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Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1735, 25 February 1874, Page 2

At the Resident Magistrate's Court, yesterday, Juliet East was lined L 2 and costs, or four days' imprisonment, for having made use of insulting and obscene language in a public place. Adam Irvine, for allowing a horse to wander at large in the streets, was fined 5s .and costs. Judgments were given in the following small-debt cases : — M'Dowell v Honlon, L29s ; Thomas and M\Beath v. Fullatton, LlO 12s; andftoy v. M'lntyre. LlO 12s and costs. We have received a letter from Half -Ounce complaining of the conduct of a drunken woman, who has become a pest to the whole of tho community. The conduct of the police is severely criticised in the matter, but as the female in question has once more been apprehended, and awaits trial, the comments of our correspondent must be withheld. An inspection parade of the Greymouth Rifle Volunteers takes place to-morrow night at the Volunteer Hall, at eight o'clock. All absentees from this parade will forfeit their capitation allowance. A meeting of the Company will be held after the parade, to consider several matters of importance. Tenders are called by the Assistant En-gineer-in-Chief for the construction of Section No. lof the Bowen and Okarito road. The length of the section is seven miles fifteen chains. Tenders must be sent in to the District Engineer's Office, Greymouth, up to Tuesday, the 10th March. Further details will be found in our advertising columns. The members of the Executive, who are now on their travels, are expected at Ahaura at the end of the week. Deputations from ocvcial ol tne districts will waic upon the members of the Government before then. The necessity of reserving a Common near Ahaura, and the great importance of such a reserve in connection with the Canterbury and Grey Valley cattle trade, will be placed forcibly before the Executive.

The hon. secretary of the Grey River Hospital begs to acknowledge receipt of 15s from Mr H. Kenrick, being the amount of the judgment recovered yesterday in the case W. J. Coburn v. Clara Dunbevan, and handed over to the hospital. Mr J. D. Pinkerton, of Ahaura, one of the former members of the Provincial Council of Nelson for the Grey Valley, has signified his positive intention of again offering himself for re-election should Mr Prank Guinness resign his seat, of which there is not an ab solute certainty, or should a vacancy occur through any other cause. Mr Pinkerton was one of the unsuccessful candidates at the last election, and his supporters consider he lost the seat through delay in declaring iais intention to stand. To prevent a repetition of the consequences of the omission Mr Pinkerton is taking time by the forelock o,n the present occasion.— Mr J. W. Jones, of CalJaghan Creek, the Chairman of the Grey Valley Koad Board, has also notified to us his intention to contest the vacancy in the representation of the Grey Valley in the Nelson Provincial Council should Mr Guinness resign his seat.— lt is also rumored that Dr Robb, of No Town, will come forward for election should a vacancy occur.— Mr D. J. M 'Kenna, of Ahaura, was also spoken of as likely to become a candidate, but Mr M'Kenna's friends have privately contradicted the report that that gentleman intended to come forward. The potato crop in the Waikato district will be a comparative failure owing to the long drought. Grass also is failing ; the little rain that has fallen during the last week has had little or no perceptible effect on the parched land. Unless rain in considerable quantities falls shortly a large number of cattle wi'l have to be hurried to market or held till next year. A deputation that recently waited upon the Victorian Commissioner of Public Works stated that between L 300.000 or 1400,000 worth of timber was stacked near the Australian Wharf, Melbourne. The bush has been on fire in all directions around Ahaura for the last week. On Saturday, the heavy timber along the Napoleon road took fire, and continued blazing throughout Sunday and Monday, the flames spreading in the direction of the town. The hospital building was in great danger on Monday evening ; in fact it did once actually take fire through the burning sparks falling on it from the burning trees, and but for the active exertions of Sub-Inspector Goodall and a gang of volunteer firemen, ifc would have been destroyed. Tho bush on both sides of the main road between Ahaura and Nelson Creek was burning fiercely on Monday, and at least one narrow escape from the falling timber is reported. A late English telegram stated that the Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench had made some strong remarks as to the disgraceful manner in which English witnessess were brow-beatcd by lawyers. As such conduct is very generally imitated by Colonial lawyers, Me append his Lordship's remarks : " I deeply deplore that members of the bar so frequently put, unnecessarily, questions affecting the nrivate life of witnesses, which are .only justifiable when they goto the credibility of a witness. I have watched closely the administration of justice in Faance, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and a little in Spain, as well as in the United States, in Canada, and in Ireland, and in no place have 1 seen witnesses so badgered, brow* beaten, and in every way so brutally ma!-

