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Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 6, 13 October 1871, Page 2

There wilt be an adjourned meeting of the Waiotalii District Board this day (Friday), at 10 o’clock, at the Governor Bowen Hotel, when several matters of importance arc expected to be discussed. At the Warden’s Court, yesterday, the Providence Company lost their ground, which is sa : d to be vcy valuable, through not holding miners’ rights at a certain date. A report will be found in another place. The solemn ceremony of the dedication of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Bridget. Grahamstown, is advertised to take place on Sunday morning next, at 11 o’clock. The Right Rev. Dr. Crokc, Roman Catholic l’ishopof Auckland, will deliver an address appropriate 'o the occasion, and will also preach in the evening at Vespers at Shortland on the Infallibility of the Pope.

There av 30 civil cases set down for hearing at the Resident Magistrate’s Court today, but probably some of them will be settled out of Courl. A meeting of the shareholders of the Loyalty Gold Mining Company (Registered) was held at the office of Messrs Hilton and Lindsay, Brown-street, last evening. Rules were passed, and election of the following directors:—Messrs Higgins, White, Rayson, Glasgow, and Hooper. The election of Mr G. P. Hilton as legal manager was confirmed. A meeting of directors was decided upon, to be held next Monday, for the purpose of making arrangements to commence opening out the ground. A MEETING of the Thames Mechanics’ Institute Debating Class was held last night, at which a paper was read by the Secretary, Mr. W. A. Gray, on the subject of “State Education.” Mr. Gray treated the question in a veiy able manner, approving, in the main (except that of pro/iding denominational education), of the general scheme of education for the colony contemplated by the present Government. A very animated debate ensued upon the paper, which was shared in by a number of members. A meeting of house painters was held last evening, at the Wharf Hotel, to form a society to assist its members during sickness, by paying a weekly subscription. Thirty members were enrolled, and the following officers elected : —Chairman, Win. G. Kibble ; Vice-Chairman, IT. Lymburn ; Treasurer, P. Griffin, senior ; Secretary, G. Element ; Assistant-Secretary, T. Evans. It is with picasurc we sec these offorts on the part of the citizens of our town, to.organise themselves with a view to mutual assistance iu affliction, and wc hope this example will be followed by others.

Mr. Vogel seems to have gone to England for wool, and to have come back shorn. One of the objects of his mission was to negotiate a railway contract, and he has done it—with a vengeance He has signed an agreement with Messrs. Brogden and Sons, by which they undertake to construct as many miles of railway as cau be made for £4,000,000, upon being guaranteed five and a half per cent, interest on their outlay for a period of forty years. Not a bad bargain this, considering the current rate of interest in England, for—the contractors. But “ there’s pippins and cheese to come.” Not only are these gentlemen to enjoy this substantial guarantee for four decades, by the expiration of which time the population of New Zealand will have probably quadrupled itself, but they are to obtain a free grant of land to the extent of three-quarters of an acre for every pound sterling expended on the lines, it being stipulated that one-fifth of the land is to be suitable for settlement. Mr. Vogel may he a shrewd financier, but he has evidently fallen in with a firm very much shrewder than himself.— Australasian. Value of New York Papers. —The New York ‘ Herald 1 is valued at 5,000,000d01., and is owned by Commodore James (Jordon Bennett. Jr., haying been presented to him by his father. The ‘ Evening Post ’ was valued by John J. Cisco and two referees, some months since, at 1,250,000d01. The New York 'Times ' is valued at 1,500,000d01., 1.000,000d01. has been offered for it and refused. The New York ‘ World ’ is valued at 1,200,000d01. More capital was sunk to make it than any other newspaper ever started in this or auy other country. The ‘ Tribune ’ is valued at 2.000,000d01., and could not be purchased for that amount. The ‘ Evening Mail ’ is valued at 150,000d01. Cyrus W. Field lately purchased one-tliird interest in it for JO.OOOdoI. The * Evening Telegram’ is valued at 200,000d01.. and is not for sale. The New York • Sun ’is valued at 1,500,000d01., and pays seven per cent, on a larger amount. The 1 Commercial Advertiser’ is valued at 250,000d01., and it would take a larger sum to purchase it. The 1 Journal of Commerce ’ is valued at 500,000dc;l. The ‘Daily apd Weekly News’ arc valued at SOO.OOPdoI. The daily circulation of the ‘ News ! and ‘Sun ’ approximate closer than any other two daily newspapers in the city. The New York ‘ Star,” Joseph Howard’s paper, is valued at 500,000d01., but is not for sale.

The cry of the “unemployed” is periodically raised in San Francisco as well as in Melbourne ; and it is stated that, at times there arc thousands of poisons without work in that city. Are we then to conclude California, which is just double the size Victoria, and contains only two-thirds of the population of this Colony, is over-peopled. Nothing of the kind. There, as here, men stand out for an arbitrary rate of wages, refuse to work for less, loaf about the large towns, and pipe the wretched old tunc that “ the country is played out.” Upon this point, the ‘ Bulletin’ of the 20th of July last writer : —“ A few days since when orders came from the country for a considerable number of men to w.ork in the harvest fields, only a small part of the force required could be obtained at once. There were idle men enough; but only one in ten of those to whom work was offered would accept the situations. The wages offered were Idol. 50c.—six shillings a day and board. Estimating this to be worth not less than 20dol. a month, the compensation really offered was 2dol. 10c. per day, or a fraction over s(idol, a month. Now, the market is generally overstocked with unskilled laborers ; and at this very time men of this class are waiting for employment. In cases where laborers know that they can do better thau accept the woges offered, they are not to be blamed. Rut most of these men do not know that they can do bettor, and they adopt the worse alternative of doing nothing while waiting for something to turn up. It is the old story. The early miners deserted “diggings” which wonld pay lOdol. a day to each man, for such as would pay an ounce. But if only half an ouuce could be obtained as the fruits of a day’s work, they preferred iu many instances idleness.”

