THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, JULY 8, 1871.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 920, 8 July 1871, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, JULY 8, 1871.

But for the manner in which Mr Guinness worded his invitation to his constituents to meet him at the Town Hall on Thursday evening, those who responded to it would have been quite at a loss to understand why they found themselves tlwre. And those who remained and heard Mr Guinness deliver himself must have returned home in a deplorable state of fog as to the reasons which had induced that gentleman to drag people from their comfortable fire sides in such wretched weather, and submit them to the discomfort of sitting two mortal hours in that dreary chamber called the Town Hall. We confess that we went there in the expectation that Mr Guinness had convened_the_ inp.etincr-^ +t "-f "-"^^ y* garmng some important questions affecting their interests which were likely to come before the County Council during the approaching session. We thought he might be desirous of explaining to the meeting how the policy of the General Government in regard to immigration and public works would be likely to affect the County. We fancied that he might endeavor to point out that the favors now being granted to the County by the General Government were not unmixed benefits— that the expenditure on the main roads would create an annual tax on the local revenues for payment of interest and the cost of maintaining the roads, and that it was a serious question how far the County should submit to be burdened for works of less than immediate necessity, We imagined that he would have explained the position of .the water supply question, and afforded some light upon this difficult subject. We had heard that Mr Guinness had the accounts of the County at hia fingers' ends, and could at any time give a clear exposition of the financial position of the County, and we hoped to derive some information in this respect. But a greater disappointment could not have been possible. Instead of Mr Guinness favoring his hearers wilh something like a statesmanlike explanation of public affairs -pointing out where differences of opinion might exist and the subjects regarding which mutual consultation was desirable or necessary, his speech was made up of the merest commonplaces. It could be condensed into half-a-dozen sentences — f or example : ' ' The half-crown a head charged for the inspection of cattle at Greymouth is a heavy tax ; the inspector knows nothing about cattle, and I will try to have the tax knocked off. 1 hope the County Chairman will be able to present a favorable balance sheet. He says he will, and I , suppose he is right. But we must make further reductions in the civil service. I don't know how exactly, but I will do something in the matter as I did last session. I intend to propose amendments in the Licensing Act, but I can't tell you what they will be just now. The main road is a most important question. Mr Lahman is trying to prevent the road coming to Greymouth. He has sent me a telegram that the work will go on soon as possible, but I don't believe him. Mr Lahman is playing into the hands of Hokitika, and altogether a traitor to your interests. Things would have been very different if I had been County Chairman. Look at the number of motions for roads I brought forward in the Council, which have never come to anything. I hear the Government want to take some of your land for Immigration purposes. 1 don't understand much about the subject, int we don't want any country bumpkins here. Water Supply to the Gold Fields is a most important question — at. least, I believe so, and of course I will !'•■> s •'.noiliing in this as in every other matter. 1 did try to carry a motion tint a water-race should be made to command the Grey District, but as the water could not be found, of course there was no use in carrying the motion," and sp on. Really, the only part of Mr Gum- ! ness's remarks that is worth re-calling for ' comment is his insiduous attack upon the

County Chairman. We can understand the public being to a certain extent misled in their ideas of Mr Lahman's conduct with regard to the main road question, because we know how easily a few plausible misrepresentations will influence popular opinion. But we cannot understand how any person professing to be well versed in public affairs, and with ample opportunities for ascertaining facts could display the ignorance Mr Guinness evinced on Thursday evening, or, as he did, so deliberately endeavor to mislead the public for the purpose of prejudicing his colleague in the Council, Mr Lahman. When first this road question was raised we pointed out that the work was a Colonial work, that it was being constructed by the Colonial Government out of Colonial funds, and that it was nonsense to suppose that any local considerations would affect the construction of the road one way or another. But there is a class of persons who are nothing if they are not exposing some imaginary iniquity. They are perpetually discovering mare's pests, and achieving a little cheap popularity by a display of virtuous indignation. Mr Guinness is one of those persons who could not comprehend that the General Government had any reason sufficient in its own mind for temporarily delaying a portion of a work which was being constructed by its own officers. They instinctively sniffed a " motive" somewhere, and forthwith pitched upon the County Chairman, suspecting him if all sorts of intrigues to prevent the road coming on to Greymouth. They were sure some screw was loose somewhere — it was all bosh about the Government waiting to decide upon the railway, &c, &c. A little industry soon promulgated these suspicions through the community until people began to believe them. " Now is the time to catch the popular ear," thought Mr Guinness, " and in the propoition that Mr Lahman loses the confidence of the constituency I shall gain. I will build up a political reputation on the ruins of his !" And so the meeting was called accordingly. The telegram from Mr Lahman, read by Mr Guinness on Thursday evening, ought to have at once convinced everyone that cared to be convinced that all the fuss about the road to Greymouth has been made without any substantial foundation. But Mr Guinness himself ought to have known that in reality the County Chairman lias no control whatever over the proposed road. He has had no veice in deciding its route, or the order in which the various sections will be commenced. He is simply the medium of communication between the Government and the people of the County. 