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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 18, 21 January 1873, Page 4

The Wharf and warehouses at Picton have just been let at auction to Mr Freeland for three years for £375 per annum. Three Tbains each way are to be run on Sundays upon the Dunedin and Fort Chalmers Railway. A large immigration of Chinese is Bhortfy expected at Fort Chalmers by the ship Whirlwind from Hong Kong. At the recent Hokitika regatta, the most exciting event was a ladies' ekiff race, for five sovs. The cantest lay between Mrs M'Kenzie and Miss Bradly. The married woman was the winner. The Jockey, Club, or what does duty at Abaura'as such, seems to be in luck's way. At the sitting of the Resident Magistrates and Warden's Courts, there, last. Friday, two witnesses in separate cases requested that their expenses might be given to the Ahaura Race Fund. An ingenious method of rewarding humble merit has been devised by the Taranaki Rifle Association. At their laot rifle meeting, the lowest scorer was presented with a medal made of tin, about ten inches in circumference, with the alphabet around the rim, and the portrait of a donkey in the centre. Accoeding to, the Otago Daily Times hU Excellency the Governor, since his arrival in Dunedin, has expressed himself to the effect that if Te Kooti and his crew had been sent to Dunedin for safe keeping, instead of the Chathams, the country would in all probability have been saved an expenditure of upwards of half a million of money. A Correspondent in Scotland writes to the Hawke's Bay Herald on the subject of emigration : — " There is a general rush from this country to America, and very few, indeed, seem willing to go so far aa New Zealand. The Yankee agents, moreover, do u« all the damage they can. They tell the people all manner of dreadful things about cannibalism and wars in New Zealand." v A Prosperous Province. — The writer of " Passing Notes " in the Otago Daily Times, in referring to the state of the province at the commencement of the year gives the following glowing account of its prosperous condition :— " The harvest promises to be one of unprecedented abundance. Gold mining, though temporarily impeded by scarcity of water, is yet flourishing on the whole. The wool clip is a large one, and the prices likely to be obtained for it are high. Work generally is abundant, all who can and will work being steadily employed." The heat] in Auckland, as in Nelson, was intense in the early part of the month. The death of a boy, eight years old, from sunstroke, is reported. At the Thames, on the 3rd, the thermometer registered 134 in the sun. The only persons who' appear to have enjoyed the heat are the Japanese, of whom the 2fTew Zealand Herald, of the 6th says:— -The Japanese must be possessed of very thick skulls, judging from the manner in which those connected with the troupe now in Auckland walk about the streets bare-headed under the blazing hot eun. Indeed Sol's rays seem to be so acceptable to many of them that they have even shaven their polls the better to enjoy themselves. Saturday last was perhaps the hottest day we have had this summer, yet we saw numbers of these peculiar people walking on the wharf, and absolutely revelling in the glare. The Riverton correspondent of the Southland News writes:— "Two of our sealing boats have just returned from their cruise— the Sandfly and the Pilot, the former, with a complement of twelve men, fitted out and provisioned by Messrs Whittingham Bros, and Instone — with 351 ■kins. , They report during the most part of the cruise a continuation of gales and fough weather. They were unable to get any further north than Tom Thumb Bay. Seals abounded thickly in moat parts, but the weather prevented them from landing at the most exposed rookeries and caves, where there were seals in thousands. The Pilot brought 200 skins and a quantity of oil. The fore-and-aft schooner Mary, with a small whaleboat as tender, left Cascade Point to work the Blowhole and caves near Miheti, io the northward, of Jackson's Bay, between the latter place and Okarito. When last heard of she had over 200 skins, besides oil. "