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Grey River Argus, Volume 21, Issue 3057, 3 June 1878, Page 2

A fatal accident occurred at Wyndham Creek, No Town district, on Saturday morning, by which a miner named William Jowell lost his life, through the tunnel in which he was at work caving in. As soon as the alarm was given there were plenty of willing hands to assist in trying to rescue the unfortunate man, but it took fifteen hours to reach the body, which was not found till one o'c'ock yesterday morning, wben life was extinct, the body being much bruised. Jewell was a native of Truro, Cornwall, England, and had been mining in the district for the last eleven years. He was a single man, and has a brother in Adelaide, South Australia. Mails for the "United Kingdom and Australian Colonies per Arawata, close at the Bluff at 11 am to-morrow, the 4th insfc. Messages will be received at Telegraph * ffico, Greymouth, up to 10 a.m same date. We remind pub'icans that the aunual sitting of the Licensing Court for the districts of Greymouth, Paroa, and Coaldale will take place at noon to-morrow at the Court House, Greymoutb, for the purpose of deciding applications for new licenses and the renewal of existing licenses. Tue Wellington paper.3 assert that •' the

supply of gas at Grtymouth is so scanty, and that supplied so inferior, .that many consumers are proposing to revert to kerosene. " This is not nattering to Greymouth, but it ii not more than the wretched ly-mauaged Greymouth Gas Company deserves. The proceeds of the concert given by the Good Templars in the Volunteer Hall on the 24bh May amounted to Ll6 93, and this sum has been remitted to Siater Higgins, Tokomairiro, on whose behalf the concert was held. Messrs Naticarrow and Co submit to auction to-day, at Woolfe's yards, Preston road, at 2 o'clock, fat pigs. The election of two auditors for the borough took place ou Saturday, and raised a little mild excitement. At the clo3e of the poll the numbers were:— R. Russell, 76; J. W. Hall, 61 ; D. Magoffin, 41 ; C. M'Carthy, 41 ; Kae, 32. Messrs Russell and Hall were the auditors last year. The public of Wellington are agitating for the opening of the Colonial Museum on Sundays, bub the Sabbatarians strongly oppose it. A spring of petroleum oil has, it is alleged, been discovered in Queen Charlotte's Sound, but the locality is kept a secret. The Greymouth portion of the Suez mail should arrive via Christchurch this afternoon. We understand that Mr Gerald Fitzlerald will offer himself as a candidate for the re« presentation of the Hokitika district, vice Mr Button, resigned. In an article on the redistribution of representation, the New Zsalander remarks on the necessity for adopting some better principle of representation. As an instance of the unfairness of the present system, the recent Grey Valley election is referred to. The result of the poll there was this : Mr Reeves, 487 ; Mr Harrison, 303 ; Mr Barrowtnan, 240. As the New Zealander puts it, Mr Reeves is elected by 487 electors ia defiances of the wishes of 543. " The present system," saj s our contemporary, " however, has but tradition to recommend it. We have copied it from other counties, bub certainly it is not a system which thinking men would adopt if they were asked to devise a scheme by which perfect parliamentary representation should be attained. Gross inequalities and injustice are inseparable from it. It does not even secure the object which it is supposed to do— the representation of the majority." The Inangab.ua Herald states that the Grey road contract of Messrs Gillon and Devery is very nearly completed, and that the entire work has been performed in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. It has been d< scribed! by a reliablo person to be one of the best roads in the Colony The metalliog will be entirely out of Land next week, and the two bridges will be finished by August. The excellent results attained are in a great measure due to the wisdom displayed by the contractors in employing so many hands and pushing on the work during the season favorable for road-making. The following message from the Premier relative to the various tenders for bridges has been handed to the Herald for publication. It will completely dispel the illusion that possible financial complications, owing to the disturbed state of Europe, wouid compel the Government to withdraw from the prosecution of all public works : — " Wellington, 21sfc May, 1878. JR. Reeves, Esq.., M.H.R., Reefton.— Rumor should nob be credited when it says Government procured ' plans and tenders for works, having at the time the deliberate intention not to proceed with them. Of course, the Government cannot enter into expensive engagements without careful provision for meeting them, but it ia not expected thab there will be much difficulty in providiug for the works you mention if the tenders are fairly in accord with, the engineer's estimates. - G. Grey." The Colonist say 3 :— During tha recent visit of Sir George Grey to Nelson one amongst the number who showed their respect by waiting on him, had seen soaie of the difficulties in the earlier day3 of the Colony. Sergeant Nash, of the police force (and formerly of the 65th Regiment), reminded Sir George of an affair with the natives at Horokiwi (Wellington Province) in 1846, at which he, being then Governor, and Lieut-Governor Eyre, were present. The Premier conversed at some length about the hardships which were then endured, remarking that many of the later settlers would hardly credit tha dangers and privations of those days. On the occasion referred to, the force under the command of Major Last of the 99th. and Major Arney of the 58th, had to cut their way through the thick bush, fighting the natives as they went, these protecting themselves by breastworks formed of the trunks of large trees. The expedition encountered severe trials, with the loss of five men and several *wounded, and when the pah it was intended to capture was reached, it was only to find ifc evacuated. It may be added that the Governors, unattended by the pomp and circumstanc * of glorious var, had to shoulder their own baggage. The Auckland Herald's Wellington correspondent supplies it with the following political gossip:— " The Governor has telegraphed the result of the Premier and Native j Minister's visit to the Waikato native King to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The telegraphic despatch is reported to be favorable towards future pea*e on a permanent basis. —There is some talk of changes in the Cabinet, especially in the matter of Government representatives in the Legislative Council. The Hon. Mr Waterhouse is said to be on his way to the Colony, and will arrive at Wellington about the time when Parliament meets in July.-— The Souse, when it meets, is likely to hear of some disagreeable native land transactions in the neighborhood of Maketu, on the East Coast of the North lslan J, in which some very prominent colonists are supposed to be mixed up. — It is understood that the Government contemplate appointing a Thames resident to a seat in the Legislative Council before Pa liament meets." Miss M. B. Martin, a daughter of John Martin, Esq., J.P, of Wellington, has the honor of being the only young lady sonth of the line who has passed the Cambridge local , examination for 1878. The girls class lists have just been received, aud Miss Martin's name heads the third class. Miss martin was a pupil of Miss Greenwood at the Taranaki street school. Miss M. E. Young, of the Terrace school, Wellington, is also mentioned as having satisfied the examiners in preliminary religious knowledge and English subjects only. The total number of girls last year who were examined was 1308, and they represented all parts of the empire. Of these onlj 352 passed, 558 satisfied the examiners, and 72 satisfied them in preliminary subjects only. We congratulate. Miss Martin on the distinguished honor of representing the Australasian Colonies in the honor list. A contrivance for sustaining the sounds on the pianoforte, withoat interfering with the usual form of structure of the instrnmenb, has, rcp'orts the Academy, been invented by Luigi Caldera, of Turin, and recently patented by Messrs Kirkman and Sons, of London. The mechanism consists of a simple and ingenious arrangement of small hammers, attached to a cylinder which is &«t m motion by a pedal. During the rotation of the cylinder a continuous vibration of the strings is produced. J ,