Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 689, 18 June 1870, Page 2

At a meeting of the Geey River Hospital Committee, yesterday, Mr R..H. Eugg was appointed Superintendent and Dispenser Of the Grey River Hospital, in room of the late Mr Lowe. The Governor .has, by proclamation, .'withdrawn 1 the following pieces of land from being sites for towns,, in accordance with the recommendation of the County Council :-4The town of Hokitika, .on the south side of tlie river ; the town of Hohonu, at the junction of the Hohonu and Teremakau ; the town of Morton, at the junction of the TeremakauWaimea and the Teremakau ; and the town of Totara, situate on the bank of the Totara River. . , In the County Council on Thursday night Mr Reeves moved, without notice, that the statement which, had been laid before the Council in reference to expenditure and "revenue in the Grey district be published in the West Coast Times aud the Grey Sites Abets. Tlie Chairman stated that the item of accounts had not proved so complete as he' had expected. : He had diacoyered that actually more than 50 per cent, on their returns had been expended on that district. After some further discussion it was resolved that the statement, after amendment and ie-a.djvistmev\t, be published, for general information. All persons desirous 'of joining the Choral. Union are requested to meet at Gilmer's 'Hall, at eight o'clock, ' on Tuesday evening. After enrolment, officers will be elected, jiud arrangements made to continue the practices of the Society. • A few days ago MrKirkland, the contractor for the metalling of a pornon of the main road between Tokoinairoro and Balclutha, Otago. A blast had apparently missed fire, and Mr Kirkland and' his man, after allowing the ordinary time to elapse, proceeded to draw the charge, when the blast went off. They were severely burnt about the arms and body, but they are now recovering. A fatal accident occurred at Paddy's Gully, No Town, between six and seven o'clock on Wednesday evening. Two miners, named Robert Blake and Robert Kermode, were at, supper in their tent, when a tree, which was « standing, nearly undermined, close by, fell with an awful crash, and killed Kerinode instantly, and injured the other one in such a manner tint he died at two o'clock - on; Thursday morning. 'Kermode was a Cornishman, and Blake was a native of Galwayj and, it is said, very well connected. He was well known in Napoleon and Ahaura districts, and held a share at one time in Fagan and Kirby's amalgamated claim at the Mosquito Lead, Napoleon. We have since received the following additional particulars :— Blake lived, till two o'clock on the morning following the accident, and tht poor fellow suffered the most excruciating agony. His left arm 1 , sJlioulder^and^breast ■werti completely smashed. He was a well -educated man, and was on the staff of the Illustrated London News in Italy, ,dwing the Italian and Austrian war.. He was- just on the eve of his, departure for Ireland, and was only on a visit to Paddy's Gully at uptime of the accident. The pi&erpopr felwv was fear-

fully .mutilated. He was a sawyer, and was well known at the Ahaura and Napoleon, ing an inquest. On the information of the accident being brought to Cobden, Mr White;fooj3,' R.M., at once started for No Town, ; andvyesterday lie held an inquest at Paddy's "GTiilly upo*n^the bodies of the deceased. It appeared from the evidence that about five o'clock on the afternoon of the 15th inst., George M'Lean, having supped with the two men, left therein .their tent, and went into the towhsTnpr abVrit "sixty "y afds off., In about, ten minutes he heard some, one call'oiit for the doctor. ' He' went towards the hut and met some men bringing "R^eW"Bralce"ifa^d"tte'-tbwnship. i "* He'proceeded on- to the hut, and found a tree, nad fallen over one part of it, and Robert Kecmode ,lying ; among the branches of t^ie tree quife dead. He conveyed ihe* body' to the house where the other sufferer was lying insensMe. Blake lingered till 2 a.m. on Thui'sday, when he died. Botli were single . men. Blake is supposed to b,ivo a brother , in_ Otago. The ground where tbo. tree stood had beeu undermined by a tunttel, and that, with the wet weather lately, caused the accident. The deceased Robert Kermode stated to a friend only the day befote that h& was frightened of the tree, and intended felling it. A verdict of "Accidentally killed" was returned. . ..... • Mr M'Lean, says the Auckland Advertiser, is no wonder to the Maoris. They regard him as a mere Pakeha like the rest, and discount