THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, MAY 13, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1489, 13 May 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, MAY 13, 1873.

There is annually submitted to the Government which enjoys the privilege and profit of working the Brunner Coal-mine a report which refers less to the mode of working the mine than to the receipts and disbursements therewith connected. These reports are furnished by Mr W. W. Partnalh; one; of the officials connected with the mine, and, if brief, they are usually very specifier and distinct. The report for the financial year ending on the 28th of March last is not an exception, and, it being the only available means for procuring information as to results of the working of the mine, we propose to quote from it as a reliable authority upon matters which are pretty frequently subjects of local debate. From. Mr Dartnall's summary of the statistics which he supplies, we learn that, during the : past year, the monetary receipts for the produce of the mine amounted to £7074 17s 3d, and the disbursements to .£6193 10s 9d, showing a nett profit of ,£BBI 6s 6d. Included in the disbursements, however, were costs of permanent improvements, plant, and gear, and the survey of that timber tramway on the Cobden side, the construction of which some one connected with the Nelson Government unhappily conceived, the whole amounting to £717 4s 9d. The quantity of coal sold during the year amounted to 13,787£ tons, being an increase of . 1503 tons . upon the quantity ' sold during the year previous; and the quantity of coke sold was 159 tons, being an increase of 67 tons upon the sales effected during the preceding year. With a slight difference in favor of the first month of 1873, the quantities sold, says Mr Dartnall, have been nearly the same in each year for the last four yeats, and he states, what is generally recognised, that the quantity is not likely to increase greatly until cheaper and more regular means of transit be provided, not only by railway to Greymouth, but by steam colliers to the different ports of New Zealand. He considers it probable that, during the past few months, when a | pressing demand for coal existed in the Colony, the sales would have been quite equal to 2000 tons, more had it, not been for the exceedingly low state of the river t Grey, involving increased charges and j the departure of many vessels only partially laden. With reference to the production of coke at the Brunner mine, the report says :— " This article is highly praised by the Melbourne papers, and it only requires proper agencies to ensure a ready sale. Ik is unnecessary to explain the benefits that would accrue from the utilisation of the slack and fire-clay of the mine, but it may be added that, to open up the coal trade profitably, it would be necessary to construct four or six new coke ovens, the fire-bricks for which could be made out of the fire-clay of the mine. It would not be difficult or very costly to crush the fire-clay of the mine by means of water as a motive power, as there are several streams which could be conducted to the locality suitable for this purpose." Of the general condition and prospects of the mine favorable report is made in the following terms : — " The mine is well ventilated, perfectly free from fire-damp, in a. good workable state, and there have been no accidents whatever during the year. The area of coal proved is proportionately increased with the distance driven up the inclines during the year ; and, from continued favorable indications, the field promises to be of comparatively unlimited extent." To this fact particular attention is d*rawn, as a report, it is stated, had been industriously circulated in Greymouth, though who the industrious individuals were, Mr Dartnail does not condescend to say ; such industriously circulated report being to the following effect:— "That the Brunner mine will be •worked out in two years, and further thai the fault is curving round, and nearly cuts off the seam of coal on the upper side." "So far from this being true," says Mr Dartnall, "we find the field widening out as the drives are being worked higher up the seam, so that, in round numbers, we have a million tons of coal proved and available, without touching the fault." It is added :— " Dr Hector, who has just visited the mine, "said that, a plan was forwarded to him at Wellington, shewing the fault curving round, as though it was cutting off our seam pn, the upper side, a thing t&kt fc© JWW t9 be quit© unsoien-

tific, and he was glad to see from my plan that it was not as represented." Appended to this report are several tabular statements, showing specifically the receipts and disbursements, the number of tons raised, and so on, during each month of the year. From these we learn that the actual average cost of raising the coal was 8s 6£d per ton ; the cost of raising including all disbursement, permanent or temp^orary. According to this mode of reckoning, the cost was highest in May, 1872, when it was 11s 6d per ton, and lowest i» February, 1873, when it was 7s 9jd per ton. The smallest quantity raised in one month was in May last, when the quantity was only 522 tons. January in this year was also exceptional, the quantity raised being 663 tons. In the other months the quantity raised varied from 1200 to 1600 tons. To complete the information, it may be well to quote the items of receipts and disbursements. They are :— Receipts : Coal, £6750 ; coke, J266 15s 9d ; slack, 10s ; powder and fuse, £56 10s lOd ; sundries, £1 0s Bd. Disbursements ; Contract miners, £2966 ; truckers, £1216 ; burning coke, ; special contract, ,£34 ; day wages, ,£260 ; contingencies, £280 ; salaries, £540 ; completing shoots, £310 ; repairing coke ovens, £19 ; plant and gear, £261 ; survey of tramway, £126, which last item should certainly be debited to the Provincial Government, and not to the Brunner Coal-mine.

