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Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1726, 18 February 1874, Page 2

We direct the attention of contractors to the notice which appears in another column, calling for tenders for the reclamation of about forty-nine acres of Wellington harbor, and also to the contract for the construction of over five miles of the Nelson and Foxhill railway. The anniversary of the Ancient Order of Foresters will be celebrated to-night at the Volunteer Hall by a soiree and ball. At the Resident Magistrate's Court, yesterday, Richard and John Roberts were each fined 5s for being drunk. On the civil side, judgments were given in the cases Basch v Gaul for 30a, and flargreaves v. Baker for 35s and costs. "A carrier" draws attention to the dangerous condition of the Omotumo v road. We can substantiate his complaint, and we are sure that if prompt steps are not taken either to widen the road on the hillside, or to protect it on the other, all traffic may be -effectually stopped at any moment and certainlybefore many days are over. We commend to the attention of the District Engineer that part of the road where the retaining wall is now being constructed, a short distance from town. The following are the details of the death by drowning at Hokitika, mentioned in yesterday|s telegrams :— " Another death by drowning occurred yesterday, alongside the schooner Cleopa'ra, which vessel is berthed nearly opposite the Pioneer Hotel. A man named Thomas Davis, a lumper, was engaged in loading the Cleopatra with timber about 11 o'clock yesterday forenoon, from a platform or staging on the wharf. A few boards projected over the staging between the vessel and the wharf, and the unfortunate man, Davis, while carrying some timber with another man, stepped on to these boards, which turned with him, causing him to fall head first into the river, between the wharf and the schooner. Davis tried to save himself by catching hold of the ship's side, but he sunk, and was not seen to rise again. It is supposed by those who saw the occurrence that tne body must have been drawn under the ship's bottom. As soon as possible the river was dragged for the body, but without success." In another column we publish the prospectus of a concpany to be called "The New Zealand Woollen Manufactory Company" which has been started in Christchurch . The success which has attended the establishment of wool mills inOtago, Nelson, and also in the Australian Colonies, has induced a number of gentlemen in Canterbury to launch the undertaking, and advices from Christchurch state that the success of the speculation may be relied upon. A Provisional Directory has been formed, which includes the names of many of the most influential capitalists throughout the Province. We heartily wish success to the new undertaking. The following are the names of the Westland Volunteers who have been qualified to compete at the representative firing which

takes place at Napier next month :— Vol Ross (Hokitika), 80; Vol. Shephard (Greymouth), 86 ; Vol. Davis (Ross), 86 ; and Vol. Heaphy'(Greymnuth), 80. Thus Vol. Ross, of the Ist Westland Rifles, again goes as the district representative. Twelve and a half millions of money ! A goodly sum indeed, but Otago has exported more than that amount in gold since 1857. Livst year alone her export of gold was not far short of three-quarters of. a million, and was along way. ahe&d of the gold export of any other Proviuce in the Colony. Sixpences have long been remarkably scarce in the Grey district, but if the following be correct, they are likely to be scarcer than ever. The Wakatip Mail has the following :—" Sixpences are very scarce in this district, and have been so for a long time past. One who ought to know something about the matter informs us that the absence of this small but useful coin is attributable largely to the Chinese, who use it as a gambling stake. As these people play in every camp, and generally commence with stakes of sixpence, they take good care to keep a supply. Some who desir to gamble have often, at the commencement, of 'a bout,' to purchase the coin at a premium. As gambling is ever incessant amongst them, the mysterious disappearance of sixpences may, to some extent, be accounted for, and remove the odium that attached to 'mine host' of rarely ever being able to find a sixpence for change purposes." There is reason to believe that the opening of Ohinemuri will not be much longer delayed, for it is understood that many of the heretofore obstructionists — European and Native — have thrown up the sponge. The opposition Government had to contend with has been energetic, most determined, and at times not slightly virulent. Negotiations are still pending between Dr Pollen, Mr Mackay, and the present owners of Ohinemuri. Major Ropata and Ngatiporou have some interest there, and they will shortly have something to say about unlocking that district. According to the Tuapeka Times, good gold is being got by the party using the water from the Waikaka race. Sluicing operatiens are carried oh by six men, who are working two faces. We are informed that they have come across the bed of an old creek, from which sp'endid results are being obtained. A nugget of gold weighing 17dwt was found in the stamper-boxes of the Gabriel's Gully Quartz Company. There have been many nuggets found in these boxes, but this is the largest which has yet made its appearance. The Provincial Government of Auckland have resolved not to issue any licenses for cutting timber during the current year on lanHs belonging to the Province. The Government announce their intention of prosecuting any person cutting timber on such lands, the object of the course taken being to put " a stop to all further damage to the public estate." Vast numbers of caterpillars have made their appearance in the Tokomairiro district during the last week or two, and we (Bruce Herald) hear that in places they have done considerable damage. Prom inquiries we have made, we find several strange features in the observations of a number of different people. Thus all correspond in stating, that the travelling progress of these caterpillars has been in the direction of the Gorge hill, or in a north-easterly c urse, even in the face of a strong wind blowing. A settler, in whose statement we have every confidence, informed us that going along one of his fields the other day, he saw them in thousands, rolling over one another in a ditch, creeping up the sides, the N.E. wind 'jeing so strops; that it toppled them over again, but still they persisted in adhering to this course, making no attempt to turn to the right or left j he said they were "in bucketf ulls." A general testimony also is, that they appear to select camping spots for feeding, and completely clear patches here and there as they move along, always selecting where the crop is thickest. They are noticed to be very severe in cases where they happen to move across sheaves lying on the ground, the heads of which they nip off, ad if a lot of mice had been at work. We observe that 16s a day is offered to masons for work within a few miles of Dunediu. At the Taieri harvest hands are getting L 2 a week and found, with a prospect of eyen this high rate of wages being increased. * sudden death occurred in Walker street, Dunedin, on the evening ef the 9th inst., a man named Alexander Affleck, lately employed in a woodyard, falling down dead opposite the «oyal Sotel. He had been ailing for some time past, and Dr Deck, who made a. post mortem examination, expressed it as his opinion that the man died from heart disease. Deceased was about 38 or 40 years of age. Mrs Leslie, of the Temperance Hotel, Milton, Otago, met with a painful accident on Wednesday night week. Her dress caught fire from a candl.-, and before the flames could be extinguished she was badly burned about the arrcs. A very serious and quite unaccounted for fire occurred on Mr W. Macroft's farm, Lincoln road, near Christchurch, on the 11th inst. The men who had been employed harvesting finished stacking late in the afternoon, and shortly before six o'clock one of the stacks was observed ta be on fire. There were three stacks in the yard, all of very large dimensions ; and as no means were available to extinguish the fire, not only were all of them destroyed, but the adjoining cattle and sheep yards were al o burnt down. We all know what the consequences of calling a man in Dunedin a Bumble are— Lso, and as much as tne lawyers can invent in the way of coats. But this will be a trifle to what will happen in Victoria. ?he Age has I called the Great Grace, of the All- England Eleven, "a ßumble." As Ser joint Buzfuz said, " Gracious Heavens !' Are not the probable consequences too awful to contem- ! plate? When the Great Grace reads what happened here, what damages will he not c;o for ! The only hope for the Age is that Melbourne juries and Dunedin juries may not be the same in their views on the matter. A Thames paper relates that a very cowardly crime was enacted at the Queen of Bpauty mine on the Thames gold-fields on Thursday, the 29th ulc. It appears that between the 12 p.m. and 8 a.m. shifts there is no winding done, as the mine is at present 15 hours being sufficient to wind up all the stuff from the mine. During the time the cages were not working some cowardly scoundrel had almost severed the rope. The rope is flat, almost new, atd of great strength. It appeared to have been cut with a sharp knife, which operation was all the more easy as the rope was in a state of tension, and every stroke of the knife would tell with double power. It is impossible for the rope to have chinked, the poppet pullies and drum working too smoothly for that supposition. Whoever committed the rascally act was a fool as well as a coward, the shift first to use the cages would come on in the daylight, and his crime was at once apparent. It may be that the cur intended to sever the rope completely, and was disturbed. It may have been in revenge for some slight received at the company's hands, or possibly an attempt at some individual life, which would first descend the shaft in the morning. Whoever committed the act may be assured that ■whatever his fate may be in the next world

