LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 268, 20 March 1873, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The date of the despatch of the Tuapeka Escort has been changed from the Ist to the 2nd Tuesday in each month. The District Court will sit at Lawrence on the 15th April. Several of the gentlemen who served on the jury in the Blue Spur Case are busily engaged trying to find out what their verdict means. We arc informed that shares in the Alexandra Steam Dredge Company a_rs being taken up ■with satisfactory rapidity. The prospectus appears in our advertising columns.. The installation of the officers of the Loyaj St. George Lodge, E.C. took place on Thursday evening. The names of the officers for the year are Bro. J. Budge, W.M ;J, Meyer. S. W ; R. • Williams, J. "W ; L. Buck &Et ; A. Ferguson J. D. After the installation ceremony, which , was performed by P. P »G. S» W. Bro Nathan , there was a banquet, the proceedings at which are of course veiled in secresy. The Roman Catholic school-art union, is to be drawn on Easter- Monday. All the articles not disposed of at the bazaar on St. Patrick's day, will be included in the prizes, so that there will be very few blauks. N Thb Dr. Carr who escaped from the Melbourne Lunatic, Asylum, ia not Dr. Carr of mesmeric celebrity. In our seventh pige w,ill be found, the summing up of the judge in the Blue Spur case. Three thousand acres, of- lund in Gow's run Swifczers, hae been thrown open under the Olago Waste Lands Aot, 1872. Tub Star of the East Quartz Company, Crom. well, have declared another dividend of four shillings per share. This makes ten shillings per share paid during the last three months.

The rain on Friday and Saturday, has enabled the idle claims at Waitahuna to resume work during a part of the day, and it is to he hoped that ere long, they may be at work full time for the season. Great as was the drought, it has not been quite so severely felt this season as last season, owing to the supply of water which the Norwegian's party brought in. This party is busily engaged in extending their race, which is expected to be finished in a few weeks. It has employed them now nearly three years and a half. When finished, it will ensure a never-failing supply of water, and, while it will repay the perseverance and enterprise of the proprietors, will, by enabling many parties now idle for half their time, to be constantly employed—increasing the aggregate earnings of Waitahuna miners many hundreds of pounds per annum. xtten like these, of patient, selfdenying courage, are real benefactors. 4. FIFTH-share in Cain's claim at Havelock, was sold for £40, and a fourth-share in Palache's at the same figure, Spiritualists in Dunedin boast of the wonderful healing powers possessed by Dr. Dunn. In Waitahuna, they have a doctor of at least equal skill, and nearly as great pretensions ; but they make no boast about him. Hi 3 name is Ah Ma Xi, and if he effects but half the cures he professes, he must be the real Mackay, though he hails from China, and not from Caithness. The most complicated disorders'he diagnoseis at a glance, and the most serious and apparently incurable he undertakes to cure with assuring confidence, "Dats noting, dafs noting, you all light ro-morrow," is f his response to all. The promise of a cure so sudden and complete, might stagger all but the ; most gullible ; but when the doctor announces that he deals on the " no cure no pay " system, the doubter is at once convinced of his faith in his own powers, and he unhesitatingly places himself under his care. The doctor at once makes a charge, varying in different circumstances for drugs, and, as the cure is seldom completed on the morrow as promised, the charge is repeated, till the patient begiua to suspect that the "no cure no pay" system is not altogether so cheap as at the first blush he imagined. As the doctor is his own chemist and druggist, somei. persons would make out that he turns the system to very good account, even though the cures are not so invariable as he promises them to be. * Last Thursday a largo number, of ladies and gentlemen assembled at the "harvest home* given by Mr. Chalmers, of the Halfway House Hotel. The hospitable host provided a capital spread, which was practically appreciated by the guesta, aud dancing was kept up vigorously till long after the " weo sma' hours." All present enjoyed themselv^ifcsthoroughly and highly eulogised Mr. Chalmers' liberality. An excellent thrashing machine, fitted with all the moot modern improvements, has been purchased by Mr. Richard Laucaster, and U now employed in