Local Intelligene.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 423, 6 January 1875, Page 2

Local Intelligene.

A committee MFFTING of the Tuapeka Jockey Club was held in the Victoria Hotel, on Saturday afternoon. Present : Mr. JR. Williams, Piesident, and Messrs. Armstrong, Hay. Sheath. Quin, Dowries, Clark, Hill, and Hayes. The minutes of the previous meeting were read ami confirmed. Shortly after the meeting opened, Mr. Hills objected to some action that had been taken by the Committee in altering the programme. He then left the room, and afterwards returned, and handed in his resignation as a member of the Ciub. The resignation was accepted. It wasunanimously resolved that the mare Mabel be disqualified from mnningin any race on the Tuapeka course during the pleasure of the Club, owing to the action taken by the Dunedin Club in reference to her disqualification. It was decided that the qualification to hid for the hooths at the forthcoming races be reduced to £3 3s. There are to be two licensed booths, including the grand stand, the rights to be of by auction, on Monday, the 11th instant. The rights of erecting thiee refreshment booths and other privileges, to be disposed of at the same time. Mr. W. F. Downes was appointed handieapper, in lieu of Mr. R. Hills resigned. Messrs. Williams and Hay were elected as a sub-committee to mark off the ground, and see to the erection of the grand stand and booths. The meeting then adjourned, A spicial meeting of the Committee of Management of the Tuapeka Hospital was held in the Commercial Hotel on Monday evening. The Piesident, Mr. Carow. occupied the chair, and the following members of Committee were present :— Messrs, Abel, Meyer. Harrop, Biyanfc Armstrong. Dr, Halley, and Hayes, Secretary. Dr. Stewart was also piesent. The object of the meeting was to consider a letter received fiom the Resident Surgeon concerning certain irsuboidiuate conduct on the part of the Wardsman towards the Surgeon and the cook. The Secretary stated that he bad. given Mr, M Gannon notice of the meeting, and the charges made against him, but he did not appear. In addition to the letter contaiuiug the charges. Dr. Stewart made a full statement of the nature of the charges, after which the Committee considered they were quite justified in dismissing the Wardsman, and as the Matron had absented hei&elf from the Hospital since Friday last without permission, they also •lwmLssed- her. It was then decided to call for applicants for the situation of Wardsman and Matron in the local journal, and in the Dunedin papeis. A special meeting is to be held on the 20th inst., to determine the applications. The meeting then closed. '•Lumb Supeuseded" i 3 not an inappro" priate beginning to this paragraph. The Government have succeeled in obtaining proper informers in the peisor.s of so-oalled " new chums," named .Ritchie and Nicboiv who managed to bring home several cases of sly grog selling before the Resident Magistrate on Monday last. Two charges against two different parties, and one :i gainst a chinaman were all clearly proved and the rpvetue augmented by the sum of £110 less, we are told, oue moiety «kich goes to the informu s. W-heu one of the latter individuals was questioned as to bis sobriety after drinking so much, he remarke-1 that a gallon of such ale would have little effect upon him, Mi. ftl'Coy in each case raised a very ingenious defence, but all to no purpose as the cases were proved beyond argument. Judgment therefore proceeded. The "make-up" of these hiforrnprs, for tile miserable job they have undertaken, wou'd have been a ciedit to thfe detective force, but for one thing : while their outer garments were greasy and frowzy, and there shirts crumpled and worn as if they had been slept in for a fortnight, their hair was neatly laid, and not at all in keeping with their dress. This defect in the '• get-up " does not appear, however, to have aroused the suspicions of the guilty parties for they were caught in their own trap and have got their deserts. A writ has been issued from the Supreme Court Wellington, and addressed to the Hou. Julius Yogel, Colonial Treasurer, which prohibits him paying to Hayden Hezikiah Hall and Paul Siineoa Forbes contractors for the San Francisco mail service, any money due to them, until the. action now pending in Court against them, at the suit of the Rev. John Riven, formerly of Christchurch, is satisfied. On Friday last there passed from amongst us one who was closely identified with the early days of Tuapeka. We refer to Mr. Edward Walsh ; than whom no person was better known •in the early times aa a storekeeper in .Gabriel's Gully, and afterwards for several years as host of the Camp Hotel. Mr, Walsh hnd retired from business, and for some years had suffered more or less from a chronic disease, which at last carried him away. He was buried in the Lawrence cemetery on Monday, a large number of friends noinuosing his burial procession. The following are "the fixed sittings of the Dibtrict Court for the Otago goldtields : — Naseby, second Wednesday in February ; Clyde Monday, the fifteenth ; Queenstown, Mocday, twenty-second ; Lawrence, Tuesday, March nine. The Supreme Courts held at Christchurch, Wellington: and Nelson were opened on Monday, In each case the calendar was light. Those of Dunedin and Auckland opened on the same day, were not quite so light, bat were by no Oteans formidable.

