THE DIAMOND DEILL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 240, 1 December 1880, Page 2

THE DIAMOND DEILL.

The diamond drill lately imported from : Sydney on behalf of the New Zealand Government, is by no means "a thing of beauty," neither is it likely to prove "a joy forever." It was sent down, to Hokitika at the request of the Weatland Couaty Council and has been in operation there for many ; weeks, and this is what the West Coast Times new says about it : — When the diamond drill was first started to work at boring at Woodstock, and for some time afterwards, regular bulletins were received of the progress the interesting machine was making. The drill was an object of attraction, and was tenderly watched by the County Chairman and the Councillors. Day after day , passed and "deeper and deeper •till" went the drill. Strange deposits w«ra passed through, and threads of coal were, frequently intersected. An elaborate report wai sent in by a scientific person, which nobody understood, and which was all the more gratifying, on that account, as the possibilities of striking something valuable seemed the greater, to the profane vulgar, who know no Latin and less Greek, and^ to whom " spicules " are objects, which being unknown, must necessarily be r«ry grand indeed. But of late the drill has come to be regarded as an obnoxious and diabolical machine, only designed to worry the Westland County Couicil. Dark rumors are current respecting demands for immediate payMtnt of a tolerably heavy score. The deeper the drill goes, the higher the rate of payment. In the present state of colonial finances the drill is calculated to plunge us into universal bankruptcy. The gentleman who runs the machine has been instructed, we understand, by the Government to demand immediate payment, from the Ceuncil of the little bill already incurred, otherwise the diamond drill will at once be sent away, to persecute some other unfortunate community. There is a darkness, a mystery, now surrounding the drill which is inexplicable, after the sweetness and light which accompanied it for the first SOO feet in its downward path of discovery. We are afraid it will not march much further into the bowels of the earth without impediment. And that impediment will be the indisposition or the inability of the Weetland County Council to enjoy tbe luxury any longer. Hitherto we have looked upon Dr. Hector bb a valuable man to the colony. But as the introducer of the diamond drill we regard him only with mingled feelingß, and we shall watch him carefully, lest' he brings to this colony- from the Melbourne Exhibition some other instrument of torture for New Zealftnderi,

