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Grey River Argus, Volume III, Issue 164, 31 January 1867, Page 2

On Tuesdaj', a man named James Holman made an attempt to commit suicide by throwing himself in the .river. Fortunately he was observed aud rescued by. the bystanders, He. was suffering from delirium tre.me.nn at the time, and 'was conveyed to the lock-up. Holmau hajs an three previous occasions attempted self destruction: when under, the in« fluencc of drink. 7 // A rathev novel match for no less than £ 100---a-side came off yesterday afternoon at Kilgour's Union Hotel. It consisted of a real trial of skill in the art of tying ginger beer corks, between <$no. of . the employees of Messrs Mace and Dixon, of Hokitika and Mr/John Strike, of Greymoiith. Coiu siderablc interest Avas takeiv in the match, and the friends' of the respective competitors backed their favorite freeby. The match was was commenced by Mr Strike's opp'onenb.wlio in QHe hour succeeded in tieing 82, dosen, arid

. S bottles.. .This wa.3 considered siicli a won r derful work that the betting became decidedly against Mr Strike, but when he set to work, and the rapidity with which- he could perform his task became evident, the confidence : of the backers of the opposite party considerably decreased. Mr Strike signally eclipsed his antagonist, his number, being. 85 dozen and 2 bottles, with 15 seconds to spare. This shows the most wonderful proficiency, . the average '..being more than 17 bottles per minute. When it is borne in mind that; each cork had to be well tied, ar.cl the ends of the twine cut neatly off, the remarkable celerity displayed on the occasion maybe understood. We had no idea that such a display of manipulation was possible. . The prisoner Wilson, charged with being concerned in tlie murder of Mr George Dobson, has, contrary to expectation, been acquitted., Tkg evidence was so closely similar to that brought forward at the Magisterial examination, that we do not think it necessary to repeat it,' The Judge in summing up laid great stress on the necej. sity of the independent evidence 1 icing closely* corroborative of . Sulli vim's testimony, and the Jury took the view that ib was not, and returned a verdict accordingly. The Melbourne Anjus of the ISth say3S :^- --" Chinese diggers continue to" desert our gold iields for New Zealand, On Sunday last a great many of them took their departure from the Talbob district, "..'■.. .-.'•■ , The Southern Cross informs us that a work of great literary interest has been accomplished, viz ,' a coin pleto translation of the Old Testament into. Maori, 'copies of. which have been presented to the Bishops of New. Zealand and Wellington, by the Rev. Dr. Mannsell, ' This work is a mouument of the Christian zeal and literary .accomplishments,' connected with modern missionary: enter-, prise. Professor La Griff's lectures on phrenology have attracted pretty good audiences, and the lecturer succeeded in making his exposition of the science bath interesting and'■instructive. He illustrates his lecture by casts of the 'heads, of several notorious murderers, avid shows conclusively that a low phrenological development is always to bo found ooaxistent with a degraded nature; The lectures are' well worth attending. The Otago papers announce" an important new gold discovery in a gully near Tuapeka, not far from Treweck's station. The prospects have reached as high as five and seven dwts.tpthe dish. ■ Considerable excitement appears to prevail in the neighborhood, and a i ; nsh has of course taken place. As a proof . of the exceeding richness of s^nis parts of the bench terrace workings, we {■West Coast. Times,) may mention that the prospectors of (as it is termed) . the back Auckland lead are sanguine they will realise from L2OO t<> L3OO each man out of the paddock they are at present employed in liftingThe washdirt looks really magnificent, gold boing thickly distributed through every part of it. i This fortunate jjarty lias already net- i ted over 1,500 per man, and the claim pro- i mises to continue equally remunerative for j at least five months longer. Many other rich claims are in work oa this leadj which is gradually being traced- southwards to the Araliura', and northwards towards Blake's lead, with which it will doubtless form a junction. 