MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 55, 6 March 1871, Page 2

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

MR. H. J. L. ATJGARDE'S WEEKLY REPORT. Culliford Gold-mining Company, £10 Shares, £3 10s. paid. No shares changing hands; the good news received from the mine relative to the appearance of the stone has tended to check the desire to sell at 303. discount. The almost certainty of a crushing within a month also tends to aid matters. The overdue calls come in pretty well, considering the tightness of our money market. Perseverance Goldmcning- Company, £5 Sharks, £2 paid. The news over from this mine is very encouraging as regards the solidity of the reef, and its richness with regard to No. 3 drive. As soon as the works now being tendered for are completed, the Company will be enabled to work on a much larger scale, which will prove the reef, and it is presumed give a good average yield. The large amount of paid-up shares now on the market, added to the money required to pay for the contemplated extension of works, must necessarily keep the shares in check, so that

prices will continue to range at about present rates. To-day is appointed for the reception of tenders for the extension of water-supply. The shareholders' meeting is to be held on Wednesday next, when the election of a director will take place in lieu of Mr. Sclanders who resigns. Pioneer Shares, £8 paid, Lucky Hit Shares, £10 paid. Masonic Shares, £12 10s. paid. Mount Ophib Shares, £9 paid. Commercial Shares, £21 15s. paid. Inactive. Collingwood Coal Company Shares, £120 paid, £20 per share called. Inactive. There is no doubt that the gentlemen belonging to Nelson who were nominated as directors will serve, and Mr. Webster (one of them) leaves per Lady Barkly this week for Collingwood, to see what arrangements can be made. It is evident that the present amount of shares are too heavy for our market and it is hoped that the shares will will be divided; £10 shares would be the marketable size; the multitude would then assist the undertaking, whereas at present there are few who will invest in many shares of £140 each, however remunerative the undertaking. It makes too much of a monopoly, for it is the body of shareholders, the number, that can support and carry through a company; the public must be the holders as numbers mean strength. Sutherland Gjpdfo Mining Company, £1 Shares, lO^Tpaid. The whole of the machinery has arrived, and as the road to the machine site is nearly a dead level, the carriage is only £2 per ton, so that we shall soon hear of this battery being at woik, ami, it is hoped^ doiug well. The whole of the macWraery is landed and put up fur £980, t^p company paying carriage from JBleuheipT only. DOKAN'S GOLD^VIININOr COMPANY, £5 Shares, £2 l^s. paid. The Legal Manager being absent at Wangapeka it is uncertain about the contract for conveying the machinery to the site. The machinery will be completed this week, and on view at Mr. Moutray's. lv shares nothing doiug, a call of 10s. is made for the 25th iust., making £2 10s. paiJ. Waimea South Quartz CrushingCompany, cSI Shares, 10s. paid. Beyond the call of ss. per share, making 15s. paid, there is nothing "new. It is hoped that (his company will push ahead as winter is approaching, and no time should be lost. In shares we have nothing to report. The near approach of the Culliford's first crushing prevents business. Within a month, the first test will take place, and •although we must not expect too much at first, yet the crushing should, and it is hoped will, be sufficiently indicative of good results to give confidence to the shareholders. It is then all the great specimens will be proved, but the mean average will tell the tale. As a deal of our future prosperity is bound up i^Ahe Wangapeka district, it is hopedx>uJßßticipations will prove to have bejgHHßKin a reality. S^Bhßh Collingwood we cannot e^^HHfiK from, till the Perseverance m V^H9H| to work on a larger scale. shBHBBH are good about No. 3. The^HßHpß on which the company was foundewßßnriot be a myth, therefore the shareholders expect some show. However, the mine has been a loss hitherto, but when the enlarged works are brought to bear, it is hoped by enconomical management, extended works added to perseverance, that the patient shareholders will be abie to boast of a good dividend.

Mr. T. M. Bryant has been appointed clerk to the Provincial Council of Wellington. Heavy G-ale at Wellington. — On Monday and Tuesday last a tremendous S.E. gale was blowing in Cook's Straits, which did some little damage to the shipping in Wellington harbor, to say nothing of a few chimneys being blown on shore. The steamers Rangltoto and | Taranaki, which left Picton on Tuesday morning, were unable to face the weather, and did not arrive at Wellington until the following afternoon. News for New Zea.landers.-~ New Zealand colonists little know what a fearful country they are living in, and will be a little astonished to learn what hideous sounds are to be heard on its " shelving shores." One Dr. Lang, of Sydney, has undertaken to enlighten them in a series j of poems upon our unhappy colony from ; one of which the following is an extract :- — | | " The vile assasin's hideous yell, The murderer's terrific roar, The music and the speech of hell, Are heard along thy shelving shore; While men, like lions in their den, Feast on the quivering limbs of men." If there should happen to be a vacant cell in the Sydney Lunatic Asylum, we think we could suggest a duly qualified occupant for it. The election of a representative for the Western Maori Electoral District has

