SUMMARY OF INTELLIGENCE FROM THE SOUTHERN PROVINCES.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1721, 6 September 1862, Page 7

SUMMARY OF INTELLIGENCE FROM THE SOUTHERN PROVINCES.

llaavke's Bay.

The local Journals are chiefly occupied with the proceedings of the General Assembly and with reprints of the Parliamentary papers. We gather however the fact that the new Native policy is not considered satisfactory by the leaders of opinion at Napier. " Grass money" and other difficulties have somewhat curdled their milk of human kindness, and there is a manifest leaning towards the "usiatie" mode of treatment which we observe with regret. Even the prospect; of " direct purchase" affords no pleasure, and neither Fox nor Domett appears to be the man for Napier. We quote from the Herald of the 26th ulto.—

The idea might have been carried out years ago, but in the present day when the Maories know the value ot land and have become familiar with the operation of land leagues, as well as jealous of the increasing number of thepakc/ia, it is hopeless to expect from such concession any beneficial results. Its effect will either be to lock up the whole country and thus stop the progress of settlement, or to place the European population in the humiliating position of tenants-at-will to a parcel of rapacious and unprincipled Maori landlords.

From the summary of the same Journal we extract the following items of local intclli-

gence: — Lano Sale, —An extensive s:de of unagricultural land took place on Tuesday last at the land office. The quantity offered was 1(5,7/32 acres. With the exception of the lots on Capt. Henton's run, put up by Messrs. Whitmore and McNeill, the whole were knocked down at the upset price. For these there was a spirited competition—resulting in their being purchased by the applicants at the following comparatively high rates :—3OO acres at (js. Gd., 300 acres at 10s, 300 at 18s. Id., 800 at 125., 300 at 133. 2d., 300 at 13s. 6d. The enhanced price produced to the treasury the sum of £1268158.; and the total amount realized was £.51 GO 1 ">s.

Whales. —On Monday and Tuesday last a school of whales, believed to be sperm, were seen disporting iu the Bay, within sight of the town. They were seen by a good many persons from the shore. This incident recalls the question, how many thousands of pounds are annually lost to Napier from the want of boats and other appliances for the whale fishery. Levvixg Black Mail.—On Sunday last Messrs. ■Walt and McDonnell, on their way from Wairoa to Napier, were stopped at Mohaka by the natives and their horses taken from them. The plea for this was that the runanga had prohibited Sunday travelling, T!w animals were taken across the. riret?

and the owners informed that they could have them upon payment of ss. ahead. This they resisted, and were detained, in consequence, till Monday was far advanced.

Mil. Bhooke Taylor.—This gentleman remains in custody upon the committal of the Resident Magistrate for contempt of court. We have been requested to correct an error in the paragraph on this subject which appeared in our last. It was there"stated that Mr. Taylor was committed immediately after the use by him of the objectionable language, whereas he was only removed from the court by order of the Bench. Tiae.committal did not take place till afterwards, when Mr. Taylor was afforded the opportunity of apologising, and declined to do so. Native Mux.-—The mill sent down by the Government as a present (we presume) to Her Majesty's loyal subjects at Pa Whakaairo, was yesterday landed from the Zillah and taken possession of by the consignees, who came to town for that purpose in large numbers and with several teams.

Export of Cattle.—ln the midst of the prevailing dulness it is interesting to have to record the fact that, within the past month or two, a new trade has sprung up in Napier. We allude to the export of cattle, which bids fair to go on vigorously for some time. At present no less than four vessels—the Gil Bias, Victoria, Zillah, and Surprise—are loading, or about to load, with cattle for Auckland. Wellington Appears to be absorbed in the affairs of the Colony. Outside the walls of the Legislative Assembly it would seem that all was barren. Tliere is not in the files of the Journals before us a single " local" paragraph of which we could make an extract. Canterbury. The new Provincial Council had been summoned. The Superintendent of the Province being absent at Wellington on the day appointed for the meeting, it was discovered, at the eleventh hour, that the confirmation of the appointment of Speaker, and the approval of standing orders —powers conferred by the Constitution Act upon the Superintendent—could not be exercised by his Deputy. On this subject the Times of July 30th says —■

