THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1491, 15 May 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1873.

The reports which Mr Whitefoord has hitherto presented to the Provincial Government of Nelson upon tbe condition and prospects of the particular district of which be is Warden have always been voluminous and exhaustive, and such is the character of the report which he has this year forwarded to be " laid upon the table," and to be printed a year hence for the benefit of whomsoever it may then concern. It gives a precise description of every portion of the district, and contains suggestions which, if ever perused and considered by those to whom they are directly presented, should materially contribute to the quantity of attention usually given by them to our local wants. While we are here so thoroughly informed, through our. own correspondence columns, as to progress of mining pursuits in the district, it is not necessary to publish Mr Whitefoord,'s. report in detail, or even to closely quote it, but a brief index to its contents may with some propriety be given. Last year Mr Whitefoord liai, in common with the community, to deplore disastrous floods as affecting the district ; this year he has equally to deplore the depressing influences of a prolonged drought, principally injurious, he says, to the inhabitants of Noble's, No Town, and Nelson Creek. Even under these unfavorable circumBtanccs, however, he spoke of the population as having been 1 fairly maintained, many who had gone away last year having returned and again set to work, and he describes the season as having on the whole been a highly favorable one for; the. farmers of the district, who had been able to secure in good condition crops exceeding in ; aggregate quantity those of any, previous year. Me proceeds to describe the state of things in each particular locality, and his description confirms closely what our correspondent has recently written. He concludes that description by an expression of the conviction which is forced upon the community by common experience when he says - — "The necessity for the immediate construction of one or more large water-races in this district becomes more and more apparent every year, and 1 must urge upon the Government to spare no effort to bring about the formation of the Hochstetter water-race without losing a day more than is absolutely 'avoidable." In connection with this subject,, however familiar .the subject or the facts may be to local readers, we may appropriately quote what the Warden says of two districts, in confirmation of his representations as'to water supply. These are Bell Hill and Nelson Creek, He says : — "I had . hoped that I should have been able to state that the large water-race which was. in course of construction at Bell Hill had been completed, and had brought with its completion a large access to the population. I regret to say such is not the case ; the water-race has never been properly - finished,; although a large sum of money has been spent, and a great deal of work done. -As an instance of the value of ground here, I may state thatj during the hearing of a suit before me in the Warden's Court between the proprietors of the water-race and a party ofminers-, it was i ,prpyed;in Court that a bona fide offer of £10-per week for one year, : payable in .advance, was : offered for the use of one sluice-head of water. I have before slated that there is a vast extent of sluicing ground, iii this neighborhood, and a large water-race is alone wanting to open : up ari almost unlimited amount of auriferous country.; ; . ' " Were it riot fpr^tlie hope the, inhabitants of Nelson Creek entertain of the ultimate completion of the Hochstetter water-race, I think the season we have had would have driventhem all away to seek employment elsewhere. The men here have literally done nothing here for I months, and it is a strong .proof of the confidence entertained by them, in the ultimate prosperity of this place that only those compelled to leave by sheer necessity, have done so. I have been credibly informed that, for miles along the proposed course: of the. Hochstetter race the. ground has. been. carefully prospected, and ; found to be. of Buch a character, that, with . a constant supply of water, it would yield splendid returns." Roads and tracks Mr > Whitefoord recommends in various directions, and his recommendations are no doubt, if not adopted by the Government, supported by the representatives of the. districts. The subjects of gaol arid hospital accommodation, of agricultural leases, and of nui^ sances of peripatetic . piga. , and goats, are als'b awideptajlyiqr.otherwisf preferred tjo, As an appendix to the report' there is

an array of statistical tables from which we shall quote at random, at the risk of finding the subjects somewhat mixed. From these we learn, for instance, that the population of the district— that is the north side of the Grey Valley is 3365, that the gold revenue for the year was £3338, the land revenue £280, the Provincial revenue .£2703, coal receipts £7014:, deposits i>9l7, making a total revenue of £14,314 against a revenue of Ji4,570 in the previous year, a reduction which would have been much greater but for the coal receipts. The births registered were 59 against 34 in the previous year, the marriages 1 against nil, the notices of marriage 11 against 8, the deaths 18 against 23 ; the paucity of marriages being, no doubt accounted for by the fact that the nuptial knot is usually tied in Greymouth. The applications heard in the Warden's Courts were 1794 -236 at Cobden, 612 at No Town, 946 at Ahaura,^while the cases heard were 77 — 3 at Cobden, 28 at No Town, 46 at Ahaura. Tho miners' rights issued were 1371 against 1639 in the previous year, and the business licenses 358 against 447. The total number of civil and criminal cases heard was 646 — 369 civil, 277 criminal. The number of agricultural leases in force is 69, while 63 applications are under consideration, and the number of mining leases 5, while 14 are undergoing that necessary, but often too slow process — consideration.