5S. The Maoiia on the West Coast are graduallj'.dropping off, and will "probably soon be extinct. On Tuesday, Mary Tiki, the widow of the Chief Tarapuhi, died, at the advanced ageof S7. A tanyi was celebrated in honor of the deceased, who is to be buried to-day; . . , ,■ ■-.' f*f We fancy the miners on the West Coas would not like to be placed in the same fix jig, their brethren on the Emu Creek, diggings in New- South Wales. The correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald writes :— "lt is the carter and not the iriiivr who looks out for the water for gold washing. Having found a suitable place, he sets up his sluices, and' blanket tables, -.and then eon", tracts at so much per load for the carting of the stuff and the use of the washing plant. I know of , one case where the wash dirt is carted a distance of seven miles, at lbs pei load;all round, that price covering the charge of the use of the tonis, &c. This is a very great convenience' to the miner, as he is saved 'all the. loss of time in fixing up his waskinggear ; whilst the advantage to the carter is that lie secures the carriage of all the wash dirt. : lt is only stuff that will run over half an ounce to, the load that will pay for washing ill this manner, and tlms it is tha^ unless the dirt is li.di', the miners wash no more than is sufficient to enable tkein to meet current expenses." • Within the last day or two several valuable properties have changed hands. The large score formerly occupied-by Messrs. Moncrieft", Moss and Co, has beeii purchased by Messrs Forsytk and Masters ; the' 'premises of Messrs J. and E. Paul have been bought by Mr Ooiitaiicue, of the Edinburgh Castle Hotel; and the store of Messrs De Costa and Co lias fallen into the hands of Mr Mpnis Levy. The prices are said, to have been satisfactory. ■ : '-•:.-•' The following paragraph, from the '.West. C'dast Times of yesterday, .' gives an account) of the Governor's visit to Waimea after his Excellency left Greymouth :— " Yesterday morning his Excellency Sir ■■ George Grey left , town at an early hour, 9 11 a.yisit of. inspection to the Waimea' diggings.:- His- Excellency and party were conveyed by the trair. ■way to the.Arakura station,; a' distance of five . miles from town, and at ; this point proceeded on horseback to the Waimca beach, Stafford Town, Scandinavian Hill, '■ and Waimea Town. On tUe '.beach, -his Excellency was met hy^r Warden Keogh, who conducted him over the various workings of the district. Discouraged probably by the disap- : pointriicnt sustained a few days back by the people of Ross, the inhabitants of the district made little formal preparation for his Excellency's receptioiij and. a few Hags and evergreens only were hastily put up as, soon as it was known that the Governor was-.ac-tually coming. His Excellency .'was; received iit StalfortVi . Town with, hearty cheers, and

from thence proceeded to. inspect the tunnel of the Scandinavian Company— the prospectors of that locality^-with; whicji work his Excellency expressed himsslf : highly satisiiod. Sir Geoi-ge Gr6y next proceeded to the j Waimea Town, where his Excellency had an opportunity of inspecting the viaduct constructed by- the Great . Western ilaee Com" pany, lie then returned tfi Stafford -Town, where the vice-regal party were entertained' at a luncheon .hastily prepared .-, at the Sluicers' Arms Hotel. . Mr Warden Ivecgh presided, and tlie liaualloyyl toasts; havingbeen given and responded to, luVExcellency proposed "The mining interest- of Westland," which was acknowledged by Mr Kohler^ Postmaster, Luncheon being concluded, his Excellency and party returned to the A i ahura station, from whence they were conveyed into town, arriving at halfpast six o'clock, We may add that Sir George Grey expressed .himself highly, gratis fieil by the pleasure he- had derived from the ! day's^ excursion, -and at the tramway his Excellency look leave of the Westland mjembers, aj^was arranged for him. to leave town for vdmstclnirch this morning." - /. ': A telegram from Wellington annpiuices that Mr Whitaker, the present deiit of Auckland, has accepted tho office of Attorney-General with a, salary .of L 1,200, 200 per annum. " No mention is made of the resignation of Mr Prendergast, but we must pre" sume it has been accepted by thg Governor. The Attorney-Generalship is a non-ipolitical office. ' '■'.".'.'•■■ :. ■. "' ....■ '.';• ..v; ;"• ':■ . A Bi'l has bean introduced by the/ Nelson Government ail thbrising : Cominissipuers oil a gold-field to grant .publicans' licenses, for sale of; liquors ; the licenise fees being, for one year, L3O, for six ; mpnths"Ll7, /*f / : . The West Coast Times of Tuesday says :— . Unable to arrive at a satisfactory A r erdict, the jury \yho_ were empannelled to try the prisoner Carr. were yesterday morning dfar .enjoyed by his Honor, and iaconsequence the case will lie reheard. Theproceediiigsof the jury whilst under lock and key became known yesterday, 1 and the whole town rang with how at first only three of the. number were in favor of Jin. .acquittal, . the others being fully convinced of the man's guilt, but at last. all but one gave way to the persistency of the "ihinoiity, and. rescinded their opinion by consenting to a verdict of : jicqiiittal. The one cxv ption, however, stubbornly refused to givo way, being thorpuglily convinced that his estimate of the citse wsis correct. . It thus appears, that/Lhe deliberations of the jury, which should be considered as sacredly secret ■' were noised abroad at an early hour yestcr-dayj-aiuVwe cannot help regretting that such babbling should have occurred, as it tends to bring contempt upon the. most important of oiirinstitutious, and cast ridicule upon* 'the' name V juryman.";- '--.'