The first session of the new Council, which should have commenced yesterday, has come to an untimely end. The Deputy Superintendent had prepared an unexceptionable address, many of the new members had arrived with the punctuality which generally results from maiden impatience, Mr. Jos. Britten had dropped in to pick a (nw holes in the sayings and doings of the Government, and worse than all, the fair sex had mustered in full force, only to lie doomed to disappointment. At the hour appointed to commence business, the Provincial Secretary announced that a legal difficulty had been discovered, which prevented the Council from proceeding to business. The presence of the Superintendent was found to be imperative. Amid murmurs of astonishment, which found an exponent in Mr. Brittan, who expressed his surprise that with a lawyer at the head of the Government and another in the Executive such an error should have remained undiscovered till that moment, the house proceeded to elect a Speaker, the choice falling on Charles Bowen, Esq., and then adjourned till the 18th August. The laud sales of July realized £12,946. A sale on the 4th August realized £2,176 4s. Od.

Coal appears to he at a premium. The Times says that— The Kowai coal held seems likely to be tested. The preliminary capital has been subscribed, and a meeting of the projectors will take place to-day to appoint provisional directors, and otherwise set the affair going. A3 to whether the field will eventually realise the expectations of the projector.-, it would be premature at present to offer u decided opinion. The position of the seams, as far as we understand these matters, does not promise well for their eventual cheap working, and the extent of land carriage must always interfere with anything like a very low price. Still, with all these difficulties to face, there is a fair prospect before the new company. Coals are so exorbitantly high that the people of Christchurch would hail with delight the prospect of having them delivered at £3 10s. or £4, and there is no dcubt that good coals could be delivered at these prices from the Kowai, after affording a fair rate of profit to the company. Should the preliminary workings be of a satisfactory character, and a tramway supersede drays as the mode of carriage, the price would be reduced at least £1 a ton ; a rate which would defy competition on the plains. At present, prices may be quoted at ;')£. 10s. delivered in Lyttelton, and GL 10s. delivered in Christchurch and the neighbourhood. [n both cases we may add— if you can get any! Under these circumstances, who is there in Canterbury who does not wish well to the promoters of the Kowai Coal Company ? Otago. The utmost excitement prevails in Dunedin on the subject of a newly discovered gold held. Its richness has been, moreover, fully confirmed by the statements just made by the leader of a Government prospecting party returned to Dunedin. The gold held has been called the Hartley diggings, from the name of its principal discoverer. The excitement yesterday was immense. From early morning until dark, crowds of men equipped with swags, or lending pack horses, were to be seen taking the West Taieri or the Blue Skin roach Many, we are told, went away very ill provided, and we cannot too urgently impress upon those who propose going, that there is a total absence of stores in the neighbourhood, and that, from the nature of the country, it will be pome time before any quantity can be sent there. The prospectors came down by the West Taieri; they left on Sunday, and entered town on Thursday. The Waikouaiti road will be found the most available for drays at least, at present. A third road could be used by Oamaru and Lindis. From the Lindis it is nearly thirty miles to the Hartley, and a dray could be taken over twenty of it. The spot where the richest gold was obtained, was about sixteen miles from Shennan's home station.

The, richness of this extraordinary field, which cannot fail to become of great importance, may be inferred from the statement of the two men who returned into Duncdtn with 87 lbs. weight of pure gold.

For the first month or six weeks, we were well satisfied with two or three ounces a day each, but as the river became lower, and we learned more of the nature and extent of the diggings, we did not wash anything unless we thought it would pay about a pound weight a day—that is, six ounces each. We had nothing to do but to set the cradle at the edge of the river, and keep it going from morning to night, as one could get dirt and feed the cradle as fast as the other could wash it.

It is confidently expected that the present "•old field, rich and extensive as it is, stretching over many miles in length, will be only the precursor to new and still more extensive fields in the neighbourhood of Lake Wakatip and other places. The 87 lbs. of gold were obtained during ten weeks. The estimation in which our Me townsman Mr. Green, is held by the people of Invercargill, amongst whom he has been lately located, will be learnt with pleasure by many here.

•Mr. Green, the late agent of the Union Bank beife, left last week for Melbourne, per the Aldinga, very generally regretted. It was intended to present him with a silver cup filled with sovereigns before he left, The cup was pent

for to Dunedin, but did not arrive by the Guiding Star before Mr. Green left; it will be sent after him; the inscription on the cup is—" Presented to Wi J. Green, Esq., of the Union Bank of Australia, Invercargill, not only as a token of respect and esteem, but of regret at his departure."

