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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 7, 9 January 1871, Page 2

The Late Meteor. — The meteor of the Ist instant, was seen by persons en board the ship Beautiful Star, which was at that time about 50 miles to the westward of Cape Farewell. Mr. Kynnersley delivered a farewell address to. the electors of Westland North at Westport on Tuesday evening last. The coal merchants in Greymouth have aunounced that from the 22nd ult. the price of coal would be raised to 255. per ton. Oratorio at Christchurch. — The " Messiah," was performed at Christchurch on the 23rd of last month, and proved a great success, nearly two hundred taking part in tho choruses, the effect of which was much aided by numerous brass instruments and drums. Charges cor Shipping Grain to England. — A large farmer iv the Courtenay.. district*, Canterbury, who. sent home some two thousand bushels of wheat/ in one of the early ships last season, has received his account sales, and stales that the entire cost of shipping, including loss on bags, interest on advauces, and every charge reckoned, was 2s. Id. per bushel from Christchurch. The wheat was sold at 52s a quarter, and netted 4s, sd. a bushel to tbe exporter. The sacks were sold in England at 6d. each. The Firing for the district representatives at Napier was very indifferent, 38 being, the highest score. A Man named John Carty fell from Cobb's ceach at Te Aute, Hawke's Bay, on Tuesday last, and was killed by the wheels . passing over him. At the inquest it was shown that he was intoxicated at the time of the accident. ATotith, named Gardiner, who recently lost his arm while at work at a flax mill uear Napier, . died last week from the effects of the accident. . . A Settler at Mangawai, Province : of Auckland, has for some years past been engaging • in; making wine from grapes of his own growing. . Last year he produced some 400 gallons,- and this year he expects to make over 800 gallops. . The are^giveh up to the .'Natives by Mr.. M'Lean iv settling the Manawatu block dispute, Was 20,000 acres. The IVanganui Chronicle will appear after the New .Year as a daily evening paper, at the pricfe of a penny. ; i; .The , of . the Martini-Henpy ; rifle-has -Ire'ceived further prbofat Sydoeyi : aud the New South Wates Government have ordered .a .supply, of these rifles : from ' Eugland. A'A volunteer named i Slade, iv a rapid 'firing match, scored

113 in three minutes with one of these rifles. Cricketers will be interested to learn that Mr. W. G-. Grace, the " leviathan," duriug the five years 1865-9 inclusive , scored 9160-runs ; and that bad he not been prevented by illness from playing duping a considerable portion of 1867, it • is probable that his total would havo reached 10,000, or an average of 2000 each season. Flax. —The following notice to flax manufacturers appears in a Canterbury Proviucial Gazette issued on Saturday : — The Housa of Representatives having resolved that there should be an exhibition in Wellingtoa during the next session of the Assembly of all varieties of flax fibre prepared in the colony, manufacturers are invited to forward to the Flax Commissioners, through his Honor the Superintendent, samples of the fibre, rope, sacking, or auy other material prepared by them from the New Zealand flax. -' The samples of fibre should not be less thau 201bs. in weight, aud 10 or lo fathoms of each kind of rope will be sufficient. It is desirable that a statement of the processes aud estimated cost of manufacture should accompany the samples. * Pedestrianism. —Joseph Bolton, of Nelson, has challenged P. Towhill, of Greymouth, to run him 100, 150, 200, 300, ancV 400 yards, for £200 a side. Towhill Has; accepted the challenge, the race to com^ ojff in two months' time. Mining *kNf 'New. Zealand. — The second volume of the Transactions and Proceedings* of the N^w Zealand Institute contains a very admirable paper by Dr. Hector ou- Mining in -'New Zealand, in which a very interesting comparison is instituted between the geologicahstructure of New Zealand and that of tbe nearest large mass, of land in. Australia." Dr. Hector says : —" I find that by covering the Australian cordillera in a map of Australia,- with a tracing of New Zealand, drawn to the same scale, placing the Otago mica-schist area' directly over that of Gippsland, and making the meridians parallel, there is a wonderful coincidence between the relative position of the goldfields in the two countries, the chemical character of the gold, and the nature of the associated rocks and minerals. New Zealand thus compared, equals in length from Gippsland in Victoria to Rockblmpton in the north of Queensland—*•*& range

of territory which is important to the question of relative mineral wealth, when we also observe that New Zealand covers in width the mineral-bearing ridge or Cordillera, of Eastern Australia, having tbe ocean on the west instead of the Murray plains, and on the ea3t only small "areas of the carboniferous rocks. * * It will be fouud that the cbief Victorian diggings, such as Ballarat, Castlemaine, audßendigo, lie altogether west of the New Zealand boundary; and this is quite in accordance with the absence of any geological formation in- New Zealaud similar to the highlycleaved Silurian strata of those goldfields. Then selecting for comparison the chief diggings in both countries, we fiud that Beachworth, Snowy Creek, and Omeo, correspond exactly in area and posi lion with the richest diggings of Otago. Ophir exactly covers the position of the chief Hokitika diggings; while the Bathurst District has its analogue towards the south of Teremakau. Biogera lies a little to the north of the Nelson goldfields, and the Rocky Kiver diggings cover those of the Wakamarina. - Continuing uorthward3 there is a long gnp,' without auriferous localities in both countries, till we are struck by finding that Gympie Creek in Queensland exactly agrees with the Thames diggings."