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Grey River Argus, Volume XXIII, Issue 3908, 8 March 1881, Page 2

A correspondent at No Town writes : — A.t a meeting of the Prospecting Association, held on Saturday evening last, not a single miner in the district applied to be employed in prospecting, and the Committee, I dare say, know the reason why! One 1 of the Association officials, a somewhat celebrated miner, made known to the meeting hid knowledge of the existence of a very extensive goldfield, somewhere in a blind gaily at the head of No Town Creek* It would appear from his statement that in the early days of the Coast the party referred to with his then mate had sunk a shaft some depth, a d come upon an enormous bouldetv beyond which they did not care to go having an impression at that ignorant period that it might probably be one of the numerous covers of the bottomless pit! Before leaving the abaft, however, he succeeded in washing a grain of gold to each dish of several then tried, and he now declares that the ground all round the looality has never been further prospected by mortal man; and holds the belief that it will speedily develop iato a goldfield of large dimensions, and capable of giving employment to thousands for years to come. Now this blatant style of talk, if not ohecked and at once, will simply deter miners of common s nse having anything to do with the Association, as with this official genius in the capacity of leading horse, not •nany steady-going safe animals will care to to f How in tbi sam- traces. The remarkable feature in this Munchausen U the well known local fact th-.t the narrator has him aelf been alnvst always off gold during the past 15 years of No Town history ; but this is got over by the other fact, that he has kept bis grand soorot in reserve, until all the

other "digger bodies" got as poor as Lazarus When our Munebausen proceeds to elling- ' ton to claim the LSOO for the discovery of thislar«e goldfield, in the very blind: gully at . the head of No Town Creek, let us all look i out for squalls, as Captain Edwin says, , " from any direction." Telegrams were received yesterday by the ' ■Secretary to the Jockey Clttb of Several horses being on their road to Greymouth, in order to compete at the next race meeting, and among others bsing; Hero and Greyhound, the latter a nag that has shown very well over timber in: Marlborough. Our old favorite, George Stevenson, has also left Blenheim, and is to-day near Reef ton in all likelihood with his lot. A dark unknown, but; said to be a very good hurdle racer will also show up in a day or two, and in all likel'hood Morpheus will put in an appearance about Sunday next. Altogether there will, of a certainty, be good fields, and plenty of horses to ckoose from. York, The Tout, Warrigal, Whalebone, and the half dozen more now In town, are daily exercising, and reflect credit upon their trainers. If any exception can be taken, It is to Whalebone, as he is rather on the big Bide, but Mr Brimble has time enough left to develop the gool horse he undoubtedly is. The Hokitika half dozen contingent are doing good woik and report speaks well. In especial It is said the old "King is in grand condition, and will be hard to beat. The course is also in capital order, and the Committee are setting to work improving the fencing. Altogether the meeting promises to be a grand success. -,■;.<. .-- In another column appears the advertisement calling together the annual meeting of ; : the District Grand Lodge nf Freemasons of ' Westland. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Most Worshipful Grand Master' of England has been 1 pleased to appoint Mr John Bevan, District Grand Master in the room of the late Mr John Lazaar. The celebration of the appointment and the installation 'of the District Grand officers will take place ia Hokitika oui, Thursday, and we understand that a large number of the fraternity belonging to the Greymouth Lodge have chartered one of the local steamerß to leave here with .the Greymouth contingent on Thursday morning, returning to Greymouth on Friday morning's tide. At a Committee mee'ing of the Grey month Literary Society, held last evening, Mr M. Kennedy was elected President, Mr A. Mathieson, Treasurer ; and Mr W. B. Barkley, Secretary. At the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, the Resident Magistrate delivered judgment in the case of M'Lean v. Day. This was an action heard an Friday, in which the plaintiff sought to recover the sum of L 25 16s 4d, being the balance of an account for goods supplied The defendant admitted the correctness of the account, but disputed the sum of L 9, which he alleged had been paid, by his wife, but the receipt for which had been lost. On the other hand, Mr W. Holder, to whom, it was stated the money had been paid, denied ever receiving the same, His Worship reserved judgment till Monday, which he delivered as follows :— " The admission by defendant that he received the goods, and does not dispute the correctness of the account, renders bhe case for decision so far easy enough, but here commences the difficulty. Defendant and his wife both swear that she paid Mr Holder L 9 nn the 22ad July, 18S0. Against this testimony we ' aye the equally positive denial of Mr Holder that either of them paid any money on that day or subsequently, also the fact that Mrs Day on the 28th July went to plaintiffs shop and after having had a conversation with him or Al> M'MilUn paid L 6, and, without demur, took a receipt which plainly set 3 forth that Bhe had then and there paid L 6 o* account of the debt of L 9 53 Bd, and 93 for a still earlier account. Not only this, but in her evidence she states distinctly thut when paying the L 6 on the 28fch July the plaintiff lemarked that he wouldjenter^he 9s omitted, on -the former account on this new bill and, at the same moment, whilst the words had scarcely left his lips, he appears to have entered it on a bill-head, in |con junction with the former, account.— March 2, goods, 93; A.pril 22, do L 9 5s 8d ; By c»sb, L 6 ; balance due. L 3 14s 8-». By this statement she charges plaintiff with a 'gross deoeptlon, arid leaves, his store receipts without any accusation. It appears strange that the original bill of L 9 5s Bd, and the receipts alleged by Mrs Day to have been given her by Mr Holder should both have been lost, and upon whioh, in consequence, defendant can only give oral evidence, and yet all the other , bills have been carefully kept. In fact defendant brings secondary evidence, which, matter is documentary evidence adverse to his allega tion as to the contents of the, missing receipts, viz, a receipt' very' differently worded, dated six days after the supposed transaction 1 (viz. 28th 1 July). The extreme readiness to pay 1 6 so soon after contractin g the new debt on 22nd July, whiah appears by the bills as cash payments, aa d acknowledged on various occasions to have been a most unusual proceeding, thus leaving the Court to supppse, when considered together with other matters already referred to, that tin L 6 was in part payment of the original debt of 19 5s Bd. Judgment for L 25 163 4d, with costs of Court and professional costa, L2B 13' lOcl. The ordinary general meeting of the Standard Fire and Marine Tnsuranoe Company was held at Dunedin, yesterday, Mr John Reid in the chair. In commenting on the proceedings during the past year, he stated that the company had lost money on insuring ship's hulls but the Company had withdrawn from the business; The American and London business had also been abandoned. After a 'lengthy discussion it was resolved to dispense with the services of the managing director, and a motion to the effect that the directors call a special meeting for the purpose' of winding up. the company 'rejected by a considerable majority. ' The 'retiring directors, Messrs C. Stewart and J. Anderson were re-elected. The Inangahu Times of yesterday says :— 4t 2 p.m. yesterday one of the heaviest thunderstorms ever experienced passed over Black's Point. For upwards of an hour the rain literally pourei down in torrents, fooding the gutters in a few seconds, and temporarily covering the streets with a sheet of water.' The storm passed away as suddenly as it came, and the remainder of the day was beautifully fine. Strange to say that Reef ton, which 1 is only some half mile away from I Black's Point, was almost wholly untouched by the storm Indeed so completely local was the rain fall that many who witnessed it are inclined to believe that it was the fag end of a water spout. The Inangahua Herald recommends the Lewis Pass as a preferable rente to the Ada Pass for the construction of the East and West Coast Railway. It states that in winter the Ada Pass is snow bound. It also states that the Government Burvey party, which started some short time since, is making satisfactory progress. Mr R. Beck, Inspector of Works, acting under instructions from tho County Council (says the Hokitika Star) yesterday paid a visit to the residence of Mr Joseph Westbrook, Upper Crossing, in whose family a death from scarlatina was recent y reported to tho Bo.«-rd of Health. He reports that the remainder of the family are in a state of perfeot health and that the house was in a Kcrupulon&ly clean condition. Ho took with him a quantity of disinfectants, also chloride of lime, which were freely sprinkled through* out the premises. | <

