THE COLONIST. NELSON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 1870.

Colonist, Volume XIII, Issue 1284, 14 January 1870, Page 3

THE COLONIST. NELSON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 1870.

SETTLEMENT OP THE WANGAPEKA DIFFICULTY.

Although not officially announced, there is no doubt as to the intelligence brought by a messenger from Blue Creek last night, thai the "Wangapeka diggings are found to be four or five miles within the Nelson South-west G-oldfields. With very fewexceptions the news has given graat satisfaction in Nelson. All down the line of route, where the fact became known, a feeling of gratification exists, only damped by the sense of injustice and the loss which the long delay has occasioned. This seems the crowning of the arguments employed from the first. One by one the defences the Provincial authorities relied on to justify their conduct have melted like snow before the light of common sense, of justice and the law. We congratulate the mining community, and not less the trading community, as well as every hard working settler in the Province, that now the end is surely reached; for we cannot conceive it possible that further attempts will be made to stop the working of the mine.

The public, whose interests in the opening of this goldfield have been imperilled and nearly destroyed by a delay which should never have occurred, —will not brook the continuance of that delay and of those obstacles to the progress of the Province which the last three months have witnessed.

Now perhaps is not the time to argue the matter further. The Enquiry is not yet officially completed; but the virtual declaration of the fact that the last weak obstacle thrown in the path of justice has been swept away, appears unquestionable, and the public are delighted by the event.

Sometime since, in referring'to the fact that the General Government had directed a survey of a line from Mount Arthur to Mount Owen to be made, and had consented to the employment of a surveyor, to be chosen by Mr. Domett, the Examiner seemed desirous of making it appear that the General Government had selected a surveyor. This is incorrect, as the following telegram to Mr. Moss in reply to an objection based on the evidence at the Enquiry will show: —

" Wellington, December 31,

" The survey is necessary to complete Mr. Domett's enquiry. It in no way affects other questions of illegality of sales. I will leave to Mr. Domett's discretion whom to employ as surveyor. (Signed) " GrISBOENE." In the exercise of that discretion, Mr. Domett selected his own surveyor, and Mr. "Wakefield accompanied that officer. The Enquiry was left to be conducted by Mr. Domett, and the Government did not interfere with his action.

Wesleyan School Anniveesaey.—The anniversary sermons in behalf of the Sunday School will be preached on Sunday next, by the Revs. W. Or. Thomas, and J. Crump. On Tuesday next, a tea and public meeting will take place, when addresses are expected from several ministers and friends. Conceet. —Tin's evening a concert in aid of the funds of St. Barnabas Church, Stoke, will be held in the school-room of the district. Several of the Nelson Harmonic Society members have promised their presence and assistance. A Rapid Ride.—A stalwart miner, by name Maurice O'Brien, left Blue Creek yesterday, at 11.45 in the forenoon, and completed the distauce of sixtyeight miles within six hours, arriving at our offlce at 5.40 in the afternoon. This feat is the more remarkable when we consider the nature of the road, thirteen miles of which is merely a bush track, full of pitfalls, and dangerous for fast riding, while there are many steep hills, and not a little rugged road besides, to get over. O'Brien had relays waiting him at various places, and he rode no fewer than six horses in order to complete the journey. In the language of the circus, this may very properly be called a " rapid act of horsemunship." A begatta was held at Picton on New Year's day, when eight races were contested. Maelborough Timbeb Teade.—The Havelock correspondent of the Press, writing on New Tear's day, suys : —" The demand for sawn timber is daily increasing, and the mills are working long hours to keep up the supply. The Havelock mill has shipped during the last three months about 450,000 feet of timber; and Messrs. Brownlio and Co., since commencing operations at their new mill on the 25th October, have shipped close on 300,000 feet, besides having •many thousand feet on hand. A large quantity has also been shipped from Mr. Farnall's mill, in the Kaituna. Mr. Browolie's new mill is well worthy a visit, as it is almost impossible to give a description that would convey but a small idea of the extensive machinery."

