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Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1968, 26 August 1869, Page 2

The Otago University.—The Wellington correspondent of the Bruce Herald writes :—The establishment of a college for Otago may now be considered an accomplished fact. The Governor has given his assent to the Bill, setting opart 100,000 ac es as a college reserve, and the Crown grant for the same is in preparation, and will be brought South by his Honor the Superintendent in all likelihood. Mr. Haughton.— ln consequence of Mr Haughton taking up his residence in Auckland, we believe that gentleman intends to resign his position as the member for the Lakes district in the Otago Provincial Council. Mr Haughton had a very hard and difficult task to pursue in the Provincial Council, and has faithfully represented the district’s wants in that body. As the member for Hampden, we believe Mr Haughton will continue to render his services in the General Assembly.— Wakatip Mail. Fire.—The Cardrona correspondent of the Lake Wakatip Mail, writing under date the 17th hist., says : —About 4.30 a.m. on Wednesday last, an alarm was caused by the cry of lire. On hurrying to the scene of the conflagration, I found that Bond’s Empire Hotel was in flames, and in less than an hour poor Bond was left houseless, although the united efforts of fifty men, with a plentiful supply of water to quench the flames, were employed in vain. The origin of the lire remains a mystery, but it is supposed to be purely accidental. It was first noticed in one of the back rooms by Hubert Miller, a resident in the hotel, who immediately gave the alarm. Bond and family, being in bed at the time, had a very narrow escape, being hemmed in by five on all sides. '1 hey had to make their exit through the bedroom window. 'ihe house was not insured, and the estimated loss is upwards of LSOO. The Discovery of Gold. — We learn that Mr Of. Healey returned to town on Wednesday, after visiting the men who are now prospecting on Mr Tripp’s run, somewhere in the vicinity of Fox’s Peak. He brings no further news than that already published. The men are still at work, but the weatin r during the last two days must have prevented them from making much progress. It seems, from what we cau learn, that the men went out to look for a slate quarry, and while doing so, were struck with the great resemblance of the country to that at the Shotover in Otago. They consequently tried the river bed for gold, but could not obtain a sign of the precious ore. On going further up the river they again tried and obtained the “color,” and a little further up still, they got the washdirt to which we referred in our last issue, and which contains gold plainly visible to the naked eye. Indeed, specks have been taken out and tested, and are without doubt good gold. The washdirt is a dark iron sand, exactly similar to that obtained at the Molyneux. We believe that, should no better prospects be found than the one sent to Timaru, mining can be profitably carried on by sluicing. There is abundance of water, and it is said that the wa hdirt is inexhaustible. In the same locality, or within a few miles of it, two parties are at work at quartz reefs. Thew .and party are on the eastern side of the dividing range of the Mackenzie country, and Forgan and party, consisting of five men, are on the Mackenzie country side or to the westward of the ranges. The latter are working amongst the snow, and by the last advices to hand they had obtained very promising indications. —Timaru Herald.

Cheap Intercommunication. Mr R. D. Bust, in a long letter to the Press, energetically advocates the immediate carrying out of works for the development of cheap and easy communication throughout New Zealand, especially in the North Island, where he argues that such works would have the effect of reducing the Native difficulty to much smaller proportions. As to the plan itself, he says :—“The limits of newspaper correspondence will not admit of more than a brief outline of my project, but I trust that even this much may set in motion the ventilating machinery ; and I must content myself by stating that I propose the formation of trunk lines of fenced-in roads, to be well formed, with stone foundation, and asphalted at the surface. That engines on .the traction principle be adopted, wheels of both engines and carriages to be shod with india-rubber or gutta percha. Such roads would be made at about one-third to half the cost of the ordinary railroads (in some in-

stances at only about half the cost of tramways), while the cost on the score of repairs for many years to come would be quite nominal, ajmere tithe of the wear and tear experienced on the best-made railways. The speed would certainly not be so great, but a light engine for passenger traffic would find no difficulty in making from fifteen to tv enty miles per hour, while eight to ten miLs would easily be'attainable by goods trains, which I imagine to be quite sufficient for many years to come. It is not practicable to give any close estimate of cost, without a knowledge of the nature of the route determined upon ; but in this country we have very many miles of country in various directions, over which this style of communication might be accomplished lor about LIOOO per mile (in some places even less), but, taking it altogether, 1 should say L2OOO per mile would bo ample for all purpo-es, including bridging rivers, plant, etc. The North Island might be more costly, but the previous remarks about the relative cost of effecting communication by such means are equally applicable, and I should say one would save an outlay of twothirds of the capital required to form railways. As a guide to parties calculating I may state that the asphalting portion, on such an extent of work, should simply imply an addition of 25 per cent, on the cost of an ordinary coat of metal, of a given substance, and it is highly probable that a considerable reduction might be effected by visiting the various Australian colonies in search of tar. ” The Maerewhenua Diggings.— The results of Mr Warden Robinson’s visit to the Maerewhenua diggings are anticipated by the Octmaru Times, winch states that there is little doubt that the report will be in favor of the proclamation of a goldfield, the enquiries made by Mr Robinson having evidently completely satisfied him that there is a large area of payable ground. Our contemporary says : —The exact boundaries of the field we are of course unable to give, but presume that they will extend westerly as far as the Knrow, from which quarter a parcel of heavy scaly gold has just been received, and although the ground in the ground last referred to is patchy it will doubtless pay well for sluicing. VVe are glad to learn that at the Maerewhenua and Aw.mioko about twelve miles of races are in course of construction, and may point to this fact as an evidence that the miners have ascertained enough as to the payable character of the ground, to justify them iu the outlay of considerable capital. We mentioned in our last that quartz reefs had been discovered, and we are now informed that indications have been found which lead to the supposition that they will prove to be auriferous. The prospecting party recently despatched having been reinforced by the addition of an experienced quartz miner, is now engaged in prospecting the reefs for gold, and will drive in some distance at the most likely spots. We cannot exactly state that gold has been as yet found in the reefs, although reports to that effect arc current; hut many loose water-worn specimens of quartz, containing gold, have been obtained in the immediate neighhothood. Presumptive evidence is strongly in favor of the probability of there being ere long payable reefs discovered in this part of the Province, which may turn out as rich as those at Bendigo Gully.— As to the alluvial workings at the Maerewhenua, Awamoko, and hj urow, we are now in a position to say positively that there is as good, if not better, ground than at Mount Ida, and that miners at Maerewhenua, with rude appliances, are doing better than they would bo likely to do with the same means at the goldfield mentioned. There are in various parts of the field immense masses of quartz conglomerate, firmly cemented together, and apparently also containing iron. This conglomerate may eventually prove to be worth crushing, but besides this there are enormous quantities of loose quarts drift, more or less mixed with clay, which has been ascertained wherever tried to contain gold in larger or smaller quantities, but iu all cases a sufficient proportion to yield good returns for sluicing and hydraulicing on a large scale. The extent of the workings and the amount of gold obtained will, therefore, be evidently in direct proportion to the water supply, which, although by no means plentiful at present, is capable of considerable extension. We may add, that the quantity of gold brought down to town within the last three mouths has been 212 ounces, and that there are at present about 100 Europeans and 14 Chinese on the field. Many of these are prospecting or cutting races, so that the number actually mining may be set down at a third of the aggregate given.