LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 121, 2 June 1870, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The usual monthly meeting of tbe.Bailding Society v?ill be held on Friday nextf We are glad to. learn, that M.'lniosh, who met with the acci lent at the Blue Spur last week, is progressing favourably* Frosi advertisement it will be seen that Mr. Marshall, Nurseryman, Tokoroairiro, has a supply of all kinds- of fruit trees, &c, at Dunedin prices. We are informed, thai Dr, E. HalLjy has. received the appointment of Medical Referee for the New Zealand. Govern jnsnt Life Insurance and Annuities' for this district. A WaV^TB letter received ir. Sydney states that 1*« Galatea will refit there, after which she will visit New Zealand, returning home next year by the Cape of Good Hope. She is expected to arrive at Sydney at the end of June. Next Thursday the Tuapeka Athenaeum Headings will make a start, which, we trusty will be an encouraging one. Mr. Burton, wjio! is now located in the district, will preside at the harmonium. The readings wilLbe followed by a dance. Complaints, wo hear, are very prevalent in several of the goldfields districts, of the difficulty of procuring revenue stamps. Surely this could be easi'y remedied. We imagine it to be tbe sluty of the Government oiScers at the various centres not to allow their stock to become too low.

Coombe's paity, having finished their race, put in a blasf of half a ton of powder, and have been washing away the fall of cement brought down by it. They have wished up, and the result is stated, but not authoritatively, at £400. The Canada Quartz Reef has been leased on tribute for a period of two years. Those w.ho have leased are some of the shareholders who have been working at it sine ; its opening, and who may be presumed to form as accurate a ju,dgmens as auy of its. prospects. OCR Switfcers and Tapanui readers will be glad to learn that a Revision Court will be held at Switzers, at the Court House, on the 22nd inst. As there are so many objections lodged against the S withers electors, this will give them a good opportunity to substantiate their claims. The Norwegian race. In course ot construe* tion at TFaitahuna, will bring in ten heads of water. A party of seven have been working at it since August last, and it will take at least twelve months more before it is finished. This will bring in more water than all the three races already constructed, and at a level to command all the spurs and gullies in the neighbour* hood. It will be observed from, a letter received by Mr. Bastings from the Colonial Secretary, and read at the Town Council meeting held on Alonday last, that the " District Courts Jurisdiction Extension Act, 1866 " came into operation on the Otago goldfielrts yesterday. In future claims to the amount of £200 can be heard before AEr. Justice Grey. New South Wales has again been visited by destructive floods. Sydney telegrams state that Wagga Wagga has been again submerged. Five thousand acres of land under crop in the Hunter district have been destroyed. In the southern districts the floods are now subsiding. At Maitland all the public buildings are inhabited by flooded-out families. At the last meeting of the Waste Land Board Mr. Horace Bastings applied for transfer of Messrs, Wilson, Hewitt, and Bailey's saw-mill lioense, Tuapeka west, to Messrs. Bastings, Docherty, and Mackney. The transfer of the license was sanctioned, and the time extended to six months from the 3rd May, 1870. A fee at the rate of £40 per annum, or £5 per horse power, to be paid iiom the 3rd November, 1870. It will be remembered that some few weeks ago we mentioned that a " rara avis," in the ahape o f a white sand-lark, had been seen on the north road, near Mr. M'Master's. The same bird has since been seen on the Riflerange, and so lately as last Tuesday, 24th May, .was observed by Mr. Todd sitting on a fence near Mr. Gilchrist's property. An endeavour should be made to secure it for the Museum. — *' Oatna.ru Times.'* Tbe Chinaman who was brought before the R.M. last weeK as being of unsound mind, and was conveyed to. the Hospital to await further examination, managed to escape from his lodging last Saturday morning. He was discovered in a hay-loft down Tuapeka Flat in a state of nudity, with nothing bu,t a blanket hanging round him. On being taken in charge by the police, be showed fight, but was soon pacified. He" was brought before the R.M. yesterday, and. remanded to Dunedin, We (" Wakatip Mail,") learn that the Martin's Bay tr;\ck is being rapidly proceeded with, and is cptnpleted from the head of the Lake to the foot of the rapids on, the 'Routebum. There the greatest obstacle on the road has to be overcome, as precipitous rocks stand in the way, and some blasting will be required. All dead timber, however, has been removed along the Eauteburn, and the track is defined and passable for pedestrians up to the saddle. There are 40 men employed, and we are informed that, with favourable weather, the track will be completed to the latter place within two months. Teie " Weat Coast Times," of the 18th ult., remarks :--" As an illustration of the extraordinary richness of some of the quartz in New Zealand, we may mention that a few days ago, at the melting-house of the Union Bank, thirty ounces of gold were obtained from 107 ounces of picked