Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 541, 6 July 1869, Page 2

The fotirth of July falling this year on a Sunday, the Anniversary of American Independence was celebrated yesterday in a conspicuous manner by Mr Maxwell, of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, who caused a salute to be fired at sunrise and sunset, kept open house all day, and displayed a considerable quantity of bunting. In the evening he entertained a large number of his friends to an excellent supper, in the dining-room of the hotel. The toasts appropriate to such an occasion were duly honored, a very pleasant evening was spent, and the company did not break up till an early hour this morning. The usual monthly meeting of the Volunteer Fire Brigade was held in the Town Hall last night, but owing to the late hour at which the proceedings terminated, we hold over our report until our next. We notice that the first of the stores destroyed by the late fire has boen re-built and occupied, Messrs Hamilton and Niehol having commenced business on their old site. The Presbyterian Church Committee will meet at Gilmer's Hotel, on Wednesday evening, at 8 o'clock. The adjourned meeting of the Borough Council di 1 not take place last evening, in consequence of the Town Hall having been granted for the usual monthly meeting of the Volunteer Fire Brigade. A special meeting of the Greymouth Lodge M.U.1.0.0.F. is called for this evening, at tfie lodge-room, Hunt's Hotel, at 8 o'clock. An emergency meeting of the Greymouth Masonic Lodge will be held this evening at the lodge-room, Gilmer's Buildings, at halfpast 7 o'clock. The business is stated to be of importance. On Saturday evening, Mr James Wylde was unanimously elected President of the Greymouth Literary Society. The machinery for the Moonlight Quartz Crushing Company was brought over from Melbourne l>y the s.s. Alhambra. It consists of eight head of stampers, which will be driven by water-power, of which there is sufficient available on the company's claim. The Nelson Government have effected a saving ■■(-!> by still further reducing the miserable salary they pay the Harbor-Master at this port. Hitherto they have paid one-half of Captain Allardyce's salary, at the rate of £9 per month, but this has been reduced to £8, thus effecting a saving to the Province of £12 a-year. Should the Westlaud Government follow this example, the HarborMaster's pay will be £4 a-week — the same remuneration as is received by the Signalmen here and at Westport. We find by reference to the estimates that the HarborMaster at Westport receives £300 a-year, with a boat's crew at £350 a-year, and the Harbor-Master at Hokitika receives £450 a-year. We hope the matter will be represented in the proper quarter, for an injustice has bueu done to a most deserving officer, who holds a very responsible position. ■ Mr Dillon Bell, in moving in the House of Representatives recently for a detailed statement of the expenditure incurred in the conduct of the war since the 31st June last, said that the return furnished to the House stated it roughly at £230,000, the sum appropriated being £241.000. He believed that every man in the field cost, when all the expenses conuected with him were taken into consideration, £130 to £140 a-year; and at that rate the force of 3000 men must be costing something like £450,000 a-year. The Southern Cross, of June 23, says :— "Major Wily's resideuce and outbuildings at Mauku were totally destroyed by fire on the morning of Tuesday lasc, though most happily no lives were lost. The damage is '< estimated at nearly L3OOO, L7OO of which is secured by insurance in the New Zealand Insurance Company, and L2OO in the Royal Insurance Company. The fire was discovered about midnight, and spread with such rapidity that the family had only time to escape in their night clothes. Several flax machines have been ordered by residents in Hawke's Bay, and one by the natives, aud the preparation of flax in that Province inay'shortly be expected to rank as a local industry. A very heartless case is reported in the Otago papers. William Stevenson, a blacksmith working at Oamaru, was, some mouths ago, sued by a Miss Carr of the same place for damages for breach of promise. During the hearing of the case it transpired that Stevenson had seduced the gi 1, and abandoned her after she had a child to him. The jury awarded her £100 damages and costs. Stevenson attempted to defeat this judgment by filing his schedule, and it appeared that this was the only debt he owed. During his examination he said he had no money ; had

