The Inangahua Times, PUBLIBHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1883.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1278, 30 May 1883, Page 2

The Inangahua Times, PUBLIBHED TRI- WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1883.

H» Honor Judge Broad, with Mr Win. Perkins, Crown Prosecutor left for GreyliJouth yesterday morning. The ordinary half-yearly meeting of shareholders of the Inangahua Low Level luimel Company has been adjourned to luagday evening, 12th June. We understand that Mr H. P. Street »f the firm of Street & Co., B hare rukers, Cunedin, has been appointed manager v f

the Inkerman Company, vice Mr Af . Pym, resigned. Letters received in Reeftnn from his friends, announce that Mr James Stevenson, who left here for Scotland in June last, will sail for New. Zealand early next month. " As might have been expected, from the .tone of the Wellington Press for some time past, a * strong agitation has at last been set on foot in the Empire €ity against the Canterbury and West Coast railway. The lllayor, who by .the way was at one time a journeyman printer on the West v Coast Times,... has addressed a circular, to the principal residents of the dty, in which he warns tht,m of the attempt being made in Christchurch to push on the West Coast line at the expense of the Northern extension, for which £180,000 has teen voted, and so divert the West Coaat trade from Wellington. He concludes by_ inviting attendance to a publio meeting; for the purpose of adopting resolutions for presentation to Parliament on the subject. A considerable quantity of rain fell be. tween Sunday arid last night, and' we will probably hear no more for a time, of the complaints about scarcity of water. There was a. sensible fall in the temperature yesterday morning, and as.Msopn: as the fog had cleared away, it was seen that the ranges to the north-west had put on their winter mantle of saow. The next sittings of the Warden's and Magistrate's Courts at Reef lon will be held on the ISth.June.. The interval between the last and ensuing Bitting it unusually long, and the reason is that it was found the dates originally fixed upon clashed with the District Court. A fresh* table of sitimgs has jthereforfr been ar-' ranged, and under it Jhe Courts will sit as above stated.

* On Friday evening^last at a meeting of the Beeftoa Railway League, Mr P. Brennan in the chair, a resolution was moved by Mr G. Thornton, seconded by Mr 0. B. King and carried unanimously to the- effect that samples of coal from various seams in the Beef ton district should be forwarded in sufficient quantities to the Canterbury Railway League to be practically experimented upon by experts as to their qualities as steam, gas, household and smiths coal, also that small samples from the same Beams be sent to Dr Hector for analysis. A second kbolution was also carried that Messrs Connolly, Campbell and G. Thornton O.E. be a sub-committee to .carry the same into effect at as early a date as possible in order to lay the result befoire Parliament at its meeting on the Uth of next month. Imthe District Court on Monday last, in bankniptcy jurisdiction, Mr Wi H. Jones applied for an order of discharge on behalf of Mr Wv J, Shaw. He moved upon affidavits showing that 1 the estate had realised the sun* of £1,2Q0, over £900 of which 'w*s 'available fbr ;> the creditors.- He further "stated that at* meeting of the bankrupt's creditors held a feviW&tm 4 ; rgsolutib'Oiftl' been passed unanimously recommending that the final certificate-.! be granted. His Honor^ante^theiorderasprayed. ..: The overdue Festpprt; coach rescued Reeftott yesterday, at noon.' Tne^cause of its detention was an extensile landslide which took place oa Sunday last, dnttie Buller road, between the 'Black water aha Hawke's Craig. An immense slice of the hill-side has. given way, carrying with it a .large section of the road. All heavy traffic will be stopped for some days. .The coach had to be got pver on plank's laid for the purpose. Theajip is jn.tha Biiller County, and the Council there have sent up ha.nds to restore the bniak. The sittings of totf District Court before His Honor 1 Judge ' Broad ,; opened /at Reefton, on' Monday morning |ast. " Only one criminal case iiame on for hearing--that of Regina v. Richard Lee, for larceny of partnership moneys. Mr Win. Perkins, Crown Prosecutor .presented the indictment, and Mr Lynch defended the prisoner. The circumstances were briefly that accusedy ..with twp* bther*. and Graham, held » v contract -for supplying the Welcome Company, feoatinan's, with mining timber. : Prisoner conducted the partnership accounts, and received the moneys accruing uptm the contract; and in the tra'nuactibhß '-Sjna- ojverp'aid by the aompany the sum of £30. r Instead, however, of acquainting' the company With the error,, or informing hjs fellow contractors, he quietly stuck to the money^ Upon the fact* coming to the knowledge of his partners; the : present prosecution was instigated. : Evidence was taken in support of the indictment,, and the jury having retired, returned, after a long deliberation, with a verdict of "Guilty," and accused was sentenced to nine months imprisonment in Hokitika gaol. There was only one cas^bii the. civil" side of the Court, thatf'ofJDai^is^ the Oriental Company, being an application for the rectification of ;/ the Tegjster.; of the company, in respect to' certain shares formerly . had by the plsjifififf, and. which it was alleged had „be;en improperly, forfeited. The action 'was a test otoe,brbught in resi pect of lOOißhares only, but really affected thelegality of the forfeiture of 46Q0 shares. Mr Jones (*ho appeared for Mr Gu^nes's) asked for an a^jburnme^t bn^e ground that the case /had: only coraeSintb hi* hands that mbrniag. and he had^herefoj?e: had no time to fiteanswers* .Mr ferkins strongly opposed the adjournment, contending alsd that' the action JiadJ been wrongly brought. Mter argument His Honor ruled with Mr Perkins, and the rule was accordingly discharged with cogfe £6 ss. against the.applicant. The points raised by Mr Perkins were,' - that the" applicant did not allege in .his. affidavit that he was: a member of the company, or that he- was- either a tranaferfde or transferor of any shares in the compauy. Further, that the rule was not addressed

