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Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 210, 7 March 1873, Page 5

The English mail, via San Francisco, "will close at the JNaseby Post Office at the usual hour on Monday, the 10th inst.

The English mail arrived at Auckland on Tuesday last. If the Dacotah left again to come down the coast on Wednesday, we should get the mail by next Tuesday's coach — just one day too late for out-going correspondence

Receiving all kinds of reports from the works on the Head race, reports most conflicting and contradictory, we yesterday sent out for ourselves, ,to ascertain the real state of things. Our reporter tells ns that one chain of the work is all that has been accomplished ; that this work has been done by a party of three men, who took the work at 255. per chain ; and that no tools have arrived for men to work with. Eighteen men are waiting about buying their tucker at the store on the ground, to pay for it when they go to work. Many men have come and gone, many are still on the road going up. It is a pity that men willing to work, should have no opportunity afforded them. The.Government should have had vory good grounds for accepting Mr. Pearce's additional conVj tract, when his original ten miles was now begun. Provisions on the ground are —flou/ 4jd. per pouno ; bread, Is. Id. per four pound loaf; mutton, sd. per pound; potatoes, 2£d. ; sugar, Bd.; salt, 6d.; butter Is. 6d.; tea, 3s. 6d.; cheese, Is. 6d.; and other articles in. proportion. In justice to Mi% Pearce, we must- say that the tools are hourly expected. At the meeting of the Miners' Association, the. management of the Temperance .Hall generously offered the building . gratuitously for the use of the Committee. Monday next is the day appointed for the nomination of a citizen to hold the office of mayor. Matters civic seem somehow or another, to be sadly hanging fire. It should be recognised that the municipality is a reulity, and that the mayor and" councillors, more especially the latter, will have considerable influence for evil or good, during the next'fifteen months. • • ' .. ■: • There has been a slight stir up at Clarks since our hist issue. We havenotgot any very reliable information. It is rumored that fourteen or more claims have been pegged out, and that the prospects, as is usual in natches at U larks, are very rich. Seme of those who know Glarks well, seemed to take more interest in t!:e proceedings of the Warden's Court, than in the rush ; so we conjecture that a patch only has been struck. Tenders are called, in the f Provincial Government Gazette,' for the construction of the road to Clarks. A Notice is published in the ' Gazette' making alterations in the registration districts. We notice that Hills Creek and Hough Kidge, are in the St. Bathans district. An advertisement in another column, gives the place and date of polling in the ensuing municipal elections. . The Athenaeum Committee are getting on with their work. The building is smartened up amazingly, thanks to the efforts of Mes rs. Morrison and Teague. The Committee have applied to the Education Board, for £IOO worth of bojks, and are shortly about to furnish'and fit)'up the reading-room. An idea has been mooted to get up an entertainment to inaugurate the opening of the Institution, and to help to bring in bawbees to assist the expenses of management. Kobert Reay, the well-known jockey, has been getting into trouble at Tuapeka. for hh action in not, persevering with Tambourini, in the Hurdle Bace, and also for jostling Atlas in the Handicap. For the latter piece of work, the Tuapeka Club have disqualified him from ever running or riding on their course, and the Dunedin Club have followed suit, so far as to disqualify him till further notice. Keay, hitherto, has always borne a high character for honesty, and for hie quiet, obliging manner on the racecourse. A meeting of the members of the Mount Ida Jockey Club was called by advertisement, but only a few of the stewards attended, so, consequently, an adjournment sine die had to be agreed to. Walter Mornington, who was killed suddenly on Saturday last, was one of the oldest miners in the iiogburn. He had a large mining experience in Austrailia and California, which enabled him to reach average prosperity too easily. He was buried on Monday afternoon, by the Rev. M'Cosh Smith, being followed to the grave by a large number of people. A full account of the inquest, will be found in another sheet. Gleeson, who was found guilty by the Coroner's jury of manslaughter, was removed to Dunedin on Wednesday last, by way of Macraes. On Sunday last, a man named John Wilson, about 50 year.s of age, died in the Hospital. He had been suffering for some time from hypertrophy of the heart, and had only been kept alive by strong chemicals having a regulative tendency upon the heart's action No skill could, however, keep off the inevitable end. He was buried in the Catholic portion of the Cemetery on Monday afternoon, shortly after Mornington's remains had aleo been conveyed to tlieir last resting place.

