OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2087, 22 February 1894, Page 13

OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Ross, February 14. " CALL OUT THE MILLINGTARY ! "

i The spectacle of two mites ironed together and marched from the sacred precincts "ay her Majesty's coort" through the principal street of Hokitika in broad daylight, and jealously guarded between two great gruff policemen all the way to her Majesty's strong prison on the hill overlooking the sea, which occurred last Friday, has begotten much comment and mental exercise amonor the Coastal minds. The youthful culprits, Eastgate and Foster, whom I have already mentioned as having been caught attempting to help themselves from the choice wines and fruits of our "Vintner" Blunck's cellar, had been brought up that day and committed by the lower to the higher court for trial, and the steel blue representatives of her Majesty's justice, that hath leaden feet, determined not to jeopardise the law's interests, and adopted this method of keeping safe and sound two desperate, beetlebrowed, scowling, »»murtherous-looking" boy burglars, who, because they attempted applestealing, might do some dreadful blood-curdling deeds on some more of her Majesty's peaceful, loyal, and law-abiding lieges, &c. Does not this remind one of that great blubbering booby Noah Claypole, his sweetheart, and the vixenish undertaker's wife, all going for poor little Oliver Twist, and roaring lustily to " call out the millingtary," because " that oudacious, wiciouß, and hardened work'us willan had nearly murdered one of her most gracious Majesty's subjects — to wit, the said Noah Claypole, Esq., whose only offence was iv cruelly traducing little Oliver's poor dead mother ! " RAIN, RAIN, RAIN ! To say that it has simply rained here for 52 hours, commencing from Friday morning, would be misleading— it poured incessantly between these periods. Ido not recollect having beard of euch a rainfall on the Coast before. It was quite a warm rain — nay, it was a sultry rain, for everyone felt as if in a Turkish bath all the time. Not a breath of wind stirred the hot leaves on the trees ; not a bird plucked up sufficient courage to hop from sheltering twigs, nor yet had the heart to pipe ever so treble a note ; not a person that wasn't miserable and languid, even though blessed with the most energetic nature ; not a river or creek that wasn't overflowing its confines ; not a road that wasn't sloppy or had on it a constant stream of dirty water. Let us hope all this may wash away the latent seeds of •la grippe, which we appear to have always with us just now. FREB RAILWAY PASSES. The Greymouth Harbour Board is endeavouring to revive a time-honoured custom. At its last meeting a resolution was carried to make application to the Railway Commissioners for free passes to school teachers living inu Greymouth and teaching at Brunnerton. Time was whenj all; pressmen held the] privilege of the yellow free paBS on all our New Zealand railway ; but those golden opportunities, like the poppies on the river, seem gone for ever. I forget what parsimonious Government guillotined this necessary jointure, and which might with profit be revived once more *, for I maintain that the pressman has actually more claim on this indulgence from the railway authorities than has the pampered M.H.R. Being full of that conviction, I would suggest to the New Zealand Institution of Journalists the advisability of memorialising Government or the "commissioners" thereon ; or, failing thit, let some energetic "we" send round to his brethren of the quill a petition for signature, praying Parliament for an extension of the privii lege to the press. J DUFI'ER BUSHES. I I regret to say that the Teal Duck creek rush seems to have fizzled out, and excepting two parties, who are earning about £1 a week a man, the men have left in disgust to prospect the likely country surrounding Okarito. The rush to .Half Ounce, Grey Valley, too, is disspiriting, over 30 shafts having bottomed " duffers." Similar to that of Teal Duck, the wash here is confined to a small gully with a width of 7ft. Although the prospectors got 2oz 12dwt of gold for their Tuesday's yield, and the adjoining claim has got the " colour," yet the fiud is only a " patch," and as such should not be rushed. So much for our alluvial rushes. But our quartz finds have a more taugible metal ring. I saw Mr Zala last Tuesday, and he told me, with a very cheering smile, that he hoped shortly to bo able "to get other people to do the ' bullocking.' " He would not say how rich his quartz way ; but from what I do know I feel assured he will this year open up a large quartz-mining field at the foot of the Snowy Ranges, where his workings are situated. Donnelly's is also looking well, with one foot of stone that crushei 29dwt to the ton. Mr Griffiths— who, by the way, is acknowledged to be one of the very best amalgamates in the Westland goldfields district, and who superintends the crushingß— has great hopes of this field. A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE. Whilst returning last week from au official trip on the Great South road, Westland, Mr William Alexander Sham, assistant engineer, I had a unique] experience at the Big Waitaha I river. This Bomewhat dangerous stream was in flood, but Mr Sham and party, undeterred, ventured to take the ford, but the water got too deep for one of the ponies carrying Mr Sham's assistant, and he was forced to return and stay till the river lowered. Mr Sham then came on, but after negotiating both fords found the road completely blocked with a network of fallen , trees. Compelled to leave his horse, Mr Sham ' made his way through the scrub to Ferguson's farm, the owners returning with him and cutting a path through the bush. I This portion is under the maintenance of the Westland County Council, and as that body is also struggling with finance, and unable to keep the road in proper repair, a fairly good suggestion has been propounded as one way to keep this line passable — viz., that each settler down that way have a piece of road parcelled out to him for maintenance on fixed term 3. I had a chat with some of them and they expressed themselves as being quite ready and willing to become responsible at very low rates. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. The threatened "strike" of the Greymouth Charitable Aid Board has been averted by the General Government dubbing up the overdue subsidies to the institution. The Blackball road, on the north side of the Grey river, having been authorised by Government, is now being mado in three sections by 38 co-operatives. Owing to the fact that the Grey Borough Council is overdrawn at its bankers to the extent of £2875 18s 6d, and a dread of old Threadneedle pouncing on them, the council refused to deal with tenders for urgent works last Friday. At a meeting of the Westland Racing Club last Thursday, it waa resolved to have the Hokitika Racecourse Act 10 amended as to vest

