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Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1700, 15 January 1874, Page 2

With regard to the elections for the Provincial Council of Westland, all the returns are now in, and the Council consists of tho following members : — The^Jilon. J. A. Bonar, Superintendent; for Hokitika, Messrs White Tabart, and Todd ; for Greymoutb, Messr

Lahman, Woolcock and Wickes; Paroa, Messrs Guinness and Dunga» ; Waimea, Hessrs Seddon and Houlihan ; Ross, Messrs Cunaing and M'Gafin V Kanieri, Messrs Robinson aud Mitchell ; Okarito, Mr Canavan. .... The official declaration of the poll in the recent Greymouth election for the Provincial Council will be, made by Mr Price, the Returning officer, at the Court Houce, at noon to-day. The Hon. J. A. Bonar, the newly-elected Superintendent oi Westland, arrived by the Waipara, from Hikitika, last night. We are informel that two hundred Chinese miners are on ther way to the Grey district from Otago in th< s.s. Alhambra, Mr Barff's defat at the recant election is thus accounted fa* by the We/st Coast Times : — " We understind that the Returning Officer at Fox's refused to allow Mr Barn's scrutineer to ent(r the polling-booth, and also refused to allow nany genuine votes for him to be recorded. As a case in point, it may be mentioned taat Mr Thomas Kitching, holder of miners right No, 8305 was prevented from palling his vote jtt Fox's, although it was afterwards accepted at another polling booth." jfeßy the mail which leaves to-day, Mr vifylde has forwarded to the Agent-General in London nominations for 51 immigrants to Greymouth, being the largest number forwarded as yet by one mail from this place. The next exhibi ion of the Greymouth Horticultural Society takes place on the 28th inst. The prize list is large, varied, and liberal, including numerous prizes for pot grown plants, cut blooms, and vegetables. In each of these classes there are also special prizes offered. We are informed that it is in contemplation t • offer a silver cup to amateurs for the best collection of vegetables. We are informed that the Judges of the Hokitika Exhibition awarded the prize for coal to the specimen obtained from the seam in the neiskborhood of the Ten-Mile Creek, North Beach. The reguhr meeting of the Committee of the Grey Ri T er Hospital took place at Gilmer's Hotel, last night, Mr W. S. Smith in the chair. The unnutcs of the previous meeting having been confirmed, and the correspondence read and received, the Visiting; Committee reported that, on the 30th November, there were 2b" patients in the hospital ; admitted during December, 17 ; discharged, 12 ; remaining in hospital on 31st Deoember, 31 ; admitted during January, 9 ; discharged, 8. The accounts for the month, amounting to L 221 17s lOd, were passed for payment. The Treasurer reported receipt since last meeting of tho Westland subsidies for July, August, September, and October, L3lO 18s sd; and the Nelson subsidy for November, L 63 15s Id. Leave of absence was granted to F. Rieling for one week. The Visiting Committee for the month are MeLsrs Maclean, Kennedy, and Newton. The Hon, Secretary reported that he had not yet received the names of the local committees appointed at Arnold, No Town, Nelson Creek, Moonlight, Ahaura, and. Totara Mat, and that he was unable, from the above cause, to forward subscription lists and books to those committees. The remainder oi the business was of a routine character. An inspection parade of the Greymouth Rifle Volunteers takes place to-night at the Voluntesr Hall, at eight o'clock. All absentees will forfeit their capitation allowance. We learn that Mr Jones, of the Bank of New Zealand, Charleston, was the lucky holder of thef first ami second horses in the L 1000" Derby sweepstake drawn at the Albion Hotel, Greymouth, a few days ago. Ihe first prize was worth L 583 Gs Bd, and the second prize was worth L 166 13s 4d. Having divided the second prize with Mr Mansfield, Mr Jones stands to win, for an outlay of 30s, the sum of L 671 13s 4d, and Mr Mansfield, for his investment, takes LBB 6s Sd. The Tuapeka paper chronicles a chapter of accidents. At the Lawrence sports, on Boxing Day, a son of Mr Michael Nash's received a kick irova a horse, producing a fracture of the skull, though not of a very serious character. Another lad at the Blue Spur, named Irwin, was thrown from his horse and kicked on the back of the head, while on the 20th the eldest son of Mr Theyors, of Alexandra, was run over by a bullogk dray. It is : really marvellous how he escaped instant death, as the wheel of the dray passed over his back. He was not seriously injured, and is recovering as well as i an be expected. We take the following from the Mount Ida Chronicle: — "Some specimens of an unusually brilliant character are baiug shown by Messrs Paiue and another from the reef thej are working at Rough Ridge. They have put out about nine tons of stone, which the Euergetic Quartz-miuing Company's machine vill crush at 15s per ton. The company's claim is now idle, further work having been suspended." We lean from the Thames Advertiser that the several Banks now doing business at the Thames have come to an agreement regarding the puichase of gold, and that standard tables have been drawn up fixing the price in accordance with the assay value. Hitherto the Bauks have generally tendered for all large parcels of gold at such a price as they thought would leave them a small margin of profit, but through, a patenu possessed by the Bank of New Zealand this arrangement enabled tbat institution to secure tue great bulk of tho gold. This patent is generally known as the ''chlorine process" for t^e extraction silver from the g>ld, and by means of the process a considerable saving is effecte lin export duty, as the two ores are separated before exportation, and duty paid on pure gold. The other Banks cannot, of course, make use of this process, and have to export the gold and silver mixed, and are compelled to pay duty on the whole as gold! We presume that they have therefore induced tho Bank of New Z -aland to assent to this fixed table of prices, so that each Bank may keep the gold of its own customers at a fair price. Assays will be made as usual by all the Banks when desired, but as the price offered will be the same by each, institution, it will only be as a check upon the standard value of the gold, aud to ch«ck the assay of the purchasers. The margin left by the Banks for profit is said to be one per cent, a margin which will barely cover expenses. Under the title of "good drinking," a correspondent of the Dunedin Evening Star makes up the following curious statistics for the Caledonian Gathering, which was to be held on the Ist and 2nd instant;— l see that the privilege of selling grog, &c, at tho forthcoming Caledonian gathering, sold for the very large sum of L 204. This means something in the way of drinking. Let us j allow the parties who have taken these booths the very handsome grots profit of 200 per cent. Say the nobbier or the glass of beer which is sold for 6d costs 2ti, and it will be found that before the L 204 paid in rent can be got back it will be necessary to sell 12,340 nobblers, that is 34, or nearly 34, m each booth every minute during six hours. This will pay rent only • besides this there will be labor, license, and other contingent expenses to cover, and a profit on the whole to be realised. The license is LI, and labor for the two days cannot be set down at less than L 3 for each booth, with other contingencies, making, let us say, another LIOO, witl LIOO more as netfc profit on the i two days work. This L2OO represents :