An earthquake at sea was experienced on board the brig ‘ Vic' orv,’ while on her passage from Calcutta to this port. It occurred on the 19th of August* in 4 deg. 17 min. south, and 98 deg. 30 min. east, at about half past eight o’clock at night. The position above would plac e the vessel a short distance off the island of Sumatra. There was a fine breeze at the time, the speed of the vessel being about seven knots, and the water was very smooth. The shock shook the vessel all over, and for about 30 or 40 seconds felt to those on board as if travelling over a pebbly bottom. Wc are told that our friend Butters, the ex-member for Portland, and the present speaker of King Thakorabau’s Parliament, will shortly visit Melbourne for the purpose of floating a Fijian loan. Butters is a capita' financier, but the success of this his latest undertaking is not so apparent as the launch of the loan which built the Melbourne Town hall. Fiji is not a place which every man wo: 1 Id care to visit in order to pre ,nt his coupons. What will the security be? Perhaps taxes collected from those agreeable mountaineers who retire to their fastnesses after murdering a few of the white settlers. By the way, we have not seen any public notice of the death, at Suva, of Mr Pierce J. Williams, who had a perpetual claim before Parliament which nobody understood. Mr W. was a healthy, powerful mau, who survived repeated assaults (upon Parliament by himself), but who succumbed to a form of disease which is especially fatal to Fiji. The following appeared in the Adelaide telegram to the Age :—A great hoax was perpetrated yesterday by a person (name unknown) who, soon after the arrival of the branch mail steamer, wrote the following on the Government notice board outside the Telegraph station :—“Great European war. Queen on death-bed. Ministry resigned.” This announcement caused great excitement, and the news soon spread. Several cle’gymeu in Adelaide offered up prayers during the morning service, iu accordance with the sad news. An extraordinary phenomenon is reported at Napier as having occurred on the morning of the 31st ultimo, in the shape of a thunderbolt serolite, or some meteorological wanderer, which, after the occurrence of a heavy peal of thunder and a vivid flash of lightning, fell into 1 lie harbour. The concussion was so great, that the water rose on each side to the height of the top of a cutter’s mast, a large volume of spray, or ash, or steam,—for it had been described as having the closest resemblance to the latter two substances, —was borne a long distance down the harbour. The appearance presented in the effects, as described by spectators, was, as if a mass of burning log and cinders falling into the water had produced the ashes and steam borne away so far to leeward.

Holders of property in some of the goldfields townships in Victoria are in a somewhat peculiar position. To-day they arc proud possessors of houses and lands which to-morrow may have disappeared, owing to the fact of their having been undermined. According to the statements of s deputation which waited on the At L jrney-Gcneral, the ground under Ballarat East and West is being so honeycombed that the greatest alarm has been excited in those localities. It was affirmed that the gasworks arc being jeopardised by the blasting goiug on in the vicinity ; that St. Paul’s Church m'ghtgoat any minute ; and that a large amount of private property is in danger of destruction in consequence of encroachments on land which was four years since specially reserved from mining. It appears that it is no use obtaining injunctions from the courts commanding the trespassers to abstain f om farther operations, because those to whom they arc addressed get lid of the difficulty by the simple process of transferring their shares to some one who docs not labour under a similar disiability. The transferee mines away until he likewise is served with a judicial notice to desist, when he, in his turn, passes on the scrip to some oueclsc, who repeats the process. This is certainly a cheerful look-out for those who have invested may be, tlicir all in bricks and mortar, but who never know, from hour to hour, when the ground may he cut from under their feet. No doubt it is very desirable that the precious metal should be extracted from the bowels of the earth, and go to enrich the lucky miners, instead of blushing unseen amidst the washdirt, hut, nevertheless, there are certain equities which should not be lost sight of. For instance, seeing that the miner, or, bis employer is, in the first instance, the sole person benefitted by the extraction of the gold, it would not be unreasonable if the law compelled him to give a guarantee to m ake good ary damage to the surface which might result from his underground workings. It is neither reasonable nor just that he should he allowed to undermine another man’s property for his (the miner’s) benefit without any regard to tire injury he may inflict, The Attorney-General, however, did not appear by any means inolined to put himself out of the way in order to redress the grievances of which the deputation complained. Whether this arises from a conviction that they are calling out with cause, or from a fear of offending influential constituents, wc cannot say, but, as matters appear at present, it looks very much as thougn a deaf ear was to be turned at all hazards to an inconvenient claim. Certainly there is a screw loose somewhere, and the matter ought to he thoroughly investigated without delay.— Austmlaz'mn.

National Thrift.— The degraded condition of the peasantry was in some measure owing to the niggardly character of landlords and others, who conceived that money expended in promoting the comfort of the humbler, classes was wasted. An Irish gentleman visiting a Scottish manor was, in passing through the adjacent village, struck by the charms of a girl iu a milliner’s shop. That he might have a closer view of her ho proposed to enter the shop and purchase a (vateh-ribbon. ‘"Iloot,” said t.,e occupantof the manor. *• don’t waste your siller; let us go in and inquire if she cau give us two sixpences for a shilling.”—“A Century of Scottish Life,” .ke. By the Rev. Charles Rogers, L.L.D., F..A.