The Southland Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1869.

Southland Times, Issue 1178, 18 June 1869, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1869.

The telegraphic news from Wellington, published in our other columns, is more than ordinarily interesting. The debate is proceeding with undiminished spirit and the utmost strength of both sides will be put forth. The Staffobd party assert that they will have a majority, but we should imagine that it will be so, small as almost to necessitate an appeal to the country. Indeed, it is highly desirable that a dissolution should take place, because both parties are so evenly balanced in the House as to almost prevent the business of the country being proceeded with in a rigorous manner. "We are inclined to think that the question of Separation will again be raised, and it is not at all improbable that it will command greater attention than hitherto. There is considerable attraction in the idea of one strong province for the Middle Island, which would absorb the five provinces at present existing. This plan would be beneficial in more ways than one. It would, we need hardly say, confine the Native question to the North Island, and thus leavefree the revenue of the Middle Island to be devoted to its legitimate purposes — immigration and public works. Economy would also be obtained by this measure, because instead of five, tSere would only be one Government tomain :>•. in. It iscontenderl that the resources of tlie .North Island are sufficient to defray the expenses of the war. It is certainly manifestly unfair to suppose that we will tamely submit

always to be drained of our very lifeblood to support an inefficiently conducted and costly war. Is it to be supposed that if the burdens of the war fell solely on the Northern colonists that • they would have permitted Te Kooti to be at large so long ; or, as a northern paper stated the other day, allowed Hauhau murderers — well known as sueh — to return to European settlements without being apprehended. .It appears to us that there is too much leniency shown to the Maories. They occupy the greater portion of the Northern Island — the most fertile parts — without molestation, although it is pretty well known that they are geaerally disaffected. "Why not take their lands from them, and sell them to defray ! the expenses of the war. It would be cheaper almost to transport every rebel to the Auckland Islands, and make them work for their living, than to hunt them from place to place, killing a few here and there, and entailing enormous expense upon the colonists of the Middle Island. If there is not some change from the present state of things, tbe country will retrograde rapidly, and no one will think of coming to a place so exceptionally governed as New Zealand. What is required is for the people to take an interest in the principal events which agitate the colony at the present moment — to evince a determination to put % stop to the continual drain on our resources, in putting down a war that the Imperial Government is bound to see suppressed. A dissolution, by placing in the hands of the elector the right of selecting candidates, pledged to support such a course, will greatly conduce to general prosperity.

The whole of the butchers in town publish in our other columns thia morning a scale of prices for the different joints and cuts of beef and mutton, which shows that a very markedreduction has been made all round. This will no doubt be good news for many a family during those dull times, and Mr Saunders deserves credit for being the first to take a step in the right direction. A correspondent of the ' Timaru Herald' contradicts entirely the statement lately published in that journal, to the effect that the Maoris at Temuka had gone over to Hauhauism, and were meditating an attack on the European residents in the district. He says that, having been present in the Maori church during the performance of their religious services, he is able to state positively that this is not the case, the form of worship adopted by them being that of the Church of England. He also asserts that the reported turn-out of the Volunteers to resist an expected attack by the Maoris, is wholly a canard. According to the ' West Coast Times,' there is every pruuauuiby xrf-cnrecu Btgam cotniuunicartwn between Queensland, Sydney, and New Zealand ports being shortly established. Captain Frederick EL. Troughton, the general manager of the Australasian Steam Navigation Company — the oldest and wealthiest company on this side of the line — is now visiting the various Wow Zealand ports, making the necessary preliminary enquiries and arrangements preparatory to the steamers of that company entering upon what, we believe, will ultimately prove a very lucrative trade. Whether the directors of the company finally determine upon extending their lines to New Zealand, will, we presume, depend upon the tenor of Captain Troughton's report. The ' Daily Times "of the 13th inst., says : — " Mohikinui, whose once busy streets are said to be now thickly grown over with grass, is likely to be restored to its former prosperity. A ru<h is reported to have taken place in the neighborhood, prospects of from one to four pennyweights to the dish having been obtained. The ' We^ngton Independent ' remarks, as a singular coincidence, that the 1 3th of February, on which the Blue Jacket sailed from Lyttelton for London, was also the day on which the ship St. Vincent, which was lost, with 18 lives, in Palliser Bay, sailed from Welliagton ior Lyttelton. At the Resident Magistrate's Court, on Monday last, 14th inst., J. Bain sued C. Froggatt for damages to the amount of £21, alleged to be sustained through defendant cutting down certain trees on the property of plaintiff. The treeß plaintiff valued at £1 each, and 16 were cut down. The balance, £5, he estimated as the cost of removing the rubbish caused by falling and cutting up the timber. For the defence it was shown that the trees cut down had been growing close to a surveyed Government road, the timber on which defendant had obtained the right to cut, to get at timber on sections of his own, and it was contended that the men set to cut the trees in the line of road, had infringed on plaintiff's land only by accident, the said road line having been marked off on one side only, and that not the side next Bain's property, It was further contended, witnesses swearing to that effect, that half-a-crown each was the full value of the trees cut. The plaintiff, however, grounded his estimate of their value, not on their wort a as timber, but as forming part of a belt he intended to leave standing for shelter to his property. After bearing the evidence on both sides, carefully, judgment was given for plaintiff for £12 — fifteen shillings a tree — and costs, L 4 10s. His Excellency the Governor's capabilities as a writer are commented on by the ' Wellington Independent' in terras the reverse of complimentary. In an article on the correspondence which has lately passed between His Excellency and the Colonial Office, it remarks : — " Sir George Bowen is the prosiest of writers, and never fairly grapples with the questions he has to discuss. He is a mere nonentity, who has continually the fear of the Colonial Office before his eyes on the one hand, and of his Responsible Advisers on the other. His chief object in life seems to be to evade all responsibility whatsoever, and bo to act as to secure the greatest possible amount of ease and tranquility which it is possible for his position to afford.

