STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH GOLDEN

Colonist, Volume XII, Issue 1183, 26 January 1869, Page 3

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH GOLDEN

To the Editor of The Colonist,

glß,—Your correspondent " Thomas Freeman," in Your issue of the 12th instant, puts to yon severai questions, to which I think he could easily have found answers without having troubled you. I hope he is not tiffed with either the master or the owner of the Ladj Barkly, and that be ha 3 not, while laboring under some temporary excitement, rushed into print. However, the thing looks strange, he wants to know how it is that this steamer has a subsidy of £600 per year /or carrying a few letters, Ac, &. I would say in the first place,'that this very inexpensive steam service is assisting very considerably to develope the trade and resources of the districts in Goldea Bay and Motueka, which Mr. Freeman can

know very little of; and in the second place, the service is performed in a very efficient, —and I think every one who has occasion to t.avel or send goods by it will say—in a very satisfactory manner; much more so than the earlier and more expensive services we have previously had. I could mention many things in favor of those connected with this little steamer, but think that what is so generally known (except perhaps to Mr. Freeman) it is unnecessary for me to recapitulate. As for your correspondent's quotations of the dost of carrying letter by sailing vessels, thoy are* scarcely worth notice; he might as well quote the cost per ton of carrying so many boxes of letters by sailing vessels to England. It is not the simple carrying of letters, but the doing so with punctuality and despatch, so that people who may have some miles to travel to a Post-office may know when to expect their letters, which they fan never do when tho service is performed by sailing vessels.

As to the amount of public money which it absorbs, I would say that the public of the Province, by their trustees having made " ducks " and " drakes" of the funds intended to have supported such a service, it is only fair to those settlers who are so much dependent on it, that some such small sum as is paid for this cheap and useful service should be annually set apart for that purpose out of the Provincial revenues, and if your correspondent will exert his temporary mania for economising in some other direction, I have no doubt of his being able to find profitable employment for his abilities, and he will no doubt manage to secure the thanks of a grateful public, better in that position thaa in whatever occupation he may follow. I am, &c, A Voice from Goiden Bat. Golden Bay, 16th January, 1869. Captain Spiii/er, late of Nelson, has been sent to take the command of the Wairoa district, Hawke's Bay. Fire.—A large hotel and its valuable contents huve been totally destroyed by fire fit Wa.ipn.wa, Hawke's Buy. An insurance or £700 had. been effected on the premises and furniture. No cause for the fire can be ascribed, and at the inquest an open verdict was returned.

The youngest daughter of Colonel Gore Brown, ex-G-overnor of New Zealand, died at Melbourne on Stli January.

The sugar company in Melbourne have advanced their prices £1 per ton, ell round. In Bfillarat an agitation ia going on for a penny postage, and shilling telegrams.

A Rint to Economical Mayors.—The Mayor of Adelaide has received letters threatening to take bis life if he continues to make reductions in the salaries of officers of the corporation!

At Sale, Victoria, two men, named Munell and Steele, were suffocated by foul air, while finking a well; a third wa9 rescued from almost certain death.

Tanner, coachman to the Duke of Edinburgh a^ Adelaide and in Melbourne, diedou January lOili, a' Adelaide, of consumption.

A disgraceful disclosure has taken places respecting the death of an imbecile at the Stockade, Adelaide, said to have boen accelerated by the cruel treatment of the guards.

The Medical Commission, appointed by the Government of Victoria, are divided in opinion on the question of the existence of small-pox at the Immigration Hospital, Melbourne. Eour say it is chicken and throe that it is small-pox. The cases, however, are convalescent.

Mr. Latutt, the Inspector-General of Eoads, for Victoria, died a few days ago at Melbourne, of heart disease.