Pbobogation of the New Zealand Parliament. —A special Gazette published on January 7 contains a proclamation further proroguing the General Assembly until Tuesday, the 29th March next.

Floods in Otago—Loss of Life. — A telegram from Dunedin, dated Friday, January 7th, says : — " There have been extensive floods throughout the Province of Otago, and considerable damage has been done to the crops, but not to the extent which was at first feared. At the Taieri^ an unfortunate loss of life occurred. A young man named Hastie wa« drowned while attempting to rescue his father and mother from their house, which was flooded."

The Mkteoe of the 26th tot. —This singularly brilliant Meteor seems to have been observed all over the Colony. The Auckland pajwi mention it M offing bean Mt£ thwfc

A teATttEft long and continuous wate of darlh' quake, rather than a shock, was felt in Cromwell, (Otago), about four p.m. on Christmas Day. It la3ted, says the Argus, for a minute, and our informant, says he was lying on the sofa, and thought at first some one was shaking the side of the house next to him. The wave was also felt at Queenstown, and though earhquakes there are common enough, this one attracted attention owing to its duration. Thk Impebial Tboops.—Every day brings fresh confirmation of the fact that the 18th Regiment is positively to be removed from New Zealand. We have just learned that the Claud Hamilton, on her outward trip from here, is to proceed to Taranaki, and take away the two companies stationed there.— Wellington Post, January 10. Cbicket at Wellington.—On January 8, a cricket match came off at Wellington, between the cricketers of that city and the officers and seamen of H.M.S. Challenger. The man-of-war's men won with eight wickets to spare. Monument to Mb. Balfottr,—The Otago Daily Times states that it has been suggested by the friends of the late Mr. J. Balfour, Colonial Marine Engineer, that a monument should be erected to his memory in one of the seaport towns of the Colony, the necessary funds to be raised by public subscription, small donations being taken, so that everybody desirous of doing so may be enabled to contribute. Wellington has been mentioned as affording a suitable site for the cenotaph, which might, however, with equal propriety be erected in Dunedin, since Otago was the scene of Mr. Balfour's first labors in New Zealand.

Water Supply foe Wellington.—The Independent of January Bth, saya : —" We learn that about a month ago our enterprising townsman, Mr Beck, sent home an order for the pipes and other plant necessary to enable him to bring in an ample supply of pure water for the use of dwellers in Mannersstreet, Willis-street, and Lambton Quay. A site for a reservoir has been secured, and the water will be brought in at a pressure of about lOOlbs on the squire inch, which, with the elevation it is brought from, will render the water of immense use in case of fire."

Mb. Garbett, of Bendigo Gully, Cromwell, Ofcago, has been thrown from his horse and killed.

The body of a man named William Brodie, has been washed up on the beach at the Wanganui Heads. At the inquest, a verdict of " found drowned" was returned.

Earthquakes.—At Blenheim, Marlborongh, on January 7, three shocks of earthquake were felt. The first, at 1.23 a.m., was very severe, and accompanied by a rumbling sound ; the second, at 4.30 a.m., was not so severe, while the third, at 5 a.m., was very slight. —The same shocks were felt at White's Bay, in the same Province.—At Picton, on the evening of January 3, at 7.30, a smart shock was experienced. The Settlers at Patea and the Present Government. —The settlement at the Patea, and indeed all along from Waifcotara to Hawera proceeds satisfactorily. Eoad-making is going on at various places along the route, and we understand that Mr. Fox, and Mr. 3hepard, of Cobb and Co., mean to ride from Wanganui to Patea this week to examine the road, and see what is still necessary before the coach commences running. Beyond the Patea some of the settlers in favorable situations have gone upon their land; the larger portion of them, however, have gathered atManutahi and Hawera, at each of which places a block-house is now nearly erected, and from these block-houses as a common centre and place of safety, they look after their different holdings and cattle as best they can. They express themselves perfectly satisfied with the various Government arrangements made for their protection and for the gradual settlement of the district.— Wanganui Times, Jan. 8.

