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Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 692, 25 June 1870, Page 2

The rush to the recently-discovered quartzreefs at] Murray Creek, Inangahua, is assuming very large proportions, m consequence of a case which was heard m the Warden's Court, Ahaura, on Thursday, arid which we fnlly-report elsewhere. The prospectors w^re showing among the crowd of diggers round ti.. n....t, yJi-jqHH^iTiftnaJa^mJ^iejrjreef, and it is said there are plenty more m the vicinity. This case was only the beginning of a series of lawsuits. TheJ^arden's ruling about the absolute necessity of registration to i avoid forfeiture, will" be ; the cause ol having most of the claims on the reef jumped. Our reporter will at once proceed to the spot, and report as to the value of this discovery. The Paroa Road Board has instructed its Engineer to lay off a line of road from Papoa to Greymouth, m order that it may bf reserved. It : is said to be. their intenUon to construct it as soon as the funds placed at its disposal will permit ; but. we should think their constituents will prefer that they should spend all their funds on the up-country tracks, and leave the main line of road to lw made by the County Council. Rumors have been current m Invercargil during the last few days that payable yolij me grounrf. Lhe ceremony of christening a wheel-claim, near the Half-way House, South Beach, took place on Monday last. The claim belongs to Waters and party, and was named i'The XJ^ion Jack." A number of the friends' of the shareholders met m honor of the occasion, and did ample justice to the good things provided. ' ; Li the Assembly, Mr Richmond has brought m a Bill to protect the property of married women. It is proposed to place them on the same footing, as regards the control of property, as iT unmarried. He made a long and excellent speech, and was highly applauded on both sides. At the Resident Magistrate's Court, Greymouth, on Thursday, before W. H. Revell, Esq., R.M., a charge of assault was heardMary Ann Smith v, Jane Anderson. The defendant was bound over to keep the peace for six months, herself m LlO, and two sureties m L 5 each. —The following civil cases were disposed of :— Fraud Summonses : M. Levy v. W. Wallace, L 3 14 ; and same v. W. MHJrath, L 4 4s 9d. The defendants did riot appear, and warrants were ordered to issue for their arrest.— Judgments by default : M. Levy v. S. Moore, L 4 11s lid ; same v. M. Murphy ; same v, J. Curtis, L27s ; same v. Stephen Lachlin, L 3 19s 6d ; same v. James Abercrombie, L 8 18s 11. — A. Constantino v. R. Russell : This was a claim of Ll3 Ob 9d, heard on Tuesday last. The Magistrate now gave] judgment for the plaintiff, L 5 Is 9d, and costs. . Some petitions have been presented to the House of Representatives, amongst others, two from the Auckland Chamber of Commerce ; one asking for Reciprocity Treaty with the Australian colonies, and the other tor a shortening of the time within which bills of sales can be registered. We learn from the Wellington papers that a somewhat ludicrous incident marred the ceremony «f opening Parliament on Tuesday last A pair of horses had been procured from the proprietor of the Hutt coaches to draw the Governor's carriage to the House. These horses were quiet, had been accustomed to the coach both m the wheel and the lead, and were never known to jib ; strange to say, however, when his Excellency got into the carriage, whether alarmed by the noise of the firing or from some other cause, they flatly refused to pull His Excellency got out, and the horses moved on ; he got m again, and again they stopped, and thus seeing that the animals had apparently t arrived at a decision on the matter, he wisely forbode to press the point, and walked to the House. The General Government has settled the claims of the Wanganui Natives for pay. They claimed L 15,000, but accepted L 12 ,500. The greater portion of the money has been paid to Majors Kemp and Topia, the balance being retained to meet orders on the Treasury given by them to tradesmen. -. After all, it appears that Mr Barff has either not received the promised appointment of Sub-Warden at the Kanieri, or he has not resignedhis seat for Westland South m the Assembly. Both suppositions may be correct. If he has sent m his resignation, he ton to take his seat, although requested to do so by "many influential people of Hokitika," as stated by the West Coast Times, because he would very speedily find himself m charge of the Sergoant-at-Arms. What the real meaning of the following paragraph is, taken from our contemporary; whichis quite a curiosity m its way, wfe leave our readers to discover :— After all tfie talk and telegraphing that hae been, aiiala tipfe of^

