THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniatn viam aut faciam.” DUNEDIN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1862.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22133, 11 December 1933, Page 2

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniatn viam aut faciam.” DUNEDIN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1862.

SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO.

In a. late number of the Provincial Government Gazette, Captain Thomson, Harbor-Master, furnishes two reports relative to “ the present _ state of the “harbors and roadsteads in Otago, and “ the works necessary in the same to “ meet their present requirements, and “to make provision for the rapidly in- “ creasing shipping trade to the different “ports.” In the first of these reports, he intimates that, ,with the exception of the recent opening of a new channel at the inner bar, no change has taken place in the fairways in Port Otago; and it is his opinion, from seven years’ observation that, except the shifting of this channel, there has been little or no change in the general features and depth of the harbor. He recommends, however, that a steam dredge should be procured, with a view to the deepening of Dunedin Bay; vessels drawing 12 feet being only able to proceed there, while at the jetties there is 'a depth of not more than 8 feet. The cost of such a steam dredge as would be necessary, he estimates, would be £B,OOO, to which would require to be _ added the cost of six punts, amounting to £1,500, at the rate of £250 each; and the annual working expenses he calculates to amount to £5,210. . . .

We- understand that Messrs James Paterson and Co. on Tuesday last disposed of the Albion Hotel and four quarter-acre sections of land, to Mr J. M'Neil for L 2.960. [This doubtless refers to the Albion- Hotel, which was kept by John Flannagan, at the corner of Great King street and St. David street on the left-hand side from Moray place. The house was shortly afterwards converted into some other class of business, as the directory for 1865 contains no mention of an hotel in Dunedin of that name. In the -early 'seventies the Albion Hotel, kept by Joseph Davis, was situated in Maclaggan street, the site being close to that of the premises of the Phoenix Company of to-day.—Ed. O.D.T.] . . . The bakers of Dunedin have raised the price of bread to lOd. the 41b loaf. In the Government Gazettes of yesterday is published an agreement by which Alex. Begg and Chaa. Diehl undertake to eradicate thistles from certain, defined portions of the districts of' Otepopo and Oamaru, to keep them under for two years, for a sum oi L 825, payable in instalments. ' '

Female immigration has long been a subject of anxious interest to the European colonists of Australia and New Zealand, and- we now learn that ■it has at length begun to engage the attention of the Chinese in Victoria. The Grenville Advertiser, a Ballarat paper, says:— "An intelligent Chinaman, at Linton, named Ah Tuk, who speaksi English quite fluently, and with whom our .reporter is well acquainted, states that there is a -movement among his countrymen at present for the purpose of getting female emigrants from China, with the view of getting married and settling down happily and permanently on the Australian soil. A large number have lately been petitioned for, and it is expected that they will shortly be on. their way hither