THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1874

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1820, 5 June 1874, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1874

The first constitutional question which the representatives of the people of Westland have had to decide for themselves has been fairly fought out— and with that inevitable result,(under all free institutions, a thorough vindication of the principles of popular government. The Execu tive Bill has received the assent of the Superintendent, and is of course now law. Now that the question is so far settled, it may be worth while to take a retrospective view of the various phases which the administration of Westland has taken, and to point ouc how in each instance of change the popular will has made itself felt. We may commence by a reference to the time when 6. S. Sale was the Commissioner of the West Coast Gold- Gelds of Canterbury. Mr Sale was a man far ahead in point of ability and administrative capacity of any of those who have succeeded him in the Government of Westland, but he became unpopular, chiefly and naturally because he was looked upon as an irresponsible potentate — King Sale as he was called — and for that reason was removed from the pressure and influence of public opinion. To remedy matters, the Canterbury Government made a sort of compromise, by retaining Mr Sale as departmental chief, but placing nominally above him Mr Bonar as Gold-fields Secretary. But Mr Bonar was not a member of the Provincial Council ; all that 'could be said in favor 'of his appointment was that he was a resident of the West Coast and Mayor of Hokitika, and the system of Government was in no way changed. Mr Sale was quite as powerful as before, and Mr Bonar was only like himself a nominated officer. By and bye came the separation from Canterbury, with the establishment of a County,' first under its putative father, the Hon. John Hall, and afterwards' under a nominated head — that head being the previous Gold.fields; Secretary, Mr Bonar, but in its "very first session the County Council raised the (question of substituting election for nomination, in respect to the County Chairman. In the following year iTr-3868-r-the. Uounty. Act was amended, and the Chairmanship was made elective,

with the restriction that the Council only should elect, and that they must choose one of themselves. The very first result was a kind of protest against irresponsible power, for Mr Bonar was absolutely out of the running when the election took place, and for four years was entirely excluded from authority. But the principles of free government asserted themselves still further, and it is certain that even had the transformation into a Province not have taken place, the election of the chief administrator would have been left to the electors as a body, instead of to the Council. The Provincial constitution settled that point, and the same spirit which can be traced to have been at work for the last seven years in Westland has succeeded in imprinting, in unmisrakeable characters, the stamp if popular responsibility upon the administration of the affairs of the Province.

On the whole the Executive question has heen fought out fairly and cecently. Of course, in matters of this kind, and when opposite opinions rnn pretty hotly, strong things are occasionally said, and personalities are indulged in which have no real bearing upon the question at issue ; but throughout the discussion, both in the Council and outside of it, the conflict has been conducted with much less acrimony than might have been expected. It is true that the Register, which is supposed to represent the Superintendent, has complained of the unfair manner in which the supporters of the proposition of an Executive have urged their case, but we fail to discover anything of which complaint can properly be made. As far as ourselves are concerned, and this journal has had a good deal to do with bringing about the change, nothing has been said but what came fairly and properly within the scope of that criticism of public questions which public journals are expected to perform. In the Council, it is true, there have been a few exhibitions whijh are more to be attributed to ignorance than anything else, a sample of which was afforded on Wednesday ; but the Council as a whole must not be blamed for the follies of such political mountebanks as Mr Cuming, and it is to be hoped that the Council and the Superintendent will pull well together for the future.

The Council stands adjourned till Monday, by which day his Honor will, no doubt, be able to select his advisers. We presume that then the Education Bill will be pushed forward, and that the scheme of public works to be constructed out of the loan will be readjusted and decided upon. It is hardly necessary for the Council to do more than attend to these measures this session, excepting 'the passing of the Fencing and Impounding Bill. It is out of the question to take up the subject of the Road Boards during the present sitting, and perhaps it might be advisable to effect what change may be desirable by the legislation of the General Assembly. By the way, how is it that the Select Committee appointed to report upon the subject of the Road Boards has done nothing ? The long adjournment of the Council last week should have given members of Committees ample time to complete their work, for it did not necessarily follow that all business was to be suspended.

We have just received a private telegram stating that his Honor the Superintendent having invited Mr Guinness to form an Executive, that gentleman succeeded in doing so yesterday. The portfolios are distributed as follows : — Mr A. R. Guinness, Provincial Solicitor ; Mr J ohn White, Provincial Secretary aud Treasurer ; and Mr Peter Dungan, Gold-fields Repesentative. We presume that Mr White will, as a matter of course, .resign the Speakership, and it is probable that he will also see it to be his duty to resign his seat in the House of Representatives, for it would hardly coincide with what has been expressed in the Council if both the Superintendent and the Secretary and Treasurer were to be absent for three months at Wellington. We have no complaint to make of the composition of the new Executive — in fact Mr Guinness has probably made the best selection that could be made under the circumstances. We shall, however, be better able to express an opinion when the policy of the new Executive is laid before the Council.