13 c has not been in the slightest degree responsible for any delay in surveying the road from Marsden, and those who have sought to fix this responsibility upon him, have acted very unfairly, the more so as they have been informed on several occasions how the facts really stood. Mr Guinness must have known that in imputing blame to Mr Lahman in this matter he was misleading the public— or else his want of knowledge and enquiry had led him to mislead himself as well as the public. In order to show what a storm about nothing has been raised, and how unjustly Mr Lahman has been accused, we print a telegram which we received frcm the County Chairman last evening •.— •'After repeated requests on my part to have the survey of the road from Greymouth jjtfc.uo^ n-uui"cne* JCiHgineer-in-Chief the following telegram : — ' No objection to survey being made. Commence at Marsden end, or in the Gorge of the Grey, above where it might conflict with any railway live. The lower part must remain until railway question settled.' This afternoon I received from the Hon. the Colonial Secretary a telegram authorising the expenditure of the cost for the survey, and no time will be lost on my part to proceed with it at once. I wonder does it ever enter the heads of sensible people (please except Mr Guinness) that the construction of the roads is entirely General Government work, aud beyond my control ; and can the people of Greymouth (please except Mr Guinness), even imagine that the Chairman would advance the interests of the County at the costs of his constituents. The question of compensation to tramways has never been entertained. — H. H. Lahman." The above should at once settle any question of Mr Lahman's conduct in this matter. It certainly makes Mr Guinness and other imaginers of evil look extremely foolish, and it should warn the public against being so easily misled without taking the trouble to ascertain the facts. A meeting of a few gentlemen was held at Gilmer's Hotel, on Thursday afternoon, to meet Mr Roach, one of the promoters of the proposed large race at Bell Hill, and which it is intended to carry out to the No Town district. As we have previously stated, the race has been projected under the auspices of Hokitika capitalists, but it was deemed desirable to invite the co-operation of the Greymouth merchants, and a portion of the shares has been reserved for this district. The proposed capital of the company is L6OO, in 120 shares of LSO each. The promoters comprise some of the leading men in Hokitika, and already a large number of shares have been taken up in that town. At the meeting on Thursday the proposal was very favorably entertained, and most of those present put down their names for shares. We understood that the prospects of the company are so far satisfactory that we may congratulate the district upon the proba jility of this important work being at once com* roenced. By a Gazette received yesterday, we learn that Parliament is summoned for the 14th of August. As the financial year expired on the 30th of June, all moneys disburssd before an Act can be passed will be illegal. How the ways and means are to be supplied for the [next six weeks will be a question Mr Fox will have to settle with the ReceiverGeneral, who is absolutely forbidden to advance money unless appropriated by Parliament. We are requested to draw attention to the notice in our advertising columns, that Messrs D. Maclean and Co., will sell the entire cargo of the E. U. Cameron, from Lyttelton, this day, at eleven o'ciock ; and that Mr Cass's drapery sale is to be resumed at half-past eleven o'clock sharp. The Marlborough Press ot the 29th ultimo says :— At Quail's Terrace several parties are doing well. Quinlan's party is making at present L7or L 8 a week per man. O'Brien, Cantwell, and Mulvahill have bottomed on gold ; also, Maher, Fitzpatrick, and a few more parties ; but all the terrace that is supposed to be auriferous (is taken up. The diggers here, most of whom have neat little gardens, complain greatly about the depredations of cattle, which, besides breaking : down fences and eating their vegetables, destroy their races, boxes, and flumes. At Deep Creek there are about one hundx-ed and fifty miners. A new terrace has been opened ■ between Big Beach and Deep Creek. There '■ has been a new race brought into the Forks <

lately, making three that are now in full play. Mr O'Sullivan has been engaged here by the Government in estimating the probable cost of certain roads and tracks that are much required. A track that was very much used in this locality was washed away some time since, and diggers, frequently heavily laden, were compelled to climb up a precipice fully fifty feet high, at the imminent risk of their necks, until Mr Dimond erected a bridge which cost him upwards of LSO, for which he certainly deserves some remuneration. The track that the Government let to Messrs Proudfoot and Lyons, from Wairau Valley to Deep Creek, has given general satssfaction, and will prove a great means of facilitating communication between the two gold fields." The General Government are about immediately to put in hand a tramway in the Wellington Province from Masterton to the Mauawatu Gorge, and eight miles of tramway from Palmerston to Rangitikei, through the bush. Large stacks ot sleepers are cut and lying ready for use at Patea. Mr James Hooper, of Nelson, it is reported, is about to erect a flax-mill at Blenheim, on a piece of land known as "Rigby's section." A few days ago a man named Chas. Carr, laborer at Oxford (Canterbury), suddenly