THE PUBL[SHED DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1572.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1334, 7 November 1872, Page 2

THE The Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1572.

I Duking the past session of Parliament, committees were appointed to consider two important projects — tho connection of the Colony with Australia by telegraphic cable, and the establishment within the Colony of a branch of the Royal Mint. The reports made by these committees have not yet reached us, but, as described by contemporaries, they are both of a valuable character and likely to be of good service by enabling the Government to proceed with the promotion of the projects during the recess, as far as they can be promoted by further preliminary inquiry and arrangement; Both are projects of rather magnificent dimensions for such a Colony as New Zealand, and, however desirable either or both may be, it will no doubt be some time before they can become accomplished facts. It is some satisfaction, however, to know that at least one of the committees — that appointed to consider the subject of establishing a Mmt — has felt justified in recommending the undertaking of the object the merits of which they were appointed to consider. Al--1 though the Government is not at present in a position to entertain the proposal of establishing a Mint, the report of the ; committee is sufficient to show that the institution would be a profitable one, and would effect an increase in the price of : gold of large aggregate amount. The : cost of the necessary buildings arid plant required for carrying on successfully all the operations connected with minting is estimated at £40,000, and the annual expenditure required to be recouped to the Imperial Treasury for management and working expenses would be about £10,000. ;On the other hand tho advantages io he gained by the country from such an establishment are an increase in tho price of gold to ' the extent of at least £60,000 a year, and the profits arising from charges for refining, coining, melting, and assaying. Whether actually experienced or not, it was always anticipated that one of the immediate and sensible effects of the establishment of a Mint in Melbourne would be to further limit the fluctuations in the price of gold, and to sustain it throughout the year a shilling an ounce above the average price of late years, and, if the same results follow in New Zealand, they would be of considerable value, seeing that in 1871 the Colony exported 730,029 ounces of gold, assessed at £2,787,520. On these and other grounds, the committee, we notice, " strongly recommend that further enquiry should be made by the Government during the recess to ascertain whether the Imperial Government would consent to the establishment of a branch mint ; and also that if buoli consent should be obtained, proposals of a practical character should be submittpd to Parliament at its next session." In connection with, this subject, and as illustrating the advantages of a mint, we may with propriety quote an opinion expressed by a Melbourne journal some time ago. Writing in anticipation of tho establishment of such an institution, the Miniwj Journal said : — " An increase in the price of gold is the first and greatest advantage which will result from the opening of this institution. Hitherto banks have been enabled to make Buch terms as they thought proper, by mutual arrangement between themselves, relative to the price to bo paid for gold. Now, miners and mining companies will be in a position to hand over their gold — should they prefer doing so — to the officer in charge of either of the sub-treasuries throughout the Colony, and will be enabled, ten days afterwards, to receive its full value in sovereigns, less the mint charge of 4|d per ounce. Circumstances will of course compel many individuals, and companies, still to transact their buainpaa through the banks in their different localities, and thii3 the bank price for gold will necessarily be less than the mint price; although bankers will, for thefuture, require to be satisfied with much smaller pro fits than they havehithertobeen receiving. The mint not price for gold will be £3 17s 6d per standard ounce, tho standard ounce of gold being 22 carats fine. The richness of alluvial and quartz gold

varies considerably in different districts, Ballarat alluvial gold being as much, in some instances, as 23 carats 3^gr ; the I greater portion, however, averages 23 carats 2|gr, which, at. £3 17s 6d per ounce, would be pqual to a shade over £A 3s per ounce ; so that, after making allowance for dirt, or, speaking more correctly, 'slag,' the net value of alluvial gold dost in the Ballarat district will be £4 2s per ounce, instead of ,£4 0s 6d, as 'at present paid by the different local banks. These figures will give our readers in the various mining districts an opportunity of judging from personal knowledge of the richness of their gold, as to the price they should bo enabled to obtain from their bankers, and will enable them to judge of the advantages afforded by the Victorian Mint."

