NELSON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 586, 16 June 1858, Page 3

NELSON.

In our present files from Nelson, we obser^-e nothing i'resh, worth publishing, in reference to the gold fields.

The following is^ the report of _ie referees upon claims to the gold bonus:— The referees appointed by the subscribers to a bonus for the discovery of a workable goldield, to decide upon all claims to the same, having taken into consideration the claims received and the evidence adduced in support, of each, hereby decide as follows:

No claimant has succeeded in proving that the conditions upon which the award of the bonus is made to depend, by the subscribers, in their advertisement in the ' Nelson Examiner' of the Ist September, 1856, have been fulfilled with respect to the claim preferred by him, namely, that as many as 250 persons have been working for any period of four consecutive months on the block of land comprised within the circle described by a radius of two: miles from the centre named by such claimant. ~

The bonus, therefore, cannot be awarded to either of the claimants. The referees, however, although a^ware that, in giving the above desision, they have completed the duty entrusted to them by the subscribers, think it right to remar_ that, as it is indisputable that a workable gold-field has been discovered, though not such a one as is defined in the conditions above alluded to, they consider that the credit of the first discovery of-thu gold is due to the claimants, James and Ellis, while the merit of developing the gold-field and of proving it workable belongs chiefly to William Lightband. It remains, of course, with the subscribers to decide whether, if they coincide in opinion with the referees, they wHI mark their sense of the merit of these indiyi-' duals, by conferring upon them any such pecuniary reward as they may think their efforts in discovery or devolopment -of the gold fields deserve. (Signed) J. Potntee, Resident Magistrate.

A. Domett, Commissioner of Crown Lands. A. Fell, Chairman of Subscribers. At the half-yearly meeting of the Croixellea Cmper Mining Company, held at Nelson on the Ist inst., it was resolved to defer making any further expenditure until the receipt of in-, formation from England as to the mercantilevalue of chromate of iron, which had been f .und to exist in the mines. It wa» ascertained on examination by competent mining engineers that the copper would not pay th^e co>t of working. The following are extracts from the ' Nelson Examiner,' oi the 2nd inst.:—

Dun. MoomtaijST Copper Company.—We are glad to learn that the men employed at this Company's mine in sinking shafts under the chrome lode, have struck the crop of a copper lode, at the depth of about 90 feet from the surface of the ground. Should it prove on following it that this lode is of any value, it will at once set at rest the reports that copper is only found on the surface of the ground at Dun Mountain; and we shall be glad to do honor to our old friend, Mr. Wrey, should his frequently expressed opinions that the copper lodes at the Dun Mountain do really hold down be thus borne out by actual fact.

A Livixg Moa.—The following account of the supposed discovery of a living moa, which we take from.the ' Wanganui Chronicle' of the 20th M«y, is worthy of a place amongst our local intelligence; although of course we do not vouch for the accuracy of the " trustworthy correspondent" of our contemporary. We have chronicled several discoveries of moa bones in the Aorere, and have seen and handled many of these bones, but this is the first account that has reached us either of the " chase after the living bird," or of the " shilling exhibition :"*—

A trustworthy correspondent from the Nelson Gold Diggings states, that a few weeks ago, some men, who were out searching for a missing comrade, on passing through a piece of bush oil -^ their return home in the evening, saw an immense bird which stood (to the head) about fourteen feet high. They chased it until it entered one of the numerous and extensive caverns which are found between the Slate and the Boulder rivers. The cave in question is supposed to be two miles in length, and composed of several apartments. The following morning they returned to the cave, with guns and several candles. They discovered no trace whatever of the bird, but some distance inwards they found a youngone —with a long neck, and covered with yellow down—about the size of a goose. The fortunate finders were exhibiting*