. ' : ~ Our reiulers Mill have noticed the advertisements in this journal relative to the great sale of land in the Waikato (Ustrict in March ii3xt. Speaking of this sale,; the Wellington correspondent ol t\\Q DciHi/ Time-i says :— You will doubtless have i-ecei.ved before this the particulars of the great- sale of Waikato land on the 12th Marjh. ;.' I hear that it is being extensively advertised in Australia,, and hopes are entoriaimed that it large quan--tity.will.be got rid.of,, No doubt, much will fall into the hands of -speculators, and a fine specttlatipn it must prjave for those who are in rip- hurry to turn their .njpney. I am conS.tinua'lly hearing of splendid speculations in Maori lands, ten minutes ago, one was mentioned to me of a pu'rclia'se of four hundred acres from a drunken native for L3OO, which in les^ thanfthrec days/changed hands for LIOOO. Wsvikato land ought to be %ortli \spmething in another year or two. ; ; The Westport Times of Saturday says :—'.-. One of the prisoners' iio w charged^ -witlv bushranging had, it. appears, a pricking of coriscience, or else thought to lighten his sentence by affecting to be troubled iv that way, for he volunteered to givp information as to where the swags containing the gun* . gold, &c. were concealed, and constables Williams andDoris set out with him on Wednesday. As they" did not return that night, Sergeant Frauklyn sent up a ( messenger with provisions, and the party were fortunately fallen in with, with appetites pretty well sharpened by their fast. They were successful in. their search,: and brought in all as had been stated, including the gold, It appears that nearly, if not quite every article in their possession, had been stolen. The. tent, to begin with;; the' coat' that one of them-, was wearing was stolen from a mirier at the Waimangaroa, the gun belonged to a man in.the same locality,: the blankets are believed to have been: pillaged about the same time, aud a more in-' expensive lit out could scarcely have been got under any circumstances. " They will be brought up and the .examination gone on with to-day. .. ./".■'/■- .'/; . ■"•.";'. We find tlie iollowinganiTiising "account re lative to the sailing of the Governor from Wellington in the letter- 'of : /the Wellington coiTespondont of i^}i)fdli/ Times :— The Brisk not being likely to make her appearance sufficiently, early to enable his Excellency to 'witness!.' the race at Canterbury, Ministers /chartered the^ Queen. As the Goyernor had not visited the South since his arrival hi th 6 Colony in iSCI, it was worth doing a little bit of State, and tlie expense of chartering a specM steamer, ever, in these lecpnomicalctcays, was not worth consideration. .However,' "constant habit, I suppose, induced 'the Government to try and drive a hard bargain, and; the saloon of the Queen was engaged for iLso . Of course that magnificent sum did not pay the expenses of the steamer, and a freight of cattle offering, it was at once accepted. . On the Saturday evening, Ministers were horrified to find that his Excellency; was likely to have iiye^and-twenty working; bullocks for his fellow-travellers • ".and: as this did. not. ■comport with even their ; most rigidly econoniical notion of a "State" trip, they were ordered to be at once landed. The merchant to whom the cattle belonged looked more than grave. "and talked about an action for damages.' ; but even in the face of such- a man of his word as the owner of -the cattle \yas known to be iv siich 'matters, the Com-, pany were willing to- accommodate Ministers if , they would spring L 25, the airipuntiof the freight. I believe it -was at last arranged that ;, for L 75 the Queen should bje^holly theirs— and 1 very cheap top,' for; on /strolling dpAyri-Lto,!tne;wh'arf.-^^ preparations had .been, niade -to/land /the cattle. B.i\t the men who work the cattle

punt were privately busy, probably at .tlio i ordinary sea-faring. Saturday night custom of "; toasting .sweethearts and , wivesyaiul they'd" '. be 'hanged before they were? going at that J time of night to- take-out a- lot of cjittle that they hrvd only that afteriio6u put in ; and .. tlierewas, thcrfore, no help for it but to let the cattle remain. . I cannot -dcscril>e';the '■ denoaev e-it, but the Queen steamed awsiy'ou^ Sunday- with both Governor aud cattle. jPJj dare say that no thought of impropriety eveV / crossed His Excellency's mind • -:but it is to ■ be hoped that the next time' he travels, in stata, Miuisters will be a little" nior^liyeral,.and do the thing properly, and not obHge'theGovernor to take passage in a : cattlo-sliip' for the sake of saving a paltry five-avd-twenity pounds. '"-.'■ - "