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Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 682, 2 June 1870, Page 2

In connection with the remarks we recently made regarding the landing of the Australian mails for Greymouth at Hokitika, we are informed by the Postmaster that the Post-master-General has appointed one of the Custom House officers at Hokitika, at an additional salary, to see to the shipping and transhipping of mails, and also the taking of shipmasters declarations when necessary, under the 31st clause of tho Post Office Act, 1858. It will now become the duty of this officer to see that the Greymouth mails are brought on to their destination ; and should they be transhipped at Hokitika contrary to his orders, he has the power to order them on board again, under a heavy penalty for refusal. In our last we published a long telegraphic account of the meeting of the Wellington deputation with the Postmaster-General, and the explanations then given with regard to I the Pacific Mail route contract. Mr 38. \ Pearce, the chairman of the deputation, telegraphed to us yesterday as follows :— " I desire to state, for the information of the public, that the deputation to the Post-master-General on the subject of the San Francisco Mail service did not express themselves satisfied with the terms of the Hall, contract. A full report will appear in the Independent to-morrow." We believe the Rev. Father Binsfeld will officiate at the Greenstone on Sunday next, morning and evening, and also on Monday morning. On the following Suuday he will hold services at Clifton in the morning, in the evening at No Name, and also on the Monday morning. The treasurer of the Volunteer Fire Brigade has received from Mr G. King, Secretary of the Fire Relief Fund, the sum of Lls 12s, being the balance on hand after paying all expenses, as ordered by the meeting of subscribers. We are glad to notice that, thanks to the exertions of Mr Lahman in the County Council, the first step has been taken towards the construction of the main road from Greymouth to the Coal Pits, to join the piece of road made from there to the Arnold. On Tuesday evening, Mr Lahman moved — "That the County Engineer be instructed to prepare plans and specifications for the construction of a road from tho town of Greymouth to the Coal Mines, together with an estimate showing the approximate cost of such road." He explained the benefit such a road would be to Westland, and hoped the House would support him, as all he asked was for plans, &c. The Chairman opposed the motion, and hoped the hon. member would withdraw it, as, if the plans were made, the work could not be done. Mr Carreras and Mr Reeves

sipported the resolution. M r White agreed with the Chairman that the motion had better be withdrawn. Mr Lahman explained that the Chairman had already had offers from persona willing to do the work at little or no expense to the county. The Chairman said that these persons had required part payment in land which could not be granted till the proposed W aste Landa Act has passed. The motion was put and carried. So much has been gained, but that is no guaipntee that the road will be made. At any rate it is the initiating step, and Mr Lahman may yet be able to keep the promise he made to his constituents, because wo j happen to know that the offer he referred to ! is a lond fide one, and that the terms are very easy to the County. The importance of this piece of road to the trade of the Grey district cannot be over estimated, especially when it is known to be the intention of the : Nelson Government to carry it on from the i Arnold to the Ahaura township. We may call the attention of the County Councillors to the fact : that the piece of road from the Coal Pits to the Arnold is in an'almost impassible condition, and if not speedily repaired, the money already spent upon it will positively be thrown away. The trial of Mr William Dale for libel on Mr Joseph Kilgour, Mayor of Greymouth, commenced at the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday. The accused surrendered to his bail. A postponement for a week was asked by the defendant's counsel ; but as one of the witnesses for the prosecution would be on his way to Wellington by that time to attend to his legislative duties in the House : of Representatives, the evidence for the prosecution was taken, and the case adjourned to the 10th instant, in order to give the defendant's counsel time to communicate with , Dunedin, as the whole gist of the libel is connected with an event which is alleged to ; have taken place there six years ago. The • case, as far as it has yet gone, will be found : fully reported elsewhere. During the hearing, ' the Court was crowded ; great interest was manifested in the proceedings, and the case was the only topic of conversation in town; yesterday. Mr A. K. Campbell, of Auckland, solicitor, died