Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 812, 4 March 1871, Page 2

The County Council w«as formally prorogued on Thursday until the 12th July. It is now over ten week since the vouchers were sent in to the County Treasury for the expenses of the Returning Officers in connection with the last election of members of the County Council, and, although the Chairman has been written to on several occasions, no satisfactory reply has been received. In consequence of this the principal Returning Officer for the Paroa district has been liberally threatened with summonses by his assistants at the various polling-booths, and has had to pay a considerable sum out of his own pocket to kee'> himself out of the Court. The latest letter received from the County Chairman on this subject was to the effect that some of the accounts had to he referred back to New River, Maori Gully, &c, for the correction of some details, so that it is likely to be another three months ere these accounts are paid, although it is long since payment was premised "whenever tbe Estimates were passed. " We &tb informed— with "what amount of authority we cannot say — \>y bhe Charleston Herald, that with regard to water supply on the Nelson gold Reids the Nelson Government have for some months past been making the fullest enquiries, and obtaining the most reliable information on the subject through the channels at its command, and that Mr Dobson, the District Engineer, is preparing, or has already prepared, an elaborate report on the subject in connection with the whole district from the Karamea to the Grey. We are afraid from our own information on this matter that with our contemporary the wish has been father to the thought, for as j r et we believe no steps of the kind mentioned have been taken in the Grey Valley. Captain Stack, who for some time was adjutant of volnuteers in Westland, recently met with an accident while examining some geysers in the North Island. We are not fully informed of the particulars, but believe the ground gave way under him and plunged a portion of him into liquid matter of a temperature far too hot to be pleasant. At the Volunteer Hall last night Mr and Mrs Collins, assisted by several lady and gentlemen amateurs, gave a treat to the public in the form of a musical entertainment, the proceeds of which are to be given to the Grey River Hospital. We were glad to see, on the opening night, that Mr and Mrs Collins were welcomed by a crowded house, and that during the evening they were loudly applauded and encored. The entertainment was varied with sentimental songs, negro delineations, dancing, &c, in all of which Mr and Mrs Collins sung and acted admirably, some of the songs being rendered with taste and feeling, while the pourtrayal of negro antics and oddities was truly ludicrous. Mr Collins golden shoe dance is not to be surpassed. The amateurs sang well, and were deservedly encored. Those who have not attended this musical entertainment, aud wish to spend a few hours happily we would recommend to visit the Volunteer Hall this evening. The letting the contract for the maintenance of the Greenstone and Stafford Town road has proved a fertile source of debate in the County Council. Originally, tenders were called for the work in one contract, aud a number of contractors sent in tenders, the lowest of which was tentatively accepted. But it transpired that the successful tenderer, whose price was very much below that of the nearest in amount, had made the slight mistake of LIOO, and it was suggested to the Council that be should be allowed to amend his tender by that amount, which would still have left his tender the lowest. Although his explanation may have been perfectly correct, the Council decided not to allow the alteration, and rejected the tender altogether. In order to get rid of any possible collusion amongst contractors, owing to the amount of the previous tenders having been disclosed, it has been decided to call for fresh tenders for the work in small sections, so as to afford working contractors a chance of employment. At the Warden's Court at the Ahaura, on Thursday, 2nd insfc, two important mining cases were tried, arising principally out of the great scarcity of water on the up-river diggings. One was an action brought by Henry Hankin and party at Half-ounce, against Wm. Paler and party of the same place, for the cancellation of an agreement by which plaintiffs were bound to supply the defendants with sufficient water trom their head race to work defendants' water wheel, for which the plaintiffs' were to receive L 3

I per week. The plaintiffs are proprietors of Londahl's race, the only available water at present at Half -ounce, and they applied for cancellation of the agreement on the ground that defendants did not pay the rent. A verdict was given for defendants. The other was an action brought by Faler and party against Hankin and party, for damages for turning off the water, whereby plaintiffs' water-wheel was stopped working, and their underground works damaged. Faler's party claimed L 37. A verdict was given for L 2 with co^ts. M essrs Guinness and Staite were engaged|n both cases. Householders should be careful how they leave their domiciles when they are absent from home. On Thursday night, between 10 and 11 o'clock, the house of Mr Charles Holder, Hospital street, was entered during the absence of the inmates, and property to the value of L2O was stolen. The thief or thieves are supposed to have entered by the kitchen window. The property stolen consisted of a watch and chain, a brooch and a lot of