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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1138, 21 March 1872, Page 2

Last evening the Bishop of Nelson delivered a lecture in the Town Hall on " the Books of the New Testament, and how they have come dowa to us." The chair was occupied by Mr Revell, R.M. The lecture was specially addressed to adults, by whom the ball was cramped to overflowing. The lecturo was very interesting and highly instructive, was attentively listened to by the large audience, and was nicely illustrated by diagrams and fac-similes of ancient writings. At the conclusion of the lecture a unank mous vote of thanks was passed to Bishop Suter for his interesting lecture. We understand that the Bishop of Nelson intends paying another visit to Reefton before leaving this portion of his diocese. The diorama of the American War continues to be exhibitei at the Volunteer Hall, nnd will, no doubt, continue to attract spectators until all in Greymouth who desire to see a good thing have seen it. The Nelson Provincial Secretaiy, Mr Greenfield, who is at present on a visit to the southern part of the Province, will, we understand, leave for the Ahaura on Friday, and will proceed thence to Half-Ounce, and subsequently to Reefton. He will return to Greymouth from the Ihangahua, visiting other parts of the Grey Valley in the course of bis return journey. He will be accompanied by Mr Dobson, the Provincial Engineer, At tho Resident Magistrate's Court, yesterday, two young men, M. O'Brien and J. Huntington, were charged with disorderly cm: luct. The case against Huntington was disiiiissed. O'Brien was fined 10s. The two hid been on their way home on the previous night, in company with another friend, when O'Brien, who was next to the houses along the street by which they went tapped on the wal's with bis hwd| and m floirfl fa

i ."' "••■■' !-;j ;' ,«' ; : • ;! ■'"' smashed a pane of glassVwhich had been previously broken. Constables happened tobd at?, hand, and, heariing>the smash, _ they arrested the two merifbr disorderly' conduct. It was stated that both were uober, and the Magistrate accepted it that there was no malice meant, but that the "tappiag" on the wall§ at a T late "hour was likely to disturb in^ mates of the houses. James Furcell, for in-, decent exposure, was : sentenced "to three days' imprisonment. The performances at tho Circus to-night, it will be seen; are for thf* benefit of Mr Gorman, the ringmaster, and Lilliputian Charlie, and the prices of admission have been reduced. The company has lately had an accession to its number by the engagement of an experienced equestrienne, whose presence enhances the attractions of an otherwise satisfactory entertainment. The only gentleman who has been mentioned as likely to stand for election as a member for the Grey Valley district iv the Nelson Provincial Council, is Mr T. A. S. Kynnersley, formerly Commissioner on the Nelson South- West Gold Fields. A message was sent by some of the electors to Mr Kynnorsley, and it is stated that he has replied that he has no objections to be returned without the trouble and expense of a contest. Last night was appointed to be the settling night in connection with the races, but, for general convenience, the settling was postponed until this evening at eight o'clock, and at the Albion Hotel. The tenders of Mr James Mulligan, for the snpply of bedding and clothing for the County Gaol and Lunatic Asylums, and the tender of Mr W. S. Johnston, for the supply of tools and materials, have been accepted by the County Chairman. It is gazetted that the County Chairman has declared the following mining leases forfeited, and the land open for occupation : — Okarito Gold Mining Co, Five-Mile Beach, Okarito ; Riordan and Op, Five-Mile Beach, Okarito. The Hon. the Premier has consented to deliver a lecture in aid of the funds of the Hokitika Academy. The lecture will be delivered at the Town, Hall, on Friday evening, the subject being "Travels in the East." A rush is reported by the West Coast Times to have taken place within the last few days to some ground at the back of Arthur's Town, on the southern side of the Hokitika Eiver. It is said that the prospectors are averaging L 7 per week each. The City Council of Christchurch have affirmed the necessity of borrowing, under the enlarged powers conferred upon them daring last session' of the General Assembly, the sum of LBOOO for drainage purposes, and steps will at once be taken to raise the requisite sum by means of debentures. An explosion of fire-damp occurred in Shaw and party's claim, at Nokomai, a few days since, by which jone of the men was much burnt, and had a narrow escape of his life. These explosions, although numerous enough in Victoria, are of rare occurrence in New Zealand. The Thames Guardian gives the statistics oE crime for that place, from which it appears that the total number of charges for the year against males was 850, and against females 101. Of these, 767 males and 91. females were convicted of the offences preferred against them, while 83 males and 10 females were discharged. A "Gazetteer of the Province of Taranaki" has been published The gazetteer comprises £26 p&<res Q f -^(i printed vas&tex, containing alphabetically-arranged lists of tho various settlements Jthroughout the Province, with mention of tho leading events that have occurred during the eventful history of thr.t unfortunate Province. The labors of a Colonial Governor are recorded