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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1101, 7 February 1872, Page 2

The San Francisco mail is still unaccounted , for, as there was no news of her when the Telegraph Office closed last night. Instructions have been received from the Nelson Provincial Government to proceed forthwith with the erection of a Court House at Reefton. The money set aside for the work is L5OO, and_ tenders will be invited for its construction without delay. It is notified that, at the next meeting of the Borough Council, it is the intention to make and levy a general rate of a shilling in the pound, on the annual value of all rateable property in the Borough. By a misprint in the advertisement published yesterday, the rate was stated to be in respect of the period commencing on the 19th of February, 1872, and ending on the 22nd of February, 1873. It should have read " endiug on the 22nd of February, 1872," the period being thus fixed for the purpose of enabling the rates to be legally recovered. • Information has been received from Mr A. D. Dobson, Acting District Engineer on the Nelson side, that the General Government has instructed him to lose no time in having both lines of road from the Grey Valley to Reefton surveyed.' A subscription is proposed to be raised in Dunedin to send all the qualified representatives to the colonial firing at Christchurch. We mentioned some time ago that the Dunedin Artillery Co. had fired a match with the No. 2 Company of the Honorable Artillery Company, London, and had com* off victorious. The prizes were a set of silver cups, one for each, man in the winning team, to be supplied by the losers. These cups have arrived by the Warrior Queen. They are very handsome specimens of art, and have given general satisfaction. A grand panorama of the Franco-Prussian War has arrived in Auckland by the Nebraska. > The latest news from the Lyell is that Zala and party have suspended crushing operations in consequence of a deficiency of water. The reef continues to improve in quality, and stone is now being got out which surpasses even the former in nchness. The members of the Church of England at Addison's have subscribed funds towards the purchase of a building for ministerial purposes. The lifeless body of Mr Hay, a farmer on the beach near Ross, was found near his house on Sunday by Mr W. Steward, who brought information to the police. Deceased was fast seen alive on Friday night, when he appeared in his usual health. A native rumor says the party which burnt Mr Dolbel's place had made tor Rangi Kapau, a naturally fortified pa in the Uriwera country, said to be accessible only by means of ladders. An old tradition says that it can never be taken. A Bplendid meteor was observed on the night of the Ist at Nelson, seeming to spring from the latitude near the evening star. It showed a brilliant white light, larger than the moon in apparent circumference, and was accompanied by a subdued hissing noise. As it approached the earth it burst into a shower of bright fragments. The tunnel of the Anderson's Creek Quartz Mining Company, Inangahua, is now in 470 feet and within 110 feet of the boundary, at which point they expect to strike the reef. The tunnel is being driven at the rate of 20 feet per week: Mr Findlay proceeded to Melbourne in the end of December last for the purpose of obtaining a crushing plant, which is expected to arrive in Westportby the schooner Northern Light. The machinery is to consist of three batteries of 15 head of 6 cwfc stamps, to be driven by a water wheel thirty feet in diameter by an eight foot breast. The company has secured an excellent water supply of 24 Government heads from the Inangahua river. Scrip in this company are now quoted at £8. There are 1900 scrip held by shareholders. Mr Murray, with his troupe of equestrians and acrobats, entertained the Westport public in his circus in Gladstone-street on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings last week. A new journal has just been started in Auckland in the interest of the Presbyterians. It is exceedingly well got up, and promises to be a success. The dissenters already have a paper in their interest, called the Christian Times, conducted by the.Rev. Warlow,Davies. At Wellington, on the 28th alt, a boy only eight years old was sentenced to two months' imprisonment and a whipping for stealing a piece of lead piping valued at 3s. . A sale of suburban land was held at the Land Office, Hokitika, on Monday. The lots sold comprised one of two acres in Block 11, Totara district, purchased by Charles Wilbert at the upset price ; two lots of ten acres each, in Block 67, Grey district, purchased by Thomas Joyce at the upset price ; Bix lota of ten acres each in the same block, purchased by William. Fairhall at the upset price ; one lot of ten acres in same block, purchased by Kilgour and Perotti, after some competition, for L4l ; eight lots. of ten acres each in the same block, purchased by Kilgour and Perotti, at the upset price ; one lot of two acres, in Block 69, Stafford district, purchased by Houlahan, Mackay and Co, at the upset price ; one lot of five acres, in Block 19, Stafford district, purchased bj Houlahan, Mackay and Co, at the upset price ; and one lot of four acres, in Block 52, Grey district, purchased by James Hamilton, at the upset price. The gaol at Taranaki must be a very primitive affair, just such another, in fact, aa the one that used to do duty at Dunedin in the early days when the heaviest threat the gaolor could hurl at an offending prisoner was that Mho -would lock him out. ' r At least we gather so much from the report of a police case in the Taranaki Herald, wherein one Rundle, junr., was charged by .Bosworth, gaoler, with having, on the night, of the 26fcn December, i attempted to hold communication with one Matilda Grutterman, a prisoner undergoing sentence in the common gaol. The prisoner deposed to seeing accused land another man on the "verandah," in> mediately under the "balcony" of the gaol. He then heard Mra Grutterroan call out, "Mrs Boswortb, someone is breaking in." A voice (Rundle's) replied, "Don't mind calling but come out to us." Went and arrested Rundle, the other man escaping* Mrs Grntterman's cell is in front of the gaol, and the window openß on to the verandah. Artioles could be introduced through the window by one person being lifted up by

