OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2111, 9 August 1894, Page 13

OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

(From Oun Own Correspondent.)

Ross, August 1. A HOWL AND A SCREAM AND A TELL AND A B.OAH.

The local governing bodies of tho Coast are giving their lungs vent and lustily roaring out against the injustice of being compelled to pay the expenses of taking the poll under that assinino piece of legislation, The Alcoholic LlquCrs Sale Control Act. Their contention against the impost is based on the pillar of common sense, and may be reduced to tho maxim— We did not require, suggest, or make tho act, and Were quite satisfied with the old licensing laws ; theroforo we fail to see the justice of being saddled with the expenses — especially, too, after Government assuring us that in cases of local bodies crippled in finance Government would step in. to their assistance in thiß respect, and then declining to do .so. Tho air is now full of '"legal proceedings," threats, and some of the weak-knoed corporations aro paying up. With all clue respect to the General Government, the Gaming and Lotterios Act— which I am bound to respect — and to my own limited purse, which I do respect for its owner's sake, I am game to lay a trifle that any properly-constituted local governing body — say a borough council — having had directly ncjthing to do with the management of the recent licensing poll, could now succesfully resist any demand made on it in respect of paying any election expenses whatsoever. I am not an anarchist, nor yet a revolutionist— l am only largely composed of "Jacky Bullism," which won't have any humbug, bub will have fair play,

LOOKING BACKWARDS.

Mr Thompson, councillor of that most respect able and important borough of Hokitika, having recently taken a leap backward, landing somewhere a full century off, where ho found tho authorities of the day taxing window light, returned and endeavoured to persuade his municipal colleagues that it was a good law, moving in his place last JYiday night that the .street lamps of Hokitika should be extinguished at 10 o'clock for the sake of economy. His main contention that such an arrangement would save nightly 1000 ft of gas was somewhat rudely disturbed by a certain gamin presont interjecting— " Yer lettin' off enough yerself I " Gofincillor Eisfelder, who manufactures tho very best sausages in tho city, seconded the proposal, presumably because it would add to tho respectability of the capital. A number of leather-headed opinions were advanced against the measure, which died ign ominously.

MISCELLANEOUS ITKMS

The Kumara Hospital Trustees have recovered at law the sum of £77 15s and costs, .£l3, from the Grey Charitable Aid Board for the maintenance of patients from the Grey district ; but tho latter talk of appealing. You will, of course, have received particulars by wire of the fire at Greymouth last .Friday nioni; ing, bo 1 shall content luy.self by telling you something you did not so get The block burned is the easternmost one of the East Ward of tho borough, or what is termed Upper Mawhcra Quay, and is only separated from the next block to the west thereof by a narrow lane called Wereta street, which is certainly not wider than 20ft. While the fire burned the " barber," a fierce, marrow-freezing wind was blowing strongly through the gorge and down Mawhera quay, and when the Melbourne Hotel— the last building of the block, and at the west corner thereof— caught, very small hopes were entertained that the Union Bank and the National Bank would be bayed, as tho flames were going right over them. However, the celebrated steam tire engine for a wonder worked well, and threw three good water jets till the fire was subdued. The loss is estimated at £7000. Among the "thrilling" incidents of the conflagration was the plucky climbing up and ignominiously falling down of our very popular friend "Jack Walton," who besides being an intrepid fireman of the noble tire brigade, is also handicapper to the (trey Jockey Clu\ fim glad to say, however, he ia not sei'iou-l} hurt by his fall

The members of the Westland Hospital Board and the Hokitika paper have fallen out, and are making as much loud and discordant noise as is possible for the edification or othcr\\ ibe of the general public. It is all about in-patients receiving treatment gratis, and the allegations of the said patients' capacity to pay. The trustees scold tho editor and deny that their speeches were correctly reported, and in reply, the " we," indignant, sajs they were, and accuses the trustees of being incapable of speaking good English ; of putting what they mean to say into words .so that an intelligent heaier may understand all about it. I cannot .say which is the more correct, or rather the more wcorrect, of the " parties," but I do kuowthat much harm is resulting to the Charitable Aid Institution by the publication of the names of the "disputed" recipients for charity. Country sub.scriber.s, who, by the way, appear to be the mainstay of the hospital, declare they shall not any longer .support; an institution thu legitimate patients of which havo been bo inhumanely «hown up either by hot-headed trustess or an indiscreet editor.

The Inangahua Tiinca lias honiewhat beared people in the habit of using goats' milk in that mining centre by pointing out that tho " major population of goatdom feed on the cemetery, and may thu-. absoib tho germs of some of the mo->t loathsome disease-, that the human ha« experience of !" It then analhcin.itis.rn the police, and opines that it should not be difficult for the " foorce" to "bring home this crime to these ghouling savages (the ignorant goat-owners) who draw their supplies from the exhalation-, of the dead." Reofton folk have " talli->h " .stomachs if they take goats' milk after that.

Mr Hamblcton, manager of the Despatch Foundry (( Sroyinouth), and a man of \ast uxporience among Homo ironmasters, sa\s of thu Onohunga iion produced at the smelting works therefrom scrap iron, that it ii "superior under every test to that of the very bc^t imported article."

P>i turner folk contend tin) if Government would lead them a diamond lock drill and give them

the pound-for-pound subsidy, they would make! tbat district prosperous and keep the Greymoutli Harbour Board afloat. Greymouth holds a dog, bird, and poultry shovr on the 4th in<-t. Ow ins; to the carolessne R of a solicitor iit neglecting tn rcgis.li'l- ;i deed of contract between voinloi* ami a mining; company .since gone into liquidation, the former, holders only of fully-paid-up shares, are now called on by the liquidator to pay ouch a 0 'It of £270, ami another is required to pay £540. There is no appeal. The Greymouth railway station is being built by co-operation, and great dissatisfaction is being expressed over the manner in which the lucky ones wero chosen.

The Minister for Mines has approved of the site of the llecfton low-level tunnel, which was chosen by ballot, and he is now to subsidise, by pound for pound, the work.

As a practical outcome of tho coastal deputation's request to the Hon. Mr Cadman that he would grant prospecting parties the weekly allowance, the Gazette contains the following rogulation embodying the idea : — ' One party of two ov three men in each riding of any county will bo subsidised at the rate of 7s Cd per week per man for prospecting new and unprospectod country three miles from any working!) where more than lv men had been working for a period of six. months before prospecting commenced. Whero the prospecting operations consist in trenching for lodes a subsidy may bo given nnrlor this head, and in that case the operation need not be three miles from any workings." Thin clause contains pleasant news from all New Zealand miners. Last Wednesday a man named James Showcrfc, whilst at work for the Blackball Coal Company (Grey Valley), foil down a precipice 50ft high and was Killed.

Last Tuesday, in tho Greymouth S.M. Court, tho Grey County Council recovered £274 12a (3d from tho Conl Creek Coal and Railway Company for oVnrttue rates. Tho latter confessed judgment.