THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1874.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1882, 18 August 1874, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1874.

By the arrival of the s.s. Hero at Auckland 1 yesbarday, and also hy lake special beiegramß re-transmitted. from Wellington, we are in , possession of, later English and, Australian I news, which will be found published in other \ columns. The principal item of European news .is that there appears to be trouble ahead -^more complications of a very serious nature over the troubles in Spain. : '•' Our sporting, friends will regret to hear that Lurline and Papapa are in bad condition to fulfil their Victorian engagements, owing to the knocking, about they goc on the voyage toyer from New Zealand. . However, ■ there is : plenty of time for them to get into form ! again before the. race for the Cup, and we all ihope that one of them will"ca»ry it off. The names off the horses scratched for the .Mel- . , bourne Cup will be found in the telegrams. i The Postmaster has been notified by telei graph that there will be no San Francisco mail this month. : The monthly practice of the Volunteer !Fire Brigade, "which ought to v have taken place last night, was postponed till Monday next, as well as the comnetition practice for : a presentation dress tunic and cap. ; We are glad to learn that the Energetic i battery, .has started crushing permanently, | and thajUhe whole' of the] machinery. acts in ia splendid manner. Weekly returns may ; now be expected from this company, and we '■■ have no doubt they will be very handsome. We have received : reliable intimation that . Mr Moriarty's jeport (the genuine one this time) re the harbor of Greymouth was forwarded -per the Lady Bird, which left Auckland on Sunday, so ■ that the long-expected ; document may be expected by the first mail from Nelson. ; A rumor w"» cur*enfc up-country, last week ; , 'that 0..c of the members of the Uirey Valley Road: Board had been accused of some i i regularity with respect to a sum of entrusted to his charge by the Treasurer of the Board. On /Thursday the : rumor took a definite shape, and Mr Stanhope, one of tie members for the No: Town sub-divi-sion, was arrested on a charge of larceny as a bailee. The accused was brought before the Resident Magistrate, at Ahaura, on Friday, andremanded till Wednesday next. It is .said that the defendant, jsvill be able to make a satisfactory defence, and to show that the matter is the result of a misunderstanding.. We, will; publish the evidence-in fuir when' the case is 'finally ! disposed of by the Magistrate. ,;/".,. . Mr Warden Wtiitefqord held Courts at Cpbden yesterday,, when two, important interpleader cases were heard, one in the.-Resi-, dent- Magistrate's and the other in the Warden's , Court. Both cases were brought to determine which, of the creditors of the defendants in the. recent encroachment case from the Razorback was entitled to the pro» perify of Cooney and Mitchell in the claim in dispute. In the Resident Magistrate's Court, in M'llfoy v. Cobnev, the bailifr had seized the share of the defendant to satisfy a warrant obtained by the plaintiff of L4O odd. ' In' the Warden's Court, in Ryatl v. Cooney and Mitchell, the plaintiff seized and claimed the defendants' mining interests, sold to satisfy the > damage with costs awarded by the Warden in thie' recent encroachment dispute. In the former case George M'Millan claimed to have a lien .on the share of Cooney until some. L4O due him were paid. The hearing of the evidence occupied the greater part of ; the , day, and his Worship will give judgment this .morning. Mr Newton appeared, for M'flroy, and. Mr Guinness for th« claimant, M'Millan, in the Resident Magistrate's Court, and Mr, Perkins appeared for Ryall, in the Warden's Court. The "lnangahua Herald" says : - "We are informed that Mr Warden Whitefoord will leave, the Provincial Government service on the 30th September. It was at first proposed that he should receive the Wardenship at Collingwboa I,'1 ,' but this' he would only accept on the understanding that in the event of a vacancy elßewhereheishouldhave the refusal. This the Government declined to accede to, and hence Mr Whitefoord's withdrawal from the service. [With reference to the above, we are authorised to state that >Mr Whitefoord has not refused the Wardenship of the Collingwood Gold-field,' Bimply because no such offer, has, ever' ;been made;. rto him officially. ri Had, the. Golden JBay^ Wardenship beenMered j to Mr Wh'itefo_b;W it would not be necessary that he should make > any stipulation as to his getting the refusal of any vacancy which might occur elsewhere, for, as a matter, of coarse, he would be entitled to any more eligable position in the service should a vacancy take place. As far as the person most interested is; ,concernfid; the statement of our; contemporary is, we are assured made without authority. ] A correspondent of the '.'Reefton Courier" thus discourses about Road Boards in general, and the lnangahua Board in particular : — " The members of the Boards have exhibited incapacity in the interpretation of the Act under which they hold their constitution. I venture to remark the introduction of the Road Board system ori> the (Gold-fields has tended to increase thecost of administration of our limited affairs by some LI4OO per annum, and has relieved the Provincial -Engineer and District Surveyors of work which • previously devolved upon them, and notwithstanding the;. decrease of work these , -officers continue to: receive the same salaries. : Take our local Board for. example, its j secretary receives : a salary: of L 4 per i week, i -together; with a .subsidy of 10s for. house, rent, and all be is asked to do in return for' this sum is to oooaslpnally inspect the

