Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume V, Issue 360, 5 May 1868, Page 2

A small rush of about 100 men took place early yesterday to a terrace on the North Beach, about two miles north of the Grey River, and behind the present beach workings. A prospecting claim was applied for at the Warden's office, Cobden, yesterday, and was granted by Mr Dutton. The prospects are very encouraging, and a number of men have already commenced to sink in the immediate vicinity of the prospectors. A meeting of the Grey River Hospita^ Committee was held in the Union Hotel on Saturday evening, but there was no business of any importance transacted. There was a long discussion as to the financial position of the Hospital under the no-.v system of government, which was postponed until the answer of the JNelsou Government to the Committee's letter should be received. The Visiting Committee for the month was appointed, and the meeting adjourned. We are in receipt of our correspondent's letter from Nelson's Creek, from which we make the following interesting extracts : — I shall attempt to give you a few jottings with respect to this place and the tracks, which may lead or mislead people coming here. Leaving Grey River at Brosnan's Junction Hotel, I followed the right hand of Nelson's Creek up for about a mile, where, in order to avoid the fording of the river several times, I plunged into the scrub, making the best of the horrible track that I could. After a mile's crawling I got into the open at a bend of the river, where there is a shallow fording place. I cross here, and then keep the left hand side until I reach the end of "Fern Flat." This is an open level piece of ground of about 300 acres, where a dairy is being established. Thence up a gully on to a terrace, keeping all the right hand tracks, until a ravine is crossed, when there is another terrace to get up to. I This leads to the centre of activity. Proceeding onwards our course on what appears to be deserted tail races, cut a long distance by parties who hold extended claims, then I we pass the ground sluicing works of Reid and party, around whom several appear to be doiiuj well, the ground about being what

is 1; nown as patchy, and from here to a great distance up all is* bustle. At Hoivngan and party's chum the lead appears to bu about one hundred feet wide, and keeping the edge of the terrace, with the expeptipn of one claim west from them, the ground in that direction is totally untried. In appearance it is similar to that to the east, -which is being worked -so profitably. Numbers have paid us visits here lately, and after "looking round," leave; and i would impress upon you the fact, that people with scant means, coupled with ditto of energy, had better keep away, remain where they are, than waste their time in coming to have a look at a place where it requires persevering labor for two or three months cutting races eru they get on gold. It is being traced slowly yet surely down in the direction of No. 2 German Gully, and as the country is similar almost to the banks of the Grey, I consider that there is not a place on the coast which offers more encouragement to persevering miners. 1 wpuld beg to draw the attention of the Government to the necessity there exists for tracks, so that the population during the ensuing winter may not, as they did last year, live at star:ation point, and while mentioning that, it would be as well known that whenever necessity or duty call ß us to a Court, we are outraged by being compelled to travel to Greymouth, Twelvemile Landing, or the Ahaura, at great inconvenience, loss of time, and expense. The Warden once a week within four miles of this place to hold a Court up the Grey, at a place very secondary in imports ance to this, while we have to travel through rivers, scrub, and mud, to obtain that which is taken to the doors of our more favored fellow miners. An agitation is afoot tow.irds having a post-office established here, a boon long deferred ami much needed. At the last sitting of the Supreme Court in bankruptcy, at liokitika, the adjourned case of Philip Sternberg, late of Greymouth, was mentioned, when Mr Harvey remarked that this case had evidently dropped out of the list. He appeared to oppose the bankrupt. Although, not in the list, ,it had realty been adjourned for healing to this day. Mr South appeared on behalf of the bankrupt. He said that it was reported that he had decamped. But he had reliable information, that within the last five or six days he had been seen in town. His Honor expressed hiiiiself as very dissatisfied with the whole affair, and thought thatitrequired thoroughly investigating. Air South desired that the strictest investigation should be made ; and concerning the alleged disappearance of the bankrupt, he would undertake to make the strictest inquiries as to whether he was in t own or not. His Honor