Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 438, 3 November 1868, Page 2

We have to acknowledge the receipt of a handy book of tables, called the " New Zealand Gold Ready Reckoner and Miners' Pockec Companion," published by Mr G. T. Caapinan, of Auckland. Besides, the tables .i for reckoning the price of gold from £2 per oz. up to £4 2s Gd, it contains much valuable information ; and we recommend the little volume to the attention of our mining readers. The Yen. Archdeacon Harper arrived by tho John Perm on Saturday morning from Auckland, where he had been attending the meeting of Synod. He remained iv town during Sunday, and officiated twice at Trinity Church. The Rev. Mr Beaumont will now be relieved from the extra duties which have been imposed on him, and will resume his regular fortnightly visits to this town, commencing on Sunday next. The attentiou of the Borough Council ought to be<giveu without delay to the condition of the majority of the back streets, and some steps ought to be taken at once for their improvement. It is all very well to have late sittings, and au apparent display of much anxiety for the completion of the protective works, but there are many little , pieces of work which as tirgently demand : their attention. At this season of the year the health of the inhabitants require that the stagnant pools which are to be found in

i nearly every street should be filled in, in i order to destroy the malaria which these hotr ; beds of disease give rise to. There is already : in town, especially among children, a wide- i spread sickness, a sort of low fever, which : medical men trace directly to the malaria arising from these stagnant ppols ; and, with every prospect of a very hot season, if some steps are not promptly taken to remove these nuisances, the Corporation will be directly : chargeable with the consequences. We do not suggest the immediate formation of all i the streets, but the filling in of the places I where the nuisances exist, and the appointj ment of an Inspector of Nuisances, who will find ample employment for some time to come. The sum .required would be very small, compared with the benefits which ifc , would confer upon the inhabitants. By a proclamation in the General Govern? ment Gazette, " The New County of Westland Act, 1568," came into force on the Ist inst. It appears that the resiguacion of Colonel M'Donnell has not been accepted by the Government, but he has been allowed three months' leave of absence. It is satisfactory to learn that in reply to the representations which were made to him on Saturday, Mr Mackay has reduced the ground-rent of the sections in Mackay-street from Ll6 10s per year to LlO. We learn froni telegrams to the Westport Star that a banquet was given to Mr Kynnersley, at Brighton, on Wednesday evening, aud proved a great success. Sixty gentlemen sat down to a well-laid table, at nine o'clock, in Slattery's Hotel. M r Home was iv tlie chair, aud the vice-chairmen were xVlessis Sutherland and Hackett, miners. Mr Doime, M.P.C., and Mr Broad, KM., were among those present. Mr Kynnersley was presented with a purse, containing fifty guineas, and also with a ring, with a crest representing local produce and manufactures, A cavalcade of twenty horsemen escorted Mr Kynnersley to Charleston next morning. There was no less a sum than L 6171 actually voted for the Printing Department of the General Government last year, aud there was no less a sum than L 1407 expended ' on this department without the authority of law. The actual amount expended on stationery and printing paper was no less than L 10,102 17s8d. The annual general meeting of the Greytnouth Cricket Club was held last evening, at the Albion Hotel, Mr F. Guinness in the chair. The report and balance sheet for the past season were read and adopted. The election of officers for the present, season was then, proceeded with, and resulted as follows : President, Mr G. King ; Vice-president, Mr F. Guinness ; Treasurer, Mr Arthur R. Guinness ; Secretary, Mr F. Buller. The appointment of a captain was postponed unti] a future meeting. The following members were appointed as a Managing Committee : Messrs Macdougall, Brown, Wright, Hortou, and Thompson. A vote «f thanks to the Chairman concluded the proceedings. The Wellington Independent of the 29th states that despatches have been received from Colonel Whitmore by the Government which states that he arrived at Patea ovevlnnd, on the 23rd instant, with some 400 loyal natives who are now. in colonial pay. Colonel Whitmore estimates that the force under Titokowaru is probably 800 strong while his own force, including natives and Europeans, deducting the garrison at Weraroa, consists of about COO men. The enem}' is plainly visible from Colonel Whitiuore's position, having a, dense bush in hi 3 rear, and unless surrounded, which with so small a force is out of the question, it will not be easy to effectually dislodge him. Before the end of the week, however, it is estimated that the European force will be doubled, aud . then, we may hear of some decisive engage- ( ment ; but after what we have already witnessed at the Front, our hopes in this direction are not very bnoyaut. At the Resident Magistrate's Court, yesterday, before W. H. Revell, Esq., R.M., an inebriate was fined £2, or one month's imprisonment, for au indecent exposure ; and Margaret Fyfe was fined £1 and costs for keeping an unregistered dog. —Henry Jones was charged with obstructing the thoroughfare in Gresson street, by a broken-down staging which formed' part of the footpath. He stated that since the summons was served he had made the footpath He was fined Is and costs. — Kate Murray was charged, with having, on the 29th ult., made use of abusive language to Anne Brown, calculated to. provoke a. breach of the peace. It appeared from the complainant's statement, that a young man was in the house with her, and defendant came an,d enquired for him. She denied that he was there, but afterwards opened the door, when the defendant threw a bottle at the young man's head, and mada use of filthy language to the complainant. She then struck the complainant, and smashed several things iv the house. She was fined LI costs. I It is stated in Wellington, on good authority, I that the Government has offered Major Turner, late of the 65th Regiment, the appointment of Adjutant under Colonel Whit- | more at Patea ; but we have not heard whether that gallant officer has accepted the offer. Major Turner distinguished himself in the Taranaki aud Waikato wars, and is too well known to most of our readers to require us to speak mo« fully of his services and his merits. In our last we had to leave unfinished a late sitting of the Borough Council. After our reporter left a deferred letter was read from Mr Heaphy respecting a tramway from the gorge to the wharf, and which received. The tenders for sciub were then considered, and Mr Parkinson moved that the tender of Messrs Robertson <md Melbourne, at 5s 11 £d per cord, be accepted. A discussion ensued, and an amendment was moved by Mr Moore that tenders be deferred until the Engineer's report was read. It recommended the adoption of a suitable site for a tramway station in Boundary street, A long discussion ensued, aud Mr Wickos moved that the tenders for scrub of Messrs Robertson and Melbourne, and Ward and Bushbridge be accepted, and permission be granted to lay temporary lines

