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Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1699, 14 January 1874, Page 2

The s.s. Tararua, from Melbourne direct, arrived off Hokitika last night, but too late on the' tide to be tendered, so as to enable us to publish' the English and Australian telegrams brought by her this morning. She will be tendered here this affcernopn. . : ...,-. \ The. total ampunt.pf entries now received for the Greymouth Jockey Club Handicap is ten, and : comprise Yatterina, Lace'nfeed, Malvina, Hatred j Calumny, G,ossip, Malice, ,. Azucen'a filly, Kakapo, and Taiiranga, ' all first-class animalsj tinsurpassed iri' quality in New Zealand^ and, proved victors in. many well-contested fields. Should the handicap bring them all Qr-'a large majority of them together, the big race of 1574 will be a sigho well- w,orth. seeing. . Animals coming, he re for' this meeting have a' great advantage Over former years, there being an 'excellent train ; ing ground, which has been laid out and put into capital order by the club. Improvements are also to be made upon the approach, ■ a new road and bridge bein*? contemplated. In fact the 'advantages for exercise and training are very much : greater than, heretofore, and are of such a nature as to do away with the disinclination hitherto shown by owners of horses to send, them here on; account o '; the want of Buch facilities. ; We , can-assure,, them such a want will noB now be felt. 1 The whole; of the ; £*rui andiothej property; of Mr Austin O'Malley, of the Ikamatua, Little Grey, who is, leaving the Colony, was soldby.;ay,otiott, on Monday. There was a good attendance of buyers, and the prices

I realised were on the whole satisfactory, arid n. portion of the leasehold Land, about 150 acres, was knocked down at 50s an acre to Mr James O'Malley. The same purchaser secured 40 acres of growing ciops, principally oats. The remainder of the land, with the farming and dairy stock and plant, were disposed of to various purchasers. The total proceeds of the sale came close up to L7OO. Messrs D., Maclean and Co. were the auctioneers. The West Coast Times, of yesterday, Bays ;that the Masonic regalia for the District : Grand Lodge of Westland, manufactured |and exhibited in London, has arrived and j was to be on view at the Hokitika Exhibi-, tion yesterday. It will be found that these" exhibits are well worthy of a visit, as they (include aprons, collars, jewels, &c, for twenty of the various officers. They have .been made exoressly for the District Grand Lodge of. Westland by Mr George Kenning, ;of Little Britain, London, The Customs .duties on the above regalia amounts to ': nearly Ll4 : The arbitration in re Thompson's Bridge has been concluded. Mr Walter Blake was appointed arbitrator on behalf of the Province, while Mr Cooper, of Greymouth, acted for the owner of the bridge. Mr W. Smith, of Kanieri, was appointed umpire, and on Saturday the award was given. The amount of the award ,is L 1977 10s. The following phenomenon is described by ' the Tamvjorth Examiner (New South Wales) : ■ — '* We havo. been informed, by a party residing at Springs, on the Attunga road, about 14 miles from town, ,that a most unexpected phenomenon occurred last week in that neighborhood. It appears that the range of mountains in that direction worked themselves into a combustible condition, and exploded..;with a violence that startled the settlers for miles , around. J The first report i was not unlike the discharge of : heavy \ ordnance, after which was emitted smokeand debris, which : was scattered for a considerable distance ' in all directions. ; rThej smoke was so dense that it completely obscured every object — mountains,, trees, and houses— and lasted for a considerable time. The ""mountains in the neighborhood are largely composed ; of limestone, and it is thought by some persons that it is to this we attribute the explosion." . Recently, a Scottish clergyman preached two Gaelic sermons— one in the.forenoon from Mata XI and 28th from the text, "Thigibh a m' ipnnsnidh-sa sibhse vile a ta ri saothair agus fuidh throm uallaicb, agus bheir m'ise suaimhueas dhuibh. In the afternoon from the text, Salmi cxxx and 4th, "Ackagadsa, tha maitheanas ; agus uime sin bithidh e.agal air daoinibh romhad." " Both discourses" (says the Daily Times) " were characterised by earnestness and purity of doctrine," and probably even non-Gaols derived as great consolation as did the woman who was much edified by the word Mephibosheth. Our telegrams announced some few days agd that Mr Yogel had, in deference to the wishes of an influential deputation, promised to communicate with the Victorian authorities with the object of establishing an agency of the