■.'.■'.■-■• -' '" ■ -"THE .. • v- -■■ . toy giro* '^ottif PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 1874.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1697, 12 January 1874, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 1874.

If Mr Wickes was modest in hi 3 speech on Friday night, Mr Woolcock was evidently, imbued with the idea that he was the only candidate who could fairly profess to know everything. No doubt Mr ..^polcock;: felt this : his attitude, and what Thespians would call "business,? were unexceptionable. But in spite of the assurance which characterised Mr • Woolcock's speech from beginning to end, the residiuum was little : more than that left behind by. Mr Wickes. But Mr Woolcock's speech differed materially from ' that of Mr Wickes, i because it took an educational tone — that is to say, that ;whilst Mr Wickes admitted his ignorance - of, or unacquaintance with many important public questions, Mr Woolcock came forward prepared to propound schemes of ..a._ niore __or l@ss __ important character, which would revolutionise everything and bring about a statg of things whjch could only exist in his own imagination.. For the reason that Mr Woolcock did: go but 1 of his way to dictate' a policy, it is right that ' his opinions should Be i'ih« more carefully considered. JHe has had some, .experience of the management' of public affairs through |is conne/Btjon with the Borough Council, but it is equally tru.e jbljat he has obtained a' Reputation for possessing knoiyjjsdge a 'much larger, field. H.e pyi^ dehtly knewthia when he addressed the meeting on Friday evening, .There was an'ambujnt of self-appreciation in &11 that he said or'did which left an iropreggion on the, meeting which was extremely useful. We would be sorry ioVleny to Mr Woolcock the' credit that is due to him for his political sermon. He was the only candidate who attempted to deal with some of the, most important questions likely. to be submitted to the Council, and for this reason what he did' say -is worthy of criticism. - But once'we enter upon the ■task of thebriticj- we find ourselves upon the hbtusbf a dilemma. -We regard 1 Mr Wodlcocjc" as ' a very; desirable member. He; like'Mir ly/gkes,: may dra* cm dis,cfeiwjV J up,on'the : , faitij'of ffie'cibn^titubticy in liis 'integrity and honesty of bjjjrgiose ; but something more is required than ,this. gurely, out of the three members of the • flap jHpw frovinpial Council who are

allotted to Greymouth, sora^ ones' fslujiild have some knowledge'; howjever iittjle/or the political position. Mr Woolcock' was far more at bea than Mr Wickes. He, like Mr Wickes, declared himself an anti"ProvinoialistpftUiiQughrat.jthe^aaHieciime, whether he was or was not, could not possibly have any effect upon the question of; JBrpyincialistn A . He came forward as acandidate for a Beat in th'eTroVinctal Council of Westland, and his doing so may at least be regarded as a sign of hia desire to do the best he can to advance the interests of the new Province^ We have every confidence in the loyalty of Mr Woolcock. We believe that in spite of his deprecatory | remarks , upon-; Provincial institutions be will work honestly and industriously j for the benefit of his constituents and for the • interests of the Provincerasawhole. But ; we ; cannot avoid a few, words with regard to . his speech on Friday evening. , Coming from anyone of less pretentious character, the mistakes he made would have passed unnoticed, but we cannot resist the temptation which Mr Woolcock has presented to us. After a flight of introductory: , .oratory, Mr Woolcock addressed himself., to the realr- arid in fact the only question of immediate importance— -.that -of .the, financial position, of the. Province. He admitted that it was impossible that the financial condition 'of the -Province could be materially improved except by the adoption of some new and grand scheme which , he. had., worked out, no doubt, most satisfactorily, in his own mind. Vyhat is j Mr : Woolcock's scheme as explained by his speech? His programme is — " relieve labor of all burdens, and place the taxation upon property. The mining taxation is special, and is the only direct impost in the Colony.