THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1874.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1844, 3 July 1874, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1874.

Although no positive intimation of the fact -has been forwarded to us from our Hokitika correspondent, the probabilities are that the Westland Provincial Council was prorogued yesterday afternoon, as the Appropriation Ordinance j passed its. second reading at W ednesday's sitting, and was to be brought up for final reading at an early sitting yesterday. The business on Wednesday of any interest to this district comprised the bringing up of the report of the Petitions Committee on the petition of John Cameron and Donald Cameron. The petitioners are coach proprietors and contractors for the carriage of mails between Hokitika and Greymouth via Marsden. They state they have suffered great loss through the stoppage of the punt on the Teremakau at the crossing of the Greenstone, and pray that means may be devised to restore freedom of communication along the said road. The Committee recommended that the Government should be requested to act without delay upon the recommendation of the Committee given in the report on the petition of Messrs Cheffings and Whitten.— ln answer toMrTabart, it was stated that the Government intended to call for. tenders for the completion of Arahura Bridge without delay. —On the motion of Mr Dungan, it was resolved that ihe Government do authorise the necessary ; steps to be taken for the | survey of the Maori Creek township, in the New River , district.-r-Mr Cumiug brought up a motion for additional water 'supply inthe Ross District, to the following effect: — "That this Council request his Honor the Superintendent to procure , £ reconnaissance survey* with the probable 1 cost of a high-level water-race from the righthand branch of the Totara-river, so as to command the "known auriferous country at present unworked^ lying b,er . tween Cedar and Doholley-s Creeks ; the' said survey to be available if .possible when the Provincial Borrowing -Bill comes before Parliament." The motion was carried without dissent.— The resolutions with regard to Road Boards (which we shall notice at length on another occasion) were ; brought up by Mr Robinson, and moved as follows:—" That the report of the Road Board Committee be adopted— .1. That it is advisable that each of the present Road Districts should be divided into three wards. 2. That the construction of all new rnada and tracks should be undertaken by the Provincial Government, and the cost defrayed out of the General Government subsidy to Road Board s. 3. That in vie w : of the ; impoflstbility of any measure dealing fully With' the subject being proposedvand pawed during the present aesiion of

the Provincial Council, the Committee have not deemed it \ advisable' to enter upon a minute^and extended jinqbiry into the present ;Road -./Bbard':' system, ,'.but that the Comftiittee rfec()mme v n3 v that such an inquiry should be made, and a measure be prepared to be laid before the Provincial Council at its next session." The report in our contemporary states that the mover gave at length his reasons for the course adopted by the Committee, but they are not published; It appears that Mr Seddon moved an amendment to this effect, " That the repairs of existing tracks, roads, and bridges, and the construction of all new roads, tracks, or bridges should be vested in the Road Boards in the respective districts in the Province, the costs to be defrayed out of the General Government subsidy," but it lapsed for want of a seconder, and the motion was carried. Mr r Cuming nioved — " That in the opinion of this Council a dray road should be constructed from South Creek to M'ln tosh's store on the Aylmer Lead, half a mile more or less, payment'to be made in land." After an amendment on the motion had been put and lost, the motion as proposed was- put and carried. ' The other business was passing the Appropriation Bill through its second reading. ! [Since the above was in type we learn by telegraph that the Provincial Council was yesterday prorogued by the Superin-tendent,-and his closing speech upon the occasion will be found in our telegraphic columns.]

The General Ascembly meets at Wellington, for the dispatch of business, at noon today. We have made arrangements by which we". will .be able to supply our readers with, the latest intelligence on all matters connected 1 with this district. '■■'■ .:., His Honor Judge Harvey held a sitting of the District Court iv Bankruptcy at Ahaura on Thursday. The business, which was of a merely formal nature, was disposed of in a short time, and the Court adjourned. j At the Resident Magistrate's Court, Ahaura, on Wednesday, a man named fFrancis Bennett was charged with committing a murderous assault . on Constable William Meredith, at Devery's Terrace, 'near Squareton, on Saturday. . The evidence of Mr; Walter Atkin, who happened to ride up, on his way to Ahaura from Reefton while the Constable and Bennett were engaged in the life and death struggle in which { both received such serious injuries, was that the prisoner and the Constable presented a sicking appearance when he met them; and but for the assistance given, the officer, r there is no doubt, would have been murdered by his assailant. The prisoner threw a stone at the Constable, and knocked him off his horse, then attempted to batter his brains out with another stone. The reason he gave for bis action, was that jMeredith arrested him for Borne trifling offence previously at the request of Inspector- Goodall. The accused was remanded for eight days. The following civil action was recently heard in Melbourne before a special jury : — " Coates-v. Connell.— This was an action by | W. J. Ooates, a storekeeper in Greymoufch, •Yew Zealand, to recover damages for breach of,. warranty in the sale of some cases of conlensed milk. The warranty was said to be that the milk was sound and of good color, whereas it was not; of good color. The pleas denied that there was any breach of the warranty. The plaintiff's case was, that in 1872 he bought B(>me ; 75 dozen of Borden's c»n'lensed milk* eagle brand, from the defendant. The traveller who took the order guaranteed that the milk should' be sound, and of good color; The cases were sent to NW Zealand, and the plaintiff sold some to several customers I hese customers complained that the color was not good, and returned the parcels. The plaintiff alter a time complained to the defendant, who denied that the milk was bad, assprted that it was of good col>r, but offered to refer the matter to arbitration. The plaintiff refused" to accept the offer. . Evidence was given for the defence that shortly before the milk was shipped it was sampled, and the color appeared to be good and the milk sound. The jury, after- a short deliberation, returned a vet diet for defendant. The best block of buildings in Opotiki (East Coast of Auckland) was destroyed by fire on June 15. The Wharf Hotel, Young's store, and Fahey's shop were destroyed The insurance losses were— New Zoaland ' Office, L 1650; and the National, L 250. An inquiry was held and a verdict of '•Accidental" returned. ! Mr Eugene JBeda, the unipedal gymnast, is at present on a tour through the Grey Valley Goldfieids. . He met with considerable success at No Town, where he appeared at the beginning of the week. On Wednesday evening be went through bis: really wonderful performance at Ahaura, opposite Gilmer's hotel— to the upper story of which he had his apparatus tixed. The startling and sensational evolutions in mid air of this performer, would be good for ordinary trapeze actors possessing all their limbs ; but bereft, as this young man is, of such a very important portion of his "understandings," the tricks he goes through are marvellous. Mr Beda publicly attributed the great success of his feats of skill and daring, at Ahaura, to the efficient assistance rendered him by a gentleman amateur from Reefton, who, afterwards, did a number of acrobatic feats on his own account, after Mr Beda's performance bad been finished- Mr Beda will be at Half-Ounce on Friday, and at Beef ton, on Saturday.