THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1342, 16 November 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1872.

Yesterday requisitions were being numeronßly signed in townrequesting Mr W. S. Smith and MrW-M. Cooper to allow themselves to be nominated as representatives of the Grey District in the next County Council. We suppose it is the intention of the present members to stand for re-election, but bo far they have made no sign. . Mr G. S. Smith has resigned his seat as one of the representatives of the East "Ward in the Borough Council. The reason stated is that business arrangements interfere with his continuing to hold the seat. The first batch of the arrivals from Port Darwin put in an appearance at Melbourne, on the Bth. They came by the screw steamship Omeo, via Nowcastle, N.S.W. The Japanese troupe, now in Hokifciko, are announced to make their first appearance iv Greymouth on Monday evening," Sinco their arrival in the Colony, and whereever they have gone, this troupe have attracted crowded houses, and their performances nave been noticed in tho newspapers as excelling all similar entertainments. The Australian mails by the Alhambra were brought to Greymouth by yesterday's coach. Ihe San Francisco mail is on board the Charles Edward, which was to leave West port last night, either for Hokitika or Greymouth. A Victorian colonist who went to the Cape Diamond Fields some time ago, leaving his wife in Melbourne, has wiitten to her requesting her to join him. His letter is dated from Durban, Natal, on June 15th, 1872, and in ib he says that the climate at tho Cape is " beautiful, though sometimes sultry, the dry Benson being now on." He ah»o states that Durban is good among those who are pstabliahed, that he had seen no

•ck people, and that "marvellous news •Mines daily of people making their fortunes it tbe fields." Even Durban, however, has its drawbacks, it appears. " The streets are all sand ; everyone rides on horseback, or in a spring cart with a cover, drawn by four bullock 3, and led by a Kafiir. All the dogs have been sick ; ticks are numerous ; in fact, all classes of bugs arc around." There ire 250,000 Kaffirs in the colony of Natal, 5000 whites, and 60 British soldiers. i Dr Hector is expected to arrive in Greymouth on Tuesday next by the steamer Tararua— probably for the purpose of examining the extension of the coal iield to tbe south of the Grey River, whore coal has lately been found cropping out in various places. There have been two sample crushing lately at the Government battery, Dunedin; Mr C. F. Roberts, Rough Ridge, Mount Ida, forwarded 2 tons 2cnnc of stove from a claim formerly known as the Great Eastern, but now as the Energetic Company. The total yield from this quantity of stone, which was taken from a depth of 40ffc, was 2oz 13dwt 9gr. The tailings, after all the gold that could be extracted from them at the Government Battery hud been extracted, were experimented upon by Professor Black, who got lesa than a grain of gold out of them —a fact which goes to show that they had been carefully treated. One ton 3cwt of stone, forwarded by Messrs Heron aud Nbtt, from Fourteen-Mile Beach, Mount Benger, yielded 9dwt sgr. A serious accident occurred last week to Mr W. Hartnall's large coach, on the Simmer road, Canterbury. The coach (four in hand) was proceeding in the direction of Sumner. and in going round the corner leading to that part of the road known as the Cutting, the coach turned over, the king bolt came out, and the horses ran off with the fore-carriage. There were fourteen passengers riding on the outside of the coach and seven inside. Some of the passengers fell underneath the coach, which had to be lifted to enable them to get clear. Singular to relate, no very serious injuries were sustained by any df the passengers. About ten in all received slight injuries. A young woman, named Isabella Lyons, was injured internally and had her legs bruised, but no bones were broken ; and a little boy had his thumb broken. Five Maoris arc preparing for holy orders at St. Stephen's (Anglican) Church, Auckland. Tho cafe at tho new Theatre Royal, Melbourne, has been lot to Mr Wjlliam Pitt for a term of five years, the rent being LISOO per annum. The rent of the cafe and the shop will fully meet the payments required for the ground rent of the theacre. A Melbourne correspondent of the Dunedin Star gives rather a lugubrious picture of the big city. He says:— "Let no one leave Otago to better themselves in Victoria. Ye are all well off, and, perhaps, don't know it. Melbourne streets teem with fallen women seeking the wages of sin. The factory boys— called 'larrikins' — prowl about in twenties, and duck even policemen in the tanks opposite hot -Is with impunity. Stabbing takes place in open day, and burglaries are so common that a man the other day, who caught a housebreaker 'in the very •i>V actually invited the robb-r to take a glass of wine. As for genteel thefts, forgeries, shop-lifting, passing bad money, <Src, they are so common that such events would, it recorded, require a newspaper all to themselves "

