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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4398, 24 April 1875, Page 2

Wo understand that Mr. Vogel will leave London for New Zealand in time to join the mail steamer at Brindisi on the 14th of May. That mail will he due in Wellington on the 9th of July. We learn that at the latest dates matters were progressing very satisfactorily as regards the arrangements for a now San Francisco mail contract, and also as regards the submarine telegraph to connect New Zealand- with New South Wales, and possibly, also, with Fiji. From a return in the Qazettc of last night, we learn that in the quarter ending on the 31st of March last, 97,6810z5. of gold were exported from New Zealand, the declared value of which was £391,177. Otago shipped the largest quantity, the value being £134,835. Westland shipped £79,114 ; Nelson, £100,471; Marlborough, £2766 ; Auckland, £73,991 ; and Wellington—nothing ! From the first shipment of gold from New Zealand, the total export has amounted to 7,697,6540z5., of the value of £29,968,193. In the quarter ending 31st March last, only 97,6810z5, of gold were raised in New Zealand, as compared with 108,9470z5. in the corresponding period of last year. Yesterday being St. .George’s Gay was observed as a holiday by all the banks in Wellington. The Government offices, both General and Provincial, were open as usual.

According to last reports, the immigrants ex Edwin Fox who were' landed on Somes Xsland, are still in excellent health. The master and matron of the Mount Cook barracks have so far recovered that it is highly probable the immigrants will be transferred to the Wellington depot in the course of next week. The House of Assembly is at present undergoing very extensive alterations. The old seats have all been removed, and it is proposed to erect three tiers of seats round the chamber. The seats themselves are of a much lighter description than those used last session, and will materially add both to the comfort of members and to the general appearance of the House. The football season will be inaugurated this afternoon by a scratch match on the Basin Reserve, sides to be chosen on the ground. The members of both clubs will no doubt turn out in force, in order to bring in the season with something like eclat. We are pleased to find that the Australasian Shetcher maintains its high character as an illustrated publication. The April number, to .hand by the Alhambra, is one of the best that has been issued by the proprietors. The Sketcher is deservedly a great favorite in Hew Zealand, excelling as it does in many respects the illustrated London papers. The remains of Mrs. Hendle, the wife of the lightkeeper at Pencarrow Lighthouse, who died suddenly on Tuesday last, were brought to Wellington yesterday evening by the steamer Napier, which had been despatched on that mission at one o’clock yesterday. Seventy-one of the immigrants who arrived on Sunday last by the barque Edwih Fox, were taken on board from Somes Island by the Manawatu yesterday afternoon. They arfe to be located at Wanganui. The steamer returned to the wharf from the island, and after his Honor Judge Johnston and suite had ambarked, steamed away for Wanganni. The elections for the Manawatu Highway Board are going on. Mr. David Hughey has been returned for Foxton, without opposition. For Karere Ward, Mr. “Viggo Mourad and Mr. David McEwen have been nominated. The polling takes place on the 3rd of May. For the district of Palmerston, Mr. G. M. Snelson was elected without opposition. The Wesleyans of Wellington are to be congratulated in the selection made by the General Conference in appointing the Rev. H. Dewsbury, late of Coromandel, as co-pastor with the Rev. Mr. Morleyin this city. During Mr. Dewsbury’s pastoral charge in Coromandel, extending over a twelvemonth, he attracted a large congregation to his church, comprising members of every religious denomination, by the catholicity and evangelical tone which characterised his preaching. On the eve of his departure from Coromandel, a public tea meeting and soiree was tendered him by the inhabitants, to mark the esteem in which he was held by all sections of the community. Mr. Carruthers, Engineer-in-Chief, accompanied by Mr. Norpp, divisional engineer, and Mr. Henderson (of the Messrs. Brogdeu’s staff), arrived here, says the Bay of Plenty Times, of the 14th inst., on Sunday afternoon from Ohinemuri and the Lakes. Mr. Carruthers was engaged all Monday morning in the Public Works Office, and in the afternoon, accompanied by the district engineer (Oapt. Turner), inspected the Wairoa Bridge. The Bruce Herald of the 16th instant says : —“ Major Atkinson, Minister of Immigration, accompanied by Mr. Henderson, Brogden’s representative, Mr. Blair, Government engineer, and Mr. Jerusalem Smyth, have been engaged in inspecting the Clutha line. They arrived in Milton on Wednesday night, and yesterday proceeded by rail to the Kaitangata station, stopping to inspect the various bridges and points on the line. The train left the Milton station at ten minutes past ton °’ clock in the forenoon, and was back at a quarter past one p.m.” The New Zealand Herald of the 19th instant says : —“ Platinum has been found from time to time in the neighborhood of Wanape, some twenty miles south of Ahipara, a settlement near the North Cape, and also in the mountain ranges near the Canadian settlement of the Ohaihau. Several parties, we (Coromandel Mail Jure informed, are prospecting in the bush in this neighborhood, and amongst them are Mr. Maun, late of Coromandel, and Mr. Stovin, the latter of whom it is reported, though we cannot vouch for the correctness of the rumor, has discovered both platinum and rubies. The country away to the far north, however, is well known to be rich in minerals. Silver ore was some time ago found near the estate of Captain Burleigh, R.M., which on assay yielded 4ozs. of silver to the ton.” The Melbourne Telegraph has the following on the probability of founding a Chinese colony in Northern Queensland :—“One portion of Australia is receiving population at a tolerably rapid rate, and that is Northern Queensland. It is undergoing the experience of a Chinese rush, and quite as likely as not the rush mil be on a scale unprecedented in Australia. Oooktown is barely fourteen days’ steaming from Hong Kong, so that passengers can be landed very cheaply, and it.is the shortest and most economical trip ever offered to the Chinese. San Francisco, is twice as far. The Mongolians are dropping in at the rate of between one and two thousand per week, and at that average their number will soon become formidable ; but such an emigration is as nothing to what China could spare us, if ever the news of a southern Eldorado should spread, and the spirit of ‘ moving on ’ should seize the masses. That event is not altogether impossible, for though we look upon Europe as affording the colonising races of to-day, yet the greatest migrations the world has ever witnessed have been from the East. Thirty millions of human beings would scarcely be missed from an empire whose population, at a moderate computation, is reckoned at 400 millions, a number it is difficult for the imagination to grasp, and which without doubt constitutes one of the latent forces of the universe. Northern Queensland is more likely to receive 30,000, but even that number will afford the colony a pretty nut to crack.”