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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1186, 17 May 1872, Page 2

In our recent report of the distribution of prizes by Colonel Harrington, we accidentally emitted to'mention that Captain Hamilton received the second district prize. A grand entertainment is to be given tonight at the Volunteer Hall, for the benefit of Miss Stephenson, the talented young actress who has been delighting Greymouth audiences tor the past fortnight. There is sure to be a crowded house as the entertainment is to be under the patronage of his Worship the Mayor and the officers and members of the Volunteer Rifles and Volunteer Fire Brigade. The items of Inangahua news which appear in our local columns to-day, are taken from the Herald of the 15th, received last night. Owing to the flooded state of the Inangahua, the first load of machinery for the Wealth of Nations Company is not yet to hand. It was expected to arrive on Friday evening ta3t. In the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, George Quinton, John Macaulay, and John Macarty were fined for drunkenness, with the usual alternatives in default. The missing Christchurch mail arrived at Hokitika on Wednesday night, and was brought on here by Ashton's coach yester- j day. Up to Monday last, 1300 signatures, obtained from residents in the Reefton district, had been appended to the memorial to his Excellency, praying for the withdrawal of the delegated powers from the Superintendent. The two lamps imported some time ago by the Corporation are now erected and lit— the one at Tainui street bridge, and the other at the junction of Maokay, Boundary, Gresson,

