Arcade"' so called apparently ou the lucus a non lucendo principle, for it is not arched over or closed in in any way, consists of a double row of small shops facing each other witli a thoroughfare between them. The shops are very small, and are erected of wood in the very cheapest style. They are all let at high rentals, but the enterprising builder not not content with this, resolved to sell the leases of the shops and thus realize .at once. The leases were for only four years, and ground rent of from £24 to £i 0 per annum was reserved ou each lot; nevertheless the leases fetched sums varying from £140 upwards, the whoie realizing nearly £8000. The Town Board of Dunedin lately applied to the Goverment for a loan of £10,000 for improvements, but tlie request having been refused, the Board has applied for permission to .hypothecate the rates. It is certainly high time that something was don* to keep iup with the rapidly increasing requirements of tlie town, in the way of the formation and metalling of streets, the lighting and draining of the city, Sec, kc. Tlie formation of three new jetties lias been commenced, and is being rapidly proceeded with, its ob ject being not only to provide increased accommodation for shipping, but also to make provision for the extension of the town by the reclamation of a portion ■of the harbor beach. : After a protracted negociation, the Superintendent, about the sth of this month, concluded ,an arrangement for the purchase ofthe run of Messrs Smith and Martin, one of tlie runs on which tlie gold fields are situated. The price giv«n was Is an acre, aud the area about 43,000 acres. This will afford the miners plenty of room for depasturing their cattle. ' The works on the Port Chalmers and Duuedin road arc" rapidly approaching completion, and tlie road' (When finished' \yill be a very good one as regards': '.gradients, but it is sadly tog narrow for a heavy traffic, i Dunedin has had another narrow escape of an. extensive conflagration. A tire broke out on the evening of Starch the sth, iv the premises of Messrs Solomon and Aberdee, in Walker street. The fire commenced among a quantity of paper bags, and bad already communicated with the woodwork, when a police-constable brqke in aud succeeded in smothering the flames with his cloak. It was understood that the property was insured. The proprietors both ran out directly after the'liro broke out, one of them carrying away some blankets, while the other ran for water. On the Oth inst. there was a report that gold had been discoveiel at Stewart's Island, but the rumor lacks confirmation. It has also been reported that gold has been found on private property at Saddle Hill, about six miles out from Dunediu. An interesting mining item is the fact that tlie Deep Sinking Association at Tuapeka have bottomed a shaft and obtamed the color, and that tliere arc niauy symptoms of finding good stuff by driving. We have also to note a vogue report of gold being found near Christchurch, in the neighboring proviuce of Canterbury, but nothing positive is known respecting it. His Honor the Superintendent of tlie Province has for some (lays been absent on a tour through the Northern portions of Otago, with tlie view of making himself personally acquainted with tlieirrequireraents. He has returned to Dunedin to prepare for tlie meeting iof the Provincial Council, which is intended to be on the 15th proximo. Tlie Otago Jockey Club are taking nctivo steps to make the forthcoming races worthy of the Province. It has long been a matter of complaint that the mining regulations of tlie Otago gold-fields were not sufficiently' liberal—that the claims were too small to encourage the miner, To meet this complaint, the rules were revised and amended, and the amended rules were published in oar issue of February 28. This was previous to the departure of the Omeo, but, ias many of our Victorian readers may not have seen tlie number of the paper containing the new rides, we will, for their information, briefly notice the more important alterations. Claims are enlarged for all < workings exceeding 12 feet in depth, but for surface workings the size ofthe claim is still 64 square yards, i •or 24 feet by 24 feet. Tlie size of claims increases i according to the depth of sinking, until, for ground ' where the depth exceeds 100 feet tbe claim is enlarged i Jto 128 yards. In ground previously worked the Com- 1 [missioner may grant a claim equal to three times a |

ordinary claim. For working in the beds nf streams the claim will bo 16 yards in length of tlie river's bed for each holder of a miner's right iv the company, in addition to protection for races and dams, &c. For the encouragement of prospecting, parties discovering new gold workings capable of affording employment to fifty miners, are to be entitle! to a claim not exceeding treble an ordinary surface claim. For quartzreefing, previously unprovided for, a new rule is iu--troducod fixing the ordinary claim for quartz mining at 25 feet along the course of the reef, by a width of 300 feet; prospectors to be allowed 150 feet along the line of the reef. For wet sinking where machinery is employed, the Commissioner will be empowered in communication witli tlie Government, to grant a claim not exceeding four miners' ordinary claims for one horse power. A concert-room has been opened at Jones's Commercial Hotel, and lias been fitted up with a tastefully .decorated stage. The well-known Thatcher, of Victorian celebrity, entertains a crowd nightly witli his humorous local songs, in which he is ably assisted by Madame Vitelli.