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Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 1025, 8 November 1871, Page 2

The Priuce of Wales Birthday will be celebrated throughout the Colony. On the West Coast Volunteer Balls will be given at Ross, Hokitika, and Greymouth, and the Banks announce a general Holiday. All Government Offices will be closed. We have been shown a sample of early strawberries grown by Mr G. Chesterman, Cremorne Gardens, South Beach. The fruit is very far advanced for the season of the year, and we believe the crop promises to be the most prolific yet grown at these gardens. A parcel of llOozs of gold was brought down from the Inangahna to Westport on Monday last. The gold has been obtained from shillow alluvial workings in that district. The West Coast Times learns that the inquiry, bofore Judge Ward, which has been lately taken into the conduct of a gentleman occupying a high official position at Hokitika was dismissed, the charges made being of a general character, and unsubstantiated by proof. Negotiations are, we believe, pending with parties in Westport for placing a crushing plant on the Anderson Creek Quartz Mining Company's claim, Reefton, A public meeting, was held oa Saturday last, at Hamilton and Co 's store, Clifton, in answer to a notice calling upon the residents to elect a Sub-Committee to act in concert with the Greymouth Hospital Committee. Mr P. Dungan, M.C.C., was in the chair, and there was a large attendance. Mr Dungan briefly explained the object of the meeting, and said he thought the Greymouth Committee had taken a wise step in calling for Local Committees. The welfare of the Hospital was of vital importance to the diggers in general, as they as patients always predominate and were so very liable to be injured at any time. Mr H. Crampton said he was surprised to find that only L 37 was sent from this district last year. There are so many who do not interest themselves in the welfare of this most important institution. Here we are as diggers : we have no no social position, far away from home and relations ; and if we get hurt, the Hospital is our only resource. We must therefore one and all exert ourselves to raise funds, some one way and some another. If men could be induced to subscribe so much a month, the Committee would willingly collect the money. Mr H, Crampton proposed Mr D. Faulkner .ns a member of tho SubCommittee ; seconded by Mr Jas. A. Green, and passed unanimous^. Proposed by Mr Green and seconded by Mr Simmonsen, that Mr Peter Flannagan be on the Committee ; ' passed- Proposed by Mr William Constan- | tine and seconded by Mr R. Knox, that Mr William Waugh be pn th,e Committee ;

passed. Proposed by Mr Dungan and seconded by Mr H. Crampton, that Mr Win, M'Kechnie be on the Committee ; passed. "Proposed by Mr Flannagan seconded by Mr H. Crampton, that Mr Dungan be on the Committee ; passed unanimously. Proposed by Mr H. Crampton and seconded by Mr D. Faulkner, that the Committee be empowered to elect extra members, if needful, and that Mr James A. Green be on the Committee ; carried. Proposed by Mr D. Faulkner, seconded by. Mr H. Crampton, that two of the Committee be appointed as visitors to the Hospital ; passed. Proposed by Mr Minnanet, that the, thanks of the meeting be given to Mr Wm. M'Kechnie, for his kindness and attention to the iuterests of the Hospital ; passed. Proposed by Mr H. Crampton, seconded by Mr D. Faulkner, that a vote of thanks bo given to the Chairman ; carried. Mr Dungan returned thanks, and the meeting broke up. A telegram from Auckland in the Daily Times says:— "Mr Howe, manager of the Caledonian claim, has resigned his post, but continues to hold it till the end of the year, at the request of the Directors." A new Masonic Lodge, under tbe Scotch Constitution, and the name of the Caledonian Lodge, has been formed at Timarn. The ceremony of consecration and the installation of the office-bearers took place on the 24th ult. The Primate of the Diocese of Canterbury has constituted the eastern portion with an Archdeaconry, to be entitled the Archdeaconry of Christchurch. The Rev. Cannon Wilson has be«>n appointed Archdeacon. A Northern paper states that the newlyappointed' Registrar-General of Land is a son of Joshua Williams, Esq., Q. 0., an eminent conveyancer, and the author of many wellknown works on the law of real property. After full connideration of the circumstances brought out during the recent investigation, Conducted by Mr Ollivier, regarding certain charges against the Canterbury Commissiouer of Police, the Provincial Executive have reinstated tbe Commissioner, whose temporary suspension from duty was announced a few days ago. There was a heavy fresh in the Hokitika River on. Monday, induced by the heavy downpour. «f rain which commenced early in the morning. During the rush of water two boats were seen to go over the bar out to sea. one was ascertained to be the Garibaldi, which had parted from her moorings, and the other, it is said, came down from the Kanieri, and was the property of Mr Smith, of that township. A race thirty-three miles' in length, and to carry from twenty to thirty heads of water, ia being constructed from the head of the Beaumont River, Tuapeka Flat, in Otago, and is eventually to be extended to Tuapeki niouth. Jt is owned by eighty shareholders, and is expected to be completed in about a year's time. The annual district meeting of