DUNEDIN.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 970, 5 September 1871, Page 3

DUNEDIN.

[PROM OUR OW>" CORRESPONDENT.] ,' August 26. By the William Dayie from Glasgow, in addition to a large general cargo, the thew and sinew of the Province has received a considerable accession to its force, in the shape of some 160 immigrantß, who are certainly of a much more desirable class of people than the hordes of ignorant Chinese who have of late been crowding our streets, and who are nearly all dispersed over the various gold fields, much to the disgust of the European miner. The nomination fcr the vacancy sa ,the Provincial Council for the Waikara district, owing to Mr Driver's resignation, and who has since intimated his intention not to stand again, took place on Tuesday. Contrary to general anticipation, only two candidates were nominated — Mr James Macasaey, the well-known; spechl pleader, and Mr George Hepburn, an old resident in the district, and one who has represented the district already, both in the Council and the Assembly. For the vacancy in the House of Representatives, the nomination comes off on Tuesday, and 1 believe that at least six candidates will come forward. The constituency is a very scattered one, and each candidate has a small knot of supporters, more or less nuraeroup, according to the particular part of the locality he hails from. All the probable candidates are local men except one — Mr Cutten. A distressing case of suicide occurred at Oamaru last Saturday morning. A youngman named Robert Miller, a printer, brought up in Dnnedin, but who* had lately joined the staff of the Oamani Times, fell into bad health, which preyed on his I mind to such an extent that on the morn- ' ing mentioned he took his rifle to the office with him; and after addressing a remark to one of the boys in the place, went into the press-room, and there shot himself. ' The jury, at the inquest, returned a verdict of "Temporary .Insanity. 1 '- The body was brought down here and buried on Thursday. The annual congregational meeting of First Church took place on Thursday evening. There was a fair attendance, and the Rev. Mr Sutherland was in the chair. The report of the Kirk Session was read by Mr Lawson, and it showed rather a languishing state of affairs, both the collection,, seat rents, and snstentation fund, having fallen below the mark considerably, so that the church now only stood fourth on the list instead of taking the lead as it used to do. On the financial statement a long, and, at times, rather acrimonious discussion took place, 1 their having for some time back existed a sort of- dissatisfaction with things M'they are. Eventually, a motion was made approving of the, report, as well as.an, amendment asking the' minister to resign, but the amendment was found incompetent, and was not put. The report was adopted. A motion to increase the stipend of the minister was discussed, but negatived, and after some other matters were discussed, the meeting terminated. The hew church for the above congregation still remains in the half-finished state it has lain for the past year, with no appearance of a start being again made in the works.. The congregation of Knox Church, on the other hand, have determined on building a large stone church on the section at the junction of George and Pitt streets, keeping the present building intact as a lecture school room. I warrant this new church will be finished arid opened before the First Church one, for all the start the latter; has had, .; : t The Graving Dock still remains in the same unfortunate fix. An attempt is to be made on Monday to bring about an accommodation, which it. is to be hoped will be successful. The Dock Trust yesterday discussed and agreed i upon a scale of charges for the use of the Dock, which seemsreasonable enough, though, as usual, small vessels pay most per ton. It is rumored that pur oldest gold fields'. "Warden,' Vincent' Pyke, Esq. , has resigned his office, having got disgusted at the late tinkering with! his salary, which was reduced considerably. It will be long ere another so well qualified is got to fill his place. No Chinese have arrived this week. The ship Shun See is at the Heads, from London, all well. The weather has taken rather a wintry turn, auljthe, hills are white at the tops.: The change came on very suddenly on Thursday morning, at 4 o'clock, the previous part of the night having been calm and mild. At that time the wind chopped round suddenly, after some flashes of lightning, and blew hard from S.W., with . heavy hail. squalls. It has since cleared up, but is much colder.