MUTING MEMORANDA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 302, 8 November 1873, Page 3

MUTING MEMORANDA.

At Blacks No. 3 the returns are exceeding anything ever got before, the last washiug being four hundred and twenty ounces. We did not hear the exact time taken in getting this" quantity of gold, or the number of hands employed jjnit it iaicurrently said that Air, J. Jt'itches, who is the priuciple^shareholder, netted' as bis share something like £1,100 In Victoria thero is at present a" dearth of coal ; a\ hi ein bevr Zealand, in every pro vince, coal w known to exist in the utmost profusion ; s and yet, notwithstanding this fact, steamers are seriously delayed for want of fuel, and coal remains of course at absurdly high rates, considering the immense stores that nature has so prolifically provided. On the Bill providing for mining on private property, which lately failed to pas 3 the Victorian Assembly, the " Beudigo Advertiser " lejiarks : — "The amendment, which was carried by the house, and which has, in effect, lost the country the bill, was that no permission should be given to mine on private property without the owner's consent in wnting. On such a condtion, «he miners would have to wait long enough for permission, except on such exorbitant terms as Avould virtually prevent them from ever entering on private lands at all." Late news from the Island of New Caledonia states that the copper mines at Maughene, in the northern part of the island, promise to be extremely rich,- and ar*s i,eing vigorously worked. Some of the tests showed the ore to contain 75 per cent, of pure copper. The i-'ekina, Avhich left Newcastle on the 23rd September, for London, via S.ubh Australia, over GOO tons of pure copper, the produce of the Hunter River Copper \V orks alone, value £55, 000* The Naseby correspondent of the "New Zealand Tablet" states that certain miners . have marked out claims on the ground allocated for Church purposes for the Catholics of Naseby. A correspondent who writes from another part of the province informs us that a Warden, when adjudicating on a goldfields dispute, fouud on his desk an envelope containing a sum of money, but unacomj.anied by any trace of OAVuership. Of course this gift furnishes merely circumstantial suspicion The Wfrlen did not take the cash or the hint conveyed, apparently, thereby. He publicly acquainted his hearers with the facts of the attempted bribe, for, in the light of a bribe, he viewed the anonymous donation referred to, which he immediately forAvarded to the .Treasurer of the local hospital. At the Maerewhenua Warden's Court, on the 14th instant, Mr. E. A. Julius, solicitor, Oamaru, appeared to support the application of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company (limited), for au agricultural lease of 6^o acres, on their run No. 23, Kurow. Objections had been lodged by a number of miners— the ground of objection being that the land Avas within the Goldtields and had baen proved to be auriferous } after some discussion, the Warden decided, by consent, of both sides, to graut the lease ceraificate for •the laud applied for, AAith the exception of a strip tAvo chains in width, from the Waitaki River to the junction of creek A and B, and thence one chain in width along each to the southward boundary oi the application.