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Southland Times, Issue 1639, 27 September 1872, Page 2

The steamers Pretty Jane and Storm Bird left the Bluff for Dunedin, and the steamers Keera and Wallabi left Port Chalmers for the Bluff, yesterday. If they came within the influence of the heavy S.W. gale which commenced to blow in the afternoon, they would have rather a rough passage. At the time the telegraph office closed last evening — 8 o'clock — there was no intelligence of any of the vessels havi.-jg put back. We learn that the New Zealand and Australian Land Company hare aold 50 of their pure bred Lincoln ram hoggets to an extensive South Australian runholder at £12 each, whbh is a healthy sign of the demand for that des:ription of sheep. The returns of the polling at the ebction of members for the Wallacetown subdivisbn of the Makarewa Road District have just reached us, and as the numbers polled by each candidate have been published in other cases, we give them in this instance also: — Thomas Trumble, 33; James Blakie, 29 ; Alexander Hamilton, 29 ; Archibald Comeron, 17 ; John Givin, 6. At the meeting of the Southland Land Board on Tuesday, the Commissioner of Crown Lands and all the members were present. Mr James Aitken applied to have certain improvements made by him on section 21, bl >ck 4, Campbelltown Hundred, valued at £112, in event of the land being sold. This is the section on which Mr J. A. Ross lately claimed also to have made certain improvements. It was ultimately decided that the section should be surveyed, at the expense of parties, in two equal portions, and sold by auction in the usual manner, at an upset price of 40s per acre, and subject to a valuation for improvements, those erected by Mr Ross amounting to £18, and the value of those by Mr Aitken to be ascertained. Messrs Maclean and Buchanan, sawmillers, applied for leave to cut large trees outside their boundary, at the price of 10s per tree, to enable them to furnish piles of 40 feet in length. It was resolved to grant the permission required, subject to the inspection of a ranger, of which the applicants are to bear the expense. The consideration of the price per tree tras postponed. The application of H. Rogers, for -4 acres of land in the Bush Reserve, adjoining the Education Reserve, in , block 5, New River Hundred, was granted, subject to the usual conditions of 'sale by auction at an upset price of 408. At the meeting of the Town Council last night, there were present the Mayor, and Councillors Goodwillie, Garthwaite, Blackwood, Lumsden, Jaggers, and Ross. The following telegram, despatched by the Mayor to the Superintendent, in answer to one requesting a reply to His Honor's last communication in re the Waihopai bridge, was read : — " Community of both town and country unite in condemning intended position of bridge. Being purely Government matter, I have not communicated with contractors. Persons qualified to judge state freely thai the necessary expense for temporary ford and foot-bridge would be fully counterbalanced by the now existing approaches being available for the new bridge. If engineer be reauested to give effect to the public wish there is no further difficulty to overcome. Do prevail on Executive to reconsider matter, for request is only reasonable and just." The opinion of the Corporation solicitor, on the question as to the right of the Government to enter upon,Tyne street for the purpose of railway construction, was read, and was on the whole to the effect that the action ( of the OoverDtnent in the matter was justified by the law, and with regard to the construction of culverts under the railway, that the contractors were not bound to make culverts to suit drainage schemes which may be in contemplation at any other level than the drainage now existing. The report of the Public Works Committee, recommending that the appointment ofja certificated surveyor for the town be taken into consideration, and suggesting the desirability of procuring a good supply of metal, was read and adopted. It was resolved that the Mayor communicate with the engineer of the railway, regarding the fencing of that portion of the line which passes through the town. The tender of Mr William Haselmore, for sinking a well in the Fire Engine House yard, 20 feet deep and 5 feet over, at 5s per foot, was accepted. Amongst the Otago Ordinances lately assented to by His Excellency the Governor is the Otago Local Revenues Ordinance, 1872, under which the Government make over to the corporation the dog tax and license fees collected within its bounds, amounting to about £900 a-vear.