dropped down dead. He had been suffering for a time from ulcerated sore throat, when a gathering in the throao had burst, choking him, and causing death. The sum of L 32 has been subscribed at Ross for the couditional-pardon prisoners, who recently arrived at Lyttelton from Western Australia. As in the collections in Hokitika, the amount is to be forwarded to the Central Committee at Melbourne. The following is a specimen of the sort of Colonial news supplied by Home journals. We clip it from a St. Andrew's paper : — "The English war steamer Clio, having on board the Governor of New Zealand, and a large party of excursionists, struck a rock in filega Sound, and was compelled to run in to Bounty Harem. The party succeeded in reaching Queensland overland with much difficulty. Attempts would be made to repair the vessel." Yesterday's West Coast Times says : — Four gentlemen in Hokitika were playing a game of whist a few nights ago, when one of them, on dealing the cards, had the fortune to find that his own "hand" consisted of the thirteen trumps. Players of whist and readers of Hoyle will be able to appreciate the extreme rarity of the circumstance. The Otago financial statement contains passages of some importance beyond the mere figures and estimates. It is distinctly stated that the interest and sinking fund on the Otago portion of the public debt, the departmental expenditure of the General Government chargeable to the Province, and the local loan charges, exceed in the aggregate the Provincial share of the consolidated revenue. The Government plainly say that there is nothing to nieet the interest on the new railway expenditure, and they view with dread the inevitable pressure of engagements which must end the possession by the Province of its land fund. A painful accident has occurred atßyal Bush, Southland, whereby Arthur, a son of Dr M Clure, of Tnvercargill, received a dis"charge of gunshot into his right arm, which it is feared will necessitate the amputation of the limb. The lad, it appears, in company with two of his brothers, went out duckshooting. The gun, which was incautiously kept at full cock, was carried by one of the brothers, and on attempting to cross the fence, it accidentally went off. The Rev. J. Cosh, Wesleyan Minister, in a seimon lately delivered by him at Auckland, stated that there were persons who borrowed money or neglected or delayed paying their tradesmen^ ipUa^ift, Qrdj^ct? gentleman, -who evidently calls a spade a spade, declared to be "little better than common thieves.,' Messrs Fell and Seymour, we learn from the Marlborough Neius, have thrown open the greater portion of the run formerly owned by Messrs Eyes and Empson (but which was lately purchased by the first-mentioned gentlemen) to settlers. The district from the residence of Mr Wetnyss, beyond the Taylor river, to the Fairhall, at Mrs Godfrey's beyond, been fenced in and several neat cottages erected. Many of the purchasers of the sections are said to be from Nelson. The tributors of the Table Hill Quartz Company (Otago) had a washing-up on Saturday last, with an unfavorable result. The amount of gold obtained for five weeks' work was only 33oz— just half that for the previous month. As the returns; do not meet wages, the tributors hesitate to continue the work longer. They have decided, however, to give it another week's trial, in order to deepen a shaft they had previously sunk. Their future action will depend upon the prospects they obtain at the lower level. Telegraphic intelligence reports mining matters at the Thames to be of a very encouraging character ; while private letters state that business is much depressed, in consequence of numerous forgeries of scrip coming to light. The latest case of forgery is that of a mining manager who forged the signature of a local merchant, and afterwards sold no less than LI7OO worth of scrip bearing the forged name, and the forger is stated to have got clear off. The effect has been wholesome, for it has made intending purchasers of scrip exceedingly cautious. 4 Poverty Bay carrespondent says :— " It is rumored that Ropata and his Ngatiporous are going out again quest of Te Kooti. I have little faith, however of that arch-villain being captured by any large body of men. He is, if caught at all, more likely to fall into the hands of a small number moving with celerity and secresy, than into the hands of a multitude whose movements are as the roaring of the sea, and may be hearl from Dan to Beersheba, and even to the uttermost ends of the island." Mr Thomas Russell and many other wellknown Auckland men had a very narrow escape from drowning a few days ago at the Thames. They put off from the jetty in the watermen's boats (overcrowded as usual) to join the steamer Golden Crown for Auckland. Unable to make the steamer in the face of a strong gale, they were blown into the open waters, with the darkness so intense that they were unable to ascertain their position. Fortunately they were picked up by the steamer Lady Bowen a couple of hours after, or they must have been swamped, and met the fate of one poor fellow whose boat was out at the same time, and whose dead body was picked up at the other side of the Firth the next morning. A shareholder in Tookey's, who records his impressions of a visit to the Caledonian mine, • and his consequent expectations from Tookey's, writes to the manager at Ballarat in a style of enthusiasm which almost attains the highest poetry, and, in fact, is only prevented from doing so by a faint flavor of a business like desire to bull the market. He says :-" Fancy, if you can, having your attention drawn to a small aperture on one side of a main drive, accompanied by the announcement that from it L 172.000 sterling was taken in a few days, and after advancing a few feet to find the run going out on the other side, where a somewhat similar amount of blocking had been done, with a i return of L 218.000 sterling for a fortnight. If you can fancy this and believe it true, you . may realise as I did, an indescribable feeling - of delight bounding from the innermost re- !

