NELSON

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 145, 23 October 1863, Page 4

NELSON

Auckland Jockey Club Plate.—A plate, value £2OO, with £lO entrances added, has been advertised by the Auckland Jockey Club, to be run for on the 2nd of January next. The entrances for the race closed on the Ist instant, and two nominations were sent up from Nelson ; viz., the imported horse Ratan, and Mr. Redwood’s mare Ladybird. There is good blood, we believe, in Auckland, so that these horses from Nelson will add greatly to the sport of the meeting.— Nelson Examiner, 3rd October.

Nelson Races.—The prospects of sport at our next Race Meeting, which it is intended shall come off at the old season, in March, afford better promise then we ever before remember. The special interest of the meeting will be, that three imported thoroughbreds will contest tho palm with our co-lonial-bred horses and the relative merits of English and colonial breeding will be subjected to such a test as we doubt whether has ever before been tried in the Australian colonies. Golden Grape, by Barnton, (brother to Voltiguer), and Ratan, by Sweetmeat, are both imported horses, and Skybird, a mare by Teddington, is the third. All three animals are believed to be fast, but nothing beyond this is known of them at present. To uphold the honor of the Colonial turt we shall have Ladybird, the winner of the Champion race at. Otago, in March last, and Otto, by far too good a horse to be despised by the best horse that may strip to run. Regnum, a four-year colt, by St. Aubyn, is of excellent promise, and the five or six three-year-olds that are to be brought out, judging from their breeding, should make the pace good, in any race for which they start. We have heard it said that it is more than probable horses will be sent to our meeting from both Canterbury and Auckland, and we trust that such will be the case, as a hearty welcome will certainly be accorded them. — Ibid. The Steamer Pucebe.—The Inter-colonial Royal Mail Company have added to their already numerous fleet of boats in these waters the Pheebe, > from what we observed while inspecting; her, we think she is remarkably well adapted fop the jnter-provincial trade, in which she is, henceforth, to be employed. She arrived here under the command of Captain Woods, and will, on her return from Canterbury, about the 12th instant, be handed over to Captain Kennedy. The Airedale will then be taken to Sydney by Capt. Woods, whither she is going for the purpose of being refitted with new boilers, &c. The Phoebe is of 613 tons register, 120 horse-power, length over all 173 feet; sue has 26 feet beam, and a depth of hold of 15 feet; her engines, of low pressure, and made by Tulloch and Lenny, of Dumbarton, can be worked easily at an average of twelve pounds of steam. The saloon is not only very elegantly fitted, but the sleeping berths are most airy and commodious, while possessing every modern improvement. Fifty-four passengers can be accommodated in the saloon, but, on emergencies, this can be extended to sixty. Her second cabin will accommodate forty, and lias also a ladies’ cabin for six passengers. The saloon lias been fitted with cedar (alter the design of Capt Vine Hall), by the Company’s joiners in Sydney, under the immediate superintendence of Captain Woods. There are bunkers between the engine-room and stoke-hole, which keep the dust from tho engine, and communication is secured between them by a tunnel. There is also a donkey engine, erected for the purpose of working a steam crane, which can be used at either of the holds ; and there is a mail and baggage room, on either side of the after hold. We may say, without exaggeration, the Phoebe is the most elegantly and conveniently fitted boat, in the Inter-colonial Company’s service, and will be found an immense improvement on the Airedale. The Phoebe, when purchased by the Inter-colonial Company, was lying at Bermuda, waiting for a fitting opportunity to run the American blockade, and had then on board 15,000 stand of rifles, 1,5001bs of powder, and eighty large Blakely guns. She was under the command of Captain Johns, who, it will be remembered, was captain of the Airedale, at the time of the extensive robbery of gold coin on board that vessel, when in Nelson harbor.— Nelson Examiner. Departure of an Old Settler.—By the Prince Alfred, steamer, on Sunday last, one of tho oldest and most successful of New Zealand settlers took his departure from the colony to return to England. Mr. George Duppa left England for Wellington on tho 17th of September, 1839 ; so that, within four days, he had been absent 2J years when he left New Zealand to return to England. Although originally a Wellington settler, Mr. Duppa made Nelson his home almost immediately after it was established, and did good service for us by importing very valuable stock at pn early period, and also by employing a considerable amount of labour at the time of the crisis caused by the stoppage of the New Zealand Company’s works. Mr. Duppa was one of the earliest to take up sheep country in the Wairau Valley, and also to drive sheep from the Wairau down to the Amuri, where he subsequently acquired a vast freehold estate, amounting to about 100,000 acres of fine pastoral land. The sale of this property a few months ago, with the flock of sheep upon it, for £150,000 shows what perseverance can do in New Zealand ; and it is in order to enjoy this really princely fortune that Mr. Duppa now returns homo. Mr. Duppa was one of the earliest patrons of the turf in Nelson, and we are indebted to him for some valuable blood which he imported from Tasmania. As the founder of a Scholarship at Nelson College, bis name will be long remembered here.

Discovery op a 4115. Nugget at the Euxx/er, —We have a letter from Picton, dated Tuesday, which says, “There is a schooner here which left the Bidler on Saturday last, the master of which reports a nugget having come down the Buller the previous day, weighing four pounds.” In other words, if this statement be correct, and there is no reason to doubt its accuracy, a lucky digger has found a lump of gold, worth nearly £2OO, Yesterday some accounts reached town from the Wangapeka with reference to a still further imS roved aspect of the gold diggings in that locality, he amount of the yield is not so specifically stated as that the general indications are said to be

so tavorable that a rush is not improbable at no distant date. We hope to have the most favorable construction of the report quickly confirmed. — Colonist, October 2.