THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 9, 1881.

It is notified that *by proclamation under the hand of his Excellency the Governor the date of "' the ' sittings of the District Court at Eeefton has been altered as under : On the fonrth Monday in February. May, August and Novem ber. The first sitting will therefore be held on the 28th instant. The Welcome Gompany cleaned up on Monday last, with tbe truly magnificent return of 9650zs lOdwt, from 210 tons, or an average of over four and "a-half 'ounces per ton. It is doubtful whether this return has ever beaten in the Inangahua, and what adds still further to its importance is that there is every possible certainty of the returns being maintained for years to come. The mine liae iiow been opened up in such a manner as to leave no doubt as to the quantity of stone likely to be available for years to come. In the face of 6uch a prospect the Welcome mine must rank as the foremost undertaking in the Colony. It is needless to say that fhares in the company are now hardly to be boughtEnterprise and economy should always be the order of the day, especially in new and fising communities like ours ; there is certainly no great reason to complain of want of enterprise in our midst, but it has generally been confined 'to one ' channel only ; We are therefore pleased to notice a new industry started in Black's Point, namely tbat of bone milling ; Mr Kilgour has fitted up one of the stamper boxes of the Dauntless battery as a bone mill, and is now prepared to turn out bone-dust in any quantity. One lot has already been successfully treated. The premises of Mr Frank Hampson opposite Messrs Foreyth and Masters, Broadway, are being fitted up as a fashionable modeste establishment. Mr Jobn M'Gaffin, who has had the leading hotel at the Lyoll under offer, closed for Ihe purchase yesterday, and has since left for Lyell to complete the transaction. We understand that the terms are £1,000 cash, and possession is to be given on the Ist of March. Tbe purchas 0 comprises the hotel nnd land, fixtures, and furniture ; the stock is to be taken a valuation. It is considered a good investment and Mr M'Gaffin is to be congratulated upon hay* ing secured it. Mr Beeves left for Nelson yesterday, and will return to the district in March next. The ironmongery establishment of Mr Field, which has been open for business in lower Broadway sineo the earliest days of Beefton, has now bceii closed and the balance of the stock removed to : Westport. That pom tion of the town which isnow known as lower Broadway, was at one time the vory centre of business, but as the town has grown the sites in that quarter have gradually yielded upto private residences. At the half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of the Welcome Company^ hold last night, the following directors were elected for the current half-year : — Messrs P. Butler, P. Murphy, M, FitzGerald, T. M'Laugblin, and P. M'Laugblin. A former resident of Reefton, but now of Te Aroha, writes to a' friend of his here, and after describing other mining districts, wbieh he had visited since his departure from tho Inangahua, ho sets forth the merits and demerits bf Te Archa, as follows : — " Hearing the continual reports of rich finds at this place made me as une-isy as a cat on hot coals, and as I could not stand the suspense any longer I left the Thames mid came up six weeks before it w;>s proclaimed a *2o!dficlrt, so that I had plenty of time to prospect for myself in anticipation of the event, This I did with all my heart, but without any success worth mentioning. . The leader

on whbh the prospector* ' are working, i* übout six inches thick, and some parts of it shows* gold very freely. The gold horo is very Bne, and if tho stone is rich, it is found in the joints of the stone just like pupor, and of a .very light co'our. A little gold is found in several claims, but mostly only in small leaders three or four inches thick, and when anyone discovers a co'our of gold the excitement is. immense, and people rush about like mad just as if a fortune were at hand. My own impression is that as a goldfield this is the meanest in the world, and from what I have seen of other places, I am also of opinion that Reefton is the best mining centre in New Zealand. But I am digressing now, so will come back to To Aroha and myself. I hold one-half share in No. 1 south, and a full share in tho next. We are driving a tunnel to test the ground The work is easy, as it is all sandstone hero, and very soft at that. We are now in about 80 feet, and I intend to givo the place.a lair trial before I am done, bnt although I don't think much of the place at present, it