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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 269, 21 November 1861, Page 4

OTAGO.

Provincial Council. — The Thirteenth Session of the Provincial Council was opened on Wednesday, 23rd October. At the last session of the Provincial Council, the Town-Board of Dunedin procured the introduction of a ,Bi;i, giving to that body very exclusive aud arbitrary powers to regulate and make streets, &c. The measure now introduced into the Council, throws the burthen of making the streets their full widih upon the Board, or rather lbe general rates levied on the town property; at the same time it gives the Board full power to cut away mounds • and ' . fill iup hollows close to the adjoining prnpei rtes, um\ pincgg~T»pm» -tLv expense of building retaining walls, or taking such other ‘steps to protect his property from injury as may be necessary. The expense- of making the footway 10 feet wide is W be borne by the owner of the property, or by the tenant, if he has a lease with a term of throe years unexpived at the time of making the footpath. These are the main-features of the Bill, and in our opinion it is sufficiently hard upon the proprietors of town land, and nmy be made extremely vexatious, unlesss the law be judiciously enforced. Discovery of Gold in Quartz,—A remarkably line specimen of gold in quartz lias been brought to Dunedin. D- is a cube, mea.-u ing about 7 inches on each side. One side is covered with gold, which is also in crevices half an inch deep. : The quantity of gold it is estimated to contain is above a pound weight. The locality in which this fine specimen was found is a secret. It is satisfactory to find that gold mining is likely to take the form of quartz crushing, and that it is likely to be permanent. A Provincial Gazette of the Ibth Oct. contains a proclamation by his Honor extending the area- of the Gold Pelds to 187,000 acres. Education 7’he annual meeting for the election of a school committee took place at Warepa on the 7th inst. The report stated that seventy-six children had given attendance during the year at the several schools, and that the committee had resolved that the teachers should receive as salary £IOO and the fees. The School /tooms at Warepa and South Cluthu not being large enough, the chairman said that the use of the churches there would be gre i; the committee we/e instructed to take the necessary steps for having desks, Ac.; fitted up, arranging-them so as not to interfere with the Sabbath accci&inodatjpn furnished in these churches. Last week we-give the public accounts from the Gold FieldsJ; the following is an extract from a letter ,received, from a townsman who with his party had been at the date of its being written " absent from this 10 weeks, and no doubt it will be interesting. - - . Tuapeka, 22nd Oct. 1861. Dear . You will excuse me writing a long letter to-night, as Lam so very tired, This has been a hard day’s work to the whble of our party,—in fact, yesterday and to-day have been two of the hardest w r e -have had on the diggings. I suppose you would like to know how we are getting on ; well,, we. have hot been doing so well this last fortnight as we did : at. first. IVe appear to have 1 :lost the run of it; however, we have good hopes yet. We have, since we started, sunk and bottomed ten paddocks (not including one, that after going down over soft.we were driven out of with water, and had to give upas a shicer). I enclose you a paper, shuwing. the result of one month’s work. \Ve have not done so W’ell as some, but a great deal better than ninny. Our first claim is pretty well worked out now, and we are just shoving in our pegs'wherever we can get a spot. But it is awful hard work, sometimes, what with water, slips, and removing surface, we work hard enough ftr what .we .get. . Yesterday we were twice thriven out of a hole, first by a rush of water, and next by the bank slipping ; the second time, had we been two minutes longer of getting out, J—-e L-—t or some one else would most likely

have been done out of a job. We did manage to clear out the hole though, and SXO think’w will get something out of it; “■"Oife' TUr aisii'imr ims-tdrmm- wwi o uwis;, hut the next might not have a speck—it is very patchy. T—k paid a flying visit here on Sunday. We should like to have seen the Skipper with him, but he only came to Waitahuun.

.Give him my compliments, and tell him should he come this way.again yie will most certainly “ Joe ” him. Talking about “ Joe-ing,” we had. a regular scene in the gully yesterday. . By way of explanation I must tell you that they have raised, the mutton another penny per lb. 7’lie sheepowner has it all liis own way ; all the shops in the gully belong to him, anti he just sticks it on as he likes. He lias a number of stalls, and gives the men XT per day and their kai kai, but the poor beggar of a digger has to pay for it-alii Every" sheep he sells is worth-to him 21 10, and as for. bullocks, fancy him making on an average 50/ out of each one ; ; and yet he has the conscience to stick on another penny. 1 Well, he appeared in the'gully yesterday, going his rounds of the shops gathering in' the cash ; »a d. if he wasn’t “ Joed.’Vit’s a pity., hie was hooted from one end of the gully to the other. Ifou can fancy whatA'row we kicked up, when Joe about ten minutes every digger simultaneously stopped work, and gave vent to 'Jhifc wrath hrJoiw chorus of

.“.Joe, Joe, Joe,” in all keys/from B flat-to F sharp,, major and.minor; aud then, for a. grand-'flourish—you would have thought j O,QOO wethers .had been suddenly brought into the gully—fancy [three pr four thou sand men shouting at the top of their voices, “ Baa, baa,” and you will have a faint idea of the welcome given to Mr. Wood, alias “Obi Timber-bottom.” Carting is down to 60/; it will be cheap/enough yet; there is any.quantity (of carts coming from Melbourne aud other parts. A Wangmuite here has sold his. horses and cart for 130/, and talks, of g »ing home ag iiu.

OZ. (Iwts. OZ. dwts Sept 26, 11 19 Oct. 11, 1 5 27, 14 5 9 9 12, 1 7 99 28, 4 13 99 14, 1 0 *9 30, 6 6 99 IS, 2 4 Oct. 1, 3 6 16, 5 12 2, 8 99 17. 1 16 3. 1 14 99 18, 13 4, 13 6 19, 4 f>, 5 7 99 21, 8 »9 7, 1 14 99 22, 18 - 8, 1 10 9, 4 14 . 7 0 15 » 10, 6 lit • 31 4 2s per vz—aW£300.