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Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1805, 19 May 1874, Page 2

The Governor has appointed Caleb Whitefoord, Esq., to be Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, and also Yaccinatioa Inspector for the district of Ahaura; :Mr S G. Rowley is appointed vo similar offices for the district of Cbbdep. The Public Vaccinators for the districts are : — Ahau-a, Dr Phillips; Cobden, Dr Smith. The districts of Cobiien and Ahaura have been constituted vaccination districts, an<l the places and times for th i performance or vaccination are appointed as follows :— Th>> Resident Magistrate's Court, Uobden; and the Resident Ma. is t rate's Court, Ahaura Attendance for vaccination : The first Wed nesday in each month, and at the same plane. on the same days in the following week aftu> vaccination performed, from 12 noon till 2 p.m.

The prisoner Albert Cormick, who wa» ari rested at Ahaura on a charge of stealing a meerschaum pipe from Rowley's boarding house, Greymouth, was brought up before the Magistrate, yesterday morning, and discharged, as the prosecutor said he did not believe there was any felonious intent on the prisoner's part. William Watson was charged with having been illegally on the premises of William Splaine.' 15 appeared that the defendant had oeen in Splaine's employment, and after some explanations, the charge was dismissed with a caution.

The illuminated address presented by the Fire Brigade to Mr F. W. Paul has been finished and handed over to Captain Eissenhardt for the signatures of the members. Mr Curie, to whom the work was entrusted, has thoroughly carried out his instructions, which were, to produce the best" he possibly could. That best is really most excellent, and is alike creditable to the artist and worthy of the Fire Brigade. ; . ;

The increase of rates for freight from Greymouth to Reef ton has already, says the Westport Times, given an impetus to the cargo boat traffic ci the Bul'er, order coming down; to; Westport sufficient to keep the boats now running actively employed. It is said that (arrangements have been made for putting another line of boats on the river, not only for taking up cargo but for bringing down farm produce. :

The right to occupy two booths under the Stand at the Hokitika Races, to be held on the Queen's Birthday, were sold by auction on Saturday afternoon, but they only realised L 5 5s and L 3 15s respectively, a grand total of L 9.

At a meeting of the Committee of the Grey District Auxiliary Bible Society held last' week, the question was mooted as to the desirability of continuing a depot for the Bale of bibles in this district. Several mem■ber.B of the Committee appeared to think that it was not needed, and that a more efficient mode of aiding the Parent Society would be to make arrangements for an annual subscription to its funds, as, however, the attendance at the meeting was small, the consideration of the question was deferred until a future meeting.

Considerable alarm was recently caused in Melbourne by the unpleasant discovery that soda-water made there contains a quantity of copper in solution. 'In one case, copper was obtained from one bottle of soda-water so as to thickly coat a needle with copper. The copper in solution, in aerated waters, is found to be not v ' confined to the manufactures of one ( firm, but those of several firms have been proved to contain it.

'The' Wellington Independent of the 14th says :— " The brigantine Gleaner, from Greymouth, with: a cargo of West Coast coal, is now discharging at the wharf. ..The coal, although too abounding in slack, looks very well ; but "on fracture it has a glossy appearance rather than the brightness of Newcastle coal. We, have no doubt, however, that the coal will prove really serviceable for ail ordinary purposes. "

' ! The' 'General Government Gazette, of the 7th inst., contaius a proclamation by the Governor, under the Registration Act, 1858, dividing the 1 Registrar's district, formerly described at |*the t'obden district, "into two, the boundaries l of which are thus described : — "Cobden: Commencing at the south headland of the Porarari hiver; thence along the watershed line which includes all the drainage area of the Porarari River to the Paparohavi ßange ; thence along the Paparoka Range southward, to the junction of the River Arnold and the River Grey j ihence following the, River Grey to the sea, iand byt.he.BeajCoaat.to the south headland of the Porarari River. Ahaura ; Commencing .at! the , junction of the Arnold and!! Grey Bivers, following the boundaries of <! the Cobden district, and the Charleston district along theisumniitrof the Paparoha Range till

it meets a straight line drawn from tlie mouth of the 7'otara Kiver to the saddle between th£ Mawhera-iti and Inangahua $jivers ; ■*h'enc;e along the said line to the $Jaid saddle j v thence along the watershed ! between-the Grey River, and its tributaries on the south, and the Buller River and its tributaries on the, north, to the range which fjrms the watershed between the River Waiawua-and4ta tributaries, -and the River Grey and ita tributaries ; thence along that range ■' to the saddle between the Rivers Huruuui and Teremakau ; thence along the boundary of the Canterbury Province to the junction of the Grey and Arnold Rivers." These districts are appointed chiefly for the registration of births, deaths, and marriages, and a notice in the same Gazette draws attention to the alteration in respect of the registration of marriages.

Our files of London newspapers, received by this month's mail, give further illustration of what temperance by Act of Parliament really amounts to. The Commissioners of Inland Revenue, in presenting their annual report, remarked upon the larger figures it contained as follows :—" We believe th»t such an extraordinary increase, purely from natural growth of revenue, as that -hown above, has never before been recorded in the accounts of our department It is derived almost entirely from spirits and beer. . The excise duties on spirits show an increase during the year of L 1,474,94:7 " Publicans, it would appear, sell more under the new Licensing Act than under the old one ; <>r there is more Hritish gin sold by the grocers; or perhaps in may be, as Punch suggests, the consumers, ''limited as to time for tippling, are thereby incited to make the most of their time. Tempusfugit is a bacchanalian as well as a moral legend :. witness drinking songs which onr forefathers used to sing after dinner." In Wellington, we (Independent) are assured, the closing of public-houses on Sunday has resulted in an increased sale of liquor. . The consumers drink more on Saturday nights, arid then take a store home for Sunday's drinking bout. Such seems to be the effect of fanatic legislation all, the worli over. Statistics by the. ream showing the evils of drunkenness do not alter facts concerning the sale of liquor, and the spread of evil as a consequence of foolish lawmaking.