i, to the company. His Honor said that even on general grounds the Court would 8 £ equitable >risdiction . under "The Mines Act, 1882," incaaes p similar to this, where the applicant had a" t legal remedy, but leave him to another and more appropriate one, either by a ■ait: for damages, op to set aside the rule. Furthermore, the applicant duty sought to recover 100 shares instead of 4 600 which he alleged to have been improperly forfeited. * * 1 It will be admitted thata'" too awfully too stay-at-home Ministry would neither be a mixedor unmixed blessing in New Zealand, but situated as Wellington is with regard to the rest of the Colony the question naturally arises how can the members of the Cabinet afford to spend so much of their time away from the seat of Government . Almdst throughout the whole of the recess the JNative- Minister has been "gallivanting" up North amongst the Jifaqris; Mr Rolleston has been most of the time oscillating between Otago and Canterbury,; promulgating his new scheme of land tenure, while the Premier himself seems to have been pretty well everywhere but in Reefton and Wellington. "Paddy Murphy" seems to hive been the only "number" left at home to look after the business of the country, ah : d there is no denying the fact that he has managed, everything .but the Inangahua election "piirty well." By the express permission of the Queen, the society hitherto known as the Victorian Humane Society will in future be styled the Royal" Humane Society of Australia. Mormon elders are " gobbling up " the pretty girls of Melbourne, and are said to be a greatehnuisance than -the Salvation Army. Samples of Victorian wines sent to the Bordeaux Exhibition, were presented by the Commissioners to Mr Gladstone, who has courteously acknowledged the present. There are seven distileries in Victoria. It is suggested that it would ; be advantageous to the State to pay them £12,000 each to stop Operations, as the amount w'6uld very soon be more than made up from the increased duty received on imported liquor. The gold-diggers in Australia wilf no doubt have had their attention attracted ." to the extraordinary richness of the gold quarta found in the ; Transvaal. '( Some of the lumps of quartz and' rotten reef stuff are aajd to. be so, rich that there ( Ms .actually more gold than stone in the lumps."

