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Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 871, 12 May 1871, Page 2

It is just possible that an opportunity will be afforded for making up a supplementary mail for England via San Francisco. The mail does not close at Nelson until the 16th —and probably not before the ISth— and should a steamer be available to catch the mail at Nelson we understand the Postmaster here ■will make up a supplementary mail. The inward mail from England for Greymouth was transhipped from the s.s. Murray at Westport yesterday to thes.s. Kennedy, and the latter steamer lefb Westport at 4.30 yesterday afternoon. The mail, consisting of six bags, will therefore probably be received here before this reaches our readers. We notice that a meeting for practice of the members of the Greymouth Choral Union will be held at 8 o'clock thi3 evening, at the Masonic Hall, Gilmer's Hotel. It will be seen from our telegrams from flokitika that the jury heave acqiu tted Patrick Cruise, charged with rape upon a child at Greymouth. It is most probable that the case broke down on account of the insufficient evidence of the principal witness, the child, which was of verj tender years. At Dunedin recently an officer of the Revenue charged an eating-house keeper with selling "giuger wine," without a wine and spirit licence. The Bench dismissed the case with the caution that although it appeared to be generally thought that such liquors as ginger wine did not come within the compass of the Licensing Act, such an idea was erroneous. Our readers will learn with regret the serious accident which, according to our telegram from Hokitika, has befallen their fellow oitizen, Dr Smith. It appears that one of uhe bridges over a gully between Stafford and Arahura gave way under the tramway carriage, and we suppose must have resulted in the carriage being precipitated a height of 70 feet. Dr Smith was the only passenger, and received severe injuries, and the driver was also much shaken. It is almost miraculous that they escaped alive. We sincerely trust that Dr Smith will not suffer permanent injury. In the case of sheep stealing for which the late Edmund Trahey, of Teremakau, had been committed for trial, the death of the accused was proved, and his Honor the Judge stated that in. his opinion the fact of the committal for trial of the accused was a sufficient evidence of prosecution to warrant him in certifying for the payment of expenses according to the Act, and made an order to the effect that satisfaction should be entered up in discharge of the recognizances, and the usual order for payment of witnesses' expenses. A publican named Charles Henry, residing at Katikati, on the Eash Coast, near Tauranga, has been committed for trial for the shameful offence of selling ammunition to natives. This practice is, we are sorry to say, too common in Native districts. No wondor the natives have plenty of ammunition . A theatre is about to be built in Wellington at a cost of L3OOO, the capital to be raised by 300 shares at LlO each. Another band of emigrants is about to leave the Clutha district for Fiji. \ new .Executive has been formed in the Provincial Ckmnc.it of Wellington. Mr Bunny is Pvovinoiai Secretary ; Mr Halcombe, Provincial Treasurer ; and Mr Bor. lase, Provincial Solicitor, without a seat in the Executive. Mr George Hunter has been asked to join as a non-official member, but has not yet decided whether he will do so or not. His Honor Mr Justice Richmond, in his address to the Grand Jury, at Hokitika, referred to the lamented death of the late Mr Abbott in the following terms :— Ono occurrence, gentlemen, since the last Circuit Court, cannot pass without notice. I refer, of course, to the sudden death of Mr Abbott, the Registrar of this Court. In him the Colony has lost a most intelligent, laborious, and faithful servant. He was a man who knew what thorough work is. His standard of efficiency was o, high one, and he always endeavored to bring himself up to it. He cared little, indeed, about mere appearance, bnt was bent, in all things, in attaining reality, rendering to the public no mere eyeservice, but laboring for it under a deep and abiding sense of duty. Of my own personal relations with him, of my own personal sense of his loss, 1 need not speak ; but this public tribute to his memory is one which, at this time, and in this place, I could not fail to pay. The Melbourne Daily Telegraph says that " a gentleman just returned from Fiji, and who lived immediately adjacent to Messrs Baillie and Scott's homestead, has stated to us his impression that Scott did not murder Baillie, but that both Scott and Baillie have been murdered by the natives, who, in order to avert suspicion from themselves, have carried off Scott's body, and thrown it into the bay or sea, where the sharks and other voracious fish would, in a few hours, render a pretty good account of it. The natives, he says, are both cunning and treacherous, and will retain for months, or even years, a fancied sense of wrong, in order to seize an opportunity to avenge it. Mr Scott, he mentions, was advanced in years, and could not move about very far. and a? Suva and its neighborhood are surrounded with thick brush, and yam and cocoanut trees, escape would be impossible for him, and the neighboring islands would aflord no better shelter. Our informant suggests that until something definite is ascertained, Scott is entitled to the benefit of this doubt. The difficulty in the way is the verdict of the coroner's At the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, before W. H. Revell, Esq., R.M., the following civil'cases were heard : — R. H. Baylis v. J. Turner. Judgment, by default, for L 6 Is and costs for board and lodging at Stafford Town in 1868 —Carlisle v. Dullard. Judgment confessed for Ll3 12s and costs.