Untitled

Grey River Argus, Issue 101, 4 September 1866, Page 2

The Resident Magistrate's Court was engaged the whole of yesterday .with two cases arising put of the disputed ownership of the premises known as the British and American Hotel in Mawhera Quay, lately occupied by Messrs Day and Scott, who have since become insolvent, and whose estSte is now vested -in Mr;E. Hardcastle,- the Sequcstrator of tnsoivent/Eatates at Hokitika. The Jirfefc ease was a criminal information preferred.

against Messrs Hardcastle and. Kenrick by Mr Ivilgour, the agent of Messrs F. and "Cr. ¥. Bullen, charging them 'with-, having, on the evening of the 25th August, made a forcible entry into the premises, arid thereby committed a breach of the peace. Mr-Tyler appeared for the complainant and Mr South for the defendants. At the coiiuncncement of the proceedings Mr South submitted that Mr Hardcastle was responsible for every act done under his instructions, and as Mr Kenrick had only acted as his (Hardcastle's) agent, he applied to have Mr Kenrick's name struck out of the infoimatiori. Mr Tyler consented, : and the case proceeded as against Mr Hardcastle only. As we have not space for the publication of thc_full report in this issue, we give the- outline of the case as given in evidence. It appeared that after the failure of Day and Scott, the Sequestraior, by his agent Mr Harry Kenrick, took possession . of the Hotel and its contents by virtue of a vest'Bg-crder granted by Mr Justice Gresson, and placed Mr John Revcll in charge of the premises. Possessioir.was maintained undisturbedly for six, weeks, when tho. sale of the stock and furniture 'took place, and Mr John Revell locked up the premises and gave the keys to Mr Kenrick. On the evening of the 24th it became known that some one had obtained admission to the premises, and Mr Kenrick telegraphed to Mr Hardcastle, who at once came to Greymouth, and on the 25th proceeded in. company with Mr Kenrick and two police constables to the Hotel, and, finding the door secured and some one inside, demanded admission. Tho person inside refused to let them in, statin^, according to four witnesses, that he was in possession for one Davies, but according to another witness, that he would not admit them without an order from "Bullen. The door was then forced open and the man expelled ; hence the present information. Mr Tyler urged that it was incompetent to go into the question of title, and quoted authorities to prove that a sufficiently.colorable claim. an:l possession by the • plaintiff existed to constitute the forcible entry by the defendants. Mr South submitted th'a 1 ; Mr Hardcastle, as an officer of the Court, was' perfectly justified in acting as- he had done, and quoted Sec. 8 of the Debtors and Creditors Act amendment Act, ISGS, toshowthatitwas mandatory on the Sequestrator "to seize, and if necessary to break open, any house, shop, warehouse, door, trunk, or chest of any bankrupt, where such bankrupt or any of _ his property is or is supposed to be." He also produced the vesting order, and the schedule of the bankrupts, in which the premises were included as an asset. Some animated discussions took place between the opposing counsel, on the question of title and the admissibility of certain evidence, and at every stage of the case matters affecting title cropped up, and