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Southland Times, Issue 1719, 25 March 1873, Page 2

We have been requested to state that considerably over 100 signatures have been appended to the requisition asking Mr Cuthbertson to come forward as a candidate for the representation of the town in the General Assembly. It is generally understood that Mr Wood is likely to contest the field with Mr Cuthbertson, but as yet no definite announcement has been made. We believe that the Ottawa, which arrived at the Bluff on Sunday, brings some 303 tons of material for the permanent way of the Matanra railway. Everything is therefore now in readiness for the plate-laying, with the exception of the locomotive, promised some weeks ago. The delay ia its transmission is unaccountable, the last objection made by the authorities ia Dunedin — namely, tbat there was not sufficient tackle available there for its transhipment — having been disposed of by the forwarding of the requisite gear from the railway department in Invercargill. Yesterday being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the province of Otago, was observed at the Government Offices, banks, and several business establishments as a holiday. The public, however, did not seem to take much notice of the occasion. The weather could scarcely be characterised as favorable for out-door enjoyment, a drizzly south-east rain prevailing during the early part of the day. We understand that several applications have been made for leases of land in the vicinity of the Nightcap Hill, with the view of utilizing the coal deposits ascertained to exist there. The applications will be considered by the Waste Land Board at its meeting to-day. A special train arrived from Winton at 1.15 this morning, under the charge of Mr T. J. White, station master there, the object being to secure the services of a surgeon for a man named James Smith, employed splitting in the bush at Mr Young's station, Otapiri, who it is said has had both legs broken, besides sustaining several injuries to his hands, &o. The news reached Winton shortly after 11 o'clock, and as it was found that no communication could be obtained by telegraph, it was decided to come into town with the engine, the men exerting themselves to the utmost and succeeding in getting up steam iv twenty minutes. A note from Mr Young, conveyed to Winton by special messenger, stated that the injured man was beiug brought thither. At tke meeting of the Land Board on Friday, the following applications were granted : — Christopher M'Donald, 203 acres, Forest Hill Hundred ; J. H. Menzies, 500 acres, Oreti Hundred ; John Jenkins, 68 acres, New River Hundred ; George M'Leod, 100 acres, New Biver Hundred ; Walter Gray, 120 aores, Forest Hill Hundred ; John Crosbie, 318 acres, Winton Hundred ; and J. H. Menzies, 766 acres, Jacob's Biver Hundred. At the meeting of the Waste Land Board at Dunedin on Thursday last, Mr John Watt applied to purchase about 35 acres of bush reserve, on section 49, block 4, Tuturau district, to enable him to complete his property. Mr Thomson said that apparently the object of the applicant was not to complete, but to add to his property. But, besides, tbe land applied for was a bush reserve, and as bush was scarce in the district, he suggested that the application should not be granted. The application was refused. The application of Andrew Muir to purchase part of reserve on section 47, block 4, Tuturau district, was refused on similar grounds to that operating in last case. Messrs Fraser and M'Lean applied for a pastoral lease of 5000 acres between the Monowai and Manipori Lakes. It was resolved that the land be assessed, and then sold by auction. Mr Baker, inspector of surveys, reported on the question as to the position of tbe northern boundary of the Tuturau Hundred; It was resolved that Mr Baker's report be confirmed, aud that land hitherto doubtful as to being on the Bun or Hundred be advertised as being open for application, as part of the Tuturau Hundred. Three tons of old iron (says the Cromwell Argus), intended for exportation to China, were sent to Dunedin the ether day by a local Chinese storekeeper. The consignment chiefly consisted of worn-out horse-shoes, which the thrifty Celestials sell to the Chinese Government for conversion into cannon- balls and other warlike projectiles. The Dunstan Times says that Mr Job Wain, junr., paid a visit to Clyde on Tuesday, the llth inst., with the object of inspecting the roads, and arranging for the running of a six-horse coach from Tokomairiro to Clyde in one day. The new arrangement is not to commence till the opening of the Tokomairiro Bailway, which is expected to be ready for traffic in about five mon ks. It is a fact worthy of note that Lieut. Hoskins, the champion shot at the late Colonial Volunteer meeting in Nelson, and Messrs Stone and Thompson, two of the highest aggregates, are natives of New Zealand. The Bruce Herald says the Tokomairiro races of 1873 closed " with a good many expressions unfavorable to the prospect of their being got up another year." The Lake Wakatip Mail of the 19th inst. has the following remarks apropos of the proposed endowment of a Dunedin Harbor Trust :— " In other colonies the metropolitan centres are no longer able to ruin the interests ef up-country

