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Cromwell Argus, Volume XII, Issue 587, 8 February 1881, Page 5

It is announced that Mr John Bathgate has consented to act as one of the Counties' Railway Commission. Messrs Shand and Elder have been nominated by the Cromwell School Committee as members of the Board of Education. Cromwell yesterday was honored with the presence of the County Chairman—the first time for many months. Mr Pjke left tor Dunedin this morning. Dates of sitting of R.M. and Warden's Courts throughout Dunstau District and at Arrowtown during February and March are published on our second page. Attention of members of the Cromwell Volunteers is directed to the orders for the current month, as puhlished elsewhere. The Government inspection takes place on Thursday evening first. It is notified elsewhere that Mr Marshall ha 3 been appointed Dog Registrar under the Act of 1880. As the Act is very stringent in its provisions, and the Borough Council is determined to enforce them, it would be well for owners of dogs to register at once. The gentlemen elected a committee of management for the Alexandra school this year are Messrs Finlay, W. Fraser, G. \\ M'Donald, John M'Kersie, Jas. Rivers and W. Theyers. The annual report showed that the school affairs generally are in a satisfactory condition. It is advertised in another column that a Board of Reviewers will sit at the Resident Magistrate's Courthhouse, Clyde, at 11 a.m. on the 22nd inst., for the purpose of hearing objections to assessments of property in the boroughs of Cromwell and Alexaudra, and part of out. lying district of Otago, iu the County of Vincent

. The Wellington Cup of 400 sovs, two miles, was won by Natator, Libeller second. Time, 3min 38sec Tickets iu the Press Consultatioa on the Dunedin Cup can be had on application at this office.— [Advt] At a meeting of the new School Committee at Bendigo, Mr W. Ware was elected chairman, and Mr R. M. Stewart secretary and treasurer. Mr F. C. Huddleston, late of Wanaka district, has entered upon the duties of inspector for Lake Rabbit District, to which office he has been appointed. An amusing illustration of how Government retrenchment can be carried out on the '•penny wise, pound foolish" principle is furnished in another column by a contributor. " Piccolo Charley" will be recognised as a harm'less individual who knocked about Cromwell for a week or two recently, and who evoked pity more than any other feeling. The latest thing in retrenchment is that the members of the Otago Land Board have had 10 per cent, deducted from their weekly fee for attending meetings. This means a trifle over 2s a week taken off their guinea. The Government are understood to be firm on the point, notwithstanding vigorous remonstrances from the gentlemen concerned. We understand that the Taieri County has agreed to the proposal by the Vincent Council to appoint a Counties Commission to report on the OtagoCentral Railway. Thus Vincent, Maniototo and Taieri will act in concert in the matter. We have reason to believe that Mr Pyke proceeds to Dunedin to make necessary arrangements in connection with the commission A man named J. W. Jenkins was brought before P. L. Dignan, Esq., J.P. and the Mayor on Saturday, charged with cruelty to a horse. Accused had come into town riding an animal with a dreadfully sore back. He was about to leave for Macetown on the horse when arrested by the police. The charge was fully proved as being of a most aggravated kind, and Jenkins was fined L 5, which should prove a caution to him for the future. In his eagerness to honor Mr Vincent Pyke with the credit of every good thing done in the district, our Clyde contemporary forgets to be just. If the writer of the local in Friday's Dunstnn Times about Bannockburn and Nevis mail changes will refer to the issues of this paper on January 4th and 11th—some weeks before Mr Pyke took action-he will see that we strongly urged the changes now happily effected. We assure the Dunstan Times Mr Pyke is not so all-powerful as he makes some folks believe. The company owning the " Mountaineer" steamer on Lake Wakatipu continues to lose money. A statement at the general meeting Held last week showed that the vessel had been worked at a loss of close on LBO for the last six months. Shareholders have come to the onclusion that, before dividends can be looked for it will be necessary to enlarge the capital and' buy up the two other steamers running on the Lake. A motion to this effect was carried. It is proposed to increase the capital to L 20.000. At the annual meeting of householders held at Nevis schoolhouse on Monday evening 24th January, for the purpose of electing seven' householders to form the school committee for the current year, there viere eight candidates proposed, and the following were elected : Messrs Williamson, Snow, Masteis, Churston, Newton, Bell, and Elliot. Mr Williamson was chairman, and Messrs Baylea and Taylor acted as scrutineers.