THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1874

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1817, 2 June 1874, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1874

Wb believe it is the intention of the WestlaUd Provincial Government to bring into force reeulations for the working of the Miners' Rights Extension Act, 1872. This Act was passed for the purpose of enabling miners to work on both sides of the Grey River without taking out, during the course of one year, two miner's rights. All that has to be done in that a right taken out in one Province si all be presented in the other at the office of a Warden or Receiver of Gold-fields Revenue, and upon the payment of two shillings and sixpence it shall be registered and carry with it the same privileges as if it had been takeu out in that Province. The draft regulation which, we believe, it is intended to be presented to the Westland Provincial Council, but upon which no action has yet been taken, is as follows:—"All such personßas shall have duly taken out miners' rights nnder the Rules arid Regulations of the Province of Nelson Gold-fields and being desirous to mine for gold under the Regulations of the Province of Westland Gold-fields, can on payment of a fee of two shillings and sixpence, and on the production of Buch miners' rights for inspection and registration to any Warden or Receiver of Revenue within the Province of Westland, during the continuance of such miners' rights, have, hold, and enjoy in respect thereof within the Province of Westland all the rights, powers, and authorities which the holders thereof might: have exercised, held, and enjoyed if such miner's right had been issued within the Province of Westland : Provided that before the holder of. any such miner's right shall be entitled to mine for gold in the Province of Westland under the aforesaid Regulations thereof, it shall be obligatory upon such holder to register the same with such officer."

A comparative statement of the revenue of the late County and now Province of Westland, for the quarters ending: 31st March, 1873, and 31st March, 1874, has been, by request, made up for presentation to the Provincial Council. It will show to anyone who will take the trouble to carefully compare it, where the falling off has taken place, and the manner in which some of. the items have been attempted to be bolstered up, in spite of the clearest evidence to the contrary. The revenue for the quarter ended the 31st March, 1873, amounted to £10,599, made up of the following items : — » Gold duty .. - £3632 2 8 Miners' rights .1583 12 3 Fees and fines, Wardens' Courts ... ... ... 60 13 6 Mining surveys ... ... 99 3 6 Spirit licenses 1750 0 0 Incidental receipts 404 4 6 Tolls, punts, and ferries ... 754 5 3 Land revenue... ... ... 2314 18 4 Total ... ... ... £10,5 9 0 0 The revenue received for the quarter ended; the 31st March, 1874, in reality only consisted of £7706 9a, made up as follows : — Gold duty : ... . ... ... £2109 17 3 Miners' rights, fees, fines, 6c... 1357 5 6 Spirit licenses ... ... .. 1602 10 0 Incidentals ... ... ... 285 8 8 Tolls,&c. , ... 1019 2 1 Land revenue ... .. ... 1332 5 6 Total ... ... ...£7706 9 0 But to this was cleverly added the General Government's sup].' osed contribu tion for the Christchurch road of £1500, and the General Government's contribution for the Arahura bridge of £1700, which brought up the grand total total for the quarter to £10,906 9s ; which was a mere fictitious balance, as the last two mentioned sums were not paid and are still being carried forward to the credit of the Province. This will be shown by the following statement of the present position of estimated revenue which we believe will be laid before the Provincial Council at its first meeting :— Gold duty £2222 10 0 Min-rs' rights; fees, and fines 1350 0 0 Spirit licenses 2000 0 0 Incidentals ... ... ... 300 0 0 Tolls ... 875 0 0 Land Revenue... ... ... 3000 0 0 Total ... ... £9747 10 0 ' General overnmentforChristchurchroad ... 1500 0 0 General Government for Arahura bridge ....... ... 1700 0 0 Total from General Govt. ...£3200 0 0 Grand total ... ... £12,947 10 0

Yesterday/afternoon an accident occurred on the wharf to a man named Joseph Russell,■in.the:employ.of fiae. and: Sew.ell. He was assisting in the removal of a heavy case containing a" circular saw from the wharf, and . had f , one. : f po^t , -. on the . steps „ opposite the Boundary ' 'street ' landing, * when " the steps,' not being properly fixed, yielded, and threw him over the landing among the limestone boulders. He WM- taken up ; insensible and removed to the Hospital, where, it wa* found