Mb.'Ulrioh, Consulting Mining Geologist of Victoria, who has been commissioned by the Provincial Government of Ofcago to report upon the quartz reefs of the province, and the means used for extracting and saving the gold from the reefs, made a tour of inspection of the Tuapeka and Waipori districts last week. Mr. Uhich thinks well of the appearance of Otago as a natural field for gold. He was surprised with the sameness of rocks met on every hand. While in Victoria every goldfield is surrounded by granite mountains, here nothing but a kind of schist rook can be seen. The Blue Spur was something altogether new to him, and he thought it very strange if that bed of gold-bearing cement' "was the only one in tho country. He had not the slightest doubt but that there were deep leads in Wethers tones and Waipori Flats. Whether these might prove payable, of course he could not say, bat there was every probability that they 1 would. Mr. Ultich strongly condemns the narrow ripples used in the Blue Spur Batteries, and upholds the system of drop wells used at Clunes, as being by far the best for saving the gold. The Waipori Quartz Reef jreceived a large share of Mr. Ulrich's j attention. He was highly pleased with it and stated that he had not seen ia Victoria or elsewhere a better defined lode. He has great hopes of the future of Waipori as a quartz country. With regard to the Gabriels reef he had not much chance of judging of it. Bat it was an every day occurrence to lose the reef in the way it had been lost and to find it again at a lower level. We think the Government have acted very wisely and for the benefit of the Province by getting a gentleman so practical, and of such undoubted experience to report upon the mines of the province, more especially the quartz mines and we shall look forward with great interest to read his report to the Government, which report we believe will lead to some practical results. As will lie seen from advertisement the lands comprising the Wai Koi Koi Hundred will be sold hy public auction hy Mr. M. Hay at the Lsmd Office, Lawience, to-morrow at noon. There are upwards of 6,000 acres for sale, and 1 600 acres under deferred payments. There arc twenty-eight entries in the two handicap races to he run at the Tapanui meeting on the 28th and 29th instant. A subscriber sends us the following :— "Sir, —After all the bobhery that took place regarding the bad management of the affairs of the Tuupeka Hospital, one would have imagined the business would afterwards be "carried on moie orderly than appears to be the case. Tenders for stores and other things for the halfyear ending June were duly called in your journal to he left at the Hospital by 5 o'clock, on Monday, the 23th ult. Ihe meeting was held -the following d:iy, when tendeis sent in on the afternoon of the day of meeting were received and considered. Now Sir, Ido not think this the rigbt thing to do. The Committee have been elaborating rules for their guidance, and it is just by such small beginnings that rules after a time become ignored-" We do not remember having before seen in Lawrence such a fine specimen of mutton as Mr. She>ith had in his shop the other day in the form of a sheep weighing HOlbs. Tuapeka has not lately been able to boast of its prime cuts. Captain Hutchison's mare Mabel was disqualified unanimously by the Tnpitnni Jockey Club from running on their racecuutse. The postmaster iufonns us that the mail to Switz.'is will now tie despatched from Lawrence every Monday ami Frid.iy mornings. Owing to new an alignments mails will not -iiow he made up at Lawrence for Txpanui direct, but will be sci>t-vla BHlciuThrTanir O'imton, and despatched from Lawrence every Monday and Ft irlay. The latest cable telegram from London, December 28Hi states that an express train on the Great Western Railway left the rails near Skipton, when the carraiges were percipitated into a canal and 30 persons were killed. An explosion occured in aco'leiy in Staffordshire, and caused the death of 20 persons.