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Southland Times, Issue 1192, 7 January 1870, Page 2

.*; ,A Provincial Government Gazette, issued on the 31st ult., contains notifications to tho effect that a sitting of the Supreme Court will bo held in Invercargill on the 12<h current j that Andi'ew Kinross, Esq., was appointed a member of the Executive Council on tho 7th ult., and that on tho 23rd ult. Mr John W. Chapman was appointed to be Inspector in charge of the Southland Police. This province has been visited by a remarkably heavy fall of rain, which commenced op. Sunday afternoon and continued almost incessantly until noon on Tuesday. Extensive floods are reported up country, the Oreti in particular being higher than it has been seen for several years. The Director of Meteorological Station informs us that "over 3 inches of rain fell between Sunday and Tuesday, of which 2.61 inches ware registered in 24 hours, the largest fall recorded for 5 years.. The rain came from S. and S.E. is the case with all great floods, which occur as an average once An. 1 3 years. It was preceded by the warmest weather experienced since 1861, the thermometer standing at 86deg. in tne shade and 163deg. in the sun." . An enquiry into the cause of the late fire in Yarrow street was held before, the coroner, Dr Deck, at Lang's Golden Fleece Hotel, on Wednesday, 1 at which Mr Kussell attended on behalf of the Insurance Company interested. After a careful examination of witnesses, &c, the jury came to the conclusion that, although there were strong presamptiue evidences of incendiarism, nothing had been educed to enlighten to them as to the origin of the fire, and they returned a verdict accordingly. The building, it came out in the course of the inquest, had been insured for £80, and the owner admitted having offered it, a day or so bofore it was burned down, for £30 inclusive of the section on which it stood,. "By a curious coincidence," says the Otago Daily limes of the 3rd inst., "the first Sunday of the year was, as in 1869, marked by the occurrence of a heavy gale ahd flood, the rain commenced at an early hour yesterday morning and continued without intermission throughout \he whole day and night. The ; wind, also, chough not so high as in last year's storm, was still very Btrong throughout the day. The heavy rainfall, as was to be {expected, caused the streets to be flooded in many parts." Next day's paper says that " the rain which commenced early on Sunday morning, continued to fall throughout the whole of yeßterday, until about 9 p.m., when it ceased. The amount of rain which fell, however, was very much less than on the previous day, and consequently little or no damage was done in Dunedin. The flat behind the gasworks was, however, flooded, and the water having washed into many of the houses in . that locality, their occupants were removed in drays." Several considerable landslips are reported to have occurred on the -JP-orfc -fihalmorg m a^ l ° n •° r °^ - ft ? nna ""i" 1 **"* ' junction Hotel, Saddle Hill, the, road in' s tbat locality being washed away in some places, and two bridges bent in the middle. The Taieri Plain, as seen from the top of Saddle Hill, presented the appearance of a large, lake, covering the entire extent of the depression between the hills O v either side. At Tokomeiriro, the river was said to be level with the bridge, and people whose houses were adjacent to its banks had removed to the township. Many portions of the road were in a dangerous condition, and in some places it was likely that landslips would occur. The water in the Waihola Lake was on a level with the road. The local paper of Soturday last s-iya that Tuapeka was visited by a flood, on Thursday, 30th ult., equal to the largest known in the district. The Tuapeka River could could not be forded, and the oreek was not free from dinger — the volume of water in the latter was immense. Several houses in Lawrence wore completely inundated. The unfortunate Junction Hotel never escapes even the smallest flood, but on this occasion the water etood nearly four feetiiigh throughout the building. A Thames paper warmly advocates the formation of agricultural settlements on the lands between Shortland and the northern boundaries of the goldfield. It blameß the government for not making any proper efforts to acquire tho3o lands, and laments the fact that the' industrious minor is thus deprived of the opportunity to find a home for himself and faimly. At the meeting of the shareholders of the N.Z.S.N. Co., which, was to be held on Wednesday, for the purpose of confirming the resolution in favor of winding up and and appointing liquidators, the following special resolutions were to be proposed : — That the following be, and are, instructions to the liquidators. Ist. That they shall carry on the business of the Company until a complete sale of the company's property be effected. 2nd. That they shall offer for a limited period the property of the company for sale by tender, and that, failing to effect a sale by this method, then the property shall be sold by auction, with not less than two months' previous notice of such sale by auction, unless in the meantime the liquidators can devise some better means for the protection and advancement of the interests of the shareholders. The velocipede race, which was advertised a 9 part of the programme of the Caledonian Gathering, had to be postponed from New Year's Day on account of the unsuitability of the ground on which the other sports were held for testing the skill of our local velocipedista —of i whom, by the way, we are pleased to observe that an increasing number have' acquired the balancing ! power of this rather shaky means of locomotion. A large crowd had assembled in Dee street on Tuesday evening last to witness the novel ! spectacle. At the time appointed five competitors had entered the lists — three bestriding bicycles and two tricycles. The length to be run was I half-a-mile and sixteen chains, and was accomplished by Mr Stevens, of the Survey Department, in the space of tnree minutes, that gentleman coming in an easy winner. Several boys' races were afterwards improvised by some of the onlookers, and they afforded infinite amusement to that section of our town population, and a large number eagerly competed for the stray halfcrowns which had been " picked up " as the , reward for those who were fleetest of foot.

