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Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 542, 8 July 1869, Page 2

The Borough Council appear to be as far off as ever in obtaining the much-requirnd loan of £5000 from foreign sources. The letter which was read at the meeting of the Borough Council, on Tuesday evening, from Messrs Harman and Stevens, of Christchurch, who had undertaken to negotiate the loan, was most unsatisfactory, after the previous communications which had been received from them leading the Council to believe that it would, speedily be in possession of the money. They gave a most trivial excuse for throwing up the matter— that from the accounts they had received of the late fire in Greymonth, it would be impossible to place the loan on the market in Christchurch. The misfortune which recently overtook this town must either have beeu eagerly seized by Messrs Harman and Stevens to get out of a position which they imagined was unpleasant, or else very incorrect reports must have been made to them as to the results which were likely to follow the recent fire. If they had made use of the ordinary channels of information at their disposal, they would have learned thafc allthe business places which were burned down were in course of re-erection, and that irrespective of this block, the extensive building operations^which have lately been carried on all over the town warranted them to expect an increase over last year in the amount of rateable property. But since they have decided not to undertake the negotiation of the loan, the Council must look elsewhere, and it is pleasiug to find that the residents are themselves moving in the matter of taking up the debentures. An offer will shortly be made by some of the owners of property on Richmond Quay to take up £1000 worth of the debentures, on certain conditions, and it is expected that this proposal will be discussed by the Council at its meeting to-night. A temperance meeting was held at the Diggers' Arms last evening by Mr W. Dale. There were about fifty persons preseut, and at the termination of the proceedings nine new members were added to the roll of the Society. Tho usual monthly meeting of the Volunteer Fire Brigade was held in tho Town Hall on Monday evening, Captain Whall in the chair. The minutes of the last meeting wete read and confirmed. A letter was read from Mr Cruise, which was not received. The Treasurer reported the balance to the credit of the Brigade to be \J2ii 8s Sd. In reply to Mr Heron, the Treasurer stated that he had received no contributions from the public. The Captain and Secretary gave similar replies. The Captain suggested that the i amount of the Brigade fiuuN appropriated

l>y the Engine Committee be returned to the Brigade, and that <i draft be forwarded to Mr Bowen to liquidate that liability, Mr Moore moved — "That an advertisement be inserted in the two local papers, informing the public that unless they contribute more liberally towards the support of the night watchman, the Brigade will be compelled to dispense with his services at the expiration of the present month." — Carried. It was resolved, I on the motion of Mr M'Gregor— " That the Secretary write to the Treasurer of the Engine Committee, informing him that the Brigade has an aocount to pay amounting to L 73, and requesting him to favor the Brigade with the amount of the balance due to it, in accordance with his promise, " The election of new members was proceeded with, and the following were declared duly elected : — Messrs West, Noy, Dupre, Kensch, Helms, John Walton, Quinlan, Fitzgerald, Dunn, Purcell, Henry, Allen, Dixon, Tennant, Graham, Dunlop, Silver, Iteid, Holder, Payne, and Gleeson. It was resolved "that Messrs Amos and Wickes write to Ballarat respecting the cost of a hook and ladder apparatus." Mr Wickes called attention to the proposal lately made by the Borough Council for appointing a Committee to collect subscriptions for the purpose of relieving those gentlemen from the responsibility they undertook to pay the men who worked the pumps at the late fire. He had hoped that a very handsome balance would have been placed at the disposal of the Fire Brigade, after the required amount had been paid, but in this he was disappointed. Mr Moore thought that it was a disgrace that the inhabitants had not coma forward before this time to relieve those gentlemen from the responsibility they had incurred. Foreman Amos said he had been at many fires, and had considerable experience in the working of fire brigades. He had knowu it to be the general habit in other towns for the public to send in cheques to the Treasurer of the Fire Brigade, if not to compensate the members for their services, at least to assist them in defraying the expenses to which they had been put, or the damage which ha 1 been done to uniforms and apparatus. It was resolved, on the motion of Lieutenant Hosie, " that the members' contributions be kept separate from the general Brigade Fund, for the purpose of being applied in cases of accident, in accordance with the rules." After the members' monthly contributions had been paid up, the meeting adjourned. In the Resident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, before W. H. Revell, Esq., R.M., a man named Cooper was charged with being drunk and disorderly. The prisoner denied the charge, but admitted that he had, on the previous evening, amused himself with hauling down the American flag which was flying over the United States Hotel, and said he would do it again fifty times, as it was not allowed to fly in the part of Ireland he came from. He was cautioned as to his future conduct, and fined LI or 48 hours' imprisonment. For permitting his stove pipe to catch fire, Daniel Sheedy was fined LI ami costs. On the civil side or the Court the following business was transacted : — Judgments by default — Glenn Bros. v. Phillip Rooney, Ll3 ; Giesking v. Hudson, L 6 16s Sd ; Dunn v. Leacher, 16s ; trustee in the estate of Alex. M'Niel v. M'Kenna, L 3 15s ; J. Johnston v. R. Kilgour, a fraud summons, the defendant vas ordered to pay 15s per week, or in default, one month's imprisonment. Sheard v. Black : This was a claim of L2l 7s 6d on an account stated between the parties, and LI 7s admitted to be due. It appeared that the settlement pleaded had been made without the production of the accounts on both sides, and as the defendant wished an opportunity to plead a set-off, the plaintiff was nonsuited, in order to allow another action to be brought. The Charleston Herald says : — lt appears by our Brighton correspondent's letter that the track between there and Cobden is very bad in several places, and extremely dangerous to travellers. We trust the Government will lose no time in making the necessary repairs before the track gets anything worse, as it will then become entirely impassable. A few pounds now judiciously spent is no doubt aU that is required, which, if neglected for a few weeks, may entail as many huu- • dreds. A meeting of the Presbyterian Church Committee was held at Gi'mer's Hotel last evening. Owing to the late fire, the proceed. in.L's in connection with the establishment of a Presbyterian Church here have been somewhat retarded, but we believe that steps were last night taken to proceed vigorously in the :nafcter. From the Bruce Herald (Otago) we learn thafc a young mau of the name of George Martin, of Mr Hill's station, Mataura, met with an accident lately, which caused him to lose his leg. He was in the act of stooping down to pick up some chips of wood, when a shepherd employed on the station took up an axe and made a blow at a log close to Mi Martiu's side. The axe- glanced off and struck Mr Martin on the knee, splitting open the cap of the knee and penetrating the joint. Dra Moukton and M'Lure, of luvercar^ill; were sent for, who performed the operation. It was considered necessary to remove the pajient to Invercargill. Humor, says the Waikouaiti local journal, has been busy during the past week respecting the result of a proselyting visit of a number of the Northern Maoris to their brethren resident at the Kaik here. Though it "s believed that these visitors were chiefly from the Moeraki and Timaru districts, we have good reason for stating that several were from the North Island, and that from the Province of Wellington. We regret to say [ that there can now be no doubt that the pernicious doctrine of Hau-hauism has taken considerable hold of the miuds of the hitherto pjaceable and remarkably well - disposed Maoris at this Kaik ; *tid that instead of devoting themselves to tilling the soil as heretofore, they have absohitely done nothing this year toward g securing crops — neither planting nor sowing — and it is positively asserted they do not intend doing either. To give an ?. istanco of the rapidity with which

