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Southland Times, Issue 1224, 18 March 1870, Page 2

The hospital at Switzers is rapidly approaching: completion. It is described as a handsome and commodious building.

The Wellington Temperance Society is about to be wound up, having " proved a failure ia a financial point of view."

A Wellington paper states that the totara is finding favor in Australia, on account of its durability, and the case with which it is worked.

The Grey River Argus say 6it is reported that W. H. Harrison, Esq., M.0.0., M.IT.R., has .received the appointment of Inspector of Schools for Westland, at a salary of £300 per annum.

At the Eesident Magistrite's Court on Wednesday, 16th inst., two police cases were heard before W. H. Pearson, Esq., J. P. One man was fined 5s for drunkenness, and another 10s for indecent exposure.

The proprietor of the flax mills at Wainuiomata charges a bonus of £100 for anyone wishing to employ his patent fthe French machine) for preparing flax, together with a rojalty of . £50 per annum. ( * ..v--y The CromweU Argus ofthe 9th inst. says.th^fi the price of oats at the Bendigo reefs is 8s aj bushel. The farmers in that neighborhood qu<»ht' to make a good ' thing of it this /season. With; rery few exceptions, harvesting operations have : been completed.

Considerable consternation has been caused in Kaiapoi, in consequence of a gentleman from' Wellington claiming as his property certain sections on which, valuable buildings have been erected. The land had been sold by auction from time to time, and a good title was supposed to have been given.

The Illustrated 2?ew Zealand Herald for March contains the following engravings : — " The Launceston Regatta," " Inauguration of the Victorian Mag," " Church of England Assembly, Victoria," "St. Andrew's Pre3bytarian Church, Dunedin," " Native Hunters," (Australian), " Interior of a Shepherd's Hut," and " Exterior of a Bushman's Hut on a Sunday morning."

The Lyttelton Times of the 10th inst. says : — A Provincial Gazette issued yesterday contains the following return of the quantity and value of flour and grain exported from the province (Canterbury) during the month of February : : — ITlour, 15 tons, valued at £180 ; wheat, 5593 bushels, valued at £1125 ; o.its, 9893 bushels, valued at , £1978 ; barley, 367 bushels, valued at £92. No malt was exported during the month.

A meeting of the committee of the Southland Horticultural Society took place at Co Iyer's Princess Hotel on Wednesday evening last, Mr E. D. Butts in the chair. The Secretary laid on the table the prize list, which was duly passed for payment, the blank first prizes being filled up with five shillings each. Sundry accounts aud other business being passed, and Messrs Butts and Kingsland elected auditors, the proceedings terminated.

With reference to the new settlement at Martin's Bay, the West Coast Times of a recent date says: — About a dozen passengers left Hokitika by the Waipara on Wednesday evening for Southern Ports — fewer than was anticipated, as many people had decided upon casting their fortunes down south by taking up land under the inducements offered by the Otago Government. However, many were not ready to proceed south by the present trip of the Waipara, but the agent intends to lay her on shortly for Martin's Bay and Preservation Inleft ' ■

We have much pleasure, saya the Cariterlury Press of Thursday, in announcing that our print- 7 ! ing machine, this morning, was driven by coal obtained from the property of Mr M. B. Hart, at. the Malvern Hills, who placed in our hands a hundred-weight, in order to test its heating power. Thecoal appears to be of excellent quality, and we have no doubt we shall be able to report very favorably regarding it.

The Wairarapa Mercury has discovered the existence of a new Government, office. , " One of! the curious items in the Civil List," it says, " is that Mr T. E. Young, in the Native Secretary's Office, Wellington, receives £12 annually for occupying the post of ' Gleaner of Native Intelligence from Newspapers.' What is the process ? What are the fruits? What are the papers selected ? What becomes of the gleanings ? How much is chaff, and how much corn ?"

