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Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 10, 2 May 1877, Page 2

A rehearsal of those to take part in the forthcoming entertainment; aqcT concert w.ill be held a.t Dawaon'a Hall this evening. A meeting of the Inangahua Council has been convened for Thursday (tomorrow) afternoon, at the usual hour. The month's crushing of the Eeep-it-Dark Company waa brought to a close on Friday night last, and reacted in 2400z 6dw,t 12grs of melted gold, A partial cleaning up of the plate* of the Golden Fleece Extended battery, for the week ended 28th nit., pr.odu.ced; 418£o$a of amalgam. , The regular monthly meeting of the mem* bers of the Hospital Committee will be held at Mr M'juean's office, Broadway* on Monday evening next, Bth instant. The Eoad Board; yesterday received a rather pleasant surprise in the shape of a remittance from the General Government of £400 due to the body upon unexpended votes. The County Cou,n,<jil also received a sum of £250 from the same source, A special meeting of the shareholders of the United Band of Hope Company, Murray Creek, has been called for Saturday evening next, at Mr M'Lean*s office, for the purpose \ of considering the adyisability of wjndtng up ! the Company voluntarily. The sitting of the Resident Magistrate's i. and Warden's Courts fixed for Friday next have been adjourned until the following day (Saturday), in consequence of Mr Warden ■ Shaw, having to proceed to Westport this morn* ing to hold Court there. : Mr Warden Shaw yesterday received a telegram from, Constable Chichesier, Lyell, stating that a man named John Murphy had been killed by falling, while drunk,, over a precipice into the Lyell Creek* and asking whether an inquest would be held npon the body. The police there have been directed to make inquiries of the oircumstanoes attending the death. We are glad to.be able to report that yea" terday further intelligence waft received from the. mining, manager (Mr Clark) of the Inkerman Company, fully confirming the substance of his former report in, respect to. the striking of payable stone. A party of those interested in the mine visited it yesterday, and quite confirm the. intelligence. We 'are informed that the Chairman of the Council yesterday arranged with Mr Woolley, district surveyor, for the survey of the un« formed portion of the Grey road, and concontingent upon tbe permission of the General Government, the survey will be proceeded with, at once. In view of the great importance of the w.orkj it ia. to, be hoped, that no obstacle to the arrangement will, be thrown in, the way by the Government

In the Warden's Court yesterday M'Gee and party applied for two head races and a tail race at Merrijig. The application was opposed* by M'Geehan and party, It appeared from the evidence of the objectors that the applicant formerly held the ground now being worked by M'Geehan and party, whose tunnel was "carried in from a [perpendicular face and across this face M<Gea and party now wished to carry their race. It was contended by M'&eehan and party that if the applioation were granted they would be driven from their ground by the water, M'Gee and party admitted this, hut urged that M'Geehan and party had. negleoted ta register their tunnel and therefore had no right fa it. Upon this a registration certificate was produced by M'Geehan and party for, as they alleged, the tunnel in question, but M'Gree and party en« deavored|tQ sho.«r that the registration was not for the tunnel referred to, but for another in their claim. After hearing the parties at considerable length the Warden refused the application, characterising it as the most impudent one he had ever heard of during his experience on the goldfields, A, ra.ther novel application was trade in the Warden's Court by Mr Staite, on behalf of the Walhalla. Company, Boatman's. It ap» pears that the Company in question has expended a considerable sum of money in pros* pecting their ground, but have lately been troubled with bad air in the low level. The JfHst-hj'Time Company are now driving a low { tunnel in the direotion of the Walhalla, and are to within eighty feet of the boundary. Protection for three months was applied for by the Wttlhalla Company to allow ; of the Just-in-Time tunnel being carried to the boundary, and there conhect ! with the Walhalla tunnel, and thns ventilate the mine. T.h.e Warden expressed himself favorably disposed towards the appli* cation, provided he could be satisfied that he had jurisdiction. The case would stand adjourned until Friday and in the meantime authorities would be looked up. The application is novel in respect of being made under the goldfields regulations, the general impression hitherto having been that such regulations were inapplicable to mining , leases. In connection with the reported find of a greenstone tomahawk in th,e back ranges, a correspondent, upon whom we rely, has kindly furnished us vrith the following passage of Maori traditional history, as throwing some light upon the discovery referred to : — " With reference to the paragraph in your journal of Monday last relative to the finding of an old Maori tomahawk in the ranges to, the eastward of Reefton, and another in the vicinity of Reefton, I have much pleasure in handing you the subjoined extract of traditional Maori history, the substance of which was communicated to me in 1864 by a Maori named Te Waianaj, who was one of the leaders of a party of Natives employed by the Government to accompany, I thick, Mr Eochfort's survey party in the beginning of 1860 on a surveying expedition up the Buller river. Tb,e particulars, as relutedj will, I think, serve to explain the finding of the tomahawk in the situation stated. At a period long anterior to the coming of. the European to New Zealand the Weat Coast was inhabited by a few, scattered, tribes of Maoris, who mostly lived along the seaboard. They were in hostility with the natives of the southern side of the Island as afco with those of the j North Island. The West Coast was however famous for its greenstone, a,nd parties of North Island natives visited the Coast at rare intervals,, secretly from their ow.n tribes as it was thought, for the purpose of friendly barter in the much coveted and highly priced greenstone, la, the course of time the news of the richness of the West Coast in greenstone became general throughout the North Island, and independent parties of natives planned expeditiong and on their .'arrival refused to submit to barter, but took by force that which ; they had come in search of. The members of the resident tribes were few and scattered and unable to offer much resistance to the maurauders, who in the course of time iu--1 creased to such an, extent that the original inhabitants were threatened with complete annihilation.. To avert this,, the West Coast Maoris planned and successfully accomplished the massacre of their enemies. They then , bt^ilt substantial paha at the mouths of the Buller Grey, Hokitika, Teremakaa, and all other streams of importance. Sleeping a close guard they succeeded lor a great length of time in, preventing the invasion of the enemy, and for years after maintained undisputed possession of the country. Suddenly, however,, a great swarm of North Islanders effected a landing almost simultaneously at : the Buller and Grey rivers, the pahs were \ taken by storm* and, those who were not slaughtered fled up 'the course of the rivers. The tfcrey natives were reinforced somewhere ! near the junction of the. Ahaura and Grey rivers, and the invaders were stopped in their : course for a time. A ggeat battle was fought iin the vicinity, resulting in further defeat of : the. Grey natives, who were pursued and overtaken on the Ahaura Plain and Totara : Flat, where another great struggle, took, place, in which the invaders were again victorious. The fugitives were further reinforced from a pah which had' been erected near the Little 1 Grey, but no further resistance w,as offered and the whole party took flight and were put* sued up the course of the Little G.rey. Thence they crossed the saddle into the Inangahua > somewhere near the junction, of the Buller, whflr,e the Bugler natives, driven from the seaboard, had taken up a strong position. Here a grea,t battle w,as fought between tho allied foices, but the West Coast natives having been surprise^ from tjhe first were not prepared for their enemas, and, so w,ere driven lurther back, with, great loss. Somewhere near the present position of Reefton, another battle was fought, and here the struggle ended ; by the Grey natives fleeing to, the back country 1 with tho view possibly of connecting with the tribes of the Teremakau and further south. The original Maori settlements were then ■ broken up completely, and the West Coast was. repeopled chiefly from the Wanganui

