The Southland Times. THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1866.

Southland Times, Volume VII, Issue 527, 26 July 1866, Page 2

The Southland Times. THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1866.

The Hokitika papers to hand inform us that a petition is in course of signature for presentation to His Excellency the Governor, praying that the trial of the murderers Burgess, Levy, Kelly, and Sullivan may take place at Hokitika instead of Wellington.

Wo extract the following, which ■will be doubtlessly interesting to most of out readers, from the " Grey River Argus," of the 21sfc July. It says : — "Mr. Dalrymple, a gentleman just arrived from Jackson's Bay, has supplied the " West Coast Times" with the following interesting items from that locality and the country north and »©ufti of it ; and as lately our advices from thence have been exceedingly mergre, the intelligence obtained from him will be, doubtless, acceptable to our renders. For a long time previous to June 20 Jackson's Bay held little communication with the outer world, as no other vessel had called there. On that dato, however, the cutter Flying Scud ran in and when she sailed for Invercnrgill carried away Mr. Cleve and a man named Henry Mayo, who for five weeks had been lying disabled from a gunshot wound in the thigh. At George's River, thirty five mile south of Jackson's Bay, there aro about forty men at work mining, but mating little more than sufficient to supply themsolves with provisions. They " aro entirely dependent upon n whale-boat to bring them food from Jackson's Bay. They were once 'reduced to a great strait, as the boat got upset and was stove in, and for some time was unable to make her usual trip to the river. A short time ago a boat was washed ashore near Boast's River. She was in good condition, with tho name T. Parkinson, Port Chalmers, painted on her stern, and from the length of the barnacles which covered her, she is supposed to have been in the water six months. Three and a half days' journey from Bruce Bay, on the left hand branch of the Perekia "River, a party of diggers found some crevices containing heavy gold. The country, however, is so rough and scrubby, and the hardships to be encountered so severe, that they say not less than 2 oz. per man a day would pay them ; nnd as the actual returns were far less, they refused to return. According to their statements, they had scoured the ranges for some time before this place was hit upon, and some one had evidently been there before them, as they found a mia-mia erected and the remains of twd Maori hens hanging on a pole outside it ; whilst within, lying upon the ground, was that well-known publication by Wilkie Collins, the " Woman in White." Tho appearance of the birds and book indicated that they had lain their untouched for months. From the quality of the gold those men obtained there, and the look of the miamia, they felt convinced that one of those mysterious gullies reported by Arthur Hunt had been stumbled upon. At Bruce Bay new ground was opened, close to the Maori Pah, but proved of ! very limited extent, two parties only obtaining gold in small quantities, with every prospect of its speedy exhaustion. Hot more than fifteen persons are at present residing in Bruce Bay, and not a single store is left there. Our informant stated that through the non-arrival of supplies, the parties there lived for three weeks upon mussels and damper alone." ! We learn from Kelson papers, of the 20th instant, that the Government have finally decided to try the prisoners, now in custody for the Maungatepu murders, in Nelson, and that a special session will probably be held for the purpose early in September. It is the intention of the Government to send over from Wellington a gentleman to assist Mr Adams in conducting %he prosecution. We would deßire to call attention to the sale, by C. A. Eoss and Co., of dairy cows and caieases of fat beef, at the yards of Mr. M'Clymont, Bastroad, this day at 12 o'clock. The information we received and published in our yesterday's issue, that the Danzig had arrived , proves to be uncorrect, our informant having mistaken the Straggler for that craft. The Danzig we learn by telegram, left Dunedin on Tuesday the 23rd July. J