in the statistical summary of the Registrar-General of New South Wales, for the year ending 31st March last. Duriug that period the Governor has written 582 despatches to the Secretary of State, 407 messages or speeches to the Legislative Council, 13,600 lettefs, notes, or memoranda on a host of topics, private or public; delivered 49 addresses on various subjects— religious, charitable, scientific, or literary ; and held 170 interviews with as many different people. : They have recently appointed a new Ministry in South Australia, and its members, when they met Parliament, announced that their Government was constituted on • decidedly novel principles. They have no Premier, and, therefore, say they in pleading tones, the resignation of any one Minis-; ter will not involve the resignation of the others. This is regarded as a new development of the theory of representative Goven • ment, and if, as a journal has said, " the only object of governing is to protract the existence of Governments," it is possibly a step :n advance. On Monday some Volunteers at Ross availed themselves of the holiday to have a little rifle-practice at the butts, when Corporal Hennah came verj' near getting a bullet through his body! He had consented tomark, and, being in doubt as to a shot, raised his danger-flag, which was answered by the marksman's flag also being hoisted ; he then went to the target, and, while standing in front of the bull's-eye, was disgusted and alaioied by an outer being marked by a bullet which must have passed within a few inches of his body. The Premier paid a visit to the Kanieri on Monday. He was waited upon by a deputation,, consisting of members of the Mining Conference, and some miners, who endeavored to impress upon Mr Fox the necessity of a rednction in the gold duty, and the great inconvenience caused through the want of a universal miner's right through the whole Island. Mr Wearne, of the Hau-Hau, and Mr Brown, of the' Kanieri, showed the injustice of the tax, and Mr John White, M.H.R., ably supported their argument. The deputations were vex/ favorably received by Mr Fox, who seemed anxious to ascertain the wants of the district, and proraised his support, especially in relation to the miner's right. At a meeting of the Waste Lands Board at FTokitika, on Tuesday, Donald Maclean applied, through his agent, Mr Learmontb, to purchase twenty acres of rural land in Block 1, Grey District. The Board would not entertain the application, as the land was reserved for road purposes. Jane Thompson* obtained a renewal of a pasturage license for a run of 500 acres near Marsden, and paid Ll2 10s rental. Heber Newton npp'ic-1 to purchase thirty acres of ; aral land iiuUlock 1, Grey District; granted; L3O paid. George Glenn applied, through his agent, Mr Learmonth, to purchase seyentyfive acres of rural land in Block 1, Grey District, and also one hundred acres in same block ; granted j L 175 paid. The following particulars of General Government works in the Province of Otago are given by the Times :— The General Government has purchased the material for tho construction ;of the Moeraki Jetty from the Provincial Government. The proposed jetty is to be the railway jetty, at Moeraki. Tenders' for its erection were advertised for last month. ! Seven were received, and the tender of Mr Thomas Greig,; f0rL2250 5s slOd, jWos accepted., The first shipment o plant for the Otago railways arrived by the Jeßsie Reai' aan lately, and consisted of 250

tons, of rails, 12 tons of rail fastenings, and three station sigaals, The second consignment came,. by,\ the Margaret Galbraith, •which arrived on Thursday; and consisted of 151 tons of rails, and 7 tons of rail fastenings. The Warwick, which is expected to arrive in six weeks, has on board 150 tons of rails, 38 tons of rail fastenings, ten sets of switches and crossings, and a quantity of platelayer's tools.- The same vessel is to bring a large quantity of material for the Woitaki Bridge. The worfc on the Glutha contract, which, through the failure of the contractors, was suspended, was recommenced without delay as soon as the Government were able to regain possession. Tenders will be. received till the 28th instant, for the completion of the contract. In the meantime the cuttings already opened are being finished by day Tabor. The Caversham tunnel is progressing rapidly. It is. now in a length of sixteen chains. It w expected that the tunnel will be opened through by at least July. As another instance of our growing trade with America, the barque Velocidade, Captain Ifwerson, is now cleared at the Gnstoms, at Lyttelton, and ready to sail direct for Boston, U.S.A., with a full cargo of wool consisting of 1540 bales. She has been loaded by Messrs M iles and Co. Our agent at the Bluff (says the Southland Times), about a week ago, sent us a sample of the sprats— or "garvies," as they are called in some .parts of Scotland— which are occasionally cast upon the beach there. When cooked in the ordinary way, they were found to be most excellent . eating. On Saturday last, Captain Thomson forwarded us a sample of .the same description of fish which had undergone a smoking process. Prepared in this way they are exceedingly palatable, and would no doubt command a ready Bale if offered in the market; Mr T. L. Shepherd, M.H.R. for the Dunstan, seems to be in bad grace with the Queenstown people. During Mr Hallenstein's speech, it is reported :— Mr T. L. Shepherd asked if the candidate was in favor