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Grey River Argus, Issue 625, 20 January 1870, Page 2

A sitting of the Waste Lands Board wns held at t>ie Resident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday at noon. Present : — Commissioners Frnser, Barbour, Lahraan, Evans, and a clerk. The attendance was very lmiitei l , and the bidding more so. There were over 120 sections in the township exposed for sale, only four of which were bought, and one section of six aores of i % ural land for L 6. During Tuesday and Wednesday there was no business of any consequence transacted in the Resident Magistrate's Court; A sitting of the District Court, in bankruptcy, was held in the Resident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday morning. The business was confined to the granting of final orders of discharge to John Cordial, John Counsell, W. B. Evana, C. H. Rhodes, and W. H, Lash. Mr Inspector Skallcrass arrived yesterday from Nelson, iv order to hold an enquiry into the proceedings at the recent election of members of the Provincial Council at Napoleon Hil^ The enquiry will be held iv a few days. The Virago arrived in Auckland on the 11th, and was to leave on the 14th for Australia with four companies of the 18th Regiment," from Taranaki. A detachment left per Claud Hamilton for Melbourne on the 18th. H.M. S. Rosorio is, oi dered to take the Wani'anui and Napier detachments to Auck land. The telegram we recently publishod with regard to Wiuigapeka beiug within the Southwest Gold Fields is corroborated by the Nelson Colonist, which says :— " Although not ollicially announced, there is no doubt as to the intelligence brought by a messenger ■Troin Blue Creek last night, that the Wangapeka diggings are found to be four or five miles within the Nelson South-west Gold Melds. With very few exceptions, the new 3 has given great satisfaction in Nelaon. All clow n tho line of route, where the fact became known, a feeling of gratification exists, only damped by the sense of injustice.

