THE OF THE GALATEA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 72, 26 June 1869, Page 3

THE OF THE GALATEA.

As it is the fashion now-a-days to chronicle the minor incidents of royal lives, the following moreeau from the "Wellington Evening Post" is perhaps worth preservation. It may serve some future historian: — " His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh is reported to have said — ' They stole my jewels in Adelaide, they traduced my character in Melbourne, and they tried to take my life in Sydney,' or something to this effect. Perhaps the New Zealand portion of the epigram may come to light one of these days. So far as our knowledge serves us, the reminiscenes of the Royal visit to New Zealand have mainly been of a pleasurable nature ; nor have we seen aught amongst the Royal loiterings in the neighbouring colonies that redounded unfavourably of the officers of the Galatea. But the following little episode in the history of the visit brought to light by the arrival of the Wellington on Sunday, though not of the * blushing honour ' kind, may make the Prince blush for his satellites. The story runs — and we have every reason to believe it to be substantially correct — that an industrious washerwoman of this city thought herself fortunate in obtaining the officers' washing ; and shortly before the departure of the Galatea, the woman brought her washing on board in one of the ship's boats, and applied for payment, the sum due being about £26. This she didn't get, and came ashore without it. The vessel sailed in a few hours after. As the poor woman saw no probability of getting a settlement of her account without applying in person, she some days after took a return ticket and Btarted for Auckland. On arriving there, she made a personal application to the Prince on board the vessel, and stated her grievance. TJie Prince interrogated the officers, who demurred to paying, alleging that the linen came on board wet. Ultimately, the woman had to be satisfied with the payment of £13. The price of the return ticket to Auckland was £6 10s., while a week's stay there could not have cost her less than another £2, so that the woman loses about £17 LOs. by the transaction.

There is an old proverb — 'Put not your trust in Princes "—^the truth of which has been but too often verified. If the above little bit of goßsip be authentic, then the old saw requires a slight extension, so as to include the 'followers' of princes. What fine liberal fellows those officers must be — ' scions of aristocracy,' no doubt with an inborn contempt for 'filthy lucre' and the just claims of low washerwomen ! What a splendid subject for an historical picture the ' judgment scene ' would form ! On the right, the Prince decked with the gew-gaws wherewith royalty adorns itself on state occasions, supported by a brilliant group of exquisitely-attired naval officers, got up regardless of expense in the matter of linen ; on the left the defrauded washerwoman stating. her case to the 'noble captain' of the Galatea. Then the summing-up of the self-consti-tuted judge, ' a second Daniel,' resolved to visit on the laundress the sins of the climate of Wellington, that, together with the abrupt departure of his ship, prevented the thorough drying of his officers' linen. Truly this argument on a demurrer has in it something more than a merely ridiculous aspect. Do the British taxpayers — who refuse to assist the colonists of New Zealand in their struggle against the Maori, because they cannot afford to — never think of the treasure wasted in keeping up an idle toy such as the Galatea for the pleasure of roystering offshoot of royalty, and a set of associates who, if they were not provided for at the expense of their country, would probably be loafers, and "cheat their washerwomen."--," Southland News."'

NEW AND CHEAP MODE OP EXTRACTING GOLD PEOM QUARTZ. (From the " Newcastle Daily Chronicle.") The present excitement with respect to the finding of gold among the primitive formations of Scotland will probably subside into a state of hopeless inactivity as" soon as it has become generally known that in the Scotch rocks the gold exists only in a highly diffused form, by which its extraction is rendered so costly that no method hitherto employed can be advantageously put into operation on a large scale for the working of gold ore in Scotland. At the same time, the quantity of rock containing gold in Scotland appears to be large beyond the range of even enthusiastic belief; and indeed it is almost a question of doubt whether any large masses of the rock called "opaque quartz" can be found in Scotland which do not contain some portion of gold. More than six years ago gold was extracted from some specimens of opaque quartz found near Inverary, in Argylshire, and it is a curious fact that much of gold in California was discovered in opaque quartz similar to thai of Scotland. The great hardness, however, of this rock not only renders it difficult to work, in the first instance, but also causes so much expense during its reduction to the condition of fine powder, in which state alone the go!d can be got from it by amalgamation ; that none but the richest quartz can be profitably worked. Nevertheless, as a very large portion of all the mountains situated between Inverary and Loch Awe on the west, and Cromarty on the east, contain opaque quartz of the above kind, the importance of a cheap and practicable mode of working this rock needs no comment. Looking at the present rage for that kind of monopoly called " patent right," it may seem incredible that any person can be found willing to give up a valuable process to the public at large. Those, however, who have had any experience in patents will easily understand the motives which induce me to publish the following method of separating in a profitable manner the most minute portions of gold from quartz, granite, or other rock : — First let the rock be roasted at a red heat, as it is practised witk regai'd to flints intended for pottery ware. This roasting renders it easy to break the rock afterwards with a hammer into pieces about the size of small apples. In this state the rock must be placed in a large earthenware tube previously fixed in a furnace, so that the tube passes horizontally through the furnace, and leaves its two ends open to the air. The kind of tube here indicated may be easily understood by supposing a common earthenware gas retort open at both ends, and set in a furnace, as in gas making, but with both ends projecting from the furnace. The heat in the interior of this tube must be what is called a bright cherry-red, or incipient white heat. If under these conditions we now pass through a tube a current of chlorine gas, either pure or mixed with atmospheric air, as in the making of- chloride of lime, then the chlorine will combine with and volatilise the whole of the gold existing in the broken rock, and the gold will be carried no further out of the other or open end of the tube than to the part which is at a dull red heat. At this point the whole of the gold will be deposited, for it is a singular fact that although at a white heat chlorine gas combines with gold and renders it volatile, yet by cooling to a dull red heat the two substances separate, and the gold is deposited. And when other metals are present this separation is promoted by passing coal gas into the tube. Ido not consider it necessary to dwell upon the methods needed for the subsequent collection of the gold, for these must necessarily vary, accordingly as the rock contains silver, iron, or other metal.