never saved any, although he had been in constant employmput for years ; he would make no reparation to the girl, bnt would endeavor to defeat the judgment of the Court by every means in his power. The Judge observed that this had been a cruel case from first to last. The solitary debt which the bankiupt owed was due to a young woman whom he had seduced under a promise of marriage, and who had a child by him. He would take that fact into consideration, as well as the breach of promise of marriage, and he certainly would not permit the machinery of the Court to be made a means of saving the bankrupt from such punishment as his conduct merited. He wou}d suspend his order of discharge for two years. It js, stated by telegraph from Wellington that Mr Fox has been unable to make up the Ministry from among the members of his party in the House, and has resorted to the novel expedient of inducing the Governor to call Mr Gisborne, Under-Secretary, to the Upper House, to take charge of the Govern/: ment business. there. It is also stated tha,t Mr Gisborne is to be Colonial Secretary, Mr Fox remaining Premier without a portfolio. We cannot vouch for the correctness of either statement. Mr Dillon Bell has joined the Ministry, without office. The Wellington Evening Post has been served with a notice of action for libel, for publishing a telegram from Dunedin, in which it was stated that Mr Driver, a lately, elected Otago member of the Assembly, ha,d been guilty ol political jobbery. Seventeen new J.P.s have been created by Mr Stafford, principally gentlemen residing in the Auckland Province, and on the East Coast. Mr C. E. Button, Mayor of Hokitika, has also been gazetted a J.P. Although there is little war news from the West Coast, yet perhaps we shall learn something more about Titokowaru by and bye. An expeditionary force, numbering some 500 men, is out in search of him. The force is divided into several small parties, and it is. just possible that one of them may get hold of the fugitive chief and his followers. Titokowaru is supposed not to have more than eighty men with him, a considerable portion of his followers having deserted him, while others are prisoners in our hands at Taranaki and Wanganui. The business of the House of Representatives commenced with a "joke" the other day. After prayers, the Speaker observed that some hon. member had left his personal property <>n the table, near to the mace, and suggested the advisability of its removal. Several members started to their feet to see what the " property" was that had been alluded to. It was a meerschaum pipe which some hon. member had laid on the table after enjoying his whiff of the fragrant weed. The Sergeant-at- \rms had the offensive dudheen removed, and the House settled down to business. There was a melee at Urenui last week. A native was going to strike a woman, w-hen snne of the Armed Constabulary knocked the Maori down. A fight ensued, in which tomahawks and sticks were used ad libitum, but no great injury was done, with the exception of a few cut heads, and other slight wounds. The Auckland gold fields are progressing. Some marvellous specimens have been taken from the Pride of the Karaka, a claim lying in the immediate rear of Shortland Town. The stone, which is wonderfully rich, is found seventy feet from the surface, in a lode two feet thick. ' All the ground in the immediate vicinity is taken up, to the extent of seven or eight acres. The lode runs right into and under the flat, and, owing to receut arrangements by which mining is permitted within the boundaries of the Shortland township, the difficulties which appear to face the Grahamstown people will be avoided. In the debate which took place in the House of Representatives relative to the appointment of a committee to consider the subject of postal communication, Mr Reynolds read some statistics from a return of the number of letters and newspapers received and despatched in and from the Colony duriug the quarter ending the 31st March last. He found that the totals for the Colony duriug the quarter were — letters, 237,454; newspapers, 336,458. Of these totals, Otago received and despatched 52,009 letters and 79,341 newspapers; showing that Otago't receipt and despatch Mere very nearly onefourth of the total for the Colony. He found that Auckland stood next to Otago — the totals for that Province being 44,089 letters and 47,741 newspapers. Canterbury stood third — that Province receiving and despatching 38,883 letters and 69,046 newspapers. Wellington's numbers were 28,051 letters and 40,795 newspapers ; Nelson, 18,407 letters and 24,541 newspapers ; and the other Provinces ranged from 8180 in Southland, to 2597 in Marlborough. A correspondent of the Westport Times, wiiting from Charleston, says : — lt is con jectnred that some of the public works for which special sums of money were voted, at the last sitting of the Provincial Couucil, are about to be commenced. Some of those works are much required, and their speedy commencement is very desirable. The track to the Little Grey, commencing in this district, is, on the authority of a gentleman residing here, a matter of no great difficulty. The import of his account is, that if remunerated for his time and trouble, he would undertake to point out a way, by following leading spurs at present accessible for horse traffic, and thence through the dividing range into the Little Grey district. He has spent some considerable time and endured much hardship in prosecuting his researches in the locality, and has every confidence in the practicability of such a route. In moving for leave to introduce into the House of Representatives a Bill to further amend " The Westlaud Public-house Ordinance, 1807," Mrßarff said— "The amendments which he now proposed to make ill the Amendment Bill of last session was entirely founded on the recommendations contained in the report of a Select Committee of the County Couucil, and which report was adopted by the Council The amendments