Mr Higgenson, Inspecting Engineer for the General Government, arrived in town yesterday, and it is expected that he will be joined by Mr Carrutbers, Engineer-in-Chief, on Saturday or Sunday, who is expected by the Alhambra. from Wellington.

At the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, James Leonard was fined 5s for having been drunk.

Yesterday, the District Coroner, W. H. Revell, Esq., held two inquests at Paroa. The first was regarding the late fire in which the result was an open verdict, to the effect that a fire took place, but by what means the jury were unable to say. We do rot consider it necessary to publish the evidence at length, as it differed only on one point from what we published yesterday. That point was that we stated that the billiardroom of the Bridge Hotel floor had previously caught fire, which was contiadicted by Mr O'Connor. The second inquest held as to the death of the girl Elizabeth Houghton, resulted in a verdict of "Accidental Deah." The Coroner and police officers returned to town at a late hour last night. At the meeting of the Greymouth Lodge, E.C., on Tuesday night, the Rev. GTJ. Watkins, Incumbent of Trinity Church, was elected W. M. for the ensuing year. The instal'ation will take place at the next monthly meeting of the Lodge.

' We are informed by Messrs ft. W. Moss and Co, local agents for the Colonial Bank, that the proposed Colonial Bank of New Zetland will be successfully floated, there having been 70,000 shares already applieo for in Otago alone, and a large number of shares are also expected to be taken up in Canterbury, Nelson, Wellington, and Auckland. It is confidently anticipated that when the lists of the various agents are to hand, and the same will close in a few days, that the fall amount of the capital will have been subscribed.

Yeßt-rday twelve immigrants from home, who were brought out under the nominated systiem, arrived by : the s.s Waipara, They arrived at Wellington by the ship La Hogue and were brought round by the Waipara on her last trip.

The. chief items of interest in connection with the mines at the Lyell, are the discovery of really good gold at the .' ong Drive, and the early completion of the re.pairs aud a.teiation of the only available machine. .

The Provincial Council of Otago, on the motion of Mr be la Tour, have ag-un affirmed the desirability of reducing the gold duty by 0d per ounce.

The Bank of New vSoufch Wales has purchased in Invercargill a section in Dee street, for LSOQ, or at the rate of L 25 per foot frontage of unimproved land.

The publicans of Invercargill have been warned by the police that they intend prosecuting anyone infringing the law relating to Sunday trading.

Some interest is being taken on the Thames by friends of the late Mr Kynnersley, Commissioner on the Nelson South-west GoldReids, in the proposal to erect a monument to his memory. Mr Tyler, soMcitor, at the request of Dr Giles, of Westport, is moving in the matter.

The wandering lunatic who has kept in a state of disquiet many residents along the Buller road for some weeks past, is now in safe custody. The Westport Times aayn :— " Heis known by the sobriquet of Or inky Davy, and has led a hatrer's life for a long time past, indulging at times in grog-shanty notations, which served to increase his inrirmity. On Friday, the 15th ult , he entered the hut of a p* rson named Green, and, during the temporary absence of other residents, attacked a young female of that name and attempted to stab her with a knife. Her shrieks called her brother to the rescue, who dragged away the maniac and administered to him a good drubbing. The unfortunate is namad David Davidson, and is a native ot Norway. He is now an inmate of the Reef ton lock-up, and a morning or two since on the sergeant visiting the cell, he was seized by the shoulders by the madman, and for nearly an hour could not release himself from the iron embrace of the demented man. Even the Herculean powers of another constable were not sufficient to effect a separation, till at length the man became exhausted and yielded."

A contemporary says: — "Two very evident offenders had reason to thank Mr Bathgate, the Dunedin R.M., lately for his lynx-eyed capacity of discovering informalities in the summonses. A querulous fellow was charged with being drunk in a public place, but the Magistrate, to his apparent joy, ruled that a right-of-way leading into a private yard, could not be recognised as a "pubic place," and liberated accused; whilst, in the second instance, a woman of recent importation, whose character is not considered unimpeachable, was brought up for being a vagrant, but the information was wrongly dated, and she was discharged."

Port Chalmers claims to be remarkable for the lowness of its death rate. Since November last not one person has died from disease that could be attributed to locality.

The Rev. Dr Cameron, of St. Kilda, Melbourne, received a call from the congregation of the First Church, Dunedi •, but has not accepted.

The Wellington Independent writes :— " Several of tne earlier residents of Wesr.land seem to be betiking themselves to fresh fields, and Wellington City and Province are apparently selected as suitable situations for their enterprise. One new firm is now being established in this City as wholesale drapers —namely Messrs Thompson au«l Shannon — inclu es the leading partner «f the firm of Messrs Thompson, Smith, and Barkley, of Greymouth, Westport, and other towns on the Coast. Another ne.w inn established here includes Mr Mace and Mr Arkell, who are now making the preliminary preparations for starting an extensive b>-ewerj. such as they have managed with success elsewhere, Mr Fin lay, of" the firm of Findlay an-l Haworth, of Hokitika, as has been men tioned is now in the interior examining some of the timber districts of the Province, and Mr Willum Evans, importer, of the same place, is in search of anew locality for settle meat. Mr Prichard, now in Wellingtou, and Mr J P. KJ, in are other old residents of the West <"oast who have ceased business there, and several more have lately been on a visit to this Province, investing their capital in the purchase of land in the Patea district and elsewhere."