Death prom the Explosion of a Bbandy Cask.—A tdegram in the Brisbane Courier mates that a fatal accident occurred at the Criterion Hotel, Mack'iy, on the night of the sth January. About eight o'clock, John V. O'Donnell, the landlord, was drawing some brandy out of a cask, when the spirit ignited and exploded. Ho was fearfully burnt, and a stave of the cask which struck h>m inflicted a severe wound. He died immediately after.

St. Mary's Catkkdeai, Sydney, (a temporary building) was destroyed by firo on the sth inst. At the inquest the jury, after deliberating about half-an-hour, returned the following verdict: —" We find that the said premises, known as St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral, were consumed by fire on the morning of Tuesdny, the sth instant; but not sufficient evidence lias been adduced before us to show the origin of the fire." The jury appended the following rider to their verdict : —" We, the jury, consider it to have been injudicious that such a responsible trust as the care of the lights in the cathedral should have been conlided to a boy so young as the person who had charge."

An Incident of the Drought.—Tho Molong correspondent of the Western Examiner relates that, from the severe drought, a new crime has sprang up in that neighborhood. A gentleman who possesses a paddock within a mile of the town had a suspicion that some person was in the habit of stealing water therefrom ; but (catch a weasel asleep !) the gentleman hid himself several nights among the rocis, and at last succeeded in catching a young ruffian, about ten years of age, purloining over two gallons of the precious liquid. Instead of making an example of the whole family connected with the boy, the gentleman generously told them that if they brought him two pounds by nine o'clock next day, he would not prosecute the matter further !

The Dhoweing of Two G-iris.—The Burroiva Express, (New South Wa'.c) of Saturday Jan. 9th, says:—" In noticing List w< >k the melancholy death by drowning of two girl-, iiurnell and Harding, we ommitted to mention tin- praiseworthy conduct of young John Morgan, son of a man of the same name employed on Mr. Hume's Castleeteads estate. It was this young lad, and not Harding, who dived for and brought to the surface the bodies of the unfortunate girls. On going first into deep water he touched the body of the girl Burnell, but had (o arise for want of breath. His second effort was better rewarded. He hud to dive several times for the body of the girl Harding, and at last, after exhausting efforts, succeeded in getting it from under a snag. He is only sixteen years of age, atd the cool courage displayed by him on this trying occasion ia worthy at least of favorable recognition." •

The Complements of the Season. —The Border Post, (Victoria,) in greeting the incoming of a new year, pays the " compliments of the season " in the following doleful style : —" The compliments of the senson to the squatter are the pleuro and the Cumberland disease m cuttle, the scab and rot in sheep. No water and no grass, and overstocked market for both meat and wool, and a vast depreciation of all pastoral property —sheep at Is. a-head, wool at 3d. per 11).; the melting-pots and scientific meat-pre-servers in full swing. Banks pressing, rnorlgagees foreclosing, and ahout a million of money to be refunded, representing the excess of colonial advances over the actual sales of said produce in England. Farmers and free selectors, strive to be jolly. You have the rust and the take-nil in your wheat. Your oats are a failure. Y^'ir potatoes are'bated in the ground, and your vi'j.ci* stock of pumpkins is nowhere. Your dairy cows are going dry, and run all the flesh off their bojes in going backwards and forwards to water where there is no feed, and to dry, tussocky'grass,' where there io no water. The aphis is on your cabbages, the American blight on your apple trees, the curl and the fly upon your stone fruit, the coccus on your orange groves and the oidium upon your vines. The travelling sheep are on your grazing rights, and the beds of creeks and waterholes have turned to dust. The compliments of the season to you. Professional men, in business, storekeepers, tradesmen, publicans, butchers, bakers and candlestickmakers, how fares it with you ? Your books are .full of bad debts, you cannot get paid for your work or your merchandise, and you go about mysteriously on the 4th of the month, wearing out a vast quantity of shoe leather. Coins of brass have been imported amongst you to meet the times, silver and gold have ye none. Ichabod is /written.upon your tills. A disposition to sell out ha 9 overtaken you, but none cometli to purchase. We ■wish you the compliments of the season,"