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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1175, 4 May 1872, Page 2

Owing to a telegram received from Hokitika to the effect that the creeks were too high to permit traffic, the coach from this end did not start, and consequently there was no communication yesterday with our southern neighbors. In the Resident Magistrate's Court yesday James Brimble, for allowing his horse to Wander at large in the public streets, was fined 5s and costs. This was all the business. a nun nKmeu uuuu vooper was admitted into the Hospital yesterday from the gravel pits on the new road. It seems that be was wheeling a loaded barrow across some planking, when he fell, and sustained a severe contusion of the knee and a general shock of the system. No bones were broken, And the sufferer is going on, and will soon recover. The drawing in the Art Union in aid of St. Patrick's Church took place last evening* at St. Patrick's school room, Gresson street. The list of winning numbers appears in another column. We believe that the lucky winner of the nugget was Father Belliard. "The Octoroon" was repeated at the Volunteer Hall last night, and the attendance, as on the two previous occasions, was very good. We have already spoken in terms of deserved praise of this piece, and ' need only add that it- was rendered as well ' as on the former occasion. To-night, there is a "great bill," Miss Stephenson and Mr Burford appearing in three pieces. We have no doubt there will be a full house, and we can assure our country friends who may be in town that they will be amply repaid if they pay the entertainment a visit.

The Cassius claim, at Ross, is almost idle, as men refuse to work below on ten-hour shifts. The Morning Star claim is at work, but not full-handed ; and it is rumored that another attempt will be made in the Excelsior claim to introduce the ten-hour! system. The sale of 2500 acres of land between the Teremakau and Lake Brunner to Mr T. W. Bruce, at 10s per acre, has been authorised by the Governor. A Cape newspaper of the 19th ult. states that the discoveries at the diamond fields are on the increase, and estimates their value at not less than LSOOO a day, or L 1,500,000 a year. The new air.power is said to have been successfully applied at Brunswick, Maine. The air is compressed by a water- wheel, and connected through a 2Jin pipe underground three-quarters of a mile, and furnishes the motive ageut for an engine at the railroad station used for sawing wood. A brutal murderous assault has taken place at Riverhead, Auckland, which it is feared will terminate fatally. A man named Delaney enticed away a woman cohabiting with a man named Lenton. The latter discovered the whereabouts of his paramour, and proceeded to Delaney's house, armed with a spade and a spear. With the former he struck Delaney on the head, splitting his skull open. He now lies in a precarious state. •• . : ■ • ' ' ■ '• The Marlborough Express, of the Bth ult, reports that a quantity of stone which had been picked up promiscuously from the reefs a- Ravenscliff gold fields, was tested !the other dayTby the assayer at the Bank of New Zealand, Auckland, and the yield wao in the proportion of about 14oz to the ton. . The Ohinemuri correspondent of 'the Thames Advertiser says i — " Sir George Bowen arrived from Tauranga and Taupo on the night of the 19th,' very much pleased with the Lake districts. Mr M'Lean, Defence Minister, arrived at Mr Cashel's place \ m the Government steamer 'Luna* on the morning of the 20th, accompanied by Colonel St. i John, Karaitiana, M.H.R., Te Hapuku, and several other chiefs of rank of the Ngatikahungunu and Ngatiraukawa from the Napier and Wellington provinces j they came < to see their relatives and to cry over the late 1 Taraia. The Fairy was chartered to convey < the visitors from Mr,Cashel's:place to Ohine. « m ""» Opakura, the place Bet apart for yisi. > tors who came to cry. The usual speeohi i fying and' welcoming was gone through, ]

Mr M 'Lean said he had come simply to see bhe relatives and friends of Taraia and express his sorrow for the death of his friend, who had, gone the road of his ancestors. Sir George Bowen said : I have heard of the i%me of Taraia as a great fighting chief and friend of the pakehas, and have seen all the tribes of Taupo, the Lakes, and .Tauranga, and now I am come to see you, it being now four years since I last visited you, and you then gave me a kind welcome ; and now I thank God for your kind welcome this time, and wish you all happiness and prosperity."

