Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 258, 11 March 1869, Page 2

Local and General.

<^ New Zeala: d Insurance Company. — The business of this company is now carried on in the new. offices, Hereford street. Theatre Rotal. — Messrs Taylor and Black, repeated their entertainment last evening, and there was a pretty fair house notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather. Both gentlemen were frequently encored. "Volunteer General Committee. — A meeting of the sub-committee, appointed to arrange the concert in aid of the Volunteer General Committee's funds, was to have been held fit the Zetland. Arms Hotel yesterday afternoon, but was postponed until Monday next, at 4 p.m. Rangiora Fair. — The second quarterly fair took place yesterday. The entries were not quite so numerous as on the first occasion, which is owing to the fact that farmers are now engaged in the harvest. The cattle exhibited were in a fair average condition, and we understand fetched satisfactory prices, especially those fit for a journey to the West Coast. The present low value of sheep prevented many being entered. Of horses, a I good many were offered, principally light, and a few farm horses, but they did not appear to go tiff. well. As all the business is J transacted privately, it is difficult to arrive j at anything like a correct quotation of prices. We may state, however, that there was no perceptible difference between " the prices realised on this occasion, and that of the first fair, the whole of the arrangements, as on that occasion, giving the greatest satisfaction. The number of entries were : — Cattle, 220 ; sheep, 100 ; pigs, 50 ; horses, 75. The Order op Saint Michael and Saint George. — Her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the colonies writes to his Excellency as followsj — " The Queen has had occasion to observe that the constant progress of the British Empire in population, wealth, and enterprise, and the increased opportunities thus happily .afforded to her subjects of rendering effective services to their Sovereign and their country, have in some respects outgrown Her Majesty's means of recognising tho3e services in a fitting manner. You are aware that, with I the object of supplying that deficiency, it was found requisite in the year 1847 to enlarge and modify the ancient Order of the Bath, and more recently that Her Majesty lias been pleased to create a new order of Knighthood^ the, Star of In Jia, for the reward of services rendered in relation to Her Indian Empire. The sphere of usefulness and eminence which is now open in the British Colonies is so varied and extensive as to render it, in Her Majesty's judgment, advisable that to them, as to India, a special form of distinction should be appropriated. For this purpose Her Majesty had been graciously pleased to sanction such a modification^ the Statutes of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint Goorge, originally instituted by King George 111 in connection with His Majesty's Mediterranean possessions, and now presided over b}' a Prince of the Blood Royal, together with such an enlargement of its numbers, as will render it available as a reward of distinguished merit or services in any part of Her Majesty's Colonial Possessions." J^Gazettks. — We are in receipt of Nos. 12 and 13 of the New Zealand Qaz/tte, published respectively on the second and third of the present month A report forwarded by the Secretary of State for the Colonies from the Resident Medical Officer of the Millbank Prison, and relating to the use of carbolic acid as a prevejitative of the spread of fever, is publishedT^ttfr Edward Dunstan Byrne, is appointed captain, and Mr Francis Stubbs, lieutenant, of ' the Timaru Artillery Voluntcersjboth commissions to date from the 11th of Sept., 1868. Regulations referring to the continued conversion of the old debentures of the General and Provincial Governments into new 5 per cent consols, under the Loan Act of 1867, are given in detail. The proclamation of his Honor the Superintendent of Canterbury, removing certain restrictions on the driving of cattle in the northern part of the province, is published. A number of accounts give the returns of intestate estates in several parts of the colony, and there are the quarterly financial statements of the various banks. )(T cnaers are invited for the erection of a Government House to be built at Wellington, plans, &c, to be seen at the office of the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Christchur^Q A Provincial Government Gazette, dated the 10th inst., is also to hand. The Port Levy Road district having failed to carry out the provisions of the Ordinance in reference to the election of members of the Board, Mr James Harris is appointed commissioner for that district ;vMr D. Watkins is appointed Health OfficeVfor the Port of Akaroa, Mr E. Butler for Timaru, and Mr A. C. Knight a member of the Board of Education. The election of Mr J. D. Macpherson as a member of the Provincial Council for Lyttelton is notified, an 1 a list of reserves made in various districts for gravel pits is also publisheuT? . CoXst Survey. — The following letter from Commodore Rowley Lambert, C.8., on Mr Wood's Survey of the New Zealand Coasts, is published for general information in the New Zealand Gazelle : — Sir, — With reference to your Excellency's letter of the 11th instant, and my reply thereto, I have the honour to acquaint you that I have seen Mr Woods, examined his surveys and plans of the New Zealand coasts, and compared the same with the Admiralty Charts. The survey is projected on reliable data, and appears to have been executed with great care and accuracy ;

