MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 43, 20 February 1871, Page 2

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

mr. h. j. l. aug-arde's "weekly report. Culliford Gold-mining Company £10 Shares, £3 10s. paid. A few shares changed hands this week at 30s. discount. The machinery is all on the ground, and the works are being actively carried forward. The reports from the mine are very favorable as regards the richness of the stove. The first crushing 13 most auxiously looked for. Perseverance Gold-mining Company £5 Shakes, £2 paid. Specifications are out for the various works to be done in order to enlarge the race, so that the future crushings may be carried out on a much larger scale than hitherto. Tenders are receivable till the 24th February. It is hoped, as the works to be executed are on a larger scale, that the contracts will be soon taken, as winter is gradually approaching, and no time should be lost in order to get the mine at work. Pioneer Copper Company Shares, £8 paid. No action appears to be taken with regard to this mine at present. It is hoped that this promising enterprise will not fall through. Lucky Hit Shares, £10 paid, Masonic Shares, £12 10s. paid, Mount Ophir Shares £9 pajd. Nothing whatever doing in these Companies. Commercial Shares, £21 15s. paid. Still inactive, although it is possible that this mine will be worked. If a steamengine were put on the ground, fuel is to be obtained on this claim; and surely 8 pennyweights could be made to pay; no large company, but let the mine be worked by, say, 20 shareholders. Anywhere else but Nelson it would be tried. Doran's Gold Mining Company's £5 Shares, £2 10s. paid. A few shares changed hands this week, showing that this mine is beginning to attract attention. The machinery will be ready to go up almost immediately. All works necessary for progression are being pushed on. Sutherland Gold Mining Company, £1 Shares, 10s. paid. Beyocd a few paid-up shares changing hands this week at par, there ia nothing new. Waimea South Quartz Crushing Company, Shares, 10s paid. Busiuess done in these shares this week at par. The machinery is nearly all on the ground, and everything is progressing favorably. Collingwood Coal Company's Shares £120, £20 per share called. Nothing new. A few shares have changed hands in a great many of our miniDg companies this week. As these bona fide investments are made with foreign capital, and after due inspection of our mines by a gentleman, who is a stranger, but possesses some knowledge of these matters, it clearly shows that our mineral prospects are improving, and could we but obtain fresh blood which is only to be procured by the tide of immigration setting iv, the want of confidence under which we are now suffering would soon disappear, and the development of our mineral resources could necessarily follow. The reports from Wangapeka are very favorable. There is no difficulty in seeing the richness of the stone, either in Culliford or Doran's Reef, and this relieves the shareholders from the fear of specimens only. Culliford's, Doran's, and the Waimea Company will soon advance. Fawcett's two stamper battery is not at work. The improvement of the work done and being done on the road by the Government is evident in the comparative ease with which the machinery is got on to the various sites. All that is required now, are a few good crushings to give activity to our market as well as to business generally. Mr. Carleton, the "Father of the House," and Chairman of Committees, will not have a seat iv the coming Parliament having been defeated for the Bay of Islands district by Mr. M'Leod. A correspondent of the Kaikoura j Herald, writing to that journal, anent the j Wairau election, in which Bed wood and \ Eyes were the rival candidates, asks — " Why were Redwood's supporters like cats? " Because they tried to scratch Eyes out." All danger of popular commotion during the elections being over, the immigrants, ex Celceno, were landed this morning by the Wanganui. We understand that they are to be distributed — some being taken to Napier by the Lord Ashley, and some to Nelson by the Wanganui. Including the expenses of Dr. Featherston while engaging them, their passage from Stockholm to London, the cost of their shipment from London to Wellington, their passages to the different New Zealand ports, and their expenses until finally disposed of, they will cost tie Government a nice little sum. — Post. At the Resident Magistrate's Court at Napier, a few days ago, a Maori named Henare Pairau waa charged with having