$at a shilling a-head. Some persons appear to doubt the truth of the existence of the old moa. The capture of a young bird of an unknown •species is, however, certain; and if not a young moa, it may prove to be a young one of the •same species of wingless birds as that captured by Mr. Mantell some years ago in the Middle Island, and which was supposed to be extinct like the moa. Lkohosn Straw fob Plaiting.—A small -quantity of the seed wheat which furnishes the valuable Leghorn straw so greatly in request for ■plaiting, has been received by the Government of this colony from a gentleman in England, and is now being distributed in the various provinces through the local Governments. A circular, giving the necessary information for cultivating *the wheat and preparing the straw, has been handed us for publication, and we print it with pleasure, hoping her#after to see the plaiting of =this straw become a profitable occupation to 'many industrious -families:— Directions for Cultivation of Wheat from vwhich Leghorn Straw for Plaiting Hats, Bonnets, &c, is made, and for Preservation 'OF Straw-: —The ground should be hilly in preference to low ground, and if wood land it would 'be preferable. . The seed may be sown from the '15th November to the end of December; that is, W the situation is a cold one it should be sown iin November, if warm in December.. The soil ■should be worked, but not very deep, and three 'bushels of straw seed should be sown in the space where one bushel of ordinary wheat would be used. When the straw is half ripe, it is to be pulled up, tied in small bundles, and left to dry in the sun, and, when it is well dried, is to be stacked up. In July and August the bundles are to be opened like fans, and exposed to the dew of the night, until the straw becomes perfectly white, taking care that it Has no rain, which would spoil it. When this is done, it is stacked up again, and then used as required for plaiting. It appears that our neighbors at Nelson are eaually with ourselves opposed to the scheme of electoral reform propounded by the Ministry. The ' Examiner' comes forth on the subject with an indignant leader, from which we quote the following extract as a fair sample of the apparent public feeling on the question in that province :— "The old rule was clear and simple. The electors met at a place and time publicly announced beforehand, and there proposed their candidates; but now we must have written nominations, written acceptances, and deposits of money, and fines and limitations of all sorts and sizes; and, as a crowning absurdity, the ballot. The minute directions and fiddle-faddle which follow this, the private apartment for the voter to retire into, and the regulations how he and all others are to behave whilst there, in •entering and retiring from it, are worthy of a master of ceremonies or a dancing master; and any disobedience to any one of these precious absurdities is visited with £100 penalty. Why, for a most gross and indecent exposure of themselves, without a scrap of clothing, in the street of Collingwood, two fellows were lately fined only £20; and, according to this bill, five such outrages are only equal to the offence of delivering a voting paper open instead of folded, or declining to run the risk of burning his fingers with his other voting papers, or even not retiring from the ballot-room in sufficiently quick time to satisfy the expectation of these arbitrary lovers of freedom and independence. And then we come to another long string of oaths, penalties, committals, and compensations, to be decided upon by the neighboring magistrates, and that in the very heat and passion of a contested election. The idea is preposterous; and we know not whether to be more amused with the petty frivolity and absurd intermeddling of these microscopic interferences or disgusted with their extreme and tyrannical severity. They bring law and its enactments into disrepute, for they will never be carried out in practice, or will only serve as traps to catch the unwary and ignorant, and as a means of indulging private and political animosity, under the semblance of law.

If we are not fit for saying whom we shall choose to represent us without all this apparatus, this extremity of supervision, which assumes the great majority to be a set of rogues and scoundrels, only to be kept in order and deterred from wrong by the fear of punishment and the strong arm of tha law, then we are not fit for constitutional liberty at all, and had better send to Russia for a Governor at once—General Shootemoff or Count Knoutemallroundski. But, at the same time, whilst we repudiate this carricature of legislation for ourselves, we have no wish to interfere with the discretion of the Aucklanders. If they think it applicable to their own condition, well and good; but we trust to be saved by our representatives from the indelible disgrace of having such a measure forced upon the people of Nelson."

F. A. Weld Esq. was returned without opposition as a member in the House of Assembly for the district of Wairau.