another, or by putting them on a stick. I have reason to believe that spirituous liquor has recently been conveyed into their cell. The night before I was alarmed in the same manner as last night. I went round, but could see nothing on that occasion, but the matron reported to me that Matilda Grutterman and Mrs Henry were suffering, she thought, from the effects of spirituous liquors. MrsHanryisa prisonery and is confined in the same cell as Mrs Grutternian. I myself noticed that Mrs Henry and Mrs Grutterman were suffering from headaches, as if pro ; duced by liquor. Mr Rundlewas fined L 2 for calling upon the ladies at unseasonable hours. To add to the other misfortunes of our old friend Mr R. Waite, we regret to learn that Mrs Waite is lying a helpless invalid at the Karamea, Buffering from an affection of the throat. ' Mr Waite informs the Westport Times that he has made unsuccessful applications to the agents of the various steam boats requesting them to call in at the Karamea to bring her away. Considering how largely the owners of vessels are indebted to Mr Waite in opening up the West Coast Gold Fields, one would have thought that any such application would have been promptly and cheerfully responded to. The Nokomai people seem waking up again to something like their old energy. The prospectus of a new gold mining company appears in an Invercargill paper. It proposes raising LIOOO in ten shilling shares for the purpose of testing the flat near the township. This flat has always been regarded as highly auriferous, owing to the " lay" of the country and the run of the gold on the adjoining ridges. The names on the provisional committee are mostly those of men well known in Invercargill. A good story is told of an amusing incident that happened a short time since in Wanganui. The Premier was dining at a gentleman's house, and of course was drinking his usual beverage, Water. ; His example had the effect of making a large number of the company drink water also ; many, it is said, who usually drink something stronger, suddenly took a liking for aqua pwa. More water was called for, and the servant after a few minutes' delay returned, and with lugubrious countenance said, " Please, sir, the water tank has given out:" It was the water had " give out," and blank despair was immediately pictured on a few faces. A Melbourne contemporary states that a company under the limited act has just been formed for the purpose of supplying flagging for footpaths, &c., under the method introduced from New Zealand by Shepherd and Co. During the last two years that firm have laid down several pieces of their flagging in different portions of the city and adjoining boroughs. We understand that at St Kilda and Richmond the flagging has given great satisfaction, and. the fame of this article has also spread as far as Sydney and Bendigo, from whence considerable orders have been received. It is probable the flagging may have a good run, as we understand it has been patronised at the new Royal Mint, William street. Robert Green, a groom with Sanson and Lee, at Leithfield, Canterbury, who, it is believed, accidentally poisoned himself with taking butter of antimony used in the stable for taking warts from horses, has since died from its effects. The Press Btates that he has been injured on the head by being twice kicked on the bead by horses, not however the property of Sanson and Lee, and at the last Leithfield races he fell upon his head. From these causes two glasses of ale would at times produce an effect on him. On Tuesday morning he had been drinking, and it is supposed while in this state he poisoned himself accidentally. He has been employed as groom at Leithfield nearly four years, and was generally sober and industrious. He leaves a wife and three children, the eldest seven years old. A short time ago he made a proposal with the Government insurance officer to assure his life, but as he took no further steps his family are unprovided fcr. Another narrow escape from a fatal accident occutred on the Hokitika river on Monday evening. The West Coast Times says :— "A' boat, in which were the Roy Father Shafeyre, Mr Hoos, Mr M'Vicker, Mr Edwards, the Hospital dispenser, and Scott, the boatman, was crossing over from the South Spit. The wind was blowing strongly from the south-west, and the tide being only just on the turn, the boat shipped so much water that by the time she got into midstream she was filled,! within a few inches of the gunwale, and it was expected every moment by those who were watching fro3i the wharf that the' boat would go down. Portunately.Hhe strong wind blowing at the time kept the boat up, and she reached the shore safely, the passengers receiving no further damage than a good wetting. A bush fire, which had been raging for more than a tortnight in the back country behind Mount Hutt, Canterbury, made its way through the gorge of the north branch of the Ashburton river, near Mr Graham's homestead, and spread with great rapidity through the plains and Alford forest. The long-continued drought had so dried up the underwood and scrub that all attempts to repress the fire were unavailing, and soon j the devouring element cleared all before it. One of the earliest settlers in Canterbury, Robinson dough, commonly called " Jemmy Robinson," has been quite burned out. His orchard, from which last year he had four-and-a-half tons of apples, is completely destroyed, and the real "old identity" is now homeless. Several of the sawyers and splitters' houses have been burned down in the forest, and nearly all the inhabitants re? moved their furniture, and made preparations for leaving their homesteads. . It is believed that all, or at all events nearly all, the trees in Alford forest are so injured by the fire that the timber will only be of use for firewood. ' ,