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Dunstan Times, Issue 747, 11 August 1876, Page 2

After all that has appeared in the various country newspapers respecting the boundaries of the proposed Counties, and notwithstanding there seems to be so much general dissatisfaction, why such is the case is scarcely pointed out; the dissatisfaction expressed apparently arising purely for the love of something to fimbfault about. Fo far as the Goldfields are concerned it would amount almost to a misfortune were they linked on to the agricultural districts, as the preponderance of voting power, coupled with the proverbial neglect of the raining community to watch carefully their own interests, would place them at a considerable disadvantage. If the miners are wise, they will agitate for keeping the Goldfields as much together as possible, and not to embrace more than two counties. Could such an arrangement he arrived at the balance of the power of parties would be prettily evenly distributed ; for, so long as the preponderance of the voting power remains in the hands of squatters and fanners all that the miners will get will amount to a very small moiety of the public expenditure. The interests of a Goldfield’s community are scarcely identical with any others, and we do not see how they can be assimulated. One particular clause in the management of elections, and which, under the County system is that there shall be plurality of votes, it being proposed that owners of properties rated at loss than LSO, will be entitled to one vote;

less than LIOO, two votes; LISO, three votes; L 360, four votes; and over L 350, five votes. Now, as the generality of miners will only be able to exercise one vote they will find themselves very largely in the minority, the average voting power of other settlers being as three to one against them. It is therefore easy to perceive the immediate necessity for mining constituencies to impress upon their representatives to vote against, this particular clause. I’lurality of votes have always been a great source of corruption; and should the intended clauses ever become law, it will amount to almost a virtual disfranchisement of the poorer classes of struggling colonists, and more particularly fatal to Goldfields' interests. Now is the time for the miners to bo up and doing, if they deem their interests worth looking after.

Mr Fache desires us to direct attention to the sale by auction to-morrow, Saturday, the I2th instant, of business premises, stock-n-trade, &c., qf the estate of Mr Janies Kivers. We have to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of late numbers of Hansard from the General Government printer. The receipt of the July number of the Ivew Zealand Jurist New Series wo kindly acknowledge, from the publishers, Messrs Keith and Wilkie. The Annual Soiree in connection with the ■Presbyterian Church, Alexandra, which took place on Thursday evening, the 3rd inst., was, in every sense, an unprecedented success. Authoritatively we can state that the nett proceeds were Lls 3s,

We hear there is general move being made out to the spurs and terraces at the foot ot the “ Old Man ” range by the holders of quartz prospecting claims, which, in digging parlance, have been hung up during the past winter. Great hopes are entertained that before this time next year some rich discoveries will be made.

Several attempts have been made within the past few weeks to get together a meeting of the Dunstan Jockey Club for the purpose of deciding whether the Club will hold their customary spring meeting, but as yet ineffectually, as not a sufficient number of members put in an appesrance. We hope there will be a full attendance at the meeting convened for Monday evening next, the 14th instant, and that such steps will be taken to keep up the prestige of the oldest club on the goldfields.—A contemporary writing on sporting matters says : -The Lakes District Club showed at a recent meeting of members a flourishing state of affairs, and the Cromwell Club fallowed suit, but arrangements for their spring meetings are not yet complete. The Mount Benger and Tuapeka racing bodies are also stirring themselves, and a new Jockey Club is being formed by a number of influential residents in the Roxburgh district. The once powerful Waitaki Jockey Club is also resuscitated, the large sum of IASO having already been collected to be given to a meeting fixed for the 28th and 29th of next month at Maerewhenua. Memories of Mr R. Julius and old Kauri Gum (who beat Sam Waldock’s Victorian horse Falcon on the Silverstream course in a match for L6OO a side in the year 1862) will be aroused in many minds by the appearance of this longdefunct club’s familiar name. The action of the Alexandra Town Council in calling a public meeting for the purpose of forming a prospecting party to prospect for gold in the neighborhood of Alexandra, though beyond their proper sphere, is nevertheless a move in the right direction, and every one in the district, whether business man or miner, should go heartily into the scheme. That gold exists in payable quantities, both in the banks of the Molyneux anil the M anuherikia, is a fact patent to every one, and the obstacle that has stood in the way of developing it has beceu the want of sufficient funds. The formation of an association, composed of all classes alike, is the only mode by which funds can be raised, and moreover, properly spent for the purposes of prospecting purposes, and our earnest wish is that the matter will be so taken in hand as to prove a success.

