DUNEDIN NOTES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 177, 1 April 1873, Page 6

DUNEDIN NOTES.

By 0. P. Q. Telegraphic news from Wellington announces the purchase by the General Government of the Dunedin and Port Chalmers llailway, at the very large price of £175,000, iho sum originally asked by the Company who own the line being £220,000. It was of course patent to everybody that the line must become the property of the Government, or great inconvenience would be caused in the working of the other lines of railway which will before long have their termini in Dunedin ; and although the price paid for the transfer of the line .is a high one, it is only what might have been expected, for the Dun•edin and Port Chalmers llailway Company have parted with what is undoubtedly a very valuable property, and it was not to be expected that they would do so without getting a good price for it. The goods and passenger traffic on the line has been very large, and the large goods station erected at the Dunedin terminus has proved quite inadequate to meet the demand for space. There appears to be a probability that the •elaborate and long-pending negotiations between the City Council and the Dunedin Water Works Company, for the sale of the 'Company’s works to the Corporation, will, after all that has been done, fall through, notwithstanding the resolution which was carried affirming the desirability of the sale. The company seem to consider that in consequence of the Corporation being unable to fulfil their portion of the bargain (giving the shareholders the option of taking Corporation debentures of fifty years’ duration in lieu of cash purchase money), the negotiations must fall through. The Corporation, on the other hand, maintain that they will have no -difficulty.in getting a short Act passed next session giving them power to issue debentures of fifty years’ currency, and seem to consider that the Water Works Company are in honour bound not to draw back from the previous resolution. So the matter at present stands. How it will all end 1 cannot say. It seems, however, as if the Water Works Company half regret having agreed to dispose of the Works, and wish now to declare off.

The races at Forbmy Park on Monday and Tuesday attracted a very large attendance of visitors each day. On the whole the events were excellently contested, some of the racing being of the most exciting and closely contested description, while in the race home in the Otago Jockey Club Handicap between Tambourini and Misfortune, a dead heat was the result, the owners of the two horses afterwards agreeing to divide the stakes. The winning of the Maiden Plate and the Forbury Handicap, on the first day, by Capt. Hutchison’s mares Butterfly and Mabel,- against the latter of whom almost any odds could have been obtained, was a piece of good luck for that gentleman which few begrudged him—■excepting, of course, those who had bets on in an adverse direction. It is' said that Capt. Hutcheson accepted a bet of £2OO to £lO offered by a well-known sporting character that he would not name the two winning horses in the Maiden Plate and Forbury Handicap. Capt. Hutchison stuck to his'own colours, and named Butterfly and Mabel, thus winning the bet, no doubt equally as much to the astonishment as to the chagrin of the individual who gave the odds. The Hurdle Races were run -without any serious accidont to either horses or jockeys, although there were numerous spills. Altogether the Metropolitan March meeting of ’73 was a very successful one, and seems to have given very general satisfaction.

Messrs Fish, Prosser, and Reeves, the opposing candidates for the seat in the Provincial Council rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr E. B, Cargill, have been airing their eloquence during the week at meetings ■of the electors held in various parts of the city. There are three candidates, but the contest in reality lies between the two firstnamed of the trio. Mr Prosser wishes it to be understood that, if elected, he will go into the Council as an entirely independent member, free from the. trammels of all parties, and at liberty to vote as he thinks best for the interests of his constituents, this explanation to the electors being made in answer to a statement circulated that he intended to vote against the present Ministry if a want of ■confidence motion were brought forward during the ensuing session. ■ Mr Fish is now a strong opponent of Mr Donald Reid, and contests the election as an avowed supporter •of the present Executive. The notorious Moa Flat land sale, which iniquitous proceeding was carried out under the auspices of the Reid Executive, is given by Mr Fish as the main reason for the transference of his allegiance from the Reid -party, and he has spoken in very strong language of that disgraceful transaction, Mr Fish claims the suffrages of the electors on the score of the long public services he-lias rendered them, and in reply to some observations made concerning his unlimited ambition, says that some.futnre day he w ill perhaps ask the electors to send him to the House of Representatives, in addition to electing him asa member of the Provincial Council. The-poll is fixed to take place on Tuesday, the Ist April. I have just heard that-one of the female immigrants by the Charlotte-'Gladstone, died at the Taiori on Tuesday, the- oanse r of' death being typhoid fever. If this is true, and I have reason to place implicit reliance in my informant’s statement, it is further confirmation of the fact that the Board of Health were rather hasty in their liberation of a number of the passengers.