THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1878.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXI, Issue 3141, 9 September 1878, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1878.

The adjourned sitting of the Licensing Court will be held to-morrow at noon. From our telegrams it would appear that the Wakamarina digging are again coming to the fore. There does not, however, seem to be sufficient information to warrant a rush. On Saturday a hawker named ?, Richard Hartshorn was brought before W. H. Harrison and G. Masters, Esqs., J.jf.'s., charged with lunacy. The evidence of Drs Morice and Smith was taken, which was to the effect that accused was suffering from delusions, and was not fit to be at large, and he was committed to the Lunatic Asylum, Hokitika. An assault case from Brunnerton—Middleton v Geary — was adjourned on Saturday until this morning. An action for alleged conspiracy at the instance of one Baker against Mir fin and others is causing great excitement at Reefton. A heavy bar is engaged on both sides. The information charges the defendants with having conspired to' persuade the shareholders of the Defiance - Company to agree to Bell the mine at an inadequate price in order to deprive the informant and other shareholders of any benefit which might; accrue from a successful suit at law for the recovery of shares admittedly forfeited and sold. Messrs Watson and Wicks held their maiden auction sale on Saturday at their mart, Boundary street. There was a good attendance, and the articles submitted, chiefly builders' goods, fetched fair prices. W. H. R6vell, Esq., coroner, held an inquest 6t Nelson Creek on Saturday, on the body of the late James Lunan, who was killed in his claim on Thursday. A verdict of accidental death was returned. A call (the second) of sixpence per share in the Alexandra Gold Mining Co., is payable to the manager, at the office of the company, Greymouth, on Wednesday, the 11th inst. „ We are informed that a fine trout about eighteen inches long was captured a few days ago, and several good-sized fish have been seen up river. The remains of Alexander M'Kenzie, who was killed on the North Beach on Thursday last, were intered yesterday. On Saturday the police discovered amongst the effects of the deceased a certificate of his membership of the Sir Walter Scott Lodge of Freemasons, Thames, and on this being communicated to the officers of the St Andrew Lodge, Greymouth, it was resolved to pay the last mark of respect to a deceased brother. The body waa brought to the Masonic Hall on Saturday night, and was followed to the grave yesterday by such members of the order, in regalia, as could be brought together in the short notice. The ceremony at the grave was most impressively read by Bro. Watkins, chaplain, and the R. W.M Funston. Our old townsman, Mr Morris Levy, is expected to return to Greymouth by the Murray, after his twelve months' excursion in Europe, The usual fortnightly meeting of the Grey Valley Lodge of Good Templars was held in the Lodge Room School buildings, Ahaura, on 'Saturday week last. The W.C.T., Brother J. M: Morris, took the chair at the usual hour, and opened the session ia due form. The only business of importance bronght before the meeting was the question of how and when the second anniversary should be celebrated, which was fixed for Friday evening, the 27th inst. The whole of the sisters in the dintrict are to be invited free, and the children- of the Ahaura are to be regaled with all good things. The following day these items were arranged and passed by the Lodge. All other arrange* menfe are left in tho hands o! a powerful committee, with the L.D.W. (Mr James Hargraves) as convener. The committee will probably invite other lady friends free as well as the sisters. This tarn-out is expected to exceed all the Order has had yet in the Good Templar world in the Grey District. The following letter has been received by Mr J. M. Morris, of Nelson Creek, from Mr Woolcock, M.H.R, in reference to the charges for water from the Hoohstetter race: --Sir, I should have replied to your letters before this, but have been waiting for definite information from the Government. I now find the Government are evidently preparing to do all that they can to facilitate mining operations at Nelson Creek, consistant with what they regard to be public interests. They have given instructions in re the reduction of the price of water, especially for prospecting purposes. They have also given instructions with a view of amicably settling the difficulties referred to in your memorial. To meet the l£d beer tax the Omaru brewers have raised the price of beer 2d per gallon. The West Coast Times ia informed that the Bokitika and Greymouth Raibvay was included in fche Jf üblic Works Statement ai the last moment by the special request of Sir George Grey.