the ground in the club. Perhaps that will be as difficult a job as that undertaken by the Reefton Jockey Club, who being desirous of obtaining a similar concession, found it to be an almost impossibility. One of the principal trustees having died intestate, no real title could be obtained without getting a special Act of Parliament passed for its conveyance. Hokitika is joyful because word has been received that the C.J.C. have passed their Easter race programme — a thing hardly anticipated A successful meeting is confidently looked for next March. The Westland Agricultural and Pastoral Society purpose holding a show at Hokitika next Easter." A dog, bird, and poultry society was formed last Friday evening at Hokitika, and it is intended to hold a show next August. The contractors who have just finished the adit for the Julean Company's claim, Paparoa Ranges, report , having got a small parcel of stone in the winze which yielded, on test, at the rate of 2oz of gold per ton. Charleston is forming a prospecting party, whose objects are the prospecting of the country for gold, minerals, &c, provided the prospectors are supplied with " tucker and tools" by the business folks. Such energy deserves some encouragement. The Buller County Council, having gut desperate, are enforcing a vehicle tax on all wheeled machines using country roads. The tax fees run from £2 up to as high as £12 per annum. Stiff, is it not? Mr Henry Pickett, managing the Ross branch of the Bank of New Zealand, left here last week for Duuedin on a month's holiday. During the short while he has been amongst us Mr Pickett has become so immensely popular, that Rosaites trust the bank authorities will not keep him for good over your way. Like the Wesleyan Church, which is continually moving its parsons, the Bank of New Zealand frequently falls into the unhappy knack of shifting favourite officers about and allowing others of a different calibre to take root in a community of disgusted clients. Mr M'Kenzie, M.H.R. for Buller, has received an assurance from the Government that legislation will be introduced next session to either enable the Government to take over the maintenance of main roads, or to alter the whole system of local government, with the object of providing the bodies with more funds to carry out their duties. Anent the scares arising out of deaths from Iv grippe, influenza, &c, a Buller father wrote thusly to the Westport Board of Health :— " I have the honour to inform you, for the information of the public, that I have from one to five cases of measles at my house, and I trust this notice will have the effect of stopping the ravages of this dire disease. N.B. — I believe there are a few hundred similar cases just now in Westport and neighbourhood." Fred Barrington Waters, Esq., mayor of Greymouth, having been taunted at the borough council meeting the previous evening with having applied for the post of inspector of nuisances for the police, he (F.8.W.) was de facto inspector of nuisances, and aßked would he assume the rule, smartly replied by doing so, and next day, through the local press, called upon Sergeant White to immediately take steps to have removed a festering ashpit— 9ft by 4ft — in the angle of right-of-way behind Mawhera Quay, centre block. A STRANGE MORTAL. An eccentric mortal is Giacomo Mattii, Italian by birth, gold digger by occupation, by persuasion a disciple 01 Christ", a resident of Ross. Last Monday, on being charged at the local courts with the larceny of a pork ham, he defended himself by saying that "Do Lord told him to take the ham ! " During a quarter of a century he had scraped together a* competency at gold mining, or, as he often used to remark, " I can live quite comfortable on half or theinterest of my money." Late one night some years ago he confronted me with, "Mißter, will you walk with me ? I wish to tell you a conversation I had with de Lord last night." Knowing him to be a harmless eccentric, I assented, when he instantly began leading me through the streets of Ross, and saying, "De Lord told me that I will do much good with my money by buying up all these house properties," pointing out here and there all the empty tumbledown places. When I tried to reason him out of the hallucination he got very angry, and said I was only a blasphemer and did not know de Lord, so I let him go on. When he had done, he made out that he had been shown in a vision that in a few years hence Ross would be a large and populous city ; that his houses would then be worth nearly a quarter of a million, and that \ he was to divide all that money among the poor. Further remonstrance proving vain, I left him, and a few days later I was astounded to find that he was purchasing all the properties he had pointed out wholesale ! This he continued till all hifl money was gone ! Alas, for Giacomo and his vision ! The years have fled ;he has eaten up all his houses ; and because he endeavoured to gobble a ham that didn't belong to him be is required to meditate for 48 hours iaside her Majesty's prison. A few nights previous to his becoming " possessed " I heard him waking the echoes of the midnight air with that powerful national anthem " Garribaldi," and although quite 60 chains distant, every note of his wonderfully musical voice was quite distinct. Mr William Goodlet, whose protracted stay on the West Coast Government would not sanction, was given a good "send off" last \ Friday evening by many of his admirers at Greyncouth. A regular " good time," says the Grey River Argus, was enjoyed, the evening concluding with a dance, at which "Wully" bet his heart under the "melting" process; bat subsequent "tests" with the blow-pipe have revealed traces of the organ in juxtapisition to one of a "diviner" mould. " Wully " has long become a household word among Coasters, therefore the consternation and I relief over the "loss" and the " discovery " may be reidily imagined. A life buoy, surmised to have been the one hove overboard to the ill-fated sailor of H.M.S. Lizard, was picked up on Paroa beach, south of Greymouth, a few days ago. The Westport Coal Company is (says the Buller Miner) in communication with some of the leading coal merchants of San Franciso. A circular letter received by the company gives some very valuable statistics relating to the coal trade of Ban Francisco, Ib appears that 1,500,000 tons of coal and 26,045 tons of coke were imported into that city during 1892, and that a duty of 3s per ton was levied upon it. The whole of this coal and coke was imported from foreign countries with the exception of 45,000 tons of bituminous coal, which waa received from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The circular points out that the abolition of the 3s duty will probably shut out the American collieries from competition, and as consumption ig annually increasing there is every prospect of a large market being opened up for New Zealand coal." I may add that Mr James Munro and the local directors of the company are collecting all information concerning the quality of the coal and the shipping facilities of the Buller port for reporting to 'Frisco. The Cocksparrow dredger at the Inangahua junction seems to be doing well at last, and last Monday evening two of the. principal