—At the school committee's meeting, held on Friday evening, Mr Andrew Williamson was elected chairman, and Mr John Snow secretary for the current year. At Bendigo on January 19th a public meeting was convened for the purpose of protesting against the present postal arrangements there. Mr \Y. Cameron was in the chair. The following resolution was carried unanimously by those present—That a petition from the residents of Bendigo, Ardgour, Morven Hills and Rise and Shine, be forwarded to the Chief Postmaster to have the mail delivered here on Saturdays and the return mail forwarded on Mondays, as formerly for the convenience of correspondents. At present the mails arrive on Tuesdays and Thursdays, thus causing great inconvenience, as the mail closes immediately on arrival. Our readers are aware that the Property Tax is due and payable in two equal half-yearly instalments. As the Wellington correspondent to a contemporary points out, one of these ought to have been paid some months ago ; but owing to successive deliys, occasioned by the objections raised, the first instalment cannot be collected until the other is nearly due. This is vejy severe upon the ratepayers, the date of payment of the first instalment being fixed for the Bth of March, and the second for the 22nd of the same month, which means an interval of a fortnight. For all practical purposes the two instalments might justas well have been collected simultaneously without perpetrating the farce of such an absurdly short interval. At length there is likely io be an end to the perplexing changes in official departments in the Dunstan District. Mr A. D. Harvey has been transferred from Clyde to Naseby. Mr F. Jeffrey is to be stationed at Clyde, and to perform clerical duties there and at Alexandra, Roxburgh, and Blacks. Mr Dalgliesh is to remain as clerk at Cromwell, within which district Cardrona and Pembroke will be included. Noticing these arrangements, the Dunstan Times remarks :—-" Again we must compliment our representative on having succeeded in having the wishes of his constituents properly attended to." We too are quite agreeable to give our district representative hisshare of credit for his endeavors in this direction; but is this "puff direct" business not a little bit overdone? Mr Pyke is a modest man, and may not like to see himself lauded and caressed in the childish fashion adopted at Clyde. The Warden of the district, Major Keddell, probably had most, if not all, to do with the settlement of offices.

At present in the town of Napier, in the North' Island, the 21b loaf is being sold at 24d. It is said that the expenditure of the Native Office, during Mr Bryoe's reign, has been reduced from LBO.OOO per annum to LI 1,000. This is a clear saving of L 69.000. At the annual meeting of the Melbourne Hospital, the balance-sheet showed the Institution was nearly £6OOO in arrears. After some remarks on the management, the report was adopted. ... It is reported at Wellington in gossip amongst a few persons taking an interest in matters political, that one of the chief events of next session will be the withdrawal of the tax on beer, and the imposition of school fees. Some time since, as will be remembered, gold to the value of £SOOO was not to be found on board the Union Steamship-Company's s.s. Tararua upon her arrival at Melbourne to which port it was consigned from New Zealand. The' robbery, for such it appears to have been, was a most mysterious one, and although every supposed quarter has been tried by detectives since its committal, its mysfceriousness has not dimin* ished, and appears as impossible of solution as ever. Mr Richard "Williams has tendered his resignation as Mayo? of Lawrence and member of the Council in consequence of some disagreement with that body in connection with the extension of water Bupply. Referring to hia retirement the local paper says:—" We regret the step Mr Williams has taken, as he has uniformly conducted the business of the Council in a most creditable manner. He leaves the Council at the very moment when his advice and assistance would be likely to be of some good to the ratepayers." * A Dunedin contemporary has been shown some very good specimens of quartz, which have been brought to town by Mr F. W. Hoffmann, from a reef discovered by him a few days ago at Look-Out Rock Spur, Long Valley, in the Serpentine district. Rough gold shows freely to the naked eye all through the stone ; and experts express a very favorable opinion respecting its appearance. The discoverer of the reef has applied for a lease, and several claims have been marked off all round by miners who have been working in the neighborhood. ....