Two funerals in one day of adult men we do not hope again to witness in Naseby. In consequence of the inquest the Maerewhenua Courts had to be postponed. Our St. Bathans friends are making preparation for the proper celebration of St. Patrick's Day. A preliminary meeting was held in the schoolroom on the evening of the 27th ult., when the following gentlemen were appointed as a committee to make the necessary arrangements:—Messvs. A. J. Denistoun, T. Mulvey, J. A. M'Kay, Peter Mallon, W. M'Connichie, P. Hanrahan, P. Kenny, «T. Murphy, W. Pyle, junior. The tenders fdr the construction of the Sludc-e Channel are to be lodged in Dunedin by noon on Saturday, the 15th instant. The mail closing at Naseby at 11 a:m., Thursday the 13th inst., will be the last chance available in ihe ordinary way. Messrs. M'Kenxa a:nd Costelu), the successful tenderers for the Water work's dam alterations—we are told there was about £2O difference in the tenders, the highest not exceeding £3o—have set to work with a will. The enlarged size of the dam should iucrease the pressure slightly. The public should be, aware.that they require to be exact as to time in posting letters. "New brooms sweep clean" is an old siying, but how does the carpet like it ? Notice boards outside the Naseby Post Office are not to be trusted ;at least,'in our.own case, a letter presented within the time notified was refused, because, forsooth, the bag was closed. We are always ready to support officials in their reasonable demands necessary in the carrying out of their duty, and on our r pnrt, we expect to be dealt with courteously and accuratelv.

At the last- Hospital meeting, the quorum wus reduced-from seven to five. Instructions were given to the Fencing Committee, to proceed to fence the building in—about fourteen and a half chains being required. The Visiting Committee were also instructed to have a boiler and bath attached to the wash-house, for the use of patients affected in the lungs. A bonus of £10 is to be given to the Wardsn:an and matron during the ensuing year, as a mark of appoval for their excellent attention to the patients, and their economy of management. Ax hjspital is being agitated for at Cromwell. ' The ' Arrow Observer'thanks Mr. J. P. Armstrong, M.P.C., for his successful efforts in s arting and getting formed the Naseby Miners' Association. A. concession has been made to the telegraph operators: An officer .in charge is to -receive two shillings per hour for over-time, an operator one shilling and six pence, and a messenger six pence. Mr. Stafford and Sir David Munro have addressed the country through their constituents. Neither of these gentlemen seem afraid of the country's future, and excepting that what they say is always said pleasantly, and is worth reading, we' cannot say that anything of importance or likely to influence the opinion of the Otago electors, has been spoken. Nothing-of Groldfields' interest was considered at, the sitting last week of the Waste Lands Board. The danger of wrestling was fully exemplified in a case which came before the Mayor last week. William M 4 l )onald, late proprietor of the Noah's Ark Stables, Princess Street south, and a well-known horse-dealer named Alexander Steele, were in the Provincial sale yards on Friday evening, when the former proposed to wrestle with one Richard Patten, another hcrse-dealer ; but he declined, suggesting Steele should try conclusions with him. The latter agreed to do so, and in the struggle thatensued he was thrown—Maedon ild, according to his account, falling with his knee on his stomach with such force as to cause a ruptuiv.of the bladder. Steele lay the whole of that night in a horse stall in the Provincial yard, and on Saturday Avas taken to Ihe Hospital, where he has since remained. The ductors having intimited that Steele's injuries were such thathecould, butwasnpblikely to survive the effects of them, the Mayor attended at the Hospital yesterday afternoon, and in the presence of Macdonald, who, in the meantime, had been arrested., took his dying deposition. On the information, charging Mac lonal.d with assault with intent to -do grievous bodily harm, being read over, Steele said "I do not think he intended to do me any hurt," upon which the Mayor remarkr-d, "Still the fact is it was he who did i'," and Steele replied in the affirmative. ilis deposition was then taken.—' Star.'