Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1099, 5 February 1872, Page 2

Up to ten o'clock last night, when the telegraph office closed, there were no signs of the arrival of the San Francisco mail, now four days overdue. The Hon. Mr Fox landed at Westport on Saturday afternoon, on his tour of inspection of the South-West Gold Fields. The annual meeting of the shareholders of the Grey River Steam Tug Company is to be held to-day at the Union Hotel, at three o'clock. The business is of importance. A large Dumber of 10-acre blocks of land in the immediate vicinity of Greymouth will be sold to-day at the Waste Land Board's office, Hokifcika. Some splendid specimens of quartz were received in town on Saturday from Rhody Ryan's claim, on Kelly's line of reef, Inangahua. The stone was smashed up, and was found to contain streaks of gold in the very heart, while fine gold could be easily seen with the naked eye interspersed throughout the whole of the stone. Applications for spirit licenses or renewals must be sent in to the Resident Magistrate's Office to-day. We have, received the first number of the Inangahua Herald, published at Reefton, by Messrs Ivess, Thompson, and Co. It is in every department a journal highly creditable to the gentlemen who have started .the enterprise, and we hope they will receive the amount of .support they deserve. In the present number we make a number of extracts from our young contemporary. The Victoria Racing Club have just passed a new rule in handicappiug, which will materially affect future racing in the colony. All handicaps in future are to be .commenced at the weight for age of the supposed best animal in the race. The preliminaries are now all completed preparatory to the establishment of a Muni- I cipality at the Thames, and we may look upon it as all but an established fact that in a few months' time the Thames will be formed into a Corporate Borough in accordance with the provisions of the Act. Tho Inangahua Herald of Saturday gives the following items of news : — Mr Warden Broad arrived on Friday, and holds his first Court on Monday (to-day).— The large sum of LI3OO has been collected by Mr Cooper, the receiver of levenue in Reefton, since last Court day, on January Bth. During the above short period no less than 200 applications have been received fox new quartz claims, and about 400 applications for special and business olttsoi toooo, datng ) &c. An. The demand for business licenses and miners' rights has quite exceeded the supply, and Mr Cooper has, in consequence, been unable to issue them for some Some idea of the value of property in Reefton may be formed when we mention that two business sections were sold on Tuesday last for L2BO. The same sections could have been bought a couple of months ago for less than a quarter of the amount. The purchasers are three Westport business men — Messrs Graves, Field, and Stitt— who intend erecting large building, for the purposes of carrying on their different businesses. The undermentioned parties have applied for leases for the purposes of coal mining, near Reefton : — Christopher Mace, 20 acres ; Theodore Ranft, Greymouth, 150 acres; J. W. M'Lean, 10 acres. Objections to the above must be lodged before the 12th inst.— Mr Nixen, late master of the subsidised Government school at the Konieri, Westland, is about to open an educational establishment in Reefton. — On Friday afternoon application was made by Thomas Tymons and party for a quartz claim on a new reef situate on a tributary near Lanky's Gully. The stone is said to be very rioh, and to resemble in appearance the quartz from. Boatman's. . On Wednesday last, says the Southland Times, a singular attempt at suicide took place at Invercargill. About midday, a carpenter named David Smith was found in Dee street with a wound in his throat, from which blood flowed freely. / He was at once laid hold of and conveyed to the hospital, when it was found that a wound, 3in long and lin deep, had been inflicted on the left side of the throat. Tt appears that for some time past Smith had been drinking heavily, and from expressions that fell from him there can be little doubt but that he was laboiing under delirium tremens. It has been ascertained that the -wound was inflicted by an ordinary table knife, at his house in Deveron street, after which he se6tns to have walked out, and was found as above. Dr Grigor was promptly in attendance, and had the wound sewed up. Although a good deal of blood i was lost, the patient is reported to be out of , any immediate^danger.? The European Mairoi the Ist December says: — "Her Majesty has just granted, a new colonial order for distinguished services, called the New Zealand Cross, and I believe the first is to be sent out to New Zealand by this mail, but to whom we have not heard. ! The specimen we saw was manufactured by Messrs Philips and Co, of Cockspur street. The order may be. described as a silver Maltese Cross, with a six-pointed gold star on each arm, and with the words " New Zealand" round the centre, encircled by a gold l&urel wreath ; the cross is surmounted by a gold crown, and is attached to a crimson ribbon by a silver bar and ring. The name of the recipient and date of the action is to be engraved on the back of the cross. Here, too, is a description of the silver bar for additional act? of bravery or devotion: — A silver bar across the riband, having a plain surface burnished and inscribed with the date of the occurrence for which the bar is given, and the name of the action, if any." Many persons object to go on coroners' juries, not only