the Southern District of New Zealand, in connection with the Wesleyan Methodist Australasian Conference, will take place in Christchnrch on November 9, on which day the session will open. Ministers will be present from all parts of the Southern district, and it is expected that the proceedings will be of more than ordinary interest on this occasion. An inquest was held in Dench's Hotel, port Chalmers, on the body of T. A. Keens, a saloon passenger per the s.s. AJhambra, who died on board that vessel on the 25th instant, while she was on her passage from Melbourne. After evidence had been adduced, the jury returned a verdict of " Died from nervous debilitj', accelerated by the use of stimulants." The Wanganui Herald has the following : — " Soipe inquiring scientific genius has just presented the Canterbury Museum with a portion of a Maori skeleton. This will be a valuable acquisition ; and if they want any more specimens • down South,' we can send them a shipload of pei feet skeletons. There is no scarcity ot the article up here, and we think it will be a very long time before Maori bones become as valuable as Moa bones. We know misanthropes who wish that time had come. We are neutral." Members of colonial Masonic Lodges will be glad to learn that there is a movement amongst a number of colonists to establish a Colonial Lodge of English Freemasons in London. Several names are mentioned in connection therewith. The movement is certainly a good one, and will prove a great boon to members of the fraternity arriving from the colonies. The two enterprising partners in the firm of Messrs Spiers and Pond a(re at present ruralising in thp south of Europe. Mr James Ware, late of Collingwood, Melbourne, has just started at Portsea in the wine and spirit business. Le Comte de la Chapelle is engaged on the permanent staff of the Standard. He is preparing for publication a pamphlet in connection with a new project he has thought out, relative to the transmission of Press telegrams for Australia. Thomas T. Roper, the head master of the California Gnlly common school, was proceeded against in the Sandhurst County Court by the parents of a child named Matthews for damages she had sustained from being too harshly punished by him. It was shown in evidence that on the Bth of last N ovember the child received four strokes of the cane on her hand, and afterwards her thumb became seriously inflamed. Caries of the bone ael in, and half of it had to be amputated. The defence contended that the girl was not at the school at all on the day in question, and that Mr Roper had managMliis school for' ten yeara with credit to himself. His Honor, in giving judgr merit for the plaintiff for L 25, remarked that no childish crime could have deserved so Bevere a punishment. Ac the Resident Magistrate's Court, Hokitika, on Monday, Abraham Palmer, captain of the Murray, appeared to an information laid by the Cattle Inspector, Mr Christian, charging him with refusing to pay 5s on two head of cattle as inspectioa fees. It appsared that on the former trip of the Murray there were two cows on board intended for the Grey, aud a? fees fGr inspection would have to be paid there, Captain Palmer refused to : pay fees in Hokitika. The Act, however, renders it pompulsory for the Inspector of Cattle, at a port where a vessel puts in, to inspect the cattle on board, and he is therefore entitled to reoehe his fees, notwithstanding that the cattle are to be landed at another port. Mr Christian said he would not ask for a heavy fine, his object being merely to elicit a definite opinion on the majbtor from the Bench. A fine of Is, with costs, >vas imposed. The postal services arp at the present moment occupying the attention of the authorities in England, Australia, and New Zealand. A London correspondent gives the following, information on the subject :— "In the London papers' of the 20th ult., you will find some correspondence betweeu Mr Baillie Cochrane, M.P., and the PostmasterGeneral, on the subject of postal communication with Australia via the Cape. The gist of Mr Monsell's answer to Mr Cochrane's application for a subsidy of LBO.OOO, is that ns there is already one postal line by which the western colonies are first served, any second line should be such as would first serve the eastern colonies ; and that it was fairer to adopt the San Francisco as a second route than the Cape. I have some reason for behoving that the officiousucss of Mr B. '

Coclirane in meddling with a matter which had better been left to the eire of persons who do represent Colonial opinion and authority, hns had the effe3t of causing a pre-judgment of the question; At all events, it is very doubtful if, under the circumstances, Mr Monsell could have returned any other answer than that he did. Messrs John Elder aud Co., of Glasgow, have written to a local journal, stating that several steamers capable of accomplishing the passage within forty- five days have been produced within the last few years, and that their firm had constructed eight steamship? of over 3000 tons each, .all of which could do it. The writers state that they are quite prepared, on receiving an order from any respectable firm or company, to undertake the construction of steamships which will carry emigrants to Australia, via the Cape, more safely and in greater comfort than has ever yet been done, and in a shorter time — say within forty days. Is not this offer worth