or cash' him freely. They ahow this in a very interesting caricature of his King negotiations in a popular ballad which has ueeu composed at Tokangamutu. A miner, named Michael O'Rburke, has been missing from his hut at German Gully, Nelson Creek, since last Tuesday week. He left the gully on that day, and, . although different search parties have been out looking for him ever since, he has not been found. O'Rourke was very eccentrij in his habits, and it is said he has been known to disappear . in this mapner before, and to- .turn, up, most unexpectedly in some part of the country. In consequence of the now frequent recurrence of floods on the Taien Plains, Otago, several farmers have resolved to abandon their holdings. A number more have, after considerable hesitation, decided to give it a trial for another year. Should the plain be again flooded before another harvest is secured, there cannot be a doubt that a considerable exodus, both of leaseholders and freeholders, -will be the result. At the Resident Magistrate's Court, Greymouth, on Thursday, pefore W., H. Revell, Esq.', R.M., the following civil cases were heard:— James Jones v. Ann Hogan—judgment for plaintiff for Lsand costs, defendant to pay 5s per week, or in default fourteen days' imprisonment. De Costa v. G. Taylor, Lyttelton— claim of L 39 2s Id. Mr Newton appeared for the defendant, and laid a setoff.; 'Judgment was reserved until the/f6l--lowiug day.- W. J. Coates v. A. Constantino .and A. White— claim of Ll3 os ! 9d. ; Judgment was given for the whole amount against: Constantin'e, with costs. —On Friday, ' James Molloy, charged with being drunk- and disorderly, was fined SSta t or in default twentyfour hours' imprisonment; His Worship five judgment in the civil case, De Costa v. aylor, heard on Thursday. He said — This was a settlement ol accounba between agent and principal,, in- which a set-off for LOO was lodged. The charges of the plaintiff appeared to be fair, and there was no attempt on behalf of the defendant to prove his setoff, or te show that his goods were sent out in. a good and marketable condition,.. whereas from the evidence it appeared that the goods of inferior quality—the bacon; unfit for human food.— and the plaintiff had been drawn upon for the value iihe defendant placed upon the goods, while he bad been unable to realise upon them. It also appeared that the losses claimed for in the setoff had not been mentioned for several months until a dispute took. place between the parties. Judgment would be for the amount claimed, with costs. . ■ A fish of an unknown species was caught a few days ago by Mr Hunter, of Kai-Kai, close to Murdering Beach, to ? the' ! west of Otago Heads. It was fourteen feet long, and four feet in girth at the thickest part. It bears a general resemblance to a frost 'fish, with the exception that it has a sharp spine on the back. • A painful accident happened at the Congregational Church, Dunedin, about noon on Saturday, 4th' inst., by which .a little girl, named Christina Baird, lost her life. It seems that the child; who was only eight years old, was assisting her mother to .clean the church. While dusting the banister she leaned too far over and overbalanced herself, falling to the bottom of the stairs, a distance of ten feet, and her head striking the floor. Medical assistance was immediately sent for, but the child, who continued unconscious, died at seven o'clock the same evening, from concussion of the brain, caused by the fall. A sample of coal found under the hill in the Botanical Gardens, Dunedin, where the prisoners are at work, has been left atithe Otago Daily Times office by Mr Barnes. It appears to be of excellent quality, and an" extensive seam exists in the same locality. ' :■•■. A settler named Courtney has been tried at the Supreme Court, Ohristchurcb, for maliciously destroying a'nninber of his neighbors cows, and throwing them into a. lake. The prisoner, on being asked if he ■< had- any- ' thing to say, said that both the prosecutor and the Maoris were prejudiced against him on account of disputes about land. JHe called upon God to witness that he 1 was innocent. The Judge said it was greatly to be regretted that a person who had Christian pnnct- , pies instilled into him, or who had attended a- Christian place of Worship, should have committed an act of such revolting cruelty as had exemplified in the crime of which the prisoner had been, committed. He' (His' Honor) could inflict a sentence of 14 years' peual servitude, but he would not do that, although the sentence he would pass would