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Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1555, 30 July 1873, Page 2

At the Resident Magistrate's Court, yes- ; terdiy, before f. Greenwood and R. C. Reid, ; Esqrs., J. P. , the following • civil cases were disposed of :— P. McCarthy and Co. v. But- ( ler, Araliura— -adjourned till Friday, Ist August. Magoffinl and Fraser v. Curtis and Patteson— This was a. claim of L 6 10s lid, which was dismissed with costs. Another suit between : the; same parties to recover L 9 6s 4d was also dismissed with costs. D. Magoffiri v. F. Stringer— Judgment for the plaintiff for L 5 Is and costs. A. Hildebrand v. J.Fullerton— Claim of L 3 7135; adjourned, being outside the jurisdiction of the Court.* A. Langford v. C; Brown— A claim of L 5 ; judgment was given for plaintiff for L 2 10s and costs. Magoffih and Fraser v . Wm. Penrose—Judgment: for plaintiffs' for L 9 Is Sd and costs. Magoffin and Frazer v. Penrdse and party— Judgment for L 6 1 9s and costs. C. L. Morice v. Jones— Judgment for L 6 4s 6d and coats. : In the County Council, on Monday evening, Mr Bonar. presented a petition frjom the Hokitika Fire Brigade, praying for assistance from the County- Government. — Mr Bonar brought up the report of the Select Committee on Mr Nancarr'ow's application, which •was unfavorable' to 'the "petitioner. The report, after a slight amendment, was received. —A motion to the effect that seniority in the service and general fitness should be taken into account where officers of the police are appointed gold receivers, was, after some discussion, carried. — It was resolved, thatin all cases where gold-mining leases are applied for, the provisions of the 29th section of the Gold-fields Act, with regard to advertising in the local newspapers, should be complijsd with.— Mr Cassius's motion,, that it is desirable that Westlarid should be included in the : railway system, was carried. — MrEdwin Blake was appointed toll-collector at the Kawtiaka gate.— (he estimates were then proceeded with, arid the police estimates were all voted without alteration, excepting that one mounted constable was struck off and one foot constable added. .-., Telegraphic communication with all but West Coast stations was interrupted to-day. But for this interruption we should prbbably have had a summary of Mr Vogel's "Financial Statement, which was expected to be made in the House of Representatives last evening. In the District Court, Hokitika, on Monday, in the matter of the Bell Hill Waterrace and Gold-mining Company, Mr Button suggested that his Honor might reserve judgment in reference to the new issue of shares, but authorise the liquidator to divide the estate; the liquidator to have leave, within three months, to apply to the Court for judgment in relation to the new issue cf shares. Mr A. Scott, liquidator; had no objection to this course, and, indeed, preferred it, as he was desirous to pay the creditors their dividends out of the money now locked lip in the bank, particularly as he knew some of them were sadly in' want of it. His Honor said the point arising out of the matter on .whic.i it had been suggested judgment should be reserved; , had neyer, to his'knowledge, been raised before, and he would freatly like to obtain the assistance of Mr ustice Richmond, though he might not be able to state a case for thatrgentleman; His Honor Judge Richmond would be in Hokitika in a few weeks, when the case could be argued, The suggestion of Mr Button was therefore adopted, and an order in accordance with it made. Californian papers, of 'May 9, hare been .received in Sydney. They report : a terrible railway accident in Illinois, by < which i one hundred lives had been sacrificed. Also that Hall's expedition to the North Pole has ended disastrously. After reaching the Polar Sea,' . Hall became paralysed, v and died in a ', few days. The crew were compelled to abandon ,the f steamer, and a portion were ! rescued by a whaler, and landed at St. John's, ', .New Brunswick. ' [ A presentation, subscribed td^by a large number of Masonic lodges, was made to Bro. j ,R, W.D.G.M. Lazar, of Hokitika, onMonday evening at the Masonic Hall, Revell street, Hokitika. . ( Latest information from the Lyell district 1 states that the Excelsior plates are looking ■ well, and everything about the mill is in ] satisfactory order, and the crushing going on steadily. About lOOoz of amalgam have ■ been got out of the cover boxes and the ■ skimming of the quicksilver ripples, obtained : at i such times as the shoes of the stampers are lifted. ; The'other ripples and plates will ', not be touched ' until v the finishing of the crushing^ Up to Friday last 137 ' tons had • been put through^, all . good weight 1 stone: : The mine is working well, but owing to the quantity of water, work has been knocked off in the lower shaft/miich to the regret of the ' manager, as the reef there is 3ft to 4ft wjde, all splendid ; stone and thickening as it ( deepens. . ,>..-;. • : ••'•:' ' i In describing the ppeniDg of Parliament by ' Sir James Ferguson, a correspondent of the 1 Nelson Examiner says :— " The thing was 1 well done ; : minutise well studied— wigs; j powder, knee-breeches, isilk stockings, mili- 1 tary uniforms— all the possible adjuncts of .< Court ceremonial were in their proper place. ,

iiter the members of the House of Reprelentatives, with their Speaker at their head, vppeared at the bar of the Upper House, Eis Excellency proceeded to read in a clear liatinet voice, and with a correct emphasis, bhe speech which is already known all over bhe Colony. He neither gushes nor gesticulates like his predecessor, for which, perhaps ethnology can assign a reason. At its conclusion he handed the manuscript to Dr Pollen, the Minister in attendance, and.re-tired-in silence as he had come. Then the guard of honor, the equipages, the silkstockinged bewigged men, and the salvoes of artillery, came into vogue again ; the Commons retired to their own quarters, and the legislative work of the session began." Specimens of a new potato named the "Early Hose" have lately been imported into the Colony. It has created quite a sensation in America, where, when they first came into notice a few years ago, they sold at fabulous prices. The Gardeners' Magazine states that as much as 40 dollars a tuber was paid