cess of your heart, and heaving through your bosom, then bursting with emotion at the conviction that in Tookey's you may yet redeem the toil of years, and luxuriate in affluence after having passed but little beyond the meridian of life. Long before this mine is worked out present appearances amply justify the belief that the least of its shareholders will in substance possess a f olden crown. I then introduced myself to the Caledonia mine. 1 can defy the most careless, prejudiced, or the least animated nature to investigate the workings of this claim without feeling impressed by something grand, glorious, and sublime. It is yielding its treasure with a lavishness that knows no limit, and creates in the beholder a fire that pervades and virifies his whole being ; the solidity of the mass of gold causes it to appear gigantic, cumbrous, and appalling, rather than harmonious and beautiful. It is a Colossus in treasure ; and in this Cyclopean workshop imagination conceives the possibility of the gnome's presence, who, in calm and silent majesty, radiant with smiles, and standing erect, with her right arm pointing towards Tookey's," &c. He concludes by emphatically, but ungrammatically, assuring his "personal friends and associates that 'England, home, and beauty,' is looming in the distance, and that the corporation will undoubted^ possess a mine of untold wealth and unparalleled splendour." After all this, the only question is, how much " A Shareholder" will take for his Tookeys ? A man named James Baker met with a severe accident at Mount Pisa Flat, Otago, on the evening of the 20fch inst. He was travelling from Bendigo to Cromwell, in company with a man named Smith, who was in charge of a team of bullocks, yoked to a dray laden with wood. Raker volunteered to drive for a short time. He sat on the pole of the dray, Smith sitting on the top. Smith spoke to Baker, who thereupon turned round towards Smith, and in doing so, overbalanced himself, and fell under the dray, the wheel passing over his chest. He was brought into Cromwell the same evening, and a doctor attended him. He was forwarded to the Hospital on the 22nd inst., and was then apparently in a dangerous state. Baker was a stranger in the district where he was when the accident befel him. The Auckland correspondent of the Daily Times, writing on the subject of the mafl service, says : — "There is nothing new about the mail service except a very singular report of a subsidiary arrangement with Mi Webb, whereby he is guaranteed against loss in running his steamers for the first four or six months. The report came to us as current gossip from San Francisco, and I should hesitate to mention it, had not the reports, equally incredible at the time, as to the successive repudiation of the Neilson and Stewart contracts, proved correct. The line certainly must be run just now at a heavy loss. The Nebraska had but few passengers either to New Zealand or hence to Sydney, and her huge saloons and other cabins looked dreary and desolate in the extreme She is a sister vessel to the Nevada, but much bettei fitted and finished. Everything on board was in the best order, and she was visited by a large number of people. We are anxious to hear of the impression she is making it Sydney, for it is very clear we cannot afford to keep the line running on our own accouni alone. A man named Hugh M 'Donald was drowned whilst attempting to cross the Waitaki on horseback, at Kauro, on the 18th ult. The deceased, we learn, crossed the river on horseback on the 16th ultimo, the horse whic^ carried him swimming across. On the 18th ultimo, as he wanted to go from the Canterbury to the Otago side, he attempted to cross again, although his mate did all he could to dissuade him from doing so, it being dark at the time when he started to cross. > portly after w h&.gotjntc bank, heard him say, " The mare is drowning with me," and almost immediately after, " I'm sinking myself." It being dark at the time, his mate could not see what had occurred. Next morning the mare was found drowned, but no trace of M 'Donald could be got, though a party of men with a boat searched along the river for a distance of about six miles. The body has not yet been recovered. The Auckland Evening News has the following : — " Who is responsible for this ? — ' Alburnia, Ll4. The latter (Alburnia) has every appearance of turning out a second Caledonian. It is taking out a large quantity of very rich specimens.' This is an extract from Greville's telegrams in the Canterbury Press of June 10, and it is dated Auckland, "June 6. Now Greville's agent surely has not made himself a party to puffing up mining stock on the Thames. If so, the sooner the fact is known the better. The statement that the Alburnia is likely to turn ont a second Caledonian, &c, is simply calculated, if not intended, to mislead. Caledonians are quoted in the same telegram at LI 76, and this fact, with the vague statement about specimens from the Alburnia may well induce'rash speculation in the stock of the latter mine."