LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 180, 20 July 1871, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The " Westminster Gazette " says that the Comte de Paris has now not only recognised the Comte de Cbambord as the head of the house of Bourbon, but as the rightful King of France.

A man named Andiew Daney, a native of Madras, was accidentally poisoned on the 28th ult., at Manning and Evan's station, Riverton. through drinking some liquid prepared for washing sheep, which he mistook for pure water.

A fatal accident occurred in the Dunedin river on the Bth inst. A man named John Cragie was knocked overboard from a lighter by a tarpaulin, which had been struck by a gust of wind. The body could not be found. The unfortunate man leaves a wife and four young children to mourn his loss.

A PARCKL.o^abont £90 worth of gold has been received in Sydney from the recently found diggings at Puebo, New Coledonia. The Government have imposed an export duty of 2s. 6<l. an ounce on gold. A. favourable opportunity ] has not yet been obtained for testing the precise value of Puebo gold. The mining population I would appear to be small. Several American papers now-fl-dnys, in addition to their ordinary staff of reporters, i have a speciial functionary called the " Interviewer," whose vocation is " cornering " public men. We announced last week that a prospecting claim had been applied for at the Warden's office, Lawrence, for a quartz reef discovered at the Laminerlaw, a short distance from Waipori township. We have since visited the scene of the discovery, and from personal observation are inclined to the belief that the fortunate prospectors are about to reap a golden harvest. The vein is evidently a leader from a main reef, which no doubt will shortly be traced out. Mr. Brown, one of the prospectors, intormed us that as the leader ran nearly perpendicular, it was the intention of his party to sink a shaft alongside it, in order to ascertain its probable depth and value, so that shortly we may have to report further important discoveries. Some idea of the richness of the lode may be formed when it is affirmed that a man with a tin dish washing the rubble alone could make excellent wages. Half a dish of this loose stuff was cut out with a pick and washed in our presence, the prospect of which, along with specimens from the leader we shall be happy to show to any one who will call at our office. A trial crushing will take place this week at the Pioneer battery, the re. suit of which will be anxiously awaited. The opinion of experienced miners is that rich quartz reefs are numerous in the neighbourhood of the Lammerlaws, and that it only requires enterprise to reveal them.

An amateur Christy Minstrel Company is about to be formed at AVaipoii.

Mb. George Green of Dunedin has just patented an invention for a dredge upon an entirely new principle, to be used on the auriferous rivers of New Zealand. The vessel is fitted with a diving bell of sufficient size to enable two men to be constantly at work therein sending up washdirt, and, what is very important, the reef in any part of the river can be thoroughly cleaned up. Among other improvements may be mentioned that of paddle wheels, which are attached to the dredge for the purpose of working pumps to convey water on to the banks of rivers for sluicing and other purposes, and by a simple contrivance can also be moil to wavp the vessel from place to place as tho ground becomes woiked out. Ti is invention is likely in a short time to take the place of the present inefficient spoon dredges, which, as i 8i 8 well known, cannot reach the rich deposits in the crevices at the bottoms of our rivers.

THE " Oaiuaru Times " states that some mo.i bones in an excellent state of preservation, have been exhumed by the men at work on the Jetty road there, at about 15 feet below the original suifacc. Mr. Henry Miller, of Wetherstones, has a sow which has had 39 pigs within 12 months, in three litters as follows :- -10, 16, and 13. This eclipses the wonderful »ow about which we had an extract from a provincial paper a few weeks ago, and which had 30 pigs in the year.

• THE usual quarterly meeting of the subscribers to the Tuapeka Hospital was held in the Commercial Hotel on Tuesday evening, oar report of which, owing to its extreme length, we are compelled to hold over until next week. We owe an apology to our up-country readers for devoting so much space to matters connected with our hospital -an apology which we feel assured will be readily accepted when the importance of the subject is taken into consideration. Mb. Horace Bastings was duly elected Mayor of Lawrence on Friday last for the sixth time. Our contemporary, the ** Bruce Standard," waxes very wioth at an imaginary wrong. At Tokoinairiro, Sergt. -Major Moore in returning from Dunedin after delivering the monthly escort, placed his dispatch box on the seat which he proposed occupying on the journey. Under the seat was one of the escort boxes which contained valuable treasure, which was being conveyed to Tuapeka and Switzers. A Chinaman, who had been booked from Dunedin toLav/Tence, > removes the dispatch box and takes possession of the seat. He is remonstrated with, but will not budge ; he is then forced to give place to the sei geant, who not only was in rightful possession of the seat, but was also obliged to have regard to the treasure. While the Chinaman was being lemoved to the outside he indulged ir. most obscene language, and was certainly more deserving of the lock-up than the false sympathy shown towards him by our contemporary. From what we know of the obliging disposition of Sergt. -Major Moore, we are confident the circumstances related by the "Bruce Standard" are not correct.

