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Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1960, 17 November 1874, Page 2

It will be a source of satisfaction to the public of Greymouth that his Honor the Superintendent of Westland has intimated his willingness to second the efforts of the Greymouth School Committe to obtain the present Court House for a school building. We cannot conceive that the General Government will raise any objection, the building itself being Provincial property, and there being ample room for the accommodation of the Resident Magistrate and the District Judge in the Hospital building, recently purchased by the Government. Should the proposal be accepted the initiation of the public school system in this town will be very much expedited, and a considerable sum of money be saved to the ratepayers, as the erection of a school building of anything like proper dimensions would make a great hole in the sum available for educational purp eses, and there is no site more or so suitable to be obtained. If the Court House were handed over, a very little expenditure of time and money would be required to convert it into a thoroughly suitable school building, and as 3oon as efficient teachers could be procured, and the necessary school appliances obtaining the first National School in Greymouth could beopened. r t is very desirable that no time should be lost, as we understadd that asaoon as the Education rate is struck most of the private schools in town will cease operations, as it is hardly likely that parents will pay rates for free education and fees to private schools at the same time. It is possible that, some difficulty will be found in obtaining a sufficient number of teachers, the funds at the disposal of the Committee bein? so small, and in this connection we may refer to some v*m*v interesting remarks in the New Zealand "Educational Gaz-tte" on the system of pupil teachers The writer in the " Gazette" considers the pupil teacher system aa being " not only the most effective when fairly put into operation, but as also b a ing by far the most econo mical in proportion to the work effected." In noticing the steps taken by the Canterbury Board of Education to provide pupil teachers, and the regulations made regarding them, the " Gazette " remarks : — " These regulations provide payment for male pupil teachers at the rate of £20 for the first, i!3O for the second, .£4O for the third, and £50 for the fourth year of apprenticeship. These amonnts may be considered as equivalent, or nearly so, to the ordinary expenses of maintenance under the high prices of lodging and provisions which are now prevailing, and will no doubt prove a sufficient inducement to many to devote themselves to the calling or profession of a school teacher, if the future prospects of that profession are sufficiently tempting or satisfactory to render the pursuit itself a desirable one in the eyes of the public." So much has the profession already advanced in this Colony, thinks the "Gazette," that its future is sufficiently assured to make the educational profession worthy the attention of young men eligible to begin as pupil teachers. The " Gazette " believes, liowevbr, that the salaries of the teachers should be brought more on a level with the remuneration accorded in commercial life. This, it argues, should be done immediately, "so as to encourage many to enter upon apprenticeship, rather than to have to depend upon a future supply of imported teachers from a country like England, where the supply is unequal to . the demand, and the rate of salary proportionately high. The question, however, is one which Bhould be discussed in its details by the teachers themselves, and if the proprsed conference takes place in ; the summer holidays it will form a very suitable subject for discussion at the meeting of the ' New Zealand Union of Elementary Teachers.'" We commend this subject to the attention of the Westland Board of Education." Yesterday there was to be seen on the counter of the National Bank 17 bars of gold, amounting to 38590z, all from the Reef ton District, with the exception of a little from the neighborhood of Greymouth. The gold was of the value of between L 15.000 and L 16.000. It will be shipped by the s.s Tararua for England. At the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, before W. H. Revel', Esq., R. M"., Annie Powell, on remand, was charged with being of unsound mind. Drs Morice and *mith testified that the prisoner was now recovered, and fit to be at large. Inspector Hickson applied that the costs of maintenance and medical attendance should be charged against the prisoner, -which was allowed, namely, L 4 4s for medical attendance, and L 2 2s 6d for maintenance while under the charge of the police. Tin prisoner stated that she would pay the amount at the rate of 20s per week, which Inspector Hjckaon agreed to accept. — John Mahon, charged with being drunk, was fined ss, or 24 hours' imprisonment. — Martin Kennedy, as agent for the schooner Alma, proo 'ederi against Joshua Williams, under the Shipping Act, for refusing to go to sea in the A Ima on Sunday last. The pr soner stated, on being charaed with the offence, that it wa9 correct; his reasons heing that the vessel was nnseaworthy, as she was leaking in the fore compartments, and the stanchions put in had not been ou'kijd. He also stated that complaiDt- 1 of this had been ma^e to the captain on Saturday evening, and he had promised to have the necessary repairs done before the vessel left port. The stanchions were only uriven by a mallet, and he had put his knife up through them in the fore compartment. F- Sweetman, the contractor for the necessary repairs to the vessel, gave evideuce that he had finished the stanchions and other parts in a proper workmanlike manner, that they were property cauSkeii, and that he held the captain's certificate for the work. Inspector Hickson said that there was no desire on the part of the agent to press the charge ; there had been no difficulty in finding other seamen, and, if necessary, evidence was in Court to show that the vessel was thoroughly seaworthy. The prisoner was sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment with hard labor. A man named James Grant, a sawyer and axeman in the employment of Mr James O'Malley, at the Little Grey Junction, was found ia the bush not far from the homestead, on Saturday morning considerably out