Mr. Sewell.—lt is stated in the European Mail that Mr. Sewell intends returning to New Zealand about the beginning of the year.

Flax Works in Otago.—The Times states that Flax Mills appear to be springing up all over the Province. Two were lately erected in the Bruce district, and three more are said to be in course of construction, viz., at Silverstream, below Mosgiel; Wynham, Mataura: and in the Clutha swamp, between Otanomomo and the liver.

Aftee all the time, labor, and money expended on the Weatherstone's deep shaft, Otago, the hopes of the promoters of that work have been disappointed. According to the Tuapelca Times, the bottom has been reached, but, unfortunately, it has not proved the subterranean Eldorado some sanguine prophets foretold. On the 20th instant, the whole working plant and machinery, &c, were sold by Mr. Hay to Mr. Mackay, Weatherstone's, ror £16 10s.

The attempted bolstering-up of the Thames G-old-field at the expense of the West Coast is thus spoken of by a correspondent of the Otago Daily Times : — " Certain influential men, largely interested in the Thames goldfields, observing the deductions drawn

from the fact of the small quantities of gold exported in proportion to the number of men and amount of capital employed, have hit upon the happy expedient of improving appearances by importing the gold purchased by the Banks on the West Coast (Westland) and then exporting the same to Sydney, the event being chronicled in the daily papers thus : —" s.s. Hero, from Auckland for Sydney, 10,000oz of gold," not revealing the fact that 5000oz of such shipment have been received from Westland. When it is remembered that this procedure costs the Banks two freights and insurances instead of one, I cannot but conclude that the object sought is to create a false impression of the yield of gold at the Thames. Henceforth the only reliable means of information to the public of the export of gold from this Province will be the Customs returns, as the duty upon all gold shipped from the West Coast must be paid there, before its shipment to Auckland."

Kifi/e Matches in Mablborotoh.— Picton v. MahaTcipawa. —The return match between these two places came off at Mahakipawa on Tuesday, the 28th December, and after one of the closest contests that the Province of Marlborough has ever witnessed, resulted in a victory for Mahakipawa by fourteen points. Each place was represented by twelve riflemen. The scores were—Picton, 502 points (or an average per man of 41*10 points); Mahakipawa, 516 points (average per man, 43 points).— Picton v. Savelock. —On the followiug day, ten of the Picton men had a contest with the same number of riflemen at Havelock, when the former were victorious. The scores were—Havelock, 326 points ; Picton, 349 points. Mb. Balfoub, the marine engineer, was it appears drowned at Timaru whilst on his way to Oamaru to attend the funeral of his friend Mr. Patterson, railway engineer, who, it will be remembered, was drowned by the upsetting of a coach in the Kakanui river.—The body of Mr. Smallwood, who was drowned at the same time as Mr. Balfour, has been found near the mouth of the Opihi river. The Affbay at the Ahauea Kaces.—On Jan. 6, at Ahaura, before Mr. Lowe, E.M., Maurice Doolan was charged with violently assaulting Michael Bourke, on the racecourse on December 27, and was sent to Cobdon gaol for two months, with hard labor.— Bourke, who had been most severely kicked and abused, was fined £5 for commencing the row. Washed and Unwashed Wool. —The Oamaru (Otago) Times says that as there is considerable discussion as to the advantage or otherwise of washing wool on the sheep's back it may serve to set the doubts of some at rest to state the result of an experiment designed for the express purpose of testing the matter. The Hon. Mathow Holmes last season sent home a portion of hie wool in the grease and a portion washed, and the result was that the latter fetched as much as 2s. 4£d. per lb. —the highest price we have yet heard of for this season —while that in grease, which Mr. Holmes informs us was of equal quality realised 10£ d. Comment is unnecessary. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland. — The " Annals of the Propagation of the Faith" states that Monsignor Pompallier, worn out by the labors of an apostleship of thirty-three years, in New Zealand, has begged the Sovereign Pontiff to allow him to retire from the duties of the episcopal see of Auckland. His Holiness has juat conferred on the venerable Missioner Bishop the title of Arohbishop at Ammn, in partibus, The Rev. James M'Donald Vicar-Gteueral of Monsignor Ponapollier, ha* taea »ppointe<i t? od,mini«t«r th« dtow •( Audflwj^