of tramway for the purpose of bringing in the scrub where required. ~ Mr Coates seconded the motion. Air Moore moved as an amendment that a public meeting be called for the purpose of taking into consideration the advisability of raising a separate rate for finishing the protective works. Mr Wiekes seconded the motion, which was carried. The application of Messrs Ash ton and Ward for a tramway Bite iv Boundary street was then granted, subject to the Eugineer's report, and to any further conditions the Council may impose. The Town Clerk was instructed to furnish a statement to the next meeting of the Council of expenditure authorised on account of contracts and engagements made. The Council resumed, and adjourned jit J. 2.30 a,Tu. till Thursday evening. We notice from an estimate which has been laid before the Hokitika Borough Council that the cutting of the present channel there, closing up the old one, and building wingdams, post the Corporation the magnificent sura of L 2174 16s lOd, divided as follows :— Channel works, LI4OB 18s 11 ; wing dams, L 765 17s lid. Ie is stated that the temporary suspension of the works for closing the old channel cost the Corporation LIOOO, and a Committee has been appointed to enquire into the circumstances under which the work of closing the old North Channel was suspended at the time the first channel was successfully opened. The Westport Times regrets to state that a rumor of the drowning of H. Fry, formerly keeping an hotel iv that town, proves to be so well founded as to leave little doubt of its correctness. It appears that the unfortu? nate man was engaged as cook on board the John Perm, and was with her at Wanganui on the 14fch inst. On that night, between 9 and 10 o'clock, some ladies who were walking on the poop heard a splash in the water on the other side of the vessel to that on which they -were walking. They went across, and on looking over, saw so.ineth.pg black in the water that they thought was a dog, but the night was dark, and. they could net tell certainly what the object was. There was no cry or apparent struggle, and they thought no more of it till next moruing, when Fry was missing, Mr Gillon, the purser, immediately communicated with the police, and a thorough search of the town was made without finding any trace of the missing man. On the return of the John Perm-, though, the most active exertions to seek him out had been made, their exertion a were attended with no success, and there can be little doubt that the poor fellow is drowned. The idea of bis having absconded is very improbable, as he had no reason to do so, and on the contrary had left money and a gold watch in the custody of Mr Gillon. The following lively description of Nelson is from one of Mr Stafford's late speeches in the Assembly :— There are two provinces still — Otago and Canterbury— which have yet a right to expect a revenue from their land. I call Nelson only half a province, as.it has no land revenue, .although it has a fictitious revenue, regarded in a permanent sense, from its gold. Nelson was a little, quiet sleepy humdrum place until gold was. discovered there. Its population was only beingnncreased by the number of births, which exceeded the deaths. There is no, immigration. into the province, and no life ; in fact, it was proverbially the '• sleepy hollow "- of New Zealand. It was not a province, in the proper sense of the word, and was simply a town, because the one country district traded with Christchurch from first, to last, as it. will always continue to do. It is no more a. part of Nelson than the Channel Islands are a part of France, although the people there speak more French than English. During the last session of the Assembly the Government stated that the Defence Minister wtuld be dispensed with. On this, subject the Wellington Independent Bays: — Mr Graham and the majority of the members of the House of Representatives no doubt fondly expected that the Defence Department was. about to be abolished, and that the head of that department would be transformed from a colonial colonel into a colonial lord, and that though he did not shine in the one capacity that was no reason why he should not shine in the. other. Mr Graham and the. majority of our. members aforesaid have, however, been deceived. There is no intention to abolish the Defence Department — there is no intention to save the colony the £1000. per annum pajd tothe head of that department. On the contrary, the Defence Minister is to be accommodated with a permanent Under Secretary, with a salary of £600 per annum, and the person who has been appointed to the office is no other than Mr Haughton, the member for Hampden, who waa Gaol Couunissiouer last recess, and will be Defence Secretary during the present one, not. because he is qualified either for one office or the other, but simply because he was au active whipper-in for the Stafford Ministry, who must be rewarded, at the public cost, with some billet in consequence.