tribes. No date can be assigned to these oe* currences, but the incidents recorded can he verified by the records of both the Christchurch and Wellington museums and the earliest oorroboration will be found in a small pamphlet written by a gentleman who accompanied Dr Hooker, the celebrated botanist, on his visit to this colony, the period of the visit being, I think, about twenty-five or thirty yeara ago. The Taranaki Herald says some little excitement was caused last Monday by the arrival in New Plymouth of between 15 and 20 bullock drays with wheat, and all driven by Maoris. The wheat is native grown, and comes from beyond Oeo, A pole, in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, stands ISO feet high, a gaa pipe has been carried to the top of it, fed from a natural gas well. Every night a huge flame illuminates the country round. The night watchman in Nelson keeps a very interesting diary of the names and occupations of owners of premises whose doors he finds insecurely fastened. Daring the past two years and ten months that he hue been on duty, he has entered no, less than thirty-eight business premises in the town, and in one not only was the door left open, j but the safe was also, left unlocked. The Mongolian small-pox Medical Conference have drawn out a code of precautionary rules under which they propose to admit the Chinese located on Quarantine Island to mix with the rest of the community. According to these regulations John Chinaman is to. be dipped like a scabby sheep in a solution of carbolic acid, his pigtail being previously unravelled so as to ensure the completeness of the pickling process. His valueless clothbg will he consumed by fire, and his nether garments are to be religiously purged of all stuffing and wadding. Bis colored am derclothing is to be fumigated with brimstone, and his upper, clothing steeped in chjoride of lime. After this, John's wardrobe will be subjected to a roasting process of 250 degrees Pah. for two hours. The Conference ap< pears to have forgotten, to finally order the Chinamen to be pickled in barrels of salt, and afterwards smoke dried, in order that the. curative process may be properly completed. — Otago Guardian. A writer of "Nofea" in the West Coast Times writes thus :— " I am, pleased to learn that a new industyr has been commenced in Hokitika* showing that the march of pro* greas in the Empire city of Weatlard is not only a march, but has improved, into a y>§ trot. An enterprising firm, which shall be nameless, has been, for some time past making Old Jabob Towuslvend's sarsaparilla out of liquorice, and also exporting the concoction to Kumars, where it rejoices and refreshes the bodies of the hardy miner, the " bone and sinew," &c, &c. It is pleasant to know that the Australian agent of Old Jacob baa signified his approval of the proceedings, and there is not the slightest doubt that the enterprising Hokitika firm will receive a fitting recognition and reward in clue course. Another Hokitika trader deserves mention for an exhibition of talent in making weight, which is unparalleled in try experience. I bought half a sack, of potatoes of the "merchant" in question, and on receipt of them discovered at the bottom of the sack three flat irons, each minus the handle.