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Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 10, 3 June 1863, Page 5

Auckland.—The half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of the New Zealand Bank was held on the 30th April. The business of the bank is rapidly increasing, and the statement presented on the occasion was of a highly satisfactory character. It appears that, after providing for all bad and doubtful debts, writing off £827 4s. Bd. from bank premises and furniture accounts, besides defraying the whole expenses for the half year, the nett profits amount to £35,910 10s. Bd., to which is to be added the sum of £894 os. 6d., being the balance from last half year, making a total of £36,804 lis. 2d. available for appropriation. Bank shares are now selling at £3 10s to £4 premium.-—Our gold exports are steadily increasing, and several of the companies formed for the purpose of working the quartz reefs at Coromandel are returning handsome dividends to the shareholders. Several quartz crushing machines are now in full operation at Driving Creek, the auriferous stone yielding an average of about 20 ounces to the tou. The Claude Hamilton took 1,113 ounces of Coromandel gold to Sydney the other day, being the largest aiiount yet shipped from Auckland.— Southland News Correspondent. Extraordinary Scene—On Sunday morning last, (February 15,) in the parish church of Horley, immediately after the service, and before any of the congregation had left the church, Captain Wood walked up and on to the dais, and addressing the congregation said, in a loud voice, that a lady holding a high position in the parish had been slandering him (Captain Wood); and he was then awaiting the charges to be repeated. Having paused for a few* minutes, and no response being made, he, in a still more excited and louder tone of voice, denounced the lady in question as a " liar and slanderer." The affair of course took the congregation by surprise, and in fact alarmed very many of them. We understand the churchwardens have taken up the matter, and that it will come before Bench. —Surrey Standard. A frightful conilict has taken place on the river, off Black wall. The Peruvian corvette Ariea is fitting out in the West India Docks. The greater part of her crew—half of thtra sailors and half soldi i\s—is on board the hulk Venus in the river. On the 19th of March the soldiers were on shore on leave,and a large number of them got drunk. When they returned on board they refused to obey orders, and the sailors were called upon to secure the most disorderly, and clear the decks. Then commenced a fearful fight. Eventually, however, the soldiers were driven between decks, and there kept the sailors at bay. The captain was sent for, and on his arrival, leaped, cutlass in hand, among the mutineers, and was followed by the sailors. A hand-to-hand encounter ensued, which lasted for some time, but finally the mutiny was quelled. During the fight one of the officers appears to have been thrown through a port into the river, where he was drowned. Another, a midshipman, who was ill in the cabin, died through the excitement. Two of the soldiers were found dead on the deck ; others were fearfully hurt, and some are supposed to have been drowned. The ringleaders were put in irons, and the bodies of the deceased were removed on shore. The mutiny is now (March 23) proved to have been attended with a loss of six lives at least. A wounded soldier died on March 22, and others remain in a precarious condition.— Home News.