- -.The mirier is the worst used man in 4;Ko world, nine-tenths of his earnings are .expended upon 'dutiable goo'dsj 'and .generally the •noble .digger is, a victim' "-r^that substantially represents Mr, Woolcock's' speech. But did it not occur to him that he was speaking outside the book ? — that it was a piece of abpurdity to air opinions to wbich.no effect would bo given by the Council of which he desirfts to become 1 a member? But apart from the utter irrelevance of his opinions upon this subject, Mr Woolcock entirely destroyed what he had said, even supposing that he could ;have possibly been enabled to carry out his expressed views. He was quite right is saying that the mainstay of the Province is its mining industry, and he was equally : right when he said that unless the mining population prospered,. , the agricultural settlers could not exist. The logical conclusion .to, be drawn from, his remarks is that we must first of all devote all our energies to the furtherance of mining interests. We must open up the country by means of ruads, and so on— and this is the first and most necessary condition. But at the same time Mr' Woolcock says, in effect— " abolish the gold duty, miners' rights, and all other exceptional taxation." It is very easy to pull down a structure, but difficult to rebuild it ; will Mr Woolcock oblige us by saying what plan he would adopt to supplant the existing system of mining taxation in a district of the Colony which, of necessity, aud even according to his own opinion must look to the development of its mineral resources as the keystone of its future ? But we may afford to leave Mr Woolcock's opinions regarding taxa lion alone. The Provincial Council cannoL possibly deal with . them, any mort than it can with Mr Wickes's moonshiny scheme of harbor works. Let the truth be known. The electors of Greymouth are not called upon to' elect some great genius — there is none on the catalogue of candidates. But they have to elect three members who will do their " level best' 1 for the district. Mr Woolcock and Mr Wickes meet the electors on the same platform. Whoever votes for either of them will feel assured that their practical interests will be faithfully attended to 1 , although. they needy not expect either great oratorical power or any other special ornament. . ■

There is one point in connection with the elections for this part of the Province which should not be lost sight flf by £he voters, and on account of the long neglect of which pc are disposed to think that no inconsiderable loss was sustained ,by the County. We allude to the subject brought . forward by Mr Kennedy at the last sitting., of the County Council, when a resolution was carried that periodical sittings of the Waste Lands Board: should be held at £freymouth : for the purpose of dealing with lands 'situated' ; in this part of the ■ Province. ■ That resolution, it will be remembered, has only been very partially carried intp effect^ one land sale only "having been held in Greymouth. The price, hbwever, which the land fetched upon that occasion .was such as to show clearly fchajb if thp sales of the Grey lands were always held, here, the revenue would gain consider-, ably; The fair inference, therefore, is, that under the present system, the land is 'sacrificed. If the Province was bo overburdened with wealth that a mere matter of a few hundred pounds several times a year .was no consideration, it might be needless to mention 1 this matter. But, ;with a Vevenue little more than sufficient to meet ordinary expenses,' with a heavy, judgment recorded against it for tramway ppmpensation, and . with no very distant - prospfiot '.of several others being added to this one for amounts which it is impossible to predict, it js thje eyident duty of the Province to see that no soureepf re-,j venue is neglected, and above all, that its. real estate is not squandered foolishly away. It is true that in this matter the Council will have no power of direct action, inasmuch as the Waste Lands Board is a tribunal independent of the Council, and its sittings are appointed by the Apt to be held in Hokitika. The proper course for the local Legislature to take wijl be to endeavor to obtain an amendment pf the Waste Lands Act, and for that purpose to pass resolutions pointing put the very serious loss to Provincial revenue, the great inconvenience to an important section of the community, and the gross injustice to many, of having the Orey lands dealt with lin Hokitika. The system, of course, necessitates the employment of an agent in Hokitika by any person desirous of purchasing land here, and it would be paying too. high a compliment to the generoßity of such agents . generally to suppose that they would give: their services gratuitously : the unfortunate purchaser has therefore to submit to their charge., Nor, is it only in the matter of charge's tha't4hef Greymouth' purchaser is placed at a disadvantage. The necessity of revealing 'hfs busineus to a third person

•before tlie application comes before the ] ..Board, opens a, path: by which the sharp practitioner, is able readily, by means of a sham application, entered carefully on the book one day before that of the would-be to^efeat-the^latterjr and-obtain. those sections for himself, or his regular clients. We do not say that such :things are ..done, although we .....have _npt^,in-, frequently heard pretty plain hints to^tKis effect, but it needs; no great wisdom to see that they might be done with impunity, and it is therefore evident that the sooner •the possibility. of such. a thing is removed the better.

