The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1483, 29 June 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 1881.

The mail coach left the Bealey at the usual hour this morning, and arrived here at 3.10 p. m. The members of the committee who have been zealously canvassing for signatures to a petition for an increased watersupply for this goldfield have been well received everywhere, and the petition is now signed by 950 residents of the district. The committee will hold their ordinary meeting to-morrow night at Dillman’s, from which the petition will be duly forwarded for presentation to Parliament, and their labors will then cease. Last night, the following tenders were accepted by the Hospital Committee for supplies for the ensuing six months : For bread, Peter Adamson ; butcher meat, P. Foley ; milk, F. A. Olden ; groceries and provisions, and wines and spirits, G. Rudkin ; thirty cords firewood, John Simmons and Co. ; funerals, W. B. Galland. We are pleased to announce that the two miners whose lives were recently imperilled by the fall of the face in their tunnel claim on the banks of the Teremakau River are progressing favorably towards recovery. Thomas Moffat left the Hospital last week, and P. Riley, though he can, of course, owing to broken bones, never regain his former strength, is improving as rapidly as may be expected. The miners of this district, and in fact, all classes of the community, will learn with extreme regret, that Mr Barton, Mining Registrar, and Clerk of the Court, is about to be transferred to Greymouth. Without wishing to speak in depreciation of other officers of the Civil Service, it may be safely affirmed that Mr Barton is the most obliging and civil gentleman who has ever been connected with the Kumara Court; at the same time his thorough knowledge of the work he has to perform, and his peculiar aptitude for carrying out his multifarious duties, have made him a general favorite from one end of the district to the other. We understand that it is intended that he will not be allowed to leave the district without some public recognition of the estimation in which he is held.

Mr T. S. Weston, member for the Grey Valley, was yesterday introduced to the House of Representatives by Messrs Reid and Reeves.

A sad misfortune occurred on Monday last to a little girl, nine years of age, daughter of Mr Evans, a miner at the Greenstone. It appears she was standing near the elder brother, aged eleven, when he was in the act of cutting some wood with an American axe. In endeavoring to get out of his way her foot slipped, and in the fall her hand came on the very piece of wood her brother was cutting. The blow almost completely severed the little finger of the child’s right hand, and the knuckle bone of the next finger was also disjointed. Of course the unfortunate occurrence may be said to have been

purely accidental. The parents innne' diately brought the child to Kumara, and and we are pleased to say that after having undergone skilful surgical treatment, she is as happy as she can be under the trying circumstances. The festival of St. Peter, the apostle and martyr, which is commemorated to-day, brought a large number of people into town. Service was conducted, as is usual on such occasions, at the Roman Catholic Church. The fes iv il was established in 813.

We understand that Mr E. Kelling, from Ahaura, will succeed Mr Barton as clerk of the Courts in Kumax-a and Greenstone.

In the House yesterday, the Hon. Mr Hall stated he had ascertained that twenty-four members wished to visit the Dunedin Exhibition, and the Hinemoa would accordingly take them on Thursday. The present seems a very festive season with those persons for whom dancing forms a source of great amusement and pleasure. And we find the proprietors of licensed houses are not slow in presenting opportunities to such devotees as delight in the social recreation. While the exercise of it is sometimes fraught with much that is evil, “ its end,” as a popular author once wrote, “is to realise perfect grace in motion ; and who does not know that a sense of the graceful is one of the higher faculties of our nature V’ We observe that the proprietors of the Royal Hotel, Main street, will to-night inaugurate the opening of their house by a public dance ; and the proprietress of the Greymouth Hotel, Seddon street, will renew acquaintance with her many friends in the same manner on Friday night next. The last link connecting the Westland Education Board with Hokitika (says the Argus) has been rudely snapped asunder. The Waipara, which arrived yesterday, brought all the stock of books and stationery belonging to the Board, besides all the office fittings. It is said that the stock of books the Board has in reserve is worth fully £2OOO.

A occasional correspondent of the Grey River Argus telegraphed from Wellington yesterday : —“ Government profess a desire to forward the interests of the Grey district,—The Greymouth Harbor Works will be provided for.—Some scheme will be devised for aiding prospecting.—Mr Weston brought under the notice of Mr Rolleston the necessity for an alteration of the tenure of Greymouth township, and the necessity for improved communication with the Seventeen-mile Beach. The matter is to be considered and Mr Weston again seen on the matter.—The Cobden bridge stands over for the present.—The Local Government Bill is regarded as the measure upon which parties will be formed. The Government, if defeated, are likely to apply for a dissolution.—The Goldfields Committee was made up before the Grey Valley election, but Mr Weston is making every effort to get upon it, and the Government are affording him every facility in the matter.” A requisition to the Mayor of Hokitika, influentially signed, desires him to convene a public meeting in Hokitika at as early a date as practicable, for the purpose of urging on the Government the prosecution of the construction of the Hokitika and Greymouth railway, the Hokitika Harbor works, the Mikonni and other water-races, and other public -works on goldfields in Westland. The meeting will take place in the Town Hall on Friday next.