the Waitahuna district. Mr. Lancaster proposes, as soon as he has finished thrashing for the Waitahuna settlers, to take his machine to the Teviot. where tha want of such a machine has been severely felt, and led to the farmers advertising for the seivioes of one. > The machine cost £700. We have received a copy of a volume entitled " TeKooti ami other poems," written by Alan Clyde, settler, Otago, New Zealand. The poems are on New Zealand, principally Ofcagan subjects, and this gives to them a considerable interest. The versification is smooth and flowing. The new Episcopalian Church at Roxburgh, was consecrated on. Sunday, last. The Bishop of Dunedin preached in the morning, and in the course of remarks made aftei wards congratulated the residents of the Teviot in having the finest church out of Duuedin. The "'Southern Cross" writes as follows respecting Webb's San Francisco line of steamers : — " A correspondent in San Francisco sends a brief note thence justras the bteunier was staiting, containing this sentence :— 'Repoit says that Moses Taylor is the last vessel from this port connected with Webb's line.' From the *act that, notwithstanding prospects of a better result, the proposal for subsidising the Webb line has practically failed in the American Senate, it is by no means improbable that the statement we have quoted will prove true. How. ever, it is affirmed D>; strong supporters of the Webb live tb.it that line will neveitheless be earned out. We doubt it ; without the American subsidy, it is impossible to see how the line can continue. Moreover, long-suffering patience has characterised the public feeling of this Colony with respect to Mr. Webb and his steamers, whose regular ' ii regularity ' became a by-word long ago. The most patient were constrained to wait until the result of this proposed subsidy was known. It is known now ; and we fear the prospects, of Mr. Webb's live are sufficiently gloomy ; and for that Mr. Webb ha» himself in no small degre,e to-.blame. Even making allowance for unavoidable misfortunes, the regularity of passage so often promised was,, with but a few exceptions, never fulfilled." A CORRESPONDENT of the ""Wanganui Herald " exposes a piece of locol sponging on the public purse which will serve to show our readers in what way the public funds are squandered on personal friends of members of the Government :— The most flagrant example of sponging on the Colony which has come under my notice for some time I saw to-djky on the arrival of the Luna from Napier and the East Coast. Among the passengers were the Hon. Mr. and Mis. Tollen ache, This worthy couple, probably the richest in New Zealand, never travel at their own expense, but always contrive to do it at yours, mine, or ttier taxpayers. Why the Gavernixrent allow it I don't know. The couple have no possible claim on the Colony for free passages, and yet within the past few months thpy have repeatedly travelled from end to end of the island in the Government stoamer. There is no fear of their stopping this practice of their own accord. Peihaps, however, they may be shamed out of 3uchineanness,

The following petitiou has been Sevn ez-o-sivelysigned, and is now ou its way to its desti* nation : — To His Honor the Superintendent, James Ticandrew, Esq , M. H.R.. am! the inoint'tn tf the Efxouttve of the Pr->»ince of CHh>j«. The petition of seotlers on rhe Mil'fei-s FU agricultuial block, Sheweth- That the undersigned are scHers on the Millers Flat agricultural block. That the whole of the land already availanle for settlement has been taken up and occupied. That two thousand five hundred acres additional land is about to he thrown open. That such an area would not satisfy the ever increasing demand for land suitable for settlement. That a covenant blook block of 5000 acres can be thrown open on the Ovens Hills run without compensation. Wherefore your petitioners pray that such a block may be at once thrown open in the form of an extension of the existing block, and that uno.ccupied sections be thrown open for depasturage under the same system as exists on the Tuapeka commonage. *"" And your petitioners will ever pray. The Provincial Govei-nment have accep ** the offer of Messrs. Nicoll & Co. to construct a bridge over the Molyneux at the Beaumont. From the well-known energy the gentlemen who comprise the firm of Nicoll & Co., it is very certain that no time will be lost in erecting the bridge. The Lawrence Town Council met on Monday night, and in consequence of the banquet adjourned till Wednesday night. THKEE partridges were lately raised on tha Bellamy Station. Ah