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Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1784, 24 April 1874, Page 2

At the Resident Magistrate's Court' Ahaura, on Thursday, 23rd instant, hofore Charles Broad, Esq., X.M , Edward Atwell wa* brought up on remand, charged with obtaining money from T. Dolleffe, at Reefton, under false pretences. Sub-Inspector Goodall applied for a remand to Reefton, which was granted. The defendant was liberated on his own recognizances of LlO. -Geo. Green was charged, on remand, with stealing gold, the property of B. M'Gaw, at No Town. Mr Goodall applied for a further remand of eight days, which was granted. — Michael Stan ton was charged with deserting his wife at Reefton. Mr Goodall applied for a remand to Reefton. His Worship granted the application, and granted the defendant bail ; two sureties O|

L2o each, and defendant's own recognizances of LSO. The monthly meeting of the Greymonth Permanent Building Society takes place this evening, 1 at Waters's Union Hotel, from 7.30 '.to 8.30. ' : We learn, from the Reefton Courier that it is the intention of Mr Ivess, !ate pro rietor of the Greymout; Star, to commence business in Reefton as an auctioneer, sharebroker, and general commission agent, and we wish him every success. It is stated by tha Nelson Mail that the General Government having agreed to advance a sum of L 20 ,000 for opening up communication with the interior, tenders will be invited for completing the dray road from Nelson to the Maruia as soon as Mr Dobson arrives from the West Coast and has be?n able to prepare the specifications. The Maruia is a branch of the Buller River, and surrounding the conflux of the two rivers there is a district of country highly eligible for settlement. (We notice that no mention is made of the repair of the road from Square Town to the Saddle.) The Inangahua Herald, of Tuesday, says : — " Repairs required to the Grey road at the Little Grey Junction have delayed traffic, but the waggons will probably be enabled to get through to Reefton to-day. It appears that tLe maintenance of the roads in that district has been handed over to the Board, but the body not being in working order delay was occasioned. The chairman, however arrauged with the carriers to cut the approaches enabling them *o reach the ford, and it is expected that the work would be sufficiently advanced yesterday to enable traffic to be resumed." Anderson's scrip are steadily advancing (ays the Herald), and are now quoted at 9s. The driving in the low level tunnel still continues easy. Mr Carlyle has written an eminently characteristic letter to Sir Joseph Whitworth ] on tha modern industrial tone. After a few words of compliment to Sir Josepb, as one of the great captains of industry in England, Mr Carlyle continues :—" The look-out of England is to me at this moment abundantly ominous. Two things are pretty sure to me. The first is that capital and labor never can or will agree together till they first of all decide on doing their work faithfully throughout, and like men of conscience and honor, whose highest aim is to behave like faithful citizens of this universe, and obey the eternal commandment of the Almighty God who made them. The second is, that a sadder object even than that of the coal strike, or any conceivable strike, is the fact that, loosely speaking, we may say that all England has decided that the profitablist way is to do its work ill, slimly, swiftly, and mendaciously. What a contrast between now and say, only 100 years ago. At the latter date, or still more conspicuoiisly, for asres iiefore it, all England awoke to its work with an invocation to the Eternal Maker to bless them in their day's labor, and help them to do it well. Now all England—shopkeepers, workmen, all manner of competing laborers, awaken as if it were with an unspoken but heartfelt prayer to Beelzebub, 'Oh help us, thou great lord of shoddy, adulteration, and malfeisance, to do our work with the maximum of shmness, swiftness, profit, and mendacity, for the Devil's sake. Amen." A rough way of administering a rebuke, but a rebuke itself admitting of a wider application than to England only. Mr Warden Broad points out in his report how unsuitable the new Licensing Act is to the circumstances of the gold-fields. He says : — " This does not appear at all adapted for the g'ld-fields. The licensing meetings being annual, and no provision made for trans F ers in the interim, in the event of a new field being discovered no license could be granted, and sly grog selling would be upon the increase. It appears far better to license proper houses and so bring them under police surveillance than place them at the mercy of the illicit vendor, of what, in many cases, is little better than poison. So far as the present towns are concerned the recent action of the Provincial Council in handing over half of the publicans' licenses fees to the Local Revenue B >ard, should have a most benenficial effect in the suppression of sly groe selling, as it will be manifestly to the interests of the local Board to see that they are not deprived of any portion of their revenue by unlicensed persons selling spirituous liquors." A correspondent of the Taranahi Herald writes :— lt was pointed out by me some time ago that there were good reasons for concluding from the traditions of the Maoris that their remote ancestors had witnessed the volcanoes around Auckland in a state of activity. This has lately received strong corporation by the discovery of the hewn tree, at Auckland, under the scoria and ashes of a long quiescent crater. We have found the remains of the great raptorial, and of the moa in abundance, in the part of New Zealand where the natives of the North said they existed ; and perhaps the dependeuce to be placed in their traditions may before long receive further weight by the discovery of 'he remains of the crocodilean (the "Ngarara") so distinctly described to Captain Cook. We learn from the Wellington Independent that the Nelson Waste Lands Board have granted a new lease to the Albion Coal Company f i>r twenty-three years of their mine at Ngakawhau. on the following terms .—The company to raise 2000 tons coal from date to opening of railway, or say two years. Ten thousand tons per annum to be raised from the opening of the railway to the end of the tenth year of the present lease. It is stipulated that all coals to be raised shall be sent Dy the Government railway to Westport, and to be paid for at the rate of 2d per ton per mile, with the usual terminal charge for weighing and shipping, ""he coals to be twenty thousand tons per annnm. We learn from Mr Warden Broad's report that Mr Rauft has made the discovery of exteosive beds of marble, which he thus doscribes :— " The marble of this district is of three different kinds. The best quality is i principally of a coral formation of grey-blue, with white veins, and capable of a high polish. Its extent I have proved over a distance of three-quarters of a mile, where it is overlaid by a newer formation. The stratum is divided into a number of beds, varying from six iucb.es to as many feet, and the total thickness is over thirty feet. It is situated between Lankey's and Garvey's Creeks. The next in quality is situated about a mile and a half further north, and, is of vaster extent. It is of a brown-blue ground, with white bands intervening. The organic formation differs from the former in its haying less coral and molluscs are prominent. The third quality is situated on the Waitahu, is of a deep black, beautifully interwoven with white veins. In structure it is the most massive, blocks of fifty cubic feet being easily obtainable without the slightest joint. It is not so crystalline as the firstnamed, but is capable of a good polish. In organic structure it differs jrom the second quality by being principally of mollusc origin, and enclosing hut little coral in proportion to the first quality s All three marbles would be invaluable for ornamental and architectural purposes if there existed a reasonable means of transport to the seaboard. The natural access is good, and an outlay of LIOO would enable waggons to load on the site. In the same formation there is a large deposit of calcspar and selenite easily convertible into lime and cement."

