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Southland Times, Issue 1047, 30 October 1868, Page 2

We would direct attention to the sale by j auction, of the Pilot Cutter, advertised to take place this day at half-past 11 o'clock, by Mr H. E. Osborne. Particulars will be found in our advertising columns. The 'Wellington lndependent,' October, 20th, says : — " In the Legislative Council, on Thursday, Major Richardson, in a long and able speech, proved to demonstration — Ist, that the Imperial Government, from the Treaty of Waitangi to the year 1864, claimed the exclusive control of native affairs ; 2nd, that when in that year it nominally handed over those affairs to colonial responsibility and control, it not only retained exclusive direction of military operations, but prevented $he policy which had been inaugurated by the Colonial Ministry from being carried out ; and 3rd, that when Mr Weld inaugurated the 'self-reliant' policy, to prevent for the future such disastrous control and interference, it was with a full reliance on the generosity of the British nation, and the cordial co-operation of the Imperial Government. The ' Taranaki Herald' of October 10, publishes a letter from Mr Watson, in which he says that the Kaitake rangeß resemble the Thames ranges in every respect, and that the quartz taken from them is the same. There is an agitation going on in Victoria for the purpose of raising £20,000 as a testimonial to the Hon Mr Grant, Minister of Lands, as a recognition of the able efforts he has made during the whole of his. political career extending over twelve years, to liberalise the Land Laws. ; We learn from the Victorian paper£„{hat the fruit season is likely to be one okgtgat,abundance. It is said the orchards round Melbourne and Geelong give great promise of excellent yields, the gooseberry, cherry, damson, plumj'^nd quince trees more particularly, showing well. A singular dream is recorded by the Albury Banner : — " It will be remembered that a man named William Piall was accidentally drowned in the Murray at Thologolong, a mouth or two ago. His body was not recovered at the time, but what is left of it appears to have been found lying upon a log in such a position as to indicate that it had been floated there by the late rise in the river. The following singular circumstance connected with the finding of the body has been communicated to us by Mr North, the magistrate who held the inquiry over the body : — Some time after the maD Piall had been drowned, a boundary-rider on the station, named Greenwood, dreamt that he was fishing in the Murray, and that the deceased appeared to him on the bank of the river, and asked what he was doing there. Greenwood, in his dream, replied, ' Oh, lam fishing for your body, as I hear you are drowned.' ' You needen't look there,' said the shade of the drowned man, 'my body is lying on yon log,' at the same time pointing towards the place where the body has now been recovered. Greenwood told his dream to several persons some time before the body was found. The story was laughed at, but nevertheless a Bearch was made round the spot indicated by Greenwood, and the body has since been found there." A fatal explosion of nitro-glycerine occurred at Nangyles Mine, Cornwall, lately. A labourer named Davey let a can, containing a small quantity of the liquid, fall out of his hand on to a bar of iron. There was an immediate explosion, and Davey was killed ; another man was thrown ; a considerable distance, and was "much cut and bruised. Silver in quantity appears to be found with the gold at the Thames diggings. ThS '*■ Auck. land Herald' informs us that a sample?^ ten ounces of pure silver extracted from thirty ounces I of Thames gold, by Mr Samuel Wells, a very old colonist, refiner,, of Williamson-street, Grahams Town ; and also a cake of pure silver from a much larger parcel of gold. :

