The Lyell Times. SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1885.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume V, Issue 229, 4 July 1885, Page 2

The Lyell Times. SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1885.

The following are the lleefton battery j returns for last week; —Keep-it-Dark, j 7130zs amalgam; Inkerman, looozsamal- | gam ; Inglewood, looozs amalgam. I be j Keep-it-Dark Company lias declared j dividend, No. 65, of one shilling per 20,000 th share. We observe a very marked diminution in the number of licensed hotels in the place. The " Commercial," and " Alliambra," closed their doers on Tuesday, the day upon which all licenses for Jast ! year, expired. The fact becomes all the more remarkable, when it is remembered that the closed houses are the oldestestablished in the ola'je. However, a dissertation as to the eause of it all, is not among our present intentions. We hope that the turn, which the event would seem to indicate, is only temporary, and that vacant business premises will not be added to the limited number of occupied j houses, which the place allows of. The usual, weekly partial cleaning-up at the Alpine battery, did not take place yesterday, as the general one for the month, will be made on Monday next. The Directors meet m Tuesday. i I 1 Tenders for extending the Lye 11 Creekj Extd. Company's level f>oo feet, will close j at the office, at Reefton, on Monday j next. A man named Wm. Tucker, an alluvial miner, died .at his place at Matakitaki on Saturday afternoon last. His two mates "were with linn at the time of his death, and as he had been ailing, off and on, fori •a length of time past, and bad only! recently left the Reefton Hospital, it was; not unexpected. He was also previously In the Nelson Hospital. Constable Bowden proceeded up-coma toy oaa Monday last, for tbe purpose of holding a police 'enquiry concerning the death, and taking! possession of tke effects on behalf of the Public Trustee. The burial was made on; Tuesday. Deceased was single : a native •of Tosquay, Devonshire; 04 yea.rs of age, i ■and had no relatives in the colony. i Quartz mining matters in the Owen i district are improving ; and from present indications, it appears very likely indeed that the Owen will soon rank as a wide and promising field among /reefing centres. Certain it is, that very little is known ©fits resources, for only ,a limited •extent ol prospecting has as yet been done there. Here is the latest. The Colonist of the 18th says:—"Some three months ago tke owners of the Uno claim in the Mount Owen district made arrangements with Mr M. Byrne, a well-kn own quartz reefer, to proceed .to the ground, in the hope that he might discover a payable reef. Mr Byrne has mow returned, and we learn from him that his mission has been very successful ; that he has traced a reef for about throe hundred feet on tbe surface, and has cut into it at six different places. The reef, we .aire informed, i? about four feet in width, and Mr Byrne -estimates that it wil'i yield an average oi one ounce of gold to the ton of stone.' The company is being registered. A tria] crushing of unpicked stone from the Lulmei Cieek company s lease has jusi feeen made,—the result giving an avera g*

of 1.1 oz per ton, without including the t tailings. The reef is sft thick in the j t solid, and where proved, will give an \ enormous quantity of "backs." The proposed new tariff, is meeting j with almost unanimous disapproval, ami | there seems little doubt but that the free- j traders will g t the best of it. This ofU course, will place the Government in an ] extremity, as more revenue being re- £ quired, extra taxation, in some shape will , have to be resorted to. I'he tollo\cm_f are j the resolution* which were adopted by j the Ireetra.de Committee ol toe House j and circulated among members :' k Tli.it ; this committee object to the proposed in- I crease in the customs dutiesen the follow- j 1 in? grounds;— i ( (1) That such duties appear to be ! ? designed to increase the customs receipts !' and make them press more heavily upon ! the poor than on the rich. • * (2) lhat such duties that appear I designed to protect the agriculturist are misleading, as the items apparently pro- i tected are items of export. (o) That such dut.es a. c are protective ' in their nature are in many cases not 1 1 wanted by local producers, and in other j' eases protect some industries to the de- | < triment of others.