trinkets. The thief had evidently made a close examination of the probable depositories of valuables, as even the mattrasses were turned up. A clue has been discovered to the offender, which it is to be hoped will lead to conviction. The Wellington Evening Post says : — " Steamboat proprietors have on more than one occasion complained of the practice pursued by the Government in granting free passages from port to port by that expensive plaything, the Luna; and certainly the practice has been followed to an unfair extent. We learn, however, that a stop has at last been put to it. When it was known that the Luna was about to visit the southern ports, the Government was inun lated with applications for passages. Although the Phoebe was to go down south next day with excursionists at extremely low fares, these applications were granted until at length they became so numerous that it was evident the Luna would have more excursionists than the Phoebe, and that there would be absolutely no room on board for those the Luna was specially going for — the volunteer representatives. Then came the re-action. The Government decided that no passages should be granted at all, and as this decree was not promulgated until the last moment, the disappointment experienced by the host of ladies and gentlemen, who with their babies and nurses, were all ready for starting on a cheap trip, was intense, and the complaints, if not loud, were certainly sufficiently deep." A motion was agreed to by the County Council on Thursday, at the instance of the Chairman, authorising the Chairman and the Tender Committee to call for tenders for the construction of a track from Maori Gully to Italians, the work to be paid for in land, in acordance with part 111. of "The Westland Waste Lands Act, 1870." The Chairman estimated the cost of the work at about L4SO, and that its construction would reduce the cost of carriage on goods consumed at Italians from twenty shillings to five shillings per cwt. The Haiviian Gazette says that Frank Singer, formerly of this town, presides over the musical department at the theatre, at Honolulu. A special meeting of the Stewards and Committee of the Jockey Club was held yesterday afternoon to consider a proposition that had been made to postpone the Race Meeting. After carefully discussing the question, it was unanimously decided that it would not be advisable to make any alterati.m in the appointed date for the races. The meeting will therefore take place on the day advertised. An interesting cricket match will be played this day on the Camp Reserve between eleven persons born iv British Colonies against the world. Colonies — Guinness, Strike, Poole, Heaphy, Bourke, J. Heaphy, Thomas, Leteher, Masters, Close. World — Honan, Dunn, Broadbent, Grutt, C. Tindale, W. Tiudale, Milburn, Cresswell, Twohill, Kenrick, and Moaa. Wickets to be pitched at 1 .30 p-Tft. sha.Yj>. The telegraphist at Patea scads the following to a northern paper : — I observe in your i*3we of the 28th •ultimo a short paragraph with the heading, "laming Earthquakes." In reference to the same, it may beuiterestin# to you to know that a very similar instance to the one there recorded took place here not long since, in the month of July last, to the best of my recollection. At about two o'clock in the afternoon I was sitting beside the telegraph instrument when a sharp shock of earthquake was experienced. The line being disengaged at the moment I informed the Waneranui station of the earthquake, and inquired whether he felt it. He was just in the act of answeriug " No," when the shock came upon him. The shock in this case did not travel nearly so fast as in the one previously alluded to. The pace, I should say, was not more than a hundred miles a minute. It is satisfactory to find after all the complaints that have been volunteered on the subject, that a Select Committee of the County Council, appointed to enquire into the arrangements made for the custody and treatment of lunatics, has reported that both at the Gaol and at the Asylum, or tbe Hospital Reserve, they are " perfectly satisfactory." We notice that Mr W. S. Staite, barrister and solicitor, has commenced to practice in the up-country Courts. Mr Staite made his first appearance in this district on Thursday, 2nd instant, in the Resident Magistrate's and Warden's Courts at the Ahaura. During the hearing of the case, Pinkerton v. Drury, at the Resident Magistrate's Court at the Ahaura on Thursday, a scene was witnessed which it is to be hoped for the sake of public decency will not be again perpetrated. The litigants had the Court to themselves for some time, entirely ignoring the presence of the Magistrate, but when the case for the plaintiff was closed, and the defendant moved for a nonsuit, the affair reached its climax. The defendant addressed the Bench in the most disrespectful and offensive manner, and in the most insolent aud disdainful language expressed his contempt for the Court, and his scorn and disregard of the consequences of his defiant conduct. The scandalous exhibition was brought to a close by his Worship granting the nonsuit moved for, and mildly iuforminoj the defendant that he hoped he would nut " misconduct himself in such a manner if he came into that Court again." Everyone in the Court was thunderstruck at the reckless temerity of the defendant, and, to put the most charitable construction on it, the Uhristiau-like forbearance of the Magistrate; and the matter was the talk of the whole town during the evening. The Otago Daily Times gives the following account of a new quartz crushing machine, recently tried in Dunediu : — A trial of a quartz crushing machine— one of the " Patent Atmospheric Stamp and Quartz Crushing Machiaes," manufactured by Young and Co., at the St. Leonard Works, Perth— took place on Saturday last, at a shed iv Great King street, wherein the machine had been temporarily put together. The machine is owned by Messrs Bright Brothers and Co., who act as agents for the manufacturers. It ia driven by a five horse-power engine. The stampers used weigh each about 751 b. The piston and stamper — the top of which acts as piston rod — are raised by cams on the main shaft. The action of these cams is so arranged that one stamper is depressed while the other is raised. The blows being given alternately, the main shaft is thus rendered

