The Southland Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1867.

Southland Times, Issue 741, 25 October 1867, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1867.

In our other columns we republish from the Oamaru Times a -very fair criticism on the letter of the Her "Mr Simmons, which appeared lately in thiß journal. We refrain from making any comments either way, believing that ifc is not the province of the journalist to criticise or encourage polemical controversy. It is but justice, however, that both sides of the topic under discussion, ehould be fairly laid before our readers. ; The Canterbury Press states that fifteen white swans were seen at the bar of the salt-water creek on Wednesday morning last. On being disturbed they took to the wing, and flew off towards Kaiapoi. TMb is the firat time that these birds bate made their appearance in tha ditttriot.

The first steamer built in Southland, the Waihopai, will be launched into her future element on Saturday (tomorrow), if all goes well. The occasion of the transit of the Waihopai from the place where ehe was built, at the comer of Tay and Conon streets, to the water's edge at the Jetty, will be fresh in the recollection of our*eadera. It seemed at that time a doubtful question she would ever be got afloat, but Mr PuettelkW, her owner, as we have frequently ■iHadioccasion to remark, has shown himself to be possessed of more than ordinary enterprise and perseverance — not easily daunted ; and after Burmounting numerous obstacles, he has now the satisfaction of seeing hjs_vessel ready to assume her position in the water and in the commerce of the colony. It is also satisfactory to know that there is every prospect of the little steamer being folly and profitably employed. She is to be laid on as a regular trader* between the Ports of Invercargill, Riverfcon, and Dunedin. Besidei carrying cargo for the merchants at thoße ports, her agents, Messrs Nye and Co. have already entered into arrangements with several Dunedin houses, to carry cargo for 'the Lakes at through rites, and we are as3ured this can be done at a much cheaper rate than that now paid to carrier! from Dunedin direct, in fact it is said that the cost of carriage of goods from. Dunedin to the Lake Goldfields will be lessened by five or six pounds per ton, by this" route. This of itself should do much good to Invercargill, by giving employment to & greater number of teams betwpMivbere and Kingston. The Waihopai has Deen fitted with twin screws driven by high pressure engines, manufactured in Melbourne, of 20-horse power, nominal, but capable of working up to a much higher pressure. Her carrying capacity is about sixty tons. She has been placed in command of Capt. Charles Fraser, formerly of the Steamers Guiding Star, and Southland, a gentleman long and favorably known in the coasting trade. It is intended to take her a trial trip down the river on Monday, and on Wednesday or Thursday, she will start on her first voyage, going round to Dunedin for a cargo which there awaits her. May success attend her. • The Oddfellows' Annual Ball, which came off last^ftght, was a complete success, notwithstanding the night being a very wet one. The Hall in which it took place — Mr Bellamy's Btore — was tastefully decorated with evergreens, flags, &c. The large company assembled carried on the festivities of the occasion to a very late, or rather to a not very early hour this morning. Pressure of matter precludes a more lengthy notice in this issue. It will be seen from an advertisement in another column, that this journal will, for the future,, be ; occasionally embellished with an illustration. If .pending arrangements can be carried out, one will probably appear about once a month. It will be observed that it is contemplated to insert the first in the Summary for. transmission via Panama, on 2nd November next. We call tha attention of our readers to an advertisement in our other columns, intimating a change of the date on which the Grand Show, of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association wai to have come off. Instead of taking place on the 9th January next, the Show will be held on Thursday, the 19th of December, of the current year. This alteration has been necessitated through the Otagb Association having fixed the date for their Exhibition for the same day as was first fixed for the Southland Society's, and as it was felt to be very undesirable that both Shows should come off on the same day, or even in the same week — as a number of exhibitors may wish to attend, or compete at both — the committee have wisely changed the date to a sufficient distance from that of the other society's meeting. They have also done wisely-^-while paying the older Association the compliment: of giving place to it — in having their own competition first, as the decision of ihe judges here will be a good basis on which owners may decide as to what animals, implements, or other exhibits, might be sent round to Dunedin with a fair prospect of being successful there. The risk and expense of such a journey are of too serious consideration to be lightly entered upon, by owners of valuable stock especially, and it is well they should have the benefit of the impartial opinion of men competent to give . one, rather than that they should act entirely on their own judgment, which must be partial. The steamer Auckland has taken 407 ounces of gold from Auckland to Sydney, being the first export of the product of the Thames reefs. 332 ounces were on account of the Bank of New Zealand, and 85 ounces the Union Bank of Australia. The same steamer also took a shipment of 171 bundles of flax. From tlio accounts in the Westland papers, extraordinary- and most inclement weather seems t) have prevailed at Nelson goldfields laat week, whirlwinds being amongst iho visitations which occurred on the coast to the northward of Westport. One of these phenomena swept across, the newly-established town of Mohikinui on Wednesday last, and almost entirely destroyed it, scarcely a solitary habitation being left standing. Tents were ilifted bodily and carried miles away into the bush, and the heavier buildings of iron and timber were torn piecemeal, and the . fragments blown; about in all directions. One heavy beam was whirled from the town to the river and fell on board the steamer Murray, staving her deck in. Several .incidents ocourred and would -have been ludicrous,; but for the distressing circumstances attending them. Those who witnessed the effects of this squall declares that nothing like it ooourred on the coast before,

