OTAGO.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 30, 23 January 1862, Page 6 (Supplement)

OTAGO.

A Railway AN’DTni/EG-HAPH. —Notwithstanding all the Victorian journals have done to “ write down ” Otago, it is evident that many of their readers are inclined to regard it with confidence and to invest their capital in it. Amongst other oilers made to the Provincial Government is one for constructing a Railway and Telegraph from Dunedin to Port •Chalmers. The tender undertakes to find the necessary capital if the Provincial Government will give a minimum guarantee of 6 per cent, profit for 21 years, We believe that oflers of the kind are favorably entertained, and doubt not that arrangements will shortly be entered into to encourage the carrying out of several public undertakings by private enterprise.— Otatjo Daily Times , Jan. 4. By Cobb's coach, which arrived from the diggings last night, we learn that there has been very stormy weather up country, wind, rain, snow, and sleet, and that communication was interrupted between Waitahuua and Tuapeka. it being impossible to cross the \Vailahuna river at Murray’s, and consequently no passengers have come from Gabriel's Gnlly. We are informed that Mr. Rowley, of Rowley s .Express, narrowly escaped being swept down the creek in the attempt to cross. The road was in a fearful state all the way down, the newly made portion being far the worst, indeed, axle deep. Many miners were leaving Waitahuna for Welherston's and Waipori. The coach brought a full load of passengers from Waitahuua. — lbid. The W.upoiu Crot.i) Field.— During the last few da; s accounts have reached town, which leave every reason to suppose that the Waipori will turn out a first-rate gold field. Men who left at first owing to the want of provisions, are returning; and it is said some of the claims promise well. In a day or two we shall be in a position to furnish accurate intelligence. Meanwhile those who intend to visit the gold fields may take Waipori in their route, without going out of the way of the shortest road to Tuapeka and Waitahuua.— lbid.

CiriTKE OF TIIK ill NO LEADERS OF THE WEST TioiEiir Rubbers. —The Sydney Umpire publishes the following account of the capture of the man Garratt, who is understood to have been the ringlender of the gang, who, on the 18th of October laA. perpetrated the daring crime known as the sticking-np at the West Taieri: —“Henry Garratt, at inn ilow.se, the ringleader in the highway robbery under arms, committed at the West Taieri on the 18th of October last, has been arrested at Sydney, from information received through the columns of the DaVy Police Gazette. There is no possible doubt as to his identity, as he was seen without his mask by all the to men who were stuck up on the occasion. Garratt's career is unprecedented in the annals of crime, even in Australia. In ISSI he and two others entered the Ballaarat bank in the middle of the day, bailed the manager up, and abstracted from the hank several thousand pounds. He was arre-ted the subsequent year at his residence in Eoley-place, Oxford-street, London, and brought back to Sydney. After he had committed the robbery, he went to Sydney, and escaped to

England. As the vessel by which he had sailed wa- known from information, partly given by his wife whom he left behind, an officer of the Victorian police was sent after him, and he would have been uiken immediately on the vessel arriving in Eng’and. had he not adopted a cunning precaution of going ashore somewhere on the coast as soon as land had been sighted. A day or two after his arrival in London, he-went to the Bank of England, and got change for a quantity of the gold which formed a portion of the robbery. The suspicion of the officials were excited, and having heard of the robbery in Australia, information of his visit to the bank was at once sent to the police. At his lodgings when ho was arrested, were found several revolvers, opossum rugs, and blankets, which he brought from Victoria. Even at his residence his conduct excited suspicion, for he would not allow any person to enter his room without knocking, and he always kept a revolver loaded on the mantlepicce, which he was observed to draw towards him whenever any one approached. The proceedings of this daring offender partook so much of the romantic, that in the book which was published in London, called “scenes of a London Detective,” the sketch entitled “The Bank Robbery,” is known to have allusion to him. He was eventually tried, and upon the clearest evidence sentenced to transportation for ten years, which sentence would expire hi 1865 ; he is, therefore, at present, a licket-of-lcave holder. When arrested in Sydney, he made a most determined and desperate resistance, and endeavoured to get at the bowie knife he had by his side ; resistance, however, was useless, as his captor, detective Clark, is a most powerful man, and another officer came np at the same time. On his person were found two packages of strychnine. Population of 'the Gold Fields. —By the census lately taken on the goldfields by the police,

it appears that the number of names collected was 11,435, The Bub-Enumerators consider that there were about 4,000 they were not able to collect owing to the diggers rushing about. This makes the population in all, 15,435. —Daily Times.