Mr J. M'Beatb, Postmaster, Greymouth, has received from the General Government the appointment of Auditor of Law and Trust Accounts for the district. At the Resident Magistrate's Court, yesterday, before W. H. Revell, Esq., R.M., John Silk was fined 10s, or twentj-four hours' imprisonment, for being drunk and incapable in the streets on Sunday evening. Mary Rogers was charged on two separate informations with destroying a warrant issued by the Court, and with assaulting an actingbailift while in the execution of his duty. The acting-bailiff proved the first charge, and the second offence was substantiated by several witnesses. The facts were that the bailiff went to the house of the defendant to execute a distress warrant. When the defendant saw him she rushed forward, and a struggle took place about the possession of tha document, which was destroyed in the scuffle. Mr Perkins, for the defendant, argued that the acting-bailiff not being legally appointed, the defendant was justified in resisting him. The Magistrate over-ruled the point raised, and finding the defendant guilty on both informations, inflicted fines of 20s for each offence, with costs, amounting to L 5. We are happy to be able to state that Mr Denisfcon, who is employed by Dr Hector in prospecting for coal on the Westland side of the. river reports the discovery of another seam in addition to that announced last ■week. This new seam is described as S feet thick, very good hard clear coal, with a westerly dip of 50deg. This can Dot be considered otherwise than very satisfactory, and although the dip of both seams is very sharp, yet it is quite possible that they will improve in this respect when further followed up. The total eclipse of the moon last night was an object of admiration to all classes of the community, who were to be seen not merely at every corner of the street, but in many groups, watching with much apparent interest the different phases the moon presented. We have merely to add that the elements of the eclipse as given were correct in every detail, and that, although at times cloudy, every phase was seen under very favorable circumstances. In the Nelson Provincial Council, on May 5, Mr F. Guinneas withdrew a notice which stood in his name on the paper, to the effect that LIOOO be placed on the Estimates for the construction of a dray-road from Hattqr's Terrace, Nelson Creek, to the main road to Ahaura. Mr Guinness said he would introduce the matter again on a future occasion. The four-horse coaches running between Launceston and Hobart Town make a race of it every trip. The authorities have been called upon to stop the practice. The Provincial Council of Canterbury has voted L3OOO for a bonus for the establishment of a woollen factory in the Province. In the course of the debate on the subject Mr Wynn Williams suggested the advisability of inducements being offered to manufacturers to establish themselves in the Province, by giving them a certain sum down wherewith to commence business. The salary of the two Maori Ministers is stated by the Wellington correspondent of the Press, to be L3OO each. A man named Richard Paton was arrested on Sunday, at Hokitika, charged with an indecent assault on a girl six years of age. The offence is alleged to have been comcnitted in a house on Gibson's Quay. One of the batteries at Anderson's is still employed on the Golden Ledge stone, it having been decided to put through a small quantity in addition to the 50 tons originally decided upon. Mark Twain, in speaking of cannibalism, grows serious for once, and solernny declares that, for his own part, he " would rather go hungry for two days than eat an old personal friend." The last <xnir suggested for Mr Stanley is a voyage to discover the North Pole. Having cut on it his name and the date of discovery, he is to bring it back with him, with the banner of the Star and Stripes flying from the top. One Sunday, four hundred and ninty-two men entered an Indianopolis saloon to make sure that the liquor law was being strictly enforced. This is the way Texas whisky affects one not accustomed to it, if we may judge from the following, which we find in an exchange : — " A traveller in Texas was invited to drink at a small town where he had stopped. He says, ' I woke up next morning, and found myself on top of a haystack, with my coat on, and myself with both arms inserted through the stirrups of my saddle, and the surcingle around my neck, acting as a necktie.' " We have to acknowledge the receipt of the first number of theiVeje Zealand Tablet, published in Dunedin, and brought out, like its namesake in England, chiefly in the