the aboriginal mind can relapse into its old barharianisms, we are informed that a-well-known and highly -respected Maori, whose wife recently died, under the influence of the teachings of those inculcating the doctrines of Hau-hauism, as well as in accordance with ancient Maori customs, busrjfed down during the past week the house in which she had died, containing every thing iri th# shape of furniture and cooking utensils which his habit of associating with the Europeans had given him a taste for. On Friday last a number of Maoris went away, but we understand in abcut two months there is to be a large gathering from all the Kaiks in Southern Canterbury. There is no doubt that regular correspondence is kept up by the disaffected North Island Maoris with all the Southern tribes, and though not in the least alarmists, we think that storekeepers should be very careful whom they supply with ammunition. We may mentiou that we hear the name of Horoinona Pohio, who is a Maori magistrate, mixed up with the doings of Southern Island Hau-hau prophets in a way that should at least cause an investigjvtion to be made. A correspondent of the Otago Dally Times, writing from Macreas under date the 21st ult., states that a man named Thomas Middleton, a miner, lost his life there on the 14th insr, , while under the influence of liquor. It appears that about 2 o'clock on the morn' ing in question, he wandered away from his hut, and was not found until about 11 o'clock next day. When found, he was quite dead, his body being in a small hole two feet in depth, at a distance of about a mile and a half from the lower township, near tlie racecourse. He was on his hands and kne.es, with his face at the bottom of the hole, in which were several inches of water. He was accompanied by a little dog belonging to him, which faithfully kept beside him, and but for which it is doubtful if his body would have been found. An inquest was held on the body on the 1 7th, by Mr Warden Rol inson, when a verdict was returned to the effect that the deceased was accidentally drowned white in a state of iutoxication. The funeral took place the same day, aud was numerously attended. Deceased, who was a native of Yorkshire, was about 37 years of age, and was much liked in the district. If some one has not been hoaxing our contemporary, the Daily News, it will be admitted that the following story looks very like it. If true, it is one of the most marvellous escapes from a fearful death it has ever been our lot to record. It appears that while a miner named Denis Kelly, a shareholder in Slattery's claim, at Donoghue, at a little after 6 o'clock on Saturday last, was in his hut cooking his tea; on Jones' Flat, the ground gave way, and hut, man, and everything else disappeared in a yawning chasm, which closed immediately on the last of the hut being swallowed up. This extraordinary accident created intense excitement on the flat, and nearly every miner volunteered his services to disinter the helpless Kelly from his mysterious tomb. The miners s^t to work with a will, and soon discovered that the hut had fallen down an abandoned shaf'. The digging-out process then commenced in earnest, and, after sinking about 25ft., the relief party came across Kelly, quietly esconced in a drive, where he had been waiting some time for the appearance of deliverers. Kelly's escape from annihilation is something wonderful, and the story of the occurrence ismore like a legend of some goblin of old than a sober narration of an incident that happened in this prosaic nineteenth century. From what Kelly says, it seems that after falling 25ft. his downward progress was arrested by a number of slabs which were firmly attached to the side of the shaft, but kept the weight of a large quantity of tailings off his body, otherwise he would most certainly have been crushed to death.