districts by their excessive demands. Dunedin and the Taieri have swallowed up nearly £600,000 of loans, and the city now wants more for dredging purposes. We protest. Invercargill requires attention, and has received little attention or care to its interest. Bluff Harbor is still an open port or harbor. Yet, because small steamers cannot be got up to the Dunedin jetties, the province is to be taxed generally. This is neither fair nor just. Dunedin has obtained a great deal more than she ever was justly entitled to. She has a University, a High School, a Dry Graving Dock, a Port Chalmers Railway Line, a proposed Water Scheme to be purchased at our expense as guarantees. Where is the chapter to en J f Not here. She has also prison labor to use, dredges, jetties, stone walls, and cuttings made by that labor. Her Corporation is richly endowed — so riohly that we cannot understand why the merchants of Dunedin desire to achieve greater advantages. We know perfectly well what will be the reply. A saving* of 10s a ton freightage, and other odds and and* so favorable to trade. The up-country people and consumers reap none of this advantage." The groundwork of an extensive system of sericulture is being formed in Canterbury. Mr Armstrong, the Government gardener, has pro - pagated 400 mulberry plants of the best varietie s for sericulture. The valuation of property in Christchurch fo r tbis year amounts to £102,232, being an advanc e oa that of 1872 of £5,402. The Lyttelton Times says that abont 1500 shares have already been applied for in tbe Canterbury Flax Spinning Company, leaving only 500 to dispose of. The objects of the Company are to spin, weave, manufacture the fibre, and otherwise to work up the tow and fibre of the Phormium, and to adopt the same for the manufacture of cornsacks, woolpacks, sorim cloth, coal and ore sacks, bagging, and other purposes, and ta do all such things as are incidental and con. ducive to tie attainment of the above objects. Lord Kinberley, in the speech he delivered at the telegraphic banquet, recently held in London, paid New Zealand a high compliment. He said : — " Look at New Zealand. Ido not believe that in tbe whole history of England will be found an example of Englishmen who have met tbe difficulties that stood in their way more manfully, or haie settled them with greater success ; nothing couli have been attended with happier results than the policy of the New Zealand Ministry towards the native chiefs during the last year. (Qieers). The Government of that colony have iully understood their situation ; they have man'ully dealt with their difficulties ; and the way in which they have surmounted them is a proof that we have laid the foundation of their lasting prosperity and progress. I honor the spirit they have shown — (hear, hear) — and more so because they now pursue their course without murauring, and I hope they now acknowledge that their position is superior to anything in the past ; is now more consolidated and hopefully encouraging with respect to the future. I have made this reference to New Zealand, feeling assured that no colony had shown a greater spirit and determination to overcome its difficulties." There are some ingenious tradesmen in Westport (says the local paper) and their cleverness deserves exaltation — at the end of a rope. We saw lately an attenuated specimen of what is known in the bakery trade as a " two lbcottage," weighed just for curiosity. It barely turned the scale at three ounces and three quarters short weight ! The ingenious artist in dough deserves a medal as much as did the Loudon waiter who won a premium for squeezing three pints of wine out of a quart bottle. However desirable it is to utilise the iron sand (says the Auckland correspondent of a contemporary), it may perhaps be well to bear in mind that as yet Messrs Calder, Element, and Co. have only experimented on a small scale, and here is the rub : Can a furnace, capable of standing the intense heat required for smelting a large quantity of iron sand at one operation, be constructed ? Some well informed manipulators of iron do not believe it can be done. Others think it just possible that such a furnace could be built. Great things were expected from Mr Element's | gold smelting operations, but he only succeeded in smelting gold in very small quantities, and j that had been done at least two years before Mr j Element's time. Mr Element no doubt acted I fairly and to the best of his ability in those gold smelting operations j but who does not remember poor Miss Joey Gougenhein's husband, and how he lost some £2000 ; was ruined in fact by them ? Respecting our embryo Iron and Steel Company, it is greatly hoped that it will be a grand success. Nevertheless, it is very evident that not a few moneyed men fight shy of the shares, because there is nothing to hinder the promoters from selling out, immediately the plant is declared to be iv working order. There is a curious passage in the evidence of the master of the ship England relating to the dietary of the emigrants despatched by Messrs Shaw, Saville, and Co. He says, " the dietary scale was in every respect inferior to the dietary scale issued for emigrants to Victoria or New South Wales. The latter is £2 to £2 10s better. The £1600 paid to me by the charterers represents about four-sevenths of the net receipts for freight and passage money. The remaining three- sevenths represents the profits of the charterers, or about £1000." The Charleston Herald notifies with pleasure that no newspapers were stolen from the library in that township in the week ending March 8. Mongrel mangy curs are said to be very numerous in Auckland at present. In every street are to be seen brutes with backs stripped of hair in consequence of disease, induced by feeding on all sorts of filth and garbage. The Westport Times of the 14th inst. says : — At last the blessed rain has come, and pious aspirations doubtless ascend that it may keep coming down for a week. From present indications it does not appear that it will be of long duration, but, much or httle, it will prove most welcome. We learn from a West Coast paper that some of the river beach claims on the Matakitaki are paying from £10 to £12 per week per man. After every flood fresh deposits of gold are lodged on the beaches, some of which have been worked six or seven times over. The New Zealand Herald has at last come to the conclusion that the people of Auckland have

gone the wrong way to work. It says :— " Our fencing and thistle laws hare strangled agriculture ; our ' waiting on Providence' for rain has hmited our timber trade ; and our indifference to things in general, and predilection to large profits and ' sharp practice,' have curtailed trade. Added to which, through apathy and ignorance combined, we hare acquiesced, as a community, in a fiscal system which has been apparently designed to operate injuriously against the industries, trade, and people of Aucklan 1.