The Westport Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 1873.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1098, 15 August 1873, Page 2

The Westport Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 1873.

Wo have received from the Provincial Secretary, a copy of the Goldfields Local Revenues Act, 1573, parsed at the last session of the Provincial Council, to constitute "Districts within the Nelson 'Goldfields, and to appropriate a portion of ■the Provincial Revenues to the making and maintaining of Public .Vorks therein." 'The Goldfields are thereby divided into five districts; Cobdeu, Charleston, Bidler, Inangalma, and Ahaura, and the Act recites that on the first Monday in the month of O stober, voters, i.e., persons whose names are on the Electoral Itoll, shall assemble and proceed to elect Hoards, by ballot, ■consisting, in eaeli district, of six persons. The Act may be taken as permissive only, •and residents in any of the districts named, may decide whether or not to avail themselves of its powers, which consist mainly of levying rites and tolls for the maintenance of roads, and expending for similar purposes one, half of the local revenue derived from the sale or leasing of land, miners rights, or business licences, " subject to the appropriation of the Superintendent and Provincial Council."

It has been recommended by the Nelson Central Board of Education that, as extra teaching power is required in the West port School, a monitor shall bo employed for the 1 resent, at XI per month salary. The cost

of an additional class room, which the Finance Coumittee stato to be urgently needed, is estimated 'tit £BO. Mr Biunner has been instructed to submit to the Board a plan of room to be built- for this price, affording accommodation for fprty scholars ! Tin.' Board has resolved ou the motiou of Mr Simmons, that the unauthorised expenditure incurred by the Wostport School Committee, amounting to £2l 8s Bd, should not bo paid. It will be noticed by advertisement that the Secretary invites tenders for louse of the Education Reserves in Westport. In view of the early commencement of the river protection works, referred to in Mr Higginsou's report" it would not be a bad idea if practical miners, or others, having time at their disposal,. would prospect immediately around the neighborhood of t>.e Orawaiti aud Bulier rivers for stone. A good stone quarry in any convenient position would be worth a Jew's ransom.Intending purchasers from Mr N. Soloman's new stock of jewellery, now on view at Gilmer's Hotel, will do well to note that the sale will positively close to-morrow evening at ten o'clock. The exhibition of gems, and gold and silver manufactures, is as usual well worthy inspection, even by those, who not necessarily immediate purchasers, can land time to look and admire. At the B.M. Court on Tuesday, the business was trifling. Two civil cases were heard and adjudicated. Patterson v Regata, claim for £ll 6s, balance of account for groceries, and Whyte and firie v. M. Burke, claim for £2 Ss, clothing supplied. The defendants did not not appear, and judgment by default was given in both cases. In the Warden's Court an application made by Christian Kasmussen and four others, for a head water race, commencing at a point on the north side of Giles creek, three quarters of a mile above Giles township, was grantei for 40 inches of water. Some excitement was caused yesterday by the behaviour of a mob of refractory bullocks, that showed more than the usual perversity of their kind, in refusing to swim across the river from the south bank to the township. Quite a lively play of stock whipping and horsemanship ensued before they were all afiuat, and one 'poley' brute rushed man and horse indiscriinin" ately. Landing at last on the beach, at Molesworth street, Poley laid down, and neither ingenious aggravation nor approaching tide caused it to leave there for some hours., Another after taking a preliminary canter in Palmerston street, made a desperate header into the surf, and swam boldly through the breakers. A couple of boats were sent out in pursuit, but for nearly two hours could not turn the bovine navigator landward. At last it came in again through the surf andwas driven off with its companions in misfortune up the beach, where it found amusement for sometime iu sticking up every passer by who did not clear out of the way. The strike on the lower section of the Nine Mile Road continues, and up to yesterday evening the con tractor'had made no satisfactory arrangements with the men employed. The position of affairs at 2)resent seems to be that he threatens to pay other liabilities than their claims for wages, out of the first moneys he may receive, and the men decline to do any work until guaranteed payment to themselves, arguing, and very justly, that their claims should have precedence of all others. The extreme,step of refusing to do more work seems somewhat ill advised. The Contrac. tors Debt Act IS7I enables persons employed upon works in which a lien over the thing worked in cannot be aoimirod, and for which their employer has failed to pay them, to obtain payment from money due to their employer for the work they have done. The Act says, " workmen suing a contractor may obtain, on proving the labor and the character of the work and the locality in which it is done, a certificate from the presiding Magistrate for the amount of sixty days mages and no more. Such certificate requiring the paymaster to pay on demand such sums as may, on such certificates, appear due to the applicants, and upon service of such certificates all money duo to the contractor shall be held as being effectually assigned by the contractor to the workmen. Clause 13 of the Act further says : ** A contractor who shall sub-let any part of the work shall be responsible to the extent provided by the Act for the wages of the workmen employed by a sub-contractor, and a workmen thus employed may proceed against the contractor as in this Act provided, as if he had been directly employed by him." Now in the face of this it seems reasonable enough to suppose that if the men at once resume work, more payments will become due to the contractor, and which, as shown, may be impounded to the extent of the value of sixty days labor for each man doing that quantity of work. They may thus, by enforcing the provisions of the Act, secure to themselves all that is due, suffering no greater inconvenience than having to wait some little time.for their money. Failing fair and straightforward action on the part of the contractor, wc recommend the men to take legal advice upon this particular subject. Another of the oldest residents, Mr R. Marney, has just left Charleston. During his residence there he has earned the respect of every person in the district, by his social qualities, and his thorough business habits. A large number of townspeople assembled at. the coach office, on Monday, to bid him farewell. Shareholders in the Caledonian Goldmining Company at Larrys are expressing considerable annoyance at the action of certain shareholders in Hokitika, who, it is reported, have obtained an order from the Judge of the District Court to wind up the company. The motive, as stated, being a desire to ultimately place the Company on