adjourned the case till May 2S. The sad accident by which Mi Butler and his daughter lost their lives while crossing the Grey ltiver, a few weeks ago, will be remembered. Neither of the bodies was found until Saturday last, when that of the child was picked up ou the North Beach at the Twelve-mile. -It was perfectly naked, with the exception of a sock and boot on one leg, which was lying near high water mark. On Sunday an inquest was held on the body, at Cobden, by the Resident Magistrate Mr Dutton, and a jury, when the bod}' was identified by Mrs Butler as that of her daughter, Martha Mary Butler, who was drowned while crossing the Grey Kiver. The circumstances of the discovery of the body having been detailed, the jury returned a verdict of ' ' Accid entally Drowned. " A Christchurch contemporary says :— "We hear, from the Waitaki, that an elephant which was being brought up to Christchurch overland from Dnnedin has died from eating tutu. This is perhaps the strongest proof yet known of the 'virulence (of ibis vegetable poison. A curious fact connected with this subject is, that horses never touch tutu." We are indebted to the courtesy of Mr Barkley, of the firm of Thompson and Barkley, who arrived by the Airedale, for a complete file of the Melbourne Ar<jus up to rue latest dates. A fire occurred in Hardy street, Nelson, on the evening of Friday hist, consuming two private residences, occupied respectively by Mr Darby and Mrs Donkin. The former had but just moved into the house, and loses the whole of his furniture, valued at about three hundred pounds, including a splendid piano. The total loss is estimated at about LI 100, and only L 350 is covered by insurance upon the buildings. Another wooden house, only three feet from the nearest of those consumed was saved, thus evidencing the value of the new water supply. The Hokitika Evening Star of Friday, says that a very sad accident occurred to a young man named Henry Millar, who has been working as a miner at Swede's Terrace, near Piper's Mat, Waimea. It appears that yesterday he was engaged in the face of the claim, when an immense fall of earth took place, burying the injured man. When extricated by his mates, it was found that his thigh was broken, ami that he had received very severe injuries in the abdomen. He was to-day carried to town on a stretcher by his mates, and conveyed to the hospital. We learn that the young man is most respec tably connected in Victoria, being the son of Mr Mars Millar, of Melbourne, and nephew to Mr Henry Millar, of the same place. The Lyttelton Times says that an accident attended with fatal results took place on Thursday afternoon, 23rd ult., Mr Hargood, fruiterer, of Colombo street, was engaged ploughing at his farm on the Ferry road, and had stopped his horses while talking with some one passing, leaving them at a short distance from him. The horses getting entangled in the chains he ran up to put them right, when they bolted from him and knocked him down. The share of the plough entered his body and caused almost immediate death. An inquest was held at Mr Silk's Wharf Hotel, at three o'clock yesterday afternoon, before Dr Coward, the coroner, and a jury. The body presented a ghastly sight, there being a wound in the left side, and a large open wound in the chest. Wilh"am

Hargood, son of the deceased, deposed that ou Thursday morning last about seven o'clock, his father was ploughing with two horses» an:l he was at their head. Deceased called witness's attention, and he saw t;he horses plunging and saw his father fall, and the horses go over him, and the plough caught lii m in the side and he was dragged abont fifty yards. After the horses stopped wit£ ness went up and found him quite dead. Hie father was fixed on the plough, and it took 1 four people to take him off. James Turner deposed that he was in the employ of the ] deceased, picking up potatoes in the field J whore he was ploughing. There was a young ' horse in the plough, and it began to jib, on which he called for his son William. Mr Hargood was at the horses' heads, and witness saw him fall, on whiph the horses started off a< a canter, catching the deceased and dragging him on the plough. Witness ran to give assistance and found that the deceased was then quite dead. The deceased was detached from the plough, but the ploughshare was left in his body. The jury returned a verdict of Accidental Death. In the Otago Provincial Council th.3 following resolution was recently agreed to : — B ' That in order to gi\e every facility to the investment of capital, and the working of inferior auriferous ground, the time has arrived when the duty on gold found in Otago should be reduced, at the rate of 6d per ounce per annum, until the duty shall be abolished ; and that an address be presented to his Honor the Superintendent, requesting him to forward this resolution to the General Assembly, with