A NEW daily paper> The Morning Advertiser, has made its appearance in Auckland. The Qttaetz Reefs at the Obey.—We (Argus of January 11) hear from Moonlight Creek that the only reefing claims on which work is being done at present are Moonlight, Golden Hill, Early Grey Dawn, and Starlight. In the former of these a large quantity of stone is out, ready to be put through the machine when crushing is again resumed. Fine gold is easily seen in the stone, and those at work on the claim are confident that it will pay well. It is

reported all through the creek that a large quantity of gold was lost during the last crushing, as it was seen by the miners floating down the stream with the amalgam. This is almost invariably the case with the first starting of new quartz crushing machinery. In the next claim, the Golden Hill, the men at work have commenced tunnelling into a well-defined reef, running right through the upper portion of the ground. The tunnel is now in about forty feet; at present the men are going through some very hard rock. The overseer expects to be well on to the reef, at a depth of forty feet, in the course of three or four weeks. Some very good specimens from the casing, showing gold plainly, were brought to town. The stoiie is precisely similar to that taken from Taff's reef in the Moonlight claim. Another reef has been struck in the upper portion of the Golden Hill ground, and it is believed, on the spot, that every reef in the Moonlight claim runs into the Golden Hill ground. The company think so much of their ground that they have, within the last few days, put on an extra man to thoroughly prospect the claim. The main reef from the Golden Hill claim runs into the Sunrise Company's ground. The tunnel in the Early Grey Dawn is now in about fifty feet. They are on a well-defined reef, and are getting out plenty of stone, but as yet gold has not been seen in it; however, the manager seems confident that it will turn out right yet. The New Stamp Act.—On and after the Ist January, 1870, all bills of exchange, drafts, orders, and promissory notes drawn ■within the Colony (except such as are liable to a duty of one penny only), 1 mu9t be stamped with an impressed stamp before the same are made, signed, or issued, under a penalty of fifty pounds, and no such bill of exchange, &0., shall under any circumstances be stamped after the making thereof. No instrument (except bills of exchange and promissory notes drawn out of the Colony) shall be stamped after the first execution thereof, by any person except the commissioners. No transfer of shares in any company shall be registered in the books of such company until duly stamped. Bills purporting to be drawn in sets are liable to a proportionate duty on each of the set j but persons who shall draw and issue any bill purporting to be one of a set, without drawing the whole of the set on duly stamped paper, aro liable to a penalty of one hundred pounds. Unstumped bills, &c, are not to be noted or protested. Some special provisions are made respecting the stamping of deeds; but the duty is uachanged. Sections 17 to 22 relate to marine insurance policies, introducing new provisions which should be studied by those interested in these policies. The schedule contains the new rates of duty on such insurances.

Govebnob Bowen Eepbimanded.—The following paragraph appears in several of our New Zealand contemporaries:—The Home Government has severely reprimanded the Governor for assuming the Queen's prerogative of decorating subjects, by his consenting to an Order in Council instituting the New Zealand Cross. In consideration, however, of tho special circumstances her Majesty has been pleased to confirm the order from the date of its issue.