of a protective duty on grain. Mr Hallenstein stated he would be. happy to answer any questions put to him; but the stand Mr Shepherd had taken in the present election showed, he thought, such a deplorable want of etiquette and good feeling that he (the speaker) must beg to be'excused from leaving anything to say to him on the present occasion (cheers) ; and he trusted .the meeting would uphold him in this decision. (Loud and repeated cheers.) Mr Edmund Ford has returned to Christchurch from a prospecting tour at the Maivern Hills in search of coal. He has brought with him specimens of a fine bituminous coal, which he obtained ; by driving into the side of a hill very easy of access, the railway, now. being surveyed from Rolleston. to the Malvern Hills', running through the section of land on which the coal was discovered. The seam, where first struck, was only a few inches in thickness, but on continuing the drive, the thickness greatly increased, and Mr Ford is of opinion that, with a little working, a paying seam of coal will be opened tub. Many persons are only waiting the completion of the railway to the Malvern Hills to commence operations for extensively working the coal, as well as for the manufacture of flre-bricks, and there, is every prospect of a considerable township rising in the locality. In a lecture at Gympie, on the geology of Queensland, the Rev Mr Wood said :— " He noticed that a great deal of greenstone existed on this gold field. Whilst . on .this subject he might mention -that at a place in Victoria there was a dyke or vein, of this rock which contained immense quantities' of mineral. Wherover the greenstone was found there were rich mineraljveins. Here on tiympie they had greenstone j and he saw from the specimen which he held in his hand that copper was found here j he might remark that wherever this greenstone or dyorifce had beeu found the richest copper mines had been discovered. If nobody had told him where the specimen had come from he would have said that it had been taken out from one of the rich copper mines of South Australia. At Moonta, which was probably the richest copper mine in the world, be had seen specimens precisely similar to the one he held, in his hand." At the Supreme Court, at Hokitika, on Tuesday, William Potham was found guilty of stealing a steer, the property of James M 'Naught, and was remanded for sentence, as there are two other similar charges against him. — Stephen Cattle pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to commit suicide. His Honor -said that the offence committed by the prisoner' was rather against God than against man, and punishment would be unavailing against; a person weary of life and determined to rid himself of it. There peemed, however, to be little fear that the prisoner when sober would make another •attempt. It was drunkenness alone that had led him to the crime. The sentence that would be passed, upon him would be nominally for attempting to commit suicide, but really for.an aggravated case of drunkenness. Considering that the prisoner had already been ■in gaol three months* the sentence of the Court would be that he be imprisoned in the common gaol at Hokitika for one calendar month. — The Grand Jury found no true bill in the case of David Curie, charged with libel, nor in the case of Thomas O'Naill, charged with feloniously wounding cattle, and also with maliciously killing cattle. There beJog no more bills to present to the Grand Jury, and as they had no presentment to make, they were discharged. After they had retired, his Honor said that an unusual number of bills had been ignored, and that he should take occasion to make.some remark in relation to that fact, and also as to the issue of the two cases tried on Monday. , A good hint to hotel-keepers is '{,Iven in the following story told by the Ba^arat correspondent of the Melbourne Argus:— "There lives not far from Ballarat a foreigner who keeps a hotel, perhaps more for amusement than for profit, who has latterly suffered no small amount of loss by the numbers of Englishmen— he calls all Britishers so — who have called to enjoy his company for a short time, and who have ivith peculiar liberality invited him to join them in a drink, but who have always made the excuse before leaving that they had no change, but would pay as they relumed, a thing they were never guilty of. With his usual fund of drolleiy, the foreigner has contrived to reward himself for all his losses by impaling his diddling friends at his own doorstep after this fashion. Whenever a 'suspect' approaches the house, ' the doctor ' puts half-a-crown in his own pocket, and meets them at the door. He appears fussy, and asks, •Can you oblige me mit shange foraalfcrown !' 'No, sorry I can't.' 'Cdom, you mosht, I want de shange bad.' * I cannot, I haven't enough,' replies the suspect. ' Haive you von shilling ?' 'No.' 'Haive you von shixpence?' .'Not a rap.' 'Den vat the tyf el you vaus here ?' ' A nobbier of brandy —it will be all right. I will pay you as I comeback.' 'If you haive shange yen you coom back you will get your brandy. Meantime you go on to de next hotel. Dis in-" fant know much too many of you old swells. If de next landlord ask you to shange a alfcrown, or to give him a shilling or a shtxpence, you will know what. to. do.' The doctor chuckles wonderfully ■. at the . numbers he has • sold,' since he adopted this method of ascertaining whether his customers had shauge or not to pay for the' v drinks." •