When a Canada girl loves she loves like a hand-engine going to a fire. In a breach of promise suit it was shown that a young lady wrote to her lover eight times in one day. A Western editor appeals to his delinquent subscribers by saying : ‘ This week we have taken in potatoes and pickles on subscription. Now, if you will bring in some vinegar for the pickles, and some wood to roast the potatoes, we can live till artichokes get big enough to dig.’ The Bishopric of Waiapu has become vacant through the resignation of the Kev. William Williams, D.C-L., and wo (Daily Times) learn that the leading clerical and lay members of the Diocese have requested the Rev. R. L Stanford, of All Saints’, Dunedin, to be nominated for the Office.

During the passage of the ship Lincolnshire from London to Melbourne, a Mr Nottingham, who was on his way to Christchurch, to take the position of organist at one of the churches in that city, met with a sad fate. He was proceeding along tbo deck when his foot slipped, and lie fell with great force, his head coming in violent contact with one of the spars on deck. On the following day he expired, without ever having recovered consciousness. To add to the distressing nature of the event, Mr Nottingham had his wife and family of seven children on board with him.

The Guardian’s Wellington correspondent says Manders is rapidly acquiring the position of the butt of the House. He talks in so excited and incoherent a manner usually, that whenever he speaks he is greeted with laughter. To-day he expressed his indignation at Stout for always laughing at him, and assured the house he would not submit to bo laughed at. The announcement was greeted with peals of laughter from all sides of the house. It will be no easy matter for Manders to resist the tendency to laughter.

, It is reported that an ox-member of the Assembly who bos left for the Homo country boasted before leaving jhat ho was going to invest LOO,OOO in |ho purchase of his ancestral halls. Persons acquainted with .his “ ancestral halls ’’ state that they consist of an inverted boat on the shores of the Mull of Cantyre, and that they would bo dear at six pounds.

The Wrexham Guardian says:—"An enormous beach-tree was drawn from Hawardon Park yesterday by seven horses belonging to Messrs Bracegirdle and Son, timber merchants, Northwich, to the Wrexham goods station of the Connah’s Quay Railway, for transit to Manchester. It was felled a few days ago by Mr Gladstone, who, notwithstanding that it measured thirteen feet in circumference, accomplished his laborious but agreeable task in less than six hours. The tree contained over 200 cubic feet, and weighed nearly nine tons. Expericuced ‘ fellers’ tell us that the cxPremier did his work in a thorough'business like manner, and quite to the satisfaction of the purchasers.” With reference to the improper proposal made by the Government to give two years’ salary to Superintendents if the Abolition scheme succeeds, the Wellington Argus, a friend and well wisher of Sir Julius and his Ministry, says The proposal to give two years’ salary to the Superintendents, as compensation for loss of office, is likely to be strenuously opposed, and properly so. We fail to see what greater claim Superintendents have to be paid for work they will not be asked to do, than Provincial Secretaries, Treasurers, Solicitors, and even members of Provincial Councils. The last might just as fairly expect to '•cctive their honorarium for a couple of years after the extinction of the Councils.

A certain Judge “on the other side,” is evidently not to be trifled with. A witness living at Baynton, who gave evidence at a cattle stealing case, at the assizes, could not be forced by the Crown Prosecutor, nor by Judge Fellows, to give direct answers to questions put to him. When the examination closed, says the Kneyton Guardian, his Honor briefly censured him for the unsatisfactory manner in which he had given his evidence, and unexpectedly concluded his remarks by fining the witness LlO, ordering him to be sent to gaol til! the fine was paid, and telling him be would not bo allowed expenses for attending the court. The reproof was borne philosophically by the witness, but not so the penalty in which he was mulct, as he left the box with a face expressive of much astonishment.

At the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday, His Worship (John Bathgate, Esq.) incidentally mentioned that the absurdity of drawing a distinction between law and equity had been abolished in England, and he would like to see New Zealand follow suit.

