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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1201, 4 June 1872, Page 2

Some exceedingly favorable reports are to hand from the Inangahua in reference to several of the claims. The Wealth of Nations have cut a'splendid reef, the thickness of which we are afraid to vouch for, but it is said to be twenty feet through, \* Ith gold visible throughout. There is no doubt that that district is in its earliest infancy yet, and' there is every probability of it turning out by far the best reefing country in New Zealand. S»The only case at the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday was a remanded case of lunacy. . Francis Macnamara, the unfortunate in question, had been examined by Dr3 Morice and Smith, who testified to his being of unsound mind, and he was ordered to be sent to the Hokitika Asylum. The Grey Eiver Steam Tag Company held an extraordinary meeting yesterday afternoon. After hearing the secretary's report, it was resolved to declare a dividend of 10 per cent., and at the same time L2OO was placed to the credit of the reserve fund. The reserve fund, we may state, is placed in the Bank of New South Wales for a term of twelve months, as a fixed deposit bearing iuterest. Athletic sports are becoming popular in Greymouth. We have just had a running match and are likely to have a wrestling bout very shortly. Mr Irving, who has distinguished himself already on the Coast, as will be seen in another column, throws down the gauntlet to all comers, and it is pretty certain that Mr Manning, of Auckland, who recently defeated Curley Bray in Christchurch, will take it up. The match will, in such a case, prove a most interesting one, for both nien have won lots of laurels in the wrestling arena, and there can be no doubt whatever that both will do their best to achieve a victory. Last night Miss Stephenspn and Mr Burford, with the usual company, again appeared at the Volunteer Hall, the pieceß selected being "The Peep o' Day, Boys," and the " Siege of Straalsuud." On Wednesday they will play for the benefit of Mr Cooper, scenic artist, who has done much, to aid their success during the present season, and well deserves the compliment. On that occasion the " Lady of Lyons" will be played, with a well-known local amatsur as Ulaude Melnotte.

Complaints are often made as to the nonreceipt of newspapers through the post, but the Acting-Postmaster informs us that this is generally caused through tke loose manner in which covers are put on, whereby the address in the course of transmission is frequently lost. He has brought us a fair simple of carelessness in six ox our weekly edition, of different dates, which have been posted positively without any address at all on them, though tied up and duly stamped, In such a case it is very clear that the postal authorities canuot tell by intuition who their intended recipients were.

Our No Town correspondent, writing under date of May 29th, says :— " The first Warden's and Resident Magistrate's Court in No Town was held this day, and credit is due to Mr Warden Whitefoord for carrying out the promises of the Provincial Secretary by giving to the district, without unnecessary delay, what its importance long since required. The large room, at Haisty's Hotel, in which the Court was held, appeared in most respects suitable for transacting such business, being lofty, well ventilated, and. spacious, affording' ample room both for the officers of the Court and tho general public. The business for the day consisted of a fow unimportant cases, which were quickly disposed of. Litigation being an expensive luxury, it is to be hoped the good sense of the community will lead them to avoid unnecessarily indulging in it." All efforts to raise the sunken machinery from the Buller lliver bed, by means of present appliances, having proved unavailing, the contractors have now secured the services of the well-known diver, Mr Watson, of Lyttelton, who is expected to arrive here by the first bra*. Three men were committed for trial on the 25th ultimo, in Melbourne, for conspiring to "rig" the sharemarker. In commenting on the case, tho counsel for the prosecution said: — "There could be no doubt that a person might unquestionably place what vahie he liked upon his own property, but he might not give a fictitous value to it in the market by false representations, or by giving publicity to sales admitted to be fictitious." The Wellington Evening Post, of the 25th ultimo, says:—" A serious gun accident occurred yesterday at the Hutt. Two boys, named Mason and Hanson, both of the Hutt, were out on Belmont Hill shooting pigeons, when by some mishap Hanson's gun went off, and the charge entered Mason's side. The wounded boy was carried to Mr Price's house, where he was quickly attended by Dr Wilford, who is of opinion that the boy's life is not in danger." The effort made some time since to prospect the country at the head of the Wairaangaroa Riyer for quartz reefs, although not at the time productive of any tangible results, proved sufficiently encouraging to induce further efforts in the same direction. . A prospecting: party will start in a few days to thoroughly prospect ground at the back of Mount Rochfort, the exact locality being for the present undivulged to any except those most particularly interested therein. , The affair is in the hands of thoroughly practical and experienced men, and will no doubt load to some satisfactory issue.

The Wentport Times saya :— Our prediction that the rotten planking and gaping holes in the Orawiti Bridge would pro^e a pitfall for souio benighted traveller has apparently received speedy confirmation. Charles Oster land, or German Charley, a miner, who resided at Deadman's Creek, has been missing since Monday evening, and fears are entertained that lie has fallen through a hole in the planking of the bridge and has been drowned in the river. He was last seen by Mr Wilson, the dairyman, on tho north, side of the bridge accompanied by a little terrier dog, his constant faithful companion. The dog was seen the next day running backwards and forwards on tho britJge and along the river bank in evident distress, and has since persistently remained waiting and watching for his inissiug master, The hut inhabited

