The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-22 00:00:00

AWKWARD MISTAKE.—The Otago (New Zetv

land) Witness reports : " A most ludicrous affair has oc-
curred at Waitahuna with the new Bank of New Zealand.
The manager or inspector, determined not to remain idle
whilst his premises were being completed in Dunedin, went
to the diggings and purchased £lO,OOO worth of gold, after
which he took his departure, probably very satisfied with
his labours. Unfortunately the notes of his own bank,
which he issued in payment, were dated in advance, the Ist
of December, and as this day fell on Sunday, they were in
a legal aspect worthless, except in a court of equity, The
other banks, with extreme narrow-mindedness, taking ad-
vantage of the error, refused to accept them, and then
such a row ensued as has seldom occurred before. The
miners thought they had been duped, and one storekeeper
who had issued a great number of the notes in purchase of
golds was arrested for obtaining gold on false pretences.
' He was chained to a bed-post, and in the morning marched
to Tuapeka, with other prisoners. Of course the case was
dismissed. Other storekeepers had to find cash to take up
the notes they bad purchased gold with, and the store-
keeper with whom the manager stayed was threatened with
having his premises pulled down. It is difficult to say
which was the more culpable, the stupidness of the mis-
take, or the illiberality of the other banks in taking advan-
tage of it."
A HERRING-HOUSE AT FILEY.—The building
includes a large shed open to the rafters, which contains
casks, boxes, washing-tubs, spits (long sharp-pointed pieces
of hazel- wood), and piles of herrings, and used for washing

and spitting the fish. Opening upon this shed is a long
narrow room fitted with two tables ; on one of these the
fish are packed, on the other the packing-boxes have their
covers nailed on. At the far end are piles of spitted her-
ring which the assistant hands to the packer, who strips
the herrings off the spit by twenties at a time, upon the
table, and then rapidly places them by fifties in boxes,

which a boy quickly covers. On the sido next the only
window is a wall ladder leading into an upper room,
where boys, who receive from ss. to 7s. a week, are em-
ployed in making little packing-cases, the boards for
which are supplied ready-made from Sheffield. Upon
the opposite side are two doors, each of which leads
into a room open to the roof, higher than the shed, and
capable of containing 12,000 herrings.
Upon the floor seve-
ral fires of oak and ash wood are burning and throwing up
clouds of smoke ; rude racks of wood line the walls on either
side, and across these aro laid the spits with the herrings
strung upon them, The fish are usually salted fcr a fortnight,
and smoked for various periods, varying from two hours to
an entire night, to convert them into bloaters ; and from a
day and a half to weeks, to make them red, or as they are
locally called, soldier" herrings. Four girls, who com-
monly begin their work at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, can
spit at least 10,000 herrings in 2 hours upon their spits of hazel
wood , at payment of ss.arnong them ; and as each spit is covered
with 20 fish, it is piled upon a rack. The scene is one
of great animation at this hour : one man shovels the fish off
the floor of the shed into baskets with open wicker sides,
with a broad flat spade ; while another transfers them into
a larger swill or basket, which he immerses in a hugo tub of
cold water, and stirs with both hands to free the scales from
salt. When perfectly clean, the fish are thrown into a long
and then quickly spitted by the nimble
ho relieve the monotony of their task
fingers
ge tubrs of
the which
girls,i s dry,
by a vivacious and almost unbroken conversation, often in-
terrup•ed by peals of hearty laughter.—Once a Week.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs has received a
letter from Abd-el-Kader, in which the ex-Emir announces
that he is sending to the Emperor Napoleon two horses from
Yemen, of the purest breed which exists in Arabia, and
which, according to the writer of the letter, are descended
in a direct line from the famous mare of the Prophet. The
precious stallions are shortly expected in France, and
it is said to be the Emperor's intention to place them in his
breeding stud in the South, where the Arab blood succeeds
admirably in regenerating the French race of horses.