We understand that the terms of contract for the construction of the. Brunner railway are still under the consideration o* the Government and Messrs Brogden. Although Mr Brogden left New Zealand yesterday en route for England, we believe that full powera in this and other matters have been left with Mr Henderson, C.E., who is expected to visit the South Island in a week or two, and, should ho come by way of the West Coast, he will probably be in Greymouth in about a fortnight. We think, neverthe. less, that it would be well if the Government were telegraphed to, to ascertain their intentions without further delay. It appears that no decision has yet been arrived at with regard .to working the mine, and that it is extremely doubtful whether there is any early prospecc of attaining this end. This is very much to be regretted, as there can be no doubt that tho whole of these works should be regarded as one imdertaking. At the sametimowe must do the General Government the justice to say that we believe they are fully alive to the importance of this point, and are desirous of offering every inducement to capitalists to develop the resources of the Grey Coal Field on the largest scale, but have been, to some extent at least, thwarted in their endeavors by the Superintendent of Nelson. Early in the present year a preliminary agreement was entered into between Mr Yogel and Mr Curtis, which, although still leaving the Coal Reserve in the hands of tho Provincial Government, would have imposed such stringent conditions in respect to the working of the mine cs to be at all events a long step in the right direction. It was necessary, however, that this arrangement should be sanctioned by the Provincial Council, but when it was accordingly brought before that body, it was so pared down and altered as to be inadequate for the purpose in view. Since that time, so far as we are aware, nothing further has been done, excepting a broad hint from Mr Yogel to Mr Curtis in the General Assembly that if the latter continued inipracticable, it was quite possible that the General Government would exercise its reserved powers and take possession of the Reserve for the public benefit. We believe that some such strong measure will be absolutely required, if we are ever to see our Coal Mines worked in the manner and to the extent which they ought to be. We have no confidence in the administration of any such matters by Mr Curtis, and we shall be glad lo learn that Mr Yogel has carried out bis suggestion and taken the Brunner Mine altogether out of the hands of the Provincial authorities.

The usual meeting of the Grey River Hospital Committee was held at Gilmer's Hotel list night, Mr J. Kilgou'* in the chair. The Visiting Committee reported the Hospital as being in a satisfactory condition, ;the number of patients being 28. It was ; resolved to call for tenders for the re-shingling :of the main building, and a committee was appointed to draw up rules for the admission iof female patients to the new ward. A committee was also appointed to communicate with the country districts for the purpose of appointing local committees for the present year. The accounts for the mouth, amounting to L 540, were laid on the table and passed. The Treasurer stated that he had received the Nelson subsidy for September, but that tho County subsidy for the months of June, July, August, and September, was still unpaid, and that there were no funds in the bank to the credit of the institution. The Visiting Committee for the month are Messrs Kennedy, Greenwood, and Newton. . A sitting of the District Court will be held this morning, at ten o'clock. Mr Warden Kevell held a Court at Maori Gully yesterday, but the cases disposed of were not of any public interest. We have been informed that Mr C. Y. O'Connor, District Engineer, has been removed to Christchurch. Mr O'Connor has proved himself an able and indefatigable officer, and made many friends on the Coast, and we trust that removal carries preferment with it. We have not heard anything as to his successor. Last night a number of gentlemen entrusted in petting up a Christmas Athletic Sports Meeting, met at the Albion Hotel, but as the attendance was limited in numbers it was judged advisable to adjourn it till this evening, when it is hoped that a larger number will be present. Other places on the Coast are bestiring themselves in the same cause, and already some programmes have been drawn up, and active canvassing for subscriptions has been going on. As Greymouth has always been in the van in sporting matters, it will not be right to lag in an endeavor to keep its place, and we therefore trust there will be a large muster of those interested in the promotion of this our annual Christmas gathering. Tho monthly meeting of the Greymouth -Volunteer Fire Brigade took place on Monday evening last. Captain An.os and thirty members were present. A letter was received from J. Basch, Esq., enclosing a cheque for LI 103 for the use of the readingroom. It was ordered to be placed to the members' fund. The Secretary reported the arrival of 500 ft of canvas hose and couplings per last steamer from Melbourne. The resignation of Mr H Williams was duly accepted. Mr W. Woolfe was elected a member of the Brigade. A Bale of suburban land was held at the Weste Lands Office, Hokitika, on Monday, when the following sections ia this district were sold :— No. 1479— Ten acres in block LXVII, Grey District, sold, to the applicant, Harry Kenrick, at the upset price, L2O. No. 1480— Three acres in block LXVII, Grey District, Harry Kenrick, applicant, upset price, LG ; sold to Martin Kennedy for L 24 No. 1455— Ten acres in block LII, Grey District, sold to the applicant, David Thomas Faulkner, at the upset price, L2o.— Another meeting was held on Tuesday, when a letter was read from Mr Warden -

