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Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4424, 9 March 1883, Page 2

The County Chairman reoeeired a telegram yesterday from Mr H. A. Gordon, Chief Inspector of Mines and Inspecting Engineer, who is at Te' Aroha, and has been inspecting the mines in that locality, to the effect that he would arrive here today. We understand that Mr Gordon's business is in connection with the expenditure of the vote for goldfields roads and tracks, for which £100,000 has been placed on the Estimates out of the loan lately raised; also, in regard to an application from the Deep Level Co., for aid towards continuing the crosscut at the 640 feet level towards the Waio-Karaka. We hare no doubt bat what our local magnates will extend to our visitor their proverbial hospitality and show him every* thing of interest, so that Mr Gordon, who is a gentleman of great experience, and extensive knowledge, may be favorably impressed with the district.

The following have been nominated by the Governor as members of the respective licens ing districts : -Hastings—Wai er Fricker. William Sowerby Greenville, Maurice Casey, Lemuel^ John Bagnall, William Murdoch. Waiotahi— James Stormont Small, Alsxander Brcdie, Charles Hill, Henry Cooper, Alexander Mclntyre. Kauaeranga—Samuel Jamep Neill, Androw Hart, George William Bull, Joseph Lewis Walton, William Deeble. Parnwai—Thomas Veale, John Hudson, Alexander Hume, James Robert Stone, John B. Hanson. The Srst meetings for election of Chairman will be held in the Cjurt-houao on the 15th March.

At last night's meeting of the Borough Council the Mayor called attention to the late attendance of Councillors, and remarked that as a rule they were about half an hour late. He hoped that the system would be discontinued.

At the inspection of the Naval Artillery last evening, there were present 35 of all ranks. The men were put through manual end platoon exercise, and marched out headed by their band. We would suggest to the officers the desirableness of causing silence to be observed in the ranks, and the utility of teaohthe men the difference between "attention " and " stand easy."

MEBBBB Ebrington, Curtis, and Brodie, directors of the Queen of England G.M.Copaid an official visit to-day to the mine, and made an examination of the plant now being erected by Messrs Harrison and Clarke for the Winding Association, in which the Queen of England Company is a shareholder. The directors have consulted with Mr C. Hill, the manager, and decided on a plan of operations to be considered by a full meeting of the board in Auckland. The excellent prospects in the. Deep Level Cross, with the splendid show in the Queen of Beauty have brought this property prominently before the public, and considerably enhanced its value.

A cbicket match will be played on the Waio-Karaka Flat to-niorrow afternoon between the allcomers and the eleven which will represent the Thames against Mr McCormick'a team from Auckland on the 17th inst (St Patrick's Day), the following are the names of the eleven.:—Clarke, (captain), Smith, Fenton, Frater, Coney, Mills, Lough, Hoskins, Madder n, Thomas, and Egginton.

The engine aud gear for the Winding Association arrived early this morning by the cutter Eose. The. veeeel got alongside the wharf at five o'clock, and the contractors at once got them ashore and started to place them in position at the old Crown Princess shaft.

A native named Ngaro was fined 20s, or in default three days' imprisonment for being drunk and disorderly in Shortland yesterday evening. .

The health of Mr Aitken, the dispenser of the Hospital, is rapidly improving.

It has been ascertained that about £40 worth of damage was done to the tools and plant by the recent fire at the telegraph shed on the bank of the Thames river.

In the action Moss versus the Union Steamship Company, brought in Melbourne, for damages done to the brig Sophia by collision with the steamship Manapouri, a verdict has been returned for plaintiff for £600.

' The Coroner, will on Monday next at 11 o'clock hold an inquest as to the cause of ths fire which took place at the Bendigo Hotel yesterday morning.

A femaib school teacher named Simpson dropped dead in the Timaru sohool on Wednesday. .. .

At last night's meeting of the Borough Council, Cr Yeala said that iv many instances people receiving aid through the Believing Officer were able and willing to do something for a living in the way of washing, sewing, Ac, and he knew of families being unable to obtain the services of persons required for those purposes. ' ' . *

While the Town Clerk was last night reading the iteme in an account against the Council for medical comforts supplied to a person who was receiving aid from the Borough, he in gentle and zephyr-like toneß oalled out "Brandy and port wine." A wag passing heard the words, and called oat through the open door, "Brandy and port wise. lyes, that's about you? fit!"

Mb Ebbinoton, C.E., in company with Mr Bayldon, the Harbor-master, to-day examined the Shortland channel and the mud flat at the end of Q-oods Wharf, to see which place needed dredging first. The Priestman's dredge ordered by the Harbor Board,

which it now in Auoklaad, will probably ba down here in three weeks time, but will not be ready to start work for a week or two afterwardt«. The punts will also be ready shortly.

A petition is now in course of signature requesting the Auckland Acclimatisation Society to allow the season for native game to commence on the firafc of April, instead of the Ist of May, as it did last year. The season usually commences in April, but it was altered on the representation of Borne gentle* men that pheasants und other game—to kill which a license was necessary—were shot be* fore the season commenced. The petition is at present at Mr 0. MoLiver's..\

We would remind our readers that the first sab of the Pollen street stock of Mr John Leydon takes place to-morrow.