resulted iv the return of WiParata,the numbers polled by the candidates being as foliows : — Wi Parata, 258 ; Major Kemp, 186 ; Mete Kingi, 155. The new member is an intelligent half-cast, residing at Otaki, and he is a proiege of Wi Tako's, to whose influence ho owes his election. Taiaroa, an Otago chief, is said to have been returned for the Southern district. A private letter from one of the Otago members of Assembly to a gentleman in Wellington states that with one exception the whole of the members returned for that province are opposed (o the policy and personnel of the present Government. The exception is, we presume, Mr. Macandrew. Me. Macandrew, during his recent canvassing tour iv Otago, met with singular receptions in a few of the country " districts. At Riverton, for instance, he was received by a large cavalcade of horsemen, while at the Teviot a large arch, hung with black drapery, and bearing the word " Traitor," in large letters, had been erected in his honor. After his meeting there he was hung in efiigy. We are rather apt to underrate the enterprise of our neighbors in Maryborough ; and yet it seelis that they go before us sometimes. "The Falcon took on board to-day at the wharf two quartz-crushing machines, brought from Auckland lor the " Southern Cross- Goldmiuiug Company," and intended for: erection Ndtbout twelve \jj miles from Hlenhiem, where a reef ex- (^J pected to prove auriferous is situated. ' We- trust the hopes of the Southern Company will be fully realised, and that we' may soon have the pleasure of congratulating Marlborough in the development of a payable goldfield. — Post. A Wang-anui paper has the following : —Pedestrians near St. John's Bush on Sunday afternoon last witnessed a curious spectacle. The whole of the road for about two chains was covered with eatterpillars, all heading in oDe direction. They had come out of a, field of oais on tho left hand side of the road, and were on the way io "fresh fields aud pastures new." The oats bore palpable evidence of their depredations, the whole of the green leaves being eaten off, aud had not the oats been too ripe, still greater daaiage would have been done. A coup*]^ of ducks finding their way on to the road came in for a good me^l, fend fast, and furious they gobbled awqy. Several curious individuals surrounded the ducks, and timed them, the result being, that one duck eat 51 catterpillars the i}rst minute, and 47 the second, the other managing to pick up 49 and 46. That was rather tall work, and great was the regret that no more ducks or fowls could be found. Squatting in Aus'ifeALiA. — The following is from a Melbourne contemporary : — Useful information may occasionally be gleaned from that most dreary of periodicals, the Government Gazette. Having nothing to do the other day I turned over the cheerful pages of Mi 1 . Francis' model publication, until I came to those which state the amount of money which has to be paid for the rent of runs. What a terrible state of thiugs is there disclosed ! The whole race of squatters is almost extinct. Nearly every station is held in the name of a banker, a moneylender, or a squatting agent. The jovial fellows, who, in days gone by, used to haunt Scott's and the Melbourne Club, who used to drive four-in-hand and tandem, drank champagne and moselle, and took fine houses for the summer at Brighton and St. Kilda, are now rubbed out. They have either sought the remote solitudes of Queensland, Fiji, or a back block, or else they are overseers on the stations which were once their own. I suppose the country is the gainer by the change^ butL there were good qualities among, tie shepherd kings. They were men of t^ews and sinews, practised a rough hospitaity, and in their own way were not devoid, of generosity. But the world has grown bo civilised for them, and, like the aborigines whom they displaced, they have almoij; died out. Prussian Humanity and French Sang Froid. — In the shop (at Gorze after the battle of Grcvelotte) lay three wounded men (a Frenchman and two, Prussians), brought to Gorze since the \ morning .from Gravelotte. The French- \ man woke up and asked me for some \ water. I went to the garden and brought \ him some from the pump that had stood \ me in such good stead yesterday. I then asked him how he came to be made prisoner. "Oh," hesaid, "ma foi, easily enough. I was lying on the ground firing over my knapsack, aud was about to retire, when a side shot broke my aukle. I could not go away then, so I lay there firing until the Prussians advancing took me prisoner. I expected, of course, that they would pin me to the ground where I lay with a bayonet ; but, indeed, I find them kind enough." Here was testimony to Prussian humanity, and, what is supposed to be a rarer commodity, French sang froid.

Popping the question in novels is the topic that hus recently attracted most attention in tlu; Saturdai/ Revieiu, the idea being eliminated in " Great Girls," an article whioh would be smart if it were only true, though in parts there are touches that will bo relished. Who but will recognise the original of this portrait ? " Women who never learn repose of rniud or dignity of manner; never lose their taste for mindless amusements; never acquire/ one for nature or quiet happiness; and like to have lovers always hanging about them — men for the most part younger than themselves, whom they call naughty boys, and tap playfully by way of rebuke. As a class they are wonderfully inept, aud thoir hands are practically useless, save as ringstands and glove-stretchers. For they can do nothing with them, not even frivolous faucy-work ; they read only/ novels, and one of the marvels of their existence is what they do with themselves in those hours when they are not dressing, flirting, or paying visits.