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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 65, 17 March 1871, Page 2

The assessment of Christchurch for the current year is estimated at £63,000, being a slight increase on la&t year. A publican of Christchurch has been fined £4 for supplying drink to men previously in a state of intoxication. The Christchurch Gas Company held its annual meeting on March Ist, when a dividend of eight per cent, was declared. The vines of Mr. Lord, of Christchurch, have this year produce^ one ton of fruit. V* r . 6 An accommodgjlfon-house keeper at the River Cass, Canterbury, has been fined 40s. for allowing Yankee Grab at his house. A Woollen Factory, for the manufacture of blankets, tweeds, and other fabrics, is being started at Mossgiel, in the Taieri district, Otago. The Council of the Canterbury Acclamatisation Society have voted the sum of £10 for the purpose of introducing skylarks from Nelson. An advertisement in the Wellington papers announces that the steamers Wellington, Ahuriri, Phoebe, and Taranaki are to be sold by auction ou the 18th April, unless privately disposed of before the 3rd of that month. The demand for the Bay of Islands coal continues to increase, and the company working the mines have'jqiite enough to do to keep pace with it. Sj company has also been formed to work the coal deposits in the Waikato. The coming elections for the Otago Provincial Council are likely to cause a good deal of excitement. No fewer than 18 candidates have already declared for the seven' seats for the City, and there will probably be one or two more.

A rumour reaches us from Wellington that whether Mr. Yogel be back or not, the meeting of Parliament caunot be deferred beyond the beginning of June. The financial condition of tho colony is such as to cause grave anxiety, and as a good deal of time will be taken up at the commencement of the session by the election of Speaker, Chairman of Committees, and the disposal of election petitions, and other formal matters, it is probable the House will be called together in the first week in June. The New Zealand Meat Preseving Company has had to send some of its tinsmiths at Longbush to prison for one month, for leaving their work without notice, they having struck for higher wages than £3 per week. The Company has establishments at Longbush (Southland), Kakanui, aud Timaru, and employ a number of men. They announce that they are open to receive as apprentices, young men, not over twenty-one, for one year, to learn the tinsmith business, an offer which will, no doubt be responded to by many who may be ambitious to earn good wages. The Dunedin correspondent of the Grey River Argus writes : — I have had an opportunity since I last wrote to you of seeing the practical working of the macViirjf for raising water described by Mr. jrV. Thompson, at last meeting of the Otago Institute. Tho trial took place in the Water of Leith, above the old Botanic Gardens. A small channel was made amoag the stones in order to concentrate the current, which is at present very light, and the machine was placed so that the water just covered the screws, which revolved with a good speed, pushing the water up to a height of six or seven feet with great force. The machine was quite a success, and should come into large use amoeg the diggers immediately. The Melbourne Age says that the magnitude and importance of the events now occurring in Europe, and the possibility of England being at any moment iuvolved in war, has induced the Queensland Government to offer to the Governments of Victoria and New South Wales to run a steamer between Cardwell and Sourabaya, which would bring the whole of Australia witbiu eleven days of England. Meanwhile the defences of the colony are being proceeded with ; the batteries arte being completed by prison labor; guns are being rapidly got into position ; regulations for the enrolment and control of the Naval Reserve have been published ; and last, though not least, intelligence has been received of the arrival of the Cerberus at Aden. Her commander, Lieut Panter, proposes to sail from that port to Galle, and thence by way of Penany, and Sourabaya to the Australian coast, so that her arrival may be looked for about the middle of April. The New Zealand Herald has the following regarding the late rich returns from the Thames district : — " The good fortune which has come to the company from the Culedoniau gold-mine though not unexpected, has long been delayed. It was early recognised as a valuable speculative claim, but though worked from August 1868, it turned out nothing until 1871. The reward of this perseverance has been brilliant beyond conception. The company have expended no less a sum than £19,147 17s. 3d. upon their claim in the two years and a-half. The first two dividends have just covered this expenditure, leaving a /air working balance. The first dividend (February 6, 1871) amounted to £5,720 ; and the second, nine days after, amounted to £14,300 ; equal together to £20,000 ; leaving a balance of £872 2s. 9d. It is probable, from present appearance, that another £1.4,300 will be paid in dividends uext week. This is certainly a great test of the wealth that lies deep under the Hauraki hills. Whatever Ihight be thought of the delay in the return, its advent sooner or later, was never doubted. The stone still produced is surpassingly rich, and the yield exhibits no sign of diminution. The Wanganui Chronicle says dull times has come to be a general cry and not without good cause. Wanganui used to be a lively go-a-head little place rather than otherwise. At present there is much stagnation. Until lately steamers carried away cattle north and south, and kept up a little bustle; even that has all but ceased for a time. Business is very much of the " Sawyer late Nockemmorf" type, the annual receipts of which, it may be remembered, could be placed in a wioe-glass, and covered up with a gooseberry leaf, a balancing of the ledger which represents more portability than profit. Ready money has nearly disappeared. Men sit and sulk—they sit and smoke- — they sometimes sit and drink, and thiDk what they shall do, and when times will, get better. ,„ A new goldfield has been discovered to the north of Adelaide.

The Cerberus. — The followiug amusing account of the ironclad ship Cerberus now on her way to Melbourne is given by Lieutenant Panter, who commands her, in a letter written by him to a friend in Melbourne, and which was recently published in the Argus. — It is dated H.M.C.S. Cerberus, Aden, January 10 : — " Well, here lam with the threeheaded brute, safe and sound so far, though not half-way to my destination. I have been rather a long time getting so far, but she is not a clipper ; and with all her extra weight she won't steam, and it requires a gale to drive her under sail ; and when it does blow a gale I prefer keeping the sails lashed up, or I should be making another Captain of her, which, as far as I am personally concerned, I don't care about, nor do I think, as far as regards the ship, the colony would thank me for doing so. ■* She is not a handsome ship — bow and stern the same, excppt that she has a bowsprit at one end and not the other ; but her real beauty will not be seen until Igo into dock, when they will see her magnificent lines just like this (making a tpark to illustrate tho cross section of the Vesßel).\ Her extreme breadth on upper deck is Uo^t'iandjon the bottom 43ft, so you can fancy its l>eingjmuch like taking a floating dock tovsea. '. Nevertheless she has proved a good sea-boat, though not not exactly a clipper. ***' I, have managed Ji hitherto to get 100 ' Anil es a,-day out of her. Her next best (f\ duality is power of suffocation, which is/iv^ry~ strong. We were nearly all cooked coming down the Red Sea. and I am sure if we had been another week we should have been overdone. I have had the satisfaction of beiDg the first to bring an irouclad cupola ship through the Canal and down the Red Sea ; also I hoist the Australian flag \\n these parts.' Victoria may be proud of the first ironclad she possesses, as far as strength goes, for I verily believe she is irupreguable to the present ordnance. She causes a vast amountyrf astonishment wherever she goes, especially when peqple see her guns. I hope to ge^-away jfrom this the day after to-moTrow," aD<F rMeh Galle about the 2nd of FebVuary. ; from thence I go to Sumatra and Java, then dowu south for the Sound, and then ' hoorah , for Hobson's Bay. It will be* one of the happiest days in my life* when I drop my 'mud-hook' off Williamstown." — The water of famous mineral iv Fairmont-Park, ; ; tbe Boston Post says, tastes "like damaged pork-pickle^runk out of an old boot." v •-.. \