Untitled

Grey River Argus, Issue 58, 26 May 1866, Page 2

The nomination of Candidates for they Superintendency of Canterbury took placed on Wednesday, at Christcliurcli. There was an immense meeting, but the proceedings passed off quietly. The show of hands was in favor of Moorhouse. A special meeting of Justices of the Peace was held yesterday forenoon in the Resident Magistrate's Court-house, Greymouth, for the purpose of hearing and determining applications for slaughtering licenses within the district. There were present W. H. Revell, Esq., R.M., and D. Johnston, Esq., J.P. Four applications had been sent in, addressed to the clerk, of the Bench, but none of the applicants appeared to support | their applications. As it did not appeartijj| be understood- that a personal appejU^Hj was necessary, the Justices »grce^JJ^j^ cc the applicants another opportud^BPto ye so, and adjourned the C|^^y of doing next - I until Monday as acjfl^pP^,.^ instant, W as observed ?^jSj^^shoMay by the merchants and BBRT in Greymouth, in honor of her Majesty's birthday. Unfortunately the weather was most unpropitious for out-door amusements; and throughout the day the streets presented quite a deserted appearance. Such holidays are surely ' ' pile days" for publicans. The following paragraph, is from the West Coast Times of Thuesday :— " A sign of the state of this district was exhibited on the arrival of the overland coach last evening, by its being accompanied by two mounted troopers. The escort met the coach at Kangiriri, about twenty-four mile 3 from here, and remained in company Until it got safely into town. This thoughtful precaution, on the part .of the police authorities is fully justified by their knowledge of the many desperate characters who now infest the coast." . In our police report oh the 24th hist., W. J. Lambert, one of the witnesses in a case was designated as a night watchman at a hotel. That person has written us, stating that he is the "private watchman of Greymouth township. " The Nelson Government has, with its characteristic liberality and care f cjr the interests of its Western people, advertised for tenders for the. removal of "four snags from the Paver Grey. Full particulars can be obtained at the Warden's Office, Cobdon. : Another case of . drowning in the river is reported. Our correspondent at the TwelveMile iirforms us that a boatman known as "Joe" was drowned on the evening of the 21st at Long Falls, above the coal mines, ;

We have taken pains to ascertain the full particulars about Mr Bracken, the landlord of $ie Queenstown Hotel, Hokitika, in the melancholy affray resulting in the death of the man Connell. One report is, that between 12 and 1 o'clock, five miners weie proceeding up Revell street, and when opposite the hotel they stopped and demanded admittance. As they were rather noisy, Mr Bracken, who with his Irother was -in the bar, refused to open the door, and ordered theni off several times, but with no effect, as they set to work and burst open the door. Mr Bracken then ordered them out, and threatened to fireupon them in case of ' refuscil, at the same time presenting a gun. Upon this a melee took place, and Connell was struck down by a blow on the head from the butt end of the weapon used by Mr Bracken. This was so severe that he at once was rendered senseless, and remained in a state of coma until half -past one on Wednesday last, when he died. Another version is, that these five men were in the bar drinking at that hour, and -were very noisy and quarrelsome, and had been repeatedly ordered out by Mr Bracken. They would not, however, leave, but kept on iising cimisive language, until the Major and his brother determined by force to eject them, and in the scuffle the weapon was used with fatal effect. The struggle must have been a severe one to have demanded such meas\ires on the part of Mr Bracken, and the general feeling in Hokitika is that of great commiseration for him in his present unpleasant positiou. The WeM Coast Times, of Thursday, says : " A fatal accident occurred yesterday on the Hau Ha\i diggings. It appears whilst two men were engaged in felling a very large tree near the Blue Spur, in the vicinity of Singer and. Weddy's public-house on Three-Mile, the tree, when about to descend, was seen to sway in an opposite direction to the one they intended, and was likely to destroy their tent. The deceased thoughtlessly, rushed into the tent to free a valuable dog he had chained, there, and while emerging with the animal in his arms, a large limb of the falling tree struck him on the head, completely crushing it, and killing him on the spot, as well as the dog, which he still retained in his arms. In consequence of the coroner being required to attend the postmortem examination of Connell at the hospital, lie is urmable to hold the usual in vestigation. A constable therefore proceeds this morning to the scene of the accident, to many any necessary inquiries and bury the poor fellow. We have been unable to ascertain the name of the deceased, he is said to have a brother mining down south." Our correspondent at the Twelve-Mile reports very favorably of the Avhole of the upper Grey gold fields, lied Jack's sustains its representation as a rich diggings, a large quantity of gold having been recently induced there. At the Little Grey, the high price of provisions operates unfavorably ; but this evil is in a fair way of being removed, as" stores con bo brought, over the Saddle from the Bul'.er and Inangahua rivers at a much less rats than via the Grey. Our correspondent states that over four hundred miners are now located on the Buller side of the Saddle. It has often surprised- us that the diggers should not make a more systematic examinaI tion of the ground on the north bank of the Grey, beyond the coal mine. We now learn that several miners have struck payable ground opposite the Twelve-Mile, and that the gold is coarse and indicative of quartz /jefs being not far off. fe^. avcll known " old hand" named Burgess was- brought before the Hokitika Magistrate on Wednesday, charged with being concerned in the recent theft of revolvers from the Police Camp. The circumstances were very suspicious. Sergeant Dyer said that on the morning of the 13th inst., he went to a house off Beach street, accompanied byfourconj| stables. On knocking at the dooj^dflj^^ Burgess asked from inside who^P^Jsoner and on the witness answrajj^i^as there, opened the door. Th^^pß^ " a friend," sorter Burgess^jgp^fc nes g told the pripolice, andjgtfj^at; he W as a sergeant of h mi^OJo!ad a aeaj&h warrant, and desired IJM^^etoutof the bed in which he was WK%. This the prisoner Burgess refused to tlo, and struck at the witnsss. On his being removed the witness searched the bed, and under the pillow he had been using found the revolver case now produced.' On asking the prisoner Burgess to account for its possession, he said that it was his business. On further search, a second revolver case was also found concealed under the bed clothes. Mr Button, the prisoner's couusel, for the defence called George Henry Chamberlayne, who deposed* that about the 13th instant the witness, the prisoner, and a man named Sullivan, were walking ia Revell street, when they saw the revolver cases lying in the road. The witness picked them up, but having no use for them gave them to the prisoner Burgess. Joseph Thomas Sullivan, being sworn, corroborated fully the evidence of the last witness, and the magistrate discharged thej prisoner. -. ; . ,- ; ■ >3p| The Englislr letters by the March maifl arrived in town yesterday, but no English newspapers have yet come to hand. The Hospital Committee held their weekly meeting on Wednesday evening last, when the following members were present — Messrs Kynnersley, Russell, Maclean (chair), Moss, Coates, Hamilton, Rees, and Payne. After reading and confirming the lniirates of last meeting, the committee took into consideration the letter received from the collector, which had been ordered to lie over. After a somewhat lengthened discussion, it Avas decided to increase his commission from 15 to 20 per cent. Following upon this came the resolution of Mr Payne,' of which notice of motion had been given, to the following effect : — That any two persons who subscribe L 2 2s each, shall have the power of recommending for hospital treatment any sick destitute party, provided that such person, on examination by'<the hospital surgeon, shall "be deemed a fit audpijnper subject for gratuitous treatment. This was aiso carried. As the treasurer of sickness, prevented being. pit- forwarded 'a

