THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1871.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 814, 7 March 1871, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1871.

We again remind our readers that the present is the last month this year daring which they can have their names placed upon the electoral roll for the district. The roll will be revised by Mr Revell, and all who have altered their qualification by change of residence, &c, must re-register, or their namps will be struck off. They ought to be careful, while filling up the application, to give correctly the number of the sections upon which they claim, so that they may not be objected to on the ground of informality. Towards the close of the business of the Warden's Court yesterday, Mr Revell became so seriously unwell that he had to be removed to his home in the express waggon. The wire rope of Montgomery's pvmt at Rock Island has again been cut down by onler of the Nelson Government. We are, however, informed that the inconvenience which the closing of Hock Island Perry will cause the public will only be temporary, as a good bridle track will be opened through on This sid<* in time for the races on the 17th instant, if the weather keeps favorable. Over twcntv good bush and roadmen are already engaged, and a sufficiently strong force will be put on by Mr Montgomery to ensure a g od r ad by that time. The.regular monthly meeting of the Greymouth Masonic Lwdjre, E.C., takes place this evening, at 8 o'clock. The Ma«onic ceremony of the consecration of the Grey Kivsr St. Andrew Lo-lg-, S C-, and the installation of the officers takes place t. -morrow, at noon, at the Lodgeroom, Commercial Hotel. The manager of the Murray Creek Gold Mining Company writes that he expects a good return from the crushing of cement taken from the tunnel. He adds that by the aupearance of the dip he thinks they are on the gutter, and that should it rise on the opposite side, it is expected gold will be struck that will pay. A contract has been let for shifting the wheel and for additional fluming. The monthly meeting of the Greymouth Volunteer Fire Brigade took place at their Hall last night. Thirty-four members were present— Captain Amos in the chair. The new book-and-ladder carriage, made in Nelson, was examined by the Brigade, and was pronounced excellently suited for the purpose for which it is intended. It reflects great credit on the builder as a colonial production. A new rule was passed, that uo new members under the age of eighteen should be admitted The usual examination of uniforms and appurtenances took place. The resignations of Messrs Hosie and Noy were received and accepted, and one new member was elected. At the Resident Magistrate's Court, yesterday, before W. H. .Revell, Esq.. R M., Martin Codjre was charged on the information of J. W. G. Beauchamp, with having made use of abusive and threatening language calculated to provoke a breach of the peace. The complainant is architect for a building, and the defend ant is the contractor, and the action was brought to put a stop to a continual system of abusive and violent language. The defendant was cautioned, aud lined Is. and costs, A Bench of Justices will sit at eleven o'clock to-day for the purpose of granting licenses. Last week two men were losb in the bush near Charleston. They were forty hours without food, and turned up just as a search party was being organised to ascertain their whereabouts. An alteration has been made in the time for closing the mail for Half -ounce Greek In future the bag will be made up at 9 o'clock every Thursday morning instead of in the afternoon as formerly. Bird, the English pedestrian, has arrived at Auckland from Sydney. He purposes paying an early visit to the Southern Provinces. Serious floods have occurred at Kennedy and Mercury Bays, Auckland. Bridges, crops, and plantations, have been destroyed. The Galatea dredge, which is at work near Alexandra, Otago, has obtained 107ozs of gold for a week's work. Ihe other dredges ar 6 also doing very well indeed. While West Coast rivers are lower than they have been known for a lumber of years, the Btreams on the fast Coast have been iv high flood. The Christchurch papers report :

-The Kowai was rising at mid-day on Tuesday — m fact, an eye-witness described it as coining down with a wave. The Ashley began to rise at early hour in the morning, and had risen sufficiently high to enter the liottom of the morning coach down from the Kowai ; there was a steady rise in the river all day. Mr Wilaou, the contractor for the new works at the Ashley bridge, and a number of hands employed in carry the timber which was lying about iv the river l>ed, and pi icing it on higher ground, so as to be out of reach of the flood. The northern mid-day up-coach could not cross, as by that time the river was coming down heavily. There were only a few passengers, and the mails were curried over the bridge, which n>>w offers a safe transit to passengers. Scarlet fever has broken out at Port Chalmers. The sufferer is a daughter «>f Captain Tonkins. There have also been a number of cases at LivercargiU. An interesting cricket ma*ch was played in the Camp Reserve on Saturday, between el yen Colonials and eleven from any other part of the world. The result was, that the colonial youths thrashed "the world" by an i. tmense majority. The following is the score : — COLO Iff ALS. Thomas 44 Htjaphy, c E Tinrlale, b Twohill 8 Buckingham, run out 9 Strike, run out ... ... 