equivalent to a balance wheel. The piston rising with the upward motion of the stamp causes a vacuum in the chamber in which it works. When the stamp is freed of the upward motion of the cam which raises it, the prussure of the air on the piston givß so great a downward momentum to the stamp, which weighs about 751 b, that it strikes a blow of nearly 10001 b. Each stamp at average speed strikes 150 blows per minute, and as it rotates with its own motion, it of course wears evenly. In this particular machine there are two stamps, but the principle upon which it is constructed allows of one, two, or more being driven upon the Bame shaft. As one stamper is raised whilst the other is depressed, a separate air-chamber is of course required for each. On Saturday the stuff put through was dry crushed. The quartz, as fast as it was beaten into dust, was blown, by the action of a fan, through a pipe with an upward bend, which prevented the larger particles being carried away till properly pulverised. Attached to the machine is a cradle which works backwards and forwards ; in this quicksiver is deposited, and a stream of water passes through it. The mouth of the pipe is immersed in water, through which the dnst is blown. The machine can, if so desired, be arranged for wet crushing. Its weight complete is a little more than a ton, and this, with the fact that it can be easily taken to pieces, renders its transport economical, so that if the reef has been worked out, or has proved unproductive, the machine can be cheaply transported to another. It is claimed that a two-stamper machine such as this will do the work of an ordinary eight or ten-stamp mill, and that it, J owiug to the fineness to which it reduces the quartz put throngh, saves the whole of the gold, and that it will crush from four to eight tons per day, according to the degree of fineness required. A good many miners are at present in Westport from the Karamea district, some of whom have not visited the town for the past eighteen months. Asa general thing, the men express themselves satisfied with the workings in that locality, and it is confidently anticipated that fresh discoveries will follow upon the efforts of the numerous parties prospecting in that district. The want of a track vhere the beaches are intercepted by precipitous bluffs is very much felt, and the want must be supplied before the district can be made capable of employing a considerable body of miners. The expense of getting provisions round, and the trouble, are at present so great, that very few men are in a position to seek their fortune on this field. The course hitherto adopted by the miners has been to charter a craft, and lay in six or eight months provisions, there being no stores nearer than Mokihinui, while the land communication between the two places is impassable, unless for a man of great nerve and activity. To convey stores overland with horses is altogether impracticable at present. The Adelaide correspondent of the Argus, writing on February 9th, says :— " A few days ago, Mr Todd, who has just returned from Mount Margaret, 700 miles north, gave an address to the members of the Philosophical Society, iv which he described minutely all the details of his elaborate organisation for constructing the telegraph across the continent. The first 500 miles north from Port Augusta, and a similar distance south from Port Darwin, are being erected by contractors, who are pushing forward their work most energetically and successfully. The middle portion, extending over about 600 miles of almost unknown country, has been undertaken by the Government itself. Already more than half this distance has been explored. A favorable line of direction has been discovered, for the most part well wooded with timber for the telegraph poles, and avoiding all inaccessible ranges on the one hand, and all risks of flooded country on the other. Exploring parties are now pushing forward over the remaining distance, hoping to meet a similar party, which should be making its way southward from Port Darwin 5 and great progress has been made m forwarding materials for construction. &v& stores for the workmen. About 100 camels and 800 horses and bullocks are employed ia the transport service, and the work of construction in tbe central district will very soon begin. Mr Todd ia very sanguine oi completing it before the end of the year, and fully appreciates tbe advantages afforded by the unusually wet season. He has found the natives very tractable, and willing to werk ; and, by way of inspiring them with a salutary dread of the telegraph wires, he' assemb'ed fifty of them together in a line, and gave them one or two shocks with his galvanic battery, explaining at the same time, with a pardonable flight of fancy, that the same results would follow from any meddling with the wire.