"John Peoryhingle" writes as follows in the Melbourne Weekly Times :—" They must have happy times down in New Zealand. In a town of one street there's said to be eighty lawyers thriving ; and towards the South commercial travellers from Victoria are so thick that, as a sarcastic f rierid of mine says, they outnumber the white population. Writs and slop toggery ought to be cheap in those parts, This is one of the consequences of the decay of cannibalism and the march of intellect. Alas, there was a time when the native New Zealander wasn't too proud to eat a raw lawyer, or to take a scrap of baked 'legal adviser.' change and change about with wild pig ; but civilisation has spoilt the appetite of the savage for those awful delicacies ; and so the lawyers multiply." On Thursday : a deputation from the Hokitika Borough Council waited upon the County Chairman to solicit his co-operation in forwarding an invitation to the Hon. Mr Yogel to visit Westland. The deputation was courteously received, and the County Chairman cordially endorsed the views expressed as to the advantages which would probably accrue from such a visit, and stated his willingness to assist in furthering the object of the deputation. The Ballarat Star has the following : — " One of our wandering townsmen Mr Mark Gill, has thus telegraphed from Brisbane to hi 3 wife : — " Will be back in the Omeo, calling at Newcastle. Port Darwin a duffer." Our telegrams report a riot at Charters Towers. By a Brisbane jtelegram it appears that a butcher having raised the price of meat, the diggers mobbed his shop. The police interfered, and a riot ensued, in the course of which three men were shot. Special constables have been sworn in, and a number of police sent there. Order was restored after the mob had pelted the special constables with rotten eggs. Beyers and Holterman's total crushing at Tambaroora, is 15,C000z, and a dividend of 15s a share has been declared. This wonderful return of 75 per cent for two months' work has caused a great rush for Hawkinshill shaves. Krohman's crushing is expected to be equally rich. According to the Ballarat Star, " there is another bank rumpus. Some deficiency has been discovered in the Ballarat branch of the Bank of New South Wales, and some changes in the subordinate official ranks are being made in consequence. Whether it be billiards, or sweeps, or lax management, or all or none of them, has not transpired, but there is always this difficulty in such affairs, that so long as the real culprit remains undiscovered the honest steady clerk suffers as much as the rogue and spendthrift. Two banks were defendants in actions tried in the Supreme Court, Melbourne, last week, for the dishonor of cheques or bills— the National and the London Chartered. The National was sued by Mr Newcomen, a. grazier, for the dishonor of a cheque of L 230 he had drawn. It appeared that in IS7I he had acted for a short time as overseer for a station of which the [bank took possession rs security for a debt due by Mr A, M'Kinley, a squatter. After he was paid, there was some dispute between the bank and M'Kinley as to the expenses charged, aud Newcomen having an account at the bank, he was debited with L 126 6a, which appeared to be the sum in dispute. JNot knowing this in timo, he drew a cheque for a larger sum than- was to his credit in the books, and ib was dishonored. The jury awarded him LSOO as compensation for the loss his credit sustained, and also gave him a verdict for the L 127 6s, for which ho also sued. The action against the London Chartered Bank was brought by Messrs Evans and Bilton, wine merchants, whose bill for L4O was dishonored at the Bourke-street branch, principally in consequence of the maneger being absent wbeu the bill Avas presentid The jury gave a verdict for plaintiff for LOO,