Cromwell Argus AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell : Tuesday, August 11, 1874.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 248, 11 August 1874, Page 4

Cromwell Argus AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell : Tuesday, August 11, 1874.

The regular fortnightly meeting of the Town Council ivill in future be held on Fridays, instead of Thursdays. '

In the last Provincial Gazette, notice, is given, under thehand of the Goldfields Secretary, that the Mining Lease issued in favour of the Aurora Quartz Mining Company for section 10, Block 111., Wakefield district, has been cancelled, and the land is now open for occupation by holders of miners' rights.

It will be seen from the report of the proceedings of the Bannockburn Miners' Association that attention is being directed to the sugtion made by a correspondent last week regarding the Nevis roads. Perhaps the Town.Couneil may see fit to use its interest towards the end indicated.

An improvement has been made in connection with the Courthouse, by laying cocoanut matting over the floor. People can now go in and out without tiptoeing to avoid interrupting the business of the Court.

"We need hardly remind our readers that the Amateur Dramatic Club give their first en tertainment on Friday evening.' We believe that tickets are goins; off rapidly, and there is not the slightest doubt that there will be a large audience. So far as the performers are concerned, they are sanguine of success, and of giving satisfaction.

The Building Committee of the Hospital met last evening in Mr Goodger's hotelPresent : Messrs Daw kins (chair), Marsh, Scott> Taylor, Starkev, Goodger, Logan, Jolly, Ardnt. Gudgeon, and Johnson. A plan front Mr Burwell of a hospital building was submitted, and with one or two unimportant alteratious, was approved. Mr J. A. Preshaw waited on the Committee as a deputation from the Local Committee of the Dunstan Hospital, with the view pi. arranging some plan by which funds could be contributed to that institution. The Committee, however, were unable as a body to do anything in the matter, the funds at their disposri being for the sole purpose of building, but they expressed, their willingness to do all in their power privately. Mr Preshaw at onre opened a subscription list, and names were put down to the amount of some L. 12. The Committee decided to call for tenders for the erection of a building at once ; and an advertisement to that effect will be found elsewhere.

Another dog registration case came before the Court List Friday. The Magistrate took the opportunity to make some rather severe remarks about the local municipal authorities .persisting, in collecting a tax they had no business to collect; and the Town Clerk explained to the best of his ability. Owners of dogs who reside outside the town boundary must remember that the police are the proper persons to collect the tax from them.

Mr Max Grail, the chemist, on Saturday showed us the result of an experiment he had made on-a quantity of Cromwell water. Four weeks ago, he took some water from the tap opposite Mr Goodger's hotel, boiled it, and filtered it according to the directions Dr Coughtrey gave ; then filled a common wine-bottle, and let it stand until Saturday last. During the last eight days, he noticed a substance forming or growing in the water, and this substance is the " result" we speak of. It is of a jelly-like nature, in form and size to be compared to an oyster, and is parti-coloured. The smell emitted when Mr Gall opened the bottle, he describes as <'enough to knock him down," and although much of its original noisomeness is now gone, still the substance gives forth a highly unpleasant odour. Mr Gall intends to forward the substance to Professor Rlack, and what he has to say about it will no doubt be an eye-opener. In the meantime, although what may be the composition of this '' result" is a matter of ignorance, those who have seen it will studiously avoid having anything to with race-water. Unpleasant thoughts are apt to arise about what might grow in the human stomach as Well as in a pint-bottle. A •' Constant Reader" writps to us as follows:—" Sir,—-Being aware that there are various and novel ways of advertising, I would like to know if this ' Goodger v. Thomas' is one of them ? I have been afflicted with having to read this for months past, until I began to fancy it was a standing advertisement. In reading the reports, one can't make out what they mean. Sometimes they summon, and then again they withdraw. It seems to me as if they had forgotten the old Colonial proverb, ' Don't start before you're ready.' Please, Mr Editor, give me my next paper without any ' Goodger v. Thomas' in it, for I am bound to read the whole of your paper, but am tired of being inflicted with this case ; or please put a black rim round it to shew that it is ' tabooed'; at least, it ought to be."

The Kennedy Family are at present giving farewell performances in some of the country districts near Dunedin. They do not purpose coming up-country.

A. lawyer is reckoned by the Daily Times to be the queerest of Dr Featherston's importations, under the free and nominated system (f immigration. The Times thinks there are enough and to spare of lawyers here already. • *.

A telegram has been received in Dunerliu from Mr Buekland, of Auckland, stating that it was intended to call a meeting there to 2 discuss the question of inviting a Victorian .' cricketing team to visit New Zealand.

Mr Robert Pritchard, merchant, of Arrowtown, has just arrived in Dunedin, for the purpose of taking measures to float a woollen factory at Hayes Creek, immediately on the banks of the Kawarau River. Mr Pritchard estimates the capital required at £30,000, £IO,OOO of which will be locally subscribed. The site selected ia a most advantageous one'; there is ample water power, and the business of scouring and washing wool can be most conveniently carried on, as all waste water from the machinery will be immediately discharged into the Kawarau. Besides the water advantages, the site selected—a twenty acre block— is bounded by an extensive Oovernment Reserve, the use of a portion of which (if required) might doubtless be. obtained from the Government. Mr Pritchard informs usjthat the necessary supply of labour would be readily obtainable, as lots of young people could be found who would be glad to learn some useful occupation. A supply of the raw material is on the spot and could be obtained at a much oheaper rate than at any other place in the Province. It may be almost unnecessary to say that the cost of living at the Arrow is merely nominal; provisions of every sort. can be obtained at extremely low rates, which should be a great inducement to persons: to enter the service of the factory.— Daily Times. ..... .

W. 0. Roberts, for nine years manager of the Bank of New Zealand on the West Coast branch, takes the management of the Dunedin branch, in the same service, in a few days, i At a banquet previous to his departure,--the largest ever held on the Coast.—-he was presented with a service of plate to the value of £250.

Informers do not seem to be appreciated in Melhourne. The Herald mentions the case of Mr John Connor, of Hotham, who obtained a glass of ale from a publican on Sunday and then informed against him. The publican was fined, but Mr Connor was mulcted in the penalty of £3 Bs. for having aided, and abetted in the offence. . . '

Old residents will remember the name of John M'Laren, who in by-gone days was always to the fore at open air meetings in the Octagon, or any other place where abuse of the province and denunciations of all and sundry in office formed the staple subject of discourse. Well, Mr M'Laren at last left Otago in disgust. There was a world elsewhere, and he would thither go. He went. He traversed the United States, and we believe Caiia la also ; he wended his way to his native heath, and breathed once more the free air of Scotland ; but nowhere found he any place for his foot. He enjoys the repute of being a first : class artisan, but his skill brought him no sufficient profit in those countries. So a few months since he returned to Dunedin, and, in a letter which appears in another column, he makes full recantation pf his past errors, avowing that he "never found a better place than Otago ;" and telling how he landed here without sufficient funds to.pav for a bed, and that now he has " plenty to keep him, and a little to spare." We cominend his letter to the perusal of all the discontented and the desponding souls now amongst us.— Guardian.