Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 413, 5 September 1868, Page 2

It is announced that the Rev. Mr Baxter, of Christchurch,. will preach in the Wesleyan Church to-morrow morning and evening. Ou both occasions collections will be made in aid of what is called the Circuit Fund— a fund for the maintenance of the local clergyman. We have to acknowledge receipt of a copy of a recently published work on the geography and history of New Zealand, compiled for the use of schools by James Wykle, C.E., Member of the Philosophical Institute. It contains a mass of useful information concerning our adopted country, and appears to. be admirably adapted to the purpose for which it is intended. We commend this little volume to the attention of the schoel teachers and general public of Westlaud. The exhibitions of Foley 's Menagerie have continued, during the last few days, and on each occasion have been most liberally patronised. Those who have not yet paid the collection a visit should do so as speedily as possible. The correspondent of the Auckland Weekly Exj)rcss t under date of the 2«Hu uit., says that the dinner to Mr Mackay passed off most successfully that night. About 100 persons were present, and tin attempt on the part of one or two speakers to introduce politics was, very properly, at once put down. Mr Mackay, untrammelled by official ties now, simply spoke out, aud the result was a rather unpleasant expose of the two Governments. The dinner took place at the Scotch, church, kindly lent for the occasion, no other building sufficiently spacious being available. . The usual weekly meeting of the Grey Road Board was held yesterday, at the Engine-room. Present — Mr Fox (in the chair), Barnhill, and Leach. A letter was read from the Arahura Road Board, asking if this Board would amalgamate with them in assisting private parties to construct approaches on each side til tho Tercmakau, at a spot half-armilofrom the beach, where a punt coulil be placed, piovided the Government assisted in the work. It was agreed to give every encouragement to the scheme. A letter Avas read from Mr Perkins, solicitor, to the effect that ho bad. been instructed by Mr Stephen Roff, with reference to the contract he had with tho Board for planking and capping a portion of the embankment. He requested that L4O should be paid on account

of work already done, in order to prevent any further proceedings being taken for breagty of agreement or otherwise. It was resolved to transmit to Mr Perkins a copy of the resolution on this subject passed at last meeting of the Board. A letter was read from the County Chairman's office acknowledging receipt of the resignations of Messrs Whall anil Wiekes. A number of telegrams from Government departments in Hokitika, of the most contradictory nature, was read with respect to the plans and survey of the new road from Paroa to the Welshman's, but no definite answer had been received. The Treasurer reported that the sum s£and r ing to the credit of the Board was Ll9 lls lOd. Oil a stationer's account for 7s Gd for newspapers supplied being presented, the Chair, man said he could not consent to such reckless extravagance. What did they want with the Grey River Argus and the West Coast Times wljen their funds were so limited? He had been informed by the Paymaster that they would only be in receipt of LIOO a mouth, and he could not consent to the money being thrown away in this reckless manner.. He moved that the Grey River Argun be stopped. This was not secondedHe then moved that the. West Coast Times be stopped. This was carried. The Euginepr's report was read. It stated that during the week he Ijad, been engaged surveying Biehmond and Mawhera Quays, and preparing a plan of the embankment works to be handed over to the Municipality. On the motion qf the Chairman, it was resolved to request Messrs Moss and Kirton to audit the accounts of the Board. Mr Barnhill then moved MThat Mr Johnston call for tenders for constructing the line of road from Paroa to. Welshman's, said tenders to be opened at the next meeting of the Board." The Chairman started up from his seat, saying that he could not entertain such a motion ; he would vacate $he chair, which he did, and left the room. There not being a quorum, the meetadjourned. We are informed that another explosion of fire damp took place at the Brunner Coal Mine yesterday, by which a miner named Liudsay was injured. The accident was caused by Lindsay carrying an open light although he knew the mine was badly ventilated' and fire-damp was about. The injuries he sustained are not serious. The Thames Advertiser, of the ISth, says : — "Mr Schafer, the German travelW, who is making a tour of New Zealand on foot, arrived overland from Tauranga this morning, after a ten days' journey. Mr Schafer speaks in the highest terms of the courtesy extended towards him by the Hau-haus, through whose country he has just come, and among whom he passed several days of travel. The heavy fains served to retard his progress by flooding the rivers, and the passes necessary to insure his safe convoy among the tribes detained the traveller, otherwise he speaks of the journey in the highest terms, and is anxious to pay the district another visit in order to renew his acquaintance with the Hau-hau tribes, Ho was the bearer of a letter to Mr Commissioner Mackay from the latter, in whish the traveller is very highly spoken of. Mr Schafer proceeds to Auckland from this place, and afterwards, returns into the interior to continue his travels."

