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Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 32, 20 January 1864, Page 2

A gentleman, who yesterday arrived from the Nokomui, contradicts the report that there is any gre.-it encouragement to be derived from any new fluids in that district. He states that the circumstance which give rise to the rumor of the discovery of a rich field was, that a party of miners, alter sinking to a depth of seventy-five feet, came upon a very g< od catch, their claim being situated on a dry spur of the range coming down from the Nevis. The extent of the ground which tliey found payable was vi-ry limited, and the great scarcity of water where they were was another disadvantage in prospecting. Several parties are, however, prospecting in the neighborhood of the place, and have high expectations of being successful. Our correspondent at the Bluff inform us that the two boats Elect and Eliza, of Messrs Fordham and Gilroy, returned from Stewart's Island on Monday, the 18th inst. They report the boat of J. It. Fordhain nnd Co, that was capsized, to have been recovered by Messrs Davidson and Co. the day previous, During the stny of the two crews, they dragged each fine day for the bodies of Mathew Hayman and William Parker, who were lost, but without success. The boats were at the Island about a week, during which timo Mr Pope, acting on behalf of the Customs, was engaged on the special business entrusted to him. We have to thank Captain Stuart, of the Aldinga, for his courtesy in furnishing ns with the latest Punenin papers, which are wholly occupied by the summary for Europe. There were only four unimportant cases on the police charge-sheet, yesterday, at the Resident Magistrate's Court, but in consequence of there being no Magistrate on the Bench until a very late hour of the dny, the sheet was not cleared, and the prisoners and police had to remain in attendance for several hours. The Resident Magistrate, Mr Price, was in attendance at the Supremo Court in his capacity of High Sheriff. There are, however, about a dozen Honorary Justices of the Peace ; but whether they knew their services were required iv order to perform duties rendered necessary by the absence of the Resident Magistrate, nnd neglected to put in an appearance, or whether the latter-named official omitted to notify to any of them to act for him, we are not aware. Some of the alleged offenders may have been innocent of the charges against them, and would, therefore, have a perfect right to complain of their detention in a Police Court for a whole day as a gross infringement of the liberty of the subject — a British right oftener referred to than earned out in its integrity. We have been informed that about two or three nights ngo some four or five individuals anxious to revive the Waterfordian era, by their nightly pranks in removing sign-boards and such property of a portable nature attached to premises, were making preparations to carry out one their practical jokes in Esk street, when the appearance of one of the constables produced a rapid retreat. It might be as well to remind these " Mohawks,'' — such, we believe, is the recognised term,— that | the "blues" are not always invisible after dark, and a night in. the lock-up, v ith an appearance next morning before the Bench on a ;charge ol petty larceny, would not be an agreeable termination to such freaks. • The Gazette of -the 16th instant contains tire official resignation of Messrs William Stuart'anc J. Cowan as mamjbere of fhe ■■ Executive Council o the Province of Southland.

It is amongst the fcliin^a not generally kuowu, and wbieh to juauy of our'sporfcing readers m-.\y prove (i "piece of viiluiblo^ iuformation, that within half-a-dozen mile 3of town there id as good shoot--ing ground 03 they nco-l <lodire for a day's sport. On Saturday, two or three \geat\cmen of 1 our acquaintance went on a shooting excursion in the locality of the New Eiver, and in the course of- a few hours succeeded in bagging about thirty brace of binia — consisting of teul, duck and bittern, — < some of them being of a very large size. . "We were informed the other day of the " discovery—somewhere near t.he scrub off ,the North, Road — of an ingeniously-concealed "plant" of what turned out to bo mysterious property. The finder — in rambling 'in the locality referred to — espied a sack concealed' 'amongst the scrub. On ! more closely examining it and feeling its contents : from the outside of the securely tied sack, the , cold perspiration trickled 'frond his foreliead as the conviction rapidly passed through- /bis mind that they were.the remains of a dead body — inallproba. bility the mangled remains of some murdered victim, concealed; in the spot, where it had been his misfortune to discover them.' Notwithstanding his temporary horror, the finder determined to 'aid justice in the finding of the murderer, and with this object heshouldered the sack, and at the risk of being himself arrested, as -a body-snatcher, ho rested not until he deposited- bis burden at the .- Police-Camp,- where — under the inspection of the i proper authorities-— the sack was untied, and its contents on being brought to light turned out to be a fine assortment of York hams and several sides and flitches of bacon, all in a remarkable degree of preservation. The property is still in the possession of the Police, from whom any person having had such stolen from them rauy recover it ■ on giving the description.