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Southland Times, Issue 1559, 2 April 1872, Page 2

There was no intelligence of the San Francisco mail at a late hour last evening. A report reached town yesterday that the present drought ha 3 seriously affected Dog Island, and that at present there is not more than four days' supply of fresh water in the place. We received intimation too late last night to make the necessary alteration in the advertisement, that the annual meeting of the Southland Acclimatisation Society has been postponed till Wednesday, 10th inst., at the same hour and place.

It is said that the Assembly will meet early in June. The foundation stone of the Oamaru Hospital is to be laid to-day. News received via the Cape announces the safety of Dr Livingstone, There are 28,313 acres under crop in the province of Marlborough this year. A short-horned heifer, four years old, and weighing nearly two tons, has lately been exhibited in Auckland. Mr J. W. Robertson having resigned his seat in the Provincial Council for the Lakes district, both seats for the district are now vacant. Mr James Shand of the West Taieri is shipping all his wheat to England this season, the freight being Is 6d per bushel. A notorious highway robber, named Robinson, who was under sentence for sixteen years, has escaped from Mount Eden Gaol, Auckland. Coal of the finest quality has been obtained 15 miles from Westport. It is obtainable on board at 5s per ton, and coasters are able to load it from the pit itself. A Christchurch tinsmith has commenced the manufacture of tin fiddles. Their tones are said to have no trace of " tinniness," their power being considerable. * Several nuggets have been found in alluvial ground at Irishman's Creek, Lyell, near Westport. One weighed 28ozs, one 150z3, one Bozs, and two 12ozs each. The Akaroa correspondent of the Canterbury Press writes that very little over one-third of the quantity of cheese hitherto made in that district has been produced this year, and butter is also scarce. Messrs W. A. Tolmie, Stephen Hutchinson, and W. Robertson have been nominated for the seat in the Provincial Council rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr Seaton. The poll takes place to-day. The Otago Daily Times and Wi tness Company have purchased a building site near Rattray Street Jetty, Dunedin, at a cost of £1600. It is contemplated to erect a building, the cost of which, will be £2000. Mr E. Constable, of Waiuku, Auckland, sent away in the Nebraska the last of a shipment of 600 bales of flax prepared at his mill- Seventy tons more are nearly ready and will be forwarded in the next steamer. The half-yearly meeting of the proprietors of the Bank of New Zealand will take place at Auckland on the 2 ith April, for the purpose of receiving the directors' report, the election of a director, and other business. Mr Whiting, of the late firm of Greville and Whiting, was a passenger to the Bluff by the Storm Bird on Sunday last. Mr Whiting proceeds to Dog Island in charge of the party by whom the repairs to the lighthouse are to be effected. The Thames G-uardian gives the statistics of crime for that place, from which it appears that the total number of charges for the year against males was 850, and against females 101. Of these, 767 males and 91 females were convicted of the offences preferred against them, while 83 males and 10 females were discharged. The Lyttelton Times gives the following authoritative contradiction to the statement that the Government intends to introduce Chinese labor : — We have been requested by the Hon. the Resident Minister to state that the Government neither has nor ever had any intention of introducing Chinese labor into the colony, or permitting it to be introduced and employed by contractors for public works. The circular addressed by the Minister for Public Works to the several Superintendents was intended solely to elicit their opinions on a subject which had been brought before the Government. If any bias in favor of the employment of Chinese labor may be thought to be introduced into the circular, it is unintentional and contrary to the wish of the Government. A rather singular accident took place at the City of London mine, Thames goldfields, a short time since. While the manager, Mr T. B. Hicks, was coming up the shaft, and had reached a distance on the ladder, about ten feet from the bottom, a heavy weight was heard descending. Quick as lightning, Mr Hicks grasped the ladder with a firmer hold, and had no sooner done so, than he received a tremendous blow on the chest, which severely injured him, but still did not cause him to lose his gra9p. On descending to the bottom, it was found that the cause of the accident was a large dog (since dead), which in the course of his wanderings above, made a mistake, and wandered below. Mr Hicks's injuries were examined, and found so severe as to necessitate his being