soone from a Coromandel reef. At this «ate a ton avoirdupois would yield 9158ounces troy of gold, worth £23,000 sterling. The process employed was that of fusing at a. high temjierature the entire mass with a flux that converted the ailioia into a fluid glass, through which the gold sunk to the bottom of the crucible by reasons of its greater specific gravity." ThaO! there are quarts reefs in abundance in the neighbourhood of Lawrence is certain, bu.t whether there are any payable ones has not yet been sufficiently proved. Messrs, Tuckey, an<£ Apsley, who have been working alluvial ground in a gully leading from the . mouth of Gabriels, have come across a very promising reef. They inform us that gold is distinctly visible in the casing, but as neither of them fSr^Vell acquainted with quartz reefs, they would" like to get the opinion of a practical man as to its character. If it could be proved payable, we have- no, doubt capital might be raised without much difficulty to work it. Intelligence reached Lawrence on Thursday last that James Maclewaine, who h;i3 been engaged for a considerable time packiug goods between the Teviot and Campbell's diggings on the Pomahaka, was missiusr. His two dogs and several of his noises had come home, but no trace could be found of their master. He had been overtaken on tbe ranges by a severe scow storm, and it was at first sup* ■ ppsed that he had let the horses go and taken, shelter in. some shepherd's hut Search was made for him soon ufter, but without success, and very grave doubts exist of his being dis* covered alive. The up-country mail did not arrive in time last night for us to ascertain any further intelligence. Melbourne telegrams of the 19th ult., state that on Tuesday last, Mr. G. H. Supple, barrister and journalist, met Mr. George Paton Smith, M.L.A., in Latrobe-stieet, on which he drew a revolver from, his pocket, and fired four shots at Mr. Smith. Only one shot took effect, striking Mr. Smith on the elbow. Mr. Smith ran away, crying out '* Save me 1" A man named Walshe, who was formerly a detective, but who is now a publican, seized Mr. Supple, held him, and knocked him down, on which the latter fired at him, and the bullet entered his abdomen. IFalshe was conveyed to the Hospital, where he, gradually sank, and died on the afternoon of the following day. Mr. Smith is still confined to bed. Mr. Supple is in custody. He states that he regrets shooting TFalshe, but that he wished to kill Mr. Smith. TEE opening of Messrs, BoyeV Kawarau ran seems, atcording to all information, to have been as. great a surprise to the Lake farmers as otheis. These lattec, marshalled by a gentleman said to be connected with the Clyde paper* had got up a petition praying that no more lands might be opened for two years. The petition was only shown to, those of correct princi- . pies— duly sounded first' It was, we are informed, very numerously signed by the farmers, .and even by a mill-owner. The object waa. partly a selfish one, *s the piesent farmers thereby sought to establish a monopoly of interest. Some of them thought their land would, be damaged to the extent of £1 per acre. The general value is £3 obtained on 2s 6d per acre rent per annum, aud purchaseable without competition at £1 per acre. The people in the Lake district are now well off for land. — " Cromwell Argus." A 8 a specimen of fine writing, the following extract from a narrative ->n the "Bow Bells" magazine is worth publication: — "Those who have never visited the tropics can form no adequate idea of the transcendent magnificence of sunrise on the equator. The topsails of the 'Florinda had been sheeted home as the day-star pajedjn the first flush of dawn, and wafted by . the gentle siprning zephyr, she passed majestically by St. John's Island', just as the sun uprose, in all his effulgent brilliancy, from behind a low green line of broad-leaved palms, and levelled long javelin shafts, of glory across the rippling sea, changing its attire to emerald gold, jewelling each wavelet's crest, tinting the light fleecy morning clouds with roseate hues, till they resembled floating coral hills, dispensing mountain shadows" wiTh his magic power, and seeming to wish us ' God speed ' on our way.'*

An inquest was held, on Tuesday, in Mr. Docherty's Tuapeka Flat Hotel, before a jury, touching the origin of a fire ■whichvtopk place in the stack yard of Alex. Campbell, on Friday last, whereby three stacks were^lestroyed. The evidence of the witnesses (Mrs. '"'Campbell, Felix Donnicrosky, Watt Goo"dWjfl^- and William Claringbold) went to fihoyrthat the stacks destroyed were perfectly dij% and in ever} way well secured, that no person other than the servants were seen about the yard on that day; that the fhe when first seek was above the eaves of the stack, and that the stack was thatched. The evidence also went to show that Campbell was on good terms with his neighbours, and that ho had no quairel with any of his servants. The jury, after carefully considering the evidence, unanimously came to the decision " That the fire was occasioned through the agency of some person or persons uukuown, and that they had no suspiciou of its having occurred otherwise than purely accidental." There is no disputing that the best of the two main roads to the Dunstan is the one via Tuapeka and Teviot, and yet Messis. Chaplin and Co. do