A singular and what might easily have been a fatal accident, occurred near the Keop-it-Dark claim the other day. A young man named James Seymour, who has contracted to supply all timber required for mining purposes in this and the adjoining claim, had the muscles of his left arm badly lacerated, and received other bruises, though not dangerous, injuries on last Saturday. There were three or four large black birch logs piled together on the steep hillside near to the old tunnel in the Keep-it-Dark claim, anb he was in the act of cross-cutting one of them when man and logs were carried fifty feet down the sidling and into the rocky bed of the gully at the base of the hi' 1 . In their descent all of the logs passed ov<=r Seymour, and it is a matter of great surprise that he escaped fatal injury. With little assistance from those who accompanied him, he managed to reach Black's Point, where Dr Martin was promptly in attendance and dressed the wounds, The following notice of motion has been given by Mr Greenwood, and will come on for consideration at the next meeting of the Board of Education, to be held on Thursday evening, 12th instant :— " That for the future the examination papers used at the examination of the children of the Westland schools be strictly confined to the subjects of the standards in which they are being examined, and that the questions be reasonable and be framed with somo consideration for the capacities of children." A curious story is going the round of the lobbies. It is that after the House adjourned Mr Sheehan met Dr Grace in the lobbies, when the latter said — " You've killed that Bill," referring to Mr Curtis's Education Amendment Bill, " and I'll make you suffer for it." Mr Sheehan walked away, and on Dr Grace following him, Mr Sheehan said — " I refuse to have anything to say to you ; you must not dictate to me as to my action in the House." Friends of the parties here intervened. A new Disqualification Act has been introduced ;it is intituled — " An Act to Provide for the Purity of Parliament," and enacts that a member of the Legislative Council is not to be elected to the House of Representatives, neither is a member of the House of Representatives capable of being summoned to the Legislative Council. All contractors and civil servants are incapacitated from sitting in either House, under a penalty* Members of either House are not capable of becoming civil servants within twelve months of being a member of either House, with the exemption of any person accepting the office of Judge of the Supreme Court, or Agent-General, or any person who was a Superintendent of any Province, or a member of any Provincial Executive Council. The following account of the railway banquet at Christchurch. appears in the West Coast Times, the Press Agency having omitted to send it to us : — "Christchurch, September 6. — A grand banquet came off last night. Two hundred guests were present, the Mayor of Christchurch in the chair, supported on his right by the Governor and officers of H.M.S. Nymphe ; on the left by the Hon. Mr Stout and Hon. Mr Fisher. Apologies were read from the Premier and the Speakers of both Houses —His Excellency, in replying to the ioast of his health, said this was the close of the first act of the great Public Works policy introduced into the Colony by Sir Julias Yogel ; and no one remembering 1870 but would admit that the policy had been a great public success. No doubt mistakes had been made in carrying out the policy, for they could not expnot that a policy of such vast importance would be carried through its initial stages without a few mistakes. In a few weeks he hoped there would be complete railway communication between Amberley and Invercargill. making a stretch of line opened up of 488 miles. As a matter of fact, there was, in proportion to the population and in the time, more railway opened up in New Zealand than in any other country in the world. (Loud cheers.) The success of the last loan in England had astonished everybody. It had been said that the Colonial debt was larger ia proportion per head than the national debt in England. That might be true, but in proportion to the revenue it was very much less. — The Chairman announced that it was proposed on the following day to send a telegram congratulating Sir Julius Yogel upon the completion of the railway between Christchurch and Dunedin." The letort courteous (says a writer in the Witness) is not unusual in the Assembly, but for point and effect a happy turn to an interrupfon in a speech recently bears off tne. palm for the session. Mr Barton, of Supreme Court fame, was discoursing vehemently, as is his wont, on the principle of democracy, and behind him sat the honorable member for Grey Valley, Mr Woolcock. " There are great