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Southland Times, Issue 933, 13 April 1868, Page 3

We learn that the agents of the various steam-vessels calling at Bluff Harbor have recently received notice from the Collector of Customs at that port, that for the future the loading and discharging of their boats on Sunday "will not be allowed, except in the case of contract steamers, bound to time. We understand that the practice hitherto prevailing, of loading and unloading all steamers on Sundays as on other days, has been permitted solely through a desire on the part of the Collector to put no obstacle in the way of vessels entering the port, but rather to offer them every facility and inducement to mate the Bluff a regular port of call, and thus benefit the commerce of the province generally. These Sunday labors must have been a great inconvenience to the Collector, an inconvenience submitted to solely for the public good, and hitherto, we believe, totally unacknowledged by the Government or any one else. It is, therefore, not surprising that the practice is to be discontinued, especially as it is disapproved of by a considerable section of the community. Mr W. S. Maude, Chief Enumerator under the Census Act, has furnished the Hokitika papers with the following statement of the population of the Westland Boroughs: — "The approximate population of t the town of Hokitika is as follows : —Males, 3035; females, 1831.— Total, 4866. Greymouth — Males, 1113 j females, 494. — Total, 1607.— Total in Westland Boroughs, 64-73." Under the head of "Fenianism at Westbury," in Tasmania, the "Cornwall Chronicle" has the following : — " The news of the attempt on the life o£ Prince Alfred created great excitement at Westbury on Tuesday evening. A man named William Lindsay, a Scotchman, from America, who has been in that district some months, made use of some very seditious language at the Westerbury Inn, openly declaring his sympathy with the Fenian .movement, and his approval of the attempt made to assassinate Prince Alfred. He challecged any one present to fight who differ with his opinions, and defied the police to interfere with him. He was arrested by Mr Superintendent Mahoney, and on Wednesday he was brought before Messrs Rodham Douglas and J. P. Jones, charged with making use of language calculated to provoke a breach of the peace. He was convicted on the evidence of Mr Mahoney and others, and bound over to keep the peace for six months, himself in £30 and two sureties in £15 each. The sureties not being forthcoming, he was committed to Launceston Gaol." The census returns show the population in the Hawke's Bay Province to be — Males, 3120 j females, 2055.— T0ta1, 5175. The following is given as the number of buildings and inhabitants in Wellington at the commencement of the current year : — Number of buildings — Inhabited houses, 2068 ; uninhabited houses (including stores and other buildings in which no person sleeps), 135 ; houses building, 36. If umber of persons — Males, 3927 ; females, 3533—7460. Of these there are, under 15 years of age— Males, 1483 ; females, 1542-^-3025. Above 15 years of age — Males, 2444 ; females, 1991 — 4435. Increase since 1864 — In number of houses — 1011, or 9536 per cent ; in number of persons — 2807, or 60"33 per cent. We learn from the "Daily Times" of the 6th inst., that Captain Alexander M'Kinnon, long and favorably known in connection with the coal hulks at Port Chalmers, was a passenger yesterday by the Auckland; he proceeds to Lyttelton, thence overland to catch the Gothenburg, thence to Melbourne and Sydney, en route for Japan. The following are the estimated quantities of ova shipped per Celestial Queen for this Province. Salmon ova, Severn, 113,000; Irish, 50,000; Scotch, 56,000; Wye, 1000. Total, 220,000. Sea trout from the Hodder, 4000; "Salmo umbla,', from Schliersee, Bavaria, 9000; river trout from Lord Essex, 1500. Making a gross tot<d of 234,500 ova, contained in 334 boxes. Mr Kort wright, Her Majesty,s Consul at Philadelphia, in his report which was presented to Parliament in November last, thus speaks of the trade in petroleum : — " The trade in petroleum for 3866 has increased to immense proportions. The principal sources of this extraordinary product seem to be confined chiefly to Venango county in this state (Pennsylvania) and West Virginia ; and large as the trade is, it would be still more extensive were it not for the high prices charged by the railways for its transport to the coast. The price of the oil at the wells is only 2dol (6s 7d) per barrel, hardly remunerative ; whereas the cost of transportation to Philadelphia tnd New York is 4dol (13s 2d), or double its value at the wells, leaving the profits chiefly to the tarrying trade. This anomalous state of things has induced a proposal to be made, which, though feasible, will be attended with great expenditure, viz., to lay a vast oil pipe from the ■wells to the £ea-coat>t ; and so extensively is the article entering into the various branches of manufacture, and co important iB ifc becoming as a substitute for iuel, that, bold as the project is, it is not impossible to be realised." The exports for 1866 he states at 75,000,000 gallons, and the

home consumption 30,000,000 gallons. The value of this annual product he put at £7,263,000 , sterling- Truly, v, gigantic branch of native industry, an I one worthy of a mode of transit ? peculiarly it-* own. '1 he Melbourne " Ago " speaks of an np-oountry L paper, as one whioh "still lingers on, it appears, , but in v huy.-W.-3-ly moribund, condition." The ■ "Ag." quotes the following as the opening senUMioj of a " leading article " in the dying journal : — " Death and decay somehow leave a melancholy impression, even when associated with the most insignificant objects ; and there is a certain amount of pathos even in the gradual , collapse of a bladder which has only just been bounding about in the swelling consciousness of its own bigness and invulnerability.