With regard to Mr MastersV candidature for a seat iv , the Provincial Council, we understand that the resolution passed at the public meeting, held on Friday night, was telegraphed to him on Saturday, when he replied' thai; he was anxious to be" returned, and would certainly contest the election. It is very probable that M? Masters will. be here to address the electors atthe public meeting to-night. , i ■ . Messrs R. H.Lahtnan and E. B. Fox iatend to , address the electors in the Volunteer Hall, this evening,: at 8 o'clock. : . ( From the Wealth of . Nations claim we learn that for the last eight days' crushing they scraped from the upper plates 2600z of amalgam. The m achinery during , the liolidays received .a thorough .overhaul, and is working well; the dry weather ,has not in the least effected, the 'water. ; supply. ' The contractors for 1 tarring 'the fluraihg across Lirk'si Creek have completed their contract. An alteration has been made m the, gear for lowering the track down the inclined tramway ; a wooden drum has been put round the break that the wire rope works on, and tbe continual' chafing of the wire rope which formerly occurred has been overcome and • the rope ' ib s now expected to last double the time by the alteration. The mining manager reports being able to- keep up the supply of stone, but has had to put on a few additional hands, as > the supply 1:1 the paddocks was run out during the holidays. i The; members of the Greymouth Town Band proceeded to Hokitika on Saturday, by special invitation, for the purpose of " assisting " at the Westland Exhibition. This they did most effectually on Saturday night, and returned to town yesterday afternoon in tlie Titan. At the Resident Magistrate's Court, on: Saturday, Margaret Williams, who failed to appear to summons the previous day, and was arrested on warrant, was charged with using insulting and abusive language to Mrs Hines, and was finsd L2and costs, or. ia default, fourteen days' imprisonment. The money was not paid, and. she was sent to Hokitika to serve her alternative sentence. .Richard Large, charged with wilful destruction of property at the New River, was remanded till this morning. .-.■■. Four of the candidates nominated at the Kanieri district have sent in their resignations. This reduces the number to seren, out of which the electors have to choose two members. There has been a vessel chartered from Port Chalmers for China specially to carry Chinese to that place, and many of the latter are leaving Otago for the Celestial empire, aud are buying up gold at L 3 16s, to take with them.'. The anniversary banquet of the Grey mou'b Volunteer Fire Brigade will be held tomorrow evening at Gilmer's Hotel, at 9 o'clock. • A miner named Hatton was killed hy a fall of rock at Arthur's Point, Otago, on the 20 th December last. He and another man had just put in a small blast, when suddenly the rock slipped and overwhelmed fthem, Hatton being killed on the spot, and bis mate receiving serious injuries. The Resident Magistrate's Court, Ah aura, ' was occupied th°. greate; part of the day on Friday in hearing a number of charges brought against residents of Half-Ounce by Constable Dorris for various breaches of the police ordinance during the holidays. The charges were all dismissed with the exception of one for using obscene language, in which ■ the defendant was fined 20a with costs. Tbe town was crowded wi£h the witnesses summoned on either side, and those interested in the cases. . The amount of public money wasted by bringing witnesses and defendants about the country on such trivial pretexts so frequently must be something enormous, and demands a searching inquiry from some quarter. From the Just-in-Time claim at Boatman's we hear that work was resumed at this claim on Monday last. It was expected that the company would have been in a position to have commenced crushing operations at the beginning of thp year, but through the reef having greatly diminished in thickness in the winze which was being carried down from the low level, their progress has been somewhat retarded . The winze has been carried down the intended depth of 50ft, and the manager has started to open out on the •reejf by a drive which is now in about Bft. The stone, which appears to be making, is still thin, but jt is as rich as any yet obtained from the mine. There are "also a number of hands employed putting in a. tunnel to intercept the new reef higher up the hill. This lead, which is supposed to be a .continuation of the Fiery Cross, is found to dip considerably j;o. the eastward, and it; is expected that a eross-diive will have to be. ; carried/ in to intersect it. ft is. now. the object of the manager to push forward this work as quickly as possible, in order to rajse stone, from bpth places, for the next crushing. 1 A strange instance of the live§ led by soine men of professional eminence has just occurred at Sandhurst. Mr Martley, barrister, at-law of that town, and a man of great • ability in, his profession, who once was in Parliament and a law officer of the Crown, died in a house of ill fame, where he had gone, it would seem, merely from the desire to drink brandy in . the lowest company he could get. His presence in such places was by ho means rare, and indeed it is "stated that he ofcen.had to be sought there when ■■ wanted, tp plead in jCourt. The life of the man wm. divided, it would, seem, between his professional work and profligacy in its lowest.shape,' and unhappily death came and caught him iv the worst phase. In 1872 there were exported from Dunerlin 153,2(3502 of gold. In 1873, duty was paid on gold at the Dunedin Custom House to the amount of L 17.584 17s, which at 2s per ounce represents an export of 178,8480z, or 25,5830z more than the export of 1873. A number of new bottle and new hotel licenses have been fssued by the Superintendent of Otago, }n adyane'e of the comjng into operation of tbp new Licensing Act. The licenses were applied for very quietly, the fees being already paid into the Treasury before the temperance organisation was able to find out what was being done, and to protest. ' ■•■: . „-. The Wetttfand Register, in an article upon the verdict given in favor of the Hokitika and Greymouth Tramway Company. Btates i that it is informed' that ; the j Judged in summing up, expressed, grave doubts about •the 'equity 'of the claim -at ally ''in ■■' the? e ; words :— " lj they (the plaintiffs) are entitled i to MytJlihgi iahout xoliicli we will say nothing nowr-i"'-The list number of the Church Messenger 3 | states that the Bishop of Nelson and party 1