and bruised, and almost insousible from loss of blood. He was not able to give any intelligible account as to how ho came by hia injuries, but it is supposed that they were the result of a quarrel with another of the workmen on the farm. Dr Phillips was sent for to Ahaura to attend the sufferer, who is now out of danger. A meeting of the Grey Valley Road Board was I/O be held at Ahaura yesterday. The business was to receive and consider the ultimatum of the Government with respect to the maintenance of the main Grey Valley road. The Board ignores its liability to pay the entire cost of keeping this road in repair, and in this conclusion it is supported by every property-holder and prospective ratepayer in the district. The members of the Board are quite willing to levy, and the ratepayers are prepared, and m fact anxious to pay a rate to make or maintain branch roads or other works within the boundaries of the Road Board district, but if the Government attempt to force the Board to maintain the main road without providing fuuds for that special purpose, it is said a tollbar will be erected every three miles along the road, if necessary, so that those who benefit most will have to pay. The merchants of Greymouth and the storekeepers of Reefton are the parties most interested in the proper maintenance of the main highway. A meeting o£ the Grey Valley Race Committee was to be held at Gilmer's Hotel, Ahawra, yesterday evening. The principal business was to decide whether a race meeting shall take place this season, and if the decision should be in the negative to arrange about the disposal of the surplus funds now in hand. The balance sheet submitted at a meeting of the Stewards on the 23rd of April last, and since published, shows a considerable credit to the race fund, and some are for handing the money over to a Committee to have sports and games at Christmas at Ahaura. But a good many of the subscribers consider that as the money was subscribed for a special purpose, viz., racing, it should be expended on the object for which it was collected. It is suggested that a local race meeting, without any pretention to make the gathering; of colonial importance as heretofore, should be brought off, one or two weeks after the Greymouth meeting in March, or that the Ahaura and Totara Flat Committees should join to get up a meeting between them in April, as soon as the harvest is over, ''he plan proposed is to have one day 'B racing at Totara Flat, the feature of which would he a steeplechase, for which, there is a splendid course, for a good prize, and to have the other day's sport on the Ahaura course at flat and hurdle racing. The meeting will decide between the several propositions, Ifc will be observed by an advertisement in another column that the Central 'oard of Education of Westland invites applications for the combinod offices nf Secretary and FnI awenor to. fcb« Board, aft a salary of IAOO ocr I annum and allowance for actual travelling I pxpsnses Applications must h? sent in on ' or before the Ist January, 1§75. addressed to the Chairman (if the Board at Hokitika. The Waste Lands Board meets afe Hokitika to-day at noon. At a sitting of the District Court in Bankruptcy, held at Ahaura on Monday, the 16bh instant, before his Hono' Judge Harvey, the case of John Gillman, lately a publican at Granville, Half-Ounce", was called for final hearing. Mr Staite applied for the discharge of the bankrupt. There was not any opposition on the part of the creditors, and his Honor granted the application. On a motion by Mr Staite as to costs, the Trustee's fee of L 2 23 was directed to be paid out of a balance of the proceeds of the estate in the hands of the Court, and the remainder, Borne Lls odd, was allowed as costs to the insolvent. A gold discovery which promises to be of some, importance, was reported at Ahaura yesterday (Monday). The locality is a terrace on one of the tributary creeks of the Blackball, and between that river and Moonlight. The prospectors, James O'Connor and Edward CuMen, are granted a double area claim of 170 ft x 85ft. They report being prospecting in the neighborhood for the last two months, and the gold has been found at the end of a tunnel, a distance of 40f fc from the face. The prospects are given at 2oz 12dwt of gold from the quantity of dirt driven (out to make room for four sets of timber, which, as the grouni is dry, and easily workfid, may be considered a very fair yield. It has been rumored for the last three months that something! of value had been discovered in tie Blackball district, but the report only took a definite shape on Saturday afternoon, in consequence of the claim of Oullen and O'Connor having been examined. The ground is already extensively rushed, both from Ahaura and Nelson Creek, but those who know that part of the country best, say that the terraces run for a great length even and unbroken, indicating the existence of continuous leads or gutters more or less valuable. A small rush set in to Moonlight Creek on Saturday. The discovery is in the locality of Stewart's Hill, and although the prospects obtained are good, the probable auriferous ground is not thought to be very extensive. We can state with authority that his Honor Judge Harvey has definitively accepted the offer of the Government to relieve Judge Gray on his retirement from office. Judge Harvey will continue the duties of his present circuit until April next year, when he will assume the functions of this new position in Otago. A defaulting juryman, who was summoned , to attend at the last criminal sitting of the District Court;, at Ahaura, had to appear before Judge flarvey, yesterday, to show the cause why he should not pay the usual penalty for absenteeism in such cases. His Honor, after hearing the explanation, considered the excuse given for non-attendance sufficient, and remitted the fine. In the District Court, at Westport, his Honor Judge Harvey took exception to the statements in bankruptcj being filed on other than foolscap paper, and gave orders that in future no smaller sized folios should be received. At Wanganui potatoes are now selling at 14s per cwt, The fruit season is expected to be indifferent, owing to the long prevalence of high winds, and the early crops of ves;etablps have been all but destroyed in that neighborhood. The Auckland papers state that Mr Hoiloway, the travelling agent of the Agricultural Laborers' Association in England, intends to proceed direct to Euglaud by the first vessel leaving Auckland for London. A Co-operative Meat Supply Company is being started in Auckland. The Wellington "Post" says:— "When we first gave currency to the report that the Imperial Government deemed Sir Donald M'Lean possessed of the peculiar qualifications so essential to the proper fulfilment of the duties ot Governor of Fiji, very few people were prepared to credit us. Sinethat time, however, there have occurred various circumstances tending to confirm the truth of the statement, and in well informed circles it is now generally understood that the Home Government has communicated with Sir Donald M'Lean on the subject, and that it is probable he will accept the honor propp.ied to be conferred upon him, That the town of Gisborne has become of considerable importance is made evident by the fact that a ship will load wool for home from Poverty Bay this Benson.