MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 173, 25 July 1870, Page 2

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

o MR. H. J. L. AUGARDE' S WEEKLY REPORT The buoyancy given to our Share Market last ' week by the large return of gold from the first crushing of stone from the Perseverance Reef at Collingwood has not been maintained though Shares have been fully dealt in. Perseverance Shakes, £1 10s paid. Shares have changed hands at 40s. and 355. the disposition has been to invest, yet shares have dropped. This no doubt may be accounted for by the positive fact of a call of 10s. on the Ist August and the probability of a second call of 10s. a month later. Culliford Shakes, £\ 17s 6d. A few investments this week at par. There is a disposition to buy, the directors having given orders for a four stamper battery, which may be looked on as a move in the right direction at last, The half yearly meeting of shareholders is called for 4th of August, when the position of the company will be explained and put before the shareholders. Pioneer Sharks, £7 paid. No business in these shares this week. The contract for the further sinking not yet being taken, added to the call under payment, as well as the call of £1 per share due on the 15th August next, accounts for the inaction. Lucky Hit Shares, £7 10s. paid. We have business in these shares to record this week at the old price of £30 per share. A meeting is called for this evening to consider the position of the company, and decide as to future action, the drive just completed not having realised the expectations of the directors. Masonic Shares, £10 10s. paid. Inactive. Meeting of shareholders held, but no action decided on. Commercial Shares, £15 15s. paid. Nothing doing. Meeting of shareholders called for this evening, when, it is to be hoped, that active measures will be taken. Our share market, although supported by the influx of foreign capital, has not maintained itself. This is attributable in a greatfmeasure to the number of calls due, and becoming due on shares in the various companies now afloat. It is a gradual absorbing of capital, which is sure to be felt in time, but which, nevertheless, cannot be avoided. Our mines cannot be developed without money, and shareholders cannot expect returns unless capital is sunk, and until we have returns from investments, we cannot expect much foreign capital to find its way into our speculations, under these circumstances it behoves all who have the direction of mining companies to take active measures to push matters^with vigour, too much caution being sometimes as bad as none 1 at all.

A Feenchman, who was exhibiting some relics and other curiosities, produced among other things a sword, which he assured his visitors was "de sword dat Baalam had." A spectator remarked that Baalam "had no sword, but only wished for one." " Ver' well ; dis is the one he wished for." The wool-clip in California this season will be much larger tban it was last year, and its quality much better. Io 1869 the total yield on the coast amountep to about 17,000,000 pounds, this season it will probably amount to 20,000,000 pounds.

For remainder of News see Fourth page.

Maori Prisoners. — Week by week the old Maoris that were transported to Otago are dying off. The Dunedin Echo says that before the period of their sentences has expired, most of them will "have gone the way of all living." Australian Meats. — An old Victorian colonist, writing from Norwich, sa y S . — «As it may interest some of your readers in the colonies to learn the progress made in the sale of Australian meats ia the Euglish provinces, I take the liberty of informing you that on the 30th April six shops were opened in this city for the sale of Australian cooked mutton in tins, causing quite a sensation. The sale has exceeded the expectation of the proprietors, and the public verdict is unanimous as to its excellence." We have received a copy of the Lantern, a serio-comic paper published in Hokitika. It contains a rather good cartoon, representing the Hon. Mr. Yogel being addressed by a good specimen of the genuine digger in the following terms : — Young Westland — Iv'e come for that money of mine in your hands." General Dealer — " The monish, s'help me, I've kept it to pay your bill. We've raised our charges lately." Young Westland — "You confounded old Shylock, don't you believe I'm to be done that way." The Spectator of April 23 contains a remarkable letter, addressed to Mr. Tennyson, from a Canadian gentleman of some literary mark, which describes forcibly the suspicion and hatred which are gradually being generated under Lord Granville's colonial policy. For a long time there has been a wilful disbelief in tha possibility of England s dotage and deci'pitude to that extent that her people would, without reason or necessity, break up tha immense empire which it has been her aim and policy for centuries to acquire. But ere long, the writer fears, the feeling of regret and incredulity may, by a natural rebound, turn to indignation at'the threatened cowardly abandonment of the colonies, the end of which would be fatal to English supremacy here and elsewhere. "We say to one another, ' These are ouly tbe ideas of a few visonaries ; the people of England will never be so insanely untrue to themselves and to us.' And so we wait and wait for the turn of the tide, and a change in the aspect of the times." Mark Twain's Marriage.— The San Francisco Neios Letter says : — Mark Twain, who, whenever he has been long enough sober to permit an estimate, has beeu uniformly found to bear a spotles3 character, has got married. It was not the act of a desperate man — it was not committed while laboring under temporary insanity; his insanity is not of that type, nor does he ever labor — it was the cool, methodical, cumulative culmination of human nature, working in the breast of an orphan hankering for some one with a fortune of love — some one with a bank account to caress. For years he haa felt this matrimony coming on. Ever since he left California there has been an undertone of despair running through all his letters like the subdued wail of a pig beneath a washtub. He. felt that he was going, but no earthly power could save him, but as a concession to his weeping publishers, he tried a change of climate, by putting on a linen coat and writing letters from the West Indies. Then ha tried rhubarb, and during his latter months he was almost constantly under the influence of this powerful drug. But rhubarb, while it may give a fitiul glitter to the eye and a deceitful ruddiness to the gills, cannot long delay the pangs of approaching marriage. Rhubard was not what Mark v anted. Well, that genial spirit has passed away ; that long, bright smile will no more greet the early barkeepers, nor the old familiar " chalk ife down " delight their ears. Poor Mark, ha was a good schemer, but he could'nt ba made to work. In one of the Western States of America a lady was recently promoted to 1 the bench, and a local paper, in announcing the appointment, concluded its account of the new judge by saying that ahe " weighed 1041bs„ was 54 years of age, and owned if." The judge afterwards charged the grand jury, composed of ladies, and observed, that the eyes of the world were fixed upon them — as well they might be. _