The Hokitika ,Star of Saturday says - — The election of four members for the Central Board of Education promises to turn out very disastrously for the interests of Westland, owing to the miserable and petty differences throughout some of the School Committees in the Westland district. Instead of \Vestland men pulling together at an important juncture, and selecting a limited number of representatives to fill the vacancies, it is very probable that not a single Westland man will be returned, and the .Board will nowi therefore probably consist of three Westland representatives and six Greymouthians. So far as the results are at present known, the only Westland candidates who have anything like a chance of getting a seat on the. Board, are Mr M|Whirter for one of the ordinary vacancies,''^nd B/it H. R. Rae,| for the extraordinary vacancy. But it is believed that the, remit will be the election of no one on this "aide of the Tereniakau, and it is 'certain that the c%ly Wedtland men who have the slightest chance, are the two we have, mentioned, and one only of these can possibly be elected. The next Btep will bo the removal of the'head quarters of the Board to Greymouth so that Westland will have to pay dearly for its petty whistle of discord. -"■• ' !(-.■ ■ ■ The following letter appears in the Wellington Post of the Ist instant — " To the Editor— Sir— l See 'by, the Auokland papers that Albert White, ' of Mercury Bay, challenges any man in New Zealand to scull for. LIOO or L2OO and the championship of the' colony, arid that Mr ' P. ' H; r Duncaii, of Chrigtchurch, has some thoughts of < joking him up. Now I should like very much to have a'sbbt at Mr 1 White, : but I cduld not raise LIOO. I, am prepared, . however, to back myself to the extent of LSO, and what I shquldpropoW-wduid' tie that We'three^ namely, Messrs White, Duncan and, myself-? should make it a sweep of LSO each ; and, as Wellington is the most c6n"tfaT p'ort^ row the race here, the winner taking the let. — I am, &c, W, Hearn." Mr Angus M'Gregor, formerly master of the High School at Invercargill, has been appointed by the Speaker to the position of Parliamentary Librarian, vice the late Mr M'Coll. ' A splendid specimen of copper ore has been left at the office of a' Southland paper by a gentle oaan who recently visited Preservation Inlet. He Btates that the ore exists in quantity in that vicinity, and that a piece similar when tested by a professional assayer, yielded no less than 624 per cent, of pure copper. It is to be hoped the discovery will be turned to account at no very distant date. As an explanation of the mysterious manner in wnlch fire? frequently break out, the Morning Herald mentions that on Wednesday afternoon Mr Dodls, manager for Mr Elder, chemist and druggist, Port Chalmers, saw smoke issuing from one of the shop windows, and on^ . examination discovered a pair of flesu glOvea to be smouldering,-' The/ had evidently been fired through the sun'a rays reflected through one of the carboys,