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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 555, 27 February 1868, Page 3

The Ball to the Governor. —We purposely abstain from taking any notice whatever of the ball given on Thursday night to his Excellency the Governor and Lady Bowen. Neither the Stewards—whose names have not been published—nor the juvenile Hon. Secretaries, W. H. Levin, Esq., and C. J. Johnston, Esq., whose names have been published, thought proper, in accordance with the usual practice observed both in England and the colonies, to forward the press any invita tions to be present, and under those circumstances no reporter from this journal attended. Of course a reporter could have paid his guinea and attended professionally, but it is not customary for reporters to attend such affairs unless invitations are given and tickets placed at their disposal. When the usual practice is not complied with we simply allow the affair to pass unrecorded. With a proper sense of what is due to the press, our contemporary the Evening Post, has also, we are glad to observe, omitted all mention of the ball. — Wellington independent, 22nd February.

The Auckland Islands.— A telegram appears in some of the Middle Island papers staling that it is the intention of the Government, during next session of the Assembly, to propose a vote for the establishment of a depot at the Auckland Isles.

English Mail via Panama, —The Lord Ashley is due hers to-day with the English mats via Panama.

A Settles. —“ Biddy, did you put an egg in the coffee to settle it?” “Yes, mum, I put in four; they was so had I bad to use the more of them.” Biddy was cleared out.

Death bt Dkownims.— The Dalby Herald relates a melancholy occurrence which took place in Dalby lately, by which a little boy five years of age lost his life.

Ihe tatlier ot the Doy, named wmtenesd, is a brickmaker, and lives on the plain, a little beyond Bool's residence, on the road to St Ruth. About one hundred yards from his residence, and close alongside the brick yard, is a clay pit, some seven feet deep, which to afford shade is covered with boughs. The recent rains had filled this pit, and also covered the land round it, to a depth of about a foot, with water. On Saturday morning, about nine o’clock, Hr Whitehead left the house to look after a kiln of bricks which were being burnt, iio saw his two children, the deceased and a younger brother, paddling about in the wafer, but so far from the clay pit that he did not apprehend any danger. Ha passed round the edge of the pit, and entered the brickyard. It is supposed that the two children followed him, but instead of going round the pit, it is thought that they took a straight line to overtake him, and both fell into the deep water. The mother came out of the house and looked round to ascertain if the children were all right, and was horrified to see one of them struggling in the water, head downwards. She uttered a scream, and rushed to its assistance. She hid, however, to struggle for her own life, for on reaching the bank a portion of it gave way, aud she was plunged into the pit. Mr Whitehead heard his wife scream, and at once hurried towards his house to learn the cause of it. He found his wife in the water nearly exhausted, holding the youngest child in one hand, and with the other clinging to the boughs ; and it was with difficulty he got them out. For some time after being taken out of the water, the child was insensible, but as soon as it was able to speak it told its parents that its brother had fallen in also. Mr Whitehead immediately jumped

into the pit ogam, aua etmeavour-u to recover the elder boy, but it was not until the arrival of some of the neighbours that this was done, and then no signs of life were visible.

Prospecting Extraordinary. — One day lately as Mr W. Adams, solicitor, was walking about his garden, which is bounded on one side by the river Matai, a man came up the pathway and with an important air said, “ I want to see the proprietor of this establishment.” “I am he,” said Mr Adams, “ what is it?” “ Then, sir,” said the visitor, “I have an important communication to make to you.” “ Indeed,” was the reply, “what might it be?” “Sir,” quoth the stranger,—and he paused to give duo force to what was to follow,— “ Sir, I have to inform you that I have discovered a gold-bearing quartz reef at the bottom of your garden.” “ Have you f ” replied the incredulous Mr Adams. “ Yes, sir, I have, and it’s a good thing for 3 our property.” “ O,” said Mr Adams, “wo will have a look at it thenand he accompanied the man to the river. “There,” said the stranger, pointing to some irregular rock-looking substance, “there it is cropping jut of the ground ; I have traced the formation a considerable distance down the river, aad find it cropping out here.” “ That’s the quartz reef, is it ?” “ Yes, sir, that’s it, and it will do you a great deal of good.” “ Why, man,” said Mr Adams, “ that’s the remains of the foundation of the old bridge ; it is masonry !” Jaunty prospector vanished, and has since been biding himself in a deep-sinking on the Maitai river, where the bottom is very difficult to reach! —Nelson Colonist. Another Great Cave in America.— Some people of Schoharie have discovered what they believe to be the entrane'e to a great subterranean cavern, about half-a-mile from the Schoharie House, on the farm of Mr Kapoleon Clark. It is believed to form a passage under the West Mountains The entrance at the head of a ravine is of arched rock, from which hang various stalactite formations ; but it has as yet been explored only about one hundred and fifty feet on account of a depth of four or live feet of water reaching nearly to the top of the arch. The water will be drawn otf by an excavation, when the cave can be bafei > v entered. Howe’s Cave, in the same town, on the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, is well known, and has all the wonders, splendors, and horrors usual to such long subterranean passages. it has an abundance of stalactic and stalsgmiiic formations. In some places you crawl on hands and knees, in others you are dazzled by the reflection of tho li'iit from thousands of glittering angles in the sides and roof; in others you pass m a boat over dar k waters, and again you walk along slippery ledges, where it seems as if a false step would precipitate you fhrougU caverns measureless and vast, Down to a sunless seas The cave was discovered in 1840 by Lester Howe. In 18i3 he bought an acre of land covering the entrance, and in 1845 he and his brother, Elmon Howe, bought about

seven acres, covering another entrance, which had been excavated. There has been a litigation for some time between the brothers as to the ownership of the entrances, but it has lately beeu amicably settled by the payment from Lester Howe to Elmoa of |5,000 for his interest in the property.