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Southland Times, Issue 693, 8 July 1867, Page 2

Public opinion appears to be unmistakeably in favor of the railway scheme. On last Saturday numbers of people were prevented frcm signing the petition to His Excellency owing to the limited size of the sheet which contained the address. We understand that all the leading citizens have formed themselves into an electoral association to return no candidates but those pledged to the construction of railways. Subscriptions, it is expected, will liberally "flow iv. -. The Dunstan correspondent of the < c Daily Times," writing under date Ist July, says : — "A very favorable change, has taken place in the : weather during the last few days ; a succession of warm showers and sunshine has caused a thaw in the low lyine country ; the -water races are again running in their supply of the needful element, and the sluicing parties have been enabled to resume operations. The river has been but little affected by the change — a rise of a foot is all that has trken place. This is a very fortunate "circumstance, as, had a rise occurred, ; many hundreds J of men who are making capital : wages on the beaches would have been knocked off work- as it is, ali interests have been advantaged. There is quite a rage for river workings, at present. Miners from all parts are flocking to ithe banks of the Molyneux ; and lam pleased to relate that, as a rule, success has been very general, while many parties have succeeded beyond their most sanguine expectations." ~ We" notice, by Tasmanian papers, that "Mr Ramsbottom has sent down to Hobarc Town a male trout, which, though only two years old, measured nineteen inches in length and weighed jthree and a half-pounds. The male trout are in the habit, during the spawning season, of fighting rwith much ferocity, and from several marks of injuries upon the specimen here spoken of, Messrs AHport and Ramshottom entertain no doubt that it was in one of these contests that it lost its life. The fish was found dead in the: River Plenty, close to its junction with the Derwent ; and as its size is believed to be unprecedented for its age, it will be preserved in spirits as an object of interest to naturalists and pisciculturists." The Ary us of the 26th ult, says :— Three pictures by M. Chevalier are now on view in Messrs Wilkie and Webster's window, in Collins street. They are all. sketches of New . Zealand scenery. The largest, an oil-painting, is a view of Akaroa Bay ; but, although minutely finished, and showing clearness of detail and great firmness of touch, is too harsh in coloring and too crude in tone to be placed in rank of M. Chevalier's productions. The other two are water colorsEagle's Nest,' and ' Pueriia River.' The latter is delicately finished, and presents some fine rendering hf sT-adow ".- "*«* *w < 33,» s ia' a West,' is undoubtedly the finest picture of the three. It r epresents a bare, jagged rock, upshooting into a mass of lowering, storm-driven cloud ; below, a wild. mountain path, hemmed in with dusky .firs,, and shadowed by the bending branches of trees, winds along the edge of a precipice until it is lost to sight behind the pinnacle from which the picture takes its name. This little work, though unpretantious in size and appearance, is finely i executed. A bold bredth of style and * breeziness' of*i|iandling suited to the subject replaces the stippling which. M. Chevalier sometimes has recourse to. Three pictures have been painted on commisßon,".