OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

Otago Witness, 14 December 1893, Page 13

OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Ross, December 6. HEUCUXES-PIGMY FOKT. Mr Zala, he of whose prowess many papers have sung, called on me last Saturday, and the following dialogue occuried between us :—: — How many feet of rock tunnel have you driven single-handed ? 1000 ft. How long did it take you ? Five years. You have cut the reef carrying gold. How thick did you say it was ? — About 2ft. Since intercepting the measure, what have you done ? 1 have carried aberdan up 2000 ft 15 miles from Hoss, fixed same at the tunnel mouth, and crushed the stone from the reef, which yields over loz to the ton ; but it is slow work, as I have to turn the berdan by hand. Could you not build a small water wheel, and utilise that as a motive power, and then you could let the berdan run all day whilst you broke out your quartz ? 1 have no money, and require someone to assist me to saw timber, but as i am iv hopes of getting assistance in that line soon, I am filling in the time by cutting a tram, so that I can get a ton or two carried down the mountain to +he nearest point on the Cedar creek dray road, distant about three miles, my object being to get the stone crushed at Ross. You have never received any subsidy from the general Government? Not a penny. And if you succeed in opening up a payable quartz reef on Frazer Peak, a very large quartz mining field would probably be the result ? — — • I feel certain that there would, in that case, be a much larger and more permanent field there than that at lieef ton. Could you not get a small battery taken up J there and so save you the killing labour of hump- [ ing the stone down"' 1 believe a Dunedin firm would supply a small three-stamp battery complete for ±'45, but I haven't the £<J5. Surely you could get people to advance that small amount '——I could not ask anyone. But if I live two years I shall open the reef without any aid. Well done ! Would that I had the money by me — you should have it. But how you can stay up there all alone in the very heart of those great wild mountains is more than I can fathom. Oh, that is nothing. Nothing — is it not ? What, for instance, do you do with yourself of a night. Here the little man's face became radiant, and as the colour rose to his somewhat pale cheek I saw a light leap to his bright eyes as he named that immoital Florentine of the Middle Ages who clothed letters on the purple robes of majesty ; "gave to genius the prerogative to influence States, to control opinion, to hold empires over the hearts of men, and xirepare events by animating passion, and guiding thought " ; who made knowledge a power, and mind a prophet — "Petrarch." What ! Do you mean that you have him in the original? (In veneration, and then exultingly): In my lone hermitage— untenanted by a Laura, I read him nightly. Listen : Solea della mia vitae allontanarnii cercar terra o mari. Non mio voler, ma mia stlla seguendo. Sempre andai (tal amor demi auta) Da' memoriaea c di speme il cor pascendo Or, Lasso ! Alzo la mano c l'arme rendo. He recited that beautiful stanza with all the v armth of a Florentine extolling the rarest virtues of his native bard, and then, almost overcome with emotion, he quitted my preseuce abruptly to return to hammer, drill, and dynamite, up among the flinty rocks of lonely snowcapped Frazer Peak ; and, iv the interim, to recommune with his beloved Petrarch. THE CHRISTMAS MONTH. Perhaps in no other part of New Zealand is Christmastide paid more attention to than on the West Coast of the Middle Island. Already Coasters are astir and preparing to usher in the mystic time ; for the papers are full of announcements of playa and burlesque pantomimes, fetes and tableaux, picnics and soirees, jaunts and junketings, race meetings and regattas, sports and balls— all, too, mostly in aid of charities, public and private. The towns are therefore busy with hurrying tradesmen, the shops are putting on their holiday appearances, aud the faces of the children wear expectant looks. The goldmincr has now his busiest time on, and works early and late for the Christmas "washing-up" to provide for his annual settlements with .butcher, baker, and clothier ; presents from Santa Claus for his little ones, and all the holiday comforts in which those brawny sons of the hammer, pick, and shovel delight. The folk of the isolated parts are preparing for their annual visit to the towns, and those of the city will shortly be setting out for the country. What a world of old associations, memories, and reunions, jealousies and terrors, joys and sorrows, disappointments and pleasant surprises, hopes and fears Christmas Day brings about ; but the best things of all are the brightest glances of the children ! DEATH, REGRET, AND A SCRA.MDLE. Last Monday the great Arbiter removed from the sphere of his many and useful labours Frederick William Lohman, only son of the late Hon. H. H. Xohman. Deceased occupied many responsible positions, chief among which weie those of town clerk of Greymouth, secretaiy Grey Jockey Club, and managing director of the Greymouth Star Company. The press express general regret at the loss of so able and popular a citizen, and a member of the community whose figure i was familiar up and down the Coast ; but while the papers spiead their regrets the hundred needy niDutks scramble for the