Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 576, 25 September 1869, Page 2

A meeting of the Presbyterian Church Committee is to be held this evening, at Johnston's Melbourne Hotel, at eight o'clock, for the purpose of receiving a report, and consulting as to future measures. A meeting of the Herbert street Construction Committee was held yesterday afternoon, when the tender of Henry Jenkins was accepted, on condition that he signed the .articles of contract by noon to-day. If not, the contract will be given to Matthews and Co. on their complying with the conditions as per specification. We are unable to-day to find room for a detailed report of the- proceedings in the County Council on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. The business may be shortly summarised thus :— The Council agreed to validate the contracts, amounting to over L2OOO, entered into by Mr Hoos without authority. A motion was carried to dispense with the services of two Wardens, after the Ist January, 1870. The Council refused to request the General Government to take over the control of the Westland Police Force. The report of the Committee appointed to enquire into the working of the County Engineer's Department has been laid on the table ; and it gives abundant reasons for its final recommendation that the services of Mr i Roehfort be dispensed with. At the Resident Magistrate's Court on Thursday, William Watson was charged with ! stealing a gold riug of the value of L 2, and sentenced to three months' imprisonment in Hokitika gaol, with hard labor. John Matine was charged with attempted rape on the person of Anne Sampson, in a house in Albert street, on the morning of Monday last. He was committed for trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court at Hokitika. Yesterday, there was only one charge of druukenness before the Court. The usual weekly meeting of the Borough Council, which ought to have taken place on Thursday evening, began and ended in an amusing little scene. The Public Works Comm|ttee had been sitting in the Town Clerk's room up to a quarter past eight o'clock, at whjch time the Mining Committee met, and commenced the consideration of their report, ignoring the fact that six of their brother Councillors were waiting in the Cown Hall to commence the business, but which could not be begun for want of the minutebook, and because the Town Clerk was in attendance on the Committee. The gentlemen who were thus kept "out in the cold" began to chafe at their treatment, and talk about retaliating upon the absentee Commit-

tee-men, and paying them back in their own coin. Accordingly the fastest watch in the company was selected, and the moment its hands pointed to 8.30, (the thirty minutes required by the Act having expired) Councillor Strike moved the adjournment of the Council until Thursday next. Councillor Coates seconded the motion, which was unanimously adopted, and the intelligence was then conveyed to the Committee that tbey need not be in a hurry with their report, as the Council had adjourned. Astonishment and indignation. were depicted on some j faces, and it was asserted that the adjourn- » ment was illegal, because- "it was only twenty-four minutes past eight !" and the adjournment could only be made for three days. But the indignant six had disappeared, and aa there was no quorum an adjournment untilMondayeveninprwasarranged. Seriously speaking, it is to be hoped this lesson will have the effect of inducing .some of the Councillors to be more punctual. It is ridiculous that Committees should delay consideration of their business until the last possible moment in the way that it has been done lately, more especially in the way in which it was attempted to be done on Thursday evening last. A case was heard in the Resident Magistrate's Court, Cobden, on Wednesday last, which ought to act as a caution to a class of miners who, when they leave a district, are in the habit of forgetting the existence of a certain little bill at the storekeepers. A party named Maloney, Clark, James, and O'Loughlin, who lately worked out a claim on TryAgain Terrace, Nelson Creek, left suddenly, and were followed to town by Messrs Scanlon and Drennan, storekeepers, who required payment for sundry stores and butcher's meat supplied to the party. A summons was obtained, and the men were brought before the Magistrate at Cobden, when they admitted the debt, and pleaded their inability to pay the whole or any of the debt at present, stating that they were hard-up men. The Magistrate said that it was very hard for poor men. but that if they would come to no arrangement about paying the amount for which he gave judgment, he would have to commit them to prison for one month, explaining to them that they would still be held in law liable for the amount, and they were accordingly handed over to the jailer. On being searched, money to the amount of nearly £100 was found in their possession. The amount for which judgment had been given was deducted, and the men were liberated. Our readers will leuiember the story (quoted from the Southern Cross) we recently published concerning the cave at Raglan containing thirty-eight petrified Maoris, Mr Richard Todd, who was mentioned in that account, writes to say the whole story is a "miserable, silly fabrication " The Wesleyans at the Thames diggings are building a new church at Shortland, which will accommodate 400 persons. The second anniversary of the Loyal Greymonth Lodge, M.U.1.0.0.F., is to be celebrated by a ball and supper at Gilmer's Hall on the loth October Just as the Keera was leaving "Wanganui on the 15th instant, a report reached town that Te Kooti with between three and four hundred men was up the Wauganui River. Mr Barstow, Resident Magistrate at the Bay of Islands, has fined John Hays, owne* of the cutter Petrel, . various sums to the aggregate amount of L9O for selling liquor to the natives, and for breaches of the Licensing Act. A meeting of the Local School Committee was held last night. All the members were present. A long discussion took place as to i the advisability of the Committee resigning, when the following resolution was adopted, | on the motion of Mr Glenn, seconded by Mr Keogh : — " That owing to a resolution passed by the County Council (brought forward by Mr Lahman, the only representative of Greymouth then present), that all Looal School Committees should be elected by the inhabitants, the Secretary be instructed to write to the County Chairman tendering this Committee's resignation from the Ist October. " The object the Committee has in view in not tendering their resignations before that date, is to give the inhabitants time to elect a new Committee. A vote of thanks was passed Mr R. De Costa, chairman, and Mr J. W. Parkinson, secretary, for the efficient manner in which they have discharged their duties during the time the Committee has been in office. The last rumor in Westport, in re the Superinteudency of Nelson, is that Mr Nathaniel Edwards only requires a requisition to induce him to become a candidate ; and we understand that such a requisition is already being prepared. Another rumor is that a requisition to .Mr George Donne is being numerously signed in the districts in which that gentleman is best known by residence and by the interest he takes in their affairs. By the Charleston Herald we notice that a majority of the electors in that township have requested Mr Thomas Dwanto become a candidate, and that Mr Dwan has, " without the slightest hesitation," consented to do so. A correspondent, writing from Tauranga, in Auckland, on September 2nd, says:— " There has been some little excitement at this place within tne last few days, in consequtnee of one of the Armed Constabulary, John Caddy, having been found floating down the river to a Maori settlement. He had had money on his person, and foul play on the part of the natives was suspected." Caddy's body was found naked, and the last time that he was seen ou the beach, when he was the worse for drink. The inquest, after being adjourned twice to obtain all the evidence possible, terminated in a verdict of " Found drowned." We observe from the southern papers that the celebrated American glass-blowers, Mr and Mis Woodroff, are now on a professional visit to New Zealand, previous to their de- ! parture for California, and that we may shortly expect theirpresence amongst us. Mrs Woodroff, we learn, has long been seriously j ill, and that ai, Invercargill she made her