Melbourne • mirib at Dunedin. Fuller particulars are given by the Otago Daily Times as follows : — " A deputation, consisting of Messrs V. Pj ke and J. B. Bradshaw (representative's in the Genera! Assembly of Otago gold fields constituencies), '. waited upou his Honor the Superintendent on Saturday morning. Their object was to urge upon his Honor the advisability, of' establishing an assay office in' Duriedin, and of transmitting Obago gold to the Victorian mint, for coinage there. The deputation waited upon his Honor in accordance with a recommendation made by the Premier on Wednesday last. On that day Messrs Pyke, Bradshaw, and J. C'Brown waited upon Mr Yogel, andsnggested as a remedy for the existing gold rnouopoly and the recent reduction in the price of gold, that the , General Government should establish an assay office in Otago in- connection with the Victorian mint, and provide facilities for the transmission of gold iv bond to Melbourne. Mr Yogel agreed with the suggestions made,- expressed sympathy with the miners, and was of opinion that even if the Government sustained ; a loss, 'measures should be taken . to-, secure a fair minimum price fer gold. He would communicate with the Victorian authorities with a view to establishing a branch assay office in Dunedin, and the General Government would also endeavor to carry out the proposition made that gold should, be deposited by. the miners with the Receivers on Goldfields for transmission under bond to , the Victorian .Mint, duty to be paid on tha coined, instead of on the crude gold, Mr Vogal then , suggested that, tha ' deputation should lay the matter before the Provincial Government for the purpose of obtaining their co-operation. It was in accordance. with this suggestion that Messrs Pyke and Bradshaw waited upon his Honor on Saturday. .. After hearing what the deputation had to say, his Honor stated that he had been iv favor of the proposal for a considerable time, and had even gone so far, during the time that Mr Bradshaw was one of his responsible advisers, as to mention the matter in one of his messages to the Provincial Council. He would do all he possibly could to accomplish the object the deputation . had in view, and would bring the whole, question under the notice of the Executive. Hia Honor pointed out that if gold were transmitted to the Victorian Mint^aud no assay office were in existence ia -Otago, there might be a possibility of fraud, as money might be raised upon the receipts issued by the Gold Receivers, which would, to a certain extent, bear the guarantee of the Government. \ So much has been said during recent elections regarding the borrowing powers of the -Provinces that the following extract' on the same subject from Mr Vogel's repent speech at Dunedin will be read with' interest :— I dare say it would be very interesting to many : now present, and to many in ; other ; parts of the Colony also, if I were able to indicate precisely the opinions of the Government upon the manner in which the : question "of Provincial borrowing should be dealt with* hereafter But lam not going to do anything -of the kind. I shall only say that I think there is great virtue in the old doctrine of " leaving well alone;" and that I think a very great deal of attention should be paid to the representations which ; are , made- that, by unduly forcing forward the prosecution of. public works, there is liability of interfering with private enterprise, by the absorption of; too much of theJabor which: should he available for the prosecution of that enterprise. I think it is worthy of consideration that it' .will be well, when those large works 'of' which the Colony has charge are being brought ito a close, and a; certain amount of labor is consequently disengaged, that there should be other works ready to be proceeded with, so as to take up that disengaged labor. It is well, to, that we should recollect that,, whatever may be the . intrinsic credit of-any ; country or colony, that credit is. liable to be disturbed by question wholly outside the scope and inflnence of the country or colony concerned. We should recollect that this i Colony has assumed'! very; largo responsibilities, which it has the right to desire ..to see carried put before increasing or extending them. But, even 'admitting ' and recognising all these cpnaiderations, I by no means desire you • underst'and'it to be my, • opinion that' we should lay down : an arbitrary ■ rule by which to deny to places'interestedthe, construction iof works which their own local conditions render imperatively neces-.i garyj. I Have wished merely itoi impress upon; you that, in coming to a decision upon this question, the Government wiUibe.guid'ediiby* conservative considerations.