interests of the Catholic Church. Although the Tablet is to be essentially Catholic in its religious opinions, it will not confine itself strictly to the discussion or exposition of ecclesiastical subjects. Our new contemporary, in explaining its objects and principals, says that "whilst putting religion and her interests first — which is her proper place— the iVeio | Zealand Tablet will not neglect nor overlook the interests of merely civil society. The proprietors flatter themselves that the Neio Zealand Tablet will meet with a hearty welcome from the brethren of the Press. The Tablet does not propose to compete with any existing newspaper, there is a sphere for itself, and it has its own special work to do. Then it cannot be for the interests of the colonists that one large section of the community should continue without a representative in the Fourth Estate ; neither can it be pleasant for the public writers, nor conducive to their efficiency, to be ignorant of the views of their Catholic s

fellow-colonists. These and the Tablet-wiU,no doubt, be opponents on very many questions, but the opposition it may be hoped wiil be open, manly, straightforward, and based not on prejudice, but on reason and argument." '1 he first number contains well written articles, from a Catholic point of view, on immigration, education, and religious and social subjects. The paper is well got up and printed, »nd if it adheres to the promise made in the opening number, there is every reasonable .expectation that it, will be a,, journalistic success. "Ixion,"with Miss Clara Stephenson as the "man at the wheel," is now the great attraction at the Queen's Theatre, Dunedin. The weather which has recently been experienced at the Thames is thus described by the Advertiser: — " With the intermission of only one day. the storm has now lasted since last iVednesday week. It rained nearly the whole day yesterday. The coasting traffic, has been disturbed to a greater extent than it ever was before. No steamer has been able to maintain its regular trips, while, although the navigation between this and Auckland is safe, and comparatively sheltered, steamers have had to lie for days under the lee of the Bandspit Island from sheer want of power to face the storm. The traffic between Auckland and all the outports has been greatly interrupted. During the first part of the storm the rainfall appeared not to have been so heavy in the ranges as in the immed'ate vicinity of the townships, but, judging by the Karaka and Kauwaeranga creeks, the rainfall of the past i two days has been more general. " The Kurunui Company, at the Thames, are about to try an experiment which, althoughby no means new, is likely to prove beneficial in saving gold. This is the substitution of electro-plate on the tables instead of the ordinary copper-plates, and Mr S. Wells has prepared a set which will be fixed to a battery. The great advantage to be derived from the use of these plates ?s perfect cleanliness. None of that deleterious scum which sometimes rises on copper plates, when stuff thickly impregnated with base mineral is being crushed, can arise where electro-plating is used, because nothing can touch the copper— there is always a silver surface. The process by which these sheets of copper have been electro-plated is of the description usually employed — a powerful galvanic battery and a quantity of silver held in solution in a bath. The following hint might, with advantage to newspaper proprietors, be taken by others besides the person to whom it is addressed — "Yesterday's mail brought us (Cromioell An/us) a note from Mr T. L. Shepherd, M.H.R., M.P.C., intimating that gentleman's intention to address the electors, and requesting us to make known the fact by means of a 'local.' Has Mr Shepherd forgotten that our advertising columns! are the proper and legitimate channel for such annonncements ?" A number of Celestials are leaving the Nevis district, Otago, turning their wandering footsteps towards the home of their fathers, where, doubtless, a joyful welcome awaits them, for they all go with a bagful of gold — Nevis gold too. It may not be one of the things that is generally known, but nevertheless Chinamen themselves assert it is a fact, that Nevis gold is the most valuable of any that finds its way i»to China from New Zealand ; and this receives some confirmation from the circumstance of some of these home-going Chinamen having purchased gold there for L 3 17s per oz, which is a shilling more than can be got for it in the usual way of trade. It has been decided by the Minister of Public Works that the piles for the Mangere bridge at Auckland, like