The match for £6OO a side between Kauri Gum and Falcon came off on the 7th, and. resulted iu a hardly contested race, in which Kauri Gum was the winner by half-a-dozen lenr-ths. The following account of the " event" is taken from the Daily Times, August Bth: — The three-mile race between Mr. Julius's bay gelding Kauri Gum, and Mr. Townsend's bay gelding Falcon, for £6OO a-side, came off yesterday on the Dunedin race-course. The match, which was made some time since, has excited a considerable amount of interest, and a large sum of money, besides the amount of the stakes, changed hands on the occasion. Kaurie Gum, being a New Zealand horse, was pretty well backed by the Otagonian settlers, while Falcon found backers principally among the Victorians; there was, however, an impression that the distance was too great for Falcon, and there is no doubt, if the distance had been two miles instead of three, that he would have been the favourite. As it was, previous to the race coming off, the betting was in favour of Kauri Gum, rising from six to four to two to one, and in some cases three to one. Both horses have been in careful training since the match was made, and, although neither of them is a very fast racer, when they were stripped they presented a very respectable appearance, and did every credit to their trainers. This remark especially applies to Falcon, who looked by many degrees the more thorough racer of the two, and was undoubtedly in better condition. The morning was very fine when we started for the course. There had been a pretty heavy frost the previous night, which had considerably bettered the roads. Still, in some places the horses had to plough their way through a perfect slough of despond. Notwithstanding this drawback, a stranger to New Zealand scenery would have been charmed with the many beautiful scenes and landscapes that presented themselves on the way to the race course. A remarkable feature on the road is the sudden variations that take place in the character of the scenery, and even in the nature of the climate—now undulating hill and glade, with the sun smiling on some rustic homestead, and fifty yards on deep mires of mud, the view on each side shut out by frowning hills, and overlooked by a cloudy sky! There were comparatively few on the road ; half-a-dozen straggling horsemen and a buggy or two, either stuck in, or wearily plodding their way through the mud, comprising, it appeared, almost the whole company who were bent upon a day's enjoyment. At Silverstream, however, the scene became more lively, and the landscape all around was dotted with enterprising pleasure seekers. The country round about Silverstream is perhaps the most attractive within a dozen miles of the town, and the winding rivulet itself, with its shining limpid water and clear pebbly bottom, looked remarkably lively on this occasion.

The race, which was understood to come off between half-past one and two o'clock, did not take place until half-past three, the intervening time being employed in settling preliminaries. Mr. J. Maclean was appointed judge, Mr. J. Stevenson starter, and Messrs. Mackenzie and Sydney James, stewards. Weight, lOst. 71b. At about three o'clock Kauri Gum and Falcon made their appearance on the course. On stripping, as stated above, Falcon presented a much better appearance than Kauri Gum. He had evidently been carefully and judiciously trained, was altogether in splendid fettle, and did not have an ounce of spare flesh about him. Still he did not look quite strong enough for a three mile race. On the other hand, Kauri Gum looked rather flabby, had more flesh about him than Falcon, but was evidently by far the stronger horse. Kauri Gum, ridden by R. Rae, (pink jacket, white cap), took the first preliminary canter. Falcon was ridden by Tom Hayes (black jacket, red sleeves and cap). After a few minutes delay, and one false start, the word was given, and the horses started, Kauri Gum leading by a couple of lengths, Falcon full of running, but held back by his jockey. On passing the gate Kauri was still, leading, Falcon lying close up on his flank, and the same position was held for the first two miles. During this portion of the race there was an evident feeling that Falcon had no chance of winning, (and Kauri's backers were proportionately exuberant; but after passing the judge's post the second time, Hays, who had held his horse hard in, challenged Kauri Gum, and for a third of a mile led by two or three lengths. Tha excitement was now growing fast, and beta were offered of 20 to son Falcon. Before, however, they passed the gate for the last time, Kauri Gum was again leading, Falcon, evidently fagged, unable to answer the call made upon hip. In the straight running home, Kauri Gum increased his distance, and came in, amidst loud cheers, an easy winner by half-a-dozen lengths. Time, seven minutes five and a half seconds. At the conclusion of the great race, an impromptu hack race was got up; entrance, two guineas; distance, one mile. The following horses were entered:—

Mr. Mollison's bay gelding Black Doctor. Mr. Julius' chesnut gelding Jack. Mr. Shand's grey gelding Rob Roy. Mr. Stevenson's chesnut gelding Poison.