The very heavy rains last week (says the Wellington Independent) have been causing many slips on the roads, and amongst others a huge slip has taken place at the cutting for the patent slip at Evans's Bay, about four hundred tons of rock falling into the cutting. This will cause some slight delay to the progress of the works, but no further damage except a probable loss to the contractor, Mr

M 'Donald, who is still in charge of this portions. The other portions of the work are progressing slowly, but surely; and there is every probability that the slip will, as anticipated by the Directors of the Company, be I ready to take up vessels by the end of the 1 year. . How does, in the jargon of newspapers, ■ " a rumor become current ?" Here is a re--1 ceipt for making a rumor become current. 1 Take a full-fledged liar, who has been nursed upon minors, and weaned upon election speeches ; don't let him have anything to 1 do ; give him the run of the city and lots of 1 acquaintances ; start him out every morning ■ with nothing particular on his mind, and leave the rest to chance. If a rumor doesn't "become current". somewhere in his track \ before noon, it won't be through any iault of ( his. I With regard to the New Zealand war 1 medals mentioned yesterday, the Wanganui j Herald says :— A number of applications for the Colonial Government medal being from _ persons who have already obtained the Imperial Medal, the applicants will be debarred " from receiving it, as the following extract 1 from a General Government Gazette clearly • proves:— "lt must be clearly understood ; that persons receiving the New Zealand ) War Medal fro-n the Imperial Government ) for services performed under command of . Imperial officers, are notf entitled to a second [ medal for services performed under the [. Colonial Government." Nelson has assumed quite a sporting air, r writes a correspondent, within the last few days, and at the corners of the streets are to be seen little knots of individuals who, it ' may be seen at a glance, are not altogether 1 ignorant of the internal economy of a stable, 1 while at certain hoars of the day one cannot 1 walk far, either in the town or suburbs, 1 without meeting horses in clothing taking > their regular exercise, and looking as though 1 the greatest attention was paid to their wellbeing. I have sometimes heard it argued ; that racing is a cruel sport, but I wonder t how many hacks there are in the country, t that would not, if they had the chance, be , willing to change places with the racehorse ; all the symptoms of decay that for some yearß have shown themselves in our meet' ings have, for the present at least, com* 1 pletely disappeared, and the races of next ' week will be by far the best that have been seen in Nelson for a number of years. I only hope it is not the fitful flicker that so frequently precedes the final collapse. > The exceeding dilatoriness displayed by i the Government in providing properpublic > buildings, says the Inangahua Herald, r is quite in keeping with their usual proceedings. The immediate necessity of action is becoming every day more imperative. The gaol, for instance^ is the merest ■> make-shift. In one small cell, male and 3 female prisoners, lunatics, drunkards, casual offenders, and rogues and vagabonds of every degree are huddled indiscriminately together, 1 and wnen this den becomes full to overflow--1 ing, the (Jullue t£uaitclt>, auislilioi small iuum, ) barely 12ft square, has to do duty also as a 9 lock-up. The perpetual discomfort and utter i subversion of all proper discipline and conI trol, consequent upon such state of things , may be better imagined than described. 1 In driving along the reef in the Nonpareil „ claim, at the Thames, the other day, the ■ men came on a lot of extraordinary rich ' atone. Before . 10 o'clock quite a hundredweight of rich specimens had been broken out, and the show of gold in the face was excellent, so that in all probability the quantity will be greatly increased by the morning's shift. The manager is of opinion that the specimen vein which at the upper levels yielded such rich returns has now been struck at its junctiou with the main reef. The ' show is certainly very rich, and augurs well i for the value of the large block cf ground which is opened up by the present main level. _ The attempt made by the Auckland society to introduce English salmon, by way of San Francisco, has turned out a complete failure, in consequence of the long detention on the Pacific railway, and lack of proper attention to the ova. The transit occupied over 100 days insiead of less than fifty. The ova were presented to the society by the Duke of Northumberland. t We understand that plans and specifications for the line of railway between Auckland and Mercer were sent to Mr Brogden by the Public Works Department on the sth ult, and that tenders for the work have to be delivered to the Department within one month from that date. The greatest possible expedition was employed in the preparation of the plans. Those for the Mercer railway were^ the firat given to Mr Brogden ; but, within a few days afterwards the plans for other railways were handed to him, and he is now in a position to tender for several lines. We believe the difficulty in the way of agreeing to the " general conditions " has been surmounted, and an understanding regarding them arrived at. We extract the following from .the Wellington Evening Telegraph, of the 25th ult.: —"A few daj's ago a ceremony took place in Shortland, which we take to be the first of the kind that has ever been known in the country. Two well-known Maori chiefs were united in the bonds of wedlock, according to the • Marriage Act,' to their own wives, by Mr E. A. Power, the Registrar of the district. The first couple were Meremana Ronuhi and Raiha Kirikawa Te Nga, who have been united for some time past according to Maori custom, but who now wish to follow the example of their pakeha friends. Raiha Whakarongatai and his spouse, Hemaima Karaka, who weie present at the performance of , the ceremony, were so impressed; with it that they likewise decided to be legally wedded, and Mr Power joined them as man and wife for life.

