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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 839, 12 October 1870, Page 3

The Lyttelton Times comes out at a reduced price on November Ist. A canny Scot, in Fiji, has recently purchased 16,000 acres of land at 6d an acre. It is said that Mr Brodie, of Otago, will be a candidate for the Superintendency at the coming election. Workmen on the Dunedin and Port Chalmers railway have struck for a-day. The contractor offers 7s?, which has been refused. In the New South Wales Parliament, a few days ago, Dr Lang presented a petition pray ing that Fiji might be annexed to New South Wales. The new volunteer regulations prescribe that all volunteer corps armed with the medium Enfield rifle are to be drilled in the short rifle exercise. It is asserted upon excellent authority (says a Melbourne paper) that Louis Napoleon owns no less than £22,000,000 sterling, and that he is actually the largest holder of Australian securities in the world! It is no small .compliment to Australia. The silver mines are attracting great attention at present in Tasmania. The Penguin Silver Mine Company has a nominal capital of £60,000 in 60,000 shares of £1 each. The whole of the shares were taken up in a few days. Private letters from Canterbury speak of the weather on the Canterbury plains as having been unprecedently severe during the last month. The snow has been so deep that on some of the higher stations nearly the whole of the sheep have perished. From Melbourne we learn that the colonial defence arrangement is actively progressing. The artillery force is slowly augmenting. The Wiiliamstown battery works have been commenced. Parliament meets in the end of October. Government have passed a proclamation enjoining strict neutrality. A Wanganui telegram, of date October 7, •ays : —G. W. Swainson, of Marton, was found dead in his bed yesterday morning at nine o'clock in Polgreeu's hotel. He was in his usual health last night, and had been playing at chess. The landlord heard him walking in the room about five o'clock. The cause of his death is supposed to be heart disease. Mr John Page, a member of the Oamaru Town Council, and who accompanied the ' recant expedition to Martin's Bay as reporter for the Oamaru Times, has been found dead in a fi Id near that town. He was found lying in a natural and easy posture, with his hat over his eyes; tho body being quite warm. The Wanganui Chronicle, of the 4th inst., says:—• One of the most severe and prolonged shocks of earthquake experienced here for some time occurred at a quarter past two o'clock yesterday afternoon. It lasted fully one minute, and made everything moveable quiver very perceptibly.—The same earthquake was felt in Nelson and Taranaki. It is stated by the Nelson Colonist that a private telegram to an official of the Bank of New Zealand, has announced that the contract for the Nelson, Cobden, and Westport Kailway had been signed in London, but that no action would be taken in the matter until the peace of Europe was re-established. It will be remembered (sats the Southern Cross) that some time ago the captain of the p.s. Williams was fined £IOO on the information of the master of the p.s. JJoyal Alfred, for an alleged breach of the rules of the road. We understand that Mr Bennett, who afterwards represented the severity of the sentence in the proper quarter, has received instructions to the effect that one-half ot the fine will be remitted. An accident, fortunately not attended with fatal consequences, Boy the Lyttelton Times of the 3rd inst., occurred yesterday afternoon at Sumner. A young man named Everill, barman at the Golden Age, Christchurch, and a friend, were racing their horses along the beach in front of the hotel, when the horse ridden by the former bolted iuic the river and struck out for the bar. Bpth horses and rider disappeared for a time, but the former, although not believed to be a Bwimmer, succeeded in getting out, to the surprise of all onlooker-, his position at one time having been extremely perilous. The horse kept on seaward, but a boat was put off from a vessel at anchor within the bar, and the animal was oventuaHy brought on shore.