for them in some instances — LlO for a single potato, while three to I our dollars a pouad was a common price. The recommendation of this wonderful tuber is, that it crops wonderfully, and that its flavor surpasses that of the old Ashleaf . A correspondent thus describes the interior of the Houses of Parliament in Wellington : —The buildings maybe termed a composite kind of construction groined roof, flattened at the top ; walls and roof painted white-^--the oil, not the flat, white ; and they would answer for either a warehouse, a theatre, an amphitheatre (were the floor enclosed in a circular form), a place for a demagogue to spout, ra for the present purpose. "Kapai Marae," exclaims the Wanganui Herald, as it relates the following incident : —An old settler, when talking to a friend, was accosted by a Wahine, who stated that she was very hungry. The gentleman, having known her for some considerable time, and considering her a deserving woman, gave her half -a-crown to get some kai, and a few minutes afterwards she returned and placed a two shilling piece in his hand, saying that six pennorth was quite sufficient for her and her husband. Freemasonry appears to flourish in New Zealand, and to be rapidly enlarging the field of its operations, A t the last quarterly communication of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, Sir Michael R. Shaw Stewart, D.G.M., in the chair, petitions foi charters to the following new lodges in this Colony were presented and granted : — " Caledonian," Canterbury ; " Oamaru Kilwinning," Otago; "Patea," Taranaki; "Cromwell Kilwinning," Otago ; " Sir Walter Scott," Auckland ; and " St. Andrew," Urey mouth. The Lyell correspondent of the Westport Times says :— "From information gathered from men whom I can trust, and who have actually worked in the locality, and who have, swag on back, climbed or scrambled over ttie hills and mountains lying between the Lyell and Mokihinui, I am morally certain that there is a rich strip of country connecting thetwoabove mentionedlocalities, a strip ric"h in quartz and rich in alluvial. Men prospecting between the Lyell and Mokihinui have actually found gold in payable quantities, but the trouble and risk of procuring and ' tucker,' was so great as to effectually daunt them from settling down to heavy work. The privilege of occupying a seat in the New Zealand House of Representatives seems to be highly valued. There are, it is said, no fewer fchah eight candidates for the seat vacated by Mr Hallenstein, the member for the Wakatip district (Otago). The flev. W. B. Clarke, of Sydney, does not believe there is any likelihood of discovering a payable coal-field in Victoria. Mr Selwyn's opinion was adverse to the probability of such a discovery, and Mr Clarke has unquestioning faith iv Mr Selwyn's scientific diagnosis. " For my own part," he says in a paper read lately before the Lloyal Society of New South Wales, " I do not believe that the gentlemen at the head of the late Geographiral Surveyjdepartment could have been mistaken." Westport, according to a correspondent of the Times, is threatened by a new danger. He says :— ' ' I should like some of the members of the Committee and the new Municipal Councillors to come up and judge for themselves, and see the danger their town is in oi the river flowing into the Orawaiti, and leaving Westport on an island. Within the last seven years a hundred feet of land has been washed away just at. the overflow between the two rivers, and the fall is now so great that every little fresh washing over carries away at least two inches off the surface, and there is not at present more than six. or seven feet of hard loam coyered with drift, and one heavy flood may carry it all away. From a Scotch paper, received by the last mail, we observe that the miners in the coal pits on the east coast are already taking advantage of that clause in the new Mines Regulation Act which empowers them to; appoint any two of their mimber to inspect the mine in which they work. There is to be legislation on the same matter in Victoria. .',.■: Miss Clara Stephenaoa and company have been performing before crowded houses at Masterton, Wairarapa. Three hearty cheers were given at the end of the performance, for which Miss Stephenson gave most cordial thanks. : Mr Mercer has been elected Mayor of Dunedin. The following was the result of the poll :— Mercer, 970 ; Thoneman, 630; Barnes, 500. The Invercargill correspondent of the Dunedin Star says :— "We understand that Mr Winstanley, who has been acting for some time as second clerk in the Dunedin Post Office, will succeed Mr Butfcs as Chief Post-; master in this district, but we have been unable to learn whether the appointment will be permanent, or merely temporary." Mr Winstanley was formerly Postmaster at Westport. An advertisement for a "kind person to take charge of a baby" recently appeared in the Auckland Evening Star, and that journal states that before next day no less than twenty-four letters from persons anxious for the Daby were lying at the office of the advertiser. The result of the nomination for the election anew of the Municipal Councillors in Westport, resulted in bringing put three new candidates, in addition to seven out of the nine who previously polled the highest numbers of votes. Owing to the accidental absence of Messrs Corr and Field from town, and the impossibility of getting their signatures to the nomination papers in time, it was considered necessary to nominate two more candidates in their stead, and Messrs Munro and Organ were so nominated. Mr Fraseralso received a requisition to stand for election, and the supporters of Messrs Blacklock and Stitt were so sanguine that another polling would place theip candidates among the winning numbers, although they lost at the. election, that they also consented to venture upon the issue of another polling. Thus for the nine offices twelve candidates were nominated, and the election will come off on the 31st instant. Mr Fraser has retired from the candidature, and thus supposing the seven originally elected will again receive the votes of those v/ho first supported them, the two vacancies i caused by the displacement of Messrs G'orr and Field wis be filled by the election of .two out of the four ;other candidates, , nxmely, Messrs Munro,, Organ, etitt, and Blacklock,