A rather long and continuous wave of earthquake, ratker than a shock, was felfc in Cromwell about 4 p.m. on Christmas Day. . Tfc lasted, says the Argus, for a minute, and our informant says ho was lying ca the sofa, and thought at fir3t some one was shaking the side of the house next to him. The wave was also felt at Queenstown, and. though earthqunkes there are common enough, this one attracted attention owing to its duration. • , It seems that the removal of the 18th regiment has been actually commenced. The Southern Cross of the 22nd ult. says : — The b.s. Auckland, which sailed for Sydney yesterday afternoon, took 43 non-commisaioned offi.cei'3 and privates of the 2nd Battalion 18th Royal Irish, under the command of Ensign Jackson. The troubles connected with the Manawatu Block are not yet o^er. Notwithstanding the summary punishment dealt out to those who interrupted the survey there lately, another trigonometrical stat : on has been destroyed. The act was committed by night, and it is not yet known who is the offender. A rumor of a painful natnre has reached town from Cromwell. It is stated that Mr Garrett, oae of the proprietors of Logan's claim, Bendigo Gully, whilst riding home at a little after eleven o'clock on Thursday night last, was thrown through his horse stumbling, and had his neck dislocated in the fall, death ensuing in a very short time after the acsident. A singular accident is reported from Auckland. A local paper states that the Bey. J. Deane, whilst standing talking to Mr Hanson, at the door of the latter's workshop, adjoining the Army and Navy Hotel, wa3 struck by lightning on the first joint of the forefinger cf the right hand. The joint has been paralysed ever since. Mr Hanson felt the shock, and a safe and * bell, hanging contiguous to them, affected by the same power, gave out a succession of ringing vibrations. It is said that ffia Honor Judge Chapman will leave England in the Somersetshire early this month. The Evening Star of the 30th ult. says ;—Today, 67 Chinese took their passage by the Omeo, en route for China, having made a very handsome sum amongst them on the diggings. They are the first who have left Otago, and profess their intention to return. Thoy take a lunatic countryman with them. The Herald thus estimates tho acreage under crop in the Timaru district, and the expected yield :— Wheat 8708 acres — 269,406 bushels; oats, 6241 acres — 244,720 bushels ; barley, 860 acres— 3o,6o9 bushels. According to the Shortland Times, tho wellknown De Lacy, of Burgess, Kelly, and Levi notoriety, is again an inmate of a gaol, although it is only a faw days since he left Mount Edon. On Saturday he was given in charge by Mr O'Dowd, charged with stealing some jewellery from tha Prince Arthur Hotel, Grahamstown. The Westport Timers Wellington correspondent reports :— At last a payable goldfield has been discovered in this province. Some claims havo been pegged off not £;r from this city, and some cool-headed men here are going into the matter . heartily, and are carefully " keeping dark" the whereabouts of the field. the^-Otago-anc^rSonihland-. Mining journal is announced to be issued on the Bth January. A man named Thomas Short, a member of the Armed Constabulary force, has been sentenced by Chief Justice Sir George Arney at Auckland to three years' imprisonment with hard labor for selling ammunition to the natives at Tauranga. The N'W Zealand Herald* has been informed on good authority, that Mr James Mackay, jun., who has just been returned to the Provincial Council for the Thames goldfield, has been " sent for" by His Honor the Superintendent. The Wellington -correspondent of- the Otago Daily Times writes as follows : — "I believe that the Government here, and Mr Yogel on the other side, have managed to arrange with Messrs M'Meckan, Blackwood, and Co.; for a monthly service from here via the West Coast to Melbourne with tho homeward mail. The carriage of the home mail to New Zealand will have to be left to chance, as the Government have no funds at command to subsidise for its conveyance. There is a report current here that His Excellency the Governor has applied for leave of absence for tho purpose of visiting England. The general opinion is that if he once goes it is very unlikely he will over return, and I can't say that any general regret is expressed at the prospect." The Daily Times of the 31st ult. learns by the (Taiaroa that the beach workings at Waikawa are turning out well. About twenty men are employed on them, and their average earnings are stated to be £4 per week. The greater portion of the gold is sent to Invercargill, where it is sold for 4s an ounce more than is obtained for it in Dunedin. People have been wondering for some time, says the Wellington Evening Post, what the Intercolonial Congress was doing, tho Australian papers being all silent on the subject ; but the mystery is now solved. In consequence of the refusal of Victoria to send delegates, the whole affair has fallen through. The Melbourne people always endeavor to play first fiddle, and, as in this case they cannot, will not play at all. Our delegates have been making some minor arrangements with the New South Wales Government, but tho main purposes of the mission have of course been unaccomplished. In its report of the East Taieri Agricultural Show, held on the 29th ult., the Otago Daily Times says : — " The small Ayrshire cattle shown by Wm. Waddell, also found much favor. These were five bulls and two heifers of the finest Btrain of pure Ayrshire blood to be found in the colony, both on the sire's and dam's sides. A one-year-old from the celebrated breeder, Lawrence Drew, Hamilton, and a two-year-old heifer from the same breeder, were much commended. All these cattle were prize-takers in Southland." Mr Waddell obtained the following prizes in the Ayrshire classes: — Ono year old bulls, 10 entries, second and third ; one year old heifers, 6 entries, first ; two year old do, 13 entries, second.