Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 717, 23 August 1870, Page 2

The annual election for the vacancies in the Municipal Oouucil are close at hand, and it is to be hoped that the citizens will not . put off until the la,st moment ere they bestir themselves- in '\he- matter. The Councillors who robire are Joseph Kilgour, J, W. Parkinson and J. O; Moore, but the former retains his seat as M.iyor, until TfecembelK The nominations are fixed to be made in the usual form at the Town Clerk's Office on- the 2S|6h iust, and the poll, if necessary," will take place on Thursday, the 6th September, in the different wards. The directions as to the nominatious will be found at length in another column. We believe tbe'Vestryof Trinity Church have determined, in consequence of the large demand" for sittings, .which cannot be met in the present building, to make considerable additions, tenders, for which are now called. The plans and specifications are to be" seen at the Tramway Office, aud the tenders are to close on Tuesday' next. The celebrated troupe of Christy Minstrels, now in Hokitika, announce their first entertainment at the Volunteer Hall, Greymouth, for to-morrow evening. ' There is sure to be a crowded house. The minstrels will arrive by the Charles Edward, i At the Resident Magistrate's Court, on Monday, John Bishop, charged with being drunk aiid disorderly was dismissed with a caution, having been locked up since Saturday. Dennis Carroll was charged with having in his following an unregistered dog. Defendant said he offered to pay the constable the usual fee; but he refused to take it; he had since sent it away. The Magistrate said it was not the constable's duty to take the money. . It was defendant's duty to see that his dog was properly registered at the office. Fined LI and costs. We are glad to learn that in the lately contemplated changes among the Nelson Gold Fields afcaff, tKo (Josifcion of Mr .Rowley, clerk of the court at Cobden.-will not be thereby affected. Mr Buller^ lately clerk at Westport, proceeds co the Ahaurai while Mr Kowley remains- at his old post in a similar capacity of clerk to the court. A special meeting of the • Paroa fioad ' Board was held last night at .the office, Paroa, for the purpose of considering the new Mining Rules for Westland, and' the Board's financial position. Present— Messrs J; O'Connor (chairman), Dowling, gtansel l , and M. O'Connor. It was moved by Mr Stansell that the Chairman be requested to convene a public meeting to be held at tte Roa-1 Board office, Paroa, at eight o'clock on Tuesday, the 23rd (to-night), to consider, the nsw Mining Rule's. Seconded by Mr M. O'Connor, and carried. Mr M. O'Connor moved " That the Secretary be instructed to send a comparative statement of the financial p6sition of the Road Board to the Chairman of the Annexation Committee, in order that it may be considered, in connection with the settlement of the debt due by this portion of the County." Seconded by Mr Dowling, and carried. • •; A son of Mr R. Wallis, Saltwater Creek, "near Timaru, has _been Arowned i" the creek by slipping off- a shingle bauk. ■ ' "',".. ■ Captain Butt, one of the Shortland, pioneers, and who' has taken a forward part in all public movements at the Thames, being about to leave that district, it has been resolved to present him with a testimonial in recognition of hi,a services and the esteem in which lie is held. ■ To'ngariro is still active, throwing up lava aud smoke within the last few weeks. Volcanoes may be seen protruding fronj its sides, which, on a fine clear clay, renders the sight something magnificent and grand. The natives are very superstitions relative to the recent changes and appearances of this mountain Tongariro. Most of them describe it as a loud and visible lamentation over the chiefs who have recently died or got into trouble, amongst who is included the late lamentable Captain St. Georgej who fell in the engagement at Takaano, and who was greatly endeared to the whole of the tribes surrounding Tanpo. An ugly landslip 'occurred at Tararua, Thames, on Saturday night week, whereby some 40 yards : of- the tramway,' about halfc way between the .Flora Macdonald. and the ! Taivvmi f ; ttnackines, "carried : 'into the : creek, together with several hundred tons of stuff. Messrs Gibbons and Souter, the enterprising lessees, hive: taken prompt steps to remedy the disaster, and hope to have the 4|ne in workiug order to-morrow, or the day after. The slip has laid the bed-rock bare,: and it is intended .to lay the rails on tressels lasting on that foundation, so that the line will be much more.secure than it was before the accident. Another landslip occurred in the Waiotahi Valley aud damaged the line, but not to a serious extent. A melancholy .accident occurred in the Tauhern river in the Wanganui districtabout a week ago, by which aman nameJ Watson lost his life. A Wellington contemporary gives the following particulars :- He had constructed a new canoe of green wood, which floated very deep in the water, and was not considered safe. In this he ferried Captain Cleland over the Tauhera on Saturday afternoon, and was returning when the accident occurred. No one. saw it or knew anything of the matter until the. canoe was discovered bottom up. It is suopbsetf that as he had a habit of standing tip in the canoe, he must have overbalanced- himself and so. capsized the canoe. As we are ■ informed, he was unable to swim. He leaves a wife,' who sad to say, has been widowed twice within three years. Mr Watson was an old settler in the district, and well-known as an : aetive pushing man. A man named Duerden has -been killed by a landslip on the Little River road, near Akaroa. When found, his body was fearfully mutilated, both. legs,', being broken in several places, his ribs smashed, and