A despatch has been received by the Gjvernor I from Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State ; for the Colonies, in which he requests him to draw the attention of Superintendents to certain regulations for their guidance and to inform them that it will not be possible for the Secretary of State to take notice of communications forwarded to him otherwise than through the Governor. It says :— " Persons hi a colony, whether public functionaries or private individuals, who have any representations of a public or private nature to make to Government, should address them to the Governor of the colony ; or, if the colony be a dependency of a Governor-in-Chief, then to the officer in the immediate Administration of its Government. The duty of the Governor or^an administrater of the colony is to receive and act upon each such representation as public expediency or justice to the individual may appear to require, with the assistance in certain cases of his Executive Council ; and if he doubts what steps to take thereupon, or if public advantage may appear to require it, to consult or report to the Secretary of State. Every individual has, however, the right to address the Secretary of 3tate, if he thinks proper. But in this case he must transmit such communication, unsealed, and in triplicate, to the Governor or Administrator, applying to him to forward it in due course to. the Secretary of State." The 'New Zealand Advertiser' of 21st October^ states that information has been received of the wreck of the steamer Nelson, belonging to Messrs Edwards and Co, Nelson, at West Wanganui. The ninety-ninth anniversary of the discovery of New Zealand occurred on Thursday, the Bth October, Captain Cook having landed on • these shores on the Bth October, 1769. The « Taranaki Herald,' suggests that as the next .anniversary will be the centennial, some general demonstration should be got up to celebrate it throughout the colony, The Auckland papers state that Messrs Barron, j Thompson and Co, of Otago, have arranged with the Native owners for the lease of country lying between Tarawera Lake and Te Awa-o-to-Atua, running past Mount Edgecumbe. The run is about eighteen miles in length, containing probably seventy or eighty thousand acres, and the whole of one side is bounded by the Tarawera river. The term of the run is for twenty-seven years. Mr Richard Hogan, postmaster at Havelock, Hawke's Bay, has been committed to take his trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court at Napier, on a charge of embezzling a letter containing money. It would appear that there is a prospect of the i Marlborough goldfieldß again proving attractive. It is stated by the local paper that the quartz reef in the Kaituna from which rich stone has been taken, is but one of a series, which exist all along that side of the range, on the other side of of which is the well-known reef called 'Greenlaw's.' Specimens from another reef at Deep Creek have been tested, and it is said that if the reef is as rich as it portends, thirty ounces to the ton will be the result. Diggers have already arrived at the spot — report says seventy ; and that 300 moie are expected to arrive in Havelock from the West Coast. At a meeting held in Nelson,- on the 12th October, for the purpose of giving Mr Curtis one of the city members an opportunity of giving an account of his stewardship during the- session of the Assembly, the * following r esolution was passed, viz : — " That this meeting thoroughly endorses the suggestion of Mr Curtis with regard to the necessity for a dissolution of the Assembly before the next meeting of Parliament." The Wellington 'Advertiser,' of the 30th ultimo, has' an article in which the financial state of all the provinces of the colony is passed in review, and the following resume is given : — " The only provinces iv the country that can exist as they are, are Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago, and this is solely in consequence of the existence of a land-fund, or the non-borrowing of money, as in the case of Nelson. That is the question, then, for the constituencies ? Are the emasculated provinces to be kept up as provinces, for the benefit of officials, with nothing to do but draw their monstrous salaries ? Or is the Government of the country, with respect to local affairs, to gradually lapse into the hands of the people, who best know their own wants, and are more capable of supplying them than any Provincial Government can possibly be ? This is the question on which the election, if a dissolution ensues, will have to be fought, and we give it concisely in three words — the ' People against Superintendentalism.' " The ' Wellington Independent,' 10th October, says : — " Mr Marchant ; City Surveyor, was brutally assaulted on Thursday afternoon last, while in the performance of his duties on the Adelaide Road. While measuring some contract work, a man by the name of Piacher, one of the contractors, struck him a violent blow on the head with a stick or bludgeon with which he had previously armed himself. Mr Marchant was conveyed bleeding and almost insensible to his home, and in the meantime the ruffian made his escape, and is supposed to be hiding in the bush. A warrant has been issued for his apprehension. We are happy to hear that, though Mr Marchant has since the assault been confined to bed, he is slowly recovering. The man Pincher, was arrested two days after the assault was committed. The ' Lyttelton Times,' 19th inst., says :— " At 12.13 last night a shock of earthquake was experienced in Christchurch. The vibration was not very violent, but it was sufficient to cause the lamps in this office to swing to and fro for a considerable time. The total number of steamers lost on the New Zealand cost since 1856 is 34. The Grey River Coal Company "are pushing on vigorously with the construction of the railway to their mine. Two miles of the proposed line have been cleared a chain wide. The ' Daily Times,' 24th inst says : — * It is worth knowing, during a time of general depression, that the amounts brought down by the Otago Gold Escorts have steadily increased for several months past. In July, the quantity brought down wa s 95230z. ; iv August, 11,36502. ; in September, 15,0360z.; and in October, 15,242 ;z. The Escort returns for October, 1867, amounted to 12,9840z. ; showing an increase during the corresponding month in .th>> present year of 22580z. The nearest appro:, jh this year to the present month's Escort was in March, when the quantity was 13,3160z. The total quantity of gold exported in 1867 amounted to 149,3900z.

The following aocoanfc of a new method of growing potatoes in a small spaoe, is given by the Louisville Democrat : —Irish potatoes in great quantities can be grown by anyone having four . by eight feet of spare ground in their back-yard. . The process is simple* Procure a orate, aiioh as ohinaware are imported in. and place in the bottom about six inches of straw, then more potatoes, and so on, antil the crate is fulL Wet the contents of the crate thoroughly, and every evening afterwards throw a bucketful of water over the top surface. The potatoes will grow and produce abundantly. When they are large enough to be eaten, they can be easily drawn out, and will be found to be perfectly white, with a very thin skin. The writer of this article has seen them cultivated successfully on board an ocean steamer. A correspondent of the 'Nelson Evening I Mail* gives the following description of the mode in which the Hau-haus get their information : — ' The way they obtain information of all that is , going on in an enemy's camp is simply by rigging J up one or more spies in the form of the ti-tree, . which grows abundantly amongst the fern and "• toi-toi ; these in the night take their stations "sufficiently near the enemy to be able to observe all that is passing in and about the camp, whilst other scouts are wriggling underneath the fern and scrub just like so many rats, always careful not to disturb the tops of the fern and scrub, in "order'toTget information from the ti-tree spy or spies, and continually carrying back to their warriors news of all that is going on. The ' Wanganui Times' correspondent writing from Patea on the Bth inst. : — On Wednesday morning Tito Kowaru had his camp at Otia, from two and a half to three miles this side of the Patea river. From Patea we could see the camp with the naked eye. One of the tents was particularly conspicuous with a sentry posted in front and other sentries at various posts around the camp, which appeared to be erected in the form of a square. The appearance of the camp took us all by surprise, and all hands turned out to have a look at it. The authorities at length decided upon having a long bowl at Tito Kowaru with the Armstrong guns. After mature consideration one gun was advanced to what was considered to be a commanding position, and after considerable difficulty the weapon was loaded and the fuse adjusted for something about 2000 yards. Then the sergeant, in a most masterly way, cried out—' At 2000 yards, make rea( iy — fi re i> Whiz, whiz, went the. shell, but unfortunately before it reached Tito Kowaru's camp, it exploded in the air ; bat mind you, sir, smoke got within nearly a mile of him. The second shot was adjusted for about 3,800 yards, went off booming, exploded in the clouds, but evidently made some impression upon the enemy, who at once commenced to raise a signal smoke ai'ound their camp. During the afternoon Tito j Kowaru's conspicuous tent was prudently shifted to another position. Numbers of people are taking up land under the Mining Regulations of Otago. The regulations are said to give general satisfaction.