Bank Fbaud at Melboubne.—The Age says :— Another well-known bank official has come to grief, Thomas Webb Draper, late accountant at the Commercial Bank, having been arrested on Thursday morning on a warrant charging him with having "forged an accountable receipt for £4000, with intent to defraud the Commercial Bank (limited)." It appears that about a month since, his accounts not being quite correct, he was allowed to resign, since which he has been staying at his residence, St. Kildaj but, upon the arrival of the mail, by advices received, it was discovered there were serious deficiencies in his accounts, he having paid large sums of money into his account, instead of remitting them to the London agency of the bank, and then forging the receipt for the amount. It is said the total deficiency will amount to between £15,000 and £20,000. A warrant was issued for his arrest on Wednesday afternoon, and on Thursday morning detectives Williams and Daley arrested him at his house. He was at once taken before Mr. Call, P.M., and remanded

until Thursday next, but was allowed out on bail in two sureties of £5000 each. Mr. Jones and Mr. Webb (prisoner's father-in-law) were the sureties.

Coffee in South Australia.—A letter received from India by the last mail says an attempt to grow coffee on a large scale in South Australia is shortly about to be made by an Indian capitalist of great experience in coffee planting in India and elsewhere. Agents from this gentleman are expected by the next mail, when, should their report prove favorable, application will be at once made to the South Australian Government for a large tract of land on which to establish the plantation. It is said that should Australia not prove a favorable field of enterprise, Fiji will bo visited. The population of Victoria in 1868 was upwards of 700,000, that of Melbourne and its suburbs alone being 174,663. The amount of public land sold during the year was a little over 275,000 acres, at the average price of £1 6s. Id. per acre, giving a revenue of £360,000. The stone quarried is valued at £57,610. 107 breweries- made upwards of 17,000,000 gallons of beer. Pottery was made, worth £10,456. There were 853 manufactories, giving employment to about 11,000 males and 3000 females. The total quantity of gold exported was 1,657,498 ounces.

The iate Fbatjd on the Victoeian Customs.— According to the Melbourne Argus the papers relating to the attempted frauds at the Customs have been laid on the table of the Legislative Assembly. It appears that a large quantity of goods of various desci'iptions, imported by Messrs. Levy Brothers in the Kate Kellock, Ernestine, Alexander Duthie, Holmsdate, Duke of Edinburgh, and Essex were seized for being fraudulently entered, with a view of evading a portion of the duty payable thereon. The fraud consisted of the compilation here of invoices not only materially reducing the value, but also, in many instances, the quantities, and was obviously the moat deliberate and systematic fraud yet discovered. Mr. Goodman Levy admitted the attempted iraud to Mr. Tyler, the collector of Customs, on the 24th November. A false declaration had likewise been made on each entry. The amount of the revenue sought to be evaded was £268 13s. 9d. Messrs. Levy Brothers had made themselves amenable to the law, under the Bth section of the Act No. 306, whereby the goods were liable to forfeiture ; and the 134 th and the 165 th clauses of the Customs Act, 1857, under the former of which a penalty af £100 had been incurred for each false declaration, of which there were 13; the penalty under the latter clause being treble the value of the goods, or jglOO, at the election of the Commissioner of Customs. On the 28th October, 1867; the same firm which attempted these frauds was fined £1119s. for undervaluing axes and handles for duty. The Commissioners of Customs, having considered the foregoing circumstances, fined Messrs. Levy Brothers £1000, the goods seized to be' given up on their paying the duty due in excess of that fine; and the fine and additional duty were paid. Fatal Conflagration.—A fatal fire occurred in London on October 10. It broke out in the residence of Mr. M'Micken, a master tailor, of 44 Newingtan Butts. It would seem that it was soon discovered by Mr. M'Micken, who, after giving the alarm to a. policeman, nobly rushed back into'the hou.se to' save his wife and family, and perished with 'them. Four lives were lost—Mr. M'Micken, his wife, and two children. A maid servant escaped without very serious injuries.—The number of fires which occurred in London from October 6th to the 15th, were no less than thirty-nine. ■ ' ;

At Smithfield, Bhode Island, America, Jonathan Buxton, aged 102 years, is living with his wife Salotna, aged 101. This pair of nuptial century plants have flourished wdeby iide for 78 years, ana have. nine, obildrea. living, the oldest Wing 73 j*m of aft, ;■■*