- - J. Payne v. J. Johnston. Claim for L 3, the cost of a transparency representing Britannia, used on the' defendant's balcony during the late visit of the Governor. The plaintiff stated that on behalf of a third party he sold this picture to the defendant, at the same time telling him that he charged no profit on it, but simply what it cost. It was received and used by the defendant, but when he was asked for payment, he said he thought the transparency had been sent either by the Borough Council or the Reception Committee, and that he (plaintiff) would have to look to the Borough Council 'for the money. Defendant's statement was that he was under the impression that the picture was sent by the Borough Council or the Reception Committee to illuminate his balcony during the Governor's visit. He never agreed with the plaintiff to pay for it, because he did not see the necessity for such a thing. It was not put up the first night the Governor was Jin

the house, but he believed it was erected on | the following day by one of his (defendant's) ! servants, when tho defendant was at the ■ Coal Mine. When the account was presented he told the plaintiff ho was surprised at the demand, as he wa-. under the impression the picture belonged to the Borough Council, but that tho picture was there, and he could take it away as he did not want it. The Magistrate said there appeared to have been no agreement as to the sn,le of the picture, and the case would be dismissed. Remarking on the approaching election of a member for Hokitika in the County Council, the Westland Independent mentions the names of Messrs Higgings (Mayor), Reeves, Hoos.Todd.Keogh and Chesney. Withregard to Mr Hoos' candidature, the Independent alleges that the plan of operations is pretty well as follows, in case of Mr Hoos getting a seat : — The first step will be on the part of what will then be a majority to baffle and embarrass the present County Chairman as much as they can, and negative as many resolutions, brought forward by other members, as possible. After a week or two a direct vote of want of confidence, with a gentle hint to resign, will be moved, and the quintette, Messrs Hoos, Barff, O'Connor, Scanlan, and Guinness can carry it. Should Mr Lahman be weak enough to resign, they can then elect one of their number, Mr Hoos probably, in his stead. Should he refuse to take any notice of their resolutions they still will have everything their own way, and may greatly obstruct public business. The Otago papers publish from the census returns a iist of the various religious denominations. The Daily Times remarks as follows upon it :— lt will be seen that Presbyterians, as might have expected, are much the most numerous, forming more than 2-sths of the total population of the Province. Then follow Episcopalians, who form more than a fourth, and then Roman Catholics, who form just about a tenth part of the entire population. Many of the definitions of ieligious belief are singular, and some of them have evidently been inserted "in fun." For instance, one man puts himself down as "heathen," another as "colonist," a third as of " any" religion, while a fourth mysteriously describes himself as "Ge'bool" ; possibly intended for "Gloul." 11 males and 5 females allow themselves to be of no religion at all, and one hard-headed sceptic states that he believes in "none of man's inventions up to this date." Ranters, Mormons, Latest Saints, and even the PR., have their representatives, and 5 females, who apparently think it as rude to ask a lady her creed as her age, declare themselves to be of "the proper religion," whatever thatvaay be. We learn that one of the elected members for Christchurch for the General Assembly has promised that in the first session he wiil bring in a bill for the punishment of females who may be found guilty of bringing unsubstantiated charges by females againt men for rape or indecent assault. He was induced to make this promise, because several cases of rape which on the hearing were proved to be unfounded, have been brought before the West Coast courts lately. The latest was that of a man named William Croke, who was brought before Mr Revell, R.M., G r eymouth, charged with attempting to commit a rape on a female named Monquillet. The prisoner was a mate of the woman's husband. The woman was proved to be of indifferent character ; had previously lived with another man, and was known to be frequently drunk, and in the habit of taking liberties with men. Mr Revell, very properly, dismissed the case. The charge prefeirel by the woman was one of those only too easy to make, b\it very hard to disprove. Fortunately, the prisoner was enabled to clear himself, and obtained a dismissal. But at present there is no law whereby the woman can be punished. Commenting on the recant disclosures in connection with the recent Telegraph Libel Case, at Dunedin, the Canterbury Press says : — " Unless we are much, misinformed a long series of cases of misconduct and breach of trust in the administration of the telegraph office have been substantiated, and are ready to be brought before the Supreme Court. But enough has already transpired to show that the department is in a thoroughly unsatisfactory state. Nor could anything else be expected. For the last two or three years it has been under a merely nominal head, subject to only such temporary and superficial supervision as could be bestowed from time to time by one or other of the Ministers, acting as a sort of 'amateur casual 1 Commissioner. We hope the inquiry "at Dunedin will bring about a radical reform, the first step towards which must be the enforcement of Ministerial responsibility. There are certain old saws, asMacaulay says, about the master's eye and everybody's business, in which we place a great deal of faith. So long as the present system is continued, of allowing several important offices of State to be monopolised by a single Minister, so long may we expect that public duties will be neglected and that abuses will prevail. " The Resident Magistrate's and Warden's Courts were held at Camptown, before C. Whifcefoord, Esq., on Wednesday, lOfch insb. A miner from No Town was fined 10a. for being drunk and disorderly. His Worship cautioned tht defendant and made some severe remarks about the frequent complaints of rowdyism from the No Town district. In M'Allister v M'Pkee, the defendant was fined 11s 6d, with costs, for abusive and insulting language. There Avere a few unimportant civil cases. In the Warden's Court, Barney M'Gee and party were sirtnmoned for placing obstructions in a tributary of Nelson Creek, to the injury of Charles M 'Veigh and party. ' It appeared the obstructions complained of were caused by the recent flood, and by circumstances over which defendants had no control. The case was dismissed with L 2 expenses against complainants. The inevitable action for a breach of clause 8, section 10 cf the regulations, by not leaving a full head of water in the creek, came on as usual, this time from Paddy's Gully. The Court made an order which left matters just as they were before. A case of disputed partnership occurring between two miners from Nelson Creek, was dismissed. An application by Murray, Thompson and party, for permission to erect a dam on Bell Hill, at tho Lake Brunner, was opposed by Messrs Michael Roach and James Dougherty. Mr Roach's opposition was on the ground that the granting of the dam would injure the district generally, and prevent the working of the old ground in the immediate vicinity of the proposed site of tho dam, and Mr Dougherty's objection was that he wanted the ground himself. The application was refused, but the applicant was told he might apply again in one month. A number of unimportant applications were disposed of, and the Court adjourned. Remaiking on the salaries paid to clerks in banks, the Wellington Pod says: — "It was discovered a few weeks ago that a young man, a junior clerk in one of the Banks, had been helping himself to the funds. The amount of defalcations at first traced to the delinquent was small — some L 40 — but it has since been found out that other sums have gone in the same way, and possibly the Bank is a heaAaer loser than it is at present aware of. We cannot avoid saying that this and other cases of defalcation which have occurred under similar circumstances in this colony are, in a great measure, due to the ill-judged parsimony of the Banks themselves. They put young men into situations of trust and responsibility in which very strong tempta*

tion lies in their way, and expect them to keep w\y a respectable appearance and maintain the highest integrity of character, at the same time only paying them a miseiable pittance. The defaulter, whose cause we have mentioned, was receiving some Ll2s annually, an amount certainty not adequate for a person who was trusted with the handling of large suras of money, and the result has been that he ha 3 perhaps cost the Bank two or three times the amount which would have remunerated him well, and kept him honest." The Wellington Evening Poet says :— With reference to the recent employment of one of the prison gangs in the grounds of Government House, we are iu'orpied that on one occasion a gang of prison laborers was set to work on the grounds during Sir George Grey's term in oih'ce. When Sir George became aware of it, he very promptly told the parties who were the authors of the scheme that if they did not remove the prison laborers at once, he would sit down and write a free pardon for every prisoner at work on the grounds, as he would have free labor only about his residence. Several accidents have taken place at Gamaru within the last few days. The local journal says : — "We regret to learn that a painful accident happened to Mr Walkem, the contractor for the Oamaru Dock works, on Tuesday evening last. It appears that, while assisting to remove the casing from one of the concrete blocks, his finger was jammed between the casing and iron roil, and denuded of the flesh to the second joint. Mr Walkem left for Dunedin next morning, to have the injured member attended to by his family surgeon. On Thursday, Mr Luis Schtnoll, while working iv the Otepopo Mill, had his finger somewhat severely crushed by the falling of a bar upon it; and on Friday, Mr William Ogilvie, of the Tees street Foundry, got his shirt entangled in the machinery, and his arm was severely cut, laying the arteries bare. Had not the shirt sleeve given way, the consequences might have been serious. Both patients were attended by Dr Caro."