Local Intelligence.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 343, 1 April 1874, Page 2

Local Intelligence.

On Monday next, 2000 acres on Mr. Smith's run will be thrown open uuder the deferred payment regulations. Should there be more than one applicant foi any of the sections, the same will be decided by ballot. We accompanied Mr. Holloway when he viewed this block of land, and he was highly satisfied with it as good agricultural land— equal to a considerable portion Mr. James Smith has cultivated ou his . Greenfield estate, and from which that gentleman has derived this season a yield of wheat of an average of, at least, SO bushels to the acre. We have know some intending settlers who were afraid the land adjoining the block in question would be opened as a Hundred, and purchased by some capitalist or speculator ; hut wts leiirn that it is nob the intention of the Government so to dispose of the adjoining land, and we think settlers need not bi» under any apprehension of danger on tbat account. If the residents of Tuapeka-will only be alive to their own future welfare, th*y will send a petition to the Superintendent and Provincial Council asking to have all the land on Mr. Smith's iun, situated on the west side of the Tuapeka River, thrown open on the agricultural leasing or deferred payment system. We believe the Government would find Mr. Smith prepared to deal very fairly with them in the matter of compensation, and the benefit of having the whole of s the run thrown open would be quickly felt by the increased prosperity of the district.

THE Blacks drainage channel whioh has hitherto been carried on by private enterprise is to be subsidised. The Government have promised the sum of £300 to assist in carrying oat the work. AT Blacks No. 3 the Deep Lead Company, bottomed their new shaft at a depth of 120 feet, They are now occupied driving for the lead which they expect shortly to reach. This company have already got some splendid gold from their workings ; and they expect to strike equally as good from the new shaft. THERE is every prospect of fiiewood being dear in Lawrence this incoming winter. Several men who have been cutting in the bash under license have left. The reason they give is that a man would be unable to make a living under the new Regulations. Cartage is also likely to be high, horse feed being dear and other descriptions of work for either horse or bullock teams plentiful. The promised blook of land forSwitzers, tote withdrawn from Gow's Station, will not be thrown open until July. The following are the weights for the Clutha Handicaps :— Clutha Handicap 1$ mile Mabel, Bst 71b , Novice, Bst ; Ada Colt, 7st 10lb ; Color Sergeant, 7sfc"4lb ; German Louis. 6st 101 b ; Atlanta, 6st slb. Flying Handicap, Mabel, Bst 12 ; Color Sergeant, Bst ; Ada Colt, 7st 101 b; German Louis, 7st ; Nelly King, fat 71b; Virago, 6st 71b : Atlanta, 6st 101 b ; Nonpaviel, ost 10lb. Hurdle Race, Bisniark, list . Swaggerer, list ; Don Pedro, lOst : Fanny 9st ; Falcon, 9st. Feom the lithograph maps of the deferred payment block to be opened on Monday which i are obtainable at the survey office, strangers to the district might have a difficulty in piloting their way to the land, we have therefore obtained the use of a map of the Tuapeka Wesb District on a scale of 2 inches to the mile which shows all the loads and tracks through the district, as well as the block to be thrown open. This map way be inspected at our office. From advertisement it will he seen that the New Zealand Shipping Company's clipper vessels the Dallam Tower and Csirnatic leave Port Chalmers for Loudon in the months of Apri* and May respectively. Mn. W. Goldsmith the present road overseer has received the additional appointment of inspector of the Waipori Drainage Channel works. From advertisement in the '* Provincial Government Gazette" we observe that conditional tenders are invited for the construction of a bridge over the Kawarau river r.ear Morven Ferry. Mr W. Hates reports having sold on Saturday "under the veiandah" Peel-street. The freehold property occupied by Messrs. Arthur and Hill for the sum of £500. Mr. James Hill was the purchaser. Bishop Neville visited Tapanui last week and preached to a large audience on Sunday afternoon. The mushroom season has indeed set in with a vengeance. One of Mr. George Murray's boys handed us a monster one on Monday which he found growing in Gabriels Gully. It weighs exactly one pound, is thirty inches in oircuinference, nnd ten inches in diameter. Mr. Henderson of Beaumont Ferry sends us a vegetable marrow weighing 10 Jibs, being the piuduce of his garden. Thk foundation stone of the Lawrence Town Hall will be laid on Fiiday, 10th instant. The ship Trevelyin from London arrived in Port Chalmers on Sunday last. She brings a number of saloon and cabin passengers, but no immigrants. In our supplement will be found a very thrilling description of a mutiny on the high seas brought by that vessel. Owing to a change of drivers on both the up and down country coaches, we fear some of our roadside subscribers may not have received their copies of the Tuapek\ Times, hs regular as formerly. We have no doubt, after a few journies. the drivers will become well acquainted with the road, and any omission will be prevented. A letter appeared in the "Southland News " last week by Sir F. D. Bell, showing that the average rate per acre obtained at the recent sale of runs in the Wakatip district amounted to something under 4fd., instead of lid., as reported by the " Wakatip Mail." The number of acres quoted as leased is 375,100, and the total amount of annual rent is given at £7325, which sure enough gives only 4}d. an acre. The average price reported by the "Gnaidian," and also by the " Daily Times," was 9d. ; but how these misleading figures couM have been allowed to go solouguncontradicted we cannot imagine. Sir Francis, after showing the error we have now pointed out, then questions whether it would not be a bad bargain for the province to exchange the present rental of 7d. per sheep for an acreage rental. '* It must be remembered," he says, '"that, although picked runs of small extent will (as the Wakatip sales has" shown) yield a rental of more than eighteenpence an acre, yet as pastoral coimtry of a mountainous character will not fetch more than 2d., and as the proportion of the provincial pastoral estate of this character is vastly the I largest, the total average rate received on an average rental, over the whole province, would assuredly be very much less than the 4|d. obtained at Wakatip." Mr. Bell's remarks are very plausible, and no doubt there is an amount of truth contained in them ; but we cannot forget that " pastoral country of a mountainous character," we may say of a very mountainous character, in the Tuapeka district averaged lid an a ore. Messrs. I. Hallenstein call attention by advertisement in another column to the fact that they have completed arrangements for the direct importation of drapery goods, and that their first shipments for the winter season have arrived, and are now opened out for sale.