and. the sketches of the different headlands in water colours render them more distinguishable than in the pen and ink etchings usually marked on the charts. The positions of several prominent headlands, hitherto incorrect, have been determined, and the delineation of the coast corrected by Mr Woods, who has likewise collected much valuable hydrographical information respecting the same. I would recommend the completion of the West Coast surveys, and also that the South Coast of the Middle Island, \ from Cape Saunders to Cascade Bay, and parts of East Coast of the North Island, hereafter mentioned, be re-surveyed : — D'Houssez Group, just northward of Mercury Bay, the islands and rocks in aud adjacent to the Hauraki Gulf, and additional soundings procured, in the Bay of Plenty. Mr Woods has brought to my notice the advisability of determining the true meridian of Wellington, to effect which a series of observations should be intrusted to three competent and duly qualified officers, — say, the officer in charge of observatory, the officer in charge of marine survey, the Chief Resident Surveyor, at Wellington ; and the result of such work should be forwarded periodically to the Hydrographer of the Navy, together with the longitudes of other positions of the coast surveyed,4ettueed' from the Wellington Observatory meridian, which would be most useful for the safe navigation of these seas. ' It is necessary that the work of such observations should also be forwarded for the inspection of the Hydrographer. I shall have much pleasure in forwarding Mr Woods' work to the Hydro'grapher, with a recommendation that the corrections and alterations be adopted in the next chart published of New Zealand. Carpent ria. — A correspondent of the Queensland Express writes on the 30th November: — I am glad to be able to report that a small gold rush to the Gilbert has taken place, especially at present, as the 150 Kanakas must have thrown some peop'e out of employment, and these, I hope, will now be more profitably employed for theicountry. From what I have heurd of the success of the prospectors for gold and copper, I think Carpentaria will be one of the best mineral | districts in Australia. The Kanakas will be good Bhepherds, if they are only aa well treated as they were on the 6hi;j that brought them (the Spunkie). It was quite a pleasure to see how happy they were on that ship. The settlers require some chsuper labour than they have had previously, f:T such was ruinous, especially in a new district, where everything is at a disadvantage. The Melaine has arrived, and takes smvi Kanakas home. To - day I saw one of the Kanakas, who is going home, collecting water-mvlon seeds to " sow in his island home. This has been a very dry season, more so than any known since" the country was settled upon four years." ago. Still iherehas been heavy rain on the Lower Leichhnrdt, and at Wood's Lake, the former forty-six miles distant to the eastward, and the hitter four miles distant to the northwest. The Leiclihardt Juver haa been run^ ning ; and one waterhole fifteen miles in length i^said to have risen two feet. When the latter part of the year is dry, the early part of the nuxt is often the very reverse. It would not, therefore, be at all surprising if the country wore flooded for months in the beginning of the year. When are we to have telegraphic connection with risbane, on one hand, and Eu; ope on the other ? Mr W. Landsborough, the Police Magistrate, being about to leave the district for a time, to give evidence in a case at Rockhampton, a farewell dinner was given to him at the Prince of Wales Hotel, by the chief inhabitants of the town.