Untitled

Kumara Times, Issue 1702, 14 March 1882, Page 2

A monster meeting of miners was held at Dillman’s Town last evening for the consideration of a petition to the Hon. the Minister of Mines praying that the recent action of the local management in demanding payment for water and use of sludge-channel in advance should not be enforced, Mr P. Dungan, County Chair-

man, being present, was asked to preside. Pending the revision by the Secretary of petition, in accordance with amendments passed By the meeting, our report of the meeting will be held over. Amongst the resolutions passed; however, was the following :—“That the Chairman of this meeting communicate direct with the Minister of Mittes, and ask him to stay the brder for payment in advance [for water and use of sludge-channel] until such time as the petitidii bearing on this subject caii reach him.” This resolution was to-day duly forwarded to the Hon. Mr Rolleston, who is supposed to be at Waiwera, the Hot Springs; A weekly parade of Volunteers will be held this evening at the Drill Shed. A Committee meeting will take place afterwards; at which two protests against last week’s firing for the silver watch are to be considered; Silas Gibson and William Brown ap : peared on remand at the Resident Magistrate’s Court; Reef ton, on Friday last, tb answer the information of Charles Langtou Neville, Sergeant of Police, charging them with having cut away a punt at lnangahua Landing on August 20th, 1881. Mr Lynch appeared for the accused, and the case against Silas Gibsori was first proceeded with. From the evidence of James M'Namara it transpired that prisoner told him that Brown owed him money; and it was the only way to get it by cutting the punt adrift so that Brown could get money for repairing it or building a new one. Mr Lynch declined to tender evidence in defence, and the accused was committed for trial at the sitiings of the District Court at Reefton, on March 23rd, bail being allowed, himself in £2OO and two sureties of £IOO each. The information against Brown, the accomplice, was to be heard on Saturday. A Cape of Good Hope paper mentions the accidental death in Kimberley mine, South African diamond fields, of Robert Bethridge Topp, aged 26. Deceased formerly lived in New Zealand. The new dock at Lyttelton, which is nearly completed, is capable of receiving a vessel with a keel of 410 feet, and of a draught of 25 feet.

According to the local paper, a wellknown fanner, who lias resided in Tuapeka since the outbreak of the rush at Gabriels, estimates the wheat-yield of Tuapeka West for the present season at 60,000 bushels. He considers that the quality of the grain cannot be surpassed in New Zealand.

A Waipori correspondent sends to the Tuapeka Times the following On. visiting the copper-mine last week I was informed that a son of Mr Edmund Hill (formerly of Waipori) had on the previous Saturday, with the tin dish, obtained 2oz. 6dwt. of gold from a crevice on the north bank of Reedy Creek, and on the followMonday Ibdwt—in all 3oz. 2dwt. in two days. The lad is about twelve years of age, and was visiting his father while working at the copper-mine race.

One of the largest sales of station property which has taken place in Australia was made in Sydney recently. A station known as Barrabogie, containing 227,824 acres freehold, situated on the Murruim bidgee River, to which it has a frontage of 25 miles, and stocked with 138,000 sheep, 129 cattle, and 122 horses, has been sold by auction for the sum of £440,000. The purchaser of this princely estate was Mr Fitzwilliam Wentworth. The Bishop of Melbourne, having been recently asked to issue a prayer for rain, intimated in reply that it is in the power of all clergymen to use the “ prayer for rain in the Book of Common Prayer when they please ; but that he hesitated to comply with the request. He went on to say that he had warned the people that God indicated by His providential arrangements that it was His will that we should conserve the water sent to us in the winter ; but that nobody heeded, and that it seemed to the Bishop absolutely impious to cry to God and to neglect His own providential indications of His will.The Bishop added that if he did issue a prayer, it would be as follows : “Forgive us, O Lord, that we have so indolently and irreligiously broken Thy Natural Laws, and despised the indications of Thy will in the time past; and give us grace, we beseech Thee, so to lay to heart Thy present grievous and most just chastisement, that we may bestir ourselves to conserve and employ Thy precious gift of water to the fertilising of our fields, the relief of our necessity, the replenishment of our. land with prosperous and happy people, and the glorifying of Thy holy name, through. Jesus Christ our Lord.” If anybody, likes to use this prayei he has the Bishop’s full leave, and he believes that then his prayer will not

be a mockery of God, and may do good to himself and those that join in it. Among the articles to be seen at the Milan Exposition is the corpse of a beautiful young lady, which had been preserved by a process known only to a Florentine chemist. The result of its use is to convert the flesh of the dead person into a hard marble-like substance, and it seems to answer the purpose for which it was invented admirably.