numerous other injuries, which must have caused instantaneous death. -Airman named Walker, living at Little River, had a narrow escape. He was conversing withc'Dulerden, and saw the slip coming, but was overtaken by it, •and buried up to the hips, fortunately receiving no injuries. ; i ■ ■ • Those who know least of the true facts of a , case are generally the first to make the . broadest statement regarding it ; and in this category w.e must class pur contemporary the W. Cj Times. In its latest effort to disparage the motives of Mr. Harrison to obtain some substantial support for the Fife Brigades of 'Weitlimd it said:- "Goodness knows, Hoki^ ttl^'oives'Mr Harriiaon.WKil^e'debtUf gfati-' : ttr9e already, and- this attempt on his partonly niakes the. obligation the heavier.. Here, and as we should imagine, in Greymouth, the Brigades Jiave.hadnoremonto conyrfain of the want of support, andi the 1 measure in question appears to be as superfluous as it is - unsatisfactory. Both town's, and though the measure may be general, there is no doubt that these two towns are chiefly referred to — are in possession'of all necessary fire appliances and. gear, i The County Council has invariably voted 'money for their / support, the Borough Councils have supplemented those grants, aud, as far as we have-

been .able to ascertain, no complaints of deficiencies of any kind have been made." We are very happy to hear that the Fire Brigade in Hokitika is so generally nnd generously supported, but so far as the Brigade of this town is concerned the writer is utterly at fault. It was only about a fortnight ago that a public meeting was held here to devise ways and means to raise a sufficient sum to free the Brigade from financial embarassments, and another sum to complete the necessary working plant. As it was not the place, of the men, who gave their time, and often run much danger to save the property of the citizens, to go round and canvas for subscriptions; a committee of public men in each "Ward was appointed to see that the necessary funds were forthcoming; but, we ; regreb to say, that so . far aa we have been j &Me to ascertain only one of these Conn- , initteeshas as yet taken any action, the others having treated the matter with indifference. When a public trust of this kind is reposed in well-known citizens, they ought eifchei to refuse its responsibilities at once.. or to proceed to carry it out to the best of their ability. There is no doubt that the disorganisation of the Fire Brigade, and the consequent safety of the town is threatened by this apathy on the part of these Committees, and it is to be hoped that they will now see it Jbo bo their duty earnestly to set about the work entrusted to them, and by their exertions free a most deserving body of Volunteers from the odium of being in debt. Hie Lyttelton Times of the 19bh instant has been furnished with the results of three separate tests by Mr E. S. Ellisdon, Lyfctelton, of stone from' the Moonlight Reef, Grey River.- The specimens were brought from the claim on three separate occasions by different shareholders, and there vere several pounds weight of stone at each test. The first specimen brought by Mr D.. Davis Was proved to contain gold in the proportion of Boz 3dwt Bgr to tfie ton ; the second, brought by MrJ. E. Graham, 6oz 13dwt Bgr to the ton ; and the third, brought by Mr W. H. Lane, 3oz ldwt 6gr — or an average of soz 19dwt 74gr. The Christchurch shareholders, with a view to improving the working of the company's ground, have selected Messrs W. JEL. Lane, W. P. Cowlishaw, R. D. Lousjhnarij.^- Meltbn, E. G. Wright, and W. D. Wood, to form the new directory, and have also appointed Messrs E. G. Wright and J. E-. Graham to- audit the accounts. The legal manager at Greymouth, Mr Nancarrow, has, £n consequence of these proceedings, been instructecl.to forward all papers and accouuts to Christchurch at once. The dead body of a man, so slightly decomposed as to render it evident that death had only recently smitten him, was found a few mornings' ago on a point of the beach about half a mile beyond Tararu, Auckland. A small creek joined the sea close to where the body lay. A* Mr Donovan found the body,. and, having giyeu information to the police, constable Cosgrpve was despatched to take charge of it ; and it was removed to the Tararu Hotel, where it was recognised as that of James Steens, a Tararu miner. The cause of his death is yet a profound mystery, as, excep ring a slight wound over the eye, there are no wounds or bruises on the body. A veritable case of lynching, on a small scale, has happened on the Thames, the party operated being no other than George Perston, who was the principal witness iv the Whau Company specimen-stealing case, heard in Auckland on the sth instant. The part he played on that occasion seems to have created an unpleasant feeling against him amongst the friends aud acquaintances cf the adcitsed, George. Wilson, and it seems they seizSl.. : .an opportunity to, , illustrate their feelings* to the victim in a remarkably unpleasant and forcible manner. lam not in a positibn to give minute facts, but this I do know, that Perstpri was seized at the claim and submitted to a shower-bath of warm tar, the operation being artistically performed, if one may judge by the fellow's appearance as he was led through Grahamstown, on his way to the Hospital. He had evidently- been tarred to a turn, rather overdone, in fact, as some of the fluid stuff got into his eyes and mouth, and occasioned the poor fellow extreme pain. He was firat taken to the chemist s shqp of Mr S.ancle3, who cleaned his eyes, and then sent Lira to the Hospital for further treatment. I have not heard of any steps "being yet taken to bring the perpetrators of this act of violence to judgment. It was certaiuly inexcusable as an