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Southland Times, Issue 1217, 1 March 1870, Page 2

On Friday last, an accident occurred at the Bluff to the second mate of the Sea Wave, which has deprived him of the points of two fingers and other? wiee bruised his right hand. During the unloading of some machinery, he thoughtlessly pat his hand upon the wheel of the crane,' which of course carried it immediately in to the driving pinion, where the teeth, at the point o< contact, cut the finger points off like a knife. Dr Monckton was at once telegraphed fdr, and proceeded to the man's assistance, who has since come to town, and is in the way of recovery. The old Independent chapel, sometime since moved from its site out the East Road to a more central one in Dee-street, has just undergone a metamorphosis, internally at least. TSot being in request as a temple for religious purposes, the utilitarian principles which rule the age have made no scruple at turning it iuto a temple of commerce. In its new character it will be occupied by Mr D. Macrorie as an auction mart, that gentleman having recently added that department to his previous business. An old resident of Invercariiill, Mr Charles Boss, seedsman, died on Saturday last after a lingering illness. Mr Boss was a persevering ahfl most industrious man, enjoying the respect of all who were acquainted with him, and mucli sympathy is felt for his wife and family in their heavy bereavement. r /' A new Masonic Hall is to be erected in Christ-; church at a cost of £685. The Bruce Herald . is informed upon reliable authority that Dr Moran, R' man Catholic Bishop of Port Elizabeth, Cape 'of Good Hope, has been appointed Bishop of Dunedin. We believe his diocese will extend over the entire Middle Island, and understand that he will very shortly arrive in the colonyAttention is being directed in Auckland to the probable failure of the supply of kauri gum. This curious and valuable product is said to be rapidly getting scarce, and its total exhaustion at no very distant date is predicted. Dr Carr, the mesmerist, has been giving seances at Napier, anent one of which the Sawke's Bay Serald writes : — " A novelty of the entertainment was the fact of several Maories having been mesmerised, the natives having performed the war dance, and exhibited many other manifestations." A correspondent of an English paper suggests that the following experiment might be made in America or Australia on a leg of mutton : — " I should hold it up by the bone and dip it in liquid indiarubber ; as soon as it has receiver sufficiont dippings to be perfectly air-tight, I should ship it for England." A man named Laralisch has died at Wagga Wagga of a surfeit of beer. He laid a wager that he would drink six quarts of that liquor in an hour, and actually drank that quantity in 25 minutes, but almost immediately afterwards became insensible. Next day he was taken to the hospital, and a few days afterwards he died. The late high winds are reported to have done considerable damage to the over-ripe crops in the Lakes district, by shaking the grain out of the ears. The local paper states that the late weather has been the worst experienced in the district during harvest time for some years. The Wellington correspondent of the Otago Daily Times writes as follows : — One of the ships now on the berth for London has made a great reduction in the freight on flax. Hitherto it has ranged from £10 to £15 a ton, but now the Melita offers to take well pressed flax at £5 a ton, and five per cent, primage. The flax, however, has to be approved of by the ship's • surveyors. This reduction is a great boon to flax producers^ but those on the West Coast have just met with a new difficulty. They object to pay more than 10b a ton freight from Manawatu to Wellington,.'and the small coasterß employed in the trade -refuse to take it for less than £1. Thi3 the mill owners will not give, and so most of the small craft have struck, and announce their intention io seek freight elsewhere for the future.", The Dunedin Evening Star, hears it rumored that very advantageous terms are arranged by the Q-ovemmentforthe gradual introduction of a number of immigrants, by which the pastage-money will be reduced so as to place the province more nearly on a level with the United States. This, if true, will go far to remove the obsjicle to Otago becoming a favorite spot with emigrants, and will work a revolution for good in ou/pro3pects.

Iv view, we suppose, of the identification of interests which- the proposed re-union of the provinces of Otairo and Southland is to bring about, tbe Bruce lierald has inMy been unusually attentive to Sourhknd affairs. Recently a column ha? been abided under the Iv-a^n? of "Sketches from Southland," and the following description of Invercar^ill is the first of the aeries. If the other " sketches " are enrnishe'l in the snnie mnmer as the one we copy, we would K«dvise the renders of the Herald to put them 'down as " skits," written for their amusement, but not, for their instruction : — " I once heard a Victorian squatter conversing with an acquaintance, after passing through the town for i the first timo, d-swibe it as ' the most Godforsaken locking plnoe he ever saw,' and really the description answers well to this day. Grass growing in the streets ; deserted houses and shops on all sides ; the main road only gravelled or metalled , cows and goats browsing undisturbed on quarter-acre sections ; open drains in all directions, which however, thanks to the thinness of the population, the constant breezes from the sea, and the frequent seourings from the abundant rainfall, have not hitherto told injuriously on the health of the town. Tnvercargill , is, par excellence ' a bush town on the flat.' Behind the main road and LOsk-street you find sections full of stairnan*- pooh of water, huge stumps of trees, and rank grass and rushes. A stranger coming from the country perceives at once a peculiar smell of 'tan' pervading the town, caused, 1 suppose, by tVe decaying wood in the waterpools. But to leave these ' back slum 3' and return to the main road, i.e., Dee-street and Tay- street— •♦he former the North, the latter the South road, both two chains wide, and down the centre of which it is a common saying that ' a cannon ball might be shot at any rime of the day without doing any damage.' For a list of the public buildings let me refer my reader to any of the almanacs published in the town. He will wonder how the citizens amuse themselves in their leisure hours, where the public library is, and how so many publicans manage to make a living in that small place in these dull time* ; and, looking on a page further, he will he surprised at. the number of Government officials, and at the very large percentage of the provincial revenue which is absorbed by their ' precious screws.' But here we are opposite the Provincial Government buiidings — a range of low wooden erections, in a neatly gravelled enclosure, circled by a white paling fence. There is an . air of peaceful rusticity about these buildings, eminently suggestive of the calm retired life enjoyed by their occupants. A. friend of mine told me that having occasion to make some enquiries as .to the reputed leme of a tract of land, he culled at the Waste Lands Office. The, clerk there did not know whether it was leased ; was not 'indicated on any maps in that office ; at the Sur>ey Department the same -tale — referred to the Superintendent. On entering the Superintendent's office he found it unoccupied. He amused himself with reading Mansard and the Gazette for twenty minutes, occasionally rapping his knuckles on the office counter for variety-sake ; walked into the private office, found it deserted ; next into the treasury, deserted abo — could not see the treasury-chesfc, so supposed it was empty, and therefore laid aside as unnecessary ; walked out, anfl after some trouble button-holed the clerk leisurely ' doiug a weed' in Dee street. The clerk said • Mr A had leased the land ; he would look up the note of the lease.' After searching through files of papers, pigoon-holes, and drawers for a quarter of an hour, the clerk ' gave it up,' and said 'he knew Mr A had leased the land, and if my friend wanted any particulars he could have them if he would call again in a few days.' My friend said he was told that this was a fair sample of the way they manage these matters here."