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Southland Times, Issue 1030, 30 September 1868, Page 2

We are requested to caU the attention of our readers to sundry alterations in the time of sailing of the P:N.Z. and Ajft. JL Go's, steamers. It will be observed that the Tararua is.to leave for Northern Ports on the Ist .pros,, and the Lord Ashley, with the Panama Mails^'on the 3rd. The Otago, also for Northern Ports/sails on the 6th, and the .Eangitoto, with mails via Suez, for Melbourne on the same day. q?o-morrow wiU^be observed as a holiday,, being the half-yearly Fast-day of the Presbyterian body. As is customary business will be suspended at; the Government Offices, the Banks, and throughout the town generally. We understand that in order to place their j extensive sale of furniture, &c, at the Bluff, on Friday, next, within reach of town buyers, Messrs^ A. J. Smith and Co., the auctioneers, have made "arrangements for running a special train at a suitable hour. Tickets for r the trip, are to be-obtained--at the, Auction; Mart, < and no doubt many will avail themselves of the oppoj?tunitv to make a pleasure excursion. - i

There was no appearance of the Panama matt at Wellington wheu the Telegraph Office closed last night. We learn that the Penny Readings perform manoes on Friday last for the benefit of the Hospital, resulted in the very handsome sum of £15 6s 6d being handed over to the Treasurer of 1 that institution. i • We are requested to draw attention to an ( alteration in the date of Mr Osborne's furniture aala. In consequence of Thursday being the Presbyterian Fast Day, the sale will not take place Until Saturday, Srd October, at 12 o'clock. Messrs A. J. Smyth and Oo.'s Bale of new teas ex Coryphmus wa9 advertised for yesterday by a local journal by mutate. The sale takes place this day, Wednesday, at 12 q'olock. , ; . i A meeting of the promoters of the proposed ; exhibition connected with the Southland Art Union was held yesterday, when it was arranged :• that the Exhibition should be opened on the 23rd of November next— in Invercargill. : We would remind the subscribers to the Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association that the annual meeting will be held at the Prince of Wales Hotel, this day, at 3 o'clock. The business is important, .and ifr is to be hoped the attendance will be large. - The man Dickson who was brought up before the Resident Magistrate on Saturday, charged with violently beating his wife, was again placed in the dock on Monday last. Evidence was taken as to the nature of the assault. The Commissioner of Police asked for a further remand of the prisoner on the ground that the woman Alice Dickson was still so ill that it was impossible to bring her into Court to give evidence. The prisoner was accordingly remanded. The price of coai at Newcastle has been reduced to 8s 6d per ton, free on board. This is a lower price than as ever before been quoted. The New South Wales Government has intimated to that of New Zealand that !or the future the Panama steamers must call at the Say of Islands instead of Wellington, as by that means the delivery of the mails . would be expedited two or three days. The 'Australian Medical Journal' for September contains,' in addition to several articles of great interest to the profession, two very important papers on diphtheria. Dr Bay, of Q-eelong, confirms Mr -Blair's view- that it is, in the first instance at any rate, a local disease. Dr Thomas gives a brief history of diphtheria. So far from being of modern origin, it is described by Hippocrates Ceasus and; Artxeus. . It was known in Holland, Basic, Paris, and Spain in the latter portions of the sixteenth century, and was, very fatal in England about 1749. From that date it did not revisit the mother-country until 1858. Dr Thomas found great good from the administration of sulphurous acid; A goldfield has been discovered at Jupiter Creek, near Echunga, South Australia, which was expected to turn out well. From Tasmania we learn that the Launceston and Western Railway was being vigorously proceeded with. Upwards of 100 men were employed upon the cutting at Jingler's Valley, and fifty-two jmileB i of fencing had been contracted for. A project for estabiislung a olotn manufactory atrLauni ceston had been favorably received. A deputation of newspaper proprietors had waited upon the Colonial Treasurer to protest against the proposed postage rate upon newspapers, when the (3-overnment ultimately consented to abolish the postage, except in the ease of newspapers , being sent out of the colony. Speaking of the appointment of Mr Ducane as the new governor of Tasmania, and of the services of the departing G-overnor, the 'Hobarton Mercury ' remarks as follows : — " It would ; have been impossible for any one, placed as His Excellency has been in very difficult and perplexing situations, to have discharged the duties of his position with a more becoming consideration of the responsibilities which his office threw upon him. Courteous as a gentleman in His intercourse with all who came into contact with him, and firm, as well as . impartial, in the administration of his government, Colonel Browne has earned, fdr himself the respect, as. well aa gratitude, of every right-thinking member of Taamanian society. We did indulge, the hope that, in consideration of Ms great merits, he might have been allowed to remain in Tasmania for some years longer; but it is to be hoped those merits will meet even a better and more substantial recognition by his promotion in a service to which he is an ornament. There is not a person whose opinions or respect art; worth a moment's consideration who will not regrets the departure of Colonel Browne and his family." Two gentlemen, who of late have travelled much in Victoria, state that the dying-out of the eucalypti is " progressing at a rate that would scarcely be credited by those that were not made aware of the fact from actual observation. They say that in some parts of that colony to the northeast there are belts of timber of many miles in breadth, in which all the trees, without any exception, are decaying ; and that any person getting upon the line of this decaying vegetation would suppose he was looking at an English scene . in winter, the . branches being in almost every instance completely divested of foliage. There is little doubt (says the 'Ararat Advertiser') but the course of a few years will have the effect of so thinning our forests, if- this dying- out of our timber continues, that it will have a perceptible influence on the climate. ~ To. the north, some of the squatters complain much of the decay of these trees, and they perceive, or imagine they perceive, a decided difference in the climate within the last few years. ... " A boiler explosion, Which most" providentially, and indeed, almost miraculously, was unattended by fatal rasults (states the 5 Eyneton Guardian,' Victoria), occurred at the village of Metcalfe on "Wednesday. Mr Charles Young was advertised to sell by auction the sawmill, plant, and machinery of Mr Montgomery, and amongst, the : machinery was an old eight-horse power portable steam engine. Before the sale commenced, steam was got up with a view of exhibiting the capacity of the Some thirty persons were standing around, and we believe the driver was once or twice cautioned that, he was working the engine beyond its. power. The result proved that the. warning was not unnecessary, although it was unheeded, for with a terrific explosion the boiler burst. The consternation of su'.-U of the bystanders as were not prostrated by t,:ie shock may "be more readily imagined than Ui.-veribed. Numbers'of persons came running l.i tue scene, and it was of course fully believed iimt serious, if not fatal results must have ensued* from the explosion. Upon examination,, however, it appeared that although several were injured rather severely, none of the injuries were such as to occasion alarm: