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Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 904, 21 June 1871, Page 2

An adjourned general meeting of the shareholders of the Grey Valley Tramway Company was held at their office last night. There were fifteen shareholders present, and a resolution was passed to wind up the company. Messrs John Orr and James Wylde were appointed liquidators. A unanimous vote of thanks was passed to Mr James Wylde for the manner in which he had discharged his duties as secretary and engineer to the company since its formation. The loss of the ketch Brothers and Sister, at Charleston, was due, it appears, to the mooring lines parting. As already reported, the hull fetched L 9. The sails and gear fetched fair prices. A petition in favor of a' Permissive Liquor Law is being signed in Hokitika. Mr and Mrs Hilton, who have lately been performing at Nelson, are announced to give a series of concerts in Hokitika on an early date. An emergency meeting of the St. Andrew's Masonic Lodge is called for this evening at the usual time and place. Two very important cases will be heard to-day iv the Warden's Court, involving the ownership of the surplus ground in the Rising Sun claim, South Beach, Juries are summoned in both. The Secretary to the Hokitika Hospital Committee, at the meeting on Monday evening, stated that the amount due to the iustitution by the Ctunty, on the 30th instant, would be LI 750. It was agreed that a deputation, consisting of the whole com' mittee, should wait upon the County Chairman in reference to tbe subject on his return from Greyniouth. One of the "people's organs"— Reynolds' Newspaper — congratulates the working-men on the death of the infant prince, as preventing another addition to the prospective burden of princely allowances and marriage settlements. So far as its father is concerned, that is about the extent of the sympathy felt. . The New Zealand Insurance Company, who were losers by the late fire in Pittstreet, Auckland, to the extent of LI9OO, have offered a reward of L3oofor information that will lead to the conviction of the persons who set fire to the house in which the conflagration first originated. The company are evidently under the impression tint tbe calamitous fire was the work of incendiarism, and if they are correct in their assumption, the amount of reward which they offer ought to have the effect of briuging the incendiary to justice. A deep and protracted groan comes from the Otago Gold Fields this week on the "Celestial" difficulty. John, it seems, has been very active of late, and has taken up no small part of the gold-bearing country. The Arroictoum Advocate complains that the " Cardrona is almost entirely in his possession ; Macetown is nearly occupied by him ; and he has no small share of the Arrow and Shotover Rivers ; taking from the district what would have maintained a thriving population for many years, and what would have placed the Lakes country in a position which would have enabled it to go on prospering for ages. They are, in fact, robbiug us of our wealth, legally, of coursa, and j doing us no good in the process." Well, what does all this amount to, more than the humiliating confession that the Chinese are more industrious, frugal, and enterprising than the white population on the gold fields ? We see a very simple remedy for this, however, without making any application for help to the Provincial Council cr the General Assembly. It has, for a number of years, been a portion of our creed, which we are not even now prepared to surrender, that the Anglo-Saxon race can whip all creation, either at piety, at wo.i-k, or at war ; and we cannot believe that they will confess themselves beaten on their own ground by a few hundred pig-tailed Celestials. Wake up, gentlemen I Recently Mr Stephen Roff of this town proceeded to Melbourne wir-h a machine which he had invented (and which we have upon several occasions mentioned), for the weighing of vessels and their cargoes. A letter was received in town from Mr Roff by the last mail, stating that he had. been offered L 2500 for a fourth interest in the invention. Speaking of the invention, the Age of the 7th inst says : — We were afforded an opportunity yesterday of examining a model of a new invention styled a marine self-registering weighing machine. The model consists of a small boat 'made of iron, 4 feet in length by 14 inches in breadth, and 10 inches in depth. In this is fixed perpendicularly a small tnbe or barrel about 2.1 inches in diameter afc the bottom, and gradually tapering towards the end to a diameter of lij inches. At the top is placed a dial marked after the manner of a steam guage or clock face, with a hand which points according to the weight placed in the boat. Experiments were made to show the practicability of the invention. Weights were placed in the boat amounting to 501 b, and as each weight was put in the hand on the d|al : moyed to the figures representing the actual weight in the boat. The experiments, as far as the model was concerned, proved the success of the invention j but its application on a larger scale still remains to be tested. This invention, if successfully carried out, is expected to do away altogether with the necessity of weighing cargo on scales in the loading and unloading of vessels. This machine would be fixed in a vessel, and as any additional weight was put on board it would bo registered on the dial. Another valuable use to which this invention could be turned would be to indicate the leakage iv vessels. Should any vessel spring a leak with one of these self-registering machines on board the weight of the water entering would be indicated on tlio dial, The inventor is a

mechanist named Stephen Roff, of Greymouth, N. Z. ; and he was assisted ia carrying out his idea by Mr George Simmons, of the same place. Trials of the machine vere made in New Zealand, and the invention was very highly spoken of by several practical men. At the Brunnerton coal mine a coal barge was loaded with sixteen tons, the cargo being weighed by means of a machine upon this principle, and the test proved very satisfactory. A short time ago Mr William Dale, the agent, and also the possessor of au interest in this invention, came to the colony in order to make arrangements for taking out a patent. The inventors have also arrived. Being poor men they have been obliged to part with a portion of their interest in the inventiou, in order to procure the funds necessary to get out patents in all parts of the world. The arrangements have been nearly concluded, and in a short time the applications for the patent will be made. It is intimated that the cost of a machine would be such as not to preclude any vessel from procuring one on that score. The inventors are very sanguine of the success of their machine." The Wellington Pod remarks on Mr Gisborne's evidence in the telegraph case, as follows : — The doctrine laid down by Mr Gisborne in the witness-box this morning is a very startling one indeed, and calculated seriously to shake confidence in the Telegraph Department. He stated on oath that as a Telegraph Commissioner he had a right to enter the operating room of the Telegraph Office, to act as an operator, if possessed of the skill to do so, and to inspect the records, which include copies of all messages sent through the wires. Mr Gisborne, or any other person who may chance to be acting as Commissioner, may thus make himself acquainted with the private affairs of everyone who uses the telegraph, and, unlike the ordinary persons through whose hands messages usually pass, he is not sworn to secrecy. There is no legal provision to prevent the Commissioner making any use he likes of the knowledge so obtained, and he may communicate it to whom he likes without fear of punishment. With what confidence can members of the Opposition use the Telegraph for political purposes, during the session, when they know that as soon as their messages are placed on record in the Telegraph Office they are open to the inspection of a member of the Muvstry who may desire to know what his opponents are doing, or have done. If the Telegraph Commissioner does possess the power claimed by Mr Gisborne, the sooner the Telegraph Act is amended the better.