The Foley Juvenile Troupe is announced to give a series of entertainments in this town during the ensuing week. They will make their first appearance at Kilgoni's Hotel on Monday evening. The members composing this troupe have been highly spoken of by our contemporaries in the towns which they have recently visited, as being very clever performers ; and there is every reason to expect that they will be appreciated here, where theatricals have been at a discount lately. The Baker's and Miller's Bill, recently passed, contains twenty-t.wo clauses, and provides that all bread shall be made of "pure and sound" meal of " wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, Indian corn, peas^ beans, rice, or potatoes, or any of them, and with any common salt, pure water, eggs, milk, barm, leaven, potato, or other yeast, and mixed in such proportions as may be thought fit, and with no other ingredient or matter whatsoever." Household wheaten bread is to be marked with a Roman H ; mixed bread is to.be. marked M ; penalty for not marking, 10s. Bread is to. be sold by weight, otherwise subject the baker to a penalty of 40s. French rolls and fancy bread are exempt. Using any other weights than avoirdupois wil' subject the baker to a penalty not exceeding L 5, nor less, than ss. Also, bakers are to provide their shops with weights and scales. False weights subject the baker to a penalty of L 5. The Thames diggers have celebrated their first anniversary by a race meeting. Thr news from the Eight-Mile Terrace, ■ New Piivur, ""ontinues very good, and the population is rapidly increasing. Tho lead is being followed up for a considerable distance, and promises to be one of the most extensive workings yet opened ou the Wes Coast. The names of three candidates for the two vacancies in the Grey Road Board are mentioned — those of Mr Card, New River, and Messrs Hamilton and Barnett, Ruthergleu. The following latest mining news from tl:« Buller, is from the Wentport Times, of Thursday: — "Mining matters at the Caledonian appear to be steadily improving. Tour vat iind party have struck the new lead of gold at the Buller side of the terrace, which I mentioned Denovou and party came ou. The work on this side of the Caledonian will have to tunnel between three and four hundred, feet before they can reach the lead. A tramway is being constructed which will supply the various claims with timber. On German Terrace, new ground has been opened and several claims pegged off on the south side of the terrace. A lower run of gold has been struck. Mr Barrie is bringing round water from his race to supply some claims at this end. On Giles' Terrace, Evans and party are making active preparations for washing, while they at the same time are working for the lead of gold (

struck by Perry and party. At Deadman's Creek Terrace, Simon and party's claim has much improved, and the wash'dirt is of a most remunerative class. A few parties farther north are also on payable gold. M'Farlane and party have not aa yet oome on the rim of gold, but are in hourly expectation of doing so.. • On Poverty Toiraoe, only three claims are at work. The gold has been found to be patchy and p> incipally on the bottom. The lead has been last in several instances, and those pnuties who have abandoned their claims were unable to trace the mn. However, it is not improbable that this lead of gold will he traced up the banks of the Buller, as in description it is exactly the same, being coarse and scaly and quite different from the Caledonian or any other gold found in that distriot." By the arrival at Auckland of the schooner Kate Grant, intelligence has been reoeived that a very valuable discovery of gold has been made at Bapa, one of the Society Islands. A large number of Europeans are already on the diggings, and it is said are doing well. One person had found a nugget of solid goUl which weighed nearly one pound. Coal has beeu found at the Society group. A correspondent of the Nelson Colonis^ writing from Btenheini, on August 17, states : — ""We have been visited with a worse plague than the floods, I allude to the diptheria ; it has been, aud indeed is, still making sad havoc here, and not a few families have suffered greatly. One of the worst cases is that of Mr Bagge, the Posti master, who has buried four children, and whose wife was ill at the same time with the complaint ; but lam glad to be able to. state that she is prqgresaing favorably. Mr. . Bagge is at present in a very low state of health from fretting. There was one very sad feature in this case ; the parents buried one child first, then two others died shortly after, both on the same day, and while the afflicted father was at the cemetery, putting these two little ones under the ground, news wa3 brought him that another of his children had left this world of sorrow. If this was not sufficient to prostate a man's energies I do not know what is.'* Besides, this case mentioned by our correspondent there is another, still more heartrending, seeing that a lady has been left to motrn qvei the deaths of her husband and three children — we allude to the demise of Mr H. Godfrey^ of Woodbovtrne, Wairau Plain. Within the short space of about three weeks, the father, two daughters, and a sou died of diptheria and sad to relate, the father and s.on died on the same day. We mingle our sympathies with those of the community for the be-, reaved ones, and pray that the terrible disease may soon disappear from, their' midst, and be swept off the face of our adopted land.