those for the Port bridge at Napier, are to consist of jarrah timber, to be imported from Western Australia. The New^ Zealand Herald, which disapproves of the decision, adduces the following instance to prove the superiority of totara. "We have the fact," it" remarks, " that the piles in the new extension of the Queen street wharf are totara, coppered, the flooring being of kauri. That portion of the wharf which was constructed of Tasmanian hardwood, lasted only three or four years, and has been replaced by totara poles, with kauri flooring. When the imported piles were taken up they were entirely honeycombed, while the totara stays that had been bolted to them were qnite sound. The Harbor Board at first contemplated using jarrah timber ; but, on inquiry, were satisfied that for all practical purposes totara was equal to it." The cutter Nautilus arrived in Lyttelton Harbor one day last week. The fish brought by her consist of 220 trumpeters, 200 blue cod, 30 habuka, a quantity of plaice, and 20 dozen crayfish. When the cutter came alongside the wharf it attracted a large crowd of persons. A quantity of the fish was landed and sent to Christchnrch last night ; the remaining portion will be sent through this morning. Judge Johnston's ire appears to hava been aroused by the disgusting neglect of the sanitary condition of the new Supreme Coart House, at Auckland. On Tuesday he addressed the Sheriff on the subject. He said, " I was never in a place more offensive than the precincts of this Court are, and in going out and in coming in I feel I am exposed to something I ought not to be exposed to. I do not suppose the people in authority here are really waiting to see whether the odours are sufficiently strong to kill a Chief Justice." The Sheriff said he had been in correspondence with the Government on the subject for nearly twelve months, and had done all he could. An aboriginal native at Clermont has thrown a cricket ball over 140 yards. The Peak Downs Telegram says: — "A gentleman who saw this remarkable throw measured has obtained the following particulars about the blackboy : —He is a native of Brisbane, sft llin in height, 34in round the chest, and about 24 years of age. The throw was witnessed and measured by several gentlemen still in town. The measured distance was 142^ yards, and 2^ yards were allowed deviation in measuring. Every one who saw the throw allowed it surpassed anything they had ever deemed possible. This hero is known as Billy the blackboy." Among the papers of the late LordLytton, there was found a note, in which he expressed a wish , that whenever his death occurred, his body should not be touched by the surgeons, but that it should remain on the bed where he might die for three days. There was a further proviso, that at the expiration of three days he should be examined by medical men, who was to ascertain that he was really dead. A Canterbury paper says : — " An amusing instance of compulsory detention was experienced at the Oust on Saturday morning last. It appears that a man named M'Callum, a resident of Woodend, went from Messent's early in the morning to fetch a cow across the river Cust, but as he had been away some time vainly trying to drive the cow across the. river, his companion (Mr S. Mounsey) rode across the river and accomplished the desired object. Mounsey then asked M 'Callum to jump behind him on the mare's back till they got over the river, and the request was — although rather clumsily— complied with . During M'Cullum's efforts to get pn the mare's back he pulled the animal over on its side, and each of the horsemen had a leg under the mare, a position from which they could not extricate themselves. The path in which they had been tiavelling was a narrow cow path through long flax, and it was very

wet and sloppy, consequently the mare, despite its efforts to the contrary, could not get up, so the three companions in a dilemma had to quietly resign themselves to their position until assistance should be given them. They quietly smoked their pipes until Mr W. Judson recognised them, and after he succeeded in gottingiihe mare Tip; all bauds en-"" joyed a good laugh at the ludicrous positionin which the two men and the mare had been' placed. „ It has always been thought by many- of • the mining community, says the Hokitika Star, that the Arahura Flat contained deposh^ of gold in the deep ground, and although miners were persuaded that, such ; was the case yet but few gave the Flat in question a trial, and when such did occur it was always a very imperfect one. We are now glad to record the fact that miners are a^ain turning their attention to