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Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 790, 7 February 1871, Page 2

A telegram was received in town yesterday that a Mr Leace had been drowned in the lagoon at Westport. There was no business whatever at the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday morning. The second instalment of the protective bank on the Buller, at Westport, is nearly completed. It Will have consumed over eight hundred tons of stone. The usual monthly meeting of the Greymouth Volunteer Fire Brigade was held last evening. Captain Amos was in the chair, and twenty-six other members were present. Letters were received from J. Kilgour, Esq , enclosing a cheque for L 5, and from E. Wickes, E'q., Mayor, enclosing a cheque for the same amount, the last-named gentleman also tendering his resignation as a working member. The letters were duly acknowledged, and Mr Wickes was unanimously elected as honorary member. A resolution

was passed to the effect that for the future all supplies to the Brigade must be by printed requisitions. Captain Amos and Lieutenant M'Gregor were elected trustees of the Members' Fund. The resignation of Mr B. Salbin was received and accepted, and Messrs J. Martin and Thomas Letcher were elected members. The Panorama of the Pacific Mail Route was again exhibited in the Volunteer Hall last evening to a yery good house. During the exhibition the various scenes depicted were frequently applauded. We can assure our readers that the entertainment is well worthy of a visit, and as this is the last announced evening, they had better take advantage of the opportunity, Timaru narrowly escaped destruction by a grass fire a few days since. To the absence of wind at the time the safety of the town is attributed. Christchurch now contains about 500 artesian wells, more than 90 of which have been bored during the last year. A hawker and general dealer at Dunedin named Robert Turner, residing in Albany street, died suddenly on the 30th ulfc Scarlet fever is becoming seriously prevalent m Dunedin. One of the children of Mr Dugald, keeper of the Quarantine Island, died a few days ago, and other children in the district are suffering from the disease. The ordinary annual meeting of the shareholders in the Grey River Steam Tug Co. (Limited), was held at the office of the company last evening. Joseph Kilgour, Esq., presided, and there were present — Messrs W. Kilgour, Kennedy, Perotti, LeA'y, Ashton, Coates, Joyce, Parkinson, Sellars, W. S. Smith, Sheedy, Touks, and others. The balance-sheet of the company and the report of the directors were presented and adopted. Messrs Smith and Perotti were elected directors in room of Messrs Lahman and Parkinson, retired. Mr W. Hindmarsh was elected auditor of the company. The balance-sheet and report will be published in a future issue. According to the Timaru Herald, the mustering of sheep for shearing has shown most excessive losses during the past year on some of the high country runs in the Mackenzie conntry. On one run, where the owner expected to shear 10,000 sheep, only 6000 could be found, the balance being supposed to have been lost during the late severe winter. On another run the losses have been very great, but the figures are not known. Another hitch has taken place with regard to the publicans' licenses, through the neglect of some official in Hokitika to give sufficient notice by advertisement to' the parties interested. Applications for renewals of all licenses that expire before the Ist May must be made at the office of the Resident Magistrate to-day. We learn from our Hokitika contemporaries that the convict Noble has made a complete confession of his guilt to his spiritual attendant, the Rev. Mr Shaw. He further stated that the evidence adduced against him was true in every particular. The date of his execution is not yet known. Mr Callaghan, teacher, Turakina Villey, has a cat which kittened in his absence from home during the Christmas holidays. On his return he found a hen nursing four of the kittens, and wild at any attempt to deprive her of her singular charge. ]*■ A little boy, about seventeen months'! old, the son of Mr Samuel Lucas, a teacher at the Wesleyan School, Stafford Town, was accidentally drowned by falling into a waterhole on Sunday last.

A cricket match was played on Saturday afternoon on the Camp Reserve, between a married and single eleven, in Which the single men came off victorious. The following is the detailed score : — Married Eleven. Gleeson, b Paul ... 0 Hogg, run out 3 Holder, b Paul 0 Moss, b Guinness 0 Simpson, c Strike 7 Hewitt, b Guinness ... 2 Cresswell, b Guinness 1 Grut, b Paul 3 Broadbent, c Kenrick 1 Martin, not Out 0 Coates, b Guinness 0 Byes ... 10 Wide 3 1 Total 28 Single Eleven. Buckingham, c Hewitt 0 Kent, b Hewitt ... 7 Poole, c Thomas .. .. ... 3 Twohill, c Thomas 1 Dunne, b Hewitt ... 5 Guinness, not out 32 Milburn, b Hewitt 1 OsViorne, b Gleeson 2 Paul, run out 0 Strike, b Hewitt 2 Kenrick, stumped out 1 Bye? ... 10 Wides 3 Total 67 The Otago Daily Times gives the following account of acclimatisation |in that Province : ■—"By the late San Francisco mail the Acclimatisotion Society has received advices from Mr .1 . A. Ewen, who still kindly looks after its interests at home. By the City of Dunedin, which left London on the 20th October, and Plymouth on the Ist November, Mr Ewen dispatched eight head of red deer, being a portion of the lot which has been presented to the society by the Earl of Dalhousie, and which were reared by his forester on one of his lordship's Scottish estates. Other nine deer are retained by Mr Ewen in London, and will be forwarded either by the Warrior Queen or the Jessie Read man. Those sent by the City of Dunedin are under the personal charge of Captain Currie, and Messrs Shaw, Savili, and Co., with their usual liberality, make no charge to the society for the freight. By the Warrior Queen, which is advertised to sail on the 25th November, there will be dispatched to the society, under the care of Mr Bills, one of the most valuable shipments of birds and game, which has ever been sent to the colonies. Full particular.* of this shipment will be received by the incoming Suez mail. In the vessel which brings the red deer, there is a young axis stag, presented to the society by the Zoological Society of London, and which will be sent to join the herd of axis deer, now numbering three and twenty head at Mr Rich's, Bushy Park. The same society furnishes also a useful contribution in the shape of gravel for the entire shipment of birds by the Warrior Queen, besides sending as a gift ten valuable water-fowl. In accordance with the wishes of the society here, Mr Ewen has endeavored to obtain a supply of lobsters and crabs for shipment t>Ofcago. The correspondence, which appeared in the columns of Land and Water, will explain the steps which Mr Ewen has taken to attain his object. Should that gentleman still be in London during next March and April, there appears to be every probability, judging from Mr Climo's letter, that a shipment of those valuable crustaceans will be forwarded to this colony with every chance of success. Speaking of protection the Australasian says :— Our neighbors in South Australia are beginning to experience one of the reflex evils of protection. By legislating for the artificial destruction of our import trade wo are, as a matter of course, striving to destroy 1

the export trade of the colony, since " commodity for commodity " is the principle of all exchange. And in proportion as that exchange is diminished, we diminish the carrying trade between Europe and Australia. Hence it happens that at this very time South Australia has a million's worth of breadstuffs which she wishes to send to England, and cannot find ships to charter for that purpose. By the way, it would be an interesting subject of enquiry to ascertain what would be the value of the manufactures capable of being produced, under protection by the employment of the same capital and labor which have been instrumental in raising these 100,000 tons of surplus cereals. Would that value be equivalent to one-third of a million sterling ? And is there any comparison between the moral and material condition of a swarm of factory operatives cooped up in a smoke-darkened city, and that of a corresponding number of husbandmen tilling their own land in the midst of health and abundance 1