FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1875.

Dunstan Times, Issue 679, 23 April 1875, Page 2

FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1875.

The vote of £IO,OOO by the Victorian Government for the purposes of pros pecting, might, with considerable advantage be made a matter for emulation here in "New Zealand. Asa rule we have not been favorable to the indiscriminate expenditure ot public monies for prospecting,. as these expenditures have scarcely ever led to any good practical results But, the Government of Victoria appears to have grown wise in its generation, and instead of lavishing money in sinking shafts here and there to test the alluvial ground without any particular order or arrangement, it has elected to make use of the boring rods, in such several localities as may be decided noon ; and test those places ior gold whirs deep leads are generally supposed to exist, or where gold has been found running into deep ground, and which could not be properly tested on account of the great influx of water. If the application of boxing rods can be made advantageous for purposes of prospecting in Victoria, how much more profitably could they be applied in New Zealand, especially in those poi'tions of Otago where that sedimentary deposit exists, commonly known as the Maori bottom. In our own district this tertiary formation is found under the Dunstan Ranges for the whole of the distance between Clyde and St, Bathans All the workings comprised within this largo area of country have been upon this deposit, and which would be found to underlay them could they be extended to the flat land immediately bordering the Manuherikia River. To what depth the Maori bottom may extend it is impossible to sav, as probably the Valley of the Manuherikia at one time formed one vast lake of water ; still, its depths can be reached by the aid of boring rods, and the nature of the ground thoroughly ascertained. Geologists have affirmed that there are no deposits of gold in these old lake basins, what there is exists on their margins, and they refuse to adopt other than the old lacustrine theory. To a considerable extent this may be true. Of the marginal deposits we have occular demonstration, but we see no very convincing reasons why there should not be other deposits of gold lying upon the primary rock in the depths of these ancient lakes ; or, why there should not be old liver beds cutting their wav through them. Where runs of gold exist, it has been traced upon the main bed rock in pretty well all cases, until it has been met by the Maori bottom, and oftentimes it has been traced under it for short distances. Taking into consideration the average fineness of the particles composing this Maori bottom, it only points out the fact that at one time it must have been held, for the most part, in solution, and become gradually deposited ; but that is no reason why there should not have been a drift of heavier wash, which had previously found its way info these hollows, and bearing a lot of gold with it. The thing is highly probable, and well worthy of being tested by boxing rods, moxe especially as recent discoveries go a long way to prove that the auriferous alluvial gold of Otago must have been deposited at intoi’vals—possibly of ages between. Ten thousand pounds expended upon testing ground for deep rums, or leads of gold by means of boring rods, so far as Otago is concerned, could scarcely but be productive of an enormous amount of good. Of course the Province could only expect its proportion of such a vote ; still, we feel assured that private enterprise would not be backward in lending assistance

wore our own portion not enough to accomplish something practicable, the desirability of further, developing the Gold Fields being plainly apparent to everybody.

F rom the report of the last meeting of the.Committee of the Grom well Hospital, [published in tho local journal, we learn that Dr Stirling was elected Surgeon at a num, and private practice, and that the Institution's ' r ready for occupation, saving tho furnishing of the kitchen. The sitting of tho District Court, Clyde, Judge Harvey presiding,'was held'on Wednesday last the 21st instant. The only ca«e before the Court was in tho Bankruptcy jurisdiction,'and was,ithat of George Edward Barnes, of Bannockburn, miner, whose final discharge was granted. At the last meeting of the Arrow district Minors’ Association, tho following proposi tion*was carried “ That tho Association request the Central Committee to initiate a subsreription, limited to ono shilling each among the miners of the Province, for the erection of a suitable memorial to tho late Wilson Gray, Esq., District Judge ; and to ask the permission of his relatives to be allowed to place ic on his grave. In the event of their refusal, the money to be devoted to*a Scholarship, or to some charitable liistitutio”. In the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Clyde before W. L. Simpson, Esq.,yesterday the 22nd instant tho following were the only cases before the Court. Alexander Thompson and Alexander Stephenson were charged with cruelty to animals, in driving horses collar galled. Pined 10s. each and costs. —Burke was charged with shooting rabbits on Sunday last. Fined Is. and costs. Kirkv. W. S. Douglas. Claim, LlB. Adjourned for a week for £proof of service of Summons. Amongst our exchanges this week we notice the first number of tho Waitangi Tribune, a newspaper published at Waimate, Canterbury. We are requested by the Treasurer ofthe Dunstan District Hospital to acknowledge the receipt of 4 cwt. of dried onions, one dozen of wine, and one dozen of English porter, presented by Mr John Allan, of Manuherikia, for Hospital purposes. On Wednesday evening last the concert and Ball in aid of Thompson’s District School, Tinkers, came off in Mr Mellor’s Assembly Room. Perhaps the novelty of hearing the Clyde Band, combined with the view of assisting a local institution, acted as an impetus on this occasion, for persons from the country round for miles went to spend a few hours in the above named harmless amusement. The Committee acted most courteously on the occasion, and every thing was carried out in the best manner possible. The Band were received in style, for, on arriving at MrMellor’s Hotel, a splendid dinner was provided for them; and on returning home in the morning the kind host and hostess insisted on their partaking of an excellent breakfast, and we are requested on behalf of the Band to return them sincere thanks fortheir kindness. We understand about £3O was raised on the occasion, to go towards the funds of said District School.

