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Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 99, 23 November 1868, Page 281

. Discovery of Gold in the City of Melbourne.— lt is stated that gold has been discovered in Lonsdale-street, Melbourne, referring to which the Argus of October 23, says that “though there is no reason to doubt the statements made, yet there may be other modes of explaining ing the presence of gold in tfrjg surface soil, than by supposing that a gold-field has beeufound in Little Lonsdale-street. We un*. derstand furtber excavations will be made to-day, with a view to the discovery of more gold.”

The Late Tidal Wave.—Further Particulars. —A private letter, dated Apia, 12th September, gives more details of the destruction caused by the tidal wave on the 15th and 16th August, at Navigator Islands. The writer says the tide rushed on the shore eight different times, sweeping several villages away, with their inhabitants. A spacious church, built of solid materials, was levelled tojthe ground. , A Catholic priest was surprised by the ter. ible flood whilst visiting a station, and' was placed in imminent danger, having hacTto climb a tree for refuge, and afterwards ‘to abandon that? precarious shelter, and cascend a hill. His coat; provisions, sacerdotal vestments, and chalice, were carried away at the same time.. |

Extr \ ordinary Phenomenon. —The Oumaru Times gives the Yellowing description of a phenomonen which took plao'e between, eight and balf-passt nine o’clock on the 17th October:—The sky, which was;bright with stars and cloudless, was, in the south-west horizon, marked by two patches of the' most intense blackness which changed theiß contour into several fantastic forms, the smaller patch now Appearing like: a-large: black, bar and-now like ;two smaller royind balls. 'The larger first took the form*qf a gigantic'., bull, with lowOTed horns'-and raised- forefoot in the pet .of charging, then, gradually changing into the resemblance of an -pig with open . jaws, and last, to. a giant ..baud with the index Auger extended. ..But.the singularity did no.t cpnsist in. the fanciful shapes assumed by these patches' but in the fact-that they did not travel across the sky, as bad.they:: been .clouds fthey must have don'ej there being a-etiff gale blowing, and^?shat,;> intensely black,'.they” 'did/Tnot- ODfdnrw the Atars, whicifshhbe through flmm* in'vivid edhtrasti - About Half an -hour, after-tihey were* first observed^they? died:< aut,Jleaving the sky in/the-space of aYew seconds: as brilliant v as •in other:, parts pf the' hearens. They did not move from their place, but diedout, and m'a few mmuteTs-faded entirely away ii . This Bucoeasiye ' appearance: and disappearance'continued for an hour and eachj?;time the blackness' being less 1 intense* uatil about half-past nute.