Low and Ah Shea, the two Celestial gentlemen who denlined to obey a mandate issued by the Warden to. appear before him for the purpose of explaining why they persisted ia working away the publio road in Gabriels Gully, and who, for their contumacy, were each fined £5, or in default of payment. on« month's hard labor in Lawrence gaol, elected the latter alternative. They did not "'savvy " work, however, and when ordered to assist in levelling Lancaster street hill, became exceedingly disgusted and sulky. Neither of them would eat anything and one suddenly, discovered that ,he was seriously ill. The latter also made a proposition that he should not be put to work and be allowed to find his own fool. The gaoler did nofc approve of his conduct, nor of his proposal, and shut him up by himself in a cell, pendiug an enquiry iuto his state of health by the medical officer preliminary to his being dealt with by the . Visiting Justsces. He seemed to have become somewhat alarmed at the course pursued by the police, aud after som? hours reflection, paid tha fine. The other delinquent made some show of woiking, but caved in on it towards evening, and evidently considering that it would be no saving to allow himself to be locked up for a month for the sake of £5, paid his fine also. Tenders for the supply of forage for the year ending 31st March, ISZ4, to the police stations •indother Governmsntdepartinents-infche various districts will be leceived at the Government buildings till noon on Wednesday, the 25th March, Forms of tender m.iy be obtained at the various stations. Fresh tenders for gravelling the road between Lawrence and the Blue Spuf will be received; by tha Secretary for Latid and Works up to Tuesday, the 28th inst. Plans and specifications may "be seen, and forms of tender obtained, at the office of the Secretary for Works, Bujnedin ; or tho police camp, Lawrence. Mr. M'Lean has erected a saw mill in the Waikaia Bush, close to the 3COO acre block on Gow's run, recently thrown open. There is any. quantity of good timber in the vicinity of the. mill, and Mr. M'Lean expects to supply the Switzers people with timber at considerably lower prices than it can be. procured from Tapanui. It is to be hoped that Mr. M'Lean's enterprise will be appreciated by the residents of the district, and that he himself will be rewarded. A meeting of the Waitahuna Miner's Mutual Protection Committee, was held on Satum!^^ the 15th inst. The chairman read a letter from the President of the Otago Miners Association, on the subject of raising funds to defray the expenses of the Miners' Executive. It was resolved to canvass the district for subscriptions, the lists to be handed in to the Secretary on Saturday, the 29th inst.. on which date the Committee will again meet. The Secretary was also instructed to write to Vincent Pyke, Esq., Warden, on the subject of Mr. Edwin. Lejge's application for sections 20 and 21, blook IV., Table Hill district, as block IV. is within the Waitahuna Mining reserve. On Tuesday night, the members of the Pro« vincial Brass Baud gave a concert, the proceeds 'of which were divided equally between the Tuapeka Hospital and the band. Considering the scantiness of the notice — the public being informed of the proposed entertainment late in the afternoon— the attendance was capital. Various songs were given in excellent style by members of the brass band, and various musical selections were played by them. Mrs. Conway accompanied the vocalists on the pianoforte.' All present enjoyed themselves thoroughly. The Roman Catholic schoolroom was kindly placed at the disposal of the projectors of the entertainment free of charge, and the Banquet Committee supplied a quantity of refreshments, the proceeds of which they generously handed over to the Hospital. A Thames excSangesays :—": — " We learn that the new Mining Compaies' Act is causing very genera} dissatisfaction, and there appears to be some doubt as to whether the Apt is really workable. In the case of two companies recently, it waa. desired to make a call at a short notice, but it was found that no call woul£ b^ legally due until March. The consequence was that 4k& in one instanoe, had to advance the iunds to carry on. work. The gentleman who drafted the Act ha 3 simply taken the Victorian model, and made a few alterations wjth a view' to adopt it to the circumstance of New Zealand, and he has made a complete muddle of the entire enactment. Ifc ia said that the bill *m i-asaed > through committee in the Assembly in about tw* j honrd, and tint very f.?-.v members, if an/, j tooV tlvj trr.u-olfc&o read it-"