At a meeting of the Melbourne Benevolent -Apjlum,- 0&p ; Taiaeß^foifr-of the honorary medical officers, said he was accustomed to see some saddening ,speqtacles, but he never saw such a miserable lot jof wretches as there were in the Asylum. It waa a disgrace to the institution to allow them to go about clothed as they were in old rags. ;! ; _ ,Ai the Totara Queen's Birthday Bacea, helq recently, Mr Petrie's, Sonny, was -Ifie winner of no less than, three events, he, being successful in carrying off tye prize in the District Race : the Open Handicap, and the Trial Stakes: Much Burprise.wiw evinced at his beating Policyand Bide-a-wee. . • . -The Wellington Post sUtea; that of the 46 single women brought by the. steamer British Queen for that porfoniylS wgr 0 open fbr^ eagagenient at the^mlgratioif Barracks, and these were at once engaged at from £26 to £38 a year, there being three applicants for every available, girl, Applications were also made three, weeks hence. The British Queen brought'some 160 immigrants for Canterbury,' composed of 11 families, 27 single men and ! s3 single women. , •-.,;, .-.. Some time ago a well-known native of Bombay offered to give a new clock and : chimes to the university of Bombay, and .deposited a large sum of money with the authorities to carry out his generous intention. The gift has been manufactured in London, and is about to be shipped to Bombay. Doubtless it is such a timepiece aa India never aaw. The dials of •oval glass, are thirteen feet in diameter ; it is fitted with an apparatus enabling it to telegraph its _ time dairy to the observatory and correct all the otiie* clocks in the city and connected with it a chime of sixteen bells which can play, automatically, sixteen tunes and 150 changes.

. h The following is- the 'pbrtitm- of Mr „ Rusden's " History of New Zealand " of which Mr Bryce complained in his recent , c «peech :— w Tbe literary cravers forblorid ' n - .were soon to.be gratified on the West and Q -East Coasts by events of which some were y not officially reported, nor told in Mr 'Reminiscences of War.' „ Lieutenant Bryce, who was in after years a a Native Minister,- afstin^uished himself. 3 Some women and young children emerged J from a pah to hunt pigs. Lieutenant Bryce and Sergeant Maxwell of tho Kai Iwi _ I Cavalry dashed upon them, and cut them down gleefully and with ease. This ex[sj.plott will be looked for in vain in Mr Gudgeon's book, which records a rash and unfortunate affair in Which,' subsequently .(December 28th), .Sergeant Maxwell, .riding up to Titokowaru)» pah, TaurangaI ike, was shot. But the treatment of the children was not unknown. Dr Featherlitom the Superintendent'of the Province of .Wellington, expressed his horror; .Raijfgihiwinui declared that he would not have joined the local forces if he had thought them capable of such acts. He earned thereby the hatred of Bryce, who, long, afterwards, when Native Minister, dismissed Raugihiwinui from office. IBryide earned 'among the Maoris a title whiph will cling to him. They called him ftohuru (the murderer)." A rather stortny meeting of shareholderam the United Victory Company, Lyell, was held in Dunodin, on the 21st instant. The company's operations for the past half-year showed a loss. The