A return laid upon the table of the House of Representatives some time ago snows that the penalties inflicted on the Company for the late arrival of the Panama steamers at . "Wellington up to the end of July, amounted to £545. The Emigration Commissioner! of British Columbia report 3953 acres of country land in this colony were sold in the year 1866. In that year about £44,000 were expended in opening and improving roads j 109 mileß of waggon and sleigh road were opened for traffic in the year, and 375 miles of pack trail, making the extent of road open for traffic at the end of the year 560 miles of waggon and sleigh road and 863 miles of pack trail. Above £7000 were expanded on other publio works, among which was a lightship, which has been placed on the south head, at the mouth of the Frazer Biver, and iron buoys marking the channel from the lightship into the" river. It is calculated that British Columbia contains about2Bo,ooo square miles, or 179,200,000 acres, of which, up to October, 1866, only about 60,000 acres were settled by white men. The colony is considerably more than double the size of the United Kingdom. The irregular character of the country, broken up as it is by high and rugged mountain ranges, makes it very difficult of exploration ; but it has been ascertained that besides the valley of the Frazor there is much land available for pasturage on the high plateaus and at the foot of the western slopes of the Kocky Mountains, which form tha eastern boundary of the colony. The Hampden correspondent of the Walkouaiti Herald, writing on Monday last, says : — " The Deep Sea Fishing Company resumed their labors last week. I have seen several very fine fish caught by them, and I have no doubt as the season advances they will not regret their undertaking, as things are looking promising for an ample reward for their outlay. There are still some diggers on the beach here, but they cannot do so well now, as the water is often scarce ; only for that drawback, they say they could make very good wages." At the quarterly meeting of the Christchurch Presbytery, held on the 9th inst., the Key C. Frazer tabled the following notices of motion : — 1. That the time has come when it is expedient that a General Church Fund for the - Presbytery of Canterbury should be formed. 2, That the object of such fund should be the securing of a competent income for the officiating minister of the church, and for extending operations of .a home mission character. 3. That the fund should be under the management of a committee appointed by the Presbytery, and consisting of ministera and laymen, and that officers should consists of a convener, secretary, and treasurer, the two last to be always laymen. 4. That the rules for the guidance of the business be drawn up by a conference of the Presbytery with such committee. 5, That the committe shall consist Of . 6. That the committee be requested to collect statistical information regarding the financial position of the various congregations, the number- \of communicants, contributors and rates of contribution, and lay the same before the ■Presbytery. 7. That the committee consider and report upon the following scheme : — (1.) That the maintenance fund, contributions, and Beat rents of all consenting congregations be paid into a general fund. (2.) That one-half of the remittances from each congregation be remitted quarterly to the minister thereof in part payment of stipend. (3.) That the remaining moiety of the remittances be divded in equal proportions between all the ministers entitled to the benefit of the fund. (4.) ! That ordinary church door collections constitute the special congregational fund for ordinary expenses for supplementing the ministers income, and for other purposes. The following resolution, proposed by Mr Grant, was carried: — "That these resolutions be sent down to deacons' courts and committees of congregations for the purpose of consideration, with instructions to report thereon at the next ordinary meeting of the presbytery." At a public meeting lately held in Canterbury for the purpose of organising an " Agricultural Export Company," so as to prevent the " farming interest of that Province from going to the wall for want of a market at which to dispose of their surplus stock, the Secretary pro. tern. made the following statement : — " As they had of late cultivated to a great extent, a considerable amount of produce was on hand for a market. Private enterprise had failed to remedy existing evils ; and it hadalready been shown that if this company had been in operation previous to last harvest, a vast amount of good would have resulted, for after cultivating and harvesting their grain the farmers had scarcely realised more than 2s 6d per bushelj while if it had been exported, and brought only 6s per bushel, it had been calculated that the sum of £10,000 from profits alone would have been brought into the Province by the crops grown in the neighborhood of Christchurch and Kaiapoi. This was, however, lost for want of an export. If the whole 750,000 bushels of wheat grown in Canterbury had been sold in England in one week, the market would not have been effected to any material extent. Supposing wheat to sell at 6s per bushel, and after deducting expenses the farmer got 4s 6d, the profit of Is 6d would pay well. The company also intended exporting pork, and in the supplying of shipping with mess pork a good profit could be made. The company would be able to give 6d per lb for the pork just killed (the same price at which Sinclair's was bought). Cheese and butter also would be v purchased ; and if such oontracts as supplying the Panama steamers with butter could then be undertaken by the company, the produce <?f the Province would be got

