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Southland Times, Issue 1632, 13 September 1872, Page 2

| 1 The San Francisco mail was due at Auckland on Monday last. The weekly meeting of the Town Council last night lapsed for want of a quorum, the Mayor and Councillor Ross being the only members in attendance. A. new industry appears likely to be initiated in Southland in the shape of the collection for export of rabbit skins. From our advertising columns it will be observed that Mr F. F. Butler offers 2d a piece for 20,000 skins. The night watchman who has been maintained by the business people of Dee street for a number of months past, resigned his post on Monday, and no substitute has since been appointed. We think the town has a fair right to claim the services of a second policeman during the night, as during the time the privately- supported watchman was on duty, it was a matter of common occurrence for him to be called away to the other end of the town, far from his proper beat, in order to assist the constable on duty in keeping the peace. The very wide area which the town covers is by far too much for a single policeman to look after properly, and although on the whole we are a law-abiding community, we should think that the reasonableness of the request will commend itself to the favorable consideration of the Commissioner of Police, more especially as we may expect a considerable addition to our population when the railway works now inaugurated are in full operation. At the meeting of the Southland Land Board on Tuesday, there were present the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and Messrs Baker and M' Arthur. The application of Alexander Bethune for 1 acre, iv block 2, Invercargill Hundred, being road between sections 9 and 13, was refused, on the ground that the Board has no power to deal with public roads. The applications of James Mackintosh, on behalf of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, for 80 acres, being section 52, Oreti Hundred, 136 acres, being sections 42 and 43, block 2, Aparima Hundred, and 21 acres, being section 12, Aparima Hundred, were granted, the two latter under the Oreti Railway contract. The application of John M'lntjre for 150 acres, sections 22 and 23, block 10, Jacob's River Hundred, was granted. The consideration o£ John M'Lean's application for a steam sawmill license in Seaward Bush was adjourned, in order that it might be decided by a full Board. The Commissioner of Crown Lands informed the Board that he had received information that Mr John Ross was not living on, and had not im proved, section 21, block 4, Campbelltown Hundred, as he had stated at the meeting of the 27th ult., when he applied to have the section thrown open for sale. It was resolved that a report be obtained as to the facts. At the monthly meeting of the Committee of the Acclimatisation Society on Wednesday last, it was reported that a hare had been killed in the neighborhood of Roslin Bush, by mistake for a rabbit. It was resolved that the solicitor of the Society be requested to take proceedings in tho case under the Protection of Animals Act. The trout in the ponds are reported to be still spawning. The number of ova obtained up to the present time has reached upwards of 13,000. The starlings turned out at Wallaeetown, to the number of cloven, were doing well. The hon. secretary reported the safe arrival of four Australian quail, under the care of Mr Butler, by the Albion. These birds were reared by Mr Grimwood, of Elizabeth street, Melbourne, in confinement, the parent birds having been caught and domesticated. It is intended to keep them at the ponds, in the hope of being able to obtain young birds for distribution. The result of the polling for the election of three members of the Lindhurst Road Board, for the Myross subdivision, which took place yesterday, was as follows : — B. Bain, 32 ; Thos. M'Math, 31 ; W. Halliday, 28 ; Robert Hamilton, 18 ; Douglas Watson, 14 ; Thomas Marshall, 12. The polling for three members for the One Tree Point subdivision of the Oteramika Road Board, took place on Tuesday last, and resulted as follows: — Proctor Nicholson, 28 ; John G. Brown, 27 ; A oseph Lyle, 21 j Thomas Denniston, 14. The following is the result of the polling for the election of three members of the Makarewa Road Board for the Winton subdivision : — M. Bennett, 31 ; T. M'Lean, 27; M. M'Conachie, 23 ; J. Thomson, Ben., 22 ; W. Henderson, 18 ; W. Keith, 17 ; G. Crosby, 15 ; J. Thomson, 4. The polling for the election of three members of the Makarewa Road Board, Wallaeetown subdivision, took place on Saturday last, when Messrs Trumble, Blakie, and Hamilton, were returned. The Education Committee last night held their third meeting to decide upon the choice of a Head-master for the Grammar School, and again adjourned without coming to a decision. Public interest is keenly awakened in the matter, and it is to be hoped that as the members of the committee are doubtless aware of the importance of their decision to the community for years to come, the result of their deliberations will be Buch as to give equal satisfaction to themselves and to the public which has entrutetd its interests to their care. We understand that Mrs M'lvor has been appointed schoolmistress. The Argus says there is a considerable amount of sickness prevalent in Greyniouth at present, especially among children. Spurious coins — shillings dated 1844 — are in circulation in Westport, and the local paper warns persona to be on their guard against doubtfullooking "robertß."