Kcvell, forwarding au application from Henry Sullivan for an agricultural lease of three acres of laud on the Arnold road. The Board agreed to recommend that the lease be granted. William M. Harcourfc applied for a lease of 3100 acres of pasturage land on the north bank of the Tereniakau river ; L 25 lps 8d rent paid. Licenses to occupy were issued to Thomas M'Glone for the following sections in payment for public works: —510 acres, block X, Totara District ; 70 acres, block I, Grey District ; 300 acres, block LXIV, Okarito District. The Board aIBO considered the extension of Block I, Grey District. A letter was read from Mr Warden Aylmer, drawing attention to the strong objections existing to granting the Reserve to Messrs Brogden and Sods along the extension of the Mikonui Water-race, and pointing out that by the Mining Surveyor's plan of the Reserve, it includes many old raining claims and water-rights ; and a large tract of country, most part of which is auriferous, and has been worked for many years, being in fact the best portion of the available mining ground in the Totara District. The Board resolved to recommend that His Excellency make' the Reserve as temporary reserved by the Board for the purpose of a water-race, excluding all exist- ' ing rights as denned in the description forwarded by the Board. The New Zealand Herald estimates the cost of the past session of the Assembly at j about L 20,000. ; C. E. Haughton, Esq., has been gazetted Under-Secretary for Crown Lands and Immigration. The annual Metropolitan Kace Meeting commences at Christchurch to-day. Saturday next being^the Prince of Wales Birthday, the drapers in town have resolved that, in order not to inconvenience the public, they will give their assistants a holiday to-morrow (Friday). Some splendid specimens of " Brahmas" were landed yesterday from the s.s. Albion, to the order of Mr Prince. The contemplated pnuematic dredge to lift gold from the bottom of the Molyneux river, Otago, is being constructed at Clyde. The Dunedin Quartz-mining Company at Saddle Hill, has a reservoir containing 3,000,000 gallons of water, a steam engine of sixteen horse power, and a shaft sixty feet — prospects are lOdwt to the ton. A proposal to start a company to be called the New Zealand Titanic Steel and Iron Company has been canvassed in Wellington during the past few days, and already a most encouraging list of subscribers to the proposal has been obtained. The prospectus states the amount of capital required to be not less than L 50 ,000, which it is proposed to raise by means of 5000 shares of LlO each. Careful calculations accompany the prospectus, and a description' of the process to be adopted in the smelting operations, which is that advocated by Mr E. M. Smith is also appended. The Wanganui Herald of Wednesday last says the mortality among the children m the ship Bebington, Captain Peek, is accounted for by the bad food, and demands inquiry, the passengers agreeing as to the cause Fourteen children dying on the voyage out is an extraordinary large number of deaths, and points to biid treatment in some way. A child died this morning in Wanganui who came out mi the vessel, and the medical gentleman attending the case gives it as his opinion that the cause was what we have stated. A New South Wales paper, the Da'ylcsford Mercury, says:— "To show what can be done in quartz-mining with the aid of waterpower, we may mention that Mr James JBarcla is manager of a co-operative company at Blackwood that is paying excellent weekly dividends from a yield of l^dwt per ton The party have a battery of eight or ten heads, driven by a water-wheel, the s bream boinjj brought to the machine by a race four or five miles long. It is said so low are their expenses that the party can make wages even frdm ldwt stone. They have a large but poor lode that would be valueless but for the water-power. If the Government scheme for the supply of water to this district could be completed, there is scarcely a reef in it that would not be remunerative. We shall evidently have to send our quartz-miners to Blackwood for a wrinkle or two in economic mining." Some time ago (says the Court Journal), Lord Charles Innes Kerr laid a wager of L2OO with four officers of the 9th Lancers that before the Ist July he would run a quarter of a mile, hop a quarter of a mile, ride a quarter ol a mile, walk a quarter of a mile, and row a quarter of a mile in a quarter of an hour. The task was set down for decision on Monday week, bufc in consequence .of the departure of the officers from the place that day, it was subsequently arranged that the match was to take place on the Friday previous, when his lordship performed his undertaking in 9min 45sec, thus having smin 15sec to spare. The rush to Port Darwin has turned out a j gigantic failure. The Age, of 24th ult. says .— " The Port Darwin rush has followed in the wake of the Port Curtis and Charters Towers rushes, and the Victorian miners who so .frantically started off for a new country upon hearing a few minors of rich finds of gold are ■now regretting their temerity, and wish themselves back again with their families. The men have held meetings and applied to ;the South Australian Government, to assist them by giving them work, but the offer made was considered too small and was refused. Yesterday evening the Hon. the Chief Secretary received the following telegram : — I l ' Port Darwin, 23rd October, 1872. To the Hon. the Chief Secretary of Victoria. One hundred and fifty Victorian miners here. No gold in the country. Destitution certain to prevail. Have offered LSOO, all the money the men possess, towards chartering the Bengal. The ship requires LI3OO to Melbourne. Adelaide Government refuses assistance. Will Victorian Government assist to take their miners back ? Adelaide Government's offer is not sufficient to ke«p the families left in. Victoria . Four shillings and sixpence without rations. (Signed) Committee : Jame3 Tardy Koss, K. M'Carbney, James Bell." Mr Francis at once sent back the following telegram :—" This Government regrets the position of applicants, but cannot bring back to Victoria all persons who may enter on enterprises without due consideration—J. G. Francis. " , Somebody ; (the Graphic says) once called coal black diamonds, and he must have been gifted with prophetic power; for it seems just now as if we might expect before long to read of a scuttle of coal among the priceless gifts bestowed upon some fashionable bride, instead of the traditional jierure. Our talk, our newspapers, everything except our cellars, is replete with coal ; the very music halls and street organs have caught the infection, and willing or unwilling audiences are treated to iditties on mines and "Down among the Coals."

