GENERAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 897, 7 December 1871, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

The crops in the south of Canterbury are so far in splendid condition, and give promise of an abundant harvest. Some land near Wanganui that three years ago fetched £l4 an acre, was sold the other day for £8 an acre. The " Chronicle" notes the fact as indicative of the depression prevalent in the district.

Cheap butter is being shipped from Auckland to England for cart grease. The settlers at Tokomairiro are initiating a movement to establish a cheese factory on the American principle in that district. A committee has been appointed to obtain specific information upon the subject. The Merlin, from Fiji, brings the news that the Fiji Assembly was to meet on the Ist November. Strong opposition to the present Ministry is expected. The evasion of miners' rights by the Chinese, is thus referred to by the " Wakatip Mail" :—" A recent raid at Moke Creek disclosed some delinquents; and At Big Beach, Lower Shotover, thirty-two Chinese were found without miners' rights. These men were employed by the two great Chinese Companies; and evidently the intention was to cheat the Government. The police were actively assisted by Mr John Alloo, who deserves some compensation for these extra services. Ihe dodging of the Chinese was extraordinary, and displayed cunning that a European would have failed to detect, and even Chinese officials themselves, without Colonial experience. Evidently they have been freely using one another's rights, which in many instances have no doubt done not only double but treble duty. On the occasion at present under notice, Mr John A 1100 adopted the old Victorian plan. The Chinese were ' stock-yarded' at the Big Beach which offered facilities for this summary course of action ; and for Government the result proved satisfactory, as Constable Walsh executed, "with Mr Alloo's assistance, a clever strategic movement. Kangaroos could not have been more cleverly captured. After all, should not the large employers of these Chinese be hunted ? They paid for the wanting rights on the spot." At the Kyeburn and Serpentine, Mount Ida District, Otago, the want of water is being seriously felt, and at Hamilton many parties have washed up in anticipation of the water supply failing. The trial crushing of poorer stone in the new ground opened by the Phoenix Company, Skipper's has, the " Wakatip Mail" says, exceeded expectations. The yield of retorted gold is 105ozs from 110 tons crushed.

The Government have concluded a contract for the erection of the telegraph line from Katokati to the Thames. The Roman Catholics at Lawrence purpose building a large school there.

A new kind of burner for kerosene lamps has been invented bv a Mr Noble of Christchurch. The"" Press" describes it as follows : —" By a very simple contrivance the use of a wick is entirely done away with, and in its place a brass tube, perforated near the top, serves as a burner. All that is necessary to do is to heat this tube, aud screw it into the lamp, and apply a light, when a splendid flame is obtained. The manner in which Mr Noble constructs his tube is at present a secret, and he intends patenting it." In an obituary notice of the late Mrs Cargill, senr., the ■! Otago Daily Times" gives the following particulars : —Mrs Cargill was born in London on the 13th August 1790. Her father Lieutenant Yates, was an officer in the Royal Navy, nephew of Tates, a celebrated actor in his day. She a Miss Tates was married in Oporto in April, 1811, to Captain Cargill, who then held the rank of Captain in the 74th Regiment. Immediately after their marriage, Captain Cargill went on active duty with his regiment, and Mrs Cargill acompanied the other officers' ladies to Bilbas, in the north of Spain, where her eldest son was born, on the 31st December, 1813. She rejoined her husband at Bordeaux, after the battle of Toulouse. Captain Cargill finally retired from the service in 1813, the very poor prospect of promotion after the peace impelling him, in common with many other officers, to retire. Mrs Cargill, was the mother of seventeen children, and experienced a somewhat chequered life down to the year 1847, when she embarked with Captain Cargill in the JohnlWycliffe, the vessel which conveyed the first band of settlers to Otago. She landed at Dunedin on the 23rd of March, 1840—the birthday of the province. Her career in the colony is so well-known that it is unnecessary to say anything on that point. Of her children, grand-children and great grand-children, Mrs Cargill leaves 82 living, of whom 47 were born in Otago. She closed a long and chequered life surrounded by those who loved and honoured her, and was spared to see the germ of settlement planted by her husband spring up into vigorous growth. Something of a glimpse of " life in the Eijis" is given in a letter from a resident there who was at one time in business in Hokitika. "Writing to a friend, ho says that he had lately become possessed of two Fiji girls. How they came into his possession he does not say, but he had got them safely locked up during the night, intending to send them to his plantation next

morning. During the eight, however, two Europeans contrived to liberate the girls from their confinement, and made off with them. The writer of the letter expresses his regret and vexation, as each of the girls, he says, was worth £2O. A life of vicissitude is sketched in the following paragraph from the " Bendigo Advertiser " —" In a fraud summons case—Eyre v. Cook—heard on the Thursday in the Sandhurst County Court, an extraordinary statement was made by the judgment debtor respecting his past career in this and the old country. In reply to the solicitor for the creditor, he said during his lifetime he had adopted multitudinous methods of earning a living, from an omnibus conductor to following a Eothschild's hounds ; and though at one time living in perfect affluence, he was now reduced to indigence. Some years after his arrival in the colony he was very successful in mining speculations, and became possessed of property to the value of £20,000; but of this fortune he lost every farthing. At one time, he said, he was the heaviest shareholder and a director in the Catherine United Company, a company the value of which in the market at the present time is about £150,000; in fact, he was the founder of the company, as well as the one which preceded it, namely, the Catherine Reef Claimholders' Association, and it was through his instrumentality that Mr Eyre, his brother-in-law, had been appointed manager. Within the last six months, he had not earned more than £6 and during that time he had been living with his sister supported by her husband. Mr Liddle, for the plaintiff, said the defendant was given to drink, and made no effort to pay Mr Eyre, who had supported his wife and family for a considerable time, and he a3ked the Court to make an order for the payment of the amount due £243, or send him to gaol. Judge Macoboy, however, held that no fraud had been proved, and dismissed the summons.

The "Melbourne Argus" states that a case of some interest as to the law affecting the relative rights of husband and wife in the disposing of property has been brought before the Supreme Court there. A person named Emanuel Grimmett having lived unhappily with his wife for some time, at last separated from her in 1857, and no communication afterwards took place between the pair. Mrs Grimmett, with the assistance of a lad whom she and her husband had adopted several years previously, supported herself, and put by a considerable sum of money. She had saved altogether nearly £3OO, which she had placed in the Savings' Bank. Not hearing from her husband, and believing him to be dead, she made a will in January 1855, leaving her personal estate, with some small exceptions, to the adopted son. She died shortly afterwards. It was then ascertained that Mr Grimmett was alive, and in Queensland, and after some delay the friends of the lad asked for his consent to the will. In reply he said the will was not worth the paper it was written on, but he had no objection to the lad getting what was left him under it, and promised to assist him otherwise. Grimmett died six months after his wife, intestate. His brother now claims the property in the bank, as next of kin, contending that Mrs Grimmett's will is of no value. Mr Justice Molesworth reserves his decision. The existing Married Woman's Property Act was passed to meet such cases as the present, but, of course, as the parties died long before it became law, it does not affect this dispute.