SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Invercargill, February 23.

Otago Witness, Issue 2244, 4 March 1897, Page 30

SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Invercargill, February 23.

The hot still weather of the last week has besn ust what was wanted for harvest operations and the backward crops. Crops that a week ago looked green have ripened wonderfully rapidly this week, and are now almost ready for cutting. For the gardens, roads, miners, and householders who depend upou tanks for their water supply the weather is too dry. Mining operations are practically at a stand-, still for want of water, though excitement increases daily over new discoveries of alluvial and. quartz deprsits reported from Preservation Inlet, Waiau Mouth, Merrivale, and other places. Mr R. Allen, who represents a number of the syndicates that are seeking to develop reefs at Preservation Inlet, says that four parties have been employed in opening up and driving on reefs, and that the news from them generally is very satisfactory. At the Neck, on the Cuttle Cove side of the Inlet, a tunnel has been put in for some distance on a well-defined reef. On the southeast side of the Inlet also, on a continuation of the Morning Star line, a drive has been made in the Gambier claim near lower Wilson River on a roef carrying fair gold. Another party has been employed on the Jessica claim, to the west of the Morning Star, on a reef giving a fair prospect, and which appears to be parallel to the Morning Star's line. ' On the whole the prospecters are very well satisfied with the results, as every reef that they have opened out so far carries gold, and the belief is that with a fair amount of capital there is rich country to be opened up. This sendiDg out of these parties involves considerable outlay on the part of the syndicates, and every credit is due to these for the spirit which prompts them to spend money in this direction. The ■work is calculated to do an immense amount of good to the district, and it is only by such efforts that success will be attained. Mr W. Wylie, the new mine manager of the old Golden Site mine, reports on the 18th inst. to his directors the amount of driving he has up to that date accomplished, and says further :— " Ido not think there can be the least doubt about our being on the Golden Site line of reef, and, from ■what I can see, it has every appearance of permanency, and it is only a question of driving to the north until a block of payable stone is met with, which I think will not be very long." The returns from the Morning fctar mine were 2580z lome dwts retorted gold from 286 tons stone. The battery, however, at these works had been idle upwards of a fortnight owing to th« exceptionally dry weather and shortness of water. This company announce a sixth dividend of 3d per share, payable on and after to-morrow. From Orepuki to the Waiau Mouth, over the Waiau, and up it as far as the BJackmount Flat, many alluvial, quartz, and dredging claims have been pegged off, but the nature of this country will not permit of individual minen .taking up claims and proceeding to work at once, as water is wanting, and it in moßt instances will be a tedious and expensive job to bring it in. I heard this morning that the promising quartz reef which had been found on the Merrivale estate, and which I referred to in these notes last week, iB a big depoßit of white granite showing plenty of mica, aud not quartz at all. The discoverers have S egged off a 100-acre claim, but their application as not, yet come before the warden. <Many of the claims (nearly all of them, I think) that have been pegged off on the west of the Waiau are on that block of land which some years ago waa reserved for the natives of this district. If gold is now found there in payable quantities serious complications may arise, which might amount to a small native difficulty even in these parts of the colony. . Three prospectors at the mouth of the Waiau are reported to be making about £25 a week. It is believed, however, that the payable ground is only of limited extent. The Colonial Secretary made a first trip to the far south, reaching Colac Bay via Invercargill the latter end of last week First iruprestions are always sought after, and in this case these are all the more significant, as Mr Carroll in not only New Zealand born, but distantly allied to the aboriginal raca. His intercourse with those he was brought into contact was most distinctly unconventional. In that respect alone the universal verdict i 3 that he sustained the democratic policy of the Government to better , advantage than any other member of the Cabinet , personally known to us southerners. The few j public deliverances hs was called upon to make showed a good deal of frankness on the one hand and cautious deliberation on the other. These two irreconcilables I explain thug : He was urged, perhaps importuned, to get immv'.ftte provision made for the track from Waiau through to Preservation Inlet. The pressing importance of the work he admitted frankly, going the length of adding a number of shrewd opinions of bis own as to the advantages it would be to this long neglected territory. Beyond that he was exceedingly cautious. It did not come within the. administration of his department. Strictly speaking, it belonged to that unenthusiastic individual, the Minister for Mines, and he would do his level best to enlist whatever did duty as sympathy in the' breast of that Governmental stoic. These