[FROM OUR AUCKLAND CORRESPONDENT.] Auckland, February 10. Commenting on the prevalence of disease on board the Rakaia, the Star says :—“ In all the annals of emigration on any systematic scale, there has never been an illustration of such long-continued negligence, wilful mis leading, and bungling incompetence, as has been furnished from the first to the present time by our own immigration office. Time does not improve it; and that immigration to New Zealand has survived in competition with other fields for colonisation is due to our own matchless attractions. ” Miss Christian, the distinguished contralto vocalist, has announced her intention of giving singing lessons while in Auckland. She is understood to be waiting for the en gagement of a new concert company in Australia to make a New Zealand tour. Mr and Mrs Darrell (Mrs Robert Heir) give a short season here. The rush to Ohinemuri is fairly setting in. One hundred and fifty diggers proceeded there within the last ten days. No dis coveries are reported, and there is nothing to justify the rush as yet. [FROM OUR DUNEDIN CORRESPONDENT.] Dunedin, February 10. The accident at the Chain Hill tunnel happened at the top end. The first shift, consisting of thirteen men, under the charge of Thomas Kerr, were in the tunnel at the time. At eight o’clock, after having been an hour at work, seven or eight feet of blue stone fell from the roof of the tunnel, cover ing Kerr, Patrick Dempsey, George Turnage, and Wedlock, The two last mentioned were immediately got out, and went into town to the hospital, where it was discovered that they were both severely injured, each having his legs broken. Kerr’s body, when found, had the s ! <ull split open and the neck broken. Dempsey’s head was almost severed fvom his body. Kerr was forty years old, and had resided fourteen years in the dis trict. He leaves a wife and seven children. Dempsey was thirty years old, and it is believed unmarried. The tunnel was timbered to within five feet of where the men were

illed, and bricked to within twenty feet. Dempsey, Turnage, and Wedlock only went to the work for the first time an hour before the accident occurred. The work in the tunnel was immediately suspended. Land in the Tuapeka district is much sought after. 