first appearance for many months before any audience. We also learn that, in addition to the original attractions of their entertainment, Mr Woodroff lias employed his enforced leisure to great advantage, having constructed, entirely of glass, of course, a quartz-crushing machine, of eight head of stamps, made of colored glass, and capable of being driven either by water or steam power ; a. model I church, made entirely of glass of beautiful [colors; a model of a public building, with facade and corinthian columns, in colors ; | and, cascade fountain, supplied with water I Iby glass force-pumps, worked by one of the glass steam-engines. These, latter, we. are informed, have been nearly rebuilt, and the wheels of the cow-pressure-engine now contain fourteen hundred pieces of glass of various colors. Mr Peachman, who is wellknown in New Zealand as an agent, accompanies them. Tha Charleston Herald states that a little girl aged two years and a-half, belonging to Mr Mitchell, carpenter, was attacked on Sunday last by a game-cock, belonging to Mr R. P. Bain, and suffered considerable injury. It seems that while the child was playing in front of the cottage the cock flew at her, scratched her face and head considerably, and ultimately gave her a poke in the eye inflicting a wound which may prove permanent. Another fatal accident to a miner is thus mentioned by the W. C, Times, of yesterday : — "A man named John, Cowan, who has recently been working in the Standard claim, at Donos?hue's, started at three o'clock in the morning to ride in for medicine for a sick horse ; but by some means, when reaching Clean Water Creek, betweeu Donoghue's and Ross, he was thrown, and killed on the spot. He was a blacksmith by trade, but had recently been employed as a wages-man in the Standard claim. He was one of the most assiduous Totara. Volunteers, and appeared on parade on the evening preceding his untimely death." On Saturday evening last, says the Westport Times, there was raffled a gold nugget of about half a pound weight. One of the on-lookers, who had risked his 20s with twenty-nine others, on what was, doubtless, considered to be a legitimate lottery, after he himself had thrown, had his suspicions aroused by the circumstance of an uncommonly high throw of the dice, and he thought fit to challenge the throw by suddenly examining the dice ; when what was the discovery ? A false set of dice had been introduced, not bearing the 1 usual numbers of 1 to 6, but bearing only the numbers from 3to 6 ; and on one of the three dice the numbers were all fives and sixes. The "little game" was soon put a stop to, and we" understand that most of the money invested on the occasion has been refunded. After such a rascally piece of business, the public will, for their own safety, be very guarded about raffle-papers and dice. The Omeo took to Melbourne from Nelson Mr Redwood's team of racehorses, consisting of Manuka, Peeress, and Misfortune. Of the appearance and chances of these animals in Melbourne, a writer in a Nelson paper says : —With a considerable amount of squeezing aiid pushing, we worked our way into Manuka's box, and certainly the splendid creature, whose fame is now so wide-spread, is a sight well worth going any distance to see. Heis a dark brown, standing 16 hands and half an inch, and, view him which way you will, it is impossible to find a fault in him. The beautiful sloping shoulder, and immense length from the stifle to the hock, leave no room for doubt that you see before you the qualities required for speed, while the short back, immense muscular development in arms and tbights, and the powerful hind quarters, speak of enormous strength ; with, regard to his powers of endurance, we are all too well acquainted with his performances on the Canterbury course to be in the least sceptical on that point. It is the opinion of those who are well able to speak on this subject that seldom, if ever, has such ahorse made his appearance even on the Derby course, and should no accident happen to him J we fully expect to hear that the Melbourne Cup and several other of the pliiirisof the meeting he is going to attend have fallen to the lot of his enterprising owner. Peeress and Misfortune are, both of them, beautiful specimens of the racehorse, but to receive that meed of admiration they deserve, they should be viewed before their grand stable companion— a precaution which we unfortunately neglected take. The three horses were shipped on boardthe Omeo on the morn- i ing of the 21st inst.