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Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 97, 5 October 1863, Page 2

"VVe were last night informed that a payable gold field had been discovered about five miles from Long Ford, buut at present we cannot name the exact locality. The fortunate prospectors, not being in possession of miner's rights have, we understand, gone to the Nokomai to procure them.

-As the. northern news per Airedale only reached us yesterday (Sunday), we cannot — the post-office having been closed-r-publish our Auckland and other correspondence in this issue. "We haveboen enabled, however, so far as intelligence from the seat of war is concerned, to supply the deficit from the columns of the Daily Times of the 3r d inst. The streets have been crowded for the last day or two with the aew arrivals per Helenslee, wandering about -in the vague going-to-no-place-in -particular manner usual with' the genus. The frail bandbox and the monster gingham umbrella of the rural districts of the home country were to be seen in refreshing profusiou. Sunday clothes of rare glossiness and wonderful pattern were flutter" ing about; and the homely Scotch accent was very predominant. The men appeared to be strong, able-bodied fellows, who will, should they go in fo r country work, command good wages as shepherd 8 and farm-servants. The female immigrants will immediately find situations as servants ; inasmuch as one of the crj ing ills of Southland social life has 'been^he^vant et'-demestic "helps." Mrs. C. B. Lowe, the granddaughter of Mr Hall, one of the first missionaries who landed in New Zealand, died at the Round. Swamp, on the Mudgee road, Sydney, on the 2nd inst. The Provincial Government Gazette, of the 2nd inst. contains a proclamation by His Honor, appointing the electors entitled to vote for members of the Town Board, to assemble on the 10th inst., at the School-house, lnvercargill, for the purpose of electing four members to take the place of Messrs JJJackloek, Lang, Clerke, and Mueller, resigned. In the event of a poll being demanded, the same will tfike place in theomce of the Board, on Monday,, the 12th inst., under the auspices of Mr. Mitchell, the Returning Ollicer. The appointment of mounted constable John Dunn, to be an Inspector of Slaughteryards for the district of luv(srcargill, is also notified. The tenders have just been accepted by Government: — For bridge approaches over Creek, Oreti River, on the Great North Road, near M'Loau's station, Messrs Campbell, Brothers a nd Itobertson, >at £\)Q. For clearing, cutting drains, and making corduroy roud on jßay Road diversion, £1362. We understand that plans for a new posfc-office in lnvercargill have been prepared, and are about to be -sent up to Auckland for the sanction of the General Government, which we are given to believe will follow as a matter of course. The present post-office is so manifestly insufficient for j the requirements of the place, that we cannot but wonder that it has so long been supinely tolerated by the public. Whenever there has been a rush of business, access to the windows was beyond the power of any save, perhaps, a "bounding brother." And, moreover, the outward appearance of the building is so rieketty, not to say mean, (hat a booking-office of joint-stock chimneysweepers is suggested, rather than a General Government department. So far as the administration is concerned, there is no fault to be found, now that additional facilities have been afforded by opening; the ofllce earlier and closing it later. If upon the arrival of an important mail on a Sunday, letters could be sorted, it would bo found a great advantage. A very useful institution, a Mutual Improvement and Debating Society, has recently been started at lliverton. Tue same step mio-bt be tnken in lnvercargill with profit to many of the younger inhabitants. The active membership of this kind of society compels a very considerable amount of reading and culture. Self- education becomes, instead of a task, a pleasure. Those to whom even the date of the death of the lamented Queen Ann is as great a mystery as the Chinese language, by a short course of debating nnd getting up for debates, acquire a knowledge extending almost to the pre-Adamite world. A taste for literature, for its own sake, is engendered, and that, tinging, as it always does, the complexion of everyday life, leads to a refinement which is often missing in the social surroundings of a colony. We observe that the Committee of the Mechanics' Institute are about to erect a reading. room and library. When the same are completed, a most suitable place will be afforded for the- meetings of a Mutual Improvement and Debating Club. It was said that Sydney had shown unwillingness to contribute the quota of reinforcements for Auckland, To rebut this, the 12th Regiment, quartered in the former city, has just been dispatched to the seat of war. As to the illegal exportation of arms from Aus, tralia to New Zealand, the Lybtelboti Times says : — " We understand that in consequence of information sent up from the Customs' department here, the authorities at Melbourne lately instituted immediate proceedings against a firm there who illegally shipped a quantity of gunpowder, shot and percussion caps to this province 6ome three months ago. These articles were not pent separately, but were packed with other goods, thus producing an impression that concealment was intended, especially as the captain of the vessel received no notice that he was carrying a dan. gerous freight. The consignee here was no party to this transaction, and took steps at once to make it known to the proper officer. Explanations having been offered by the shippers in extenuation, the case against them was not carried into court, a mitigated penalty having boon consented to. The full penalty und^r the Victorian law would have been, wo believe, £500. In another case of illegal exportation of gunpowder to Dunedin, a fine was also inflicted at Melbourne on the shippers thence, the landing surveyor having been scut across from Dunedin expressly to prove the case." The 'rains which have lately subjected this town to perpetual shower-baths, have been no less vexing up-country. The Walcatip ULail of the 30th says : — " The heavy rain of Monday has been again productive of injury to the mining community. Though the quantity that fell wa s not great, yet it was sufficiently thick to bring down the snow which still caps the summits of our higher ranges, and this was the chief cause of the damage. The Shotover rose to a considerable extent. At Arthur's Point the river rose to the height of a foot above tho level of M'Guire's bridge, which shortly broke up and was swept away, aud on the Long Beach the race and holes are again levelled." We have again the painful task of recording (says the Walcatip Mail) a boat accident on the treacherous waters of the Lake, which has resulted fatally to one poor fellow. On Sunday last, 27th inst., about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, two men < named George Smith and R. P. Winlock, started i» a small boat from Mr Rees' cattle jetty, on the Frankton inlet of , tho Lake, and had proceeded about 300 yards towards Frankton, when Winloek, against the wish and request of his companion, rose in the boat and attempted to seize an oar* whereupon the boat immediately capsized. Smith could swim, but Wiijock could not, and although Smith endeavored to save his companion, he failed to do so, and the unfortunate man sunk ; his body has not since been recovered. Smith .clung to the boat, and by swimming with his feet, brought it to shore— a distance of 100 yards. Upon reaching the land he was in a very exhausted state, but received prompt assistance from several residents of Quecnsfcown, who arrived shortly after the accident' Both men were omployed as carpenters in the erection of Mr Rees' house at Frankton, and took the boat without permission. The deceased was generally known as " Jim," and was unmarried.