that some of his ribs were fractured and his left hip joint dislocated. He was ; attended to by Dr Morice, and is now progressing favorably. It is a serious question if the Borough Council is not responsible for all the damages accruing by this accident, through the carelessness of their servants, and it is to be hoped the matter will be looked to, so as to prevent future accidents of a similar nature. ; At the Resident Magistrate's Court, yesterday, Richard Cole was fined 10a for being drank and disorderly. A meeting of the Paroa Road Board waJ3 held last night. Tne principal business was the passing of 195 chains of the Greenstone and Maori Point road, which had been cer- j tified for. The usual monthly meeting of the Greyjmouth "Volunteer Fire Brigade took place last night— the Captain and twenty- three members present. Business of im ortance was brought forward, which will transpire at the next meeting Messrs Greenwood and Bishop were appointed Auditors for the current half-year. , A man named Richard Hill was brought to the Hospital from Moonlight Creek on Saturday last. Whilst splitting slabs for a tail-race, the axe slipped, and went right through bis foot from the first toe v to. the instep. The sufferer was conveyed on horseback to the Ahaura, where he was attended to by Dr Phillips,' who advised his removal to the Grey River Hospital. Mr Rugg;, the Superintendent of the Grey River Hospital, begs to acknowledge with many thanks the following donations :— A j Friend, two lots of very valuable periodicals ; Mr Pelhng, cabbage plants ; Mr Badger, live volumes Hogg's Instructor ; Mr M'pavitt, parcel of newspapers : Mrs Woods, parcel of linen ; A Friend, a parcel of Band of Hope and Christian Reviews. < 'ur readers ought to remember that supplies, however small, of periodicals, magazines, and newspapers, are most welcome to the patients in the Hospital, and that all the old linen they can send wilt be of great use, and prove an immense saving to the institution. Incendiary fires are of very frequent occurrence at present in the Northern Provinces. A respectable "settler in Bombay (Auckland) named William Turpin came to his death on Thursday, the 21st ult., from a gun shot wound in the side, under rather peculiar circumstances. At about dinner hour on that day his wife receiving no reply to repeated calls, went in the direction he had shortly before taken with his gun, and found the poor man lying dead, with the muzzle of the piece close to his side, the clothes being partially burnt from the discharge. The report for the last year on the Otigo Industrial School bears' testimony to the manner in which it has been conducted. The boarding>out system has been tried, and an eye bad been kept upon boch the children and those who had undertaken to become their guardians. The school has now been in operation for five years, and so ne most satisfactory proofs have been afforded, by the conduce of the children when they have been placed out, of the value of the training they have received in the school. The children's earnings have, been carefully looked after for them, and we note that sums amounting to L 335 19s 5d how stand in the hooks of the Savings' Bank to the, credit of 47 children — to be paid to them, no doubt, when they again become free to enter uncontrolled on the voyage of life. In March last the number of boys in the Industrial School was 55, girls 39 — total, 94. During the year, 17 boys and 11 girls were placed at service, and only one boy was discharged. The cost was by no means disproportionate to the eood effected. At Kaurihohore ( nd), the other day, two brothers, Math6son byname, were, with a man named M 'Leod, felling heavy timber in the : Hiknrangi bush,, when a falling tree lodged in another that stood by; M'Leod then, standing up hill, prepared to fall a rika of five or six inches diameter, hoping that in ics fall it would carry the "whole crush" with it. As the last; stroke of the axe descended, he called to the brother to stand clear, when the rika, falling up the hill instead of down, struck. him in the shoulder, fracturing the blade and glancing off down the incline, struck the deceased on the head, a small knot or portion of a limb perforating I the cranium much in the same way that a rifle bullet might, and just grazing the near shoulder of the elder brother. The poor lad's death was instantaneous— a vital part of the brain h wing been touched. The Wakatip Mail states .— •' Late news from Martin's Bay gives hope that this neglected locality will soon prove an attraction to the miner and settler. AMr Webb recently came over, bringing with him a very fine sample of some lOoz of gold, a parcel of greater quantity having previously been disposed of to a trader at the settlement. This gold was got about four miles below Jamestown ; but we cannot say the time occupied in obtaining it. Mr Webb brought word that the day before he left a quartz reef had been discovered in a gully at the back of the township by a party who had been out eeling. He describes t c stone as rich, judging from samples which were broken from the reef ; but of course he could give no information as to the general run of the lode. Mr Webb, who has since returned to Martin's Bay, has promised to forward more definite particulars of the discovery by first opportunity. He speaks promisingly of the auriferous indications of the district. The New Zealand Herald says :— " It will afford much pleasure to the numerous acquaintances of his Lordship Bishop Croke, and especially to those under his charge as members of the Roman Catholic Church, to learn through a communication received by Very Rev Father Fy es. Vicar-General and Administrator of the Diocese, that his Lordship arrived aafely at San Francisco on the great national festival of Ireland, the feast of St. Patrick. His Lordship was, when writing, in the enjoyment of good health, but learnt with the deepest regret of the death of his former bishop, Bishop Keane, Bishop of Cloyne, County Cork, Ireland. It was, however, to his Lordship a source pi pleasure to know that his greatest friend amongst the whole clergymen— the Rev Father M'Carthy — had been chosen to succeed the deceased Bishop' Keane. Bishop I Croke desired that his kindest regards should be conveyed to the clergy, Sisters of Mercy, and the laity under his pastoral charge in the Colony Hi« Lordship intended leaving for Europe after the arrival of the first mail from New Zealand " At one of the meetings of the Church of England General Synod, at Wellington, the question of most importance to the general pubic was that <*f the rival hymnals in uao, viz, the "New Zealand Hymnal," "Mercer's Hymnal,"and ••Hymns Ancient and Modern" wheh of the three was to be that of the N«w Zealand Church It was pointed out very forcibly that the larger dioceses, Duneitfn and Christohurch had utterly rejected the first-named hook— the "New Zealand Hymnal," for the very just reasons that the hymns were mostly poor and trumpery, except wheu borrowed— generally in mutilated | form -from " Hymna Ancient and Modern," that the tunes were execrably bad, except ia the few instances where they were borrowed from the same source ; that all congregations who'hau tried the. book had condemned it in the strongest terms, and that in England, where an abortive' attempt was made to in« troduce it, it was simply laughed at as a good joke, Certainly (eaya the' Post) no