progress of Mr Clinton's contract, and to keep a debtor and creditor account of his own salaiy." Anderson's Company, Murray Creek, commenced crushing at their battery on Friday. Steam was got up as a trial on Saturday, at the Energetic. We learn from the " Herald" that the company expect to commence crushing within a week from the present date. A certificate of registration for tail-race was applied for on Friday, at Reefton, by Mr Pitt on behalf of the lnangahua Goldjmining and Quartz-crushing Company. The '.application was granted. ' Mr Michael Burke, who has just returned sto Reefton from the Palmer, informs the !" Courier" that while at the Palmer he met ;with Robert Dougharty — one of the pioneers 'of Reefton. Dougharty was at the time .prostrated with fever. " ; . We ( " Herald") are glad to notice from the {proceedings of the meeting of the Wealth of [Nations' shareholders that the recent motion jcarried by the Hospital Committee has been already productive of good result, the Company having decided upon an annual donation of twenty guineas. We '(•' Courier") are glad to be able to report that there is every probability of the reef being struck by the Comet Company, Larry's. The tunnel is now in over 400£t, and it is confidently expected that the lode will be met with in the course of a few feet. Owing to the advance in the wholesale prices, the butchers of Reefton announce their intention of placing the increase on the retail rates, after the 17th instant. We (" Courier") may remark that, in taking this .course the local butchers are only following the example of their brother tradesmen in Westoort, Greymouth, and indeed all over the West Coast. The remarkably high average of 2oz 12dwt of gold per ton waa obtained (accor'iae: to the "Herald") at the Ajax mine, Murray Creek, from a crushing of 43 tons of quartz, after .44 hoars' crushing. The entire yieM was 9Goz 12dwt of melted goll obtained after | cleaning up, the batteries having only run |44 hours. The stone was got from a T drive at a depth of 270 ft froo? the surface. The " Herald " says the alarm of fire in Central Broadway created great excitement in its vHnity on Friday afternoon Members of the Brigade were quickly on the scene, with ladders and backets, when ib was discovered that an iron chimney had igDifced. Adjoining it was a lean-to used as a kitchen, and as it was neither lined nor papered the danger of a conflaga'ion was not excessive. A few buckets of water was thrown upon the chimney and the fire was immediately extinguished. The last sitting of the Nelson Provincial Council cost the Province L 844 2s 3d. At the cloae of the Session of the Assembly it is probable that the Council wi'l be again called together, and a further similar sum wasted, and this while the Road Boards are rendered powerless for. good owing to the lack of funds. Better forego the delectation of hearing members air their e'oquence, and apply the money thereby saved to the many urgent road requirements throughout the gold-fields. We. clip the following from the "Australasian :" — "The English telegrams make us acquainted with some interesting items of intelligence. Mr H. M. Stanley, the discoverer of Livingstone, is to be sent by the proprietor of the "New York Herald," and the droprietors of the " Daily Telegraph," on some expedition to Africa, which we may fairly assume to be the completion of Livingstone's investigations at the head waters of the Nile. It would be an odd, bat commonplace ending of the long series of expeditions to the head of the Nile if the problem of ages should be solved by the correspondent of a Yankee newspaper." Thd Commissioners of Insurance and Annuities report shows 1465 new insurance policies granted under the Government scheme for the. year ending June 30, 1874. with premiums of L 40 .788 and annuities of 1,450 and L 2140, representing annual policies to annuitants of L 283. The interest accrued is 1i2331 ; fines and fees received, L 2 3; total of former, L 45.734, representing L 403 .260 ; of amount insured, L 3650 ; of endowments paid, L 283, and only payable for 1873. The total premiums, &c, received were L 31,490 ; in 1872, „18,000; in 1871. L 715 1; and in IS7O, L 357 ; total, L 102.835, representing L 1.588,909 as the sum insured ; 1.10,150 contingent endowments ; and L 1234 annuities payable yearly. A correspondent sends us (" New Zealand Herald") the following :— " During the year 1873 there were 47 earthquakes recorded in New Zealand; of these 35 were experienced in the Province of Wellington. 12 in the town of Wellington, and 23 at Wanganui. Throughout the length and breadth of the rest of the Colony onlj 12 shocks were experienced : 3 at Tarauaki, 5 at Nelson, 1 at Christchurch, 1 at Bealey (in the Province of (Jrnterbury, 1 at Hokitika, and 1 at Queeristown, in Otago. It would seem that the Province of Wellington is becoming more and more quaky as the slumbering fires of Tongariro become less active. It is the opinon of many that the intensity and ; frequency of earthquakes in Wellington will increase as Tongariro and White Island become less active, just as earthquakes became fearfully destructive and frequent when the fires of Vesuvius slumbered several centuries ago. The prospect before Wellington therefore is anything bub cheering. Destruction has been effected before now, and the coast line: raised many feet. Similar disturbances may therefore be anticipated for the future." Monster out-door meeting! have lately been held in T^unedin by unemployed immi- ! grants, regarding which the "Times'' says : — " We are requeted to mention in regard to a statement made at the immigrants' meeting, that some of those temporarily employed by the Government got only Is 6d per day, thatthe facts are as follows : -They each get ■fr< m 2s 6d to 3s 6d per day, have themselves and their families kept and lodged for nothing in the birracks, so that whatever they make they can actually lay by. Furthermore, some, we do not say all, are not worth what they are getting. They are, in fact, in a more comfortable position than many better men who do more work for an eq-dvalent which, in the present broken weather, is less ' than what the 'new chums' g^t." Re- ; garding this agitation the "Guardian" remarks : — '•'■ We have ieard a great deal of late about the loss and inconvenience to which i ew arrivals have been put in emigrating to this Colony,- more especially to this' part of it. It may be useful for them to know something about the expense the Colony has been put to on their behalf. Ono shipload, which may be expected to arrive shortly, and which brings 390 statute adults, or 496 souls, cost th* Government: for passage-money alone L 5633 ss, being a trifle under Lll 10s for every man, woman, and child. Then there is their keep and incidental expenses on landing, which will fall to be added to that amount. These facts alone should teach new arrivals the propriety of bearing patiently any temporary inconvenience they may happen to eucounter. Old colonists, who arrived in New Zealand before the present system of free and, assisted immigration had developed into its psesent easy terms, had difficulties to encounter of far greater magnitude than those which are now met with, but they man-; ag«d to outlive their hardships, and not a few of them have prospered exceedingly