have been travelling about a great deal. They were present at Bath during the Chjirch Congress there in • )ctoher,'and the Bishop Vas one of the invited speakers on the subject " The religious wants and claims of children, and the methods of providing for them befoTe and after confirmation " "' The Bishop was to ipreach on 23rd November, before the University at Cambridge ; on 30th November,, at ,Hpjrnsey :^ on-3rd -December: (the day of intercession for Missionary work) in Gloucester Cathedral; this^serinon being for the.Nelson Theological College at Bishopdale;; and, on 10th December, in Bath Abbey. The Bishop is circulating a printed papWlon this matter, and. is collecting subscriptions, but does not expect to make up the whole L 2500 required, in addition to the Society for^ the Propagation of the Gospel's grant of LSOO. The Bishop expects to arrive in Nelsbnin March." ' --' '' '- '• Captain Oasej , a member of the Auck-_ land Harbor Board, recently ui'.ved, "that' it be an instruction of the harbormaster to captains of steamers rlying. on Sundays not to use tbeir wni'stles.'" He suoke in support of the , motion, arid sa]d ; that on .Suuday while the church bells were ,tollingsoleinnly "Come along Binhers," : 'the 'North Shore steariierß were blowing "Come to, the North Shore and wet your whistles/ The motion was agreed i.o. ' ; ''■,"'..'■ , The^ Colonist says .that a well-known person in Nelson, 'a. Cockney^ on, reading the list of Mr, Cnrtis'a "reconstructed" Execu» tive, exclaimed, " It's all thb same as.before. Shapter and Worse (chapter and verse) " „...' .'. . ; .. rßumnrs,, probably not ;. without :.some foundation, have been in circulation , for the past; few weeks that his Honor Chief : Justice Aruey contemplates retiiing. on ;'his pension and going to EnL'l nd: aftran . earlynfiate. Speculation has been rife as to who will be his successor, the probabilities pointing to :Mr Justice Jobnstone as senior Judge; .unless" the Att'»rney-General : presses his claims to the best .thing vacant (as Attorney-Generals often do), and get the^ppjnt. conceded_~~ln any case it is understood the Chief Justice would for the. future : reside at Wellington, one of the senior judges being resident in Auckland, arid taking the' Northern Circuit Court. Mr Eichard Cariavari has the honor of being the first elected member of the first Westland Provincial Cpuncil for Okarito. Mr Canayan was, on the day of nomination, duly proposed and seconded, and, no opponent appearing; to dp battlo for the honor of representing Okarito, was declared dulyj elected. ' , ; : . ' At a meeting of the Arrow Miners' ABsociationrecerifcly, Mr Vincent Pyke, in reply to a question,' said that it was of no use his stirring in respect to the reduction of the gold duty, unless the miners also i bestir red themselves ; the probability was, that instead of the duty being taken off, another sixpence would be put on again. VEJe was constantly met with the remark that the miners were satisfied, or else they would petition for redress: He would advise that a monster petition be got up for presentation at the next session of the, A asembly, so that the ■ true feeling, of the : miners might be knownThe revenue derived from • gold was Provincial ; and, therefore,^ unless well seconded, it would be of. no., use for him to ask for relief in this matter. The Provincial Government were opposed to the duty being taken off. , : ; , Some dnqbts have been raised in a discussion in Sydney on the validity of the colonial law of marriage with a deceased wife'p sister. Tt had been agreed that such marriasres were invalid, and actually void. Mr Oliver: the parliamentary draftsman of New South Wales maintains that" such marriages are riot neces-. sarily void, but only voidable, that such was the law in England until the year 1835, when an Act passed the British' Parliament making them absolutely void' ff* but that as the Act had never beep adopted 'by the, {colony (if New Soutb/Wales, tb&^law 1 there 1 retriavqell as ib used to he in England" prior to' ih'e passing of William. IV's Act;. The same argument does not apply to New Zealand a[s the laws of : England up t0 '1853, when our conatiSution was granted,- unless altered by subsequent legislation here, are still effective in the Colony, and consequently those, marriages in New Zealand are absolutely void. ■ : , .. ..' ;.-; ;< /. ; . i The woman Vesey,- whom the doctor P the ship Chile was accused of having mal treated,, appears to have been a' perfect virago. During the passage out she was - exceedingly violent and abusive to various passengers, assaulting some arid threatening the lives of others. She seized: and. aecreteclja butcher's knife, which she vowed I should' taste blood before she reached Auckland. Her language' was of the lowest and lewdest description, and her general character appeaiis to have been in keeping with her language. Frequent warnings against the consequences of her violence made no impression on this woman ; although both the doctor and the captain had tried various means of persuasion to reduce her to order and obedience. Thjeman Vesev himself had, as the evidence shows, warned his wife that f he would be put in irons, if she conducted herself so violently j and throughout, up to the tiim'e when she was actually, handcuffed, she'haoV been a source of continual annoyance to the passengers, and to some, of terror. ' ! j .