DUNEDIN.

North Otago Times, Volume II, Issue 40, 24 November 1864, Page 3

DUNEDIN.

(From our own Correspondent,) November 21, 1864. We are not likely to hear the end of the beef question at present. Some of those who have been agitating the matter here have two ends in view; the one quite laudable, and interesting to all of us—a reduction of the cost of living in so far as meat supports life; the other, the usual arriere pens6e of an agitation—their own prominence before the public. Ulterior views in the form of mayoralties, aldermanic gowns (and perhaps aldermanic turtle too), future seats in the Provincial Council, and so forth, peep like cloven feet from beneath the cloak of their patriotism, Not being satisfied with his Honor's reply to the deputation which lately waited on him, or not desiring that the affair in which they were. such noisy actors should be so easily quitted, they have voted the Superintendent an obstructionist, and have " appealed unto Cassar" in the person of Sir George Grey. Of course they have got a public meeting to back them. Now it appears to mc that nothing could be more conciliatory than the reply made by the Government through his Honor to the demands made upon it. If carried out in its integrity the ports will be open to the importation of cattle in two or three weeks from this, for the probability of beef being cheaper in a legitimate way before that time, or at any future time if the ports remain closed, is simply nil. How much his Excellency can do for us I do not know, but as he will most probably refer the new memorial to the Superintendent and request his consideration of it, our aspiring public men will have arrived in a roundabout way at the ear of the Provincial Government again—spoiling a good cause by impatience and discourtesy. In the meantime the butchers, indignant at the accusation pretty freely laid against them by various parties, of combining to raise the price without reasonable cause, have issued a manifesto in self-defence. In a long advertisement they set forth the fact that out of a beast which costs them L 24, they can only make a profit of 14s 9d. If they knew their own interests, instead of maintaining mutton at its present price because the sale of beef does not pay them, they would sell it at a fair price and raise the price of beef. No one would give Is 3d for beef if he could buy mutton at from 7d to 8d ; and the sale of fat cattle would be stopped until the price came down to something reasonably near that of fat sheep. This simple solution of the difficulty does not appear to have occurred to them, When proposed it is met by the reply that sheep would soon be as dear as oxen if they adopted it—a statement which lam slow to believe. If any of your readers have fat cattle on their runs or in their paddocks, I counsel them to send them to market promptly. The price must be brought down in some way or othex , , for the agitators to whom I have alluded, whatever ail vantage they may have token of popular feeling, have certainly not created it.

A gold discovery, which attracted much attention, was made lately near town on the Silver Stream, very near to where the old road to the West Taieri crosses it. An immense number of people rushed to the place, and as might naturally have heen expected, tramped back again with heavier hearts and lighter soles to their watertights. Gold has been found in this neighborhood at intervals for the last three years, but there has never yet been any reasonable ground for supposing that a useful goldfield existed any where about. The prospectors in the gully to where the rush took place, had been so lucky as to find three ounces of gold in four or five days, but no one else has as yet found as many pennyweights. The officer despatched to take charge of the supposed field by the Government (Mr Arthur D. Harvey) ventures, however, to say that from the appearance of the place, he is inclined to think that payable ground will be struck in the This was a week ago. Since that time various rumors have been current, but no authentic news of any successful prospecting has reached town.

No little sensation was created in the town on Friday by the publication of an " Extra," containing the news of some successful finds on the Lyell, (Buller), with a list of nuggets, lately sold to one of the banks in Nelson. Of these, one was nearly 39 ozs in weight, another over 11 ozs, and the others from 1 oz 12 dwts. to 4 ozs 2 dwts. A large number of miners are about town, and on the move in the country - just now, and there seems every probability of our losing a batch of them. The emigration to the Northern Provinces last month left our population 200 or 300 less on the 31st than on the Ist October. lam afraid November will show even more unfavorably.