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Evening Star, Issue 3290, 5 September 1873, Page 2

We have had the following telegram from his Honor the Superintendent placed at our disposal, and we feel that in justice it ought to be made public, as very unjust and unfounded assertions have been made in connection with the workshops at Mussel Bay : —“ 2ie direction of railway—was never consulted ; Government itself does not .'.now in what direction it will go. Mussel Bay reclamation —my opinion asked six months ago ; since then have heard nothing of it. Have no interest in placing workshops anywhere except where they will be most convenient and economical.” Mr Pyke took bis seat in the House of Representatives yesterday. He was introduced by the Hon. the Commissioner of Customs and by Mr J. L, Gillies. The Bruce Herald is our authority for stating that one of the parties in the recent Blue Spur case had the pleasure of receiving from his legal advisers a little bill for L 2,000. Among the list of the “ late publications ” in London mention is made of a work entitled “ The Education of Man ; a Suggestive Dissertation on the Soul —what it is, and how trained ; with an appendix-—Have Savages Souls ?” We have reason to believe that the author is Mr Henry Smythios. The congregation of the First Church met yesterday evening to reconsider the resolution passed at a former meeting, bub after con siderable discussion the resolution was con tinned, it being as follows That full power be sent to Dr 0. Dykes to select a suitable minister for the pulpit of the First Church.” We understand that all the single women who arrived by the Peter Denny Lave been engaged at wages averaging from I 35 to L4U a-year. All tne single men farm servants are engaged, and most of the married couple* without children have either accepter engagements or have had offers which are under consideration. Seme persons, with more humor than sense in their composition, are in the habit of affixing sensational and highly fictitious telegrams on the shipping board of the Telegraph Office. Yesterday one of those messages purported to intimate the loss of an immigrant ship on her way from Loudon to Otago. Perhaps if the police could make an example of one of these practical jokers, it might have a wholesome effect on the others.

We observe that at a meeting of Mr Wilson Gray’s friends, held in Melbourne for the purpose of considering the stops to be taken to.have a portrait of Mr Gray painted for presentation to some one of the public institutions of Victoria “as a lifting and lasting memorial of a man whose name occupies a conspicuous place in the history of this country ; a committee was appointed to find out if a good portrait of that gentleman could be painted in the Colony, and what would be its pi’obable cost. An inquest was held at the Provincial Hotel, Port Chalmers, ye terday before fr A. Donoghue, district coroner, concerning the death of Isaac Crisp, who was killed the night previous between the railway pier and the ship Allahabad. After the evidence of three witnesses, the jury returned a verdict of accidental death, with, the following rider :—“ That the Government be requested to erect gates across the railway, so as to prevent persons from passing up or down the pier without permission from the watchman. Ships lying at the pier to have sufficient gangway accommodation, with lights and manropes to the same ; also a rope netting underneath to prevent similar accidents. ” In the New Zealand Gazette of August 28, is given a comparative return of the number of telegrams forwarded, the revenue received, and the value of General Government telegrams transmitted for the quarters ended 30th June, 1872 and 1873. The totals are— June quarter 1872, number of telegrams forwarded, 115,042; value, L 7,849 14s. Goverument telegrams—value, L 2.727 5s 6d. June quarter, 1873, number of telegrams forwarded, 154,317; value, L 10.457 12s. Government telegrams —value, L 3,524 11s Gd. The 1873 quarter, it will bes eeu, shows, upon the ordinary business of the line, an increase of 39,275 telegrams in number, and L 2.607 17s 3d in value ; the value of Government telegrams also shews an increase amounting to L 797 Gs. The following extract from the Dunedin correspondence of the Bruce Herald must be taken cum grano sails “ Soue of our Dunedin folks have had great times amongst the spirits lately. I have been told by an eyewitness of some very extraordinary phenomena which, my informant told me, had occurred here ; and 1 have heard of others from those whose informants were present when they occurred, without contact. A look-ing-glass, comb, and brush were moved from one place to another—flat irons brought from one room to another, the doors being shut. Spirits hands were seen and shaken, and by spirit hands a pencil was taken up, and a writing left as an evidence of the intelligence wjjiph had been present. If lam correctly informed, more wjll lae heard on this subject ere long.”

The Fire Brigade are to be temporarily housed in the Octagon, which after all is not such a good site as we imagined it. The objection is that it is too near the North Dunedin end, which already p assesses a complete and easily available plant; while the south end of the City is practically unprotected, This might be remedied if the Corporation would excavate the portion of Dowling street between the steps and Farley’s building, and the clear ground would provide a most eligible site, which would have the advantage of being central, and on the crown of Princes street, thus rendering it perfectly easy to run the gear to any part of the City. The excavation might be don

without cost to the Council, as the Government would be only too "fad to have the matedal. We commend the suggestion to the notice of the Counoill. The meeting of the Rifle Association this afternoon was held too late f r us to obtain any account of its proceedings, which we have reas n to believe we e in the direction of taking steps to have the Province represented at the Intercolonial rifle contest at Melbourne, The matter only requires to be properly gone about, and there will be no difficulty m providing not only an Otago contingent, but a team to represent the Province. The prominent position we have held in past shooting competitions warrants our endeavoring to send a team ; and this ought to be easily accomplished, seeing that Auckland and Canterbury will each send four men. It is a pure question of funds, and any doubts on that score may safely bo thrown on one side, as a preliminary canvass made by a few gentlemen interested led to promises of subscriptions to the amount of over LSO being received. We hear th d Captain Goldie and P. D. Wilson, of the Port Chalmers .oaval Brigade, have already determined to try conclusions with the Victorians and New South Welshmen, and hope they may be accompanied by half-a-dozen more of our crack shots.