not appear to think so. They are the contractors for a weekly mail between Tuapeka and the Dunstan, and they latety put a coach on that line of road, which caused some exultation on the part of the inhabitants at the time. Tha arrangements, however, are very bad ; the coach which leaves Clyde on TPednesday morning is supposed to arrive in Lawrence the same evening, but if it manages to get in by 12 o'clock at night it does well, although we are not disappointed when it arrives some Thursday mornings about 4 o'clock. Now, what is the cause of this ? In the first place, the stages are too long, and in the second place, two horses are not capable for work. . No Sooner does the coach arrivo in Lawrence than it must be dispatched with the return mail, which starts about 5 o'clock on Thursday morning, and with the same horses. The load has considerably increased since the Queenstown, Cromwell, and other up-country mails were sent by thib route once a week. We have sometimes witnessed such a pile pf mails packed on the coach, that we have wondered how it was possible for them to reach their destination. The roads certainly are bad— but wbeie are they not bad ? - nearly every road is alike, bad. We trust Messrs. Chaplin and Co. will find it to suit their purpose better to shorten the stages and use another horse. The monthly meeting of the Tu,apeka Hospital Committee was held in the Assembly Rooms on Tuesday evening last. Present The President in the chair, and the following members of Committee : — ATessrs. M'Swiney, M'Beath, Keen, Farrer, Harrop, Abel, Simpson, M'Nickle, Di. Halley, and the Secretary. The Resident Surgeon was also present. The minutes of previous monthly meeting, and also minutes of Visiting Committee and Building Committee meetings, were read and confirmed. There was not any correspondence, either inwards or outwards. The Surgeon's report was laid on the table, from which it appeared that nine patients had been admitted into the Hospital during the month. In reply to a question put by Mr. Harrop, the President stated that the members of Committee appointed to send out the subscription lists had thought it advisable not to distribute them till next month. The Visiting Committee's Report was read. It stated that matters at the Hospital were in a very satisfactory condition. The additions to the Surgeon's resilience have been completed at a. cost of £41 17s. A coal house and some other necessary out-buildipgs had Hen erected at a cost of £'9 10s. Some repairs had also beeu made on the house ; altogether the toral sum expended had only exceeded by about 30s the amount agieed .upon by the Committee. The report was received and adopted. TPith regard to the financial position of the Hospital, the Treasuier stated that there was a sum of about £197 at the credit of the Hospital. Mr. Simpson gave notice that at the next meeting he woukl move, " That in future tenders for the supply of provisions, &c, for the Hospital, be called foi six instead of three months supply." Sir. Jtf'gwatey to act on the Visiting Committee, for t^Eurrent month, in place of Mr. Ke«n, who retires by rotation. There being uo othei business, tShe meeting adjourned. The usual meeting of the Lawrence School Committee was held in the Schoolhouse on Friday evening. Present -Messrs. Harrop (in the chair), Jameson, Campbell, M'Nicoll, Hayes, and Stenhouse. The minutes of last meeting having been read and confirmed, a letter was read from the Church of England Committee, -to the effect that they were ahout to establish a Sabbath school, and begging permission from the School Committee for the use of the schoolroom. Mr. Jamison proposed, and Mr. M'Nicoll seconded, " That permission be given on eottdition that none of the children be allowed in till the teacher arrives."— Can ied. The Visiting Committee sent in ibefc report, which was received. They had visited the school, and found the pupils were making good progress ; the senior girls were studying French, and the advanced boys were making rapid progress in euclid, algebra, and book-keeping. They agreed ■toliave specifications drawn up by Mr, Pijessly for making a drain diagonally across the playground and partly across the upper end of building, also a pathway about eight feet in width all round the school, to be formed and gravelled. Mr. Pressly was deputed to enquire how much per chain the ground round the inside of the fence would cos>t to be turned up, wifh a view to planting trees. Mr. Campbell moved, and Mr. Jamison seconded, " That tenders be at once called for the woric, and that Messrs. Harrop, Pressly. and the Secretary be appointed a committee to see tfee work carried out, at a cost not to exceed £10."— Carried. Mr. Jamison submitted the report of the Finance Committee, which, with the fees owing, showed a deficiency of £75. The report was received. It was proposed by Mr. Jamison, and seconded byJLTr. Campbell, " That the Secretary be instructed to write to Mr. Hislop, requesting Mm to use his influence in procuring frotet the Government tbe amount of the present deficiency, so thjftt tbe school iniay have a feis btart as a Grammar School. " The chairman promised to write the member of the Provincial Council for Lawrence, asking him to do his 'Utmost to procure the same. There being no other business, the meeting terminated with, -a vo£e of thanks to the chaiiman.