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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 24, 29 January 1867, Page 2

The Evening Post says : Colonel Haultain, the Defence Minister, is still in Auckland; Major Richardson is with his Excellency the Govern or j Mr. Fitzherbert, Colonial Treasurer, is on a visit to the south for his health- and Messrs. Richmond, Hall, and Johnston, the remaining members of the Ministry are in town. The Patent Slip dispute still is in abeyance. No second interview between ? the Provincial Executive and Mr. Keunard has been held, and that gentleman has left town for Canterbury, where it is said he will remain about ten days. We (G. R. Argus) understand that Mr. Harry Kenrick, clerk of the Resident , Magistrate's Court, is about to leave the district, to assume the post of Resident Magistrate at Brighton . Whilst we may congratulate the Nelson Government on having secured the services of a gentleman of Mr. Kenrick' s abilities, we are sure his departure will be regretted by all whom business or social intercourse have brought in contact with that gentleman. Mr. Lenrick has always taken a lively interest in the progress of the town and district ; and the community, in losing him, will have difficulty in replacing him. It is gratifying, however, to know that Mr. Kenrick is called away to fill the post of honor and trust which has been conferred upon him. We (Canterbury Evening Mail) understand that Mr. Dobson, the Provincial Engineer, Dr. Haast, the Provincial Geologist, : and Mr. Lane, Assistant Provin -_ cial Secretary, have sent in their resignations ; but they have not, as yet, been accepted by the Executive.

The Hokitika Evening Star has the following puff' of the hotels there : — It will come to pass soon in Hokitika that a person shall be in great doubt whether ho ought to go a public house or a chemist's shop for a dose of medicine. It is in fact daily becoming more patent that physic is quite a fashionable tipple. Mr. Smith enters au hotel with his friend Jones. Smith says, " Well Jones, what is it to be ?" Jones thinks a minute and says, " Quinine." Smith says to the barmaid, " I'll take sarsaparilla, my dear," and so two celebrated curative medicines known to the scientific world for some three centuries are taken to the toast of" Well, here's another thousand to us." We were really not aware until lately to what extent the trade of a chemist is carried on by hotel -keepers. A gentleman in our hearing said the other morning to a friend of. his that he was going to the Criterion for a-,** seidlitz." " A seidlitz," said the gentleman, " why you don't say you go to au hotel for a seidlitz powder ?" " But I do though," was the rejoinder, " and what is more, I know one hotel on Gibson's Quay the landlord of which keeps a compound which he calls the ' radical restorative,' and which he informs me is composed of tincture of rhubarb, senna, mint, carduminus, the best pale brandy, and a little calomi to touch the liver. It is used by people suffering a * recovery.' In fact," continued this gentleman, "five of us went odd man out the other morning for this very particular species of medicine, and I had to pay the doctor's, that is, the publican's demand for the lot." Another hotel sells what is termed by the worthy boniface an " appetiser," which is simply tincture of gentian. What next, we should like to know. The Auckland Penny Journal says: — The Native Lauds Act, 1866, gives the Governor the power of suspending altogether the Lands Act of 1865 within such districts as he may think proper; it gives the Governor the right of imposing a fee of 6d. per acre as a guarantee for the cost of examination of the survey made by the surveyors specially licensed by the Government as competent ; it gives to the Governor the right of setting apart onetenth part of any block sold by the native owners, as reserves, which cannot be alienated for a term of over 21 years, and it preserves the right of selecting such reserves iu any part thereof ; so that on a block of a thousand acres, one hundred acres may be so kept back in reserves as to render the remainder valueless to the i intending purchaser. These are some of the most objectionable powers included in the Act of 1866, which was put into operation on the first day of December, and this is the Act which was handed over to i Mr. Whitaker by the Assembly. The i Provincial Council determined, " That, in the opinion of this Council, the Native Lands Act, 1866, and the East Coast Land Titles Investigation Act, are contrary to good policy, aud opposed to the best ini terests both of natives and Europeans, and that a request be forwarded to the Governor that these Acts be not brought into operation ; and the motion was carried without any discussion." We observe an announcement in the Christchurch papers that Mr. Crosbie Ward has been appointed agent in England for the Provincial Government of Canterbury. The duties of this office have been gratuitously discharged for the last fifteen years by Mr. Selfe, one of the early founders of the Canterbury settlement. His Excellency the Governor is spoken of as likely to encourage the settlement of the Taupo country, by aiding in the leasing and stocking of a run. The Wellington correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, says: — There is considerable dissatisfaction felt here at the way the £100,000 of the three million loan was put into the Londoa market last December. You kuow that Mr. Whitaker in the House, repeatedly stated that he could return the debentures, if needed, and when he threw up the colonization of Waikato, of course the debentures reverted to the Colonial Government. Yet in the advertisement issued by the New Zealand Bank, they recite that they are instructed to sell by the " Provincial" Government of Auckland, which was rather calculated to weaken than inspire coufidence. Then the price was fixed at £92 ss. the marketable value of similar debentures being £95 ; but this price included back interest which really reduced the minimum to £89 15s. No wonder that brokers applied for large amouuts, four tendering each for the whole £100,000, aud several others for

liilMiiii_iii_____g__i— ■_■___■■»« »_»— m___— — a il| large sums, like £50,000 -and £30,000. .}; The abundance of money was so great, !|f that, had the debentures been properly lp- placed, with a minimum unannounced, it is [j; thought highly probable that a very much :| more advantageous sale would have been I effected — that, at the least, an increase of 5 per cent would have been secured on the actual interest-reduced minimum. A deputation of Australian colonists at present resident in England waited on the Earl of Carnarvon, on the 6th November, to recommend the construction of a telegraph line with Australia, by way of India, Singapore, and Java.