Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 654, 29 March 1870, Page 2

The s.s. Omoq, with the New Zealand portion of the English mail on board, arrived a,t the Bluff early on Sunday morning. Yesterday morning we published the news, (which wjll be found in our fourth page today) in the shape of an ' ' extra. " The Legal Manager of the Moonlight Quartz Mining Company announces that a final call of L 4 per share is now due. We notice that the Totara Hospital Committee has adopted the same resolution as our local committee with regard to the division between the three Hospitals of the balance remaining from the Mining Hospital Fund. A stand-pipe similar to thiit fixed in Boundary street is very much wanted in front of the block between Albert and Boundary streets. At present there is no possibility of the engine being backed close enough to the water, and the box which was fitted there some time ago for the suction-hose has been taken up, and left lying on the street. The owners of property in the block ought to see to this matter without delay. Letters of naturalisation have been issued in favor of Antonio Perrin, butcher, Greymouth. Dr. Suter, M.B , son of the Bishop of Aberdeen, died at Patea, on the 10th March, in the 29th. year of his age. A Mr Horn lias died at Fapier from an absces.s caused by a small piece of wire which he had unconsciously swallowed some time ago. There is a rumor of gold having, been struck in the neighborhood of the Fourmile, to the southward of Charleston, and a rush is said to have set in to the locality. A special meeting of the Paroa Road Board was held on Friday last, to receive tenders for the Cock-a-Bulla road, and after considerable discussion, the business was allowed to stand over until Tuesday next, to get opinions of Counsel. The richness of the Lyell reefs is said to be an undoubted fact. One reef is stated to be five feet thick, with gold visible. L3OO has been offered for a share, and the prospects altogether are described as excellent. With.regard to the case we recently reported from Camptown; ia which a constable was charged with ( drunkenness, we are requested by Mr Inspector Franklyn to state that the reaaqn t why the constable was kept so long under arrest was, that the matter was reported to Mr Inspector Shal. crass at Nelson, and for nearly a month he took no notice whatever of it. .:'. * The Superintendent of Nelson has called the Provincial Council together for the 26th Aprils It is not yet arranged whether Mr Kyunersley will endeavor to obtain a seat in f the Council. There is this difficulty in the way, that he cannot enter the Council without resigning the Resident Magistrateship • and he does hot' wish to do so unless it is considered by the Council that # is necesi sary that he should be one of their number, Oa this the Westport Timp remarks that to ; resign the office of Resident Magistrate would render him unable to hold courts at Wangapeka, and practically nullify his work ' as Warden there, should such work ever be required — a very doubtful contingency. In consequence of these considerations Mr l^ynnersley,. a.3 we learn, intends to dp nothing in his execiUi ve capacity until ajter the meeting of the Council, except— and the exception is ho,th, .important aud. inteveatiijg

—" to take a trip round the gold. fields, and to form an opinion as to the best way of working them." Mr Kynuersley's present idea, we understand, is to make Nelson his head-quarters, discharging the very intermittent duties of the Wangapeka district, and making also occasional .visits to the Matakitakj and the Upper Buller. In addition to this his probable plan will be to pay, at least, a quarterly visit to tl}£ West Coast, but his decision will depend upon his iir=>t visit, and that will be made within a few days hence. Mi> Kynnersley, we understand, has already started from Nelson for the Upper BuHgr, and, on tl;e conclusion of that trip, he may be expected on the Coast. At present it is., of course, impossible to say accurately how the Wangapeka. reefs may extend in number or prove thenisgjyes, in point of productiveness, but the estimate i s that a monthly Court - T>'lll suffice there for a long timp to come. The first general meeting pf the Paroa Literary Society was held on Thursday evening, the 24th insjt. The rales of the Society were adopted, and the officers elected weie Mr Hurst, chairman ; Mr Beach, secretary • and Mr Leach, treasurer. The first debate takes place on Thursday next. The subject of debate \sUl be, "Is reason confined to man. " Grass growing in the streets ; deserted houses and shops on all sides ; the main road only gravelled or metalled ; cows and goats browsing undisturbed on unoccupied quarteracre sections ; open drains in all directions, " which, however, thanks to the thinness of the population, the constant breezes from the sea, and the frequent scourings from the abundant rainfall, have not hitherto told injuriously on the health of the town ; such is Invercargill of the present day, according to •a description in the Bruce fferalil. On Sunday the cook of the schooner Fairy had a very narrow escape from death by drowning. While in a state of intoxication he attempted to jump from the wharf to the rigging, missed his hold, and fell down between the vessel and the wharf. He caught hold of the -anchor, which was hanging at the bows, and was helped on board. A new rock-driller, invented by F. H. Dcering, is mentioned in a late number of the English Mining Journal. The average time of an experienced miner in drilling a hole of 18in in the hardest white granite would be about three hours, and the above-mentioned driller would do the work in ten to fifteen minutes, calculating for stoppages. Mr A . P. Seymour has been elected Superintendent of Marlborough. A serious accident occurred in Hayward and Co,'s claim on the Deep Lead, Lagoon Terrace, Nelscn Creek, on Friday, 25th inst. The party were knocking off work for the dciy ; one of them, named John Dempster, was being wound up from the shaft— which is 56ft deep— and when he reached the top he suddenly let go his hold of the rope and fell to the bottom, sustaining severe injuries. Dempster was brought to town on Saurday. This accident may be attributed to the prevalence of foul air in the claims on this lead, owing to the recent hot and dry weather, ami the consequent difficulty in ventilating the ground. It is supposed that the sudden reaction caused by coming into the fresh air after a;,long; shift underground in the bad atmosphere, had some paralysing effect on Dempster, rendering him insensible. It was found on the sufferer's arrival at the hospital that his left leg had been fractured below the knee, also a fractured ancle, and other injuries, caused by falling on the tools, which he was bringing up out of the claim at tae time. A tire occurred at the farm of Mr M'Niel, near Balclutha, Otago by which grain to the value of LIOOO or LI2OO was destroyer!. The names of the following gentlemen have been added to the Commission of the Peace . — "Thomas Bannatyne Gillies, Esq. ; George Cowie, Esq. ; Joseph M 'Mullen Dargaville, Esq., of Auckland ; Alexander Mollison, £sq, of Waihola Park ; William Duff, "Esq, of Waihola Otago ; James S. Holmes. Esq, of Castle Rock, Southland. The Westport Times states that during the late high tides, the sea, in its encroachments upon the beach, has addressed itself chiefly to the work of demolishing the space of ground intervening between^ the high- water mark and the most northerly block block of buildings in Gladstone street. It has done the same also at the old and now empty cemetery— emptied only in time to prevent its desecration. Between these two places the beach has rather "made," a shingle bank having been formed. The most serious encroachment is in the vicinity of a house belonging to Mr Struthers, now tenanted by Mr Falla, and formerly occupied by Mr Phillips. The wash of the sea reached it on Tuesday, cr very near it, and there is an incision in the bank which promises to be the inlet of a future lagoon. A deplorable circumstance occurred at the Bay of Islands last week. Two seamen belonging to one of the whalers in port made their escape from the ship. The master engaged three Maoris to track them. The runaway sailors -were soon caught, and one of them gave himself up, but the other, who was armed with a revolver, refused to be taken, and said he would fire upon the first • man who attempted to capture him, when the sailor fired and shot Hamone through the chest. He also fired another bullet which penetrated his left side. The other two Maoris then followed up the sailor and succeeded in overtaking him, after a desperate struggle. Hamone was not expected to recover. . \ , The Nelson' Inspector ; of Schools visited this district the other day. The school at Cobden, taught by Mr Ray, was examined, and the Inspector expressed himself P3 being highly gratified with the progress that had been made throughout the school during the past year. The Inspector also visited Brunnerton, where a private school, numbering 33 scholars, is being supported by the contributions of the inhabitants, who have built a commodious school-room at their own expense. The Inspector had an interview with a deputation of the inhabitants, and undertook to represent their case to the Central

