The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1880.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 368, 20 January 1880, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1880.

In the history of the gold fields of New Zealand) one chapter remains yet to be written, and that one will relate to the Wairarapa district. We learn from the Wangapi Herald that since gold wis discovered in New Zealand we have exported, no less than 8,959,482 ozs., of the value of £35,000,273,, or sufficient to pay off the. whole.of our public debt, and to.sweep away a large' proportion of our private indebtedness to the foreign money-lender. If we add the gold, that evaded .payment of duty, and the amount retained in. the colony «nd jaade into jewellery, we should probably find the total over £40,000,000. The |roductibii of such an enonnous j

sum of money must have benefits the colony. But it is not only in the actual value of thV gold o.ur, soil that wo have received benefit. New Zealand was almost unknown when the first gold discoveries caused her name to become almost a "household word" in the countries of the old world. With many worthless characters corns thousands who, once disenchanted and rid of the gold fever, became hardy pioneers, extending the boundaries of civilisation, or enterprising citizens. The worst, always rolling stones, and often rogues, left the colony with the departure of the first glory of the goldfields, but the best remained behind, and often, behind the smooth and apparently unexcitable exterior of the merchant or storekeeper, is concealed the old miner, once as mad with the gold-fever as the maddest of the surging crowd who made haste to the fields where they had fancied, in their excited day-dreams, lay unbounded riches, awaiting only|hand of man to seize them and turn them to account. New Zealand wouldjyet be in comparative infancy, and she would not now be the country whence longing eyes turn to seek a home better than that which older countries afford, had it not been for her goldfields. Even now thousands find remunerative employment in the fields of Otago, Auckland, or the West Coast, and the value of gold annually found, even in these days of diminished returns, form one-fifth of our total exports. Any other industry which did so much would be nursed, fostered, and tended by our legislators, and the extreme disfavor into which our goldfields have fallen is, to say the least, strange and difficult to be accounted for;

The Wairarapa Daily will not be published on Anniversary Day. The Maaterton Borough Council holds its usual fortnightly Bitting this evening. A smart ihoek of earthquake was felt at Masterton about 4 o'clock this morning. To-morrow Laery and Campbell sell at Wellington 114 acres in the Opaki Block. We call attention to Messrs Bethune and Hunter's sale of Carterton land tomorrow. The half-yearly meeting of the General Committee of the Masterton Hospital is convened for this afternoon. Messrs lorns and Fergusson announce the sale of the sawmill plant in the occupation of Messrs Yorke Bros, for the 26th inst. Mr Parmer, who is moving into new premises, has instructed Messrs lorns and Fergusson to sell without reserve, on Saturday next, a large and very valuable lot of furniture. A private in the Kaiwarra Rifles was accidently shot through the head on Saturday last while marking at the butts. Death was instantaneous, Bishop Redwood has issued instructions for collections to be made in every Catholic Church in the diocese, in aid of the Irish relief fund. Last week a St. Petersburgh nobleman nearly killed the editor of a newspaper in R duel, A large number of immigrants arrived in the Wairarapa by train yesterday afternoon. The valuation for the Borough of Masterton this year is £21,7ti1. Last year, after objections were heard, it was £24,085. The" heathen Chinee" are now growing vegetables in Masterton, to the disgust of the European gardeners. We hear that sections in Maryborough are rapidly changing hands. Last week a lection of 25 acres was sold at the rate of £25 per acre. _ W# have been requested to draw atten tion to a special announcement of public interest in another column, from Mr James Smith, Te Aro House, Cuba-street, Wellington. The Wesleyan Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society meet, we understand, this evening, Professor Verd, a well-known illusionist, will give entertainments at Carterton on Saturday and Monday next.

A tea meeting will be held in the school room of the Wesleyan Church sit Masterton to-morroff evening, the proceeds of which are to be in aid of the Circuit fund.

The annual valuation of the city of Wellington for general and water purposes for the year 1880-81 was completed on the 15th inst., in terms of the Eating Act, 18V9. The total valuation for general purposes amounts to £251,689, as against £231,836 for the previous year, being an increase of £9853, At Grahamstown, on Saturday last, Chiniquy lectured on " The Reason why he and 25,000 others left the Roman Catholic Church," at the Theatre Royal to a good audience. The meeting was orderly, but the feeling was one of disappointment at the lecture. • The desire to Bell his books and receive moneyj apparently supersedes his advocacy of what in hi« opinion is true Christianity.

_ A telegram from Eoss reports that a six-roomed house belonging to a miner of the name of Deakin, who is at present in Canterbury, lias just been burnt to the ground, A fresh breeze was blowing, and not an article has been saved. Mrs Deakin has been badly burnt about the head and right arm in trying to rescue her baby, whom she believed to be in the room which was on fire, The child had been previously taken away by a neighbor. Mrs Deakin has been sent to the hospital. No one else was injured. At this seaion of the year a considerable number of persons are in the habit of bathino in the Waipoua. On Sunday last several of them went to their uiual haunt, but on entering the water found that the bed of the stream had been strewed with pieces of broken bottles. This outrage beara the mark of design, and if those who had their feet out by the glass can discover the perpetrator of it we should recommend them to make him pick the pieces out again ".nolens volens." A Portsmouth correspondent states that the Admiralty have determined upon the dißbandment of the Royal Marine Artillery, and orders were received, at Eastnor Barracks on Monday morning to cease recruiting. At a congregation at: Cambridge University' next Thursday, a grace will bo offered .for conferring the BiD. degree on. the' Right Rev. A. W. Stillitoe, ol Pembroke (Mege, Bishop of New Wui> minstsr, in British Columbia. .