were not the exact words, but read between the lines that is their purport. Had it been the impulsive Ward or the bland but bluff Seddon, they would have sent the auditory away with a firm conviction that the work was as good as accomplished, and then they would have thought no more about it. As it is, the impression left by the Secretary is that the matter would not be overlooked, and that he at least would be prepared to urge its claims fairly. Mr Carroll, on the other hand, told us the district as a whole had left a very favourable impression on his mind. Mineral products had been shown to him the groundwork of which, if only one-half as rich as the sample, would bring about a complete revolution in the mining interests of the colony. These and many more remarks, equally woll put, create an impression that he is qi ite as well pleased with the district as the district is with him. His primary object in coming south was a settlement of that l"ngvexed question, the South Island native land claim. Unlike his predecessor in office, the Hon. Mr Cadman, he admits the claim as stated is founded on fact. What he says is that the claim has remained co long in abeyance that other rights have intervened, and that it is now impossible to give effect to it as originally constituted. To be more explicit, the claim arises out of the deed of cession, or contract of sale, originally entered into with the natives. Out of the land so ceded ample it^erves were to be made for the native sellers, their heirs, and successors in all time coming. These reserves were to be distributed amongst and set apart coterminous to lands disposed of to Europeans, so as to have a chance of participating in the unearned increment. To carry out that arrangement is now impossible, and the arrangement itself having been made on behalf of generations yet unborn the question arises, What adjustment can be made to cover all the interests involved ? As I underetand it, the Minister is now prepared to recommend that ample endowments be made, aud having done to he will a»k the Supreme Court of the colony to say the contract in its integrity is now impossible, and that the endowment proposed by him, carefully safeguarded, is ample compensation for the lost rights. The proposal on Mr Carroll's part appears fair and reasonable. The natives themselves are well satisfied with the prospect of getting this long-standing grievance set at rest, and if it can be disposed of once and for all the Minister'^ visit south will not have been in vain.

Mr Hunter Macandrew, who has been assistant engineer in the Public Works department at Te

Aroha, lias been transferred to the Railway department, and becomes district engineer for the Southland section. He is now going over the line with Mr Biss, the present assistant engineer, who | is to be transferred to some station farther north ■ (Auckland or Wellington). j The Southland section of railways ia to be supplied with Blackball (Grej) and Nightcaps coal this year. 'Jhe tourist trade is sHll flourishing in these pirtp. The Mararoa arrived this morning from Hobart and Melbourne a full ship as regards passengers, and the Talune, which leaves this afternoon for the above ports, had to refuse passages to tourists wishing to return to Australia. The Mararoa visited the Sounds yesterday, and the Talune will do so to-morrow. The former's passengers report having had beautiful weather coming over. A great many of them have left the boat here to visit the Lakes. Large numbers of sheep arcs being railed daily to the Ocean Beach and, the Mataura and Bluff Freezing Works. The s.s. Perthshire is due at Bluff in a fortnight's time to load frozen meat from the Southland Company's works. 'I he value of the imports to lavercargill and Bluff for 1898 was £168,343 ; for 1895 the figures were £178,141. The exports for 1896 were value for £713 480, a considerable increase over 1595, when the amount was £595,277. March 2. With a low glsss arid cloudy sky, backed up by Mr Paulin's forecasts of rain showers, we were expecting yesterday a break in our long spell 6f dry, warm weather, and, though right in the 1 middle of harvest -operations, rejoiced at the , prospect. To-day all these indications have cleared away, and it is as fine and warm as ever. Southland has seldom experienced a drier summer than the present. Creeks and wate> courses are either dried up entirely or are very low, a fact which, with the remarkable absence of winds, is probably accountable for the large amount of j sickness that prevails just now in both town and country districts. In connection with the opening out of the south-west coast sounds a deal of enthusiasm has of late been displayed. The immediate cause is the Qoldfields yield, tosether with the knowledge that the country throughout abounds in quartz reefs and other richly-mineralised indication. The ulterior motive is the tourist traffic, yearly increasing to these parts. Happily both purposes work together for the common cause, and it is satisfactory to note that the authorities are now beginning to waken up to a sense of the importance of the subject. A few weeks ago a working party was put on to operate ; from Manapouri. They established their main camp at the head of the western arm, and as a ! first fruit of their libours report having opened out communication with the head of Doubtful Sound. The real importance of this achievement is that it practically places the southern portion of the fiords system in a through line of communication with the southern lake?, thereby grouping together the entire scenic beauty of the south in one round turn for tourist enterprise. To illustrate the pierni«e.