shareholders fetched to Reef ton 330z 12dwt of gold as the result of 78 hours' dredging. For the four weeks ending January 6 the receipts from the Hokitika-Grey railway lino were £586 and the expenditure amounted to £153,0r 2610 per cent, of revenue. For the Greymouth-Brunner line the receipts were £1888 and the expenditure £910, or 53"67 per cent. ; and the Westport line receipts £3404-, expenditure £1.316, percentage 5588. Whilst Reefton complains of persons dynamiting the rivers for fish, Lake Brunner denounces the pernicious ringing of the fowliugpieces and wholesale destruction of feathered game out of season. The 10 tons of stone from the Sir Charles Russel mine has yielded lloz lldwt of retorted I gold. This is reckoned to leave a fair margin [ for profit. Subscribers to the Gillom's Gully Prospecting Association, Staffordtown, have at length struck the wash drift. It is said to yield 2dwb per load. Respecting the spot on the Buller road where the Mitchell coach accident occurred, and for which the Buller County Council has had to pay through the nose, Mr Snodgrass, district surveyor, has just made affidavit that that portion of the road is in the Inangahua County, co there is likely to be further complications between the neighbouring counties. A Women's Christian Temperance Union waa formed at Hokitika last Wednesday. Just as I close up swaggers are toiling into town from the Teal Duck creek rush, which has turned out a rank duffer.

