THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, MAY 12, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1488, 12 May 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, MAY 12, 1873.

There has been a rumor in town for the last few days that the successful tenderer for the Brunnerfcon railway has not been able to take up his contract. We are, as yet, unable to say whether the rumor has or has not any foundation in fact, but, should it prove correct, it will be muctt regretted by the whole of the residents, as it will delay the construction of the line for some months, if not until after the next session of the Assembly. A.t the Resident Magistrate's Court, at Ahaura, before C. Whtefoord, Esq., E.M., a woman from Granviile (Half-Ounce), named Hunter, was charged with a breach of the Licensing Ordinance, by selling liquor without a license. The evidence did not satisfy the Court that the offence had been committed, and the information was dismissed. Mr Staite, who appeared for the defendant, commented in strong terms upon the means resorted to, for the purpose of procuring evidence, by zhe constable who laid the information. While admitting the officer's general efficiency, the learned gentleman gentleman thought "ib was a very degrading thing for any constable to prowl about eaves-dropping and creeping under people's houses to pry into their affairs, and he thought that if the constable wished to elevate himself in the estimation of the force, he must adopt some other way of doing ifc. The constable had the name of prowling about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour, and the evidence of a man who was thus always straining after a prosecution should be taken with very great caution. . • The following particulars in reference to the total eclipse of the moon, which occurs to-night, are given in the "Greymouth and Grey District Almanac," published by us : — First contact with the penumbra, 7.5S p m. ; first contact with the shadow, 9, 1 pm ; beginning of total phase, 10.Gp.m.; middle of eclipse, 10.51 p.m.; end of total phase, 11.36 p.m. j last contast with the shadow, on the 13th, 12.41 a.m.; last contact with the penumbra, 1.44 a.m. Magnitude of the eclipse (Moon's diameter =1), 1,428. There will be another total eclipse of the moon, on the sth November in this year, also visible in New Zealand. We are informed that the resolutions condemning; the truck system, which were unanmously cii'iicJ. at the public meeting, held at the Town Hall, on Friday evening last, were embodied in a letter and forwarded to the Minister of Public Works, at Wellington, on Saturday. This, we believe, is all the Committee intend to do for the present. A public meeting is to be held at No Town this evening, to make a formal protest a -ainst the action taken by the Registration Officer in objecting to a large number of claims to be placed upon the electoral roll sent from that district. Some of the oldest residents of No Town and Camptown, whose places of business and properties are as well-known to every inhabitant of the Grey Valley as Charing Cross is to a Londoner, are objected to, because the description given of their properties would not lead to the identification required by the Registration Officer. The ceremony of opening the new Masonic Hall, in this town, will take place on Thursday, 22nd May. The ceremony of consecration will be conducted by Bro. John Lazar, (irand Master, assisted by the members of the District Grand Lodge. On Friday, the 23rd May, the opening of the new hall will i be celebrated by a ball and supper. Kieth and Co. , contractors for a portion of the Arnold and Ahaura road, were sued at the Resident Magistrate's Court, Ahaura, on Friday, by Alexander M 'Donald, a subcontractor, for LSB 10s, partly for work done and as damages for alleged breach of contract. The defendant paid L 35 17s lid into Court as satisfaccion in full. The plaintiff was to supply timber for the culverts on the contract at a certain price, which was less than that usually given for such work, because the timber could be easily procured. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants used the more readily obtained limber in making some of the culverts, thereby breaking the agreement, and depriving the plaintiff of the profits of the contract. The defence was that the timber was not supplied as re quired, and that the defendants were compelled to guard against loss to do the work themselves. Judgment was given for the plaintiffs for the amount paid into Court, with costs. Mr Staite appeared for the Slaintiffs, and Mr Guinness for the defenants. Our enterprisiej? townsman, Mr E. Ashton, left yesterday by the Alhambra for Melbourne. We understand the object of Mr Asu ton's trip to Australia is for the purpose of visiting the Melbourne and Sydney markets to make a selection of buggies, phaetons, and other vehicles suitable for the new branch of business the firm intend ca-r rying on. We wish Mr Ashton a pleasant voyage. The Wellington Independhnfs opinion o resident magistrates is that "in nine cases out of ten the resident magistrates know nothing more of law than they have been able to pick up from their experience on the bench. Most of them are ex-police officers, or gentlemen pui into the office without any regard to any special qualification." The Grey Valley Times has the following : — "Freight between the Ahaura and Greymouth has, by competition, been reduced to L 4 per ton. Of this sum the carriers have to pay 13s in tollage both wayß, thus reducing the amount to L 3 7s per ton. Oats are now quoted at 6s 6d, and owing to the high price of horsefeed generally, many of the teamsters have succumbed and turned their horses out. Messrs D. Isaacs and L'o. onered on : Wednesday last,, at Reefton, .Slavery's . Hotel/and Oddfellows' Hall at auction. The was purchased by Mr Thosi' W, atson for the sum of L 760 .... ii-Atthe Resident Magistrate's Court, Hokitika, on Friday, Samuel Pizzey was charged with having sold a quantity of ale on the sth instant, not being duly licensed under the ''Westland Public House Ordinance, 1867." Sub-Inspector O'Donnell appeared for the prosecution. Mr. Pizzey applied for an adjournment, as Mr Button -was absent in Nelson, and he was anxious to obtain that gentleman's: professional assistance, He might state that he admitted the

