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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1248, 30 July 1872, Page 2

A meeting of those who have taken shares in the new Building Society takes place tonight at Gilmer's Hotel, At 8 p.m.

The Westland Gazette announces that the County Chairman intends to grant to J. Currie and Co. a quartz lease on the lefthand branch of Dunolly's Creek, for fifteen years, including 311 jards by 156 yards.

The seat of Mr W. H. Harrison, as a member of the Grey Board of Health, 13 gazetted as vacated, in consequence of his having left the district.

We have to acknowledge the courtesy of Mr Shannon in forwarding to us by an ea*ly opportunity a copy of the Ikangahua Herald, from which we select, and print elsewhere, some of the latest items of mining intelligence. In its local news the Herald records the opening of the Loyal Reefton Lodge of Oddfellows, an event which was to be celebrated last evening .by a ball. — The Saddle road, it is stated, will not be open before. Saturday next, the roadmen having been unable to work more than three days during the past fortnight.— The Courts had been adjourned till yesterday, . Mr Broad having been unable to arrive from Westport. —Periodical sittings of the District Court at Reefton are advocated. Westland North and Central Westland are the nimes given in the Gazette to the Sheriffs Districts on the West Coast, according to tho new boundaries; The northern boundary of Westland North is described as a right bne to the confluence of the Colin and Inangahua rivers, thence to Mount Fa raday, and thence to Five Fingers Point. The southern bound «ry of Central Westland is a right line to the saddle between the Hurunui and Tereinakau rivers. . Th 6 time for electing a member of the Paroa Road Board has been extended from the 17th of June last- to the 15th of August next. An empty house, lately occupied by Mr Bamford, at Mornington, Dunedin, has been burned. The property, which was valued at LG'lO, is insured in the Liverpool and London office for L 450. One and a half tons each from the Prospecting and Freehold Claims at Shag Valley hare been crushed at the Government Battery, Dunedin, yielding 24dwt and 26dwt respectively. The Otago Volunteers are undergoing a vigorous inspection by Captain Cargill ; 24 only out of 70 have passed. The Rector of the Dunedin High School, writing to the Times, says the examination questions at the New Zealand University examination were unfair to the pupils of the High School. Mathematics and chemistry, were too easy. The Wellington correspondent of a contemporary, referring to the Hon. John Hall,, and his recent iHuess, says- "He lpoks very much shaken, and scarcely fit for the hard work of the Lower House, so that the translation will be of service to him." Dr Dermott, Hokitika, is gazetted as a certifying officer under the sixth section of "The Vaccination Act, 1871." The blacksmiths in aearly every district in Canterbury have raised their charges in consequence of the increased price of coal and iron. The lessees of the Princess Theatre, Dunedin, advertise for "talent," and stipulate that applicants " must be sober people." According to the reports in the Wellington papers, Mr Luckie, M.H.R, in seconding the motion for the appointment of a committee to enquire into the O'Conor petition, said he did so in order that the petitioner should have the fullest opportunity of obtaining that enquiry which he desired. There were others who were quite as anxious to obtain an enquiry as Mr O'Conor could possibly be, and he (Mr Luckie) happened to be one of them. He trusted the committee would make the enquiry as thorough and exhaustive as it could be, for all those connected with the matter were desirous that the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth should be elicited.

At the last meeting of the Arahura Road Board, a communication was received from Mr D. Hannan referring to the case impend* ing against him in the Resident Magistrate's Court, for the LSO penalty, and asking the Board to assist him out of the difficulty. It was resolved that the Board decline to enter? tain Mr Hannan's request. A committee was appointed to draw up a petition, relative to a change in. the present form of local government for presentation, to the General Assembly.

Miss Stephenson, Mr Burford, and the other members of the well-known theatrical troupe, returned to town yesterday after a good season at Ro3S and Hokitika. We believe they have secured the use of the Volunteer Hall here fur the next two months.

The Presbytery of Canterbury will hold a pro re nata in Hokitika on Wednesday, the 31st instant, to moderate in a call to the Rev. James Kirkland, of Inch Clutha.

