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Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1953, 9 November 1874, Page 2

The horses in the Albion Calcutta Sweep on the Melbourne Cup were sold on Saturday night, when the following prices were realised : — Goldsbrough, L 35 ; Break o'Day, L2B ;• Lurline, Ll6 ; Lap Wist, Ll6 ; King of the King Lls ; Horatio, Ll2 10s ; Speculation, Ll2; Papapa, LlO 10s; Haricot, LlO ; Mountaineer, L 9 10s ; Fugleman, L 8 10s ; Gloom, L 7 15s ; Kettledrum, L6ss j The Hook, L 6; King Tom, L 5 15s ; Protos, L 5 10s ; Fitz-Yattendon, L 5 10s ; Cleolite, L 5 ; Arrow, L 5 ; Menindie, L 4 10s ; Dagworth, L 4 7s 6d ; The Diver, L 4; Goshawk, L3ss ; Blue Peter, L2ss ; Atter Dark, 12. The first horse will receive Ll76Us; tbe second, L 39 4s> 8d ; and the third, Ll9 12s 4ii. The sweep from first to last has been tbe largest and most successful ever held in Greymouth, and the prices shew the competition to have been keen and spirited. At the Resident Magistrates Court on Saturday morning. Annie Power, charged on the information of Sergeant M oiler with being of unsound mind, was remanded for medical treatment, Joseph Evans Whitby, was charged with a similar offence, and after hearing the evidence of Drs Morice and Smith, together with that of Sergeant Moller and George Redmayne, (who deposed to the eccentric behavour, and incoherent conversation of the accused), he was also remanded. The case of Lodge v. Rogers for abusive language was put off till 'iuesday next. In consequence of to-day being observed a holiday at the public offices, the receipt of applications for publican's licenses, transfers, &c, by the Clerk of the Court, is postponed until to-morrow at 4 o'clock. The applications will be considered and decided by the Licensing Court on the Ist December next. After passing through 1183 tons of stone ab Anderson's battery the company cleaned up on Monday, and the result was (saysth

"Hfira'.l") 39Loz D.hvt 12i?r. Previous crushings have averaged nearly an ounce, but this was known to coutain a very laree quantity of poor ston**, and a large average was not expected. The mill will now crush regularly. A considerable quantity of stone is coming out of the mine, and the next crushing is expected to turn out according to previous averages. The Reef ton "Courier" says that the much-abused Saddle pass on the Squaretown rqad has at last been put into decent repair and is passable now for all descriptions of traffic, but the flats below Squaretown are yet very soft, and it will therefore be some time yet before the waggoners can bring full loads. The Casterton correspondent of the "Hamilton Spectator" supplies the following to that journal :— " A resident of Casterton, fortyone or forty-two years ago, was the means of rescuing no less a personage than her present Majesty the Queen, then Princess Victoria, from imminent peril. He was at that time living in London, and was one day taking a stroll in Hyde Park, not very far from Apsley House, and near the Piccadilly entrance, when he perceived a horse, entirely independent of the control of its rider, coming towards him. Suddenly the horse catne into collision with two ladies, a young one and the other elderly. The younger of the two "ladies was thrown violently beneath tbe horse's feet, when the now resident at Cas terton, with great presence of mind, rescued her, and escorted her some little distance. He then discovered the young lady was no other than the Princess Victoria. Being now in not very flourishing circumstances, he bethought him that if her Majesty was reminded of the event, her gratitude to her hitherto unknown servitor might possibly take some tangible shape. With this object in view he has forwarded a petition to her Majesty, through his Excellency Sir George Bovven." An official telegram from the manager of the Star of the East Quartz-mining Company, Carrick Range, Otago, reports the last cake to weigh 1650z from 150 tons of atone. A dividend of 4s per share is declared. A considerable proportion of mullock is said to be mixed with the stone. The "Inangahua Herald," of Saturday, says: — "At the Caledonian they have a good supply of stone in the paddock to go on with at the battery, and stone is being brought freely to grass. It ia expected that they will crush 120 tons before cleaning up. The return is expected to be very satisfactory. Mr Harris who has been packing the quartz from the mine to the battery, returned to Reefton yesterday, as his services would not be required for a few days. Only five of the ten head of stamps are being used by the Caledonian, the remainder are now employed by No. 2 South. The former company used the ten head for two shifts only." The " Clutha Leader " is of opinion that the sooner all the newly-arrived female immigrants make up their minds that they will have to settle down to hard work the better. "It might do some of them good" (says our contemporary) "to pay a visit to Table Hill district, where, in the neighborhood of Mills Gully they would find a pattern of a thoroughly competent, energetic, and industrious settlor'? wife. The duties of the husband having|called him from home throughout the spring season, the good lady determined that their estate should nob remain barren and unfruitful. Accordingly she yoked the bullocks, and