which he would propose would make the following provisions :— First, that there should be four kinds of licenses instead of three, so as to allow of the local government issuing conditional or bush licenses. Second, that wholesale and bottle licenses should be transferable. Third, that conditional licenses might be granted on the gold fields, at certain rates, on the recommendation of the Warden, the Resilient Magistrate, or two Justices of the Peace. Fourth, that a fee or tax should l>e levied on dancing saloons or casinos, whether attached to public-houses or not. He believed that a license fee was now paid in the Auckland Province on such place.3. Those saloons or. casiuos ou the gold fields were, in a majority of cases, perfect dens of iniquity ; but if they were licensed they would, come, more directly under police supervision, and something of a respectable character might come to be attached to j them. He would propose some further amendments in the Bill — slight ones, as to penalties for keeping houses open after hours, and so forth ; aud the last amendment would be to the effect that a license might be suspended by the County Council, on the recommendation of the Resident Magistrate or two Justices." Leave was granted. Mr Barff and Mr W. H. Harrism were ordered to prepare the Bill, which was brought in and read a first time. At the Resident Magistrate's Court, on Saturday, John Harrison and — M'Grath were each fined 10s or 24 hours' imprisonment for having been drunk and incapable. John Bradley was charged on the information of the Inspector of Nuisances, with allowing eight cows to, wander at large in the streets, a,nd was. fined £1 and costs. Ralph De Costa was charged, ou the information of Catherine Lawrence, with having assaulted and beaten her son, a boy eight years of aga Mary Ann Lawrence, eleven year^ of age, stated that the defendant ran after the boy and struck him several times with a whip. The complainant called J. H. King, who stated that he saw the whole affair. The defendant caught the boy by the arm, and holding a little whip in his other hand, said " I'll let you off this time ; but beware of the next time,"- and let him go. He did not strike the boy, or use him any other way than a man ouj_'ht to do a child. The defendant stated that the complainant, her husband, and children, were a great nuisance to the. neighborhood. The little boy and girl made use of language which was a disgrace to their parents. The charge was false ; they were continually annoying him, by calling names after him. Two witnesses corroborated the defendant's statement. The case was dismissed with costs — £1 45,.— r Yesterday, two men were fined for being 'drunk and in-: capable, and John Wilcox was fined £1 and costs for allowing a goat to wander at large. The details of the landslip at the Thames, recently announced by telegraph; are thus given by the Southern Crops, of the 22nd ult. : — "The steady soaking rah; which set in on Saturday has, we regret to say, caused serious landslips in various parts of the gold fields, the most serious of which occurred at Moanataiari Creek, about half-past twelve on Saturday night, resulting in the loss of three lives. It appears that a man named Gordon, with his wife and -jhild, and another person of the name of John M'Leod, were Irving in a small house on the Moanataiari Creek, immediately under the hill, which had been previously undermined by excavations and the winter rains. Gordon, it seems, was afraid that some slip might take place, and on Saturday night went outside to ascertain if there were any signs of the earth coming down, and before he could get back to remove his wife and child, an immense body of stuff came down, bringing a laige log with it, which knocked in the side of the house next the bank, and buried the unfortunate inmates beneath the debris. The wife and child were lying on the side fiist struck. Assistance was at once obtained, and after some time the woman and her child were taken out, but quite dead. Subsequently the body of M'Leod was recovered. The names of the persons who have been killed by this sad catastrophe are John M'Leod, Mary Gordon, aud Thomas Gordon." A miner named 1 Frederick Carpenter hai ; been killed in his claim at Addison's Flat. The Westport Times reports that at the inquest, Michael Carpenter, who was the first witness called, said : I identify the body shown to the jury as that of my brother, Frederick Carpenter. He was thirty years of age. He was born at Clifton, in Gloucestershire, England. Yesterday morning I was working in the same claim with him, but at another face. I was about a hundred feet away from him. I heard a man called Tim sing out. I ran towards him, and saw Tim crawling on his hands and knees. He said my brother Fred was killed. I then saw my brother covered with earth, his head only being visible. My brother was lying on a stone, and another mate named Charlie Schwerer was lying near, buried up to the middle. Myself and others -proceeded to clear the ground off them. We got abcut three or four hundred weight of earth off my brother's chest ; then I left. The jury returned a verdict of " accidental death."