King Kalakau thus expresses his opinion of American women, after his recent tour through the United States : —“I think they are handsome, bold, and forward ; why I actually received letters from ladies in New York, Washington, and Boston, plainly proposing marriage. lam a bachelor ; but when I want to marry a woman 1 will ask her. Ido not like to have women propose. It is, in my opinion, wrong.” A case of love, jealousy, murder, and suicide, says the Fiji Times, recently occurred at Tologo; a native quarrelled with his wife on the suspicion of her infidelity; she left him, and he brought her before the native judge; still she refused to return to him. Finding her out fishing with other women, and one man armed with a spear, he attacked her, placed a gun at hertemple but it missed fire; she rushed into the water, and he there clubbed her to death. He subsequently went iuto the bush and hung himself.

A fracas between a boot-maker and a draper in Queen-street Auckland this morning April 9th attracted a great crowd. The boot-maker hung out a pair of boots by his doorway, and the draper hung over them a red petticoat. Words ensued—the draper declaring that the petticoat should be over the boots, while Crispin vowed it should not, and tore down the peticoat. The draper immediately snatched the boots from the nail, and struck the vendor of shoes on the nose, amid the cheer of the bystanders. The case will be heard before the Resident Magistrate in a day or two. Auckland Evening Star. Reed and Brett, proprietors of the AueklandStar, have instructed their solicitors to issue a lible writ against the Lyttletun Times, unless an apology is immediately made for publishing telegrams on its issue of the 22nd inst., stating that Reed and Brett personally superintended bill stickers while posting over the Hon. Mr Fox’s bills announcing his farewell temperance lectures. Both of the proprietors were absent from town when the bill stickers posted over a tew of Mr. Fox’s placards, which had been surreptitiously placed on the ‘ Stars ’ boards.

Private letters were received in town on Saturday, stating that the Lucknow Company at Bendigo had struck the end of a rich leader in their tunnel, and some splendid specimens of stone have been sent down for inspection. The manager expects to reach the old shaft, where good stone is known to exist in a few days, and this new discovery justifies the anticipation that splendid results will reward the enterprise of the shareholders. It may not be generally known that the rich quartz now being raised from the Cromwell Company’s ground is obtained from a low reef which only came to the surface in the Golden Link claim adjoining The Lucknow Company seem to have fallen on a similar lode.—Dunedin Guardian.

The Grey lliver Argus says:—During the discussion in the Westland Provincial Council upon the Billiard Licensing Bill, the Treasurer opposed the second reading, Tho arguments adduced by,others opposing it were sufficient. He would only add to them an incident of his experience in respect to Billiard playing. He happened to bo sleeping in a neighboring apartment to where billiards were permitted all night, and where a man with a wooden leg happened to bo ono of the players. He left the Council to imagine how much ho slept that night. (Laughter.) Mr. White thought the Treasurer had certainly stated a peculiar instance. Tho'only way to prevent such an ocoure ncc againjhappening the Treasurer would bo to insert a clause to prevent men with wooden legs playing all night. Seriously however, he could ’not support the second reading of the Bill. It would bo taxing those already overtaxed, and in many other respects it would be prejudicial to society to legalise billiard-playing all night by men with wooden legs or other legs.

The pedestrian, young Delaney, on Saturday afternoon, undertook tho task of running ten miles in less than an hour, in Woolfe’s paddock. The course was small and tho ground was not very favourable to good running. Shortly after five o’clock Delaney started at a fine easy pace, which ho maintained throughout the race, except occasionally when ho put on some splendid spurts to show what he was capable of doing. He ran in a very determined manner, and and when ho had covered the long distance exhibited very little sign of distress. The time was carefully taken by the owners of two stop-watches who agreed that the race was run 47sec inside the hour. A sum of money was subscribed on the ground to be presented to the runner.—Grey River Argus.