The ' Daily Times' of the 12th inst., says : — " The petition from the inhabitants of the Buller district, praying for the separation of the district from the province of Nelson and its erection into a county, was presented to the House of Representatives by Mr Stafford on the 4th inst. The number of signatures was 3000, occupying paper to the length of 32 yards. Parties engaged in quartz mining will do well to note the lesson contained in the following paragraph from a late issue of the ' Southern Cross' : — " We have been informed that the commander of, one of the vessels trading out of this port, on the occasion of a recent trip to San Francisco, took with him a small parcel of quartz taken without prejudice from a quantity which had been tested at the Thames by some of the machinery there, and found to yield nil or very little more. He had the sample crushed at San Francisco, and treated by the dry process, when it produced gold at the rate of 35 ounces to the ton ! So much for the comparative value of the two methods of extracting the metal. There can be very little doubt but that by the imperfect system of crushing, and the faulty plans in operation for bringing the whole mass into contact with the quicksilver, a startling percentage of gold is carried out into the ' tailings.' In the Californian operation, per contra, the stone i 9 ground to an impalpable powder, and proper means being- adopted to bring the whole of the material into contact with the mercury by literally shaking the mass up into a kind of dough, it is impossible for any particles of gold to escape. * We understand that a meeting, in connection with the annexation question, was held at the Prince of Wales Hotel, on Wednesday, the 16th inst. The press was not invited, consequently we are unable to state what occurred. From a northern contemporary we learn that the Wreck Eecovery Company established in Wellington some months ago, will make an attempt in a few days to raiae the s.s. Taranaki. j The four pontoons by means of which this ] result is to be accomplished, are now almost completed, and as soon as they are ready the Lady Bird,with the necessary men and appliances, will proceed to the spot where the Taranaki lies submerged, and a vigorous attempt will be made to raise the latter vessel. The ' Otago Timeß ' says :— " In the House of Representatives on the 4th instant, a Reporting Debates Committee was, on the motion of Mr W. H. Harrison, appointed. Mr Harrison, in moving the resolution, remarked that it would be advisable to put a stop to the practice so prevalent among members last session of making extensive corrections to their speeches ; bo as, in fact, to report their own speeches. From a table showing the immigration and emigration to and from New Zjaland during the year 1868, the Wellington Independent complies the following statistics : — Auckland — Immigration, 1164 ; emigration, 877. Taranki — Immigration is nil, wbilejemigration is represeuted by 5. Wellington — Immigration, 940 ; emigration, 592. Hawke's Bay — Immigration, 31 ; emigration, 9. Nelson — Immigration, 335 ; emigration, 173. Marlborough — Immigration, 8 ; emigration, 7. Canterbury — Immigration, 1071 ; emigration, 355. Westland — Immigration, 1834 ; emigration, 3108 . Otago — Immigration, 2919 ; emigration, 1487. Southland — Immigration, 421 ; emigration, 250 ? The total net excesss of , immigration over emigratifln is 860. Of a total immigntinn f-0— «U ports ot 8723, 4847 came from the Australian Colonies while the return tide was 6519. The emigration to all other parts was only 1344. A peculiarity of the Wesland returs is the exceedingly large proportion of adult males, and the comparatively few women and children, and all from Australia. In an article commenting on the loss of the Blue Jacket, the Lyttelton Times says : — An impression prevails very generally that it is to be attributed to the flax she had on board. Tbough we can understand how this impression arose, we are at a loss to account for the ready credence it received among men whose experience and natural intelligence ought to have made them pause", at least, before arriving at sech a conclusion. In Captain White's narrative no conjecture is hazarded as to the origin of the fire and the remark that it is supposed to have arisen from damp wool is likely enough to be true, when we take all the circumstances into consideration: At all events, prudence suggests that the public should wait for further intelligence before they attribute the fire to the flax which the ill-fated vessel carried.