=, we will suppose excursionists from Dunedin or Melbource " clumped down" on Preservation. Thence they will be able to pass on through Chalky, Dusky, Breaksea, Doubtful, and Thomson Sounds, reaching Lake Manapouri without the necessity of retracing a single step. The landward portion of the journey will not exceed a distance of 20 miles, and it is mo^t desirable that these tracks should be made with as little delay as possible. Traffic of this kind is increasing fast, and being admittedly a payable traffic it is but right it should be fostered to the best possible advantage. j The mayor of Invercargill has shown a good dea of forethought in the efforts he is making to pro vide a supply of labour against the forthcoming winter. His Worship admits that there is very little to complain of on the want of labour a*; present. He can, however, foresee that as the season advances trouble on that account will arise. On the occasion of the Colonial Secretary's recent visit he had several interviews with him on the subject. What the mayor argued was that the through track fiom Orepuki to Cromarty ! was a work which was urgently needed. Its forI niation would serve the twofold object of providi ing labour in the meantime and enable men who might otherwise remain in the ranks of the unemployed to spot likely-looking country for mining purpose*. Following up his interviews with the Secretary, the mayor has now got into communication with the Minister for Lands, and, practically speaking, the work -has been put in hand. A survey party has been despatched to undertake the requisite preliminaries, and a sum of £1000 has been set aside for the work. Mr I Hannan's foresight in this matter alone affords an earnest in municipal affairs which has given great satisfaction to the townspeople. The member elect for Wallace, Mr Gilfedder, has likewise displayed commendable vigilance in ; anticipating the lequirements of the district. With some slight assistance rendered by the Survey departmeut he proposes setting out at the end of this week on an expedition through the little known parts of his electorate. Crossing the Waiau, he purposes striking inland, regaining the coa3tlineat Big River, and trackingoutthe country thence to Cromarty. If time permits he will proceed thence by the bead of the Sound to Manapouri, thereby familiarising himself with this promising but very little known portion of the district. Information of this nature is very luuch • needed, and it can be made of great service in | Parliament. Singular atmospheric phenomena have lately been noticeable in these parts. Thick haze enveloped Foveaux Straits, leaving only the upper peaks of Stewart Island visible. The surface of the haze was broken and fretted like a troubled sea, so that the whele thing looked as if the waters had ris en some hundreds of feet above ordinary sea level. Doubts have arisen as to the propriety of the pioposal made by the Native Minister to appropriate a large block of land west of the Waiau for native grant purposes. These lands are situated in a district known to be auriferous, and if they pass into the hands of the natives it virtually means their mineral resources will remain undeveloped. The lands in virtue of which this grant is proposed originally belonged to the Otago ' block, and it seems hard that the territorial I estate of Southland should be locked up to provide for a claim for which this district was nowise liable. Otago proper ought to provide for her own claims, and not cast her burdens on the shoulders of others who never benefited by the alleged malversations out of which these claims aro-e. Apropos of the visit lately paid by representatives of the London and N -w Zealand Financial Corporation, it is said that either one or two Preservation Inlet claims have been taken up for further development and flotation in the Home market. It is to be hoped the raport will turn out correct, as the want of capital has kept the place in abeyance when otherwise it might have been a richly productive field. I have travelled a good deal this summer in the back country in the Western district, and on each occasion have been struck with the decrease of I rabbits in those parts as compared with the state of affairs that prevailed a few years ago. In some places where they were 3 warm ing there are now practically none. This improved state of affairs can hardly be attributed to any special exertions on the part of the inspectors er the occupiers of the noil, and being a question of se great and general importance the idea suggests itself whether a royal commission would not be a« profitably engaged inquiring into the cause of this change as into other questions of less public interest often relegated to »uch bodies. Not only were ne live rabbits noticeable on some of the runs we passed through, but there wag a total absence of recent burrowings of other indications of their presence, and a very narked undergrowth of some of the finer native grasses, - which had totally disappeared during the period bunny overran that country. The parts that are cow most free of the pest are the places which in the early rabbit days were most infested. It nisy be, and probably is, I I should say, that th» rabbit has so fouled | those parts that it can no longer live on them. I But there are other indications that bunny has not decreased greatly in Southland as a whole. From a conversation I had this morning with the ' manager of Mr Tait's canning factory at Woodlands, I learn that their supplies of rabbits were never as plentiful, or their condition so good, as they are this season. They are receiving at the I factory now about 5000 rabbits per day, and they I nearly all come from the agricultural districts, I imnx which one ruight supuoie bunny has been