Matakitaki and Wangapeka have cased to be polling places for the election of the Nelson Superintendent, or of a member of Council for Waimea. The Gazette states that it is "expedient to abolish the same," but where the expediency comes in is not so very easily seen. -

A roll of unbleached broad sheeting (says a Wellington contemporary), manufactured from some phormium fibre, received by the Albion from Dr Featherston, is now on view in the Colonial Museum. It has been made from yarn prepared by Mr Thome's patent process, in which the fibre is cleaned chiefly by a chemical method. The fabric produced is quite equal in strength to that made from true flax. We understand that this is only a portion of what has been made, and that a variety of other manufactures, such as towelling may shortly be expected.

The Victorian Parliament are not quite so ready to rush into so-called "judicial enquiries" as are the novices in our Now Zealand Assembly. Lately in the Victorian House, Mr L. L. Smith wauted a select committee of the Legislative Assembly to enquire whether he made any profit cut of his connection with the Times and Mines, and last night he asked the Chief Secretary whether he would let a motion for the appointment of such a committee go as an unopposed one. Mr Francis said the House had no desire prematurely to condemn the honorable member or other member of that Honse. There was, however.^ rumor that the houorablc 'member hiid commenced civij proceedings in connection Avitli this subject \ (Mr L L. Smith : " Yes.") Unrlor that cir.

cumstance, the enquiry proposed by him would rather involve matters. The matter being sub judice elsewhere, it would be undesirable and improper to enter into it here; If the hpn. member indicated to the House that he intended to limit his proceedings in regard to this matter to the Bphero of the House, and if he would give notice of his proposition for the next or some future day, the Government would endeavor, after consideration of all the circumstances, to assume such a position as the fairnesß of the case demanded. '

There has been a singular case of attempting to jump the line of the long tunnel at Addison's Flat, which will likely be before the Court in Westport. The long tunnel party are engaged driving a tunnel 4000 ft long. Having completed over 3500 ft, a party from Westport has marked and applied for a lease including their line of tunnel a little ahead of where they have driven up to. Our legislators seem never to have contemplated any tunnel longer than 1000 ft; so that they have been unable to get any protection for a requisite amount of ground to make their tunnel secure, unless they had leased ground on the whole length of tunnel, which, would be a very expensive affair.

The following appears in the Wellington Evening Post :~ itr £he 1 value of land in Canterbury has been rising in an extraordinary degree during the last twelve months.. A private letter recently received from Christchurch says : -• Property here lately unsaleable now readily changes hands at double its late value, and town lands have gone up at lcaßt 206 per cent. lately sold the fifth of a quarter-acre at the corner where the tire was, next Jacobs and Isaacs, for L7OO ; and yesterday I leart L3OOO was offered for Wilkiii's half-acre in Hereford street, with the old repository on it, and the offer was refused ; also, a few days ago, Dr Turnbull sold about a quarter-acre in the paddock in Worcester street, for Lsoo— this, twelve months ago, would not have sold at LIOO. Other sales, both in town and country, are nearly in like proportion.' "

The following will be read with interest by chemists and druggists : —In the case of the druggist Andrews, recently prosecuted by the Shropshire Ethical Branch for undue assumption of a medical title, the County Court judge has given the important decision that, having prescribed his medicines, he cannot recover for them. "When a chemist," said tie judge, " takes upon himself to prescribe, he invades the province of a medical practitioner, and he has said that he prescribed them." In answer to a remark made by Andrews's legal adviser, that a man may come into a shop and order a bottle of sarsaparilla, the judge said—" That may be ; but if the doctor, or would-be doctor, prescribes it, it is fatal to his recovering for it. There is a difference between supplying it and prescribing it." The plaintiff was held to have vitiatea all claim to payment for the medicines which he had supplied in consequence of having prescribed them. Judgment was consequently given for the defendant with costs.

Another meeting' has been held in Hokitika in reference to the roads leading to the Reefton goldfield. Mr Burton (of Messrs Mitchell and Burton) proposed— " That a surveyor go over the two routes to Reefton from Canterbury, viz., the route from the thirty-second mile post on the Christchurch road, and the route from North Canterbury, and that the result of the surveys be submitted to the General Assembly, so as to show which is the most preferable route, and which would be most likely to prove beneficial in opening-up communication with populated districts." Mr Lahman pointed out the difficulties in the way, arising from the fact that the greater part of the country through which the roads would pass are in the Province of Nelson. He was willing to give every assistance in his power to the movement, and he thought that there wa3 already in the Survey Office information just as good as could be obtained by sending a surveyor over the ground. The Chairman suggested that a committee should be appointed to collect information, and this was agreed to, the committee to make their report on Saturday evening.