MRS CALAP GOES TO SEE MRS MILLS. And it was not for an hour's chat over a cup of tea that she went to see her, but on a much more serious matter. For Mrs Mills had been quoted in the newspapers as having said BomethiDg which might be of importance to Mrs Calap, and also to others. Now the newspapers print so many things that nobody can make head or tail of that Mrs Calap thought the only sure way was to go and see Mrs Mills and ask her if it was true what was said. What Mrs Mills told her ? is contained in the annexed statement made about a year afterwards : " I, Jane Calap, of 3 Vincent street, York road, Leeds, do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows : —

" In the early part of November 1887 I fell into a low, weak state. I was tired, languid, and weary, and felt as if something had como over me. All my bones ached, and I had so much pain that I did not know where to put myself. I was constantly vomiting ; sometimes a green, bitter fluid came away, at other timeß frothy water. I had a dull, heavy pain at the right side, the whites of my eyes were a yellow colour, and my skin was sallow as if I had the jaundice. I had an awful taste in the mouth, my tongue and teeth being covered with slime so thick that I had to scrape it away. My appetite fell away, and after eating the simplest and lightest food I bad so much pain that it nearly killed me. I had always great pain and weight at my chest and through to my back ; also a gnawing, sinking sensation at the pit of my stomach. I was greatly troubled with wind, which rolled all over me, arid gave me so much pain it was like spasms, for I could not Btraighten myself. I gradually got weaker and weaker, and felt 00 weak and exhausted that I could scarcely drag myself along. As time went on I wasted away until I got as thin as a match, and could barely walk across the floor. I felt so downhearted that I used to say I shall never get better any more in this world. I took all kinds of medicines, but finding myself getting worse I got a recommendation to the Leeds Infirmary, where I was attended to by several doctors, who gave me medicines, which I took month after month, but I got no better. The doctors sounded my chest and lungs, and seemed puzzled with my sufferings, for they frequently changed my medicine. Getting no better I next went to the Dispensary in North street, and persevered taking their medicines, but it was all to no purpose. I now gave up takiug physic, for I had lost all faith in it, and my sufferings continued until January 1891, when I heard a neighbour of mine, Mrs Ann Mills, 40 Bread street, had been cured (after the doctors had given her up) by a medicine called Mother Sergei's Curative Syrup. I went with my daughter to see Mrs Mills, who told me that Seigel's Syrup had saved her life, and would do me good. I got a bottla of the mediciue, and after taking a few doses I felt relief. I continued with the Syrup, and after taking three bottles all the pain left me, my food agreed with me, and I gradually gained strength, I can now take any kind of food and never feel any distress and am as strong as ever I was. After my recovery a lady customer of mine said to me ' Mrs Calap, whatever have you been taking, for you do look so well ?' I told her, as I tell everyone, that Seigel's Syrup had made me a new woman, and but for it I should not be alive. I wish others to know of the benefit I have derived from the medicine, and I give fall permission to the proprietors to use this statement as they may think fit, and I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true. By virtue of the provisions oE the 'Statutory Declaration Act, 1835' (Will. IV. c. 62). " Declared before me at Leeds") fchi ; s ' 25fch dft y of Jaauar y I (Signed) "(Signed)Ai. F .Coo KE> J.P. ( jANE C^ F ' (Ex. Mayor of Leeds.") J The public may remember the account of Mrs M ilia's illness and recovery, published some time ago. We are glad that Mrs Calap heard of it and went straight to that lady herself for the information she wanted. The visit resulted just as might have been expected. Both onr good friends had suffered from the same disease — indigestion and dyspepsia — and the remedy which cured in the first case was equally successful in that of her neighbour. No wonder Mrs Calap had lost all faith in physic, and if Mother Seigel's Syrup were "physic" we should not look for people to have faith in it either. But it is a remedy, not " physic." It doesn't upset and disgust ; it soothes and heals. Men fall ill, to be sure, butwomen bear most of the pain in this sad world, and when once acquainted they and "Mother Seigel are 'ever' the best of friends," like Joe and Pifs iv Dickens's story.

The Auckland University College have reoeived a cablegram from London stating that Mr Charles William Egerton, senior moderator and gold medallist of the Dublin University, has been appointed professor of English. As Mr G. Middleton, of Cambridge, and Mr H. A. Tubbs, of Oxford, tie for classics, the council will offer the position to the latter. The professor of mathematics is yet to be appointed.

A contemporary states that Mr Compton, of Ashburton, has invented a very ingenious arrangement for getting a ship that haa been beached on sand haok into deep water. By Utilising the backwash of the tide in conjunction with a number of arms fixed to the side of the vessel and driven by the engin« with an endless band, the sand is rapidly removed from the ship's aide and stern, and thus freed she can easily be worked back into deep water by means of a hawser fixed to a.n ancho*.