confined to his bed for some time to come. At the last meeting of the Auckland Harbor Board Mr Copland gave notice of the following motions to be moved at the next meeting : — (1). " That all vessels arriving from the United Kingdom with immigrants or passengers, be anchored outside the North Head, and that a notice be forwarded by the pilot to the Chairman or Secretary of the Board." (2); "That a Board of Health Committee be formed, consisting of any three members of this board, whose duty shall be to visit all vessels in conj unction with the Health Officer of the port, such committee to be taken in rotation by the members of the board ; and that a fee of one pound be paid by the ship to each member of committee, and no vessel be allowed to enter the port until a clean bill of health and cleanliness be signed by such committee — the Secretary to collect and pay the said fee." Mr Edmund Ford has returned to Christ. , church from a prospecting tour at the Malvern Hills in search of coal. He has brought with him specimens of a fine bituminous coal, which he obtained by driving into the side of a hill very easy of access, the railway, now being surveyed from Rolleston to the Malvera Hills, running through the section of land on which the coal was discovered. The seam, where first struck, was only a few inches in thickness, but on continuing the drive, the thickness greatly increased, and Mr Ford is of opinion that, with a little working, a paying seam of coal will be opened out. Many persons are only waiting the completion of the railway to the Malvern Hilla to commence operations for extensively working the coal, as well as for the manufacture of fire-bricks, and there is every prospect of a corsiderable town* , ship rising in the locality.

In a lecture at Gympie, on the geology of Queensland, the Eev. Mr Wood said : — " He noticed that a great deal of greenstone existed on this gold field. Whilst on this subject he might mention that at a place in Victoria, there was a dyke or vein of this rock which contained immense quantities of mineral. Wherever the greenstone was found, there were rich mineral 'beins. Here on Gympie they had greenstone, and he saw from the specimen which he held in his hand that copper was found here ; he might say that wherever this greenstone or dyorite had been found, the richest copper mines had been discovered. If nobody had told him where the specimen had come from, he would have said that it had been taken out from one of the rich copper mines of South Australia. At Moonta, which was probably the richest copper mine in the world, he had seen specimens precisely similar to the one he held in his hand." ■ Yesterday was very generally observed as a holiday in town. The weather was exceedingly , j tempting, the temperature during the greater [ j portion of the day being most genial, and as a I consequence a large number of pleasure-seekers : took advantage of the excursion trains advertised by the Railway Manager. Those conveyed to Winton must have numbered nearly 100, while those who patronised the Bluff trains must, we . r should imagine, have approximated 300. Besides this, various picnic parties provided themselves with conveyances for the purpose of reaching the different favored localities in the surrounding neighborhood, and there enjoying a day's relaxation from the ordinary cares and duties of life. The delightful weather must have rendered a ramble "by brake and stream" a pleasant recreation, and judging by the beaming countenances of the returning excursionists, the holiday seemed to have been thoroughly enjoyed. At a meeting of the Otago Waste Land Board, held in Duuedin on the 27th ult., an application was made on behalf of Mr Clarke, for a reconsideration of Mr Clarke's proposal to give up his claim to the 1900 acres at the northern end of his application area on run No. 215, on condition that the Board agrees to put up the fee simple of the 1900 acres, in seotions as surveyed, to public competition at auction within six months from this date, and grant to Mr Clarke an equal area, to be selected by him in any other part of the said run a Joining the present application, on the same terms as appears in No. 402 D ; it being understood that the provisions of section 46 of the Otago Waste Liuds Act, 1866, as to repayment of survey expenses, shall apply to the said area of 1900 acres. Nothing in the application in any way to affect Mr Clarke's claim for compensation for suspension or cancellation of lease over the said 19 JO acres, or for the improvements or fences erected thereupon. The decision of the loth of January was reconsidered, and the proposals submitted agreed to, Mr Reid dissenting. The following items of Fiji intelligence appear in a telegram in the Otago Daily Times : — The excitement among the settlers continues. Public meetings have been held to request Cakobau to dismiss Messrs Burt and Woods. The settlers complain of