consideration?" While in committee on the Payment to Provinces Bill, the House sat till 3.30 on the morning of the Ist inst., owing to the opposition of Mr Mervyn, who wanted some special provisions made for his district. He made an attack on Mr Reynolds, and when ruled out of order and ordered by the chairman to sit down, he refused. The chairmau was obliged to report him to the Speaker, and on the Committee resuming, he demanded a division on every clause, and then moved to report progress. The bell was rung and the door locked seven time 3, but no division was possible, as there was no second teller. The chairman at last refused to grant a division unless two members demanded it. To-day, the Speaker ordered strangers to withdraw, and it is understood that he commented strongly on last night's proceedings. Mr Mervyn is believed to have apologised. The Bill was read a third time and passed. We extract the following passages with reference to the morality of the Auckland mining speculators, from an article in the Southern Cross: — "The disclosures which have lately been made in our law courts cannot have failed to impress those who have given the subject a thought that mining morality in this Province is at a very low ebb. The mining cases which have como before the Supreme Court in both its civil and criminal jurisdiction, as also those which the inferior courts have been called on to deal with, show a state of things in connection with mining transactions than which nothing can be more unsatisfactory. . . . In mining disputes, as they have lately come before the pnblic. there is so much so thoroughly disreputable, and so infested with barefaced chicanery in all the surroundings of the cases, that those whose business draws them to the arenas of our Law Courts cannot but be astounded at the mendacity by which iniquitous demands are sought to be substantiated, or demands just in the face of them, and righteous in their every outline, are resisted by an amount of hard swearing which must always paralyse the pen of a Judge who has to take down the evidence, as it must utterly shock the feelings of jurymen who are compelled to listen to it. An Emigration Agent of long experience and doing about as extensive a business as any in Scotland, writes to a friend in Dunedin by Jast mail in the following terms :— "You remember the old proverb, 'Every dog has his day. ' So it is with New Zealand in the matter of emigration. A few years ago people would go nowhere else if they could help it. The letters then received from your quarter of the globe all ran very much in the strain of Revelation xxii. and 17th, and the invitation was freely responded to. Now the letters from the same quarter have changed to Punch's advice to those about to mnrry — ' don't ;' and this being the case, you need not wnnder that the people have 'don'ted.' The offer of free passages could get you a certain class, but not the class yon want. They at present will listen to nothing but America, and in this they are strongly ad vised by thosewho hare gone before them. I am sorry to have to confess that I believe they are quite right. You are getting too much into debt, and lam afraid New Zealand "will shortly here be looked upon as Britannia's prodigal son." On the morning of the 30bh ult. the body of a woman was observed by Mr William Walls to be floating down the river in the neighborhood of the Christchurch Cemetery. The body was brought to the bank, and it proved to be that of Mrs Martha Howroyd, wife of Mr Jesse Howroy'd, who is at work in Wellington. Mrs Howroyd left her house about one o'clock yesterday morning, and it is presumed that* she threw herself in the river, ns she had been known to be in a desponding state of mind for some time past. The body was conveyed to Mills' Hotel, where an inquest was held in the afternoon. Mr J. White was chosen foreman of the jury, and, after the body had been viewed, evidence was taken in connection wich the sad occurrence. Sergeant Horniman, after stating how the discovery of the body was reported at the Police Depot, said when the body had been taken to the hotel, he examined it, but found no marks of violence. There were two gold rinss on the third fmeer of the left hand. He removed one of them (produced) but could not get the other off. Harry Howroyd, son of the deceased (about 14 years of ase), said his father had been working at Wellington about a year and nine months. He had only been home once during that time, but was to return again on Tuesday (to-day). Deceased was ill on Sunday, and kept her bed all day. bhe had been drinking for some time past, but had not had any drink since Thursday last, or at least very little. About one o'clock that (Monday) morning he was awoke by his mother getting up for a drink, but shortly afterwards he fell asleep again. At two o'clock was again awoke by his sisFer crying for her mother. ETe got up and found that his mother had left the house. He did not see her a^ain until after the body was taken out of the river. Mrs Jackson said she resided next door to the deceased, and had done so during the past three years. Deceased had been very low-spirited for some time, and had been drinking for about nine weeks. The reason deceased was so low-spirited was that she was afraid to mpet her husband because of the way she had been goiugon. The jury returned a verdict of "Found Drowned, but ! nothing to show how deceased came by her death."