A digger who left Charleston some time ago, gives, in a letter, which is published \n the Herald, the following account .of the Queensland digging :— " The diggings here are very poor and patchy ; there is not more than one in a hundred doing well, and so long as you can knock out flash tucker stop where you are. I have done very little since I came over, and I will be back again about Christmas. If you could only see the men sick and dying with the fever, it would frighten you. This is the most uncertain diggings I have ever been on, and the store, keepers will not trust a pound of flour ; a man without money here is treated like a dog. The new diggings to, the north of Queensland are not very rich ; they are very short of water, aud the fever is very bad there. I have very little faith in the Queensland diggings, and I have been over, them all now, and there are a good many of my opinion." The Nelson Colonist says that, in. addition to the deplorable mortality in two wellknown families in. the Wairau, we have to notice, the sudden and unexpected death of Dr Wilson, of Motueka, an old and wellknown settler, who after a very brief illness died suddenly on Sunday night, being found dead in his bed on the return of his, family from church. Mr James Hagen, a settler in | Spring Grove, we learn, died suddenly this morning, <f what is supposed to be either heart disease or apoplexy, after only a few hours' illness.— The Examiner of the 29th inst. relates, the following : — A man named Henry Powell lost his wife at the Moutere, on Thursday evening. The deceased was riding a horse in a cart, after dark, we imagine., and in crossing a bridge at a turn in the road, he kept too close on one. side, which caused the timber of which the bridge was constructed to tilt up and overturn the cart into the ditch, Powell was found yesterday morning by some men going to their work quite dead, with the cart resting on nis chest. Powell was a married man without family. This accident must show the District Road Board, that the bridges under their char^ « are of faulty construction, for had this not been the case in respect to the one in question, Mr Powell would not have lost his life there.

The Taranaki correspondent of the Auckland Herald, writing under date the 23rd ult., gives the following latest intelligence from the front: — The overland mail from Patea arrived yesterday, but brings no intelligence of any active operations going on at the front. There must be now nearly 1000 men under arms in that district. The Colonel, with about 300 men, has made an advance j but he took with him as guide an old Maori woman, and being lost in the bush, had to return again to Patea. Honi Pihumo (the mailman) states that the rebels are laughing at the delay, and declare that they shall have to attack M'Donnell before they will be able to get him to fight. The 300 natives from the Upper Wanganui tribe, who were going to assist Colonel M'Donnell, are demanding Gs. per day, their rations, and grog. Whether this will be granted is yet to be seen. The court-martial on Captain Hunter has terminated in that gentleman's favor, evidence having been brought forward to prove that he was acting under orders. Two officers, I believe, have been suspended,