Board, who, he had no doubt, would at once grant a salary qf LI 50 for a master, "Crunnerton bejng within the limits of the Educational District of Cobden. An application for a contribution for a gchool-house at Napoleon, where a small private school is supported by the neighborhood, is also likely to bo acceded to. On Saturday forenoon sorce passers-by discovered smoke and flame issuing from the shingle-roof of Mr Inspector James's house in Arney street, and a.t uuce. gave the alarm. A bucket qf water was conveyed up* stairs, and tlje fire gxthiguished. It had been caught just in time. The cause of the fire was a servant girl goin^ up to a sinajr dark lumber-room with a, lit candle, and while looking for something she had held the light up over her head so as tq reach tjie dry shingles and ignite them. The bells were rung, and the me.n)bers of the Fire Brigade assembled with conimeudable promptitude, the engine was turned out, but happily their services were nqt required. When is anything going to be dpne about t n § fi^ n g "f a standpipe in Gresson street? Alarms are becoming so frequent that it may be required sqan. An infqrmatiqn has been laid in Christchurch against Mr A. J. Raphael, charging Mm with having committed perjury iv giving evidence before the Registrar on Monday, 21st instant, in the estate of Doyle Brothers, bankrupts. The case will be investigated at the Pojice Cqurt. The body of a man named John Gibson has be.en found at Tomahawk, near Dunedin. The deceased, who had been in the province for the last two years, was a native of Edinburgh, about thirty years of age, unmarried, and had lately been employed as a station assistant, It appeared from the medical testimony at the inquest, that the cause oi death was an apoplectic fit, and a verdict to that effect was returned by the jury. The Auckland Herald of March 18th says :— Our Maketu correspondent sends us the following account of a melancholy tragedy which has just been perpetrated at Ohinepiutu. A native man named Akutina, who has been for some time out of his mind, living at Ohinemutu, a day or two ago suddenly broke out in a state of frenzy, killed a woman, whereupon he was stripped aud tied to a post. The men then proceeded to belabor him with spears until they were tired, and the women then took him in hand,; and did not leave off beating him with stoned until they thought he was dead. ; From the Otago Daily Times, of the 19th inst., we learn that Cobb and Co. 's coach, which leaves Dunedin at three o'clock in the afternoon, had a narrow escape from a very serious accident at Green Island on the previous day. It appears that the men employed by the Telegraph Department had let one of the wires down across the road low enough to drag the driver and passengers off the box. The hor&es.gol away with the coach, but were luckily stopped by being driven on to a bank by a horseman who followed them, with a broken pole, the leaders escaping with a pair of broken knees. The accident was probably owinsi to' the effect of St. Patrick's Day on the workmen on the road. The Wellington correspondent of the Westport Times states that great dissatisfaction is felt there among the Government clerks at the way in which new comers are appointed to posts over the heads of those who have been many years in the service. "It is a grievance that has always existed, and I suppose will continue to do so. Some few years ago Mr Jonas Woodward, an outsider, was appointed Assistant Treasurer over the head of Mr Batkin, a sen ant of many years' standing, and who had been led to expect the post. Continually this kind of thing is done, and those who have been years in the public service performing their work faithfully, in the hope of gaining one of the few prizes of the service, find themsalves set aside for a new-comer, with nothing to recommend him beyond some claim on a Minister or some other person of influence. The latest grievance is the appointof Mr Lawson, receutly accountant to the Panama Company, to a post in the Treasury, whereby clerks of long terms of service find themselves superseded not unjustly."