LAST NIGHT'S COUNCIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 116, 16 May 1872, Page 2

LAST NIGHT'S COUNCIL.

o The Council met at 5 o'clock. Mr. Luckie asked the Provincial Treasurer what success had attended the sale of debentures for the Gas and Waterworks; and what progress was making with respect to the proposed Gasworks for the city of Nelson. The Provincial Treasurer, in reply, stated that the most complete success had attended the sale of debentures, as although only £15,000 was required, about £50,000 had been applied for which showed how well the credit of the town stood. Most of tbe money had been paid over to the credit of the Gas and Waterworks account, and all outstanding accounts on the extension cf the waterworks had been discharged. He thought that as a matter of business it was better for the present to withhold the price of the debentures, but as soon as the negotiations were completed, it would be made public. -It had been deemed necessary, on the score of economy, to make an alteration in the proposed site for the gasworks, and "as soon as the consent of the Assembly bad been obtained to this alteration the works would be proceeded with.— Mr. Donne moved, " That & Select Committee be appointed to consider and report upon this; policy adopted hy his Honor the Superintendent in

reducing the areas of certain Gold-mining Leases, some twenty in number, applied for at the Inangahua, as shown in Gazette No 11, dated April 24, 1872; and also with respect to the refusal by the same authority of some seventeen other Goldmining leases, similarly applied for and refused, as per Gazette of the same number and date ; such Committee to consist of the Speaker, the Provincial Secretary, Messrs. Luckie, Reid, Kynuersley, Guinness, and the mover; such Committee to have power te call for persons and papers." In an exhaustive speech of some length, he dwelt fully upon the legal phase of the question, and stated that the action of the Government had given rise to the greatest dissatisfaction among the miners at the Inangahua. A lengthy discussion ensued, in which Messrs. Guinness, Reid, Kyunersley. O'Conor, and Luckie took part, the general feeling being that no beueficial result would accrue from the appointment of a Select Committee, as the Superintendent had acted in his capacity of Governor's delegate, to whom alone he was responsible in the matter. Mr. F. Kelling moved as an amendment that tbe Committee be appointed by ballot, and upon this being carried Mr. Donne withdrew his motion. — Mr. Kynnersley said he had a personal, explanation to make with regard to a report of Monday evening's proceedings which appeared in the Colonist of the 14th instant, wherein it was stated as follows : — " Mr. Luckie referred to Mr. Kynnersley's former assaults on the Council, which he now professed to praise, and on the Superintendent, whom he now blamed, and asserted that the credit claimed by Mr. Eynhersley for the state of the West Coast was due to the fact lhat, when he was Commissioner and Magistrate there, he had an unlimited supply of money, which was wasted and misappropriated." He utterly denied that Mr. Luckie had said anything of the kind. It would perhaps have been better had he brought the matter forward on the previous day, but he had not thought it worth his while to do so, and he was glad now that he had not, as ample opportunity had been afforded to Mr. Luckie to call attention to the fact of his having been misreported in the Colonist, but as no notice had been taken of it by that honorable member, he now, in deference to the opinion of his friends, wished to call the Speaker's attention to the grave charge that the member for the city of Nelson was reported to have made against him of misappropriating money when he was Commissioner on the West Coast, a charge lhat had never been made by Mr. Luckie in that Council. Mr. Luckie said that if he had not made use of those precise words he had said something very like them, but not with the intention of accusing Mr. Kynnersley of having misappropriated money. — Mr. Gibbs moved the adjournment of the Council until 11 o'clock this morning instead of

five iv the evening in order that the meeting of electors called by Mr. Saunders might be held in the Provincial Hall. The resolution, which was seconded by Mr. Luckie, was carried, and the Council then adjourned until this morning. This Day. The Council met at 11 o'clock, and after discussing three or four resolutions, all of which were eventually withdrawn, went into Committee on the Estimates, and after passing several items, adjourned until to-morrow morning. The Evening Post, of May 4, says : — A singular circumstance occurred this morning in the Wellington Gaol. Rewi Tarnanui Toti Toti, who was one of Te Kooti's men, and was condemned to death for being implicated in the Poverty Bay massacres, and whose sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, has been suffering from an effection of one eye for nearly the whole of the three years which he has been in gaol. Proper treatment was provided, lotions and other medical matters were given him, but nothing did his eye any good. At length, this morning, he felt something in his nose, and another Maori, on investigation, drew down a wooden spear point about two inches long, and an iuch in circumference. His explanation is that many years ago — how he does not recollect — he was spearing pigeons in the bush, when a spear penetrated the corner under the eyebrow between the eye and the nose. It was not extracted at the time, and since then he had completely forgotten it. It must have penetrated the spongy bone between the two plates of the skull, and in course of years worked downwards till at length it came out through his nose, having been in his head more years than he can remember. The Melbourne correspondent of the Otago Daily Times writes — one of the most notable matters of the past fortnight is the promulgation of a scheme for running a railway through the very centre of Australia from the south to the north shore. The project has been mooted in South Australia, and takes the following shape : — lts promoters propose to construct a line of tramway from Port Augusta in the south to Port Darwin in the north — a distance, by the route they contemplate adopting, of about 2000-miles. The estimated cost is £10,000,000, and as the returns could not for a loug time be expected to meet the interest and expenses, they ask for a graut of land from the South Australian Legislature, amounting to 200,000,000 acres. This area, it may be observed in passing, is about equal to three times the area of the British Isles. They require that the various blocks of land should be conveyed to them from time to time as the construction of the line progresses, and it is from the revenue derived from the

disposal of these that they expect to derive funds for carrying on the line. They also demand to be allowed five years for For remainder of news see fourth page.