and the losa which the long delay has occasioned. This seems the crowning of the arguments employed from tho first. One by one the defences the Provincial authorities relied on to justify their conduct have melted like snow before the light of common sense, of justice, and the law. We congratulate the mining community, wid not less the trading community, as well as every hard working settlor in the Province, that now the end is surely reached ; for we cannot conceive it possible that fui"ther attempts will be made to stop the working ofjthe mine. The public, whose interests in the opening of this /{old field have been imperilled and nearly destroyed by a deUy wlich should never have occurred, will not br.uok the continuance of that delay and of those obstacles to the progress of the Province which the last three months have witnessed. We have often been asked who is responsible for that ridiculous piece, of folly of a trooper, riding behind Cobb and Co's coach between here and Hokitika, and vice versa, when the District Court Judge is a passenger. We are unable to auswer, but we know that the County Chairman never sanctioned such an absurdity. The idea of the coach being stuck up for the purpose of assaulting, beating, or robbing the respected Judge, is simply ridiculous. Of coarse there is a good deal of the ot'mm oum dignitato about the present arrangement, but surely some better employment can be found for our mounted constables. Governor Sir George and Lady andßowenJ Mr M'Lean, Defence Minister, visited the Thames gold fields on the 11th instant. Mr M'Lean returned to Auckland next day, but the Governor and his lady stopped to attend the ball. While the men employed on the Moanataiari water-race, Thames, were leaving work the other evening one of them, named James Fuskin, fell from a height of over 50 feet, sustaining a severe fracture of the right scapula, besides other cuts and bruises. The West Coast can boast of producing vegetables of surpassing growth. We saw yesterday, at the shop of Messrs Woolcock and Co., one cabbage weighing 21flbs, and we are informed that Mr M'lnerney can produce several others equal, if not exceeding, that weight. ' Several of the officers of the detachment of the 18th Eegiment, on board the Claud Hamilton, came ashore in the p.s. Persevere yesterday forenoon, and after a few hours' run ashore returned to the vessel. In a circular issued from the General Post* office, and dated January 1, Postmasters are informed that on and after the first day of January, 1870, the colouial fee on registered letters, packets, &c, for places beyond the colony, will be reduced from one shilling to sixpence. The Shortland Times says that the groat increase in the height of the beach at Grahamstown, especially towards the Kuranui battery, makes it seem that before many years that part of the beach will he dry land, even without, the* necessity of building a break water. Mr Kynnersley, late Commissioner on the Nelson South-west Gold Fields, sailed from Plymouth by the ship Yorkshire on the Ist of November last. He is expected to arrive in Wellington in February. The Westporl Times 'learns, on what it believes to be reliable authority, that Mr Caleb Whitefoord, Warden's Clerk at Westport, has received the appointment of Resident Magistrate and Warden at Cobden, in the place of Mr Lowe, who has resigned. Mr E. H. Sullen, formerly of the Westport lime* office, has been appointed as Clerk to the Warden at Westport. An Auckland contemporary understands that the sum of L 52 ,000 has been paid into the Provincial Treasury recently by the General Government, being the amount of refund of interest ami sinking fund due to the Province. A contemporary remarks that as it is contemplated to continue the electric telegraph either to Melbourne or, Sydney ; it is a question for the General Government of this colony to reflect on the advantages of anticipating such an event, by causing a submarine cable to be laid cither to Tasmania or New South Wales- Sydney would no doubt be preferred, from its more important position. This is a question that ought to be well ventilated, and it is one which is not likely to create provincial jealousies. The Totara Chronicle has ceased to exist after a brief career of three weeks. — A new paper, entitled the Daily Teleympli, was published in Wellington on Monday morning, circulation gratis. — A new daily paper, ! the Morning Advertiser, has made its appsarance in Auckland. , The Victorian Sugar Company have sent down to Wellington an agent to investigate the alleged poisonous sugar case. The result of the inquiry has proved that the poisonous matter was introduced into the sugar by the breakage of a quantity of. cases containing patent carbolic acid, sheep-dipping composition, imported in the same steamer by Levin and Co. A correspondent of the Westport paper writes stating that he has just received a letter from some friends of his in Levuka, Fijis, and that there seen's to be no truth in the report of the murder of Mr J. Vassie Smith, who left Westport for the Fijis about 18 montha ago. The writer of the letter does not mention. Mr Smith's whereabouts, but supposes he is " all right still." By Australian papers recently received we learn that there is every chance of the establishment of more than one company for the purpose of opening up the mail route betweeu San Francisco and Sidney. A company has been formed on a small scale in Sydney which purposes to start in March , next. It will make a modest beginning with two chartered steamers, and will adopt the route via Auckland, Tahiti, and Honolulu. A circular has also been issued by Messrs Collie. Stewart, aud Co., of San Francisco, iv which it is proposed to establish a wail line through from England to Australia in connection with the Cunard line from New York to Livei-pool, and it is expected that th« whole distance will be performed in 49 I

1 days. The San Francisco Company suggests ' i as its main line Honolulu, Fiji, Brisbane, and I Sydney, with a branch line from Fiji to New ] Zealand and Victoria. It is suggested that a subsidy of L75,Q00 would bo required from - the Australian Colonies and New Zealand, . but this sum may probably be reduced, as ( the line will not be nearly as expensive, and i it will probably be found very much more " useful and much more attractive than the Panama route. The circular states that if the company is notified of a view favorable , to the proposed route by the Governments of ' the Australian Colonies and that of New Zealand, the directors will be prepared to i enter upon the service four mouths, after the i receipt of such notification. We do not learn ' how far the Governments of Victoria and ' New South Wales, are prepared to support \ the undertaking ; but if they are inclined to contribute equally with New Zealand, we shall probably see the line fully established before the end of the current year. The " Annals of the Propagation of the Faith" states that Monajgnor Pompallier, worn out by the labors of an apostleship of thirty-three years, in New Zealand, has ; begged the Sovereign Pontiff to allow him to retire from the duties of the episcopal see of Auckland. His Holiness has jusc conferred on the venerable Missioner Bishop the title of Archbishop of Ainasia, in partibus. The Eev James M'Donald, Vicar-General of Monsignor Pompallier, has been appointed to administer the diocese of Auckland.