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Southland Times, Issue 1600, 2 July 1872, Page 2

The Nevada with the' English mail via San Francisco arrived at Port Chalmers at 7.15 a.m. on Sunday. The Storm Bird sailed for Invercargill the same afternoon, bringing the newspapers, but not the letters, which were sent on by coach on Monday, and cannot arrive until a late hour in the afternoon of to-day. The excuse for this absurd proceeding was that the wind was not fair for the Storm Bird when she sailed, and it was feared that she might make a long passage. When one considers that the Postmaster at Donedin had at command, for the trouble oi

looting at them, telegraphic reports of the j weather all round the coast, we are not impressed with a very exalted idea of that functionary's fitness for his post. The weather here was calm , and the Storm Bird, as might have been expected, made an excellent passage. The newspapers by the Storm Bird had to be fumigated with sulphur, in compliance with regulations to tbat effect. The operation was performed in a small room in the Post Office, and though every cranny was stopped up, as far as possible, the result was to render the whole buildng almost uninhabitable for a time. A petition to the Government to erect new Post Office buildings is now in course of obtaining signatures. The memorial also includes a request for more suitable accommodation for the Supreme Court, wliich is also much needed. We commend this petition to the attention of our readers. It will be observed from our advertising columns that the xease of the reserve in Dee j street, presently occupied by Mr Tapper as a I timber yard, is to be submitted to public competij tion on the Bth inst. We received information yesterday that the Bhaft of the Old Wakatipu Deep Sinking Company has now reached a depth of 120 feet. A prospecting party left Riverton on Wednesday last, under the charge of Mr Thoo. Daniel, to examine the neighborhood of Bligh Sound for indications of tin or copper ore. Dr Monekton made a statement in the Supreme Court on Friday, which we think deserved more notice than His Honor the Judge thought proper to take of it at the time. Dr Monckton said that he wished to call the attention of the Court, very particularly, to the serious loss and inconvenience which he and many others had suffered from the repeated short postponements of the session. His Honor's reply, that it could not be helped, and that the means of communication were very imperfect, was, we venture to submit, a very inadequate explanation. Ifc may have been impossible to hold the session on the day originally announced, but there could be no reason why the postponement should not have been made at once to a date sufficiently remote to prevent the inconvenience which has actually been occasioned by the repeated short alterations of the date. This is really the cause of the grievance. Persons summoned from a distance are kept for an unnecessary length of time away from home, by successive postponements for three or four days at a time, and business and professional men find their engagements interfered with in a most vexatious and useless manner. The discretionary powers of the judges ousht to be exercised with a due regard for the convenience of the public. The circumstance complained of may have arisen on this occasion from want of thought, but there is no doubt that if repeated in future, now that attention has been so pointedly directed to the matter, it will call for the severest censure. The Provincial Gazette of the 26th ult. contains a notification to the effect that 25,000 acres of land in the Marewhenua, Awamoko, and Kakanui Hundreds are open for application at 10s an acre: Mr W. H. Pearson has been appointed returning officer for the election of the new Road Boards in the Southland district, under the Otago Roads Ordinance, 1871, and Mr John H. Baker has been appointed assessor of pnar Afo I lanno The Agent-General's despatches, received by the San Francisco mail, are said to announce the sailing of the Halcione, for Wellington, with 50 of Mr Brogden's immigrants, and 50 Scandinavian, and 140 British Government immigrants. The ship Friedburg was to leave Hamburg on the 18th May, with a full complement of immigrants. The ship Hod wig was to leave Christiania on an early date for Napier, -with. 325 immigrants, being part of the 1200 sent for by the Superintendent of Hawke's Bay, for a special settlement at the Seventy Mile Bush. The ship Celestial Queen had left for Auckland with 90 British immigrants. Advices have been received of the shipment of 600 tons of railway iron for Mr Brogden, as well as turn-tables and cranes for the Clutha line. Arrangements have been made with the Messrs Brogden for the passage of their laborers, the firm giving promissory notes at the rate of £10 per head. This sum has been fixed upon, as the firm will have the exclusive use of the immigrants' services for some time. Dr Featherston asserts that the England's passengers were carefully examined and inspected before the ship's departure from London. About four o'clock on Friday morning a fire broke out in the glass and china warehouse of Messrs R. M'Leod "and Co., Princes street, Dunedin. Owing to the excellent pressure of water at the command of the Fire Brigade from the mains, the fire was extinguished in about half an hour from the time of the alarm being raised, the damage being confined to the building in which it originated. The stock, which was entirely destroyed, was insured in various offices to the extent of £8000, and the building for £1000. A branch of the Bank of New Zealand is to be established in Melbourne for the transaction of business connected with New Zealand, and for the sale and purchase of London exchange. Professor Young, of Dartmouth, will next summer proceed with his telescope and spectroscope to Sherman, on the Pacific Railroad, and see what advantages can be gained by obaervations in light air, eight thousand feet above the sea. The expedition is under the charge of the United States Coast Survey, and the Government pays the expenses. During the frost of last week skating was freely indulged in on a lagoon in the Tokoniairiro — skates being lent out at 6d per hour. At a meeting of his constituents, held the other day, the Hon. Mr Fox, in reply to a question, said that the Education Bill, if introduced again, would be a Goyernment, but not a Ministerial measure. Mr Fox was not sanguine that it would pass this session. Auckland can boast anothor local industry in the shape of shark drying for exportation. The Southern Cross complains that the firewood dealers of Auckland cheat people out of their measurement, and suggests as a remedy for such nefarious practices, that on finding the ton of wood short measure, to refuse to pay for it, leaving the dealer his remedy in the Resident Magistrate's Court. A patient in the Nelson Lunatic Asylum has died from suffocation, caused through a piece of bread sticking in bis throat.

The promoters of a mining company in New South Wales have adopted a very peculiar title. They call their association the " Honest Lawyer Q-old Mining Company." There are 220 hotels, and from 400 to 500 sly grog shanties on the Otago goldfields. Several Chinamen and a small party of miners are reported to be at work on Mr Trumblo's station, within three miles of the Otaria accommo-dation-house. The wash ia very shallow and poor, and confined to the centre of the gullies — very much resembling that found about the old Mataura diggings. A Westporfc publican has been fined £10 and costs for allowing euchre to be played for drinks in his hotel. A locomotive engine, constructed in Danedin, is to be temporarily used on the Port Chalmers railway for drawing waggons. It is said that the Fairlie Double Bogie engine has proved itself from experiment capable of accomplishing three times the work of an ordinary locomotive.

A general meeting of shareholders in the Old Wakatipu Deep Sinking Gold Mining Company is convened for this evening, at 8 o'clock, in the Clarendon Hotel. The lecture to be delivered this evening in the Exchange Hall by His Honor Mr Justice Chapman will no doubt be liberally patronised. The subject — " The Triumphs of Science" — is a very interesting one, and in the hands of an experienced lecturer like Judge Chapman, is sure to be ably treated. We would direct the attention of shareholders in the Southland Building, Land, and Investment Society to the fact that a meeting is to be held in the Courthouse to-morrow evening at 8 J o'clock, for the purpose of considering a proposition to make an alteration in the rules giving the committee the power to appoint the Society's Bank, instead of reserving that authority to the shareholders, when assembled at a general meeting, as at present.