has, single-handed, ploughea, sown, and harrowed upwards of 30 acres of oats and wheat, besides planting a number of acres of potatoes and other crops. Neither Lavo hpr household duties been neglected during the period she has been engaged at the out-door "abors." In the melting and assay department of -the Bank of New Zealand, at the Thames, Mr iSevern has a most ingenious contrivance for melting small parcels of gold, which is also well adapted for assaying purposes. The "Times" states that it is Fletcher's new gas apparatus for laboratory use. As its namo indicates, the heating power is gas. The amount of heat concentrated in a few minutes, we might almost say seconds, is incalculable. In seven minutes it brings a crucible to a white heat. The base of this wonderful contrivance is a small round sheet iron box Gin in diameter and about lOin high. Inside this is a bunch of 54 Bunsen gas burners. The object of these burners is to consume atmospheric air with the gas, thus creating an intense heat, and a three-eighth-inch pipe feeds the requisite gas to the burners. Over these burners and on top of the iron case is placed the fireclay furnace iv which are the muffles for receiving the assay parcels. As a saving of time in preparing assays the benefit ia incalculable, and the effects wonderfnl. Instead of waiting until a sufficiently large number of assays were ready to justify lighting up the the fire in the ordinary assay furnace, the gas can be lighted in this one, and the assay completed in less time than it would occupy to light the fire in the other. This little furnace was tried during the last few days for assaying, and its action is simply wonderful. The time required from lighting the gas to passing an essay wa3 only 10 minutes, or say 17 minutes for actual completation of the assay in the furnace. The cost of gas, putting the consumption from a three-eighth-inch pipe at its maximum 30ft per hour, would be about lid. The fact that a muffle can be got to the necessary heat in 10 minutes renders such a furnace exceedingly valuable. There is no fuel, no ashes, no cleaning up aad laying of fires. It would appear that such a furnace as the above must altogether supersede that ordinarily in use, because in this minature furnace, only 6in in diameter and 2ft high, an assay of gold can be done at a moment's notice. As compensation for the loss of his sinecure office as "Patentee of Bankrupts," which was abolished in 1832, the Rev. Mr Thurlow (says the " Liverpool Reformer ") received up to the 11th of January last, L 308,814 12s. In compensation for the loss of another sinecure — that of " Hamper (i.e., hamper of waste-paper basket) Keeper "—he has received L 4028 per annum from 1852, which, for 22 years, would be L 88.616 ; and for a third sinecure, that of Prothonotary of the Palatine, of Durham, L 398 10s lid, since 1842, making L23.73S 18s 6d— in all L 421,169 7s &&. The reverend gentleman had the luck to be borp son of a Bishop of Durham, by far the richest see iv the kingdom at that time, and nephew to Lord Chancellor Thurlow, who was eminently Christian in at lease one respect, that of taking very good care of those of his own household The nephew was appointed to these offices in his boyhood, to one of them it is said, when in his cradle ; and as he was born in 1788, he must have been in receipt of his "Patentee and Prothonotary" for twenty or thirty years previous to the abolition of the offices, and of hia Hamper Keeping pay for thirty or torty years. Take the lesser numbers, and assume the the compensation to have been measured by fees and pay, and we have L 147,054 10s more for the Patentee, L 80.560 more for Hamper Keeper, and L 11.956 7s 6d for the Prothonotary— making a grand total of L 660.740 5s for the " three gentlemen in one," all because he had tho luck to have a Bishop for his father and a Lord Chancellor for his uncle. A Californian paper says:— "The dearest thing in this country is what ought to be the cheapest- justice. The theory of our i law is that any citizen who has been wroDged can appeal to the Courts and be righted, but in practice justice has become ao costly and

uncertain that no man appeals to the law if he can help it. This is the result of putting the making and the administration of our laws in the hands of a seb of men who get a living out of the costs of justice." Mr J. C. Brown, M H R., left Dunedin by the Tararua on the 2Sth ulb. en route for the Palmer diggings. Mr E. Morrison, the Town Clerk of Roxburgh (Otago), hung himself at that place on Sunday night, the 25th ult. No cause can be assigned for the rash aefc. An inquest will be held on the V>ody. "Sinbad," the sporting writer in the "Press," says:— "l was lately shawn a bulletin from Ted Cutts, who, it is needless to say, has sole charge of Lurline, Calumny, and Papapa, in Melbourne. He speaks very highly of the doings of all three, which statement the Australian papers quite corroborate. He also speaks very favorably of some of the two-year-olds by Manuka. He considers Mr De Mestre's Spring Blossom colt the pick of the Australian two-year-olds, and even allowing for prejudice, I can take Ted's opinion as worth a good deal. I see Mr Fisher's Mamika filly won a mile race against two three-year-olis, which scores a win for Manuka's progeny, the first time of