It is stated that the prospects of the farmers in the East Taieri and Tokomairiro districts are of the most gloomy description. Owing to the recent floods and subsequent wet weather, many acres of wheat and other crops have been utterly destroyed. The quality of the wheat generally will be only very middling, and in consequence of rust the straw is quite brittle. In the Oamaru and Otepopo districts, the damage by rust is so great chat in some cases it has been decided to burn the wheat as it stands.

Within the last week or two (says the Bruce Standard) a correspondence has been going on in the Dunedin papers with reference to the Home Agency. As indicative of the peculiar and prejudiced notions entertained by Mr Auld respecting the requirements of the Province, we give an illustration. A reverend gentleman informs us that when he was coming cut to Otago, some years ago, he wrote to Mr Auld, asking him to grant an assisted passage to an Irish girl whom he proposed taking with him as servant. This request was refused, on the ground that the' proportion of Irish in Otago was already too high, and that until the balance was equalised Mr Auld could not grant passages to any but Scotch, or mayhap one or two English. It is un. necessary to comment on the absurdity of such exclusive notions, but it may be possible that Mr Auld was only carrying out the instructions of the Provincial Government. The formation of class settlements in the Colony of New Zealand has seriously retarded its progress, and has' destroyed its national spirit, and the sooner all tendency in this direction is stopped the better will it be for the Colony.

Under date the 10th inst., our Biverton correspondent writes :— Everything is very quiet here, as also at the goldfields, although most of the miners are going on steadily. After an intermission of three weeks, the committee of the penny readings gave another night's entertainment on the evening of Tuesday last, but not with their usual success, being short of performers. The audience was also remarkably thin, and although the only instrumentalist present,

Mr 0. Morton, did hi* best, it was scarcely to be expected tbit.one man could keep an audience in good humor fo? a whola evening. I understand that a grand concert of sacred and classic music is to be given shortly for the benefit of the Church of England.

A stranger visiting New Zealand, and remaining long ohouzh to acquire a knowledge of our manners and customs, (says the Wellington Post) cijuld scarcely avoil characterising U3 as the most unsocial ian I selfish people.in the wdrld. Etch 'Province its *o wraribe luo in its own affiirs that it seems quite indifferent to what its neighbors about, except their actions are likely in some way to affect itself. The mO3t important social concerns of neighboring Provinces are passed unhee led ; " they are of no interest to U3," is the dry. Canterbury carries on important public works, a'ld attempts gr»at social reform*, in which latter particular she sets an example worthy of praise and imitation. We don't care, it is not our business. Otago is developing gold fields which promise to excel the Thames in richness — we look on wiHi the utmost apathy. We hear of the si'amty of labor in some places t) such an extent th:it the crops are left rott-ng on the ground — well, let them rot. We shall never get on while this state of things continues. We must begin to lose this isolation, to forget provincial distinctions, and to consi ler ourselves one people, if we mean to occupy that position among the Australian Colonies Nature has afforded us the means of filling.

Mr Miller, assayer in the Sydney Mint, has called attention (says' a contemporary) in a paper read before the Royal Society of New South Wales to the singular fact that the purity of the gold found on the various diggings between Ballarat and the farthest route north of Queensland, deteriorates as the degrees of latitude diminish. 'In the southern fields of Victoria the gold is almost absolutely pure, while at Maryborough, in Queensland, only 85 per cent of the ore is gold. The greater part of the residue is silver, and it has become a matter of importance fo discover some simple and certain mean* of parting the two noble metals." This is accomplished bypassing a current of oblorine gas over or through the melted metaL The chlorine and the silver unite, and the product, although volatile, is retained by a covering of borax. By the same process brittle gold is toughened, and rendered fit for coinage.

The elections for the Provincial Council of Marlborough have now been completed, the result being that, with four exceptions, the same members have been returned. The Press says that " Mr Eyes, the present Superintendent, has not gained any supporters by causing another election ; and Mr Seymour, the other candidate for the Superintendency, has not, we think, suceeded in obtaining. sufficient supporters to vote him into office. Who then is to be Superintendent we are at present* unable to say, as many things may occur before the Council meets, which may alter the present aspect of affairs."

