THE PROVINCES.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 98, 23 September 1874, Page 3

THE PROVINCES.

OTAGO. The Guardian of the 17th says : —At a meeting of the promoters of the Ocean Beach and Portobello Railway yesterday afternoon it was* resolved to fix the capital at £60,000, with power to increase—in 12,000 shares of £5 a share. Messrs E. B. Cargill, Christie, R. M. Robertson, Raynbird, T. Reynolds, Bacon, Proudfoot, J. Smith, Larnach, Eliott, Seaton, G. Robertson, Taiaroa, M.H.R., M'lndoe, Green, Holmes, Tolmie, G. Wilson, and Professors Black and Macgregor were appointed a provisional committee. Mr Proudfoot undertook to give that portion of his land at Anderson’s Bay required for the railway for nothing. Messrs Smith, E. M. Robertson, and Proudfoot were appointed a deputation to wait upon the Superintendent to ascertain what facilities the Provincial Government are disposed to grant to the fundertaking, which, if successfully carried out, cannot fail to prove of a most beneficial character to the interests of Dunedin. The deputation waited on the Superintendent on the following day, when the matter was discussed at length, and his Honor promised to give every facility to the company. By the last trip of the Albion (says the Times ) Mr R. Robson, of Whitelea, Waiwera, received two magnificent merino rams, which had been purchased by him from the breeder, Mr Alexander Armstrong, of Warrambeen, Victoria, eleven bales of whoso wool brought in the London market last season 3s s£d per lb, and 120 bales 3s 2d per lb. It is evident, therefore, that Mr Robson’s importation is from a first-class flock, and should prove a great acquisition to the district to which they have been sent. From judges who have inspected the sheep, we learn that for character, evenness all over, quantity and quality of wool, these rams cannot easily be equalled in this or any other country. Messrs M‘Kenzie Brothers, the contractors for the Deborah Bay tunnel, are making satisfaetory progress- with that section of the Dunedin and Moeraki Railway: Work is being pushed ahead on both sides of the range, and keeps between eighty and ninety men employed. On the Dunedin side the tunnel has been driven some eight chains, and the face of it is now in hard bluestone, that has been penetrated about thirty feet, and is still very compact and refractory. On the Moeraki side the tunnel is in a chain and a half or thereabouts, and is advancing apace through the ordinary conglomerate formation of the locality. On both sides of the range the approaches to the tunnel are completed, and ready for the laying of the permanent way. The' immigrants by the ships Corona, Tweed, and Otago, who were sent to the Caversham Barracks, have nearly all been employed. The whole of the single girls—about 104 in number— have been engaged at wages ranging from £lB to £4O, and some others found situations as dressmakers elsewhere. Five females and four men were sent by coach to Milton, about sixty females and twenty men remaining in the barracks. That the immigrants do not altogether arrive without means is apparent from the fact of many of them buying land and erecting houses, one of them having recently paid £250 for a piece of ground at Caversham, and some equally large purchases have been made by others. The Daily Times gives the following description of the Southern Hotel Company’s proposed hotel Mr R. A. Lawson has in preparation plans and specifications of the monster structure for the Southern Hotel Company. The site on which it is proposed to erect the building is the half-acre in High street on which stands Tamora House, and a quarter-acre section adjoining. The building will occupy the greater portion of the halfacre referred to, and the remainder of the ground will be laid out in an ornamental manner, with fountains, shrubs, and flowers. The building will have a frontage to High street of 100 ft, by a .depth of 146 ft. The building is intended to be erected in the form of a hollow square —that is to say, it will have an interior court which will not be covered over, and which will afford light and ventilation on all sides. Tbe principal entrance to the hotel is intented to be from High street, and there will be a carriage entrance on the eastern side the side nearest Manse street. This entrance will not be of the usual right-of-way description, as the space between the hotel and the nearest building on that side will comprise a section and a third. The building will be five storeys high, and, in fact, in one part will be six storeys, advantage being taken where the ground falls away to form a basement. It is proposed at present to erect the eastern and the northern wing, which are expected to give sufficient accommodation for immediate requirements, and the remaining portion can be added whenever deemed desirable, without the work of erecting it interfering in any way with the portion of the building to be first erected. At first it is intended to have no less than 100 bedrooms, but the whole structure as designed will have fully double that number. The dining-room is to be 75ft by 36ft. It will open on to a balcony which will give a promenade the whole length of the eastern side of the building at such a height that no matter what building goes on in the neighborhood the outlook will be one of the finest from a locality so near the business part of the town —no building can shut out the view. It is intended to erect the basement in Port Chalmers stone, and the superstructure of brick finished in cement. It is not intended to give the building an ornate or rather elaborate appearance, but rather to consider the interior arrangements and fittings, so as to consult the comfort of those giving their patronage to the establishment. At the same time, the exterior, from the size and height of the building, cannot fail to have a massive and imposing effect, and will bear favorable comparison with the fronts of similar buildings elsewhere. The area of ground the building will cover is 14,600 square feet.