Untitled

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2052, 2 December 1869, Page 2

Otago Rifle Association. — Entries arc requested to be made witty the Secretary at the longroom in the Athenfeura to-mor-row (Friday) evening between 8 and (f. Road Board.— The General Board met to-day at the office of the Secretary for Laud and Works. Several appointments by District Road Boards were sanctioned, and the remaining business was not important. The Gazette. —The Provincial Government Gazette of the Ist, contains some valuable statistical tables, which require

more time than we have yet been able to devote to them to reduce to a readable form. The Interpkovincial Cricket Match. —The Canterbury team were out practising to-day, and showed some very fair play. The matches commence to-morrow at eleven o’clock. Erratum. —In yesterday’s issue, in our report of the case of Wilson v. Thomson, it was stated the “ defendant refused to pay the hearing foe, and w r as reprimanded.” It should have been the -‘plaintiff,” Wilson. New Publication.—We have received a copy of the second edition of “Urgent appeals to the Unsaved,” by the Rev. George Sutherland, printed by Mr Henry Wise, Princes street. It is an exceedingly neat, well printed volume, and being a second edition, no doubt worthy of perusal. We have not yet bad opportunity of forming a judgment as to its contents. Accident. This morning a cow belonging to Mr Muir, of Mornington, whilst grazing on the hill side in Maclagcan street, fell over a precipice, a distance of 40 feet, on to the road beneath, and was instantly killed. Only about a fortnight since a man named Smith, fell over the same place and was severely hurt. We would suggest that steps be taken by the proper authorities to prevent a recurrence of these accidents. Land Sale. —At the Government sale of land in Shag Valley last week, the quantity sold was 1,885 acres, which realised 1.4,173, being an average of L2 4s 3d per acre. About one-third of the land offered was sold, the principal buyers being Mr F. D. Bell and Messrs Gillies and Street. Several applications for sections were made subsequent to the sale, and they will have to bo offered again by auction. About 1,200 acres were reserved, which would fetch good prices if thrown open for selection. A Narrow Escape.—We learn from the Southern Cross that the Colony has narrowly esciped having had to deplore the ducking of the Governor. Our contemporary says : “On the evening of the 17th, as the boat of H.M. Customs (which had been sent to the North Shore to bring his Excellency the Governor to Auckland) was within about one hundred yards of the Shoal Ray wharf, a sudden gust of wind struck the boat, and she capsised, precipitating the occupiers into the water. Luckily they all managed to regain her without suffering anything worse than a severe ducking. ” The Cross is silent as to subsequent proceedings, but it may safely be inferred that his Excellency declined to embark after witnessing the unsafe nature of the state-barge provided for his accommodation. Filing and Sweating Coins.—An Auckland contemporary feels it to be his duty to caution those who are in receipt of golden money that there has been a considerable amount of filing and sweating of gold coins lately. We were shown an Australian sovereign yesterday, the edges of which had been filed away until almost the whole of the “ milling” had been removed, and we are informed that other gold pieces have bsen recently incautiously taken, from which a great portion of the precious metal had been abstracted through holes being bored in the edge, and afterwards neatly filled up with lead. The loss of weight from this cause could not be sensible to a person taking them incautiously. Every piece ought to be examined and then “rung,” when the difference in sound between a genuine and a doctored coin would bp readily distinguished by a practised ear. The Meadowbank Quartz Reef.— The excitement consequent on the reported discovery of rich specimens from this reef appear,s to have subsided, and what is bemg done in the matter appears to be uncertain. The discovery will, however, we believe, be attended with beneficial results to the district, and will not be confined to tjjat locality alone, but efforts will be made to prospect other known localities where payable quartz reefs are supposed to exist. We believe that steps are about to be (if they have not already been) taken to organise a party to prospect the Mount Watkins country, as sanguine expectations are entertained of the existence in that neighborhood of gold-bearing reefs which only await development by capital and labor. From personal observation, we can only say, that the country abounds with with quartz-reefs, cropping onfc at intervals, more or less promising.— Waikouaiti Herald. Skippers. —The reports to hand from Skippers are satisfactory, the returns from some of the tunnel claims being quoted as high as L 25 or L3O a man per week. Sluicing is also spoken of as being equally good. Of late a large number of Chinamen have arrived in the district, the influx still going on. Indeed, Skipper’s Creek Is completely taken up by them. In quartz reefing a little activity is again manifesting itself. The Phoenix lead is dipping at the rate of 45 degrees, and a new drive is about to be put in to catch the lode at its lower level. Southberg’s and Co. have got their new machinery erected, a sixteen-head battery, and have been doing a little crashing of late, with results not stated. The arrangements of the British America are now sufficiently advanced to enable them toe mmence crushing in a few days. The dispute respecting the Nugget Reef, which has brought the works to a stand still for the past twelve months, resulted in a dissolution of copartnery, and the works will he sold at Queenstown on the 27th instant. The Eldorado, in the same line, has been producing stone which went five ounces to the ton, and the Bonnie Dundee, an adjoining claim is doing equally well. As an evidence of the settled character of the population, we are told that all the residence areas, without exception, are under crop. —Cromwell Guardian.