this Flat. Mr Boys, of the Blue Spur, and his mates have been engaged prospecting for sometime, and have already sunk several shafts, which proved to be too far up on the terrace. They had thought to strike a ledge of reef which it is believfed rims along the edge of the terrace, but in this way they were not successful, and of course, missing that, the ground proved too deep to be worked to advantage unless a good prospect would have been met with. They are now sinking on the Flat and expect to strike the wash at a depth of from 40ft tp : 50ft. They are taking a large shaft down, so that if necessary a whim can be utilised in hauling up the stuff, and as the shaft is large enough for two casks to travel in it, the water, if any, can be easily overcome. A little further to the eastward on this Flat, but upon the high ground, there are several sluicing claims paying remarkably well. It is not often that a King vacates his , throne -with so much dignity as the ex-ruler of Spain has done, or that a people parts from its Sovereign with so many expressions of respect and esteem as the Spaniards have done in bowing out Amadeus the First and Last. The brave young Savoyard, in :renouncing the crown said, with a touch of manly pathos : — "ln laying it down I do not lay down my love for Spain— as noble as she is unfortunate— and I carry with me no other sorrow than that of having found it impossible to do all the good for her my loyal heart desired." To this message the Sovereign Cortes — both branches of the Legislature constituting one Chamber for the noncereplied by complimenting the King on his noble language, his uprightness, his honor, and his loyalty ; and by ; "unanimously declaring " that he had faithfully, very faithfully, kept the oath he took when he accepted, the crown. Evidently the old stately courtesy of the Spanish grandee has not yet died out of the land of the Cid. The following tale of villainy appears in the Talbot Leader: — "How happens it that in such an age of enlightenment and justice greater villains escape the gallows than ever hangmen operated upon ; nay, not only miss the rope, but even go scot free for any punishment whatever ? In a large town of Victoria a considerable time since a man was sued by an unwedded mother for the maintenance of his illegitimate child. He brought his brother forward, who swore that he also had been criminally intimate with the girL The case was dismissed. Everyone who knew the parties believed that the two ruffians swore falsely, and the mother of the the infant bore this belief out by. her sworn testimony. The same fellow, less than a year ago, seduced another girl, who had hitherto borne an immaculate reputation. Finding that she was enciente her father went and begged him to marry her. But he refused, scoffing at the grief of the poor old man, and affirming that his brother also was a putative father, as he had been intimate with the girl. She has since died in childbirth, and in her last moments she declared that he alone had been a partner in her shame." At the Supreme Court, Nelson, on the sth inst., his Honor" Judge Richmond. gave judgment on demurrers argued before hhn on the 29th April, in the case Eyes v. Hendeison, for alleged libel. In the course of his remarks, his Honor said with respect to right of cd-m ment by the press ;— " The right of free comment upon the actions of public mci— understanding thereby the right of saying what people honestly think on the subject, however unjust, unwise, or improbable their thoughts may be— is confined, as I understand the matter, not merely to such actions as directly concern, the public, but also to such subjects as are allowed to be matters of opinion as distinguished from ascertainaible matters cf fact. Thus it may be allowable to question, in a general way, the patriotism or political purity of a member of parliament; but falsely to publish of him that he had taken a bribe for his vote, would of course be libellous ; or the military capacity and conduct of a general officer may be severely criticised ; but it would not be permitted to write of him falsely, that he ran away from the enemy on a particular occasion. In all such- cases the allowable comment is on something which is matter of opinion ; something the truth or falsehood of which is not capable of being brought to the test of the senses; or involving principles respecting which civilised society is not agreed . But in regard to statements respecting definite ascertainable matters of fact, involving no unsettled principles, and the truth or falsehood of which may be predicted with certainty, I the like license does not exist." ■