Superintendent’s Office,
Southland, 21st December 1861.

I hereby notified that I have appointed
Hector Faxon, Esq.,
to be Assistant Surveyor in the Province of Southland.

J. A. R. Menzies,
Superintendent.

Superintendent’s Office,
Southland, 16th December 1861.

I hereby notified that I have appointed
Mr James Duncan M’Arra
to be a Sub-Assistant Surveyor in the Province of Southland; the appointment to date from the 2nd instant.

J. A. R. Menzies,
Superintendent.

Superintendent’s Office,
Southland, 17th December 1861.

I hereby notified that I have suspended
Mr William M’Taggart
from the office of Harbour Master for the Ports of the Bluff and New River, pending an enquiry into the circumstances attending the loss of the s.s. Oscar, this day, within the entrance of the New River.

J. A. R. Menzies,
Superintendent.

Superintendent’s Office,
Southland, 18th December 1861.

I hereby notified that I have appointed
Mr John Curnin
to be Acting Pilot for the Port of New River, in the absence of Mr M’Taggart.

J. A. R. Menzies,
Superintendent.

Superintendent’s Office,
Southland, 21st December 1861.

I hereby notified that Mr Patrick Hynes has been appointed to rank as a Sergeant in the Police Force in the Province of Southland.

J. A. R. Menzies,
Superintendent.

(From the New Zealand Gazette, December 7.)

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, 6th December 1861.

The following Bill passed by the Provincial Council of the Province of Southland—
The Appropriation Ordinance, 1861,
which Bill was reserved for the signification of the Governor’s pleasure thereon, having been laid before the Governor, His Excellency has been pleased to assent to the same.

William Fox.

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, 6th December 1861.

The following Bills passed by the Provincial Council of the Province of Southland, intituled—
"Provincial Government Ordinance, 1861,"
"Diseased Cattle Ordinance, 1861,"
"The Louth Ordinance, 1861,"
which Bills were reserved for the signification of the Governor’s pleasure thereon, having been laid before the Governor, His Excellency has been pleased to withhold his assent to the same.

William Fox.

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, 6th December 1861.

His Excellency the Administrator of the Government has been pleased to appoint
Andrew Jameson Elles, Esq.,
to be Registration Officer for the Province of Southland, to form Electoral Rolls for the Election of Members of the Provincial Council of that Province.

William Fox.

(From the New Zealand Gazette, November 29.)

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, 20th November 1861.

NOTICE TO MARINERS.

SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN.
REEF OFF STEWART’S ISLE, NEW ZEALAND.

Hydrographic Office, Admiralty,
London, 15th August 1861.

It appears from examination of the Weather Book of the ship Bruce, Thomas Meiklejohn, Commander, in her passage from Otago by the South of New Zealand to Calcutta, 11 November last, when passing the South-east extreme of South or Stewart’s Island, discovered a dangerous Reef which is not laid down in the Admiralty or any other Charts, or noticed in the New Zealand Pilot or Sailing Directions.

This danger, which is described as two low rocks, from 3 to 6 feet high and awash, close together, on which the sea breaks heavily, lies in the direct track of vessels closely rounding Stewart’s Island in proceeding to or from the Southern settlements of New Zealand.

Its position, which appears to have been determined with some accuracy, is as follows:

• 7 1-10th miles E by N ½ N from Owen Island, off Lord’s River;
• 5 1-10th miles E by N ½ N from the extreme of the Breaks Sea Isles;
• 3½ miles E by S ½ S from Wreck Reef off Port Adventure;
• 7½ miles S.E. ½ E from East Head, north of Port Adventure.

Or, in latitude 47° 7’ 35” S, and longitude 168° 21’ 35” E.

Soundings, though tried for, were not obtained in its neighbourhood, from the rapid rate of sailing of the ship in passing the danger.

Caution.—It is advisable to Captain Meiklejohn to have entered the discovery of this Reef in his Weather Book; but it is greatly to be regretted that he did not take some steps immediately on his arrival at Calcutta or in England to make public the existence of this very serious danger which lies but little out of the sailing track of ships bound to the Southern settlements of New Zealand.