Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1943, 28 October 1874, Page 2

The postal authorities announce that the s.s. Hero will leave Auckland for Sydney to-morrow, at noon, and will carry telegrams to any .place in Victoria, South Australia, N<jw South Wales, and Queensland, if delivered at the Telegraph Office here by 9 a.m. on that day. The Hospital Removal Committee met last night at Gilmer's Hotel, Dr Acheson in ths chair. Mr Eissenbardt received instructions to prepare plans for the new Hospital, and, if possible, to have them ready, in order that they may be submitted to the Hospital Committee this evening. A tender was accepted for clearing and grubbing the Hospital Reserve. A meeting of the Committee of the Greymouth Literary Society was held on Monday evening. Ihe principal business was the election of officers for the ensuing twelve months. Mr James Hamilton was unanimously elected president of the Society, and Mr J. H. A. Lyell, treasurer. Mr F Minnett consented to act as honorary secretary until the appointment of a

secretary and librarian was marie. Subcommittees wore appointed to canvass for subscribers, atrl they are to perform their duties during this month. It was decided that arrangements should be made to appoint sub-committees in the mining townships, who would have the disposal of books or periodicals that might be forwarded to their care. A catalogue of tbe books, &c, in the library is to be printed, and the appointment of a librarian and paid secretary is to take place within a week. His Honor .Tudgtf Harvey left for Westport at 11.30 last night. A sitting of the District Court for the disposal of civil and criminal business is to be held at Westport to-day. We notice that tlie. Public Works Department advertise in the Wellington papers for the supply of 150 tons coal for railway p\irposes at Napier. It appears that the Superintending Engineer has no knowledge that the coal could have been procured in Greymouth. No doubt Newcastle coal will be supplied from Wellington— and this is how the Government fosters native industry ! His Honor the Superintendent, Mr Geisow, District Engineer, and Mr Kirton, Chief Postmaster, have been aDpointed arbitrators to fix the amount of compensation to be given to Messrs Casaidy and Clarke, the contractors for the Christchurch mail service, for losses sustained by the washing away of the road. The Customs Revenue of the Colony, for the September quarter, amounted to L 257,318, being an income of L 43.993 as against the receipt of the corresponding quarter in 1873. Westland contributed L 12.816; We learn from the "Westport Times" that late reports from the Karamea show that the mining population there still con- ! tinues steadily at work, and realise steadily ' profitable results. The bad weather so long prevailing has left its mark there a3 else- [ where. The crop of peaches, of which there was abundant promise, has been destroyed by the heavy storms, and sown crops generally are backward. A somewhat serious encroachment of the sea has been observable lately all along the Karamea bight, so much so that land hitherto considered available for agriculture has now lost its value for such purpose. The Nelson "Colonist," writing upoa the Para Para Iron Company, says:-" At length, after encountering immense difficulties, a company to work the coal seams at Aorere, and the beds of ironstone at Para Para, has been formed. The company was initiated in Melbourne, but the greater part of the capital has been subscribed in New Zealand, and Nelson representing the largest number of shares in any one place combined with her natural geographical position, will have a local directory. The nominal capital of the company as stated in the prospectus, is L 7500 in 1500 shares of L 5 esch, and the I requisite number of shares having been applied for, a managing director from Melbourne is expected shortly to arrive with full power to launch the works." According the "Otago Guardian" a serious omission has occurred withrespect to bringing the Act for the abolition of imprisonment for debt into op ".ration. Our contemporary says : — " The General Executive have contrived to extend the principle of abolition of imprisonment for debt very far beyond the intention of the Legislature. The Act passed last session came, or rather it was intended to come, into operation on the first day of the present month. And in view thereof, those sections of the Resident Magistrate's Act, 1866, which relate to the subject of imprisonment for debt were repealed. Now that the repealing Act directs that all proceedings taken thereunder shall be in the manner * prescribed by general rules and orders to be made by the Governor,' and it so happens that ' the Governor ' (meaning of course thereby his Executive) has not thought ifc necessary to make any such rules and orders. The existing state of affairs is therefore very pleasant to all fraudulenc debtors. The old Act is repealed, and the new Act cannot be put into operation. We do not know whether the necessity for attending to this business without delay has had auything to do with his Excellency's sudden departure from Dunedin. But we are aware that a member of the Assembly re- [ cbnbly received a telegram from Wellington sitting tiiafc tbe matter had been overlooked, and that nothing could be done until the return of the Governor." . On the occasion of Professor Fawcett's speech at Brighton the report oE which occupied more than two colums of tbe "Scotsman, a curious instance was afforded of I memory such as is not often, equalled. A gentleman who went down to Brighton in order to report the speech for fourteen news--1 papers, called upon the professor some time before its delivery, aud explaining thenatute of his business requested the favor of a statement of the principal points of the speech. ' Professor Fawcett very courteously proposed not only to give him the substance of his speech, but to rehearse the whole of it for him. This he did, and the reporter took ifc down. Later on, while the speech proper was being delivered, the original copy made made at the rehearsal was checked over word for word, and from beginning to end ; and so perfectly had the speech been committed to memory, there was not one single mistake, except that at one place a word had was substituted for its equivalent in the notes. We learn from the " Wanganui Herald " that the hospital of Wanganui is so full of patients that applications for further admissions have to be refused. "A large proportion of the patients are immigrants, and are as destitute of Colonial stamina as they are of funds. They neither pay for their attendance nor yield rapidly to the treatment they receive. " , The "Thames Advertiser says:— "Our | Ohinemuri correspondent, who is better acquainted with the doings of the Maori king than the editor of the "Southern Cross," or any of his informants, reports that [instead of being engaged pondering suggestions for the furtherance of the railway through the interior, and the promotion generally of the public works and immigration scheme, he has recently established a gunpowder manufactory, and besides making a stock for himself, is sending it to his friends around the settlement." A Waimean farmer complains in the Nelson "Colonist" of the depredations of the imported English birds. Qe says :— "On one piece of oat 3, which I believe was sown to be cab for oat -hay, there appeared at the rate of a bushel and a half to the acre destroyed, the shells of the corn lying thick all over the field, while the headlands and for some distance from the hedges the land was thickly strewn with the blades of the young corn which had been pulled up. WMi oats at 5s per bushel, and a loss of weight of say half a ton of hay at L 3 per ton, this would make a total loss of LI 17s 6d per acre. lam aware that the seed being thinner on the ground would tend to a stronger growth of straw, but this would not compensate in oat-hay. My own oats stand now at about half of what was sown. My peas were sown very thick and lightly ploughed in the hope of saving them, but as fast as they came up they were picked off j they appear to stand now at about half of what was sown, and other crops that I have seen have been destroyed in the same way."