been drunk aud disorderly, and having torn the coat of tho constable who took him to the lock-up. The charge was admitted, and, according to the Hiiwke's Bay Times, the magistrate fined the prisoner 55., iiud 4s. for the damage he had committed, aud asked him where he had got the liquor. The prisoner replied that he was drunk with rum, and indicated two public houses where he hud bought it. His Worship remarked that if the publicans had not sold tlie prisoner liquor he would not have been in the Court on the preseufc charge ; and those who sold the liquor ought to be brought before -the Court. He should look to the police to enforce the law against the sale of liquors to natives, which might be the cause of serious disturbances. If there is such a law in existence in Hawku'a Bay, it is to be presumed that there is also one here, but, if so, it is a dead letter. Maoris seem to be able to procure as much drink as they choose to pay for, no remarks being made nor questions asked. — Post. Want of Water in Wellington. — The following paragraph, which appears in the Evening Post, shows what, our neighbors on the oilier side of the Sarahs are suffering from the want of pure^ater, and should make us thankful *r bountiful^supply with which we are pro? vided : — Another hint to the City Council, to take some steps for supplying the urgent want of water which exists in Wellington, is furnished by an advertisement ia another column, in which Mr. Plimmcr announces that for the waut of the requisite supply for drink to his horses, and for the purpose of cleanliness, he has been obliged to close his stables. But when water becomes so scarce as this, its mere absence is not the greatest evil ; the noisome smells which unfortunately exist in many parts of tha city increase in intensity, and must have a prejudical effect on the public health. The neglect of sanitary precautions is a grave error, whoever may be responsible for it, and one which will produce unavailing regret, in time to come. The sole fruits of the arduous though well paid labors of Messrs. Featherstou and Bell in Europe on behalf of the colony (so far as individuals beyond the Ministerial arcana are aware) are tfjajnillion loan reported to be guaranteed by the Imperial Government, and the Swedish immigrants. We have got the Swedes certainly — they are a tangible fact, a sampie of them may be seen walking up and down the town — but, where is the million ? According to all accounts it never was more needed than at the present timo* There is a rumor afloat, coming from Auckland, that the whole of that portion of the loan which would have been at present available, has been absorbed in the liquidation of claims at home, and possibly as fast as the remaining portions become available, they will be required to meet liabilities which will shortly accrue. With our ordinary revenue declining, and our current expenditure continually increasing; with the plain fact before our eyes that the Treasury Bills issued m anticipation of revenue cannot be met out of it, but must either become part of our permanent debt, • or be paid out of the million borrowed expressly for reproductive works, the Colony must be infatuated to allow the wholesale borrowing projected by Mr. Yogel to go on. "If they have done these things in the green tree, what will they do in the dry?" If the one million is to^be so misapplied, what will be the disposal of the six ? At Grey mouth the Roman Catholics are making large additions and improvements to their chapel, which, when completed will, we are informed, make it the handsomest church on the Coast, and will afford sitting accommodation to over 400 persons. The style adopted is the earh^J English or pointed, and on the Crucifor^^ plan. — The Freeman. It has recently been decided in the English Bail Court (Mr. Justice Mellor and Mr. Baron Pigott sitting) that a baker must not only sell his bread by weight, but that the act of weighing must take place when it is sold, aud not when it is made. It came 'out, in the course of the proceedings, that the apn^llaur, a baker of Daventry, was in tfcir habit of weighing the dough j^d making an allowance for evaporation; but the Court declared any such notice insufficient and illegal. y- ' f . JEgles, wiping in the Australasian respecting ttfe new Insolvency Act, says : —An ofEtffal assignee #rho has an especial knack of understanding an Act of Parliament expresses his undisguised astonishment at the stupidity of the people who do not file their I schedules at once, i.e., before the new Insolvent Act comes into operation. Thele is scarcely a single step that a man in difficulties may have taken to retrieve his position that won't subject him to six months' imprisonment, more or less. Some of the commercial men who have been clamoriug for a rigid Insolvency Act may find that they have cut a rather sharp switch for their own backs.

Judge Smyth. — The Melbourne Argus 3rd February, contains the following telegram from Beeohworth : — The General Sessions were opened to-i!;iy. Judge Smyth arrived yestenlay, when ho complaiaed very much of the journey and the excessive heat which he experienced on the road. He was then perfectly rational, but during the night lie was much disturbed, anil was advised tills morning by liis friends and medical attendant to adjourn the court but he persisted in sitting. The Crown prosecutor, Mr. Armstrong, asked for an adjournment of the oourt in the interests of justice, but the judge wished to arraign the prisoners, which was accordingly done. Shjidforih pleaded " Guilty" to forgery, and the judge giving as a reason for the severity of thesentence that the prisoner had made his wife a party fo the transaction, was corrected by Mr. Armstrong ,/ jjtatiug the prisoner had no wife. He was sentenced to three years' bard labor. Mr. Armstrong again asked for an adjournment, but the judge said he would try one more case, which was one of larceny, in which the sentence was eight months. Tlie Court theu adjourned, at half-past 12, till Monday. During the afternoon, the judge Y"\vas very violent, and a medical man being I slnt for he ndvised his removal to the lunatic asylum, which was complied with. The immediate* cause is supposed to be sunstroke. .J