fat billets of the dead j clerk, which are worth in round numberd £10 10s a week. * UUINNESS'S \ICTORV AND POPULARITY. As I frequently predicted in these column?, Arthur Robert Guinness's popularity as a man and his usefulness as the Parlimentary member for the district of Greymouth has carried him victorious in tho late election ; but I must admit I was not quite prepared for such a victory. A majority of more, than double that of his two opponents put together is something to be proud of. Whether the telegram from a very popular statesman — " Strongly approve of your candidate ; Guinness is a power in the House" — published in the Brunnerton News, assisted that big majority or not, I cannot say ; but this I do know, that Grey's gentle Arthur feels a certain modicum of gratitude to the Witness in his recognition that it did not lessen his popularity throughout the Grey Valley. rUBUC OPINION REGVRDING THE PREMIERSHIP. West Coast public opinion regarding the future Premier is, as one would naturally suppose, almost in accord. The Grey River Argus, referring to the late general elections, speaks in unmistakable tones of "the great personality of the present Premier, who swept over the battlefield of the elections, making his presence felt where the ranks of the Government supporters were weakest ; and there is little reason to doubt that he has been the means of recovering lost ground and securing many seats that might other wise have been irretrievably lost." And of the chances of Sir Robert Stout as under :—" The prohibitionists, who to a man will follow Sir Robert Stout on all temperance questions, must be reckoned with ; but in respect to the cariying out of the leading tenets of the Libeial policy we fail to see where Sir Robert i 3 to gather a party from." The Ross Advocate holds tbat "Mr Seddon has earned the post ; that the majority of the electors of New Zealand hope to see him continue holding the reins of the Cabinet ; that as the very people have, as it were, framed the policy which Mr Seddon and his Government so nobly strove to administer, aud that it was chiefly by that statesman's efforts aud iniluencc that those heads of the Opposition who were the cause of so many Liberal measures being killed were rejected by the country, what better man could the cniutry have for its Premier — its managing director ? None. And we say that the country will look to the represent.ttives which it has now sent to Parliament to see that the People's Man is remade the Parliament's Premier ; for, irrespective of favour, popularity, or other minorities, justice demand., it; tho public safety clamours for it, and Mr Seddon, in his ardunt toil of the yeaivs, has eained it. lh» ability makes him woithyof it; his tact, uprightness, aud sterling generosity to the vor and the lowly are among his best attiibutes to his holding the f athership of the uobl- st of colonies." The West Const Times, a paper Ion;; notoiious for itT milk-and-water, neither iish, Jlesh, nor good rod herring 1 , but advcitiscwcnt-hunting policy, now chirps its

treble note by reiterating that which none believe—viz. :— "This paper went furthe.r and strongly urged that there should be no opposition ; that so iirrn a front should be presented that no one would have the hardihood to court a certain defeat," but which many recognise as being the sick saint devil, and the devil-well-devil-a .saint policy. • further on this Hokitika Janus says :— " When the House assembles Mr Seddon will meet it as head of the Government, and he will be very foolish if he allows the question of the Premiership to be raised. It is most unlikely that his colleagues will prove false to him or that those of his party who were elected on the assurance that they would support him will prove traitors to their election pledges." The lirunner News, a consistent advocate of Seddon and his Government, goes bald-headed and holds that the country is with King Richard. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. The unfortunate lad M Inroe, whose lungs were pierced by the horns of a bull last week, is, strange to relate, recovering. The boy Doolan, trampled on by a draught horse, has succumbed. The AVestland electoral roll contains 4186 names, 1440 of which are women. For assaulting a Chinaman named Lang Ho in the streets of Hokitika last Saturday evening, a, man named George Lindsay was fined £5, or a month's imprisonment, with hard labour, last Wednesday. Ballots for electing members to the different local governing bodies on the West Coast are neither sacred nor secret— at least some of them are not, the corners of the ballot paper not being gummed down over the roll tally number. It is quite a common, but no less disgraceful, practice for candidates to know how the electors voted on poll day. For the Hokitika mayoral contest last Friday six apprehensive electors tore off these numbers, thus rendering their votes informal. A trial of the switchback railway in connection with the Greymouth Industrial Exhibition was made last Thursday, and it seems to have been successful enough, the carriage, holding 18 persons, having accomplished the journey in safety. It may be noteworthy that at each of the 28 polling booths Mr A. K. Guinness secured substantial majorities, thus showing that he holds the confidence oi the electors in each place. According to the Grey River Argus the fire of Tuesday morning, by which the Greymouth