he singular course that some "leading citisens" chalked out for themselves on Tuesday light, it give 3us great pleasure to state that Mr Barff has been requested by many influen;ial people of Hokitika to proceed to Wellington, and take bis seat m the Assembly. He has consented to do so, and will leave f»r" Gothenburg to>day, or as soon as that Vessel sails. We have reason to think that, Dn his arrival, a little intrigue will be spoiled, and that some who thought to take advantage of his position will, vulgarly speakjug*. be particularly "* ' put m the hole. " It \i 11 be a kind of political resurrection, and his ghost would, m fa6t, we think have scarcely a more soaring influence on some who. thought him defunct, m a legislative sense, than his appearance m propria pfosonce. «The people of Hokitika will, after all, be served against their will. Mr Mervyn's ("Sold Fields Act Amendment Bill has been read a lirst time m the House of Representatives. The General Government has given instructions for the prosecution of a half caste named Hamilton for perjury m evidence given against Walter Tricker six years ago. At a sitting of the Supreme Court at Wei* lington, the other day, one of the jurors claimed exemption on the ground of being a member of a volunteer fire brigade, duly en* rolled under the Volunteer Act. After a careful scrutiny of the Volunteer and Militia Acts, says the Independent, his Honor said that he could not find that volunteer firemen were exempt from service as jurors, although they was exempt from sen ice m the militia. At the same time he recognised, the value of the services of such a body of men, and he was satisfied that the applicant had actually been engaged as a fireman within the last year, he would grant him exemption m the present instance, but his doing so must not be taken as a precedent. A rather important mining judgment was given m the Auckland Police Court m the case of Otway (official agent) r. Armstrong, a few days ago. The Cross, commenting,, on the case, says: — "The sum sued for was L 376, being merely the amount for which defendant was alleged to be liable upon 80 L 5 shares, after deducting the sum actually paid m calls, .the contention being that ho merely nominal paid-up capital, not originally represented m money or moneys worth, could be legally held to be paid-up capital within the true intent and meaning of the Act; Mr Lyle, the late manager of the Monarch Gold Mining Co., and Mr Otway were examined. The objections taken were-1. That Mr Armstrong was not a shareholder. 2. That no evidence had been given to show that the Otway who .had given, evidence was the actual person contemplated m the gazetted notification of the appointment. 3. That supposing Mr Armstrong to be a shareholder, he was not liable to pay more than a " contribution" under the 39th section of the Companies' Limited Liability Act. The Bench dismissed the information, on the ground that the- Act did not empower the Official Liquidators to sue for the whole amount of uncalled capital against the shares held by any individual person, but only foi a reasonable contribution towards the actual liabilities of the company m liquidation." The same joujmal adds .—" Had the Bench been induced to give judgment m favor of the complainant, utter ruin would have been brought upon many honest shareholders, who would be made scapegoats for defaulters.? The Wellington paper of June 18 says :— We are glad to be able to supplement the English news : received by, this mail, by a private telegram, which informs us that out Commissioners have succeeded m inducing the Imperial Government to guarantee a loan of L 1,000,000 to the. Colony, to be expended m immigration and public works. It is hardly needful to add, as does our informant, that the most cordial relations exist between the members of the Imperial Cabinet and the tne empbatic'declarations of different Ministers against rendering any such assistance, and that Mr Robert Lowe should so far have relaxed the imperial purse strings, is sufficiently indicative of a change of policy on their part, brought about by the influence.of our Commissioners than by any pressure from without. It is indeed more than probable that the constant and intimate communication which the Commissioners have enjoyed with the members of the Cabinet, have tended greatly to remove those prejudices which the officiousness of ill-advised friends or the misrepresentations of well-informed foes had raised against the Colonists, m reference to their dealings with the natives, and the character of their demands upon the mother country. We may state that the news thus received has not been as yet confirmed officially, but we have no reason to doubt the correctness of our information.