a bettor financial footing, and to extend operations by amalgamating one or more adjoining claims. It is a matter that affects the shareholders rather than the general public, but it is a somewhat unusual action for the minority of shareholders in a comp ny to arbitrarily asaiime such powers without very good and sufficient reasons. Such may very probably exist, although the general public are not cognisant thereof, but it would appear from the.tenor of remarks made by the Inangahua Herald that local shareholders are by no means satisfied. That journal says:—A more impudent attempt on the part of a few shareholders to carry tlnngs with a high hand has perhaps never been witnessed; and it should serve, if anything can, to show how very seriously the interests of the majority of shareholders may suffer iu the event of the management of the companies passing into the hands of a ring of adventurers backed up by a liberal supply of capital. We are free to admit that circumstances may arise in which a change of directory is desirable; that it may be shown that work has-not proceeded satisfactorily, nor that the rate of progress is proportionate to the object to be attained, but that caunot justify a course of action which would assuredly utterly ruin the prospects of the majority of shareholders iu any company. Yet such certainly would be the result if the Caledonian were wound up and the property hastily realisedThe poorer shareholders would be unable to purchase, and those few—having no lack of means—would get it into their own hands pretty well at their own price. In the interests of justice and equity it is most important that the comparatively poor and unlettered should be protected from results so disastrous as those that would follow upon the compulsory realisation of so valuable a property. 'flu following mining calls are now due: Lyell Creek, one penny; Oriental, one penny; Break-o'-Day, two pence, per share. On Friday last a lad named John Oliver was buried in a claim at Woodstock, and dug out quite dead. The lad, who was about sixteen years of age, and his father were working together when the fall of earth took place, but the father contrived to scramble out, though it is difficult to understand how he managed it, as the drive was completely filled with earth, and it took all the men who could get to work ten hours and a-half to get at the boy. The body was found in an erect position, entirely covered with gravel, but the only part that was injured was the head; the back was reposing against a boulder, the breast and front of the body being protected by some timber laths. The poor boy must have been smothered up at once, as he still held a hammer in his hand when disinterred. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, adding that no one was to blame for the accident. The parents of the deceased lad are naturally much distressed, the father particularly so, as he was actually a witness to his son's being buried alive. He called to the boy several times, and received an answer distinctly the first time, very faintly on the second time, aud at the third as if articulation were nearly gone; after that there was no answer at hIJ. Much sympathy has been evoked for the family, more particularly as the boy was well conducted and altogether a promising lad. An Auckland contemporary has the following in reference to a wonderful new variety of potato, lately introduced in this Colony : —" Specimens of a new potato named the ' Early Hose,' have lately been imported. It has created quite a sensation in America, where, when they first came into notice a few years ago, they sold at fabulous prices. The Gardeners' Magazine states that as much as forty dollars a tuber was paid for them in some instances—£lo for a single potato, while three to four dollars a pound was a common price. The recommendation of this wonderful tuber is, that it crops wonderfully, and that its flavor surpasses that of the old Ashleaf.

Cheap sale of Jewellery.—Mr N. Soloman, jeweller, of Dunedin, has arrived, and has opened for sale, and will continue to sell until Saturday night next, at the Post Office Hotel, a large stock of gold and silver watches, colonial gold alberts, and ladies chains, brooches, earrings, bracelets, necklets, lockets, quartz and greenstone specimens from the Caledonian and other famous claims, magnificently mounted, an assortment of sterling silver manufactures, optical goods, and othor general assortment too numerous to particularise. The public may depend on obtaining really good bargains. Inspection respectfully invited. Notice—The sale will close punctually at 10 p.m. on Saturday, August Kith, as Mr Soloman will open in Charleston on Monday, at the Melbourne Hotel.—Advt.