and Herbert streets. They are such wonderful improvements, that we have no doubt the residents in all parts of the town will very soon petition the Council to endeavor by some means to get the streets lighted as soon as possible. There are fifty-four law practitioners in Auckland, and twelve candidates entered as qualifying thenaselves for the same profession. The difficulty between the proprietors of Shiol's Prospecting claim,. at the Inangahua, and the Westland Company in regard to the coal lease has been settled, so that there no longer exista any obstacle in the way of either company working.the seam. The recent abundant rainfall has afforded a plentiful supply of water at Mace and Company's battery, and they expect to have a washing-up on the Ist proximo, after which the company will crush 600 tons for Patrick Hunt and party, No. 1 north, Shiel's. At a crowded meeting at Patea, a resolution was unanimously adopted in favor of reparation from Taranaki, and annexation to Wellington. The Mayor of Auckland has presented a very valuable gold cross to be fired for by the cadets of that district, under the existing Government regulations. The design of the cross is similar to the famous "Iron Cross" of Prussia. During the financial year ended the 31st March last, the revenue received by the Nelson Government from tlie Brunner Coalmine was L 6240 3s sd, and the expenditure in working it L 5406 9s 4d. A telegram published by us the other day stated the reason f on the delay of the San Francisco mail. There is something, which, fifty years ago, would have been looked upon as "uncanny" in the way in which the news has reached us. Conveyed by steamer from Honolulu to San Francisco, it was thence flashed across the American Continent, then beneath the -.Taters of the Atlantic to England, and from there to India and Ceylon, from which latter place it has been carried by steamer to Australia and New Zealand, arriving in this Colony in 44 days, including all delays, after having travelled very nearly the whole distance round the globe. ' The richest sample of stone yet obtained in the Inangahua was brought to Reefton last week from the prospectors' claim, Painkiller. The leader from which the stone was ob- . tamed is about nine inches in thickness, but the rubble and casing adjoining also contain good gold, a dishful broken up and roughly washed having yielded half a penny weight of gold. There is every indication of the main reef being struck very- Rhortly. In No. 1 north, the party came across a wonderfully rich block of quartz in their tunnel, and are still driving for the ree.fi;. We hear that the misfortunes of the p. e» Charles Edward are not yet at an end. Yesterday morning it seems, at Westport, she managed to come foul of a wharf, and succeeded in demolishing it. As far as the structure is concerned, possibly a public service was accomplished by its destruction. For months past it has been shaky and dangerous in the extreme, but it unfortunately happened that two of the large cast iron centres for the large water-wheel of the Wealth of Nations Company at the Inangahua were on it at the time, and they were precipitated into the water on the fall of the wharf. They were of a very large size, and not only costly in themselves, but, if not recovered, the company in question will be delayed some months in replacing them. By the telegrams to hand, it is by no means certain, indeed scarcely probable, that they will be got up again. We hope to hear a more favorable report soon, for the stoppage of any duly formed and probably prosperous association like the Wealth of Nations Company is a public misfortune. They hold ground, we might add, on Adam Smith's Hue of reef, and have had first-class prospects. Messrs Pell and Atkinson expect to have their sections of the Inangahua road completed by the Ist proximo. A full share in the Independent Gold Mining Company, a broadsider claim, Adam Smith's line of reef, was sold at auction by Messrs D. Isaacs and Co., at Reefton, on Saturday last, realising L 36. The purchaser was Mr Nichol Ramsay, of Black's Point, Nearly the whole of the working surveys of the railway works authorised by Parliament are now completed, and a few weeks will probably decide whether Messrs Brogden undertake the construction' of the lines or not. It is understood that the disagreement which arose between the Government and Mr Brogden as to the nature of some of the conditions of the contract has been arranged, and that no further difficulty is apprehended. We are informed that any disagreement which may occur between, the contractors and the Government upon the terms of contract during the construction of the lines, is to be decided by a reference to a Judge of the Supreme Court, who will act as an arbitrator in the matter. As a full muster of Ministers will take place in a day or two, and as Mr Brogden will also be in Wellington, we may expect to announce that contracts for the construction of most of the lines have been signed. The premises recently erected by Messrs Marshall and Craig, in Broadway, at Reefton, are now completed, and are a perfect ornament to that portion of the township. The Btores are three in number, and are severally occupied by Messrj Stitt Brothers, Thomas Field, and Graves and Fleming. The "Ohio Law "takes the place of the famous "Maine. Law" in the temperance nomenclature of the West. It is the " Punish - the - man - who - makes - the-man-drunk" law. Encouraged by the result of the action in reference to the permanent endowment of municipalities, the Cromwell Council now asks that similar provision should be made for hospitals. At the last meeting of that body a resolution was adopted requesting the conference of Mayors, then sitting in Dunedin, to consider the expediency of obtaining a permanent maintenance of endowment for country hospitals in connection with municipal institutions. An unhappy occurrence took place last Friday morning in Nelson, which greatly pained the numerous friends of a well-known-citizen, Mr W. C. Hodgson, who is also wellknown in Greymouth. Mr Hodgson has for years suffered from occasional and dangerous attacks of heart disease, of a very painful description ; and has suffered, it is stated, until delirium intervened. It appears that though in good health on the previous day, he underwent in the night a sudden attack of the premonitory symptoms ; hysteria supervened, and in the morning between seven and eight o'clock, he got out of bed, obtained a small needle pistol, which used to lie in his room, and fired it at his head. Mrs Hodgson, on coming in, found him in bed bleeding from the wound, which happily was only slight, the small conical bullet having t only penetrated the scalp, glancing off the g scull, and escaping a couple of inches from „ the penetrated wound. Mr Hodgson was then sensible, and said he had done this, was . impelled to do it, and could not help himself, could not resist the influence he felt, a Dr Squires dressed the wound, and the f patient is now doing well. We understand . that a statutory declaration has been made by medical men that the sufferer at the time T was in a delirious condition, 3 With reference to an accident recently ret ported by telegraph the Otago 'Daily Times , has the following :— " A young man, named

Walter Young, was shot yesterday, on the Ocean Beach, the bullet coming, no doubt, from the gun of one of the Volunteers then practising at the Butts. Young was w.alking on the beach at the time, with his two brothers, when the shot struck him. Assistance was immediately sent for. Mr Scott, of the Commercial stables, with two ladies was on the beach in a buggy, which he and the ladies kindly vacated, so as to allow of the conveyance of the injured man to Dunedin. Dr Sorely, who had been sent tor, met Young on the Anderson's Bay road, while being brought home, and at once extracted the millet. It entered by the right groin, and so far as the doctor could judge, on a superficial examination, had struck the hip bone, which deflected it, causing it to make, it is thought, a circuit of the body. It eventually lodged under the integuments of the left thigh, whence it was extracted. Some of the Volunteers firing at the butts said it must have been a bullet that had glanced off the target ; but this could not have been the case, as the bullet when extracted was found to be unaltered in shape. The Volunteers were firing at the 500 yards range, but this shot went not only about 500 yards wide of the target, but was fired at such an elevation that it rose over the sandhills, travelling nearly a thousand yard?. There were about fifteen, if not more, Volunteers practising at the time, and there was no officer in charge. Besides the persons mentioned a* being on the beach at the time, we hear that there were others also taking recreation upon it. The matter appears to be one calling for investigation."