EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26816, 6 July 1948, Page 4

EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

FROM THE FILES OF THE ©tago E>atl\? Himes DUNEDIN, JULY 6, 1863. The Cromwell Argus of the 23rd ult. says: “ We have been shown a specimen of gold-bearing quartz from the Shotover by a miner from Bendigo, who picked it up in a valley into which he was lowered by ropes. The quality is almost like reddish jasper. The specimen had formed part of a large boulder, and it was coated fairly with gold in the centre. The quartz was quite unlike any found in this colony. The lowering of the miner into the valley by ropes reminds one of Sinbad the Sailor’s exploits in the valley of diamonds." “We‘regret to learn from private advices received from Scotland that great destitution continues to prevail amongst the working classes dependent upon the cotton manufacture. Urgent memorials have been addressed to Scottish residents and others abroad appealing for assistance, signed by clergymen and others anxious to act the part of distributors of relief.” “A telegram from the Sydney correrespondent of the Melbourne Argus states that by way of Honolulu further information had been received with reference to the kidnapping in the South Seas. It is said that a Mr J. C. Byrne is at the bottom of the nefarious enterprise, but the Peruvian Government was also directly implicated, having issued licences for importation. If we remember rightly, this Mr J. C. Byrne took a very active part in inducing emigration from England to Natal some 12 years ago, and rendered himself on more than one occasion amenable to penalties for flagrant breaches of the laws affecting immigration.” With reference to the threatened attack on the Ahuriri by the Waikatos, alluded to by a Wellington correspondent, the Hawke’s Bay Herald of June 17 says: “We suppose that for some time wars and rumours of wars will be the order of the day. One of the latter has prevailed in town since Monday morning, and has had some effect in unsettling men’s minds. Our columns would be ill-employed were we to give publicity to every report, Native or otherwise, which gains currency, but the one that prevails, to the effect that information had reached Mr McLean of an intended or threatened raid by the Waikatos into this district, would appear to have been of such a nature as to call for extra vigilance on the part of the military authorities, the major commanding the troops having organised a nightly patrol. We ought not, however, to attach undue importance to what, after all, may be a mere act of watchfulness at a time when the political horizon is overclouded; and, indeed, we have been informed that the generally-received version of the information is a greatly exaggerated one.”