We (Examiner) were shown a few days ago, at Mr Moutray's engineering establishment iv Bridge street, an iron cargo boat he has just completed to the order of Mr O'Couor, M.H.R., Westport, for running on the Bnller river between Westport arid the landing, Inangahua river, a distance of over thirty miles. The dimensions of the boat are as follow -.—Length over all, 60ft ; breadth of beam, 13ft j depth of hold to top of combings, 2ft Gin ; draught of water with 12 tons of cargo, 12in. There aro three watertight compartments, aud a shifting gangway for

shipping and unshipping horses. There is no keel or kelson, but we would suggest that there should be two light bilge keels, one on each side, run along tho garboard streak, sufficient to take the weight off the centre line where th 6 ordinary keel would be. This would not only be of great use in the many groundings which the BuHer boats have to make in ascending the river, but in her steering, as well as steadiuess in a rough tideway, and more particularly when she is being towed round, as she will have to be, to Westport. The style and workmanship are very creditable to Mr Moutray, who has evidently succeeded in making a good substantial boat for the purpose for which it is required. ..It is our painful duty to announce the death of Mr William Pharazyn (youngest son of the Hon. C. J. Pharazyn, of Wellington), after a short illness. He was born in Wellington in the year 1842, and was educated at Cambridge, where he took mathematical honors. He afterwards became a member of the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar in 1866. He was also a member of the London University, where he graduated in law, passed the best legal examination of his year, and took his degree as L.L. D. He returned to New Zealand in 1867, and joined Mr Izard. He was shortly after appointed Assistant Law Officer to the General Government, but in consequence of over-work his health £»aye way, and he at once resigned an appointment the duties of which he was no longer able to fulfil as thoroughly as he wished. A New Zealand Gazette announces that, by "The Stamp Duties Act Amendment Act, 1872," the stamp duty payable on cheques, drafts, and receipts is reduced from twopence to one penny, on and from the Ist December, 1872. 1. Persons holding adhesive slainps o£ the value of twopence may, by requisition on the Stamp Office of the Province or on any depository of stamps, exchange the same for tin equivalent value of adhesive stamps at one penny, or any other denomination. 2. Persons holding stanips at twopence, impresped on . blank forms of cheques, drafts, or receipts, may exchange the same in like manner for adhesive stamps of other denominations. But no exchange of stamps . at twopence, impressed on blank form's of cheques or drafts, will be made after the 30th November, except at the reduced value of one penny. . A fire broke out on the 2nd instant, little after two o'clock, in the roof of the premises occupied by Mr Foy, butcher, at the bottom of Trafalgar street, Nelson, adjoining the Trafalgar Hotel. Unfortunately, the hydrant stationed close at hand had been taken to the beach by a Board of Works watering cart, or the fire would have been extinguished in a few minutes and with little or no damage to property ; but the time necessary to bring the hose-reel from the station, although expeditiously done, gave the fire a start, and the building being old, the shingles, when fairly in a blaze, burnt with great fury. The first hose brought into play sustained some damage, which caused another slight delay, but presently the fire was attacked both back and front, and was then subdued very quickly, but not until the entire roof of the house was destroyed. But for our admirable water service the fire might have been serious, as the building closely adjoined the Trafalgar Hotel on one side, and was only three feet from Messrs Newton's large furniture store on the otter, towards which the wind was blowing, with a long line of wooden bnildings in continuation. So confident, however, was Mr Newton in the efficacy of of the water service, that he locked up his premises back and front, and would allow no person to enter to meddle with his property. We learn from the Melbourne Age that Messrs Wright and Edwards, engineers, of Little Bourke street west, have obtained the contract for the furnishing of all the engine power and shafting for the forthcoming Intercolonial Exhibition, and the apparatus is now constructed on their premises. The shaft is a remarkably fine piece of work, and a particular curiosity, from its being manufactured altogether of scrap iron, fragments of iron.hoop, old bits of tools, and such odds and ends which have been supplied to dealers in these unconsidered trifles: The use of refuse is beautifully illustrated by seeing such rubbish transformed into a smooth and shiny roll of iron looking like bright steel. Messrs Wright and Edwards have commenced the forging of a great shaft, which will be included in their display at 'the forthcoming Exhibition. The shaft is nine and a half inches in diameter, and. will be about fifteen or sixteen feet long, weighing two tons. A shaft of the same size has previously been turned out by the firm, and sent to New Zealand.