Tjik Canterbury JPretis strongly opposes the proposed scheme for the construction of a branch line of railway from the Ahaura to the Hurunui Plains, on the land payment principle, as lately suggested by Mr Yogel, when he was interviewed by the Inland Communication Committee of Nelson. Our contemporary objects because " in the present instance the loss will be incurred gratuitously. Had it been on account of one of the Canterbury branch lines, there would have been some reason in the proposal. But the railway in question is in quite a different category. It is not only no provincial work, but it is not even in the province. It is the northern end, past the Hurunui, of the trunk line of railway which the colony has undertaken to construct through the Middle Island, from Invercargill to Nelson, and which should be made out of the loan. The hint that Canterbury ought to assist the colony in carrying out this railway with a grant of land (aud that too for a part of the line which ; lie 3 outside the province) points in the direction of making the land fund .generally available in aid of public works." Although it was scarcely to be anticipated that opposition to the proposed railway line would come from such a source, as there can be no doubt but that Canterbury would largely benefit by. its construction, it is not to be wondered at if the following statement made by our contemporary is correct : — " The strongest objection is that the province, has, no land to spare. All that it has is wanted for settlement. It is' in the greatest possible request. The demands of purchasers are, and have been for some time past, so large and so importunate that there is the greatest difficulty in satisfying them. Even land of. inferior quality, which would, not have been looked at a few years ago, now sells readily at high prices. This then is not the time when any portion of the land should be parted with. Under any circumstances indeed, if -the province chooses to give away land in payment for railways, it mrist have the worst of the bargain. For if the land is worth acquiring, it is worth keeping. If ,it is worth anything to the railway contractors, it must be worth as much to ,the province; and the province had better keep to itself the profit that can be made from it — the more so as the land will certainly not be taken at a full valuation. But especially is this the case whenj as now, the land is in urgent demand for the 'purpose of settlement. To grant away any part of the public estate to contractors, in the present state of the land sales, would be a grievous wrong. We do not, know whether any application ;has been received from Nelson by the Provincial Government^ We understand, however, that the coriirinttee have adopted Mr ; Vogel's suggestion as to vthe extension of the railway, and intend to seek the cooperation of Canterbury. Any proposals they have to make will of course be laid before the Provincial Council, when the subject will be fully discussed. But if assistance is sought in the shape of a grant of land, we trust it will be refused without hesitation. Cbriipliarice with such a request would be a gross injustice to the public, and a wanton sacrifice of the best interests of the province," ...

Mr Cornfuot, late of Hokitika, has commenced a new industry in town which deserves notice, namely, the exportation to Melbourne of white pine logs. Yesterday a seven-horse dray load arrived, some of the logs measuring 23 x 23. They are deposited on the new wharf ready for shipment by first vessel for Melbourne. An entertainment, consisting of readings, songs, and recitations, is to' be given tomorrow night, in the Volunteer Hall; in aid of the. Grey mouth Literary Institute. An erroneous impression has generally prevailed that the publication of the objections, which, the Registration Officers are required to publish, constitutes the revision, and that a name objected to is theneby struck off the roll. This, however, is not the case. ; Whatever additional information is . requisite to make the claim complete so as to stand on tbe roll ban be supplied by the voter himself at. the Revision Court, or generally by a letter addressed to the Registration Officer of his district before the court is held: The new rolls for the electoral year. 1873-4, will come into force on. the ls,t September next, and last till 31st August of next year. Alex. Allen, the man who attempted to drown himself .in the river, on; Monday, was brought before the Resident Magistrate yesterday, charged with lunacy. Drs Morice and Smith examined the unfortunate man, and, pronounced him unfit to . be at large. He 'was ordered to be sent to the lunatic asylum at Nelson.. . . A telegram in the Wellington Post states that the New Zealand Tablet is edited by Bishop Moran. •When Mr Micawber resolved to go to Australia to better his fortune, as he was tired waiting for " something to turn up" in England, he imparted., to Mrs M., in confidence, the distressing intelligence that, now he was leaving for the Antipodes, " Britannia must shift for herself:,^my dear." .Mr Stafford, when his lasjt Ministry was turned out jof ..office, made a nearly similar threat when he said he would clear out and leave New