We obtain from the Tuapeka Times the following particulars of the fatal accident in the Molyueux river to which brief reference was made in our last issue The deceased William Moscow was crossing the river in a small wherry, .accompanied by Mr Oliver Dawson, of Tuapeka Mouth. Both men had been accustomed to crossing the river for some years past, having resided at Tuapeka Mouth, where iloscow was for some considerable time part proprietor of the saw-mills. From what we can learn, the men, on account of the darkness of the night or mistaking the force of the current, allowed the boat to get below the punt, not an uncommon occurrence. In their endeavor to bring the craft to her proper mooring, Roscow caught hold of the punt to pull the boat round to the other side ; but the current, being too strong for him, wrenched him from the boat, and he fell into the river. Dawson saw his hat pass him in the water, but thought there was no danger, as Roscow was a g md swimmer. He then heard a gurgling sound, but could see nothing of deceased—the strong current, no doubt, immediately sweeping him away. Dawson at ence gave the alarm to the residents, and they proceeded to search the river bank, but their efforts proved unavailing ; not a sign of the poor follow was to be found. Moscow was well known and widely respected. He leaves a wife and young family to mourn his untimely end.

A deputation of road contractors waited upon the Deputy-Superintendent to-day, and laid a grievance they had before his Honor. Mr Vallentine of Waikouaiti, who acted as spokesman, explained that through the last winter having been so very bad, the Government had ordered a quantity of metal considerably in excess of what was usually ordered for road maintenance to be placed on the roads. At the time the contracts were let, it was understood that the works would be let in two miles, for the purpose of ■nving small contractors an opportunity of faking up the work, and on that assumption the deputation had tendered. They now felt that they had been placed in a false position, by reason of the quantity of -cquired being so very much in excess of what it usually was; and they wished to know if it was not possible that some alteration as to prices could be made, so as to enable ;he contractors to obtain the additional labor required. As an instance of what the change meant, be instanced his own contract, which would require live times more metal than it usually did. This arose from the fact that the winter before last the raeta was, for some unexplained reason, put on to a lesser thickness than usual ; the consequence being that the roads had got worn down to such an extent as to necessitate the increased quantity of metal. His Honor said that it was a matter which rested with the Provincial Engineer, who was at present out of town. On his return the matter would be placed before him, and an answer given to Mr Vallentine as soon thereafter as possible, Che deputation then withdrew.

The fact that the Government has decided upon throwing open a tract of country in the immediate neighborhood of >witzers has, (ac cording to the Tuapdcn Times ) created a considerable amount of satisfaction in that district, and has had the effect of giving fresh and much needed impetus to business and speculation thereabout. From Switzers in a northerly direction for 12 or 15 miles, a splendid plain exists—well watered-suffi-ciently timbered, having lignite in abundance, possessing a rich soil and every requisite for agriculture, approaching a noble forest, which will yet be worth untold riches, and, more than all, presenting and occupying the highway to a most promising goldfHd, which gives indications of being before very long the richest which has ever existed in Otago, But for the fact that the locality is at present inaccessible, a rush wmuld long since have taken ’dace ; but, with the intervening land (which is not inaccessible) thrown open for occupation and settlement, the Waikaia and Whitecombe will shortly bo a populated and prosperous goldfield. If a surveyor were sent to inspect and report upon the locality referred to, the Government would, we think, see the neccessity of at once throwing open the land to which we have referred, as also the expending of a substantial sum upon the road between Lawrence and Switzers, from Switzers on to the bush, and through it it to Whitecome. The track via Tcviot can never be made available, save for horse and foot, and that only during at the outside, about five months in the year ; whereas by the way of Switz -rs a splendid road could be formed—a railway for that matter—open all the year round, and traversing a country from one end to the other devoid of serious engineering impediments, surrounded with agricultural, gold, and timber bearing country. It is not saying too much to pronounce the locality referred to one of the finest and most promising in the Colony; and we ardently trust that the Government will not neglect it, but by ail the means available strive to advance a valuable and hitherto neglected district.

We have to acknowledge the receipt of the first book of “ Wild Will Enderby,” a talc by Dir Vincent Pyke, of which we purpose to give a more extended notice. From the short time we have been able to devote to its persusal, we imagine it will find much favor in New Zealand, as it is a tale of the Dunstan rush, and is full of incident.

Mr Alfred Anderson, R.A.M., of the firm of Begg and Anderson, has presented ns with a copy of “ The Sunbeam Galop,” one of his own composition and arrangement, which he has dedicated to Mrs James Smith—a deserved acknowledgment of the support that lady extends to art. The air is original, lively, and bowing, and the harmony good, without being too ditllcult for drawing room practice. The composition, as a whole, is very superior to the general run of the music of that class now in fashion, and we have no doubt the galop will find a place in every musical collection in Dunedin.