EVENING SITTING.

Southland Times, Issue 678, 3 June 1867, Page 3

EVENING SITTING.

The Council met at 7 p.m., when the following members were present : — The Speaker, Messrs Blacklock, Armstrong, Johnston, Swale, Lumsden, Clark, Clerke, Cowan, Howell, Ross, Toshack, Wood, Boyd, -and Dra Hodgkinson and Menzies. r Mr Clerke stated that up to the present time he had not been able to form an Executive. He would therefore | move that the business of the House be I adjourned till' Monday evening, at 7 o'clock, when he hoped to be in a position to make a statement. Seconded by Mr Wood. Dr Hodgkinson would point out that it was a great inconvenience to members to be put of in that way ; what were they to expect from such men if ever they succeeded in forming an Executive ? It was altogether a very extraordinary proceeding. Mr Cowan said that, according to precedent, it was customary forthe members of the "Government to hold office till their successors had been appointed. There were some Bills on the order paper which could be carried to a final settlement. He would ask the Provincial Treasurer if he would carry on the business as far as could be done. ' Mr Blacklock said it was quite unusual for an Executive to carry on any business after they had resigned, and he declined to do so at present. The motion for adjournment was then put and carried.

{ Captain Turnbull, who haa recently visitfod th* 1 southern coast, bus supplied tho " Wcjjt Goa»fc | Titnus " with the follcvinj particu! art re peeting the HaasS River and district. Sparsely populated before he arrived, the Haftst district gained nothing in thia respect by the arrival of the Tasmanian Maid, as that vessel carried avray nearly eighty miners and others, and it is estimated that tho airnber of ' pa-pplo" - left behind do uot oxcecd threo hundred. A3 it stands at present, HaistTown consists cf two- stores, two ptiblic houses, two doctor's shops, , aa I a shoamaker'a establishment, the number of reaideat* bein*} eleven males and three females. Another small town, (Soinprising- seven stores and shanties in** habited by eight men and four women, haa been , built at the South Beach digging's, which at present employ about one hundred men of whom there is scarcely one but is getting moro or let* gold. A few of the claims have yielded exceedingly well, and even now there are a few that pay £2 a day'per man, and will not be worked out for some weeks to come. The majority of tha miners, however, are not making more than tucker and small wages. A couple of milea further south a township - was some few week* ago laid out upon the bank of the Okuri Eirer, but albeit the situation is delightful, and infinitely preferable to the Haast, it found, no favor, as not a solitary store is standing there. There was a time when undisputed possession of the place was held by Mr Cleave, who brought a stock of goods there from Invercargill in th* cutter Fanny, but he at last departed with th* remnant of his stock in trade, and accompanied by fourteen diggers, started in a large aurf-boat for Big Bay, intending to give that part of th* coast a good prospecting. At present, a partgrrf^ surveyors, who are track-cutting, reis** on the banks ofthe Oka*- -■■■'' -Xton toe about thirty diggers^ employed at the little patch of -workings situated on the beach, about a mil* north of the Haast, and some few of them hay* realised very handsomely out of the claims. Th* ground is, however, extremely patchy and uncertain, as one or two claims have, and indeed still are, yielding at the rate of £200 per month, whilst the ground adjoining them scarcely pay* for working. A couple of stores, pretty well stocked, are the most prominent objects at th* North Beach encampment. - '