We regret to learn from our Tapanui correspondent, whose letter appears in another column, that scarlatiua is spreading' in that place. Mr. James Kerr r s family of six are all down with it, and fresh cases are of "frequent occurrence, one of the most painful of which is that of Airs. Buntine, whose husband died ashort time ago. The poor woman lost one of her children last week, and her remaining three are lying ill of the fever. The report reaches us that ihe storekeepers intend to claim the money that has been raised for her maintenance to liquidate her deceased husband's debts, but we can scarcely believe that such a pieoe of monstrous cruelty will be permitted to ta^ke place, and are inclined to think the rumour is without foundation. Since reoeiving our correspondent's letter, we learn that one of Mr. Andrew Allan's children is dead, and that the others are in a precarious state. Bishop Nevih left Dunedin on Friday in the Nevada for England,

We publish in another column a requisition Ito Mr/ HayVs, which wbttlilJiaY& 'appeared ux our last issue had it been-then completed, bat as it was not signed till after our- publishing ' hour, we could not find a place for it. It ia published now, as those who'signecHt think it due to Mr. Hayes that it should appear. ON Saturday evening a meeting of- the Tuapeka Athenaeum Committee was held in the Library to take the necessary steps to get the place of the late librarian, Mr. Thornley, supplied. W. L. Simpson, Esq., occupied the chair, and there were also present, Messrs. Foibes, Armstrong, Downes, and Dr. Halley. It was decided that the best plan to adopt was to insert an advertisement in the local paper, so that the Committee would have an opportunity of selecting the most suitable person. The advertisement will be found in another column. We trust the Committee will make a wise selection, as we understand there will b» several applicants. On Wednesday, the 12th inst., a meeting of the Lawrence Band of Hope was held in tho Athenseum. There- was a large attendance^ During the the evening several pieces were recited from memory by the children, and the following awards were presented :— Boys : Ist prize, Chailes Campbell ; 2nd, Alexander Crow. Girls : Ist, Annie Marx ; 2nd, Bella Munro. Collecting tickets were then given to some of the children, and we hope they will be success* ful in gathering as much as will purchase a few prizes, and keep their little hand together. Th* parents are to be specially invited to the next meeting, when the children will recite some of their favourite pieces. The usual Athenaeum fortnightly Readings will take place to-morrow evening. OCR Tuapeka Mouth correspondent writes as follows:— A public meeting was held on the 10th inst. at Mr. Taylor's Tuapeka Mouth Hotel to adopt a petition to be presented to the House of Representatives praying for the repeal of the gold duty. The following petition was submitttd to the meeting : — The Honourable House of Representatives of New Zealand iir Parliament assembled. The petition of the undersigned gold miners of Tuapeka Mouth, Otago, Humbly sheweth, 1. That your petitioners aredirectly interested in gold mining, 2. That the 2s. 6d. per oz. export duty on gold is a tax on labour, and detrimental to fche best interests of the province. 3. That as no other country in the 'world has a tax on gold miners, we consider it unjust to saddle us with the payment of 2s. 6d. per oz., being extra over all the other inhabitants of tha province ; and we therefore pray that your Honourable House will see fit to totally abolish this unjust and absurd duty. It was proposed by Mr. M'lntyre and seconded by Mr. Balliston, that the above petition be sent to one o r the go!<l6elds representatives to ba laid before the House. A vote of thanks wis proposed to Mr ; Bastings for the able manner in which he luid brought furwaid the motion before the Council for the abolition of the gold duty ; •tscon.ied ami carried ainiilst uproarious applau'cW The meeting was brought to a close by giving three groans to all members who opposed tha repeal.