tlrillshed, Russell and Kignell's shop, and a cottage were reduced to ashes, was caused by some dry shavings catching alight from a fire heating a glue pot in Russell's shop ; and owing to an unhappy delay and bungling of the fire brigade in getting its engine into working order the fire could not be got under till it had done its woik of reducing Greymouth's best theatre to ashes. The same paper places the whole responsibility on the captain ; but I apprehend that, if the truth were known, it was the fault of the notorious steam fire engine which Greymouth has been tinkering up for the last 12 months. The Union Steam Shipping Company have notified the Greymouth Industrial Exhibition Committee that they are forwarding a model of their s.s. Mararoa— the finest vessel of their ileet — for exhibition. Hokitika, consideriug that many insurance charges are ridiculously inconsistent with risks, has formed a local review committee, who are to report to the association on the matter. Mr O'Regan, chosen of Inanaghua, intimates that he has received 200 congratulatory telegrams, two of which are respectively from the Hon. the Premier and Sir Robert Stout. The latest sensation here is the discovery of bituminous coal. A miner named Charles Porter (who has been putting in a prospecting tunnel through sandstone in the hope of intercepting a eolden vein of quartz outcropping) bas cut a stratum of shale and coal about 3ft thick. The coal, although not of first-class quality, burns freely on a forge. I brought some in la&t Saturday and submitted it to several satisfactory tests, one of which consisted of filling a clay-pipe bowl with a sample of the mineral finely pounded, corking the top with wet clay, and inserting same in the fire. When it became red hot I applied a lighted match to the pipe-stem and obtained a fair jet of gas, which burnt steadily for eight minutes. Further developments will be eagerly awaited. Next week lam going up again to the find with an expert in coal, and shall doubtless be enabled to give your readers a more comprehensive report thereon. In order to celebrate Mr Guinness's victory the Hattors' Terrace maids invited the Hattors' Terrace youths to a dance. As one outcome of the very high feeling over electioneering matters in the luangahua constituency, two electors, for knocking down an enthusiast named D. Moore and dancing a hornpipe upon his recumbent person, will shortly be required to give a critique on their terpsichorean performance to the beak. The Bruuner paper states that Corporal Wilson, of the Brunner Rifles, made one off the possible at the Dob^on's 500 yds range last week with the Martini. Mr James O'Malley's petition to have the election of Alexander Duncan, for the Riding of Antonio, County of Inangahua, declared void, has been granted, and a fresh election takes place this month. The strike among the co-operators on the South Westland road has ceased, the matter complained of having been explained away by the assistant engineer, at the instance of his worship the mayor of Ross (Mr J. Gtimmond), and all of the men have resumed work. It was simply a misconception on the part of the overseer regarding a condition of specification. As 1 predicted, Mr Wade's popularity has again carried the mayorship of Hokitika for him by a large majority. The reason Mr F. B. Waters got to bs mayor of Greymouth is contained in the fact that two opposing parties who were watching one another failed to put in their nomination papers till one minute too late, Mr F. B. Waters handing in his in a sealed envelope at one minute to 12, and the returning officer upheld his objection to others coming in. Since then Greymouth is an admixture of chuckle and chagrin. At the monthly meeting of the Westland Agricultural and Pastoral Association, at Kanieri, a leaflet was read from the Agricultural department showing that that poisonous weed, canthium sti ummarium, had recently made its appearance in New Zealand. Referring to the long-felt want here" of someone capable of imparting practical iost ruction on butter and cheese making, it was resolved—" That the Agricultural department be written to asking if it would be possible to obtain the services of a Government dairy expert for the Westland A. and P. Association, to give lessons during the Easter week," on which occasion it is proposed to hold a farm and dairy produce exhibition. The Premitr was made patron of the association. The Greymouth Industrial Exhibition is to be opened on the 20th inst. James Rooney, a publican of Grey Valley, who pleaded guilty to selling liquor during prohibited hours, was fined 5s and costs (7s) by "Jay Pees" Dunn, Parkinson, and Urquhait. The remains of the late heroic Miss M'lnroe, drowned five weeks ago in the Buller river, have been recovered much decomposed 30 miles below the scone of the fatality. Reefton serenaded Mr Patrick James O'Regdn on the night following his election. The new county chairman (Mr John Slaius) of the Westland County Council is already in evidence about the county. A young man, wonderfully popular and full of an eager desire to push everything ahead that tends to advance the best interests of the county, all the ridings of which he is already visiting. His election is a most popular one, and of couise hearty congratulations have poured in on him from all quarters.

The export of coal from Greymouth last week was 2143 tons, and that from We&tport 3314tons.