the view of giving effect thereto." The Press is severe upon the coastal postal arrangements. In its issue of Thursday last it says : — " The time-table of the subsidised steamers for the mail service on the coasts of the colony for the month of May has just been published ; and is most beautifully and wonderfully made. There are only two mails a month. Tvo boats leave Auckland in the month. One would suppose they would depart one a fortnight after the other. $o ; one sails on the 3rd, the next on the Bth. So from Wellington southwards —one sails on the 7th, another on the 12th. In. the north, ward service we can send letters on the 23rd, and on the b'th as far as Wellington ; but our letters sent to Auckland on the 6th must wait at Wellington till the 25th ! The two mails from Wellington northwards sail on the 25th and 2Sth ! leaving the rest of the month without service, and arrive at Auckland-on the 29th and 2nd respectively. If that remarkably industrious man who at present fills the office of Postmaster-General, but who appears to fill other important posts as well, would concentrate his energies on the postal service, we should perhaps be spared from such a time-table as this for May. If we are told no better can be made, we reply — at all events this is not worth paying for. Let us have a rational mail service, or none at all. Our own conviction is, that we should be served quite as well were all bonuses except so much for letters carried put an end to." The following explanation of the financial position of the Nelson Province, and the bettor regulations that have been made for the conduct of business, is from the Examiner: ■?-" As far as the indebtedness of the Province goes, it stands in about the same position as it did last year ; but the Province is really in a far better financial position. At the former period an expenditni c was going forward on the West Coast which it was impossible to check, contracts being out for large works, rendered nepessary by the rapid development of the Southwest Goid Fields. Now the case is different. The revenue of the year is not forestalled, except by the overdraft spoken of, and from all the accounts having been made up to the close of the financial year at the end of last month, no outstanding account can hereafter turn up to derange the balance-sheet. A a the public expenditure was formerly conducted, the Government could never say what its financial condition really was ; money-orders given by heads of road parties were not reported, and nothing was known of them till presented for payment. In some cases this did not take place for severa: months after they were issued, so that claims on the Government were constantly being made, of which nothing previously was known. This loose way of conducting business has been rectified, and a return i a now made monthly of the orders issued, so that whether presented for payment or not, the Government can ascertain its liabilities. " The following incidents connected with the Airedale's trip round the coast are communioated to the West Coast Times by the purser : — "Before leaving Dunedin, Captain Kennedy promised to call at Preservation Inlet, with the view of relieving the coal prospecting party headed by Mr Surveyor Coates, of whom nothing had been heard for nearly three months. A boat's crew was sent on shore, and returned unsuccessful, as, beyond an old camping place, no traces of the party could be found. Shortly afterwards, however, smoke was seen rising from Crayfish Island, at the other side of the inlet, and the Airedale was at once got under weigh and steamed across, and, when about half way, met a boat, containing Mr Cftates and several of his men. They were taken on board in a wretched plight, and stated that during the past mouth they had suffered the extremes of hun"er, having lost all their provisions through the capsizing of the boat. They had afterwards subsisted on what birds and fish they could obtain by the aid of very inferior appliances. The party numbered nine men, and four of them, including Mr Coates, determined to proceed to the Airedale. The other four remained on the island, and were supplied with three weeks' provisions. The gale having moderated, the Airedale put to sea at 10 p.m. the same day, rounded West Cape at \ a in. on the 2nd iust., experienced tine weather ami a heavy S.W. swell along the coast, and arrived as above. The run from Preservation Inlet was not made uninterruptedly, as when abreast of Big Bay, a boat, making for her, was sighted. She ran alongside it, and was boarded by some of the crew who reported themselves diggers, last from Awarua River, bound to George's River, south of Big Bay. They said they had been prospecting the coast for twelve months, but had not met with niu.ch, success. A small quantity of provisions, some newspapers, &c. , having Ween supplied them, they stood on their course.