might turn out better than I expect : a few colours might lead up to a patch, . . . Tbis is the handiest place to come to that I ever yet experienced on any goldficld* The steamer brings you right up to the spot.. I am camped about a stonß throw, from the river, and the same distance from the hot bath and soda water springs. The valley is splendid and will become a grand place in course of time. The river is about 100 feet wide from* bank to bank with no beaches, but very serpentine and. einuous, the depth of water allows steamers to run up 20 miles higher than Te Aroha. T**e valley stretches from here to Waikato 45 miles. All is level, secondsicluss land, dotted here and there with • swamps, to which can be attributed the immense swarm of mosquitoes of the bull-dog breed, wbioh prevail all over, . . Tom Cooney is here quite in his element as Usual. It is amusing, if not instructing, to bear the way he talks gold-digging and quartz-reefing to the new chums. He furly charms them with the depth of his knowledge ! and the breath of his views, and is accepted as an undoubted authority on all mining matters." Statistics published in the Australasian of the 15th ult., show tbat tbe gradual decrease in the yield of gold from thp Victorian mines which had gone on for some time was first dhecked; in 1877, and has since then become less .marked eyery year until last year, when the returns show an increase of , 93,8840z5. as against the previous term. The , totat yield'fbr 1880 waa 812,0920z8., from the . labor of about 38,000 miners. A Christchurch correspondent of the New' ( Zealand Herald says :-— " A chairman of a [ suburban Road Board and exochairman of a School Committee, having fallen foul bf a paper, indited a letter to it. They amused , themselves by publishing it as it was received . to the horror of the offended official and the , amusement of his friends.' This may be ] gathered from the fact that spectacle is spelt ' spectacless ' j gazette is made 'gagette';. , wrongs, ,• rongs " and a multitude of other , equally amusing specimens of ignorance. The , fact that seems to have chiefly irritated the,. . yiliage-cock was, that they (the paper) had f called him an active participle, wbich he evid-*---ently did not understand, and took to be abuse of some kind." Thackerary advised observers not to depend ; too much upon the face in judging peoplo. , And he tells us how he once followed a man with tbe ugliest mug he ever saw, and found i him carrying food to a siok and destitute I widow with six children. A great believer in Thackerary having read and pondered over ; the story, selected a man with a villanous face one day, and followed him up an alley to see what widow he was going to relieve when the villanous man knocked him down and stamped upon him. When he crawle vl out of the alley some time ofrer, his watch and money were gone. He thinks he will rely on appearances in the future. The London Sportsman says that the famous crack horae, " Robert the Devil," had a narrow escape of being sent to Sydney to run in the races. He was put up for sale, the highest bid being £12,000. An Australian present expressed his willingness to give £13»« 000, but the reserve price was £15,000. Had " the Australian " purchased him he was to have been sent to Sydney and Melbourne. The Wanganui Herald, writing on intoxicants, says fr— " If the statistics were so arranged it would be found that the cause isimply the yearly increase of persons born in the colony to those arriving in it from other countries. There can hardly be a doubt that the young colonial has not the same taste for intoxicating liquors as those who bring their habits with them from " over the sea." Whatever the true cause may be, it is aratify'ng to find that this curse on our civilisation is diminishing. We cannot venture to hope that the diminution will proceed in the same ratio that it has done iv 1879, but if we can only continue to show some advance each, year, wo may rest satisfied in tbe assurance that,' as Germany has wiped out the stigma resting upon her at the beginning of the present century, so New Zealand will be able, i even before the end of the present century ' to say that drunkenness, as a prevalent natiqnal vice, has become a thing of the p-ist. Tho Photographic Society in London does capital work every year by showing the annual progress of the art. From a recent report of the society's exhibition at Pall Mall Bast we learn something about the chief invention of the past 12 months. "An instantaneous view shutter, " worked by a long pneumatic tube, with an eleotrio knob at the ond, enablos the operator to stand many yards in advance of the camera talking to his subject, until a happy expression or a pretty pose tell him it is i ; mo to take a flying shot Another important invention is' the actinometer, by M. Warnerke, for measuring the ' photographic strength of the light or dfiy- ' light. Another process for book illustration '• appears in the Plntino typo process, which ' promises to excel either the Autatype and ' Woolbury typo process. Somo of the most 1 remarkable pictures* exhibit the exquisite per.- < fec'ion of the different instantaneous processes i