and will lose their commissions, for indulging too freely. It is stated that the health of the late Premier, Mr F. A. Weld, is so far im? proved by his recent trip to England that he purposes shortly returning to New Zealand. We regret to learn that the accident ta Mr Cameron, Otago Government Surveyor at Pres,erva,tion Inlet, has termi? na,ted fatally. It will be. remembered that in our las,t issue we stated that thatgentjer man had been shot by the accidental dis= charge of a gun. • . • - Te}egra.phic communication with Westport was opened yesterday, The line of telegraph thus completed is 65 miles in length, or eight miles shorter than the, road line between Grey mouth and Westr port. The Westpqrt Evening Star gives, the following interesting details regarding thy line :— Throughout th.is. distance, the, wire has been brought through most diffU cu}t (jountry— perhaps, the most difficult piece of country in the colony, including long tracts, of rough ground and dense bush at the. Ten-Mile Bluff, at Point Elizabeth, and a,t thg Seventeen-Mile, IJluff. In fact, there is only, out of the whole line, a. distance of gight miles of open country, and for sixteen miles, between th§ Razorback and Fox's, the forest is., perhaps, the heaviest in New Zealand. Through such country, the hush has, be^en cleared for- the line, for a, breadth of half a chain up to. three chains, and, through low scrub, fpr a distance or ton fe.et. The timber used for posts has, h,een chiefly red birch and red pine, and it has been supplied by Mr Long, of Grey-, mouth, to the Razorback, and by Messrs, Bull and Bond j from the Razorback tv Westport. No white pine or any of the inferior woods have been used. The, clearing, the erection of the posts, and the. spanning of the wire, have been done by day-la.bor } under the constant and careful inspection of Mr Aitken, who has certainly not been sparing of his own exer^ t^ons to advance the work, and, while advancing it, has wisely seen also, to its sub^ Qonsidering the roughness, of the country, and the intolerable weatheo which has been experienced x the work has, occupied a comparatively short time. Its; substantiality is, illustrated by the fact that there has not yet been a breakage, although, during the same, period, all the. lines, in the country- have beep, several times, dawn. A,s yet, it has proved itself^ notwithstanding the disadvantages of its. construction, the best standing line in the. country. The longest span of wire, throughout its length is across the Buller, which, is sixteen chains. The span across, the Grey is next to it in length, being fifteen chains, ; . but there are, at several other, places, stretches of- wire over distances, equally great.

Our. Nelson contemporaries inform usi that another of the earliest of Nelson settlers, and one who, has long filled a promi-. nent position in, this Province, has gonei from amongst us. John Poynter, for manyyears Resident Magistrate of Nelson, and who, only two. months since retired finally from that office, died at his. house x at the." Haveiij la,st Sunday afternoon at half-past; three o'clock, aged sixty-eight years. : During the last fe.w months,, particularlysinca his. rejMrem,en.t from the office he, held, Mr Poynter was visibly failing in ! health and strength, and though able to. move about until' within, five days before, his death, the change^ for some, time pre-t ceding w^e indicative, ofj tha.t coming trouble, a. paralytic affection, under which I heL at last, suppuinhed, haying approached, to nearly- the threescore^ years and ten, usually allotted as ths maximum of- age to, those yeho are, not possessed of more than, theordinaryphysical strength of humanity. He was abl§. to. driv^ out. i» his carriage^ on Tuesday last, but the same; evening ha had a. stroke of paralysis, and from thattime, he. grew gradually weaker until the. hour of his deajbh on Sunday last. MrPoynster was., one of the. first emigrants, who landed ou the,, shores of* Blind Bay,, He, "Was- one of tha number who arrived iv ths. Fifeshire on Ist February, 1842 ; the vessel which got wrecked on leaving Nelson Harbor, on the. Arrow Rock, opposite, the island w.hich now bears the. name of the ship, He. was too the pur-, chaser of the wreck ; and like many other, of the, settlers in the early days, underwent numerous, vicissitudejs, such as have, to be encountered by those who first strive to make a settlement in a hitherto uncivilised wilderness. Mr Poynter hast thus been a resident in Nelson ever since its foundation as a settlement, fullytwenty.six and a-half years ago. The West Coast Times of yesterday says : — A sad accident, which there ia^ every reason to fear will be attended with, fatal consequence.3, occurred on Thursday ar Ross. A miner named Sullivan, latelyfrom Bendigo, was working about midday at one of the faces of the Scandinavian Gold Mining Company's claim, when a, slip of earth suddenly took place and buried him beneath it. So large an, amount of earth had fallen upon him that, at the time our messenger left Ross, Sullivan's mates had not succeeded in recovering him, so that but' little hope ia, entertained ctf getting him out alive^ What renders the matter more pitiable is, that Sullivan has a wife and five children depending on him for support.