Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1511, 7 June 1873, Page 2

A special meeting of the Hibernian Society will be held this evening at St. Patrick's School-room. The business is important, and all the members are requested to attend. W. H. Harrison, Esq , M.H.R., arrived at Greyniouth last evening. Mr Harrison was a passenger from Wellington in the s.s. Tararua. With reference to a complaint we made in our issue of the 3rd instant, that telegrams which should have reached us in the usual course on Sunday, did not, although they appeared in the West Coast Times, of Monday, we have received the following explanation from the Agent of the Press Association at Hokitika :— " I beg to state that your not receiving those telegrams on Sunday evening was entirely the fault of the telegraph office heie. On inquiry 1 find that the telegraphist sent the ' unpublished telegrams' to the agency in Wellington, and no paper connected with the Association except that here and at Wellington received those telegrams." The agent makes further explanations, and regrets the mistake having I occurred. We apologise to our readers for the omission, and give the explanation without remark. A meeting of the Refreshment and Ball Sub-committee of the Railway Demonstration Committee was held yesterday evening at Gilmer's Hotel. It was arranged that the procession, after forming in Boundary street, should (weather permitting) march to Mr Coe's homestead, where the ceremony of turning the first sod would be performed. Should the weather be unfavorable, the first part of the celebration will take place opposite the Post Office. There will be an open air free luncheon on the ground. The children will be regaled at the Town Hall. At noon a luncheon will be spread at Gilmer's Hotel. A ball and supper to be held in the evening at Gilmer's will wind up the festivities. An object (says the Ross News) was to be floating a great distance from the beach about eight o'clock on Tuesday evening by Mr M'Gowan and other persons, which they took to be a large boat with two men in it. At the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, before W. H. Revell, Esq., R.M., John Silk was fined 20s or 48 hours' imprisonment for drunkenness in the streets. The trustee in the estate of C. Broadbent v. W. H, Walsh. ; verdict for the defendant for 12s 6d with costs. Same v. Cahill, for 15s ; judgment for the plaintiff with costs. Same v. Bray; enlarged till Tuesday. Same v. Frazer ; enlarged till Thursday. Blake v. Penrose, a judgment summons for L 9 ; defendant was examined, and an order made for payment in instalments of L 3 each, one month apart, until the debt was satisfied. Thompson and Co. v. Andrews was further enlarged till Thursdaj. Ashton v. Cooper was adjourned till the Sth July. There was an obstinately contested dispute between a washerwoman and one of her female clients, about a difference of Is. The claim amounted to 7s, and the defendant admitted she owed 6s. A verdict was for the plaintiff, with 9s costs, the Magistrate remarking that the defendant would have been a gainer by paying the amount claimed in the first instance. The following singular letter appeared in the Times of February 27 :— " The AttorneyGerieral, Jtowarcls the conclusion of his address, February, 1872, is reported to have said: ' He (i.e., the Claimant) admitted . . . that he had been intimate with Tooke (sic), who was hung for murder.' The AttorneyGeneral has said that I was hanged for murder. I never was tried for or charged with murder, manslaughter, or any such crime 5 thanks be to God ! I am alive and well this day, though suffering under the world-wide promulgation of a slander greater than which 1 imagine to be unknown in canon or in moral law, Will pi-ofessional etiquette allow the Attorney* General to retract the latter part of the quotation from his speech, and to admit that in doing a great right to a wealthy titled family, he has done a little wrong to a poor humble man ? — Your obedient servant, Thomas Toke, Omeo, Victoria, Australia, December, 1872." It is said in Paris that the marriage of the Duke of Ediuburgh will not take place till next March, and that before it does take place the Queen will pay a visit to St. Petersburg. There is an agititation in Sydney and Melbourne for a free cable message from England for the public and Press. It is believed that the two Governments are favorable, if other Colonies will contribute. An accident ocurred on Tuesday at Fox's, Wairaea, to a miner named John Barron. He was standing on a dead tree, when the tree slipping, threw him down and broke his leg. He was brought to Hokitika on Wednesday, and immediately attended to by Dr Maunsell, who accompanied him to the steps and saw him safely into a boat, in which the sufferer was conveyed to the hospital. j The Lyitelton Times states that there are now eight sub-divisions of Sons of Temperance, in New Zealand, comprising upwards of 700 members, besides four sub-divisions of Daughters of Temperance. Judge ftogan has given instructions to commence a criminal action against the Wanganui Herald, for libels contained in letters from the Foxton correspondent of that journal. The Superintendent of Taranaki has promised to exert himself to procure the exemption of lay preachers from payment of tolls in that Province; The idea of charging so much per word for telegraphic messages, instead of so much per ten or twenty words, is steadily growing into favor in Australia, and its adoption, it is thought, would prove equally beneficial to telegraph companies as to their customers, and especially on long sea and land lines, where the minimum cost of a message in thousands of instances precludes those messages being sent, and has also led to the system of what is called " packing j" that is, putting two or three messages for different persons into one message, jwhich is received by an agent, and afterwards forwarded to their intended destination. There are regular agencies for carrying on this telegram packing business, and the telegraph companies, who have themselves alone to blame, are beginning to see the folly of a course which leads to such results. The new word system of charging is now in force in the United States, East and West Canada, British Columbia, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward's Island. A more or Ipss worthy Scotch wife was remonstrated with by her minister for her habit of beating her husband } she explained that her husband's conduct was Dot all that it ought to be. The minister recommending kindness and forgiveness, enjoined her no more to use her fists and nails, but to heap coals of fire on his head. " Well, minister/ replied the now enlightened wife, "fiinoe

\ou say sac, I'll try the coals, but I may tell ye that twa or three kettles o' boiling water nae wrochfc nae improvement." Taupo Quay, an Wanganui, lately presented the novel spectacle of a pakeha policeman takinc; a native ditto to the Hill. Some difficulty was experienced in getting the Maori functionary along until his ingenious captor persuaded him that their relative positions were reversed. The innocent deception was kept up till Matin found himself in durance vile. Mr Hughes, the chief officer of the s s. Star of the South, when assisting in the landing of cattle from the steamer on her last trip from Napier, was severely injured by a bull, who rushed him, and before he had time to get out of the way was caught in the side by the bull's horns. The inhabitants of Kaikoura, in the Marlborough Province, have held a public meeting to consider means to check the increase of rabbits in thatjdistrict. The followine; motion was agreed to : — " That the Provincial Council of Marlborough.be memorialised to declare the rabbits in the neighborhood of Kaikoura vermin, and to provide therein for some equitable mode of raising a fund in the district to facilitate their eradication, and also to beg the Council to support a petition to the General Assembly for a grant in aid of so necessary a purpose." About twenty gentlemen were appointed as a committee to prepare a petition and get signatures thereto. It is said by recent visitors to the Kaikoura that the rabbits have made fearful ravages, and yet it is seriously contemplated to introduce these pests into the Grey Valley farming districts.