SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC.

West Coast Times, Issue 944, 1 October 1868, Page 1 (Supplement)

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC.

The actual incidents of the month will be found fully recorded in detail under their customary headings. The Supreme Court has tat under the Presidency of his Honor Mr Justice Richmond. The criminal calendar was an exceedingly light one, and for the first time since a Judge of the Supreme Court of the Colony has visited Hokitika, the Graud Jury deemed it unnecessary to make any presentment to him. The civil cases set down for trial were numerous, andmany of them important, as involving points of mercantile law. The District Court, over which His Honor Judge Clarke presides, has also been iv session, chiefly occupied with cases in bankruptcy. The principal event of the past month has been the public land sales. The preater part of the jiuhabitants of the town who have hitherto held their allotments by right of what is known as a Business License, have now become freeholders, the ground having been put up- at an upset price, with the valuation of improvements added, the latter to -be paid to the holder by any purchaser bidding above him. The result of the sale has been to leave the whole of the occupants in possession of their allotments. The monotony of the month's history has been vaiied by a military funeral. Mr Archibald Bonar, the eldest son of one of our most respected citizens, and the brother of the llou. J. A. Bouar, the County Chairman, was color-sergeant in the S 'Cond Westland Rifle Company. He died after a brief- illness. Mr Bonav had been married but a few weeks before. On the occasion of his funeral, the whole of the place 3of business throughout the long- line of mrtrch to tho Cemetery were closed. The several Volunteer Companies turned out in strength, and the remains of the lamented young officer were interred amid nvery token of respect that could be paid him both by his brother Volunteers and his fellow-citizens. Our population statistics have not very materially altered during the month, notwithstanding the allurements held out to the miners by the highly-colored reports reaching the districts from other goldfields. Our own auriferous deposits continue to yield good and, in many cases, rich returns. In no part of the colonies is mining carried on under more sure and certain conditions, and if no enormous finds reward the speculating miner, the sober, industrious workman can always rely upon securing an ample return for his labor. Gold-mining in Westlaud is not an affair p£ gambling. Some almost fabulous accounts that reached us lately of extraordinarily rich fields in the North Island have been proved to have been fraudulently concocted, and the discovery of the fraud has naturally checked the migration to that quarter, which threatened at one time to carry off a large proportion of our mining population. After a long interval of dry weather we have been favored during the past week with some heavy rainfalls. Water is necessary — both to the prosperity of the miner, and the health and comfort of the tovvus. With no water-supply but such as is afforded to each house by its pipes and tanks for collecting and storing the rainfall, and with no artificial drainage, the long" continuance of a dry season is a cause both of grea' inconvenience and of sickness. We are grateful, therefore, when rain comes to our help. As we have said, the general news of ill* n»)i!'.!i will be found chroni clad L'l-C'.Vilt'iV.