asking, Lurline promises to be very fit for the Cup ; and those Canterbury men — and they are not a few, who have sent up to back her, have, 1 consider, a good show for their money." Since the commitment on Monday last by the Resident Magistrate at Reefton of Antonio Perrin to gaol, in default of payment of the amount of judgment (L 23) obtained by Messrs Condy and Ewing, circumstances pointed to the likelihood of the defaulting debtor being possessed of sufficient property to satisfy his creditors' claim. A warrant of distress was (says the " Herald ") again ap- , plied for and issued, and a search of the debtor's hut resulted in the discovery of a portfolio at the bottom of a shoe-trunk, which contained a few notes, a gold nugget chain weighing 2oz, a savings' bank deposit book showing a recent payment of L4O into the bank at Reefton, and a receipt from the agent of tne Bank of Zealand for a parcel, contents unknown. This lattsr parcel ia believed to contain deeds and other securities as the debtor is supposed to be a man of some means. We take the following mining items from the " Lyell \rgua :"— " I«i is stated that the United Alpine Company contemplate the erection of an entirely new machine, which will be supplied with berdans and other accessories for the more efficient saving of the precious metal. They are in the mean* time proceeding; with the construction of a series of new paddocks and tramways. Should they immediately proceed with the erection of a new machine, the old one would no doubt be eagerly sought after by the Central Buller Company. With respect to the other claims we have little to report. The Maruia Company is steadily passing its quartz through the batteries at the -Little Wonder Machine. The paddocks belonging to the Break o'Day Company are rapidly filling up with very good stone, as are also those of the prospectors, Eight-mile. The reef in the United Alpine mine looks most favorable, as does also the leader now being driven on in the Monte Christo ground. Stone is being accumulated by the Oriental, Lyell Creek, and Central Buller Companies." A number of horny-handed toilers, who have thrown up their homes and occupations in Canterbury to follow the chances and roughing of a miner's life, have been placed in a sad plight through whatappears to be very great carelessness on the part of those i who had agreed to convey them to theiT destination— Cooktown, Queensland. Their grievance was brought hefore Mr Bathgate at Dunedin, the other day, in the shape of a test action by one of them, to recover L9O damage?, and LlO passage money paid on account, against a Dunedin merchant,- Mr R. B. Martin, who, it had been represented to them, was the real owner or agent of the vessel in which they had been refused passage after paying for it. It was argued that the defendant was wholly irresponsible, not even being acquainted with M'llroy, of Christchurch, the person who had issued passage tickets signed by him as acting agent for defendant. Altogether there were fiftyfive who came from that City, and they all attended the Court and watched the proceedings eagerly. As an instance of the superstitious dread of seamen it was stated that although the vessel would have been prepared to proceed on the Friday she would not do so " because it was an unlucky day." The testimony of plaintiff was fully confirmed by six or seven others. His Worship, in giving judgment, held that the defendant was not liable, and, while admitting the hardship, nonsuited plaintiff, who asked to be allowed a warrant for the arrest of M'llroy for obtaining money uner false pretences. M'llroy had intended sending a boat direct from Lyttelton, but it being condemned, he received the passage money f rem ; the men on the understanding that they; would be forwarded in the Comet, he stating' that he had made arrangements to that effect: with Martin. The latter denied communi-' eating with M'llroy. Mr Bathgate said that he could not interfere with M'llroy. A man who did not give his name, called on Mr L. Marks, the gold-buyer, Ballarat, recently, and sold him four nuggets of gold which he had unearthed that day iv some old ground in, Ballarat Eaßt. The nuggets, when smelted, yielded 2750z of gold, for which the man got a little over LIOOO, and he left with the intimation that he expected there was more where these came from. Death under curious circumstances has happened at Sorell, Tasmania, to a lad named Alomes. He was playing in his father's kitchen, imitating . acrobats — walking aboat with his head between his legs and his arras stretched out behind his back. After doing that trick a second time he ran into the sittingroom and complained of great pain in his shoulders. Remedies were tried without avail, and the boy at last went into convulsions, lying in a state of coma, and died after three hours terrible suffering. To-day being the anniversary of the birth of ihe Prince of Wales will be observed as a general holiday by the banks and public offices at Grey mouth. The Town Band will, should the weather prove favorable, perform on the wharf in the afternoon at three o'clock the following pieces :— March, "Prince of Wales ;" valse, " German Boquet ;" recitative and aria, " Death of Nelson;" overture, "Tanc'redi;" polka, "Calambo;" selection, "The Barber of Seville;" "God Save the Queen."