In the Atlantic , Ocean, a little west of the Azores, there exists a space seven times larger than all Q-ermany, according to Humboldt, completely covered with a dense mass of vegetation, the so-

called Sargasso Sea. M. J. Laviniere has proposed to the French Agricultural Society to make these floating meadows subservient to the purposes of agriculture. He suggests that the ships occupied during the summer cod-fishing, could, in other seasons, be employed in bringing the weeds to the Azores, where they can be pressed and dried, and after having valuable salts extracted from them, they could be carried to the French coast. It is calculated that these floating meadows produce annually vegetable matter sufficient to manure not less than 1,800,00J,000 acres.

-A correspondent of the Canterbury Press, writing on the subject of education, says : — "' Let us found a New Zealand University, and endow it liberally with sizerehips, scholarships, and fellowships, by means of large Educational Reserves, and give it the power of conferring the usual B.A. and Mi. degrees. Thus will our cleverest boys have an opportunity of distinguishing themselves in New Zealand, and their course of studies, always of the highest possible standard, will be specially directed towards the go id conduct of the Colony, or to the development of its pent-up resources. A distinct local goal will be a reality to them, and these superior intelligences will have the- means of reaching it. The subject thus resolves itself into three questions : 1. Shall we send our best boys to Engiand. to be educated, where in case of success they will probably remain? 2. Shall we allow them to bury their talents here, or at least leave them in a half-formed condition ? 3. Shall we foun i a New Zealand University, and educate them properly on the spot, and give them means of obtaining a degree which will be held in honorable repute in either hemisphere."

G, M. Bell, Esq., of Waimea, has set an exampie in the way of encouraging local industry and enterprise which others might follow with great advan'age to the province generally. One of the proprietors of the Tapanui Boiling-down Establishment informs us that Mr Bell has just forwarded to them a flock of 500 prime sheep, for the preserving and melting pots, without any condition as to price. The instructions are simply to utilise the animals as they think best, and allow him what value they choose. Considering that the sheep are worth a great, deal more in the meatmarket than they are for boiling down, tha act shows Mr' Bell's liberality in foregoing present profit, and his wisdom in fostering an enterprise which must ultimately become the principal outlet for surplus stock. With regard to the manner in which the carcases are us.-d up .at the Tapanui .works, we learn the choice joints — the legs— are boned, sweet-pickled, spiced, rolled, and packed in casks, into which tallow is run in a liquid state. When the fat, hardens, the meat is thus enclosed in a solid air.tight casing, and is ready for exportation. The remaining portions of the carcase are indiscriminately consigned to the melting pot. What becomes of the refuse, which must be valuable, is not stated, but we should fancy it will be in request in the neighborhood as manure. The process in operation at Tapanui is known, it may be mentioned, as Caldwell's.

A curious discovery was made by Captain Beatson, of the brigantine Oreti (says the Otago Daily Times) during a recent visit to the Auckland Isles. On ascending the highest mountain •.there— some 900 feet above the level of the seahe discovered the skull of a horse. No other bones, either of a horse or any other animal, were found at the same place, or near it. Struck with the mysterious character of his discovery, Captain Beatson determined to bring the skull with him to Dunedin, in order that it might be deposited in the Museum. How the bones got to their resting-place on the Auckland Isles is a subject which will puzzle our savans as much as the general public. The Isles are entirely out of the track of any vessels carrying horses, and indeed are never touched at except in cases of necessity. Some other relics were discovered at the same time, the moat remarkable being the skeleton of a young woman, whose body might have been washed on shore. A list of articles deposited by the late Captain Norman, when in command of the Victorian Government ship Victoria, despatched on a special mission to the Isles, was also found by Captain Beatson. The articles were : a Bible, a prayer-book, a collection of tracts, several numbers of Good Words, a tinderbox, eleven balls, eight pounds of powder, and^ a musket. They were found in a cask, and as it .did not appear to be water-tight, they were taken -out by. Captain Beatson, dried, and replaced, the cask being also properly secured. As a source of relief for shipwrecked mariners, the deposit was 'rather a meagre one.