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Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 266, 10 April 1874, Page 2

It is understood that the Maerewhenua River Pollution Case is postponed to July.

A grand Art Union is advertised to he held at St. Bathans on. May Bth, in aid of the Harmonium and Church Building Fund. '•

Messrs. Nicholls and Udie last week brought in 32 ozs. of gold from Hamilton for despatch to Melbourne through the Gold Receiver's Office. • •.-■•'..•

A TEX.EGBAM has been placed at our disposal by Mr. C. F. Koberrs,'sent.by Mr.Tylre from Dunedin, that the Mount Ida. gold forwarded to Melbourne, realised ; £,3 17s. 9d. nett. The Serpentine gold turned out infpr■io.r

The Maerewhenua School was opened on the 30th- inst. Mr. Monteith is the' first master appointed." The salary- is 3 to-consist of a Government subsidy of £6O, a Con-mit-tee subsidy of £25 and school fees. Twentyeight scholars are already enrolled. ' ' On Saturday' evening last, the' President and the Secretary of the Central Association were in attendance at Mr. Busch's to ;receiye signal urea to the memorials about to be forwarded to the Governments.' Those who have not signed should do so on Saturdayevening, when another opportunity will' be afforded them. , We are requested by the Secretary to .the Mount Ida Miners' Association to call the attention of miners and others to the petitions on the following subjects, viz :—Maerewhenua Eiver Pollution, Abolition of Gold Duty, and the Establishment of a.Mining Board, which w'U be at Mr. Busch's residence on Saturday evening next for .signature.,A party of some half dozen interested in the opening up of dand,'on Tuesday'last visited some portions • of, the. plain., All expressed themselves well pleased with the nature of the land;- which far exceeded their expectations. Only three miles of shingle were observed in a 'circular ride, of some thirty miles. There is no doubt that a portion of any block opened will be eagerly applied for on the system of deferred payments. . . • i i■. : ~ :: ~ ; . • The total amount of revenue collected at Naseby in the Mount Ida district for the twelve months ending 31st March, 1874, is as under:— Gold "Revenue, ...,...; ... £2220 ,14 3' Resident Magistrate's Court Fees and Fines 225 8 8 £2446 2 11 _ The Blacks drainage channel which has hitherto been carried' on 'by private : enterprise is to be subsidised. The Government have promised the sum of £3OO to assist in" carrying out the work. At , the Deep Lead Company bottomedftheir new ' shaft at a depth of 120 feet. : Hey are now , occupied driving for ,the kiad.which, ..they expect shortly to reach;' This company have already got some splendid gold from their workings; and- they expect to strike equally as good from the new shaft.—' Tuapeka Times.' - -

The 'Hawke's Bay Herald' says that operations at the West Clive boiling-down establishment are now fairly commenced, the first lot of sheep—from Mr. jSlelson's flocks-were boiled down last' week!" The yield from the first hundred of them averaged something enormous, between 70 and vSulbs. of tallow per head. They • were of course, picked sheep, weighing about ISOlbs. each all round; i There no doubt that for animals of this ■ class boiling-dpwn pays considerably better than selling to the butcher.

An ndjourned meeting of the 3Ta»eby Volunteer Fire BrUade was held in the Council Chambers on Mondny evening last. Present —Capt. Stephens, Lieutenant Millar, Serjeant Morrison, Foreman E. Hall, Messrs. Urookes, Costelloe, Pmith, Langmaak, Collett, and Mitchell (Secretary). After the minutes of last meeting had been confirmed it was resolved that the rules and regulations of the old brigide be adopted.—JJesoU-ed that dl fines and levies be disposed of by the.brigade, as the members think proper.—Kesolvcd that, Mr. A G. B. Mitchell be Treasurer.— Resolved that the next meeting of the brigade held in Millar's Old Victorian Hotel on the first Monday in May.—The Captain .intimated that the brigade would meet for practice on Ji'riday evening.— Messrs. T. Binder and .S. Baxter were proposed and accepted members of the brigade.

, Ox Thursday a d«putsHon from the Mining Association vviuiet. ua ii±v ctuialiolds ,Secre-

tary. The hon. gentleman informed the deputation that every attention had tisen given to the opinions advanced by that body as to the necessity of the Channel,,as originally surveyed, being deepened The Government were piepared to adopt every suggestion in that direction which had been brought before them. The (Jhai.nel would be deepened, and ■the course altered, as plan submitted by Mr. Richard Browne, '.which' he f believed had baen previously approved"of by the deputation. Mr. Roberts then brought under the G-oldfields-SeoretaTy'smoticej'^the."disadvan-tages the different Mining Assoc.atious -were wider, <in identifying applications for agricultural leises, land sales, &c, beinjr -without all authorittft'ive""mapS'"''Jle i whether such maps could be forwarded to the Associations. Mr. Bastings thought it (the request) was most reasonable, and ; he would, at a short date, take steps which he thought would b u sufficient to supply the maps askedfor.