were objected to. Ultimately, the Magistrate' dismissed the iiiformation, expressing the opinion that the sequestrator had only acted in the due performance of hi duty. A second case, on the civil side Or the Court, came on fpr hearing, in- which Mr Hardcastle sued James Davies for damages sustained, and expenses incurred, owing to his having made a forcible entry and trespass on the British and American Hotel.. For the defeiice it was argued that it was a complete answer to the charge, that the premises were the. property of the defendant, and as the matter was essentially one of disputed title, the Court had no jurisdiction. The Bench overruled the objection, considering it had been proved that the sequestrator, Mr Hardcastle, had been previously sixwce'ks in undisturbed posession.. After the evidence had been taken Mr Tyler 'urged that no forcible entry had been proved, as the defendant had gonc-in peaceably and througli an open door. The Magistrate gave judgment for the inaiutiff for £15, and. Mr Tyler, for the defendant, gave notice of intention to appeal. The case appeared to creategreat interest, many of the' principal merchants of the town being/present. A third case, Hardcastle v. Bullen, was withdrawn. " By the Otago, which arrived last evening, we have Melbourne papers to the 2Sth ult., but the news is.unimpprtant. We regret that our obituary column to-day contains the., announcement of the death of Mrs. Blake, the wife* of one of the earliest residents of Greymouth. The deceased lady had been ill. for some time, but until recently it was lipped she would recover. Her feinains will be interred to-morrow at noon. From, the Ndlson Examiner, of the 28 nit., we take the following items of. news, by submarine telegraph, from Wellington :—" Wei. lington, August 27, 7.40 p.m. -.The Panama steamer Kaikoura left here, for Sydney yes^ terday at noon, Steamer BeautifurStar arrived yesterday, from Auckland. Steamer Rangatira sailed this evening, for W^nganui, at 7 p.m. The St. Kilda has not yet returned from laying the cable. Mr Fitzherbert. the Colonial Treasurer, will make his financial statement to-worrow. Two tribes, north of Wanganui, surrendered to Captain Dawsoii, of the I.Bth Regiment of Royal Irish. There is a rumor of a probable outbreak of natives in Hawke's Bay. Two hundred rebels, it is said, threaten to attack ' friendly natives, near Napier. . Possibly this threat will end in nothing." ■ A rumor reached town on Friday evening : that some new ground had been opened about two miles from t^e Saltwater Creek ; that the prospects were good ; and that the sinking was shallow and dry. Acting' on this rumor, a number of persons left town the same evening ; but we are informed that they, found on arriving at their, destination th,at there was no foundation for the report, further than that a few men hadbeen workr ing there for some months with small success. The Tlmaru. Herald.reports the discovery of golden the Mackenzie Country. A letter Taas been received by a resident in Timaru, in which the writer says :—" I saw last night (July 30) a sample of gold taken out in this .country ; it is very fine, and was forind on the surface in the, sand of the river-bed ; and' from what I have- myself; experience.d in ■ mining matters I am confident. gold is also to ■ba found in the terraces adjoining. The