At the Ot-igo Institute, Mr Gillies refered to a caterpillar plague which was lately infesting the North. It was a strange thing that they travelled from the west towards the east. He had been informed, by a gentleman whom he thoroughly believed, that in some places they were so thick upon the ground that when he rode among them their juice splashed up upon his hand. He referred to one place where they were, at the foot of i a wall, lying eighteen inches deep before th'-y could get over ; when they once got over, they made fearful havoc among the crops. They were black, hairy caterpillars. The people in the neighborhood said that whenever they touched wheat it killed them. A civil case of an unusual kiud. was investigated at the Resident Magistrate's Court, Dunedin, recently. The woman Glass, who was acquitted at the present sessions of stealing L 75 from a man named Belcher, appeared as defendant in a civil suit for the recovery of the money. One of ihe L2onotes found on her since she waa acquitted, was identified by the plaintiff as one of those which bad been stolen from him by the defendant. Mr Stewart appeared for the plaintiff and called the defendant as a witness. She, however, seemed to think such a course of proceeding was at variance with the English law, and refused to give evidence and told the Bench that it must be Scotch law. The Bench, however informed her that, whether ifc was English or Scotch law, it was the law in tha' Court, and that she would have to choose between giving evidence, or being subjected to a tine of LlO, or 14 days' imprisonment. She then consented to be sworn ; but, in answer to Mr Stewart, positively denied all knowledge of the defendant, and said that she received the two L2O notes, w hich it is known that she possessed since leaving gaol, from a man in the streets of Port Chalmers. She did not know who this man was. The plaintiff positively identified one of the notes produced as his property, and his Worship gave judgment for the amount claimed, with costs. The defendant then quitted the Court, laughing heartily, as much as to say, " Don't you wish you may get it ?" The belief in witchcraft, it appears, is still active in the Maori mind in the Province of Hawke's Bay. Ruteue Tainguru reports to "Te Waka Maori," that ''Rapaia te Apu has fallen under the ban of the Natives of that place as a sorcerer. They ascribe the death of a number of persons, who have, died lately in the district, to the operation of his magic arts. A public meeting was convened on the subject, at which he was charged by several individuals with having brought about the death of certain of their relations by witchcraft. His indignant denials were disregarded, and the meeting, with one exception, came to the sage conclusion that he was guilty, and that he was a pest in the district, who ought not to be suffered to live. He was then informed that it was only out of consideration for the law that his life was spared, and warned to be careful not to move about from the place where he was born, otherwise he might come to grief. Rutene Piwaka alone dissented from the decision of the meeting. He said the deaths charged upon Rapaia arose from natural causes ; the Lord said unto Adam, when he and Eve sinnud, ' Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,' and so it had ever since been." The question of free passes on the railways has been under consideration ; and it is stated that the following determination has been arrived at : — To grant free passes to members of the General Government,, to Superintendents, and to Provincial Executives; and also to members of the' Assembly and of Provincials Councils during session. The following is an account of the gold forwarded from Otago to the Royal Mint, at Melbourne, for assay and sale : -1. Serpentine—Weight before melting, 44'030z ; after melting, 43 Oloz ; assay report, '9455 ; weight of standard gold, 44 p 36oz ; silver, 1 "290z ; value of gold (estimated at L 3 17s lOid per staudard oz), L 172 4s 9d ; silver allowed, 6a 5d ; total. L 173 Is 2d. 2. Blue Spur— Weieht before melting, 176 290z; after do. 169 360z; assay report, '9645; standard, 178-1970z ; value, L 693 17j Id. 3. Mount Ida — Weight before melting, 80*13oz ; after do, 78"270z; assay report, *9800 ; standard, 83'6780z ; value, L 325 16s 3d. From these amounts there remain to be deducted the charges for minting, exchange on drafts, freight, insurance, and export duty, amounting in the whole to about 3s per ounce. Reduced to standatd, the various parcels stand thus : — Serpentine gold— 22 carats 2f grains fineness ; value per ounce, L 4 0s 3d. Blue Spur gold — 23 carats <i| grains ; value per ounco, L 4 Is lid. Mount Ida gold — 23 carats 2& grains ; value per onnce, L 4 3s 3d.