THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1584, 2 September 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1873.

The following nominations for seats in .the Borough Council were made yesterday at the Town Clerk's office. The retiring members for the East, Middle, and West Wards are Messrs Woolcock, M'Gregor, and Dupre. For the East Ward, Messrs Charles Woolcock and VT. • J . Smith have been nominated ; for the Middle Ward. Messrs Walter Hill, Charles Holder, and George H. Acheson have been nominated; and for the West Ward Mr F. C. Dupre is returned unopposed. The election takes place on Thursday, the 11th inst. -

Mr Revell held a sitting of the Eesident Magistrate's Court at Maori Gully yesterday, where he also inspected the books of the Receiver of Revenue. He makes a tour of inspection in this way at Greenstone and Maredbn this week also, and will hold a Court at each place at the same time.

Great dissatisfaction is expressed in Christchurch at th" high price (if gas The charge of 16s 8d per 1000 is considered sxorbitant. There are rumors of fresh companies, and one is forming in Lyttelton.

For months the Bales of waste land in Canterbury have been unprecedented in the annals of the history of the Province, and rather than any diminution being visible, the contrary appears to lie the case. One day last week over 1,12,000 worth was sold, and this is considered nothing out < f the common.

The Canterbury correspondent of a Dunedin paper writes:— "Our West Coast cattle dealers are, I hear, dropping a good deal of money lately over their stock transactions owing to the very active competition to which they, are now subjected. Large fortunes, jour readers may be aware, have been made at this speculation, bat the cream of it is off for. the present."' ; ;

Our Oamaru contemporary — inappro. ■priately disguised under the name of North

Otago Times— has lately exhibited symptoms of originality in paragraphism. Here is an example:— " A love of brevity is daily introducing new additions to our motley English language. It has been reserved for an Oaraaruite to introduce the word 'beaued.' The following was the sentence in which the new word was used : — 'I have "Vieaued" only three sweethearts in Dunedin. If 'beaued' should be admitted into the vocabulary, no -logical reason can exist for not also admitting 'belled.' But there is one objection to the latter, namely— it would imply that the belles woo the beaux, which of course, is not correct. We congratulate the Oamaruites on the possession of a citizen who has added at least one new word to the English language." Here is another :— " The various educative influences of the present day seem to be incapable of eradicating vulgar conversational phraseology. A degraded rhetoric pervades the discourse of many speakers of the present day. For example, we lately heard the phrase 'Will take the guts out of the profits.' Assuming that the schoolmaster is what he should be, assuredly his influence for good must be neutralised by the influence for evil of vulgar adult speakers. Even the press occasionally prints the word ' rot ' As words indicate thoughts, the use of disgusting phrases would, at least, seem to indicate the moral character of the vulgar speaker. The well of English is daily being polluted by the slang which is being daily thrown into it."

The vVest Coast is deficient in the posession of men of "first-rate literary talent " such as they affect in Otago. The following is a sample of what is produced in a Tuapeka paper — which sample we respectfully recommend to the notice of our respected Grey Valley correspondent:— "The Frost King has laid his icy hand upon the district, and put a temporary Stop to all out-door work. By skating, snow-balling, sliding, and other wintry 3ports, we honor the visit; of his hoary majesty, who has huog bia crystal fcapesfcry, spun by fairy hands in a single night, upon the craggy cliffs of our mountains, and decorated the deep gorges and perpendicular walls of our turbulent rivers with transparent veils of solid ice, broken through here and there by shrubs' and profuse creepere of the brightest green, or the moss-covered foundations of the soaring peak above. In the open valleys the wheat is putting forth its tender blade of lovely green ; while on the hill above ' the seer, the yellow leaf ' is seen. The Lills o'ertop the frowning mountain's brow, are clad in nature's marvel, beauteous snow ; and, far beyond, the heaven's azure stretches" — — and- and— —

A disagreeable , fellow, who is probably married, and none the better by being so, thus sneers at a noble institution which the ignoble bachelors of Christchurch are endeavoring to organise :—" A new project is started here, which, I think, will be successful, if properly managed. The Club proper is of course terribly exclusive, black balls being rather the rule than the. exceptions Accordingly, a more general establishment is to be formed, where respectable quill-drivers, et hoc genus omne, may be permitted to congregate apart from the vulgar gaze of the Great Unwashed. Band, aud merchant clerks who are above paper collars figure very largely among the list of promoters, and moneyed gentlemen who have got into the habit of ignoring the memory of their grandfathers will show to the fore. This is about what it means : — Those who will become members of this Club, as a rule, consider it infra dig. to be seen drinking brandy— and — water in a public-house. The building will comprise bed-rooms, sitting-rooms, and billiard-rooms, and probably a respectable cuisine. Visitors to Christchurch, who have acquaintances here, will soon stand a chance of being accosted thus :- * Aw, how-de-do, aw ; come and dine with me at the Clubbaw I' Such is life "

Spiritualism in Qreymouth takes various I forms— chiefly sherry, port, gin, brandy, and whisky. There is not any such development as that which is thus described as having displayed itself in Melbourne :— We have had a new outburst of Spiritualism lately. This calls itself " Christian Spiritualism." While the ordinary Spiritualism is strongly anti-Christian, and even goes so faif as to speak, disrespectful of his Satanic Majesty, and to write books entitled "Is there a Devil ? or the Scarcecorow of Christianity unmasked ;" this form twaddles in a proChristian manner somewhat after the style of the ordinary pulpit, or rather more incohejrently. There is aMr Heginbottom, a wellf to-do citizen, who lately gone in for this kind of thing, and has brought out a trance iner dium, who, while in a state that you are expected to regard as a trance, becomes animated by the spirit of one John Pagan, and then raves a lot of disconnected nonsense that is supposed to be fraught with deep spiritual meaning. And this rubbish is listened to by a great many people with, reI verence and wonder.