Parliamentary corruption by the giving of offices to members, and of extravagant expenditure. The Consul refused to hand over the mails to the Government, but gave them to the Chamber of Commerce, which has established a Post-office of its own. Mr Burt, the Premier, has issued a writ against the Fiji Times for defamation of character. The Malicolo men were tried for the murders on board the Cambria, but were acquitted. Captain Sinclair was charged with ill-treating the same men, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and a fine of 300 dols. He was admitted to bail pending the decision as to the Court's jurisdiction. The Chamber of Commerce has declared that the Government notes are not a legal tender. The natives are quiefc. Sugar growing has been commenced at Suva and Savu Savu. The ramie fibre grown at Rewa is very fine, and the cultivation of this plant is likely to be extended. The cotton crop has been much damaged by rain. At a sitting in banco held in Dunedin on the 27th ult. before His Honor Mr Justice Chapman, in the case of Barton v. the Otago Daily Times and Witness Company, Mr Macasaey moved for a rule nisi calling upon the directors and the secretary of the Company to show cause why interrogatories should not be administered to them. The action was brought for the breach of an alleged agreement on the part of defendants to indemnify plaintiff against the consequence of all acts done by him in the discharge of his duties as editor and literary manager of the defendants' papers, the Otago Djily Times and Witness. The declaration set forth that in or about July, 1868, it was agreed between the parties that the defendants should ratify, approve, and indemnify plaintiff from the consequence of all acts done by him bonafide in exercise of his discretion and authority as editor ; that while acting and officiating as editor and literary manager of the said newspapers, plaintiff published lona-fide certain articles in the Daily Times, of which defendants approved, criticising the management and working of the Electric Telegraph Department of New Zealand, in consequence of which he was criminally prosecuted at the suit of the General Government j and that, at the request of defendants, plaintiff resisted and defended the prosecution, which was ultimately abandoned and discontinued ; and plaintiff, by reason of such defence, incurred loss, expense, and damage. Defendants, in violation of their agreement, had refused to indemnify plaintiff from serious injury, and plaintiff claimed to recover from defendants £500 damages. There was also a second count showing that plaintiff seeks to recover the same expenses in the form of money paid by plaintiff at the request of, and use of, defendants. To the declaration defendants pleaded a general denial, and upon the pleadings, as they stand, plaintiff desires to interrogate defendants in •respect to two letters published by Mr Bathgate, the Secretary of the Company. A rule nisi was Igranted. ' The lecture at the Exchange Buildings last night by the Rev. J. S. Smalley, on the History of the English Bible, was somewhat thinly attended, there beine; not more than about 100 persons present. This may be accounted lor by the various other attractions of the evening, and it is to be regretted on account of the Hospital, to which the aurpluß, over expenses, was intended to be devoted. The manner of the rev. lecturer's handling of his subject, and the evident research in the compilation of a vast mass of interesting facts, put forward in a remarkably attractive and interesting manner, afforded

intense satisfaction to his auditors. The lecture, occupying an hour and three quarters in its delivery, was listened to without the least symptom of wearixiess, and at its close a hearty vote of thanks was accorded. It was incidentally remarked by the Rev. Mr Rishworth, that possibly Mr Smalley may be appointed by the next conference to succeed Mr Rishwortla in the charge of the Invercargill circuit. Last night a drawing-room entertainment, in which those two talented artistes, Miss Dolly Green and Mr J. Small, sustained the principal parts, took place in the Theatre. The attendance in every part of the house was both largo and enthusiastic. The olio of oddities and sketches of character, together with the comic sketches, were sustained by the lady with great tact, and earned the hearty applause of the audience. Mr Small, in whom the theatre-going public were not slow to recognise an old favorite, met with a very enthusiastic welcome. Indeed, his performances i last night showed that he had lost none of those powers for amusement which have already gained for him so much popularity both here and elsewhere. As musical director it is al nost unnecessary to add that Mr T. "White was all that could have been desired. An announcement elsewhere intimates that the entertainment will be repeated to-night with an entire change of programme.