The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 10th APRIL., 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 250, 10 April 1865, Page 2

The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 10th APRIL., 1865.

B? the arrival of the Lady Bird we are put in possession of our Southern files. We find hilt little that is new or of great importance to transfer to our columns. The army on the West Coast, between Wanganui and Taranaki, are literally at a stand-still, much to the triumph of the hau-hau rebels, who profess to have brought it to its present position, arid to retain it there by their enchantments. Much dissatisfaction is expressed by the Wellington press at this state of matters, and, we judge, not without reason ; for there can be no doubt that the cost is immense, and the result, as yet, nil, The Season for prosecuting active operations is now j-apidly drawing to a close, and the ranks, of the rebels are being vastly increased by the falling away of numbers of hitherto professedly friendly natives. We greatly fear that this season will close so as to give ihe rebels three or four months for reOrganisation and preparation for further iuischief. Be it so; it will, at all events, necessitate a different line of policy on our

part nest season. From Wellington-we hear that his Excel* lency had arrived there in H.M.S.S, Esk from Wanganui, but it was not expected that Jje would make a protracted stay in that cjty. It seems that he had decided on favoring his ardent admirers in Auckland With the gratification of their hearth desire for a brief period. The election of Superintendent had been decided, and is; as was' Expected, in favor of i>r. Featherston by a

majority of 223. Mr Borlase had obtained for the Waugauui district a majority against the Doctor of sixty-three votes.

From Nelson we have nothing of much interest. As in Wellington, there has been at Nelson a contest for the Superintendency, the caadidates having been Mr Saunders and Mr Barnicoate, public opinion seeming pretty equally divided between them. The election was of rather more than ordinary interest; it is decided in favor of Mr Saunders by a majority of twenty.

From the West Coast goldfields via Nelson, we learri that the great rush still continues, and that there is now at the Okitiki a population of over 10,000 men, and the expected Victorian rush had not yet begun. The difficulties of the miners were very.great, as there is but very little open country, being for the most part very heavily timbered, and the valley of the river hardly more than a gorge Much and great distress is anticipated to be the result of the rush during the coming winter, though the. miners as a whole were doing well, and the escort returns promises to overtop the most sanguine expectations. • These diggings are in the province of Canterbury, though more contiguous to Nelson by the sea' route, and the Canterbury citizens do not fail to urge on the attention of the Government the necessity of opening up a road over the range of Rocky Mountains, or at least of rendering available a certain track that already exists, and by which many hundreds have already footed it. Some cattle and horses have also been taken over, but at great risk and loss, as in parts, we understand, it leads by a mere ledge along the side of a precipice, with a sheer perpendicular descent on the one hand and a wall on the other. Several attempts, only partially successful, have been made to find a more eligible route. It does not seem at all probable that during the winter months there can be any possibility of communicating .with the provincial city except by sea. ~

Th.- province of Otago is. commercially, at a very low ebb. It would; be .difficult to imagine a province in a more depressed state; some seven thousand or more of her digging population have already deserted her for the Western El Dorado, and they don’t return. This fact lends fresh vigor to the excitement, and more and more of them follow those that have already left. The consequence of this exodus is most disastrous to the merchants and storekeepers, whose stocks remain on their shelves.

The most important item from this pro. vince has been the trial of Captain Jarvey for the murder of his wife. The Court sat on this case for nine days, and it has not been decided, as the jury could not agree among themselves as to their verdict. We have the full report of the trial, which our readers may well imagine is far too long for transference to our columns, but we may remark that the chemical evidence of Dr. Macadam was quite clear and conclusive as to the fact of strychnine being found in the stomach of the deceased, notwithstanding the labored attempts of the prisoner’s counsel (who had crammed himself with a superficial toxicological study for the purpose of raising a cloud in this direction) to confute him, or to cause him to.admit-the possibility of a doubt on the matter, The course pursued by this counsel can hardly be read without a feeling of indignation at the tone of insolence and superciliousness adopted towards the witnesses cross-examined by him, and can hardly be excused even by the consideration that the fate of a fellow-creature depended upon his exertions during the examination. His Honor the Judge had frequently to interfere, yet his Honor himself showed by his summing up that his own bias was towards the prisoner. There will have to be a new trial, and it is said that Dr. Macadam’s assistant will bo brought to Dunedin, ns he assisted at the analysis ■■ of the stomach of deceased.