treated as in England. The -way in which we treat our witnesses is a national disgrace, and seriously obstructs instead of furthering the ends of justice. In England the most honorable and conscientious men loathe the witness-box. Men and women of all ranks shrink with terrorf roni subjecting themselves to the wanton insult and bullying, misnamed cross-examination, in our English Courts. Watch the tremor that passes the frains of uaariy persons as they enter the witness-box. I remember to have seen so distinguished a man as the late Sir Benjamin Brodie shiver as he entered the witness-box. I dare say hia apprehension amounted to an exquisite torture. Witnesses a^e just as necessary for the administration of justices aa judges or jurymen, and are entitled to be treated with the same consideration, and their affairs and private lives ought to be held as sacred from the gaze of the public as those of the judges or the jurymen. I venture to think that it is the duty of the judge to allow no questions to be put to a witness unless such as are clearly pertinent to the issue before the Court, except where the credibility of the witness is deliberately challenged by counsel, and that the credibility of a witness should not be wantonly challenged on slight grounds." The right to the grand stand, booths, gates, &c, on th 6 course at the forthcoming Ahaura races were sold by auction at Ahaura on Monday. The several lots realised good prices, the total proceeds being considerably above the estimate of the- stewards. The grand stand was purchased by the stewards. A stewards' and secretary's room, and a retiring room for ladies, are to be built, and other improvements made ; when these are completed the booth in connection with the grand stand will be rented. Booths Nos. 1 north and south of the grand stand were secured by Mr Jas. M'Laughlin, and Mr John Hessey took the remaining booth. Mr G. JR. Slu-arstone. became the lessee of the gates, with the responsibility of providing a secure means of fastening horses on the course. Mr 11. Reeves was the auctioneer. The locust can be heard a sixteenth of a mile. An ordinary man will outweigh 15,000 of them. Were his voice proportional to his weight, in the ratio of the locusts, he could be heard over 1000 miles. A flea weighs less than a grain, and leaps a yard and a half. Were a man of 1501 b weight possessed of equivalent agility, he could spring from the dome of the Capitol to China, and almost go round the world in two jumps. The Newcastle Chronicle says:— "During the last three working days of last week no less a quantity than 4489 tons of coal were brought to bank at Cambois Colliery, thus averaging close on 1500 tons for each of the three days— a feat unparalleled in the history of the Northumberland coal trade. The last crushing of the Cromwell Quartz Mining Company gave 25Goz from n'f ty-f our tons of stone, being at the rate of four ounces to the ton. The Kaitangata sawmills, Otago, were totally destroyed on the 6th instant, and the loss is estimated at LISOO, of which LIOOO was covered by insurance. The engine alone was saved. From the Cornwall Chronicle (Tasmania) we learn that a splendid yield of gold was obtained from the Golden Point claim (Goodwin's) at the Nine Mile Springs. Mr Russell, the mining manager, reports that 35 tons quartz and 15 tons tailings and mullock were passed through the battery for 1002oz of amalgam, which when retorted gave the magnificent yield of 5280z gold. Only a few days since the same party crushed a parcel of picked scone, weighing 12c wt, frem which 87oz of gold were obtained. Mr Menlove, of Windsor Park, Otago, it is said, intends shipping nearly all his wheat crop to the England market. The drainage scheme proposed for Dunedin, it is estimated will entail an expenditure of LIOO.OOO.

Mr K. Millett, the Resident Engineer, at the Thames, di d suddenly the other clay. An immense haul of fish was made on Saturday last by natives at Maketu, Auckland. The net was three-quarters of a mile long, and 350 drew it in. It contained 4000 fish, weighing 10 tons, The Eutopeans share is one ton. The Tuapeha Tivies tells us that the reef at Waipori is looking well. Stone has been | struck both north and south of the O.P.Q. Company's claim, and from appearances will pay handsomely. Crushing operations will probably be delaayed until the Golden Point Water-race is brought in. The intention of the present shareholders is to drive tbeir machinery with water-power. Nine drinking fountains are to be erected l in different parts of the city of Uunedin. They will be fixed on the edge of the footpath. Each, fountain will be provided with two ladles and a self-acting tap. A discovery of iron ore, the importance of which can scarcely be estimated, has been made iri the Longwood district. The Riverton paper is not at liberty to publish the locality or give any particulars, further than the report of Professor Black on samples from, the lode forwarded to him, which is as follows:— " Dunedin, 16th September. Specimen No. 101 is a excellent sample of specular iron ore. It has the same chemical composition as hematite, and is one of the best known ores of iron. When perfectly pure it contains 70 per cent, of iron, the balance -30 per cent, —being oxygen. The sample analysed yielded a little over 60 per cent of the metal, 26 per cent oxygen, and 12 per cent, silica and other impurities. It is from this ore that the best Elba iron, long so famous, was manufactured. From the above analysis you will see that it is considerably richer than the Taranaki sand, and is free from titanium, so objectionable in that deposit. I should say that if there is a quantity of the ore easily accessible to coal, it will be one of the mosc valuable discoveries made in the Colony for some time. — Jamos G. Black, Provincial Analyst." A report from the Professor, dated 2nd December, on another sample, states that " it is an excellent ore of iron, as it contains 70 per cent, of the metal." The following important piece of information will be read with interest by the mining community. A few days ago the Provincial Government of Otago telegraphed to the various receivers of gold in the mining districts of the Province, instructing them to receive gold from tbe miners for transmission to Australia, where it will be coined into sovereigns at the Mint, and its full value returned to the depositors in cash. Complaints have been made for some time past that the Banks have beea giving too low a price for the gold, and the action on the part of the Provincial Government will no doubt have the desired effect of making the Banks offer the miners a couple of shillings more per ounce.