liabilities were shown to be £2,113 17s 5d and the assets, consisting of overdue calls, at £270 12s Bd. Mr .Ferrier, who is manager of the Bank of New fl Zealand at Dunedin, and a 'shareholder in the company, put one ;or two T rather Awkward questions to the'toeetirig. :He said tt had been Btated at "the December meeting of shareholders, (when the mine firat began to Bhow^Bignaof weakiiesaj, that Mf Hungerford had not sold any of his shares and intended to stick to them, because' he believed in the mine. On the strength of this; statement peopfeihad since been buying, amLathera holding on to the shares; but Mr Hungerforid, 'a.short time after, W calmly lold the speaker, that half the shares which had been Bold belonged to him (Hungerford), and Mr O/DriscOll. Now these, shares were sold in September, and the denial was made in December, and he wpuld: Itk© to hoV^tlial deniai came to be made; and was of opinion that an inquiry should be made into the-past history of the mine. He and. other men had lost their good money in consequence of the praise* heaped on the mine, and those who had been praising it aeem to have been at the same time about clearing 1 out of it. He then alluded to the fact that it waa set down in the articles of the company that, the paid-up shares should be nil. H^did jiotkjio^that any meeting had Men called to alter "this, but yet he found himself part holder of 300 paidup Bhares which had no right to be"Kßld. I he only reference to paid-up shares was in a contract made between the directors and Mr Hungerfoi-d.as regarded the battery That gentleman was entitled, to be paid for the battery, but when they found directors doing illegal acts, they, as shareholders who wore losing their money, had.a right to look into the matter. The arrangement by which Mr Hungerford was to annex the battery should be inquired into, and it waß his decided opinion that an outside legal opinion; should be asked. He himself absolutely refussd to hold shares which had no right to be held. Mr O'Driscoll said, that one story wan very good until the other had been told. The statement he made at last meeting was- made three jnontfo ijftrfrthe. shares alluded to had been sold. Mr Ferrier had said that it was reported during the time that these apparently " bogus" telegrams were coming down that- Mr Hungerford had been. selling his shareß. The speaker had said it was not so, and as a matter of fact these shares referred to had been sold three months before any crushing commenced. The fact was that Mr .Hungerford had "bought 550 shares, and had sold them, but/had" placed them with 850, fearing lest "he should have missed a good th&gY He had, a'so advanced money on other shares, so that he really held about lOW in excess of what he originally had. Mr Ferrier's statemen.t ao to his clearing out of the concern was quitea mistake-There was nothing else, he thought, to. answer, unless they wished to go into psftate ma.tte.fs.' There were 1000 shores stating in the name of French, which it had^ been arranged should be sold years before •• Mr 1 Hungerford said he was a larger shareholder when the first crushing took place than he originally. In last, .December, *t the time of the crashing, he held 850 paid-up shares— he held them still. His name was down for 3000_on the register, but 1000 of these belonged to Mr. O'Driscoll The speaker also held .850 shares at that time; (of which he sts held 660), besides 691 others, making jbis total up to 3451 .shares. Mr O'Driscoll held 20Q0, : and, taking the two lots together, their total at the time -of the., firs*, crushing was 6&tt shares, And yet M? Ferrier: stood, up and told the shareholders he waa.olearing ioutdf the concert ?JHe could? nol excuse any gentleman deliberately making a statement of that These facts could be proved by.} the register. The speaker was the innbc&nt -victim of two or three men in Dunedjn, and he assured them- on his word as a gentleman that he never tried to sell feis interest in the mine. The btone was! at that time looking at its lest, and he did not wish to sell. He challenged the fullest : inquiry on the subject. It waa the fibt time he had ever in his life got up to vindicate his conduct in such a manner, and he should never do it again. There had also been something said about another matter. He had as a matter of fact contracted to erect a fivehead battery, and haxt continued^ and erected a ten-Wd battery. H e had spent more than he had any business to do, and if the. directors gave him the fair value they could keep full control over the machinery. A shareholder asked if it waa not known to the directors that according to the agreement the machinery reverted to Mr Hungerford if the company was wound up. The Chairman said that the first'khowledge the directors had of it was when the agreement came over from the Coast. It was a most unusua

one, and he thought the company should have legal advice on the subject. It seemed most unfair that the company should pay so much money for machinery to become their property, but afterwards, if the company were wound up, to be the property of Mr Hungerford, no matter what the reason of their winding up, o what dividends -had been paid him on the shares allotted to him. Mr Hungerford said the agreement was precisely upon $he same tfrms as that adopted in the case of Rainy Cre^. The contractors for the machinery there received so many paid-up shares, and if not remunerative the maohinery was to revert to them! A great deal of further, diacuasion then took place as to the prospects of the mine, and the propriety of continuing operations a little longer upon the present limited scale. Eventually, the report and balanceheet were adopted,, the retiring directors and auditors were re-eleoted* and it was decided to let operations proceed for a few months.