The "Loafer in the Street," writing in a Christchurch contemporary, thus expresses himself in reference to classical concerts :— ."A' classical concert is one of the most enjoyable of entertainments. I always go when I can. When I say enjoyable, you must go the right way about it. In the first place, you must go in the gallery. It's cheaper, and on the assumption, that the scientific axiom, - that sound ascends, is correct, you get more for your money. You see when a lady vocalist screams, you heat the screamist to better advantage. If she don't scream, and only goes in for wailing, you can hear her wail far better than if you were down stairs. You have a bird's-eye view of what a friend of mine calls th,e- v ' ole 'all,' which is not the least instructive part of the performance. Yon notice what a very different appearance the gentlemen performers present

tq their ordinary one. Some evidently conaider, when on the platform, that their feet are planted on their native heaths, and may I say, 'wire in ' accordingly. 'Others appear anxious to retire into dens and caves, and remain there till the whole thing is over. The. fairer portion of the performers are popularly supposed to be nervous, but they conceal it carefully as a rule. Their appearance is usually very pleasing, a little rainbowy perhaps, but charming, very charming. The audience are also a very pleasing and instructive spectacle, I always go early to have a look at them." There are the people who go to hear i the concert because they like music, and there are those who go because they want us to believe they do.' There are a good number. I might say a very good number, who go becauss all., the .world will be there ; and then there are the friends and acquaintances of the performers. N. B. — Never Bit near one, avoid him as you would a lunatic. 7 had almost forgotten the fellows, regular attendants, those who tell you how much better they could do it. These are capital neighbors. There is a pleasant acidity about their remarks which is suggestive of —gin and bitters."

It is frequently our melancholy duty to record fatal accidents occurring in this neighborhood, but we were not aware that it was the custom of the Westland journals to indulge in the horrible or sensational until we were told so by the Wellington Evening Post. The following is the extract referred to :— "The Nelson and Westland papers to hand by the Alhambra are notably journals of horrors. In the issues of the seven or eight journals, extending over a period of ten days, we find six or seven accounts of no less than thirteen fatal and other accidents which have occurred recently within the. two districts in which the papers are published. Besides these, there appear pleasant details of every accident, sudden death or horror, which has occurred within the last two months in the Colony (for these are all carefully copied) so that the papers are well supplied with sensatioual news. When it is remembered that each paper carefully reproduces accounts of not only all the local but also Colonial accidents, our readers may well understand that looking over files of Nelson and Westland papers in a remarkably cheerful work, which suggests the thought that surgeons and undertakers must do well in that part of the Colony. The following is from the Thames Guardian:—" We are glad to be able to state that there is every likelihood of our having one (if not more) exciting rifle match before long. It will be remembered that Mr Walker, when sending a congratulatory message to Captain Wales through Colonel Harington, stated that he was willing to fire a match with any or all of the best shots in the Colony. Mr Duncan, of Wanganui, expressed his willingness also some time since to make a match with Mr Walker, and this gentleman has now signified his willingness to fire him if he is desirous of so doing. M'Kerrell, who is in Wanganui, also, and who won the All Comers' Match at the last competition, can, if he wish, try his skill against our champion; and as he is a Wimbledon shot of some repute, we fully expect that he will take up the gauntlet thrown down to him. Mr Walker wishes the match, if made, to come off in Auckland ; and he also states that he does not wish to fire for any stakes himself, as he does not wish to shoot for mere moneys sake, but, if the Southern man wishes, several of Ms friends will back him for a considerable amount.