1 Bradshaw. stumped out ... 0 M Bourke, b Twohill 1 Guinness, b Twohill 3 Nelson, run out 2 Letchev. c Dunu, b Twohili . . 1 Guinness (sub Poule), b Dunn 13 Heaphy, E, b Dunn 0 Byea, 28; wides, 5 33 Total 113 THE WORLD. Grutt, b Heaphy 3 Honnnn, b tieaphy 5 Tindale, W, b Heaphy ... 11 Creswell, c Buckingham, b Heaphy 3 Twohill, b Guinne<B 3 Tindale, E, run out 0 Dunn, c Bourke, b Thomas ... 0 Moss, c Bradshaw, b Heaphy 13 Milburti, run out 0 Kenrick, not out 6 Stackpole, st Guinness, b Thomas 2 Wides, 3 ; byes, 16 j leg b, 2 21 Total .. 57 The Daily Southern Cross of the 13th says : -" In our obituary notices this morning, it is our painful task to record the name of Captain G. I. R. Wynyard, son of the late Miijor-General Robert Henry Wynyard, C.8., of the 58th Regiment, Commander of the Forces in New Zealand, first Superintendent of the Province of Auckland, and for some years officer administering the Government of this colony— a gentleman whose memory can never be recalled to th* old colonists of this Province, but with sentiments of the most affectionate regret — Col. Wynyard, the man so long the admiration of old colonists; the foremost in contributing to our recreations and enjoyments, and who, in conferring an obligation, appeared to be obliging himself When departing from amongst this community, he carried, as Governor Gore Brown feelingly remarked, a ray of sunshine such as has never been surpassed. All must feel a sense of sorrow at the untimely death of the third and last but one of Col. Wynyard's offspring. The volunteers from the Southern Provinces were met by the baud of the Auckland Rifles, and marched through the city. It is stated that Mr. Warden AyJmer has taken the duties of Mr Shaw at Staff. >rd Town, that gentlea-an having obtained a year's leave of absence. The following items of local mining are furnished by the Boss Guardian : — We learn that Mr Cassius, proprietor of the claim known as the Great lloss Extended, offeva the claim on tribute at 15 per cent, on the proceeds with 5 per cent, add ;d for every additional SOozs over lOOozs. Messrs Potts aud Peebles, of Hokitika, purchased the Golden Gate plant last week by auction for the sum of Ll5O. The Hoyal Standard p irty reached the fourth bottom on Thuisday evening, at a depth of 74ft below the Drainage tunnel ; the shaft is vow 257 ft deep. They bottomed on the same run of gold that they were working on 18 months ago, which is very payable ; they propose, before opening out. sinking for the tetraee bottom, which i* loft deeper. A call of 25s per share (second i s i< ) on tl c Morning .Star Gold Mining Company, is male payable at the Bunk of New Zealand, ttoss. or to the Manager, i>n Saturday, the llth iust. The probability of a payable gold fluid being discovered in the territory formerly known as Southland, is referee I to by the Southland Times in the following teims : — " We have many drifts bearing evidence of collateral relationship to those of the Shotover and Arrow. The Oreti terraces carry a gravel-wash with a striking affinity to that of the Upper Clutha and Cardrona. The configuration of the country is similarly characteristic of the existence of auriferous deposit. The Dome Pass forms a succession of tine dry gravel plains, meeting the low ridges which form the watershed between the Oreti and Mataura. The existence of a deep lead in the neighborhood of this district is a subject upon which a strong opinion has been I expressed. As far back as the year 1862, one plain into which a succession of deep gullies e<npty themselves, had a shaft sunk for a distance of 40 feet, without finding the bottom. The material . excavated was precisely similar to the washdirt obtained in the gullies, and contained traces of gold all the way down. No one acquainted with the recurrence of gold can doubt that that is a highly promising prospect. If the deposit contains gold, it is hardly possible to doubt but that the bed rock will be richly auriferous. That is the only solution the theory of gold deposit admits of, and in practice it has proved so often correct that we La^e no hesitation in directing the attention of the public to the question of deep sinking." The Westland Independent, of yesterday, says that on Friday Jast, the iron foundry attached to the Westland Saw Mills Company moulded the largest piece of machinery ever yet executed at the works— a fly-wheel measuring 10 feet in diameter, and 30 feet in circumfcente. The metal for the rim alone weighed 2 tons 5 cwt, the largest quautity of metal ever turned out of their foundry in one ladle. The blast and fan acting in connection with the cupola containing the metal is equal to 25 tons. Taking into consideration the handling of such a large quantity of liquid metal, aud that it was a first attempt, as far as the grjat quantity is concerned, this may be said to have achieved work that cannot be surpassed in magnitude except iv some of the older colonies. 1 1 is also very gratifying that the wheel cast on Friday night was au undoubt d success, the iron being entirely without flaw. The Timaru Herald contains the following :— A gross piece of deception came to light yesterday, which we trust has not often been paralleled. Some weeks ago Dr. Fisher, of this town, was attending a man named John Adie (from the Ashburtou), who, after he had received the doctor's service for some little time, represented himself to be so poor as to be unable not only to pay for medical attendance, but also for the medicines which had been supplied. The doctor not only gave up the debt, but, on two or three occasions actually gave the man money to pay for drugs, and at last recom- ' mended him to go to the hospital. He did