he is, and will be most heartily damned in this. Of all the Manchester rattening during the last strike, nothing so diabolically fiendish was ever attempted as that at the Queen of Beauty on the day named. The WaJcatip Mail says :— • One hundred thousand acres of land were sold on Friday last for pastoral purposes by the Government auctioneers, Messrs M'Ardell and Co. The purchasers were Messrs J. W. Robertson and Co., at the upset price of half-penny per acre. The country embraces a large portion of land stretching ftom the Hollyford River to the Canterbury Province. Those who know, or say they know, something about the country declare it to be an advantageous purchase. It should prove bo, as the climate is pretty good, and the country probably will not turn out, when properly examined, so rough as imagined. Assessment has to be paid at the rate of L 135 and the premium paid is L2OO. We trust the venture may prove a payable one. for it will tend to open a known auriferous and mineral country at present unprospected to any extent. Others are out also looking for country." In a speech made by Mr Seymour, at the nomination of candidates for the Marlborough Superintendence he said, "the office work I should, not attend to myself more than necessary, as that is the Provincial Secretary's business rather. I have been styled the travelling Superintendent. I do duty abroad rather than sit in the office to be waited on. Much is done in the saddle and at times in watertight boots and a swat» on one's back." The opening of the Dunedin Athenaeum on Sunday afternoons has roused the ire of a portion of the clergy. We notice that the Rev Dr JRoseby has delivered a forcible and lengthy discourse in the Congregational Church, Moray-place, on "The Opening of the Athenaaum on the Lords-day, from a social and moral point of view." The rev. gentleman took for his text the eighth verse of the twelve chapter of St. Matthew : "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbathday," and dwelt with considerable force and earnestness on the evil consequences which he assured his hearers the desecration of the Sabbath-day by the proposed innovation would produce. In soeaking of the utilitarianism of the present day, he used some very warm language, and condemned the revolutionary eceptics who would, if they had the power, trample under foot; religion, the Bible, and all divine revelations of God to man, and turn the Sabbath from a day of rest into a day of dissipation and pleasure. The rev. doctor then pointed to Austria, Spain, and France as melancholy illustrations of irreligion and rationalism. Desecration of the Sabbath in those countries had produced the most direful fruits. Ignorance, superstition, free thought, scepticism, and ultrodemocracy were rampant in those nations, for religion was scoffed at ; and we might expect the same evils here, if the irreverent unbelievers in our midst were permitted to ; have their way.