infringement of the law, and as such I have no. doult will not be overlooked. That the abominable practice of specimen stealing should be checked by every legitimate means is the universal opiuion at the Thames. ; 0n Monday afternoon, 15th inst, about f ojir o'clock, a little girl uanieA Varcoe, while playing with other children, fell into the "Avon near the Carl ton bridge, Christchurch. Tne cries of the surroundiug children soon attracted the attention of Miss Dearden, who resides near the spot, and who happened to be standing at au upper window. The young lady immediately ran to the river, but found ■the child sunk in deep water and quite out of reach. A younger sister of Miss Dearden, who had also observed the accident, arrived at this moment with a clothes' prop, brought from the gardeni' With this, the child was fished up from the bottom of the river to all appearance quite dead. Nothing daunted, Miss Dearden pressed a passing cart iuto the service", and taking- a litfclo brandy with' her, conveyed the body first to Dr Deamer, who was from, home, then to Dr Priris, and then to the Hospital, where the child was ulti-. inately brought back to life through the efforts of the attendants. To the remarkable presence of mind shown by these young ladies, is undoubtedly due the life of this little child. During 'a recent debate in the House of Representatives with re jard. . to the salaw.es of the clsrks and 'prrvater scfcretarie's tif ftie" present members of the Executive, Mr Ormond said he had been a member of theAssembly foi the last ten years, aud he had never been so insulted as he had within the last, two days. There. >y ; %3,.a class in the Colony who lived oii the Colony. He had acted as Government Agent at the request of the Defence Minister, and had only received remuneration because he could not afford to do otherwise. For several years past in Hawkb's Bay he liad devoted four to six months of every year to the public service, and had never till this year touched a penny of the public money — and he had only 'done so now because it was a matter of necessity. He felt humiliated — whether he had dona good work or not— to have so much filth thrown upon him as he had during the last two days. When he accepted the office of Agent on the East Coast," he did so in order to aid the Ministry in bringing about a better state of things in that part of the country. When the whole work was accomplished, he would gladly retire from a position which had placed him in a position of deep humiliation, aud lie bitterly regretted t^atl he had ever aoceptcd the appointThe first election of a representative of the Coroinandel District in the Auckland Provincial Council resulted in the return of Mr Cadtnan by nine votes over Mr Tookey. The following is a description given by the Southern Cross of the disgraoeful proceedings whu-h took place on the occasion !— >" At an '.early, hour in the morning, ,the verandah leading to the room in which tho votes were recorded \iv.s taken possession of by a crowd of C<uUtnntt;B (the majority being, sous of Erin), who effectively restrained numbers of industrious men who would have voted for Al r Tookey from recording their votes. Several voters gained a footing on the verandah,

but were quickly dislodged; arid if that warning was not sufficient, a well-directed fistic attack wonld knock them.down. Then followed the usual number of kicks and jumpingß upon their victims, amidst yells and. imprecations suitable only to a fiendishj region. One policeman only is duly allotted to this extensive district, and on the occasiqin of an election, when it is known that the elements are in existence which produced such uproar at the Thames, at recent elections, the addition of another police-officer is deemed quite sufficient to cope witli;'.tke excitable electors. A man named Johnson is so seriously injured, by being knocked down and trampled . upon in a cowardly-manner,-that his life is despaired of. Mr Mackay.Mr M'Leod, Mr Kerr, and others, Were severely handled ; and all this,. under the eyes of out ] would-be worthy representative, Mr Cadmau. Loud complaints are made against >. certain Government official, who certainly, if all.acj counts are true, greatly exceeded his duty ." We regret mu^h to hear of a very serious accideut which happened on Thursday to the family of Mr Kippenberger, residing in Woolcombe's Gully, near Timaru. It appears that on that day grain was stowed in an up-stairs room of /the house, and just as the work was completod> the weight of grain proved too much for the under supports, and the whole floor, with the grain, fell with a crash iuto the lower-room,' where some of the family were seated. The "great mass of tho grain and wood- work fell into the centre of the- room, 1 where there was fortunately no one at the 1 time, or probably loss of life would haye^e.nsued. fors Kiopenberger was, with one of Tier children (a girl about eleven years old), seated -near the fireplace at the time of the accident, and was severely hart by the falling timber, two or three of her ribs, if not actually broken, having been much crushed. The poor girl was, 1 however, forced into the fireplace, and was most severely burned about the face neck and. arm 3. What made the accident worse Svas that a. kerosene lamp filled with, oil was standing on tlie mantelpiece, and being capsized by the falling debris, some of the oil was spilt in the girl's face and into the fireplace, and coming in contact with the hot coals, made an intense flame, adding considerably to the danger the poor girl was in. One other cbild, who was in 1 ' the mother's arms when the floor foil, escaped .:uuhnrt. Mrs Kippenberger was suffering great pain from the result of the accident, but strong hopes are entertained that both she and her daughter will ultimately recover. "