ii representation of moving crow tis, yticht races, the flight of birds, and the attitude of animals in the Zoological Gardens. But, perhaps, tho most important picture in the gallery is a silver print, exactly the same size as the picture of the Madonna in San Santo in the Dresden Gallery, taken on nine separate plates, 36 inches by 24 inches each. The society's exhibition, however, seems to hold uo more hope this year than last of the solution of the grout problem of nature printing in colors. A tall structure is being erected rfear Hyde Park, by a military amateur, for the production of nature-coloured photographs, but the nature of the process is unknown, and has so far be'en ignored by the Photographic Society. It is stated that Earlßcaconsfijld is pre.-sing upon the Conservatitie'; party the necessity of supporting some measure of land reform in Ireland, with a view to checkmate the designs ol the Land League. The Wairarapa Standard says :—" A story is told us concerning theuPopertv Tax which may not be after all singular. The person of whom it is related i 3 a good church goin * man: The manner in which the imposition of the tax has depreciated his property should be vridely known. It will afford a good argument next session to . abolish the " Mystery Iniquity." Previous to tiff roperty Tax lfcvy he estimated hia land *o be worth ttwentyy y pounds per acre. When oallfifcflpDn to value it for assessment he stated it to be worth only twenty shilling*-*. No persop imagined property could have in tbis manner to such a larg#extent gone down." On November 20th, General Grant, exPresident of the United |Jtates of America, was entertained at dinner by the Lotus Club New York, Mr Whitelaw Reid, editor of the Tribune presiding. From the report of the proceedings published in the Daily A lta Calafornia we learn that the Chairman in proposing the health of tho gnest expressed his f&pe that General Grant would find permanent employment in the service of his country, adding :■— " This is no blind, broken-down Belisarius holding out bis helmet for alms. It is a question solely of what the country owes to itself. Can it afford tp say, we have no further use for the experience gained at the head of the army and atthe head of the Government ? Why for example, should not the soldier of Appomattox be borne, while he lives, on tbe retired list of the army? Why. indeed, should we not create for him the rank he ha 3so conspicuously earned, and make him while he lives captaim«general of the armies of the United States ? Above all, why should not the country say to him, and to every retiring President-— • Henceforth we wish your advice and your knowledge of our affairs in our highest council, the Senate of the' thiited StkW You have wisdom that comes with experience and moderation that comes with' lbe exercised powjr. Henceforth' your thoughts and all your care be for your cbun^ifyy|ko the end.' To some such plan the purpose of the country is surely * turning, and neither paity nor precedent should be suffered to stand in ita way." General Grant, in replying, alludes as fol- _ lows to these remarks :— ,,; Jn regard to the future oif myself, Which has been alluded to here, I am entirely satisfied as^l am tpuday I am not one of those who cry out against republics, and charge them with ingratitude. I am sure that as regards the American people as a nation and a people, I have every reason, if any person really has, to be satisfied with their treatment of me. I hope to have many years yot of life. I believe I am in quite vigorous health. 48 years of age, and have been for the last 10 years ; and if I can 'render my country any service in any way, I should certainly be very happy to do it. But as I am of the age of 4S years as I say, I am beyond the period of volunteering ; and if lam ever wanted in any way I shall have to be pressed into the service, but not being obstinate at all, I shall have to submit to those who have experience in getting me anywhere that will be entirely comfortable to myself," We bave beeu informed by telegram that on December 6 President Hayes sent a message to Congress recommending that General Grant be given the command of the army.