musician can even glance at the tunes without a feeling of horror at the barbarous mutilation of; old favorites, and the unsparing introduction of modern abortions, in many cases the composition of the compiler. Again, the Bishop of Nelson states that J 4 Mercer's Book," which had been adopted in his diocese, also was deservedly unpopular. -'Under these-circumstances the Synod would act most wisely in adopting the book which all over the world haa attained" a popularity never before equalled by any hymnbook, viz , " Hymns; Ancient and Modern," which is already in universal use in Canterbury, Otago, and Southland. They might as well .at the same time adopt Archdeacon ;•• d wards' suggestion as to the disposal of the absurd " New Zealand Hymnal,"— "to bury it in Cook Strait." The question has not yet been decided by the. Synod " B.i writes as follows in the Auckland Evening Star:—" Whilst it is acknowledged that Good Templars are doing much good in checking the vice of drunkenness, it is much to be regretted that they are not disposed to be content with their work of social regeneration, but must venture on political intrigue. They havn been busy lately in what they call 'purging the political roll ;' and in striving to carry out their un- English views, have formed themselves into a secret organisation employing wily emissaries on the Napoleonic principle for the performance of their political night- work, and by such means, by hook or by crook, endeavoring to deprive men, who may hot be of their order, of the franchise. The Standatd of Saturday last even exults in the business, and says :— •We have, through our political committee, made i^eat efforts to have the roll purged of unqualified names.' They have, however, dove more thaa this, aiid ! unscrupulously removed the names, of members who are entitled to the vote. , Let Good Templars stick ' to their work of physical regeneration and moral reform, but let them not intrude into the field of politics, and interfere unduly with the liberty of thesuiject." An important judicial decision, which affects the labor question, was lately given by Chief J ustice \rney, and refers to two cases recently tried at Auckland— Carlisle v. Brugden and -ons, and Coghan against the same defendants. They are similar developments arising out of the tnoJe of contracting for work. Messrs Brogden and s ons a>*e contractors for the Auckland and Meicer Railway. They sub-let part of the work to other contractors, or, as the} are called, subcontractors. The sub-contractors let the work to the plaintiff who completed what he undertook There is a balance due to him Against whom doea his cl urn lie ? — against those who immediately employed him, or against the chief contractor? The second case ia more curious still, being a still f urfchei iemove frsm the principal contractor. Brogden sub-let to O' Neil and Thomas; these sub-let to another firm, Shaw and Dounelly ; these employ Coghan at swages Query: Against whom of all these persons dons Coghan's claim lie for wages due ? The decision of the Chief Justice is an important one, as affecting these labor questions, and shows that a contractor i 3 not resposible for the labor employed by a sub-contractor, should the latter prove unable to pay those whom he employs ; and, where the contractor has folly paid the sub-contractor*, without notice of any claim for wages by the workmen, his responsibility is discharged. Cases are occurring all over the Colony, where workmen have been defrauded out of their wages by the dishonesty or misfortune ot those who have taken sub-contracts ; and, if some legislation is not made this session to remedy the ev>l, it will be the means of causing Bub-con-tractors to be looked upon wi r .h suspicion by their workmen. " Life Assurance Companies Act, 1873." We are requested to call attention to the advertisements that appear in another part of this paper, on the subject of the Registration of Policies of Life Assurance in terms of the above Act. The Act required that all companies carrying on the business of Life Assurance in New Zealand shall deposit cash or Government securities with the Public Trustee to the extent of LSOOO, which is to be increased as the business of the comnany goes on until it reaches the sum if L 20.000. These Bums the Act requires the Public Trustee to hold in trust for policy holders, being suoh in respect of policies issued in the Colony by the company making Bncn deposits, whether the policy has been granted before or after the passing of the Act, providing that such policies, if granted before the commencement of the Act, be registered within twelve months from suoh commencement (November 1, 1873), or if granted after the passing of the A.ct, withm six months after the making thereof. It will follow from the above, that holders of policies granted on or after the. Ist November last must register before the six months have expired, or they will forfeit the benefit conferred by the Act. The Australian Mutual Provident Society has given the holders of its policies the opportunity to register them, so that it now rests with those policy holders to avail themselves of the privilege. .