OTAGO.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 2198, 2 May 1874, Page 2

OTAGO.

April 28. — The prospectus of a new Bank, to be called "The Colonial Bank," was issued this day ; capital two million five hundred thoaaand pounds, in shares of £5 each. It is proposed to offer the people in this Co. lony, in fair proportions, half of the shares, on a calculation of the population of each Province; tbo other half to be disposed of hereafter as rapidly as the progress of the Colony may do-

mand, and as the shareholders decide. In no case will the remaining shares be offered outside the Colony, without tbe New Zealand shareholders having the first opportunity. The head office will be in Dunedin, in suitable premises already secured. A provisional Committee of forty has been appointed, all of whom are Otago men. A motion has been made in the Supreme Court for the attachment of George Bell, proprietor of the Evening Star, his solicitor (?), and the directors of the Guardian Co., in consequence of an article in the Chardian in the matter of the case Macassey v. Bell. The Judge took time to consider the article before granting the rule. The English mail steamer had left Melbourne when the 'Alhambra' arrived, bnt the ' Aldinga,' waiting at the Heads, took on the New Zealand mails from the ' Alhambra' and caught the mail steamer at Adelaide.

A large meeting of settlers was held on the 28th, when resolutions were unanimously passed in favour of dredging a deep water channel np to Dunedin, so as to bring the largest vessels in port to the city. The deputation waited upon the Superintendent on the 28th, to urge upon the Government to carry out the resolutions. He replied that the Executive were favourable and would bring the proposals before the Provincial Council, whioh meets on the 29th.

The Provincial Cooncfl was opened on the 29th April. The Superintendent of Otago, in his opening address to the Provincial Council, said that the past year had been one of marked progress, manifestations of which had never been greater. The trade returns, exports, and imports exhibit satisfactory increase, with tbe exception of gold, which shows a slight decrease. This is accounted for by the circumstance that many miners have availed themselves of higher wages to be earned on railway contracts. The payments into the Treasury daring the year amounted to £451,425 ; the expenditure, £376,607. 258,840 acrea of agricultural land bad been sold during tbe year to fonr hundred and four purchasers. Agricultural leases on goldfields have been granted for 30,000 acres, and 320 lessees. Amongst measures proposed are the following :—Deepening the harbour of Otago, and opening a hundred thousand acres of land annually on deferred payments. Steps are to be taken to give miners the freehold of land they mine on, so as to prevent the wasteful destruction of the surface of the country. An asylum for inebri. ates,an industrial school for criminal children, and several new lines of branch railways are to be constructed by money borrowed on specific blocks of land. It is proposed to raise the price of land to £2 per acre. He regretted that the Council and the Professors of the Otago University had set aside proved legislature for the problematical advantage of being connected with the University of New Zealand.

The Executive of the Otago Provincial Council resigned on the 30th April. Tbe cause assigned being pressure of private business. It is expected that there will be a coalition, and that Mr. Donald Reid and other members of his party will take office. It is stated that thirty-three of the ' Asia's* females were taken out of the Queens town Reformatory. Patrick Long, for the murder at Oreen Island, was convicted of manslaughter, and was remanded for sentence.

Church of England Sebvicis To-korbow. —Services will he held to-morrow, at St^ Mary's Church, at 11 a.m. and at 6JO p.m., by the Yen. Arobdeaoon Govett ; the Rev. H. H. Brown will bold services at Okato, at 11 a.m. j at Tataraimaka, at 1.80 p.m. ; at Oakora, at 8 p.m. ; at Omata, at 6.30 p.m.

WISLBTAIf CHUBCH SERVICES To-MOBBOW.— Services will be held at the chapel in town to-morrow, at 11 a.m. and 6.30 p.m., by the Rev. W. Kirk ; at Tikorangi, at 11 sun., and at Waitara, at 2.30 p.m., by Eev. J. Smith.

Pbikitivb Methodist Bkivicks Td-xok-bow. — Servioea will be held at the chapel in town, at 11 a.m. and at 6.80 p.m., Bey. J. Dumbell { at Omata, at S p.m., Mr. E. Gilbert.

A Strange Reprimand.— The Besident Magistrate of Mongouui most be a strange individual. We find in Parliamentary papers, farofshed as bat recently, copies of a correspondence .between that gentleman (Mr. W. B. White) and the Government, in which his oonduct is called into question on matters oouneoted with his offloe. In one of the letters addressed to him by the Under-Seore-. tary of the Minister of Justice (Mr. Fountain), the following rich sentenoe occurs :— " So far as any specific obarges bare been made, your replies thereto have been satisfactory to the Government. I am, however, to point out to yon that it is advisable, on the score of prudence, to avoid playing at whist, and drinking with intending litigants."

An Elaborate Witib Supplt.— Rather an elaborate suggestion has lately been made for affording a water supply to Lyttelton, tho lack of which element, minus the saline deposit, is a great drawbaok to the place. It is to have a six-inch pipe, running from Avon* head through the town of Cbristohnroh, down the railway, and through the tunnel. It is then proposed to run the water into a oonorete tank containing 14,000 gallons, ia whioh an hydraulic ram of four inobeß supply and two inches discharge pipe ia to be at work to force the water twenty feet higher into another oonorete tank holding 8,000 gallons, for the übo of the upper part of the town. The waste water from the ram would be caught in the firol tank, and would supply the lower part of the town and the shipping. The estimated cost is £11,000 which might partly be borne by Christohuroh, the pipes affording meant for putting out fires, watering the streets, and so forth. It appears somewhat strange that water should be so scarce in Lyttelton, while Christohurch is teaming with artesian wells fiWing always Abundantly.

Chinese Rooks.— There ha* been an important sale of Chinese books it) Paiis, at which several purchases were made for the British Museum. One work — Yu-tingli-tai-ki-si-uinn-piao — was sold for £22 ; Hnang-tusing-tohih. konug-thou for £44 ; and Tu-ting-pei-wen, tcbai-ohon-hoa-pou, for £58.