be a severe one. His Honor sentenced the prisoner to four years penal servitude. We learn from the local paper that -Mr Whitbourn, who arrived at Queenstown from Martin's Bay a few days ago, reports favorably of that place. He has the . honor of being the first person who has built himself a house there and settled down under the provisions of the new Act. He is located between Lake M 'Kerrow and the Bay, and and reports that; an immense number of fish, similar to herring, frequent the river near his dwelling. The Wellington evening paper of June 9 has the following :— " On the 2nd inst. Dr Hector received a telegram, from Mr Park, the telegraphist at Runanga, informing him that Tonganro had been iv a state of active eruption for some days, and that the red glare was visible from Runanga mountain, and also from Tapuaeharuru, at the north end of Taupo Lake. Yesterday evening he received a further telegram, stating that the flame is increasing, and that a sound like thunder is distinctly heard at Tapnaehar'uru and occasionally even at Runanga, which i 3 situated fifty miles. in a dirept line froni Tongariro. The telegram states that there are two points of eruption; one on the top, and the other on one side of the mountain, by whichis meant, no doubt, not Tongariro proper, but the more recent and lofty cone of •Ngaruboe. . Dr Hector informs us that in January lost there appears to have been a discharge of hot ashes which melted the snow where they fell on the slopes of Rua-

pehu, and that in October a red glow was , observed to be reflected from the clouds overhanging the cone. In 1867 the natives told him that' in the month of May in that year flames were seen to issue from Ngauruhoe, attended by an eruption . of ashes which reached as far north as Henemaia, 35 miles in a straight line, covering tne ground with. a. white dust like snow. The last ntarke'd- eruption attended by loud noises which the natives reported was in 1865, v when* ttie' * Taupo' districtpand ;even--the-water of the lake, were covered with several inches of' black dust. The showers of ashes that on this occasion fell into the Rotoaira, between the' volcano aad-T-aupo--were so dense as to poison the fish. Judging from the above information, the present eruption appears to bo more violent than any of the above-metitioner], and may, perhaps, be attended with a discharge of lava, ' which has never previously beea observed in connection with this volcano. In the course' of Judge Chapman's first charge to the Grand Jury in Punedin, since his return from England, he spoke as follows with regard to the decrease of crime and the orderly conduct of the mining populations:— " I lecoltect ttuvfc when I first had the honor of sitting in the Supreme Court at .Wellington, now twenty -six years ago, remarking the j very small amount of crime amongst the permanent settlers of the Colony, and I. make the Same remark here. If we take the farming population they are singularly free from offences against the law. Regarding the mining population, I may say that I have not had much personal acquaintance with the miners here, and am not well acquainted with the state of the population in the great seats of mining ; but I am aware that most of the miners came here from other colonies. 'In Victoria 1 have had considerable experience, as to the state of the raining population in most, 'of the important districts there. My professional avocations constantly railed me' to Ballarat and other places. I was engaged for a considerable time in cases arising out of mining contracts and mining disputes, and that led me to observe the condition of the mining population. I found them industrious, and energetic to an extraordinary degree; persevering often against hope, and. amongst them almost a total absence of crime: I believe that the same is the case here. We have persons that come from the mining districts, and we often find them describing themselves as miners ; in very rare instances at least are they so; The only mining operation they enter iuto is that of entering diggers' tents, and,, -to use a common expression, "fossicking" for gold. Therefore, when we see men described in the calendars as miners, we ought not to jump to theconclusion that that is any slur on the mining population. Now, to.what must we attribute this decrease of crime ? If lam right we. must attribute it . to the exodus of a portion of the criminal class- from this Province, caußed,.in a great measure, by the vigilance of the police, backed, 1 am happy to say, by public support and public opinion. ' *"