so, and the disease he was laboring under took can unfavorable turn during the present week, and A die died on Thursday afternoon. An old pair o^ browsers belonging to deceased were being thrown away when something bulky was found sewn up in the waistband, which, cm being ripped open, disclosed securities, bank deposits, a cheque, &c, to the amount of over L6OO. That the man should have so shamefully deceived the doctor is almost past understanding. The mile contest for L2O a-side, between Young Austin and Harry Hudson, of Cromwell, came (iff on Monday last at the Plough Inn ground, near Cbristchnrdi. Precisely at five minutes to five o'clock the pistol was firel, and away the men sped on their journey, the dangerous nature of the ground rendering the pace by no means fast. Ir the first lap Austin gained about twenty yards of the start suv-en, and during the four succeeding laps he had reduced the distance between himself and opponent to twenty yards, both men going at an easy pneo ami well within th-mselves. Lvi I cries wer« now made by Hudson's backers for bin to " put it on," and he answered the call by increasing the pace somewhat ; but the champion still continued to gain upon him. and at the completion of the sixth lap he was within ten yards of his man The excitement now became intense ; and on entering the seventh lap, Hudson, in response to the encouraging cheers of his backers, put on a most plucky spurt, and was soon twenty yards ahead of his opponent ; but, unfortunately, in going round the corner leading to the top turn, he stumbled, which enabled the champion to regain a portion of. the lost j ground, the lap being finished with a distance of about ten yards between the men. i Going round the eighth lap, Hudson again < slightly increased his lead ; but on entering the straight run in for home Austin put it on and rapidly gained on his man. On entering the ninth, and last lap, each man strained every nerve to cut the other dowu ; but in entering upon the bottom turn for home Austin came up with and passed his man, and, notwithstanding a very game effort on the part of the latter, who came up with a rush at the finish, the champion was declared the winner by half-a-foot. Some months ago the inhabitants of Napier fitted out a prospecting party for gold, which was despatched to make a thorough examination of the country as to its auriferous character. After six months' assiduous exploring and systematic testing of every likely spot the party has returned, convinced that there is no reasonable probability of a payable gold field being discovered in the Hawke's Bay Province. Mr Edward King, the leader of the party, in his report to the prospecting committee says :■ The far greater part of the first two months of our search was spent in examining the eastern slope of the Kuahiues. We traced nearly all the principal streams in that district from the Manawatu northward nearly up to their source ; but in none of them did we succeed in finding gold or anything denoting ia exia tence in the neighborhood. More for sake of satisfaction than in hopes of finding anything, we prospected many likely spots, but iv no single instance did we succeed in obtaining even the finest color. At a later period we penetrated some distance southward, on the western side of the rango as far indeed as we could take our horses — but there the indications were not a whit more promising than we had before seen on the other side Subsequent examination of the same dis'rict further to the north, and on the same line of country, led us to the conviction, which we have no hesitation iv expressing, that the probability of any payable gold field being discovered within the boundaries of this province is very remote indeed. Leaviug the Ruahine, we next made for the Ngaruroro, whicli we traced to its source, taking the Taruarau on our way. In neither of these streams were we more fortunate than we had been iv the country to the south. After crossing some spurs of Kaiunanawa range, we reached the Kangitiki, which we prospected very carefully for some distance, and also s.une of the smaller tributaries running from the eastern side, but with no better luck than hail hitherto attended us. A month or two afterwards, we were enabled to prospect the same river, near its upper waters, but the result was no more euc >uraging. Travelling Westward, we reached the fatea country, and here, for the fir.it time since setting out, we succeeded in obtaining the color of gold. We traced it westward for about twelve miles, and here the auriferous strata seems to dip, anil is overlaid by the scoria forma tiou. We traced it south to a line where the sedimeutary rocks overlie the old. r formation, and tiie auriferous country is gone or, in fact, entirely blotted out. Shut in on those two si.ies, we worked our way to tho north, finding gold, more or less, in nearly every stream or watercourse, but in quantities too small to pay for working.