An Auckland correspondent to a northern paper states that Mr. Holloway, ' coadjutor to Mr. Arch, the great champion of English, agricultural laborers,' is expected here, and ; the ' New Zealand Herald' advises us not to spoil him by feasting and petting him. This is rich in its way, and aristocratic some; but we Bank of New Zealand folk, you know, are no small beer in our, own estimation,, though rather tooaDt at imitating that Mr. Norris, who distirgrrshes himself in "Martin Chuzzlewit." Up 3 would-imagine that a man who has not Wa ;n spoiled by close contact with many .en iwi l ; and powerful people and who is, mor. OY»r, one of the leaders of 80,000 or 100,00! Bands hardly likely to be ruined, even by th« georgeous and refined hospitalities .which m can offer. .However,; it is satisfactory fto'nnd that Mr." Holloway' is not likely to 'suffer at our hands.' -It -is'-'to be hoped that- he will "duly appreciate,; the good taste and patronising kindness which seeks to deliver -him from suck terrible temptations, and he will Tieartly forgive those Aucklanders who, but for the ' New •Zealand Herald,' mighfo'have' blasted his usefulness with their, attentions and with the very'best ' '','"' ' J " ' " ' "' ' A doctor in San Francisco'has a'speaking tube leading from the main entrance of his office, which is up just a~ few flights. For several days past a smart young wag named Swartzbas amused himself .by,.called;for the.' doctor through the pipe, and then profanely ordered him tO ] set. out ,on >, an excursion ■ to Tartarus. For some time ! this' fun was taken in good part until the, fine humor of the joke' no longer "became' apparent.' ''Accordingly, one afternoon the disciple of .dSsculapius provided himself with' a-tea-ket-tle of water, heated to about 210 degrees Fahrenheit, and waited alongside,the- pipe.. Pretty soon the old familiar sound came up through, the pipe, "Say Doc, how's Tricks?" "Tricks"is better'now—l guess"he'lT'get well," responded the doctor, reaching out after "the" tea-kettl6.. ' "What's been the matter with him?" "He's got burnt." ■" How ?" I'll tell you in a minute." " Ohyou go to—." The doctor had just finished his last' sentence and then a'quart of scalding water down the pipe. Swartz had his mouth over it, and when the it he .was ■somewhat surprised.' l Water was apt to'sur-' prise him, but'hot water was an ' unexpected novelty.:-(The, man above poured in ,the water for about a, minute i and then, looked out of the window. The' smart young man was getting along the side-walk at a pretty lively gait;'having'evidently just'got up from a sitting '.posture.' ' He was'trying to yell "Police!" but couldn't articulate with much •, success.. About -half- an vhour -af ter--wards he found, himself., able to apeak, and inquired, ".Did that.boiler explosion- hurt anybody?" . • i( ,' ~ ' ',;-;.-'

The ' Tuapeka Times' in a late issue states that a letter appeared '-in' 'the';' SouthlandNews' last week by, Sir F. D. Bell, ( showing that the averagV'fate'per' acre bhtarae'd at the recent sale of runs in the Wakatip district amounted to something- under 4|d , instead of lid., as reported by the ' Wakatip Mail.' /The number of acres quoted as leased, is 375,100, and'total amount of annual rent' is given at £7325, which sure enough give's only 4j{d.: an acre. • The average price; repor-, ted by the 'Guardian,'/ and., also by the 'Daily Times,' was 9<L; but how these misleaping figures could have been allowed to go so long uncontradictedwe cannot imagine. Sir Francis, after showing the error we have now, pointed out; then questions 'whether it' would not be a bad, bargainifor,the 7 province to exchange the present 'rental of 7d.' per sheep for an acre rental. "It must be remembered", he'says, *'~that, although picked runs of small extent will (as the Wakatip sales has shown) yield a rental of more "than eighteen pence an acre, yet as pastoral country of a mountainous character will not fetch more ( than. 2d., and as the proportion of : the provincial pastoral estate of this character is'vastly the largest, the total average rate received, on an average rental, over the whole] province, .would assuredly be very;much less than the 4fd. obtained at Wakatip." 'Mr. [ Bell's'remarks are very plausible, and'-no doubt there is an amount of truth contained' | in them; but we cannot forget that "pastoral country'of a mountainous we may say of a very mountainous character, in" the Tuapeka district averagedlld'ar^acre.