rid of at an advantageous price. The promoters of the company did not wish the whole shares to be taken up by one or two, but wished to see v al. interested." The Auckland Weekly News relates a strange incident, indicative of Maori superstition. It seems that-lately, &% a certain native settlement various articles had been missed ; and at l^p^ the thieving got unbearable, as, awful to teHf^wcT blankets were missed which had once beenused to contain the bones of a half-deified ance'swwi'and which, in consequence, were -l*pued- iu Jnch . thick. In the midst of the disturbance a European, who was residing at the settlement, said that by prophetic power he could tell where the valued blankets were. Clever fellow that he was he made it a condition that, if he told correctly the place, he should get a horse. Certain mysteries were gone through, after which the pakeha announced that the blankets were at the house of a European settler living at some distance from the Kainga." Away went a full taud'oi the Natives, and Bure enough the blankets were found in the house of the settler, who, we believe declared that he had bought them from the prophetic pakeha ! The violation of the tapu, however, was so gross that to plunder the settler's goods would have been but poor titu, so the Maoris took him and his child prisoners. The child still remains in the hands of the Natives, but of course it is quite safe with" them. We have not heard that the Natives have taken any proceedings against the prophet, but we believe, he got the horse in the first instances. The -Legislative Council of New Zealand- at present consists of thirty-six members, and only twenty- six have taken their seats this session. Absence without leave for two successive sessions involves forfeiture of the member's seat, and as several of the present absentees did not attend last session it is probable that after the prorogation their names will be struck off the roll, v. The following return of lands held in the various Provinces of the Colony, under Depasturing Licenses or Leases, and of the rentals payable for the year eudmg December 31st, 1856, wss presented to both Houses of Assembly, by command of His Excellency the Governor. .The amounts marked a refer to timber licenses, while thoße marked 6 arid c refer, respectively, to licenses under the Southland Waste : Lands Act, 1865, and the Otago Land Emulations, 1356 :— : : Province. -Acres.- * B>ents^ J &c.~ Auckland 98,060... £67 16 7 Wellington 148,755... 590 61. Hawke's Bay ......... 297,787... 735.6 4 Nelson.;, v.. A....:.;.. 528,385 ... I(J53' 1 8 Marlborough 1,140,8^0. . . 1713 ,7. : 9 Canterbury.. .5,779,948... 34,637, O 8. Otago ...... ......:i.... 6,125,446... 6339 12 6 „ i , l , f #1,089,285... 10,597 0 5 Southland.... £ e145,500... 844 11 9 Total 15,353,886... £56,578 3 9 The acreage and rents or assessment under license for mineral or other purposes, except for gold mining, were in Auckland, a 450 acres, £15 ; in Nelson, 2238 acres^ £150 15s ; total, 2688 acre^ £165 15s.