Zealand to her fate. He has since, it seems, changed his mind. A contemporary, in speaking of the result of the vote of want of confidence in the Stafford Miristry, remarks : — " The reversal of that verdict was so sadden and so indicative of the want of confidence it was intended to express, that Mr Stafford took ib a» his final dismissal when he found he could not put the country to the expense of a general election, and peevishly told the House he would sell out and leave the Colony. Since then he has doubtless seen the folly of his threat and the falseness of his predictions, as he has invested a fortune in land, which we trust will put him in a position to say, from his own experience, that New Zealand is not the unprofitable and declining field for investment he pretended to believe it was twelve months ago." The following is from an Otago contemporary of May 5 :— " A correspondent states that such is the scarcitj of suitable agricultural laborers, that some of the Taieri farmers have raised their men's wages LlO per annum Some of the men leave to go to other districts ; others, again, are taking up land of their own ; and hardly any are coming in to replace them. Our correspondent also declares that there never was so great a scarcity of female servants before. The Independent confidently asserts that the Government have no intention of making an armed demonstration against the Natives. The Hokitika Star of yesterday says : — We are glad to say that orders have been to-day receiveed for, the speedy erection of a bridge over the Totara, at .Ross, and for widening the Oinotumotu road out of Greymouth. The political crisis in Otago has brought to the front the subject of the following remarks by the Wangamii Chronicle: — "Mr Reid is a very good Otago member, with sympathies strictly ,'consonant with his position. A more unsuitable candidate for Ministerial honors it would be hard to find, except, indeed, Oswald Curtis, the Superintendent of Nelson, who has done so much to confirm the stagnation of * Sleepy Hollow.' " It is rumored that a writ claiming damages to the extent of LIOOO, has been issued by the proprietors of the Melbourne Express against the proprietors of the Sydney Empire for an alleged breach of engagement, In supplying another journal in Melbourne besides the Express with English telegrams. It has frequently been a source of complaint £and inconvenience that telegrams are not forwarded to. their destinations; as quickly as the senders expect, and this has doubtless arisen from the fact that the amount of work on the overland line has increased to a very large extent. We are glad to sjate that the stretching of a second wire between Hokitika and Christchurch has been completed, and the result has already been felt beneficially, so that for the future vexatious delays in forwarding telegrams will be avoided. Mr White, who completed the work of erecting the new wire, arrived in Hokitika on Tuesday. ; The following motion was moved and carried the other day in the Canterbury provincial Council : — "That a Select Cammittee be appointed for the purpose of inquiring into the subject of obtaining from the Malvern or other districts of tbe Province a supply of coal of such quality and quantity and at such » price as will ensure its being made available for general use, and thus render the Province independent of foreign supplies ; and to report as to the steps which it would be desirable to take for the purpose of promoting such an object ; to consist of Messrs Maude, Inglis, Hayhurst, Maskjell, Peacock, Bluett, and the mover, with po^ver to call for persons and papers," ,; A correspondent of the Boss Guardian states that a case of stabbing took place there a few days ago. A man named GaVin Graham, while intoxicated, tbok a knife; to stab one of his mates. He was broughti up before the Resident Magistrate at Okakto yesterday, and bound over to keep the pe^ce. It is really astonishing what some men !are capable of doing when drink takes possession of their senses. This is one of the pairty that constructed the big dam, and spent about twenty iuonths without earning any . money. Now that he is likely to be rep" aid for his labor, and the money is coming in plentiful, he is led to commit an act which (he was very fortunate) ended that the Magistrate did not send him to take his trial at the criminal sessions. : A paragraph which we published the othet day, explaining a, rumor which jivas current in town regarding the successful tenderer for the Brunner Railway, has roused the ire of our contemporary the West Opast Times. We are accused of having circulated a rumor "calculated to injure the person referred to in his business as a contractor." »Ye disclaim any such intention ; we simply published, as a matter of fact, a rumor that was current in town; and how. this i can possibly be construed into an intention to injure the contractor we cannot conceive. However, we are glad to learn from our contemporary that, on the l'3th inst., "ithe contract in question was duly signed by j Mr Hungerford and his two approved sureties, and we may add that during Mr Hungerford's long career as a contractor on j the West Coast, in no single instance has he failed in the fulfilment of his engageinentss."