sale of the ale, but the question to be de • .cided was as to whether he was entitled to sell under an excise license, granted under the Distillation Act. On the understanding that the sa^ would be admitted when the case was again called on, the case was adjnurned to the 16th inotact. W. C. J. Kortegast, charged with a similar breach of the Westland Public House Ordinance, put in a plea the same as that introduced in the former case, and the case was adjourned to the 16th instant. Our contemporary at Ahaura in alluding to the Orwell Creek rush says— " Some of the claims on Noonan's terrace, are reported to be turning out splendid prospects, but the men are mysteriously reticent, and decline to cite individual cases of good fortune. It is believed that the statement has good foundation, but is given on no better authority than the dame with the " hundred painted tongues." A Christchurch paper says it is expected that the Great South line of railway will be open for traffic as far as the south bank of the ftakaia about the first of June next. The first thirteen miles of the next section — Rakai to Ashburton — are ready for the rails. Scarlatina has been for some time very prevalent in Hokitika, and latterly the cases have become both numerous and serious amongst children and adults. According to the Grej Valley Times "the contractors on the new road are said to have ruffered considerable annoyance and loss by the rush at Hope Creek — through the unceremonious departure of a number of their workmen, and " annexation " of sundry picks and shovels." Is the above another result of the truck system ? The Dunedin Homing Star, of May 1, gravely and with an amusing contempt for geographical correctiess tells us that •' the remains of a large bird, presumed to be a moa, have been unearthed in the \haura Plains, Greymouth." In speaking of the indiscriminate slaughter of 157 human being recently by the Fiji King's troops during the sack of a native town, the Fiji Times asks, Did the townspeople make no resistance ? Or, was the affair a bloody tragedy, a heartless, savage massacre of unarmed men and helpless women and children? We leave it for our Attorney-General, who knows the truth or falsehood of everything, to say ; but rumor has it that it waß a cold-blooded massacre. What matter, they are only nigger rebels ! The Grey Valley Times in announcing the probable early commencement of the stock road from the Grey Valley to the Amuri cattle-raising district, remarks that, though the undertaking is, of itself, a comparatively trifling one, and designed for one especial object, it will in the end do more for the advancement of this part of the West-Coast than perhaps any other public, work p.nfcerod upon during the current year. The beginning and the end of the agitation carried on at Ahaura for years past in relation to the opening up of the Amuri route, has been the establishment of a cattle mart ; but however necessary such a market may be, the communication thus opened up will collaterally confer other and still more important benefits upon this part of the Province. It will give access to a belt of country that has hitherto been impenetrable, and throw open to the farmer and stock-owners thousands of acres of the most fertile land in the western portion of the Province, and upon which we trust to see, at no distant date, a chain of agricultural settlements extending across to the borders of Canterbury. This road will also bring us into closer acquaintanceship with the inhabitants of Christchurch, who will have better opportunities of learoing our resources, and our wants, which, we do not doubt, will speedily excite Christchurch influence and attract Christchurch capita l . A. D. Dobson, Esq., the Provincial Engineer of Nelson, is at present on a professional visit to the Grey Valley. Mr Dobson inspected the works along the new line of road from the Ahaura to the Arnold on Thursday. The section of the road from the Arnold river to the juuetion of the tratk to No Town is now open for traffic. A man named John Smith, well known in Dunedin as groom and "odd man," was found dead the other morning, in the stable at the rear of Mrs Price's lodging-house, Walker street. It appers that he was last seen alive about nine o'clock, and then apparently in good health and quite sober. The deceased had been subject to fits for some years past ; and by the position of the body when fouud iv the morning, there is not the slightest doubt but that he died in one of these fits, apparently while unlacing his boots. A miner named David Jones, aged 59, died on the 27th ult., in the hospital at Lawrence, Otago, under very peculiar circumstances. On the. 24th, while working in a drive, he felt very cold, and the nexb morning complained of what he described as a boil in his throat. On medical advice being obtained, ifc was found he was suffering from an abscess in the tonsil. He was taken to a hotel, and, on the 27th, to the hospital, where he shortly afterwards died through suffocation induced by a discharge of purulent matter from the abscess. A " Dunedinite in Victoria" thus expresses himself as to the working of the new Compulsory Education Act in Melbourne :— " At first the children rushed our school ; now a thit ncr attendance shows that juvenile ardour ha 3 abated; Compulsion is the law, and that law must be administered if the Act is to be a mirror of its framers' intentions. The story goes that the gutter children have their places occupied by the offspring of -people who can well afford to pay. But it is also true that numbers of parent of parents, such as clerks, who are forced to keep up a good appearance, must regard the Act as a boon. But it is quite evident that the very people who are being benefitfced by the Act are those whom it was never intended to benefit. A clerk, or chemist, or draper, or mechanic, no matter how poor, was never dreamt of ; whereas the children of the drunkard, libertine, and loafer, for whom its compulsory clause was originally intended, are left out in the cold. In short, their places are preoccupied by the children of the genteel poor. So much is this the case, that in Melbourne a school solely devoted to gutter children has been successfully inaugurated. Two warm hearted sons of the Emerald Isle, on either side of Elizabeth street north, after a severance of many years, recognised each other the other day. Oblivious to the fact that innumerable vehicles and equestrians were passing and repassing with more than ordinary velocity and pace through this great thoroughfare, the men ran towards each other, and had scarcely shaken hands in the centre of the street, when one of them named Brophy, residing at Fiemington, was knocked down and trampled upon by the horse of a Mr Miller, which that gentleman was driving in his buggy to the city. Great was the consternation of the fallen man's friend, who, in place of permitting the horse .to go, on, seized the winkers, and, amidst the imprecations of the crowd, kept the horse prancing on the body of his mate for some seconds. Another Irishman standing by, observing the danger of poor Brophy. thinking the end justified the means, and doubti less recalling the apothegm, " save me from my friends, dealt the man, at th« winkers a well-aimed blow, which felled him also to the ground, and then extricated his friend. Alter some " barneying, " they adjourned, not to the hospital, but tP a hostelry hard by., Brophy received a severe bruising and an ugly scalp wound on the forehad.