WEST COAST NOTES

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17815, 14 July 1923, Page 6

WEST COAST NOTES

REEFTON MINERS. t*PJCIAI, TO "TOT PBJtSB.") GBETMODTH, July 13. At the annual meeting this week of the Inangahua Gold and Coal Miners' Union the following officers were elected:—President, J. W. Patterson; vice-president, A. Sveneen; general secretary and workmen's inspector, M. Fagan; trustees, E. Elliston and t\ Sara; executive, S. Dunvard, J. O. White, G. A. Gibellini, E. Taylor, H. Curry and F. Sara; auditors, A. M. Carroll and G. Xovin. The union gathering; was followed by the annual meeting "of the Minors' Accident Relief Association. This body has been in existence for about twelve yeare, and accident pay during that time has exceeded £SOOO. ' The weekly contribution is but sixpence a member, and as there is nearly £4OO cash in haml, the management of this Association appears to hare been efficient. Incidentally, the sum paid out seems proof that coalmining is not so safe as some people imagine. Fire Brigade's Jubilee. The jubilee of the Westport Fire Brigade was fittingly observed this week. Mr Thomas Bailie is the 60ie survivor of the original members, and is still an honorary member. The first captain was the late Mr John Hughes, and Mr William Lloyd was secretary. The nowly-foiraed Borough Council, in .1873, bought a Shand-Mason manual fire engine, which was in use until 1892. A steam fire engine was purchased through the efforts of the late Mr Nahr, from Shand-Mason, London, for £I2OO after the Victoria Hotel and Salvation Army barracks fire, about 12 years ago. The manual engine was sold to the Cobden Fire Brigade for £2O. During its 50 years the brigade has disbanded three or four times, but the present brigade has stuck together for the past 20 years. State Nursery. The two following resolutions were agreed to by a public meeting held at Itimu:—"That this meting urges upon the Government the necessity of immediately acquiring the site at Back Creek for a State Nursery. That this meeting is of the opinion that the £350 refused by the lessees was an exceptionally liberal offer in view of the fact that under the terms of the lease they were not entitled to any compensation whatsoever, and as the returned soldier co-lessee had already been fully repatriated by the Government." "That this meeting is of the opinion that the Forestry Department have taken a very unfair stand in increasing the royalty on timber by sixty per cent, at a local mill, owned by returned soldiers, when the price of timber had fallen approximately 25 per cent. That the Forestry Department lie urged to foreto this increase as it would have a serious effect on the returned soldiers and also on the local milling industry." Obituary. Mr Samuel William Jamittson, 32 years of age, died at the residence of his brother at Cobden this morning. Deceased was born at Hatter's terrace, Nelson Creek. He served for three years in the war, was wounded in Franco, and returned as a cot case. He was an inmate of the Greymouth Hospital for nine months, and also 3 patient of the Christchurch Hospital for some time. An old pioneer of the Coast, Mr Edward Kean, died at Kumara on Thursday morning after a short illness. Deceased, who was well over the allotted span, followed the occupation of a goldminer in the Greenstone district.