by Ostfivlarrl has been searched, but no evidence found of his return there, and a swag lie carried with him from town has. been picked up on the track from the bridge. It is surmised that being under the influence of liquor, ho had, .after crossing the bridge in safety, retraced his footsteps, ami .in tho darkness of the night stumbled into the living grave gaping to receive him. The police have since been actively engaged searching the banks and bed of the 9tream and the sea beach, but up to last night had discovered no traces of the missing man. ' An industrial exhibition will be held in the Thames Mechanics' Institute in August next . The exhibition will comprise all kinds of articles of manufacture, but preference will be shown to those which most nearly affect the progress of the gold field. Models of quartz crashing, amalgamating, boring, and gold-mining apparatus are particularly desired, and with this view communications have been sent to San Francisco, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and the Southern Provinces, Liviting tho eending of models of this kind. Victoria is deep in a difficulty which will one day reach New Zealand. The right of the nation to sanction mining for gold under private lands seems admitted in Victoria, and it only remains to define the conditions needful to protect the freeholder. The following from a correspondent of a New Zealand paper, shows the position in Victoria :— 11 The- miners and property owners of Balla? rat, in conference assembled, have agreed that a board of arbitrators and a mining inspector should be appointed, the board to assess the amount of. compensation which mining companies should pay to property owners for the right to nuue on and under their premises."" . In a leader referring to the removal of prisoners from Auckland to Dunedin, the Otago Daily Time* says :— " It is to be hoped that some member of the Provincial Council will request the Government to give an explanation of the part they have taken in this matter. It is one thing to relieve the Provincial authorities of Auckland of a number j of dangerous criminals, but it is quite, another to, disturb the discipline of our local prison. If Otago possessed a properly arranged gaol, we could see no possible objection to the transference of the prisoners from other Provinces to Dunedin ; but-, when it is borne in mind that there is no means of ctessifying or separating prisoners within the gaol, we must protest agrinst the action that is being taken. If it turns out that the Provincial Government have sanctioned the admission of this band of convicus to Dunedin Gaol, we trust that the Council will, in the interests of the community, determine that Plummer and his companions be taken back to the place from whence they came."

A new craft, the " XL," of six or seven tous burthen was launched on Tuesday last by Mason and party, of Westport, and will prove a useful addition to the fleet of cargo boats. The launch, was made the occasion of a little quiet jollification among the owners of the boat and their friends. The XL was baptized with customary libations, but, wise in their generation, the crew shattered not the orthodox bottle of champagne on the bows of their new born craft, but quietly drew the cork and poured the contents down their throttles. Afterwards pulling off in the strejun, and with music and grog aboard, making a short trial trip, the result apparently oeing in every way satisfactory. Dr Hector was a passenger by the Kennedy to Nelsou on hei last trip, having completed his inspection of the coal area at Ngakawhao. The WcMport Times has authority for stating that the favorable opinion formed by him on his former cursory examination of the locality, has now been amply confirmed ; and his report to the Provincial Executive will doubtless be eminently favorable. The area now held by the prospectors comprises 20 acres of coal, exhibiting a ttickness of lGft, and all easily workable. Upon a yery moderate computation, this will yield 200,000 tons of coal, and beyond this area, coal outcrops are found for a long distance up Mount Rochfoi S. The facilities for shipping are all that can be needed. Deep water, and abundance of stone for building wharves or piers. The prospectors intend sendiug coal almost immediately to the Westport market, where at anything like a moderate price it will command a ready sale, We hear that the price at the Ngakawhao will be 10a per ton. The Result goes up during tho week, taking in tow the sohooner Three Friends for the first cargoes. A ghost ha=} been troubling the people of Christchurch lately, on which the " Loafer in the Street" thus discourses:— "Who has seen a ghost ? Let him send his experience (bar sells) to the office of this paper, and I'll reward him according to the value of the article. I am proud to hear we are getting sufficiently advanced to have a ghost. There is something respectable about them, if we may judge from history. I never was introduced to one myself. I'm pretty well posted in spirits, however, and, on the whole, like them. The stories I have heard about the St Albans ghost are numerous, bat unreliable. The ghost, lam informed, met a nice looking girl the other night, and kissed her. Sensible apparition ! It is one of the few sensible things I ever heard of a ghost doing." Apropos of rivers, a facetious writer in the Press says :— ?c The New Zealand rivers take a deal of crossing. You have always a firafcclass'chance of 'getting drowned, and" a certainty of getting wet. They make a pleasing variety in journeys which would otherwise be a little tedious. The Mission Priest came very near a drown, the other ; day, and to show the estimation in which that gentleman is held. in the up-country districts, I. may mention the following fact—a working , man who condescends to earn his living by looking after the horses, &c, on some station was fpund furbishing up the double harness. As this was quite contrary to his usual habits i he was questioned as to the cause of this extraordinary outburst of industry. "Faith -and," says he, '" 1 was just rubbin' of the up to give his rivrence a dacent funeral.''

The mining history of New South Wales (says a correspondent of the Daily Times) has just presented a remarkable phenomenon. The first bona fide dividend ever paid by a I mining company to its shareholders in that colony was paid a few days agi. Although mining has been carried on for so many years that event has not occurred before during the whole period, a circumstance that we in Victoria, and you in New Zealand, find a difficulty to attach any meaning' or satisfactory explanation to. Of course, it is not meant that profits ' have not been made out of mining,' or that individual fortunes have not been realised out of rich claims, or that some handsome ; sums have not been divided by partners in such claims, but merely that a joint-stock company, the shares of which are quoted in the open market, has never before paid a dividend. ; The company which enjoys this great distinction is the Wynard Company of Adelong, which, after working for a. year and a half to open the mine, now pays a substantial 25 per cent dividend. .-,.■;■ -„"■, „-; ;. v „ ; ,