The following items of quartz intelligence are from the Cromwell Argus ( ( Hago) :— "The Young Australian claim crushed 138 tons of stone, which yielded 181£nz of retorted goR Tho Royal Standard Company finished a crushing of 40 tons of stone on the 12th inst. The yield was 540z of retorted gold. The Try- Again Company had 59 tons of stone crushed some time ago at the Royal Standard battery, which gave a yield of 45£oz The company is now busy grassing stone, 'ihe reef cut the other day ia the Star of the Bast tunnel is certainly to all appearances the most valuable discovery that has been made on the Carrick Range. The reef is about 18in thick, and, judging from prospects, it ought to yield not less than loz to the ton. The reef is cut at a good depth, and there cannot be less than 300 ft of stone overhead The Heart of Oak Company finished, a crushing of 64 tons of stone on Satuoday. The yield of gold is not yet known, but will likely be somewhere about lOOoz"

A contemporary says : — " Once more little Schafer, thb^amatory traveller,, makes his appearance. Many will remember the little traveller with his -inordinate vanity and his sudden love affairs, olio of distinguished people, wh"se signatures he obtained, and probably subscriptions along with thorn. In Nelson or Punedin, poor Schafer had sund y l<>ve affairs, and in one instance was induced to fight a mock duel with a German compatriot, who fell wounded from a severe patch of vermilion on his forehead, and the traveller for a time was kept in great terror. His marriage with a Maori, in Uhinemuri, was of the results of his vist to Auckland ; but his life in the woods with the dark-eyed maid did not suit him long, and he departed, perhaps getting a broad Maori hint to do so, such hints being akin to the Irishman's which took the complexion of throwing the man out of the window. The poor little fellow afterwards attempted suicide in Australia, and spent a few months in gaol to consider the impropriety of trying to take even what he termed his miserable life. He turns up again in some inland town in Victoria, where a local newspaper says of him : ' Mr Schafer writes, requesting us to state that. he would be grateful for any subscriptions that might be Bent to us on his account, to enable him to pursue his journey through China and the East.' People are tired of purposeless travellers, who merely collect authographs, and manage to shirk work ; and we should suppose the gold will not roll in rapidly to the account of funny, lazy, little vSchafer."

The following are the amended rating cKusps of the new Auckland Education Bill, which is now before the Council :—" For raising the necessary funds for carrying out the provisions of the said Act and of this Act there shall be levied yearly upon every householder residing within the Province an annual household rate, to be levied aad assessed according to th-4 annual value to let of the dwelling house occupied by him in manner and proportion following, that is to say :— For every dwelling house of the annual value of LlO, a rate not exceeding LI per annum. For every dwelling house of an annual value excnodinn LlO, but not exceeding LSO, a rate not exceeding L 2 per annum. For every dwelling house of an annual value exceeding LSO, but not exceeding LIOO, L 3 per annum. And for every dwelling house of ana nnual value exceeding LI 0, a rat* uot exceeding L 4 per -annum Or such proportionate parts of said rates respectively as shall be fixed annually by the Board." Then follow provisions for collecting the rate, and then comes the liacHelor taxing clause, thus . — " For the purpose of making further pr 0 '

vision for raising funds to carry out the provisions of the said Act and this Act, an annual rate, to be fixed by the Board, not exceeding ten shillings in any one year, shall be levied upon every male person of the age of twenty-one ysars and upwards residing within the Province, who shall hot be liable to pay the household rate hereinbefore provided/ --- •«—.-.

Two curious occurrences are reported as having happened in church recently. The Murray and Hume Times states, that not a hundred miles from -the Border, as a worthy clergyman was preaching f rom_ the. text, "And there shall be' light at eventide,' 1 one. by one the lamps — which, like those of the foolish virgins, had not been supplied with their modicum of oil— went out, leaving clergyman and congregation in all but total darkness, and causing them to wish for a practical realisation of the words of .thetext. No light, however, came, and the congregation had to dispprse to their several homes. The Talbot Leader gives an incident of a different character: — "A young man, who belongs to a 'seb,' among whom euchre is the principal intellectual study, took a young lady to church the other Sunday evening, and fell into a gentle doze before the minister had reached his • thirdly." He cannot explain how it happened, but just as the rev. gentlemen said something about the ' last trump,' the young mail earnestly ejaculated, •I'll go alone 1' The young lady says the next time he can 4 go alone,' for she won't go with him. And she left him to go home alone, too."