RETURNING PASSENGERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2, 16 November 1861, Page 2

RETURNING PASSENGERS.

" One fact is worth a bushel of theory," and we trust the fact we are about to relate will completely disabuse the minds of our friends at a distance of the idea that persons are eager to leave the Colony to return to -Victoria. The Alma, sailing vessel, made the fastest passage (we believe) on record from Melbourne to Dunedin ; at any rate, it was an extremely fast one. She has been filling up with passengers for the lacst ten days on her return to Melbourne. She takes them at £4 a head, and sails the first thing this morning. She is likely to be the first vessel that reaches Melbourne. She can carry three hundred passengers, but with every exertion she has onlysecured between, sixty and seventy, and at least' a fourth of them intend to return to Dunedin.

A Patent has lately been taken out.in Victeria, for the cure of foot-rot in sheep by a particularly prepared ointment. Trials were made with success at the Government Model Farm in Victoria. We understand the patentee, Mr. Allen, is about introducing, his invention here. Reported new Diggings.— A report has been.-received by the. Commissioner of. Police iromone of the constables at WestTaieri, stating that there was a rumour of a new field having been discovered on the slopes of a tributary of the Waitara, and that a mounted policeman had been dispatched to ascertain the truth of the report. From private information we learn that it is on a branch of the Waipo.ra Hi ver, which takes its rise in the Lamermoor Ranges,, and that the party who have made the discovery have obtained three small nuggets, one of which was shown to our informant,', and weighed, he states sor 6 dwts. We are also informed that several parties are at work, and doing pretty well, at the Washpool Creek, at the head of the Waihola Lake, and opposite the Township of Clarendon. The sums appropriated at the late session of the Provincial Council, and passed, to be spent during the current half year, are as follows: — Main .Roads £8573, 15s-. 9d. .Branch Roads £4000. Supplemented Iloads- £512, 10s. Total for Roads. £90,244, ss. 9d. For Bridges£ls,Bso.. Grand total for Roads and Bridges £106,094, ss. 9d. The Survey Department during the same period is to cost £4980, and the Education Department £7545, 19s. 9d. An " Accident " and a " Misfortune."-—The Leeds Mercury's London correspondent says :— " The latest joke, not to be found in Punch, but heard at the clubs, is said to come from the- other side of the. Channel,. though xnayhap of. home manufacture, ami not unworthy of Sir Robert in his merry mood.. Here it is.: The Prince Imperial and the Emperor.'were in discussion about educational subjects, and from pot-hooks they got to synonymes and equivalents -of words, when the juvenile Imperial biood asked liis parent to explain to liini. the difference- between the: words ' accident' and ' misfortune/ : which have. .certainly a little closer affinity, in Freach than English, * and. seem to require a little elucidation. After a pause for an illustration,. His. Majesty said,. I. will tell you, my boy,. the exact difference. It would be an accident if your cousin,. Prince jSfapo.leon, were to tumble into the Seine—but it would be a misfortune if any one were to help him out again."

With a parsimony as ill judged as unfair, the Provincial Council has limited Mr; Gabriel Head's reward for discovering the Gold Field at Tuapeka, to the paltry acknowledgment of' £500. Canterbury on the one side, and little Southland on the other offer each a reward of £1000 to the discoverer of a payable Gold Field. Otago, which has a field equal to anything discovered at any time, in any part of the world, can only afford to give £500 to the discoverer. The Superintendent in his opening address expressed a very strong opinion of Mr. Head's services, but the Council having secured the prize, think they should get off as much as possible paying the cost, and Mr. Head is left another victim to the oft quoted definition of gratitude—" a lively sense of favours to come." Had Mr. Read still been absent prospecting, in short, were anything more expected of. him, some greater acknowledgment would have been made for his services, but, inasmuch as his mission of usefulness is over for the time, the past debt is easily cancelled, or rather is paid by a composition of so many shillings in.the pound. Before a Commissioner was ■ appointed to the : Gold Field, Mr. Read acted semi-officially as one, and most oi the early comers still remember his uniform courtesy and attention to all requiring information. Vve are glad to observe that several of the .most public thoroughfares are in course of being widened. Jetty Street . has had its width considerably increased, by an enbankihent on the south side, and we believe that it is the intention of the Government to remove the shipping offices, which, at present are in evcrybodys way, close to the jetty on the north side of the Street. This wilf greatly facilitate the loading and unloading of carts, and people may then hope to reach the jetty without incurring the risk of being knocked down or run over. Princes Street is being widened in two places, by the Maori House and1 opposite the hospital, while the Octagon is being cut away,- and the earth thus obtained used in raising Stuart Street" to the level oj Princes Street. These improvements however will not be complete until the cutting is also widened, as however suitable its width may have been to the Dunedia people a year ago, it fails far short of the requirements'-of Dunedin now. An Individual, rejoicing in the euphonious name of Nick Ward, has been arrested on the diggings, under the Criminals Act passed at the late sitting of the Council. He was brought into town by the Escort on Thursday. Another of the prisoners brought in by the same conveyance has been arrested on a warrant from Canterbury for forgery. A Case or Jumping.—When Sir Henry and Lady Barkly entered Burnt Creek, her ladyship was presented by a miner-with a pick (a very small one) with which to mark out a claim. Her ladyship scratched off the four corners, and having been, presented with the necessary pegs, fixed one at each corner. Hardly had she completed this, when a digger stepped forward and jumped the claim, and requested her ladyship to produce her miner's right or he would appeal to the Warden, Captain Anderson, who was at hand, for right of possession. This little incident naturally created-a good deal of laughter and amusement amongst his Excellency's party and the diggers.— Talbot Leader., It will be satisfactory to the commercial portion of our community to learn that the Local Government has acceded to the request of the Chamber of Commerce, and altered the rates of Jetty dues to those suggested, by that body. In future a charge of Is. 3d. per ton on all goods landed, will be charged on the vessels lightering. Four days to vessels under, and six days to vessels above 40 tons, will be allowed to discharge, and any vessel occupying a berth beyond that time will be charged ]os. per diem as long as she exceeds either of these periods. The fines received in the Eesident Magistrates' Court, during the last month amounted to ,£BIO 135., and the cost in the same time to upwards of £50. It is. rather an unusual circumstance that the administraton of justice should be made a productive department to the revenue.. We are afraid the Resident Magistrate will find it necessary to lower his scale of lines. W"e observe he has already come down from fining captains of ships £100 to £5. One of the prisoners engaged in out-door labour succeeding in escaping from the working pasty, and has not since been captured. He was a notorious and convicted pickpocket, and unfortunately he neither had his hair cut nor the prison ■clothes on. There is scarcely a district in Victoria, however small its dimensions or scanty its population but has a Caledonian Society formed, under whose auspicies annual celebrations of Scottish games take place. Curiously enough, Otago with its essentially Scotch elements, founded by Scotchmen, its inhabitants in constant communication with Scotland, and preserving in many particulars the old national characteristics, is without a Caledonian Societ}', and has no periodical meetings for the promotion of the old Scottish sports. Degenerate sons of Caledonia ! it was not by days and nights devoted only to business avocation tliat 3'our national traditions were handed down to you till they became national characteristics. What would the countrymen you left behind you, think of your forgetting the pastimes and sports, which, descending for centuries are regarded as the legendary foundations of Scotia's ancient strength and prowess. We would fain hope that it is only forgetfulness has occasioned the. omission, and that Scotch sports and games will soon become an institution-in Otago,