The Westport storekeeper who recently advertised his store as being " on the wallabi track," is now able to announce " Settled at last." A system has been adopted in Wellington of selling meat by auction, in large joints. The average price realised is from lid to 2d per lb. At a recent Marine Court inquiry in Auckland it waa resolved to recommend the Government to make it compulsory upon all captains trading between New Zealand ports to hold certificates of competency. The Government buildings in Wellington, which were purchased from the Provincial Government in 1865 for £9,178, have since cost tho colony upwards of £16,000 in repairs, alterations, and additions, are now scarcely safe, and a large additional expenditure has just been incurred to secure the roofs of the two Chambers of the Legislature, which are honeycombed by dry-rot ; so that it is highly probable the £26,000 spent on them will have nothing to show for it within , another couple of years. j The thirty-seven members who voted against | Mr Stafford's resolutions, have decided to act j together as a regular Opposition. Fijian debentures to the amount of £3,000, bearing 10 per cent, interest, have been placed in Auckland at £80. The following io etated by the Otago Daily Times to be an analysis by Professor Black of a specimen ot tne mineral brought from Bligh Sound, and which had been supposed to contain tin : — " This mineral isa mixture of iron, alumina, garnet, with black garnet, magnetic oxide of iron, and uncombined silica. It contains a small percentage of copper, as carbonate and hydrated silicate. The copper in the best part does not quite reach one per cent. The mineral contains no tin. My analysis of the brownish red part, with resinous lustre, yielded : — lron, 24.39 per cent ; eesqui-oxide, 34.8 ; alumina, 32.3 ; lime, 0.9 ; magnesia, 3.5 ; silica, 26.9 ; water, alkalis, and loss, 1.6 : 100.0. Analysis of the black portion, with sub-metallic lustre, yielded : — Iron, 25 per cent ; sesqui oxide, 35.7; alumina, 7.3 ; lime, 3.1 ; magnesia, 13.0 ; silica, 35.5 ; water, loss, and alkalis, 5.4 : 100.0." In the House of Representatives, on the 7th inst., a message from the Governor was read, covering an opinion of the English law ofßcers of the Crown on the case submitted by a Conference of the two Houses last session, as to the powers of the Legislative Council regarding money bills. The law officers state that the Council's amendment of the Payment to Provinces Act was unjustifiable, it being a money bill ; and that the Council had no power to alter or amend such bills. Also that the privileges of the Act gave the Council no new power or privilege in this respect. Mr Fox congratulated the House on this vindication of its privileges. Fifteen hundred trout ova, in good condition, were landed at Auckland from the Bella Mary, from Hobart Town, on Monday last. The Auckland correspondent of the Lyttelton Times says : — The projector of a company — capital £15,000 — proposes to cleanse wool by a method which he describes as " new, simple, and highly economical ;" it is also patented. Ho has lectured aud experimented with, his system in public, and those of us who witnessed the experiments are of opinion that they were very satisfactory. The wool is first steeped in cold water, then squeezed hard and placed in a liquid, whose composition is not revealed — the wool remains in this preparation for five minutes — it is then taken out, and is seen to be beautifully white and feels soft as the finest silk. Moreover, wool I saw so treated was open to the points, and had lost nothing of the lustrous metallic appearance usually noticed in wool taken from healthy sheep. It is stated that the liquid employed can be manufactured for 9J per gallon. In a private telegram from Wellington, received in Dunedin, referring to the division on the want-of-eonfidence motion, the sender says : — " I have never seen such disgraceful conduct, even in any Provinciil Council. Men were kept drunk under lock and key ; and others were bought like bullocks. Had the Government resorted to the same course they could have got a majority — even within the hour of the division. Great credit is given them for not doing so, and for resisting the Wellington robbers. Ormond made the Bpeech of the session, and completely answered every charge." A GJ-erman physician lately started the theory that the fearful disease known as small-pox originates from an excess of albuminous matter in the blood, and that this is prevented by the administration of common salt. The habits of children in indulging too freely in sweetmeats, he considers one great cause of this undue develop--1 ment of albumen, and he alleges that coffee and tea, if highly eugared, tend also to excite it in adults. Any organic acid, such as lemon juice, he considers the best means of freeing the blood when clogged with too much albumen, and he alleges that by taking these simple remedies in the way of precaution, he has, for upwards of twelve years past, frequented or taken up his abode in the most pestilential small- pox hospitals of Europe and South America with entire impunity. ' In a lecture on Immigration, Mr Jordan stated that during six years he sent 36,000 persons to Queensland — namely, 6,000 navvies and cotton operatives, 12,000 full pavers, 12,000 free passengers, and 6,000 assisted passengers. The amount of money raised by the assisted plan which he originated, realised £54,000 during six years, paying all the expenses of the Queensland office, salary of Agent-General, and all other expenses of his mission, and bringing in a revenue as well of £3,000 a-year. A correspondent of the South Australian Register, writing from the Roper, states : — " Hume, the man who is in search of Leichhardt, has gone up the country with Mr Mitchell's party. He still sticks to his statement about the ' remains,' but says that the 'old white-haired man' who is reported to have been seen on the Albert River in Queensland, is perhaps the identical old man of the mountain whom he (Hume) saw on the western coast, and that therefore something may be heard about the 'remiins' before long from I the very lips of this venerable gentleman, in which case Hume's proposed journey across the continent would not be bo necessary as it was when be left Newcastle. Of course not. In fact, I expect that romains of Leichhardt will be found everywhere, now that there is a demand I for them."