Black Doctor was offered and taken against the field, the next in favour being Mr. Julius' Jack. At starting Jack took the lead, Black Doctor waiting closely on him, the race during nearly the whole distance lying between the two. Before they were half-way round, the Black Doctor passed Jack, and came in an easy winner, Jack second, the others nowhere. No other events took place after the hack race. We are glad to be able to say that the whole arrangements gave the utmost satisfaction. Southland. From the August summary of our contemporay the News, we take the following:— We have had one of the severest winters ever known in these Southern parts since the white man first effected a settlement in the far South of New Zealand; and the quantity of rain that has fallen in this portion of the Province has for the time had an injurious effect on all retail trade. For the agriculturist, however, the sharp frosts have done much good, and we look forward to the coming Spring as likely to be a season of great activity. The last few days have been very fine and clear, though still frosty, and already the beneficial influence on general trade is very marked.

The "Provincial Government Gazette'' issued on the 16th July shows a very healthy state of affairs. The revenue of the department of Crown Lands for the quarter ending June 30 was £11,724 16s. Id.; from other sources, £1412 Gs. 5d.; and the balance in the hands of the Provincial Treasurer, on June 30, £20,422 JBs. 2d.; making a total of £33,509 10s. Bd.

The gold discovery at the Hartley will, no doubt, prove advantageous to Southland. The shortest and best road to tho new diggings will, we beleive, be found to bo from Invercargill. The Chief Surveyor, Mr. Heale, had made an expedition to the Wakatip for the purpose of determining the practicability of opening a dray road to that district from the port. The difficulties appear to be few. The following description of the Wakatip, given by Mr. Heale in his report to the Provincial Government, will be read with interest:—

In a small gully leading out to the N. W. on to one of these tributaries on the Oreti (Mataura) about a mile north of Messrs. Kodgers' station (which is in the angle between the Eyre and the Mataura,) are the so-called Whakatipu Diggings. When I was there, about sixteen or eighteen men were at work in the bed of the small steep riVUlet,—which I am informed is nearly dry in summer. There is no superficial soil worth mentioning in the upper part, and the diggers (gener.

ally in parties of two V wore washing the whole of the detritus lying on the top of the slaty rock. This deposit only avemj»e<l two or three feet in thickness, and the quantity of gold it, contained is very considerable; —so that I have no doubt that industrious men could make very good earnings. But it is eyjklenj: that tint creek' will only afford room for a very limited number of diggers. _ Ihe vallev into which this steep gully falls >s ot considerable length, and about half a mile w"'e—flat, and rather swampy. It is obviously probable that gold will bo found in it; but the soil is deep, and the water will be heavy. Stirling's party sank-LO feet in It without reaching the bottom. The material they excavated is precisely the same as the " wash-dirt" in the small gully, and contained traces of gold all the way down, i As far as I could learn, the prospecting in the neighbourhood has been of a very limited and languid character. The bed rock on which the gold is found is a chlorite slate, notunfrequently intersected by small veins of quartz, irregularly disposed between the cleavage planes as well as the transverse joints of the sbvte. The western limit of this formation seems to be in the vicinity of the Eyre Creek, — the Dome Mountain, and those rising on the north side ot the Five Rivers Plain, being apparently composed of compact porphyry and greenstone. My time, however, afforded very little opportunity for exploration, and I was obliged to content myself with the general conclusions, that—--Ist. Thegullv now being worked is generally remunerative, but it will not afford room for more men than are already there, and on the road.

2. That there is a considerable extent of country of similar formation, which affords a reasonable encouragement to prospectors. 3, That deep-sinking in the flat is a fair speculation for a party that could afford to risk the large outlay it would require, and, generally, that it would, at present, be highly imprudent for any parties to proceed to these diggings, unless they are prepared to expend a considerable time unremuneratively in prospecting. For a small population, there is a present stock of firewood near at hand, in the dead scrub scattered over the fiat, and within about, a mile are two small patches of birch, high up on the hillbut for a large population, or for slabbing a great deficiency vyould be found. I understand that the Messrs. Rodgers have had timber sawn on an island in the lake—brought by boat to its southern extremity, and from thence by dray, about fifteen miles.