The Archbishop of -'Guhel, Dr Croke, formerly of Auckland, quotes St Paul (second Epistle to Timothy) as an authority for the principle that the man who labours on the soil bas a first claim to the fruits; and that a tenant has complied with his duty when he has handed over to his landlord all that he can possibly spare. Prom the Hokitika Star of the 16th inst., j we learn that a large meeting had been held in Kanieri to protest against the action of the County Chairman with reference to the reinforcement of miners' rights fees. The usual clap-trap was distributed from the platform about "tyranny" and "oppression" against bone and sinew, and honest sons of toil. The farce ended by the Chairman being burnt in effigy, and happening to be present, he contributed 2s 6d towards defraying the expenses, a 9 did also the County Clerk, who both enjoyed the fun amazingly. The sheep rate during the year 1879 realised £11,695 ; and the cost of salaries, j &c, under the Sheep Act, 1878, amounted to jEI 1,780. In the Nelson district the rate amounted to £168, while the cost of administering the Act was £800, divided among five inspectors. The Rev. J. Upton Da-vis, of Donedin, is a liberal-minded clergyman .Lecturing at Auckland, he spoke of the benefits of free criticism of men and things, saying " Eren ministers would be none the worse if their sermons were thoroughly discussed. At present, clergymen were put on a pedestal or kept in a gtass case. They had it all their own way in the pulpit, for contradiction was impossible. Thus a morbid sensatireness to public criticism was engendered, and a kick which would not disturb a horse would kill a sound divine. In the course of a letter to Mr Bain, M.H.R., dated Wellington, November 13th (published in the Southland Times), the Hon R. Oliver says:—" With regard to my owning shares in the Waimea Plains railway. As soon as the fact— mentioned by myself in the House— appeared to afford ground for Opposition attack, I authorised the sale at any price of the 25 shares which I bad subscribed for, and before the close of tbe session I learnfc that they were sold. The precise date of the transfer I do not recollect, but it was at the beginning of this year, during the few weeks which I spent at Dunedin. It shows pretty conclusively the spirit in which malevolent-people judge one'B actions that the paltry sum of £3? 10s should be supposed to afford sufficient motive for a particular treatment of that line by me." The, Grey River Argus Bays:— There is a special correspondent from tbe West Coast Times " doing the Exhibition" in Melbourne, and seeing that Mr R. C. Reid, M.H.R., proprietor of that journal, [is also in Melbourne "doing the Exhibition,'* there cannot be much doubt tts to who the "special" is. Among other places* " the special" visits the Victorian Parliament concerning which he speaketh, as one who knoweth, thusly :— " Of the members of. the House of Assembly rery littie caii be said in fftvot; Very few are marked by ability, and fewer: still by honesty of purpose. The House is now sitting. The finances of the Colony seem to be in a very bad state, but instead of one and all patriotically facing the difficulties the whole of the time alloted to public business is taken up in unseemly wrangling, recriminatory conflicts, and /« quoque arguments. The foot of the etii< we ate satisfied, lies in payment of member* aiid intahfabd suffrage. Payment of members brings to the front the shoddy, the needy, the seedy, and the greedy, and arming the ignorant masses with a vote enables them to barter it for anything, aid to anybody." Oh Robert, Robert, why betray your true sentiments. Why say that you think the root of the evil lies in the payment of members when you condescend to receive it yourself Why tell what you think of your own constituency when you say " payment of membe ra bringß to the front the ahoddy (thank goodness we're not shoddy) the needy (heaven be praised we're not needy) the seedy (heaven bless us we're not seedy) and the greedy (we were never greedy— it's only others that are greedy) and arming the ignorant masse* (our Ilokitikft constituency) with a vote enables them to barter it for anything, and to anybody (ourselves and Dick Seddon.)" Humble confession is good, and a real honest opinion auoh as tbe '• special " of tbe West Coast Times in Melbourne is worth something. The Sportsman records what John Roberts, junior, considers his greatest achievement with the cue. At his rooms at Brighton he played a tnatrh of 2,000 up with bis father, giving tbe latter half the points as a start. Roberts, junior, was in wonderful form, as will be seen by the following items in his score:— 4ll (134 consecutive spots), 274(85 1 spots), 903 (inclusive of 284 spot hazards), 151 and 263 (173 spots). Roberts, junior, : took up the cue bat ten times, thus giving an average of 200 for each break. While the , , ion was scoring his 2000, his father only put ' together 240 points. Tbe game was concluded in the remarkable time of two boors and five 'minutes. At the National Artillery Association's i meeting at Shoeburyness, in August last, a detachment of the Seaham Artillery Volunteers won the Queen's Prize, and Corporal Hiadon (at No. 1 of the detachment) received the gold cup. A colliery explosion at Seaham in September last proved fatal to no lesß than twenty members of the abovenamed corps, among them nine of thoie who had formed the winning detachment at Shoeburyness. Eiactly one month after the return home of the volunteers, whea Corporal Hindon was carried by his comrades in triumph round that tows, bis remains (which had been found in the pit horribly mutilated) were conveyed to the churchyard for burial. On the lid of the coffin was laid a wreath and cross of flowers, made and given by Mrs Warham, wife of Captain Warham. There were other wreaths given by friends of the deceased. The gold cup which deceased won at Shoeburyness was placed on the coffin likewise. The funeral procession was of very great length, members of the Odd-Fellows' Lodge, ' which Hiudon was connected with, following, as well as numerous inhabitants of Seaham Harbor. The poor fellow leaves a wife and five ohildren. One of bis daughters bas been but recently married, and her husband, ai well as her father, perished in the mine. The passion for hanging a vast quantity of fanciful objects on pendant chains about the female waist has so gained ground that they new hang, in Paris and London, chains ob both sidts, and from these hang a greater number of odd objects tban ever before. Ab eccentric lady startled the guests at a reception by recently appearing with what appeared to be tbe ikull of an infant pendant from her chatelaine. It turned out to be that of her pet monkey, properly polished aod furnished with small crystal eyes. The improvidence and wastefulness of the natives has this year reduced many of their number to absolute want. Several hapus living between Waikato ana Taupo have been obliged to return to tbe customs of their forefathers, and are subsisting mainly upon fernroot, with little prospect of bettering the character of their diet except by the sale of their patrimonial estate, for so far no provision seams to hare been made for the coming year by planting, and the big meet ings held during the early part of this year demolished the bulk of their provender. It ii bard (remarks the Waikato Times) to account for this exceptional disregard of the principles of thrift even among the nativeß, and the only solution of the matter which is at all feaiibte, is that they contemplate migrating to the more immediate neighborhood of the King Country, after the manner of the natives in the vicinity of Maungatautari.