A meeting of the shareholders, of the Old Wakatipu Deep Sinking Gold Mining Company was held last night in the Prince of Wales Hotel. It was decided that the work should remain in abeyance for three months, and that in the meantime the committee should take steps to raise further capital, with the view of resuming operations in the dry weather, and report to another meeting of the shareholders. Laafc year, that is in 1871, not only was wool shown in all its conditions at the London International Exhibition, but the animals from which it was obrained, namely, specimens of long and short, fine and coarse wool, sheep, llamas, goats, and the like. This year cotton is in tho ascendant, and the plant is exhibited as well as the raw and manufactured fabric. A complete collection, comprising all the known varieties of the plant, in a growing state, is now ma le at Kensington, and is spoken of as an object of great interest. A family in the G-oulburn district, New South ' Wales, consisting of the husband, wife, and two ] children, were suffocated recently through the careless use of charcoal in a cloied room. A bullock in Shortland the other day chased a miner into a hotel bar, where tho brute pinned him against a partition, one of its horns wounding the man sererely in the neck, and for a few seconds it seemed as though he could not escape death. The landlord, with great presence of mind, dashed the contents of a bucket of water in the bullock's face, which, besides disconcerting the animal, caused it to slip on the wet floor, allowing the man to get free and jump over the bar, out of danger. The bullock was at once secured and killed. The following figures, extracted from a Parlia* mentary return, show the rainfall in the Colony during the year 1871 : —

The Railway Committee and the General Commemoration Committee announce a meeting at the Council Hall this evening.

Number Total Stations- days Rainfall, rain fell. Inches. M.ngonui (Auckland) ... 185 57 640 Auckland 194 47505 Taranaki 207 72-120 Napier ... ... ... 106 35 890 Wellington 183 64*057 Nelson 10L 55670 Christchurch 126 27 935 Bealey (Canterbury) ... 1«7 106-801 Hokitika " ... 196 122140 Dunedin 149 22' US Southland 144 39 030