suddenly at the Thames, on the 14th instant, Mr Campbell entered Otto's dining room in apparent good health, and was about to take tea, when he became suddenly ill, and died before medical aid could be obtained. The cause of death was heart disease. We learn from the local paper that the new Presbyterian Church at Ross is rapidly nearing completion, and the committee expect to get possession of the building this month. The inaugural services will (D.V.) be conducted by the Re\ . J. Gow, of Hokitika, and the Rev. J. M'lntosh, of Greymouth. In connection with the opening of the Church, the committee have decided on holding a soiree in the Drill-shed. The Superintendent of Obago nas sent down a message to the Provincial Council, containing a recommendation for the application to the Assembly for a loan of L 650,000 for railway and other purposes; L40,000t0 be spent on immigration in three years, and an additional L 35.000 out of revenue for the same purpose. Some amusement was caused in town on Monday by Captain Clinskill, of the brig Magnet, who is always open for a joke. While anchored off the bar his crew caught several albatrosses, and he brought them into port, announcing to likely purchasers that they were Cape Horn geese. The knowing a>nes said nothing until a local baker snapped at the tempting bait— only 10s each— and carried off his prize ; but the "chaff" of his friends soon induced him to return them to the joker, admitting that he had been sold. We recently mentioned that the Nelson foord, had offered L 25 for erecting a schoolbuilding at Napoleon, on condition that the residents contributed an equal amount. The following is the reply of Mr Skead, the schoolmaster, at Napoleon, to this offer : " Napoleon Hill, May 25, 1870.— 5ir— 1 have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th, and in reply am sorry to inform you, that from the apathy displayed by the parents of the children, in this locality in not sending them to school, and from the dilatoriness of their paying the small fee to the schoolmaster — ten, at three shillings consequently the school lias lapsed for the above reasons. Thus it precludes the possibility of my recommending you to advise the Central Board of Education to spend L 25 upon the erection of a school-room or building, as the other L 25 would not be forthcoming upon the canvass of the town and suburbs; as the inhabitants do not care about the children. I may mention that there are only three fathers to the children here, the rest women have them. I am. &c H. P. Skead." The appointment of Captain A. W. East as mail agent for the next mail via San Francisco is commented upon in the papers. Captain East has no experience whatever in postoffice duties ; but then he is a friend of the Postmaster-General. Captain East is to receive L3OO a-year, and 10s a day allowance while at sea, and one guinea per day on shore. Captain East has superseded Air W. Gray, jun., an experienced post-office servant, whose salary was L 250 a-year without allowance. Such is the story told by a Wellington correspondent of a Southern paper. The West Coast Times says :— ln the Resident Magistrate's Court, on Monday, Mr David Curie, proprietor of the Ross Guardian, surrendered to his bail on a charge of maliciously libelling the Chairman of the County Council, in an article that appeared on the 21st ultimo, in the above paper. Mr Harvey appeared for the prosecution, and Mr Button for the defendant ; but the dei fence was reserved, hnd the accused was 1 committed for trial at the next Circuit Court. The case excited the greatest interest, and the Court was crammed, but very little evidence was given, and public curiosity must, in a great measure, remain unsatisfied till the trial comes off. The Ross people are, wo are informed, most enthnsiastic on behalf of their journal, and a defence fund has already been initiated, which is expected to reach a large amount. Bail was taken, defendant in LSO, and two sureties in L 25 each, and ten times that amount, we aie informed, could have been procured. The disgraceful state of the graves, in the Patea district, of those who have fallen through the late disastrous war is deserving of more than passing notice. The graves of those who were killed at Turuturumokai, Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu, and other places, were almost immediately fenced in, to prevent them from being trampled on and defaced by horses or cattle. Since that time many have fallen at Otauto and other places in the neighbourhood of the Patea, and have been buried between the townships of Patea and Carlyle, Not a cross to mark their last resting-place has yet been put up, nor has the ground been fenced in ; many of the graves are almost totally destroyed by the cattle, which are constantly camping on the remains of those whose memory should be held sacred. From the Wellington Independent, of the 26th May, we learn that a determined attempt at incendiarism took place on Tuesday evening, the 24th. It appears that Mr Millward, when proceeding up Tory street, saw some smoke issuing from under the corner of a house occupied by a man of the name of Cornelius Ryan. On examining the place, Mr Milward discovered that a large bundle of straw had been placed under tfie I