tempted to leave the back country and the hard, dry native feeds there, which their long occupation of has fouled and sickened them of, and hence they have taken up their quarters near the cultivated fields of the agriculturist, where they relish the English grass and other green crops. If this is ho it will greatly facilitate their destruction, or at all events the reduction of their numbers to reasonable limits. The price the factories are now paying for rabbits is 3£d per pair and railage. The Rev. J. G. Patterson, in the early days Presbyterian minister of St. Paul's Church here, is on a visit to this place, and is receiving a very hearty welcome from his old friends. On Sunday evening he ofli iated at his old church (St. Paul's), delivering a sermon or address pntitled "The Privilege and Duty of Madness in Youth," whichwas listened to by a crowded congregation of old identities ami their families The sum and substance of the address was how ready society is nowadays, both in and out of the church, to denounce anything approaching sensationalism, anyone stepping beyond the limits of cold, placid conventional respectability being just as liable to be setdown as mad to-day as they were 2000 years ago, when Christ'sifriends went out to lay hold on him, sajing he was beside himself, and Festus said to Paul, " Paul, thou art beside thyself ; much learning hath wade thee mad." Mr J. J. Brennan, secretary to the Grand Lidge of Druid?, Victoiia, has, as haR been already announced, offered the luvercargill Garrison Band £50 towards their expenses in attending a band contest this year in connection with the Diuids' ! Carnival to be held in Melbourne at Easter. As ' I understand the matter, the Druids of Victoria ' every year hold a large gathering at Easter time in aid of the various charities of the Australasian colonies. This yeir, for the first time, they have included a band contest in their programme of attractionf, the prize-tnouey for this contest amounting to upwards of £200. It is to enable our local band to take part in this contest that the £50 has been offered. It has been decided to accept Mr Brennan's offer. Each baud tak nj* part in the competition plays two selections of its own choice, and the Garrison Band have already commenced to practise hard for the contest. Private letters received by friends in this town from Mr W. Todd's family, who lift here about nice months ago for Western Australia, say that Mr Todd is full up of the Golden West, and contemplates as speedy a return to New Zealand as circumstances will permit, and that he will probably settle in Auckland on his return to this colDiiy. In a letter to a friend here a few months ago he wrote : "If I ever get back to New Z".a.- i land again 1 should never leave that beautiful country." Lambs for freezing are being keenly competed for by the buyers of the opposition freezing works here at from 8s to 9i 0 f, but all the buyers say there are not nearly the number of lambs in the district this year that there was last, and that very few of those from the grass paddocks are fit for killing at present. . H.M.S. Ptoyalist, Captaiu Rayson in command, arrived at the Bluff from the north, via Camp-"" bell Islands, yesterday. She will coal at this poit, and take her departure on Wednesday. i An informal but well attended gathering of ; temperance workers was held in the V.M.C.A. ! Hall on Monday evening to bid farewell to the Rev. W. Woollass, who is removing to the Auckland district. Mr J. J. Wesney presided, and expressed the regret that the temperance portion of the community felt at the removal of Mr Woollass, whose enthusiasm and energy had contributed considerably to the growth of the prohibition sentiment in the town aud district. Others spoke in a similar strain, and Mr J. S. Baxter presented Mr Woollass with a purse containing a substantial number of sovereigns on behalf of the temperance workers of the town and others who, while not prohibitionists, admired the moral courage and earnestness displayed by Mr Woollass. Mr Woollass, in reply, expressed his sorrow at his departure from Invercargill, where he had enjoyed good health, had experienced much kindness, and had had a congenial sphere of work. He spoke hopefully of the success of the , prohibition movement, which was a battle be- ' tween the old and the young, and the young were bound to win. He thought that if the ministers j were all outspoken on the side of prohibition the ! cause would speedily be won. He counselled his hearers to persistent effort, and thanked them for the unexpected and handsome compliment paid to him. A batch of 14 cyclists, including some ladies, were up before the local magistrate this morning, and fined various sums from 12s to 17s— for riding after dark without lights, and a few for riding on suburban footpaths. The customs duties collected at Inverorgill during February amounted to £3608 2s 2d £539 4s ; lid less than in February 189tj. The beer duty i amounted to £190 5s b'd, an increase of £40 18s lOd j over February of the previous year.