•'■ The virtues of Sander and Sons' Eucalypti Extract are every day becoming more widely known and appreciated. The Extract is the essential essence of the Australian gum-tree, and contains elements of wonderful medicinal value. For internal ailments of every kind, as well as burns, cuts and other injuries, it is a certain and speedy remedy. It should be in every family, and to miners and others far removed from medical aid, the Extract will prove invaluable. With each bottle will be found directions for use, together with certified testi: ruonials as to the efficacy of the Extract in many serious cases where other remedies have failed. Mr Hotop is sole agent for tha Cromwell district. This is the view taken of Mr Pyke's proposal to borrow LI 0,000 by the writer of "Postscripts" in the Dunedin Star: —"Mr Vincent Pyke having somewhat recovered from the intellectual labors of " White Hood and Blue (yap," and seeing no chance of any favorable crop outside the County, has, sagaciously enough, set himself to work to manure the ground for next season, which otherwise promises not to be very remunerative. The hon. gentleman has tabled a motion to the effect that Vincent County shall at once borrow another LIO.OOO, to be expended on public works, amongst the most urgent of which are possibly the maintenance of the chairman and those nearly connected with him, who draw their vital sustenance under some form or other from the public teats." Particulars of a dreadful accident at Guthrie and Larnach's Dunedin factor}' are published in the city papers. On Thursday afternoon about a quarter past 4 o'clock the attention of some of the workmen on the first floor of the main building was attracted by threesharp knocks against the roof next the shafting. Qn looking up they discovered the mangled remains of a human body, and the signal for the stoppage of the engine was immediately given. The body which was that of a young man named Thomas Jeffrey, was found to be entangled round the shaft by one of the bands, and was injured to r» fe;,r?;il extent, his brains being dashed out and one of his legs being completely detached from the trunk. No one witnessed the accident. Death must have been instantaneous. The deceased was 18 or 19 years of age, and was the only support of his widowed mother. According to St. James' Magazine, Siberia is a singularly misunderstood region Richer by far than Canada, it enjoys a climate neither warmer in summer nor colder in winter. In all the Dominion there is no soil like the black earth along the Obi and Yennes3ei; and even the lumberman of the Ottawa, the St. Lawrence and the Fraser would find himself in an Elysium among the forests that line the banks of the <next rivers which intersect Siberia from the borders of China to the shores of the Polar Sea. Yet in this fine country, with resources greater than Western America, to which thousands are yearly fleeing from overcrowded Europe, land is a drug, and owing to the difficulty of getting anything out, produce is almost valueless, and foreign goods exorbitant in price.' In the Valley of the Yenessei dried fish can be bought tor " next to nothing," grouse are 7d a braco,°capital beef 2£d a pound, and at Krasnoiarak a cargo of good wheat could be obtained for about 25s the hundred weight. Cora and hay are, indeed, so cheap that Mr Seehobm, a recent traveller, paid for post horses over the great steppe between Tomsk and Tjumen only one half-penny per mile. At Tenosseisk a ship's mast of hard larch 60ft long, is worth a guinea. Oa the Obi live ducks fetch five farthings apiece, the large fish called "yass" l£d a pair, and pike a farthing each. Young calves can be bought in villages away from the great overland routo for 6d each ; and in the .rich black earth country,' immediately north of the Altai, land is leased' for 3£d per acre. On the other hand, a ton of salt, which can be bought in Liverpool for 153 • commands on the Obi or Yenessei LIS, and rnv the Lena a still higher prino.