Thb children who wrote the late exercises in connection with the Scripture Gift Association, 285 in all, can obtain their papers on application to the agentf Mr M. Whitehead, Pollen street.

Sc^Nß in ■ Pollen Btreet: Two gentleman, one of whom was evidently a stranger, were noticed standing this morning in Pollen street admiring * number of narae-girls and their youthful charges. The " old hand " remarked that from the returns supplied to the Borough Council by Mr Mason, Health Officer, the Thames was famous for the number and beauty of its children, whereupon the stranger, in the most fatherly and affectionate manner, stooped and kis*ed one of the youngest of the group, re* marking that such pretty children must of necessity have mOBt loveable mothers. This was too much for the " old hand," who was heard muttering something about not minding being called upon to kiss the mothers, or even the nursemaids, but he drew the line at infants in perambulators.

Thb Mataura Free Press recoHa that the first experiment of making printing pater at the local paper-mills has not resulted sajisfactorily. A trial was made on Tuesday afternoon of the pulp prepared chiefly from the snow or silver tussock, but the chloride of lima received from Sydney—in anticipation of the genuine bleach used in paper-making, ordered end expected a month hence—was found to be too weak in its action to bleach the tussock grass, which thus maintains its greenness of color

and spoils the paper for printing purposes. However, a fair texture has been obtained, md doubtless ere long the color will be forthcoming.

The s.e. Despatch made her trial trip to Te Aroha yesterday. She left the Goods Wharf at 5.30 in the morning, having only a few .passengersi: : 6n board, and did the distance in. 7i houra, not Ipclading stoppages. The tide waß against her the whole distance. The river was about the usuil height, but the recent freshes having made considerable alterations in the positions of the numerous sandbanks, she ran aground once or twice. The twin screws answer admirably when turning the sharp bends, and the little vessel can be handled with ease. The return trip was made to the Junction in two and a-half hours, and from there to Kopu in 2 hours 3 minutes. The tide was low when the latter place was reached, so she could not coma in to Shortland. Her draught was about 3 feet 5 inuhes aft. Mr Price considers that by starting so as to have the tide somewhat in her favor, sh-j will be .able to get to Te Aroha in 6J hours, and back in 5 hours.

AMONG- the great variety of fruits grown, and capable of being grown in the Auckland district, one of exceptional virtue has hitherto entirely escaped notic». This is the Kola nut, of which the Globe.says :—Having been submitted to exhaustive analysis, it has been found to contain more caffeine than the best coffee, and the same active principle as cocoa, with less fatty matter. The negroes on the West Coast of Africa are said to prefer it *greatly to either tea or coffee, on account of its hewlth-creating qualities. This is not all how ever $ the nut possesses the virtue of being a sovereign specific to recent intoxication. It is now used for this purpose on a sugar plantation afc Jamaica. There the negroes make it into a cream with water, and bring themselves rouud in a moment. A farther assertion goes to the effect that those who habitually-consume decoctions of this invaluable product lose all taste for alcoholic stimulants, and even acquire a strong repugnance for them. If this can only be proved, the perplexing problem of how to cure dipsomaniacs will be in a fair way towards solution. It would only be necessary to keep them in seclusion until they had acquired a taste for Kola, and then they might ba set free without any risk of their reverting to the use of alcohol."

A 'BXCIOXIBi arrived iv Hamilton on Monday morning froan Ngarnawahia, having left Auckland at 2 p.m. on Saturday, and proceeded to the Aroha on Tuesday.

The wife of Major Wilson died at Cambridge yesterday afternoon at hex- residence, at the early age of 28, afler a prolonged illness. Mrs Wilson was of pure Maori extraction, partly of the Ngatimanui tribe, of Taranaki, and partly of the Ngatibua, Waikato, and is related toTe Ngakau and Titokowaru, the celebrated chief and warrior of Taranaki. Since taking up her residence in -Cambridge with her husband, many years ago, she has token a prominent part in charitable matters in the district, and has made many friends among all classes, who will now misß her from their midst.

B&boh de Oorvisart, physician to the late Emperor Napoleun 11. hag just died in Paris. He was only 54 years of age, bub had, it is stated, never recovered from the shock he received by the news of the tragic death of Prince Louis Napoleon in Zululand.

Mb Rich, the euccessful y remoter of the Thames Valley Bail way, has (says a London correspondent) at last finished his business in London, and, with Mrs ttich and the Misses Rich, will leave for Dunedin (via Melbourne) by the s s. Paramatta on the 18th instant.

It is stated that that a contribution of something over £3200 per month will be paid by Egypt towards the expenses of the English troops at present quartered in that country.

We hes-r that arrangements have been made by which.-the late proprietor of the Advertiser, and present owner of the Te Aroha Mail, has secured the Observer newspaper, and that he will ehortly leave the scene or his present labors to assume charge of that paper in Auckland.