another 12,000 nobblers. I may, however, be reminded that men must eat aa well as drink, and that refreshment other than drink will be sold in the booths. This is no doubt true. Let us then knock off the half ot the second estimate, as representing things eaten and the result is that at a gross profit of 200 per cent, 18240 drinks must be swallowed on Thursday and Friday to make the booths pay. If the profit be put down at 100 per cent (and the doubling of one's money in a single turn over seems a very good thing), then the L 304 to be realised out of drink gives the [enormous quantity of 24,480 drinks atGd each, to beswallowed at the Caledonian gathering in two days. Suppose the consumption to start at noon and continue till six o'clo k each day, and we have the crowd which will be gathered there swallowing 34 drinks every minute during the whole 12 hours. , Speaking of the benefits derived lßy the working classes of England from the establishment of co-operative stores, the London Economist says :— " The ultimate result is, therefore, that, according to the evidence before us, about 300.000 heads of families (almost wholly belonging to the working classes, and including, say, 1,200,000 persons) are at present supplying themselves with the largest part of the articles of domestic consumption in an honest and pure state at less than 3 per cent, on the first wholesale cost. As compared with the previous state of things, ifc is not an exaggerated view to say that this figure represents an economy of saving in favor of the consumer of quite 20 per cent, per annum — that is to say, that co-operative stores, so far as they have gone, have enabled their customers to obtain 20 per cent, more for their money than they got before — or, say, to transfer two millions per annum from the shopkeeping mainly to the working classes." We regret deeply to notice the death of Lieutenant-Genc-al Charles Hay, the officer who supported Sir J. Whitworth in introduciug small-bore rifles, and for nearly fifteen years as Head of the Hythe School of Musketry trained the regular soldiers and the officers of the volunteers. Day after day for years he stood on that bleak shingle watching everything that went on, ruling all concerned by unfailing decision, energy, aud personal ability in the use of his weapons. He wanted to make England a nation of marksmen, and if he did not quite succeed he left us with 300,000 civilians among our population who on the day of need could stand side by side with any infantry of the line.