An American skating rink has been established in Berlin under most fashionable auspices. It is said the Berlin papers, in speaking of it, use the words skate and skating, bodily dumping the English word into the German language. When it is known that the German for a skating rink is, “ Rollschlittschuhbahn,” or worse still, “ Holzraederschlittschuhfahrhalle,” itseems inexcusable to steal the word. It will be of interest to the readers of the T.C. to know that the German for a skate factory is “ lonholzrollschlittsohuhfahrfabricationsanstaIt.”

The Grey River Argus says—The Hon Captain Fraser is not all mealy-mouthed. The other day in the Legislative Council ho volunteered a personal explanation with regard to some matters in which a late member in the Legislative Council had been concerned. Last session a petition was presented to the Council on behalf of Dr. Buchanan during Captain Fraser’s absence in England. This petition Captain Fraser now stigmatises as “a mendacious farrago.” He then informs the Council that he (Captain Fraser) had endeavored togetDrßuohanan’s brother-in-law released from a lunatic asylum, and that for doing this Dr Buchanan had dropped his acquaintance for four years The gallant captain then entered into an explanation which would foim the ground work for a story by Miss Braddon, only we are left in the dark as to whether the brother-in-law was or was not really mad, when he died, and how it came about that the children of the sister (Mrs Buchanan) succeeded to the inheritance instead of the heir-at-law, Major Harkness, of the Royal Fusiliers. We are told, however, that the matter is in the hands of an eminent lawyer, that “ crushing ” evidence is coming forward which would have the result of the heir-at-law, Major Harkness, recovering his inheritance. It appears also that, during numbers of years, the nephew, although corresponding with his relatives in New Zealand, never knew that his uncle was dead, nor that he had been confined in a mad house. Why it’s as good as a play ! The death of an earl's daughter in Victoria is thus referred to by the Bendigo Advertiser :—Dr Pounds will hold an inquest on Wednesday, at the Terminus Hotel, touching the death of Frank Ralph, a well known strolling minstrel, who died suddenly in the guard’s van of the last passenger train from Echuca on Tuesday night. Ralph’s wife, lately deceased, was of no mean origin, nor indeed was Ralph himself, but the former had the precedence, being the daughter of an English Earl. She used to accompany her erratic and somewhat dissipated husband in his itinerant minstrelsy and sing m a clear cultivated soprano to his cornopean accompaniment. Such excellent harmony did they produce—and often was it heard in Sandhurst—that many persons, in no wise accustomed to loiter in the street at the sound of music, would stand still and listen as long as the melody lasted. Two years ago the fair vo calist died at Sandhurst of tubercular consumption, and now the husband—who has a military reputation, it appears—has also succumbed to the adversity of life. What you should Lend to an Importunate Borrower—A deaf ear.

During the past month considerable progross was made with the various lines in the different parts of the Province of Otago. The Glenoro contract is now finished with the exception of about 500 yards of ballasting. The contract for laying the permanent way from Clarksville to Manuka Plat has boon pushed on vigorously, and there now remain only about 30 chains to be laid. The Hound Hill tunnel is completed, with the exception of opening out about a chain and and a-half of the tunnel, and putting in about two chains and a half of brick work. The erection of all the wayside stations is being proceeded with. The formation of the lino between the Mataura and Waipahce is almost finished, and is now nearly ready for the laying of the rails. It is expected that before next winter the lino will bo open from Waipahoe to the Mataura, and possibly from Clinton to the Mataura. On the Northern lino the Port Chalmers contract, which extends as far as the tunnel, is progressing satisfactorily. The tunnel at the back of the Graving Dock, is about three parts finished. The material is very hard, and similar to the stone in the neighboring quarries. Driving was being ceeded with at the north end of the Deborah Bay tunnel, but the rock is very hard. The contractors have been upon the work day and night, and are making every effort to finish their undertaking. All the masonry work is now complete on the Purakanui contract, and the earthwork is also drawing to a close. Trimming, fencing, and platelaying alone remain to be done. The Blue, skin contract has been pushed on during the past month, and the bush has been cleared away from one end to the other, and the small tunnel at the Maori Kaik is now nearly half finished.