Untitled

Southland Times, Issue 1803, 7 October 1873, Page 2

The session of Parliament was brought to a close on Friday, 3rd inst., at noon, being then prorogued by the Governor in person. His Excellency in reviewing the session characterise i it as short, but more than ordinarily important. The crescent business, we may assume, has now been effectually disposed of, a resolution having been passed in the Municipal Council requesting the Superintendent to instruct the survey of the land north of the Puni Creek, in accordance with a plan submitted by the Council providing for the extension of Tay street in a straight line. The Rev. Dr Begg, of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh, one of the leading ministers of the Free Church of Scotland, was a passenger by the Tararua for Dunedin. The rev. gentleman availed himself of the midday train yesterday to pay a flying visit to Invercargill. Miss Fanny Sara and Mr Fred Clifton gave their farewell entertainment inthe Theatre Royal on the evening of Friday last. We were pleased to observe a large attendance on the occasion. The performance waß of the usual high order of merit, the audience testifying their appreciation by demanding an encore after every song. For the silver watch offered by Mr Clifton as a prize to the beat amateur comic singer, there were four entries. Five persons from the auditory having been appointed judges, their award fell to the singer of " Happy Jack," and this decision seemed to meet with the approval of the audience. We have received No. 7 of the Australasian Sketcher, which fully sustains the reputation of its predecessors. The present number contains superior engravings of views of the Victorian court in the Vienna Exhibition, the Hanging Rock, New Zealand, drawn by Mr J. C. Richmond, the storm scene in which Captain Rouse was lost from the Claud Hamilton, and several other drawings of localities of colonial interest. We have been favored by Mr J. H. Smith with a perusal of several letters he has receiveJ from Mr J. Ludlam (better known in Invercargill as " GUI BaKarat ") who recently returned to England. Writing in the latter end of July, Mr Ludlam says : — "Sheep, cattle, and horses are awfully dear here, and labor for the harvest will be scarce and high. Ido not think this country can be said to bo in a satisfactory condition. You need not expect much emigration, for the laborers are getting aa much here as you are giving, all things considered. A friend of mine told me he had to let his laborers go because they wanted os per day. Many of the laboring class are off to the manufacturing districts, where they get from £1 ro £2 per week. Tell your Government to offer every male adult, on arriving, from 50 to 100 acres of land, and sec if that wouid move the boys;" The schooner Oreti, which was recently stranded at Oamaru, has been successfuly relaunched.

During the session just closed, the House of Representatives sat an average o ? seven hours daily for 52 days ; there were 26 select com. mittees ; 162 petitions were received ; 72 divisions took plaoe ; 243 papers were tabled, and 203 printed ; 197 reports were received from committees ; 81 public and 3 private Acts passed the Legislature, and 26 were rejected, by the Council. The actual locality of . the^latest . gold discovery on the- West Coast' is variously stated at from five to twelve miles inland, and about eight miles south of the Haast river. The following is the information which caused the rnsh : — A party of miners, consisting of John Marks, Simon Munro, and William Harris, who have been prospecting for some time in the vicinity of the Haast, applied to the Warden at Okartto for a prospectiag claim. They produced about 45 ozs. of coarse gold — the smallest piece weighing half a pennyweight, and the largest 3 ozs. — which they stated was the produce, allowing for loss of time, of about a month's work. Besides , applying for a prospecting claim, the men put I in an application for the General Government reward of £200 for the discovery of a new goldfield, and also for the reward of £500 offered by the County Government. At the meeting of the Otsgo Waste Land Board, held in Dunedin on the 2nd inst., Mr Gillies appeared on behalf of Mr J. E. Black to request that that gentleman's application for a mill site at the Mataura should be re-heard. The Board resolved that as there were now two applicants for the site, the Government should | be recommended to survey a site with the view of submitting it to public competition either for lease or for sale. A letter was received from Mr H. E. Osboma, auctioneer, Invercargill , relative to the recent appointment of Mr D. Maerorie as auctioneer for the Invercargill Land District. The writer acknowledged receipt of a letter from the Board, stating that the question of the appointment of an auctioneer for the district would not be re-opened. He went on to say that no intelligent man could feel satisfied with such a decision, knowing that the question had been re- opened previously. When Mr Macrorie's offer was first received, the Board considered it to be too high, and it was decided to call for tenders. That should have been done at once ; but a delay occurred, which gave Mr Maerorie a c'mnce of sending in another tender at a much lower price than the first, thus preventing the writer and another Invercargill firm of auctioneers from having any chance of the appointment. He considered it would be only fair to now throw the appointment open for competition. He pointed out that Mr Maerorie had offered by tender, sent in to the Invercargill office, to do the same work for 29s 6J, whereas the Waste Lands Board at Dunedin now gave him 50s for doing that work. A letter to the same effect was received from Messrs G. F. Martin and Co., auctioneers, InvercargilL The letters were read. The municipal corporation of Port Chalmers is authorised, by act of the General Assembly, to borrow any sum not exceeding £15,000, for the purpose of supplying the town of Port Chalmers and the shipping of the pjrt with water. The debt of the Sydney Corporation amounts to over £SOO,OJO, of which £413,030 is on water supply account, an I £200,000 for sewe age. In alluding to the dolorous view taken by several members of the Legislative Council of the position and prospects of the Colony, the Nelson Colonist says that if the list of shareholders in some of the recently started public companie g was looked over, the names of manj of the 11 honorables " would be found therein, therefore, their actions must belie their words. " They croak about ruin to the country, yet show their faith in its future welfare by greedily buying u p land in each Province, and investing some of their spare capital in national speculations. The enterprise being at present exhibited in the Colony, thows that the people do not believe in such false prophets — who speak only of the debts, but are silent about the industries that will be developed when the country is opened up by means of railways running to the extreme ends of each Island."