"spot which I no\v refer to is nine mile's ftom the sjunction df OlioUvand :; Takapp^.op^'osite Benmore mountain, .arid '-not very •; fafifrbm Mr ieschemaker's station; bri the >!Waitangi. There is about a mile of quicksand" W^he margin of the river-; and on the surface, arid throughout that sand, gold is found, but so light that as one washes it off, it may be observed floating away on the* surface washThe magnet has no effect on the sand, and the gold consequently is hard to clean, but it weighs well when cleaned.. .It,.is a kind of, •ground" that would pay well to ground sluice, ' and wash with' a quicksilver cradle, or false bottomed sluice. As a proof that~.wages maybe earned, I may mention that two men (Norman and mate) have ; been digging here for the last few 'months ; and a3 they go on the spree sometimes, it is a proof, that they make more than ' tucker.' Besides, .110 two. men would stick into digging during the winter months, in this hard climate, unlesis they were making wages. Do-not encourage any paid parties to be fitted out at ,Ti raru. If this news is -circulated the country will very' soon be prospected by experienced miners." • •■. : , .. • , • The new building for the Resident Magistrate's Cpurt was opened for business for the first time yesterday. The Court Houssis'aconvenient and tolerably commodious room, and the separate office for the issue of summonses, &c, prevents the business of the Court being interrupted, as it was in the old building. Some further additions we believe, remain to be done to the internal fittings," which when completed will make .the Court room iri all respects a comfortable and suitable oue. • We quote below a paragraph from a Wellington paper which ought to stir up the Governments of Nelson and Canterbury to the task of properly ■ developing the magnificent coal fields of this district. ■In any other country the opening of svicli splendid sources of commercial wealth would be a work of anxious solicitude. The following is the -.paragraph referred, to.:—" We hear that bills of lading have reached Captain Benson, General Manager of the Panama Company, for 2409 tons of Welsh coal. ' This enormous cargo left Cardiff for this port^ on the 16th June, and will be the largest ever seen in these colonies. The HT B. Wright has already arrived with '800 tons from CardiiF. Such arrivals v are amongst the first .fruits of Wellington: becoming the head quarters of this Company, and we hope that the Superintendent will note this fact and urge oil the ; construction of the patent slip." " Unfavorable rumors concerning the Stafford Hill Rush are prevalent, to the" effect that, the ground, though, payable, presents diffi. culties siriiilar to those which have prevented; the progress of the diggings at the New River Rush, Large numbers of men are said. to be leaving. ■ ■ •. The Panama Co.'s steamer Otago, which arrived last evening, brings 52 passengers for this port. Only 17 were originally booked for Greymouth, but many passengers, on arrival at Hokitika, preferred to come on to this district. . '■'-■' ■ We learn, from the. West Coast. Times, that a portion "of the Hokitika and Kariien tramway is now open for traffic- . . _ The Daily Times, of the 18th August, says:— "The deep-shaft at Wethers'tones was bottomed yesterday, at a depth of 43Qft. We are told that gold was found at the bottom, but not in any large .quantity ; and that the lead was' found to dip.at a considerable angle. A meeting of the Committee was to be held last evening. " Several statements have appeared in the. and other papers, with regard to the engagement of counsel • for ; the prisoners Burgess, Kelly, arid Levy. It has been said first that Mr James Smith, of Dunedin, had been engaged, and another report' was to the effect that Mr Michie, of Victoria, was to defend the prisoners, We are in a position to state that Mr. Smith declined to accept the ; brief, and .that ; Mr Michie could, not, owing to his being unable, to give the requisite notice of his intentiosi to pass the examination necessary to. hii admission as a, solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. ;We understand that Burgess wrote to friends in Hokitika, requesting that £100 'shoull be raised for his defence, -Iriit that the money could, not be procured. The property, taken, from the prisoners being a portion of their robberies is not available for the purpose of their defence, and. it is s«aid the prisoners' have no other moneys that can be deyptedto such a purpose. : It is considered proTj'able' that the only: counsel they can haye in their defence will be one assigned to them by the Court.' ' " ''"'■" We hear that-mining affairs on the North Beach have improved considerably; .dflring the last week, a great, maay men having returned from the New River and other places. New ground has been' opened; and' ageneral feeling pf. confidence" in the ten aces' iii the neighborhood has caused agreat improvement in business, " ■: _ ■■■ ■ , With- the .desire of. keeping our mmmg 1 readers posted up "\vith regard to improved gold mining "machinery, we extract the following 1 description of : a new.'amaigamfttor recently tried- iri Melbourne :— " Wheeler's amalgamator is a -<galiforriian iriventiori, -recently introduced to this colony, though it .has been in successful operation in New South Wales f or soriie time. The ; ob j ect of the invention is to extract gold and silver by more' efficient methods than those previously in use, and the character of the machinery by which the operation is effected may be very briefly . described. There are three iron pans; in the first the" quartz is ground to a pulp with a revolving 'muller,' and then the quicksilver is : put in the latter, thus escaping the grinding it gets imrChilian mill, Steam is applied to the pulverised, quartz, and the quicksilver is made lively by^ heating. The quartz having been groundinto a pulp, the stiiff is discharged into a second ps{n, called the concentrator, .underneath which is a bowl of quicksilver, pp separate the metal from the pulp. , The, bowl is connected with a syphon, arid' any excels of silver.'frem the first pan is discharged; through it. The refuse is ca^-icd off grad-

iially by a constant stream of water kept flojvv'ingj iii^he „pan. The third' pan is a 'sav^all/vwliich guards against loss'by.collectingall stray particles of amalgam. -. From eight to^bßii^tbns can be passed through- one set of paris in twenty-four hours. < It is asserted that Wheeler's amalgamator' brings out ninety-five" per cent, of gold and si]**-; from ores ; and this being so, it is needier to remark upon the value of its use^in dis-. tricts where the ground isr bom^'aratiVely poor." .'. l^----. ■;..-.-... „,..',-.,.,.: ..5i.,........:..3.' .