ffooring joists of the bouse, and had been set on lire, evidently by an incendiary, as the position of the straw and the way in which the bundle was made up, entirely precluded the supposition that the fire was the result of accident. Mr Milward gave the alarm to the occupants, consisting of Mr and Mrs Ryan and their family, who thus were possibly Bayed from a hoirible death, as the fire would soon have taken a hold of the diy timber of the flooring. We understand that suspicion rests upon an individual of having endeavored to burn down the house from revengeful motives. If the suspicion be correct, we trust that the deed may be bronght home to the guilty man. We recently mentioned the case of bankruptcy of James Patrick Sweeney in Auckland. On. the day to which the case was adjourned Mr Rees appeared, and applied for an order of discharge. John Lang was called, who deposed to having written letters to various creditors of the bankrupt residing on the West Coast ; that he had been in the office of the Provisional Trustee, when instructed by Mr Wynn's clerk to write the letters. The letters were giving the .usual notices of the meeting at which bankrupt was to apply for his discharge. He had posted the letters to the several addresses himself, and also sent an advertisement to the Grey River Argus notifying the meeting of creditors. As no creditors appeared to oppose, his Honor thought the bankrupt was entitled to his discharge. It has been known that Mr Ormond, the Superintendent of Napier, has been for some time past negotiating for the purchase from the natives of the Seventy Mile Bush. We understand that they have finally agreed to sell the whole of the block for a very small sum, the exact amount of which has not transpired, but it is under LIO, OOO. The purchase includes the whole of the land be- i tween the Ruataniwha plains and Waira-i rappa, and the size of the block must be fully 500,000 acres. Such an acquisition to ■ the crown lands of the North Island will be : msot valuable at this juncture, and to pre- i vent any future difficulty as to title, Mr '■ Ormond has made it a condition of purchase I that the land shall be passed in the ordinary ; manner through the Native Land Court. We ! trust that the purchase may be quickly and ' satisfactorily concluded, as its possession will afford an opportunity to the Government for locating a population on this rich country, in connection with the formation of a main line of a road through the Northern Island. ; Some months ago, we noticed the departure to England of Mr Wright, the Postmaster of Canturbury, for the purpose of asserting the claims of his family to the property of the Deptford Dockyard. The Admiralty having neglected to comply with the conditions on which they held the Dockyard, the property has in consequence reverted to; the Evelyn- Wright family. We learn that Mr Wright, who has returned by the Alexandrina, has been unsuccessful in consequence, of the refusal of the authorities at the Ad-' miralty to allow an inspection^ their title. The Admiralty evidently consider that possession is nine points of the law, and the length of their purse to resist any legal process by which they could be compelled, to produce the required document, is evidently the tenth. "From the Lyttelton Times of the 27th we learn that an inquest was held at Jollies Pass Accommodation House, Amuri, on the 18th inst, by Count De la Pasture and a jury, of whom Mr Dv Moulin was chosen foreman, on the body of a man named Samuel Gilmour. From the evidence, it would appear that Gilmour had been employed by Mr Jones, of Waiau station, to do some " cob " work, and he was left alone on tho station during the absence of Mr Jones and a man named Kean in Christchurch. During Mr Jones' absence, Gilmour weui; co joints b raas, a amumw ur i» miles, and left for home on the sth inst., accompanied by another man as far as the Waiau. On the following Friday, (13th inst.) he was discovered lying on the floor of ahut,dead, by Kean, on his return from Christchurch. No marks of violence were visible on the body, except on two fingers,' which had apparently been severely bitten. Gilmour had evidently been dead some days when Kean returned, and his sleeves were turned up aud his arms were covered with mud, showing that when he had expired he had just left off work. It is a pity the attendance of a medical man could not be procured, as it might have thrown some light upon what is ,at present a mystery — the cause of death. The jury returned ?p open verdict. . _^