Mes3rs Gillies, Fitzherbert, and Curtis have not yet resigned their Superintendences. Telegrams from Wellington, of date 23rd inst., state that great dissatisfaction is expressed thereat. The Wellington Independent announces that Mr . Macandrew will dispense with Mr Reid's services. Mr Tolmie is spoken of as his successor. The following are the trades and businesses of the immigrants per ship Hydaspes, which arrived at Port Chalmers on the 20th inst. : — Laborers, 12 ; carpenters, 3 ; farm laborers, 4 ; shepherds, 2; weavers, 1 ; butchers, 1 ; masons, 1 ; excavators, 1 ; gardeners, 1 ; female cook, 1 ; female servantt, 35 ; laundress, 1 ; blacksmith, 1 ; miller, 1 ; nurse, 1. On the amendments proposed by the Legislative Council on the Drawbacks Biil bein^ considered by the House of Representatives, Mr Vogol objected, on the ground that the Council could not interfere with Money Bills. The Speaker ruled that the Legislative Council had no power ' to make the alterations proposed. Mr Murray (member for Bruce) has been successful in inducing the House of Representatives to endorse the principle of his Drainage Bill, the second reading having been carried by an overwhelming majority, on the understanding that Mr Murray's rather crude and imperfect Bill should be dropped, and Mr Stafford promising thaf. the Government would, during the recess, prepare a measure to carry the principle ' into practice. After the Ist January, 1873, cheques and receipts will only require a penny gtamp. The Southern Cross thinks that the meanest people in the world are to be found in Parnell, (a suburb of Auckland.) Sooner than be rated a sixteenth of a permy — says that journal — the ratepayers k have determined to do without gaslamps. They prefer the alternative of stumbling and tumbling along their dirty roads, when business or pleasure calls them from their homes at night, to paying an annual rate of three or four shillings. Parnell will continue to grope and bark its shins and keep its annual half-crown, in its pocket. The South Australian Advertiser learns that there if a prospect of some early steps being taken towards the foundation of an oyster fishery. It says : — lt is lamentable to note that on the Victorian side some very extensive natural beds have been entirely destroyed by the reckless mode of conducting the fishing operations. In order to prevent a similar procedure here a Bill is in course of progress through the Legislature, which will do much towards favoring the growth and culture of this edible mollusc. The postage on newspapers will be reduced to a halfpenny from the first of January next. The Bill to re-admit Mr Henry Smythies to practice as a solicitor was rejected by the Legislative Council by 21 to 7. The new Government is designated in Wellington as the " Sw^er-abundant Ministry." A " little difficulty" has sprung up in the district of Manawatu, with respect to the Norwegians. It appears that an election took j place for a seat in the District Board. There were two parties, the one the " settlers," an 1 the other the Norwegians. Tho latter returned their man at the head of the poll. This has made the " old settlors" furious, and they state they will not recognise the newly-elected member, affirming that the Norwegiana were brought dpwn in a body by Mr Monrad (a son of Bishop Monrad, late Premier of Deumark) to vote en masse against the " settlers' " candidate. The circumstance has caused a large amount of correspondence, and a good deal of ill-will. The present lambing season (says the Wanganui Chronicle) has so far been attended with very fair results notwithstanding the severe frosts experienced during the early part of the month, which caused a good many deaths among newly-dropped lambs on exposed runs. So far as we can learn the average increase this year is about 90 per cent, for the entire district, although in particular instances this average has been j exceeded. The Reefton correspondent of the Grey River Argus says: — The facility with which the marriage tie can be dissolved on gold fields generally is notorious, but in this parb of the world the generally strong noose is more easily slipped off than in any other that it has been my fortune to inhabit. The other day, for example, I was strolling down Broadway when I encountered two old acquaintances looking as far from disconsolate as was possible. After the usual salutations, I ventured to make the usual complimentary inquiries after their respective better halves, when they told me that the ladies in question had thought fit to transfer their affections and persons , without even going through the brief American divorce process, to other favored swains, and the affair seemed to bo regarded by them rather in the light of a good joke than otherwise. There was not a bit of romance in the matter — the parties concerned living close to each other on the most amicable terms, without the least suspicion of clandestiae elopement or concealment. These couples too, to my knowledge, were lawfully married, and one of them had been joined in the holy etate of matrimony for twelve or fourteen years. Breeders of long-woolled sheep (says the Lyttelton Times) will be sorry to hear that Messrs Marcroft and Ayers have met with a very severe loss in the death of two of their imported rams — one Lincoln and one Leicester (the Duke of Hamilton). The former was bred by R. A. Kirkham, Esq., Lincolnshire, who informed Mr Marcroft that he let the own brother to him for three seasons, during which he pro iueel no less a sum than £423. The sire of the rams cost Mr Kirkham 150 guineas. Canterbury breeders will remember that at last year's agricultural and pastoral exhibition — the first year the sheep were shown in full wool, and the first year that any of their progeny were before che public here — no less than twenty-six of them won first and second prizes, whilst some of the lambs were disposed of at from £12 to £20 each. Several lambs out of provincial ewes were also sold off by Messrs Ford and Newton at upwards of £3 each. It is reported, says the Wairarapa Standard, that the run of Messrs Kai^hfc , of Tiraumea, valued by the assessor at a little over £2000, has been purchased, including stock, for £3500, or 13a per acre, by the Hon. Mr Waterhou3e, who, it it said, intends to expend £1000 in improvements upon it during the season.