floating the scheme in the London market, and fourteen years afterwards for the construction of the railway. Tbe scheme is, it will be seen, a gigantic one, and will require a careful consideration before it is either adopted or rejected. It is quite likely that the land demands of the promoters will be considered exorbitant, and capable of great red notion. But there is this in favor of the project, Bpart from details, that if the continent is ever to have daylight let into it, it must be by a great railway, such as this proposed. The scheme of basing its construction on a grant of land is an equitable, and as American experience has shown, a ready and practicable method. It might, indeed, be said that it would be better if the State were itself to undertake the construction, and many reasons go to show that this would be the advisable course. However, taking the project as it stands, it is a feasible and practical one. Jt is highly probable that this, or some similar one, will before long be adopted ; and it is quite likely that some of us now alive may take the long ride through the great Australian interior, which was a terra incognita and the scene of heroic exploring enterprise only a iew years ago. With regard to the other great South Australian work — the overland telegraph — there is no later intelligence, and we just keep the old hope that it will be completed in July or August. In a recent number of the Engineer we find the following paragraph : — Agents have arrived in London from South Wales, to secure the services of one thousand men in the construction of a railway in New Zealand. The men required are skilled mechanics and steady laborers, such as masons, bricklayers, carpenters, engineers, wheelwrights, platelayers, and excavators. They will have their fares paid out to New Zealand, and their wages will go on from date of sailing, and other privileges. This will probably relieve to some extent the seriously depressed state of the London building trade. The time of departure will be about six weeks hence.

A new Opera House is to be built in Melbourne at a cost of £20,000. The dimensions of the interior will be : — from centre of pit to dome 50ft. ; from curtain to front of grand tier; width of proscenium, 28ft.; height, 30ft. The stage will be 65 feet deep by a width between the walls of 61ft. Under the stage there will be a depth of 18ft. in order to sink large set scenes. Sitting accomodation will be provided for 2,500 persons, exclusive of the private boxes. The dome, proscenium, balcony fronts, &c, will be decorated in white, gold, and crimson, the walls distempered and decorated in an artistic manner. Efficient means of exit in case of sudden panic will be offered by there being separate staircases to each portion of the house, and escape doors from each portion on the different levels communicating with these staircases (five in number). By these methods the house, even when crowded, can be emptied, it is calculated, in three minutes. The whole of the staircases and approaches will be fireproof.

— A

A Curious Advertisement. Boston paper has the following : — Everybody in county Maine, knows or has heard of Ed. Pierce, a popular landlord and a great admirer of horses. Ed. is something of a literary genius, and his latest production is such a novelty in its way that we make liberal extracts therefrom : — " My bar," he says, " will be supplied with good cigars, and although I have a sign up saying it is wrong to drink, still I deal out poison to those bent on their own destruction. As I have been importuned several times to keep a temperance house, I will say that one year ago I stopped selling the 'cratur' for about four weeks, but I found that about two-thirds of them wanted something strong, and I got blowed up by them for nbfkeepiDg it, and I trotted them round to show them where they could find it, until I became sick of the fun, and I failed to see where I was doing anything large for the temperance cause so long as every man got what he wanted. So we came to the conclusion it was no worse to give poison at home than to take them to our neighbors for the purpose, and it was less trouble to ub !to do so. I have known men to live three months that drank regularly at my bar, although cases of that kind are rare . I wish to impress upon the mind of every man the necessity of abstaining from this, deadly poison, and if he then wishes knowingly to commit suicide, why I have the article which will meet his most sanguine expectations; not so quick perhaps as some poisons, but he is sure to. have his wish gratified about as soon as he can conveniently get his business matters 1 arranged so as to be ready to make hiß exit. If by stopping the sale of ardent spirits at my hotel it would tend toward helping the temperance cause in &_»___ -fo lariy extent I woulifl, willingly do so. and I will pat .my name to a

of intoxicating liquors in this village; but as long as it is sold as common as now, I shall undoubtedly continue, in as quiet a way as possible, to deal out destruction to all those desirous of ruining their families and ending their wretched lives in poverty and disgrace."

The German inhabitants of Chicago, feeling, that the subscription of 1,000 thalers(£lso)by the Emperor of Germany, and of 500 lhalers by the Imperial Prince and Princess towards the relief of the German residents is not commensurate with the rank and dignity of the donors, especially as such large sums were sent by Germans in Chicago for ihe relief of their countrymen at home who suffered through the late war, have unanimously resolved to request the committees instituted for the relief of Chicago "to indignantly reject this miserable pittance thrown to us by his Majesty the Emperor of Germany aud his Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Prussia and lady." — Auckland Herald.

MEDICAL HALL.