differences between members," said Mr Barton, in the course oE his argument. "What differences 1" interjected Mr Woolcock. "In the length of their noses," retorted the member for Wellington City, turning round abruptly on the interrupter, and the House exploded. For an outsider to appreciate tha point— not of the nose, but of the joke — it is necessary to know that Mr Woolcock is possessed of a nasal protuberance of extraordinary longitude ; in fact, so much so that the rest of bis features seem but appendages of the distinguished and distinguishing organ. A singular case — the first of the kind in New Zealand — came before Magistrate Keddell at Coromandel, on a plaint praying that the election to office of the trustees of the Coromandel Highway Board, returned by J. B. Gateland, returning officer, be made null and void, because the name of George M'Leod had not been placed on the polling papers, though he had been properly nominated. The Returning Officer's defence was that the name was not on the roll furnished to him. Mr Keddell nullified the election, and cast the Returning Officer in about Ll3 expenses. At Wellington on the 2nd a 100 yards flat race for L 5 a side took place ia the basin reserve between Mr Horace Bastings, M.H.R., and Mr Joseph Paul, draper. After an exciting contest, Mr Bastings came in the winner, being about four yards ahead of hie rival. I A paragraph has appeared in one of the Wellington papers giving a new liquid measure table according to beer selling practices, and it is put something in this wise— 3 glasses 1 fpint, 2 pints 1 quart, 4 quarts or 24 glasses 1 gallon, and it argues that at 3d per glass this give 36s per gallon, to say nothing of the sixpenny glasses sold in the private bar and bar parlor. Seeing, then, that with the new duty the wholesale price is only L 2 Is 2d, which should leave a fair margin of profit, the writer asks, " What is all this publicans' froth about ?" The New Zealander says : — "A new weekly is to be published either in Cromwell or Clyde, under the title of the Southern Telephone and Inland Counties Gazette. A company'has been formed, composed of the lead- j ins; men of the district, with a capital of LSOOO . Vincent Pyke, Esq. , M. H.R, , is the managing director. It is intended, we are informed, to buy out; the Dunstan Times and Cromwell Argus, their lack being supplied by the new journal:" Indian papers state than an extensive fire at Mandalay (Rangoon), destroyed 4760 houses, including those of several queens and princes. No lives were lost. The steamer, Europa, homeward bound from Bombay, sank affcer collision with the Staffs. The crew and passengers were all saved, and landed at Ferrol. . ,_..

One of the greadest attractions at the Paris Exhibition is the collection of young and pretty English barmaids. These young people belong to most respectable families. Their parents have entered into a contract with the manager of the restaurant that he will return them safely to their homes. Every evening a huge- break and pair of horses takes them off to their house at Batignolles. This house is only inhabited by them. No stranger is allowed admittance, and they are guarded by two enormous dogs that have received orders to tear into pieces anyone who dares force his way into the sacred precincts. This has, so far, had the effect of producing only proposals of marriage. One of the young ladies, who is of Irish origin and very beautiful, has been painted by Charles Landello, who wished to make a portrait of her, bnt was obliged first to obtain permission of her parents. The Government have consented to assist the Kumara Prospecting Association on the following conditions ; — "The Association to prove to the Warden's satisfaction that its operations are carried on not less than five miles from existing workings, and that the prospecting is conducted bona fide for the purpose of discovering fresh auriferous country. " Upon the receipt here of paysheets certified by the Warden, and forwarded by him with a voucher for the amount due to the Association, the subsidy will be paid in proportion of half the amount spent in wages, at the rate of 53 per day (should higher wages be paid, the difference to be found by the Association) to the extent of L2OO, in accordance with the published regulations, there being no objection to progress payments, in the proportion and under the conditions referred to above, should such an arrangement be _ desired." At a meeting of the Association it was resolved to write to the Ministnr of Lands informing him that the limitation of five miles from existing workings will render the grant useless to the Association, and requesting that the distance may be altered to three miles. The Jesuit priests are to arrive in Donedin sometime in October.