number of accounts, receipts, and' a balance: sheet showing the amount of receipts and expenditure, but the consideration of .them was delayed until ;next meeting, and auditors appointed to examine them. The working committee also reported the acceptance of tenders for a surgery and sleeping room, and that a commencement had been made by the contractor. They also rendered a verba general report for the term of offiqe they had held, showing that in that time six men had been discharged cured ; two had died ; and seven additional admitted j and that Dr Foppoly did not deem any of the present cases of an immediately dangerous character. A vote of thanks to the chair concluded the proceedings. The Gazette of the 11th contains an order in Council revoking so much of No. 9 of Regulations and Conditions of Electric Telegraphs as refers to hours of business, and substituting the following in lieu thereof : — "The hours of business shall be from eight o'clock a.m. to eight p.m." An additional regulation says : — " No IQ.^-liospomiMity. The Government will not be held responsible for errors, omissions, or delays in the transmission of telegrams, nor for the nontransmisssion of any telegram, nor for delays in the delivery, nor for the non-delivery of any telegram, from whatever causes the same may arise. " There has been another great fire in Auckland, and there is connected with it the somewhat suspicions-looking fact thst the fire, which consumed twenty dwelling-houses' appears to have originated in or under an unoccupied house. The fire broke out between two and three o'clock on the morning of 15th May, in ft block of small cottages occupied by people of the poorer classes, stretching from the end of Howe-street along Day-street, and immediately at the rear of the Immigration Barracks, all were entirely destroyed. Several of the unfortunate residents therein (says the Southern Gross of that morning) suffered great loss of household goods, which it was impossible to save owing to the great rapidity with which the fire spread, from the strong breeze prevailing. The Hokitik» papers of yesterday do not contain any further details concerning the unfortunate affair in which the Messrs Bracken are implicated. The following p luyuph apje'red in the West Coast Tine of Thursday : — " We regret to state that the unfortunate man, Patrick Oonnell, who was so severely- hurt in the affray that took place on Tuesday morning at the Queenstown Hotel, died yesterday afternoon at-half-past one o'clock. Since the time of the occurrence he. exhibited no signs of consciousness, in spite of ammonia, hot irons, and other remedies being adopted to rouse him from tJie state of coma into which he had fallen. We believe, the left temporal bone, situate immediately behind the ear socket, was forced in upon the brain substance, causing the loss of all feeling as described. The functions of respiration con- j tinned unimpaired during the whole time ; his breathing, however, being labored and heavy. The eyes were closed, and absolute insensibility seemed to pervade every faculty up to' the moment of his death. To-day a post mortem examination takes place at twelve o'clock. The coroner will hold the inquest on the remains, at the Hospital, tomorrow, at eleven a.m. In connection with the foregoing it will be seen by a reference to our report of the Resident Magistrate's Court, that Mr W. H. Bracken was remanded for eight days, or, it should be added, in case of the death of Connell ensuing, until tbe verdict of the coroner's inquest should be known. Great sympathy exists in town foi- Mr Bracken, in his present painful posi-