from the natural dislike, but also the actual danger in many cases arising from "viewing the body." An idea has been adopted in England which is well worthy of adoption everywhere. . The Pall Mall Gazette says :— "Viewing the body " is certainly not one of the most agreeable, although it is one of the most necessary, functions of the coroner's jury. When the case is complicated by the pre-existence of I contagious disease during life, the risks and tribulatious of the jurors are not diminished. This preliminary trepidation is sometimes diapelfod by an artificially acquired courage, which is partly explained by the suggestive temptations of the public-house in which this court of judicial inquiry is usually hold, and which perhaps in turn explains some of those disorderly scenes among jurymen which Dr Lankester has lately been comI pelled to repress. But compassion for the juryman's weakness seems to find a plage in

his breast as well as indignation at his failings. The happy idea has occurred to him that glass would not obstruct the \lew of the jurors, and accordingly he has suggested that in all cases where an inquest is tb^be held on a person who has died of a contagious' disease a pane of glass should be placed over the mortuary, shell, or coffin, so that'tlft body might be viewed without danger. At a recent inquest in Bloonisbury on a person who died of small-pox, the plan was carried ; nto effect, and the jury expressed their gratitude to Dr Lankester for ths suggestion; The h ; it is worth having, and the' plan might be more generally adopted with advantage to jurors and to the population with whom they condescend to mix in a friendly way at the tap of the bar-room, when unbending from their judicial labors. Our last telegrams from Melbourne announced that the Colonial Treasurer, the Hon. Mr Yogel, had been successful in obtaming money to the extent of L 66.000 in Sydney on remarkably good terms. Whether the "loan" mentioned refers to Treasury Bills or to the loan for the Pro\ Ince of Wellington which Mr Yogel was authorised to raise does not 'appear very clear. In a,ny case to obtain two per cent premium on a six per cent loan in Sydney is not a bad financial operation, and speaks well for the credit of the colony, which not even the continued cries that it is"" on the verge of ruin," which are so industriously raised by the discontents iv New Zealand, can shake. The negotiations v'th regard toH;he San Francisco mail service, although not as yet far advanced, appear to bear a favorable aspect. The Sydney Chamber of Commerce had adopted a recommendation to the G6verninent of the States to the effect that a subsidy should be Liven to Mr Webb's lino, as was proposed to be given to the abandoned line under the management of Mr Hall. The Government, it appears, had not decided when the mail left, but it is probable that terms may be arrived at. Mr Yogel and Mr T r ebb were proceeding to Melbourne to endeavor to obtain the assistance of the Victorian Government for the mail service. The efforts of Dr Featherston in respect of sending us emigrants from the north of Europe is thus spoken of by the "AngloAustralian," in the European Mail:— "l understand that the Agent-General for New Zealand has been able to make arrangements for the emigration to that country of between seven and eight thousand Germans and Scandinavians. When it is remembered that these people make capital colonists, it will be at once seen that Dr Featherston has achieved a great success in obtaining a number sufficient to establish a pretty large township. This, of course, is but the thin end of the wedge. Once let it be known that the initial batch are doing well and on the high road to prosperity, and then others will follow in about tha same proportion as the Irish exodus to the United States. This is certainly an immense feature in so far as New Zealand is concerned, and Dr Featherston is certainly to be congratulated on the result of his efforts' Care, however, should be taken to locate the people under notice in a district where the soil may be favorable to their peculiar pursuits, if the advantages which the enterprise promises are to be realised. Of the exact proportion of the sexes of these emigrants, or the nature of their pursuits, I have not been informed." The Nelson Examiner says : — "The present dry season is highly favorable to some of the mining speculations in the Wakamarina, which but for the little water in the irl-ro>r oonlrl no<> oat-riod.nn First, there is the Hit-or-Miss claim, which has engaged the efforts of a succession of men for two or three years. A race 600 ft in length, 7ft wide, and sft deep, has been cut in the rock to carry the water of the river two miles above Canvas Town. This, together with the necessary, dams, and two large water-wheels to work pumps to keep the exposed bed dry from leakage, is a work of considerable magnitude. Favored by the season, this is now complete, and the enterprising men who have succeeded in their undertaking are now engaged in stripping the shingle from the river bed to reach the wash-dirt, which is giviug them about two ounces and a-half of gold to the load, being, however, less than they expected to, get. Some distance higher up the river,, the Hard Times claim, an undertaking of a similar character, but only about half the extent, is a'so just getting at work. Higher up still, a party fluming the river are very successful, and are making at least Ll6 a week each man. The punt for the dredging company, formed in Nelson, *is now complete, and is spoken of as an excellent piece of work."