A meeting of the Firo Brigade Committee of the Town Board was to have taken place on Friday, but didn't. Only the Chairman and the Engineer attended. There were present Messrs. Hatch and Kingslandas representatives of the Volunteer Fire Brigade, who came with the view of co-opcrftting with the Board. Iv the absence of the Committee, of course the meeting lapsed. It appears, according to the Age, that the expenses incurred by the steam sloop Victoria, in aiding Ne\v Zealand during 1 the late war, had amounted to £20,000, and that all which had been as yet received would only be sufficient to pay for the coals which she consumed. Anent buskranging, a recent number of the Sydney Morning Herald says . — One of our correspondents writes : — On Sunday night .detective inspector Orrige's party of troopers left their bushcamp in the neighbourhood of Wombat with only one man and a black tracker to guard it, and went on foot and surrounded a suspected settlers's house. It is probable they were decoyed away by some false information, or else the bush telegraph must have been ,put into immediate operation ; for before the main body of troopers returned, Gilbert's gang made a descent upon it, riddled the tent with balls, and ended by gallopiag off with all the troopers' horses. People who have been very careful in stowing themselves out of the way in colonies for years, seem to have a happy knack of, in the course of time — by applying to Jones or Smith, solicitors — "hearing something to their advantage." Such persons invariably have wealthy and eccentric aunts vrho, forgetful of the assiduous and disinterested attentions of the relatives by whom they are surrounded, at the last moment make wills, disponing their whole fortune and family estate in favor of some reprobate Tom, who has not been heard of for generations. The following instance of this, which would be an excellent basis for one of Messrs lioutlcdge and Co.'s shilling novels, is from the Argus of the 21st ult. . — •' A man in humble circumstances, named Jackson, living in East Collingwood, has just received information that lie is entitled to property of the value of £25,000, as inheritor of the estate of his great aunt, Mrs Betty Deans, of Woolwich, England, whose heirs were advertised for in the Times of July, iB6O. Jackson has been for some time engaged in the calling of a costermonger — physisal infirmities preventing him from following any other occupation." The WaJcatijp Mail of the 3Stli saysi— "T>vo miuers havo been brought into the District Hospital of late, both from the same locality — the Twelve-mile rush (Fox's Crook)— suffering from poisoning from lead. In all probability the mineral exists in this neighborhood, and the form in which it is rno^fc likely to be found will be the sulphurate associated with silver-. A search ought to be mnde, and miners made aware of the dangerous effects of lead in water used for domestic purposes, The following is the description of the sulphurate of load: — Color, lead grey, and when newly broken has a shining metallic lustre; fragile, breaking into cubical fragments : soft; scratches a copper coia slightly'" partially soluble in nitric acid. It occurs in rocks \ of various formations, and is found in quartz veins in Victoria. A new weekly journal has been started in Dunedin, with the view-, of course, of supplying "an obvious waut." The prospectus goes in against existing papers with much verve. The following is an extract from it : — " What is so much needed, the Wccklg Observer undertakes to supply — namely, to present to its readers in the city, its suburbs and the interior, a complete ; detail of all matters of general interest occurring ' through the week, written in a pleasiug and attractive style. It will leave to the editors of the two existing weekly newspapers the undisputed right of sup.ilementingtheir columns with clippings and extracts taken from the English penny pevio 'icals, and of pirating whole pages from ' sensation novels written by third fate author.'."