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Inangahua Times, Volume II, 28 January 1880, Page 2

We learn that the financial position of the local Hospital is in anything but a satisfactory condition. Payments for salaries, as well as the various maintenance contracts, are considerably in arrears, and the collector is wearied with the fruitlessness of his efforts to collect subscriptions, In this situation it is difficult to see what is to be done. A refund of the advances which the Council has already made to the institution cannot be obtained from the G-overnment, and altogether the outlook is anything but a cbeerin ' one for either the retiring or incoming committee. Mr Pollock, Provincial Auditor, died at Nelson on Saturday last. The deceased gentleman, who was a very old colonist, was 70 years of age at the time of his death. We learn that the Union Insnrance Co. has withdrawn its Eeefton agency, and returned premiums upon all purrent risks. | The inquast upon the late fiie has been fixed to be held at Twohill'a Hotel, Broad' way, at 3 p.m. to day, at which hour all jurors and witnesses are required to be in attendance. We cannot find by reference to the Appropriation Act what amount has been set apart by the present Government for public works in the Inangahua, but a Wellington telegram, wh : oh appeared in our columns of the Bth December last, states aa follows t — The only sums in the Estimates for the Inangahua are as under :— £4loo for bridge at Eeefton, and £4000 for roads M&rujasrSeelton to Mataki-

In connection with the question of fire insurance, and the claim which the Fire Brigade has, or is supposed to have upon the liberality of the insurance offices, a gentleman who is in a position to "know you know', bands us the following ;— Total amount of risks in the town of Reefton in the different offioes £25,000, which calculated at 3 per cent yields a revenue of £750 per annum, or £3750 for the five y ars Reefton has been under insurance. During this time fires have occurred in the town, the insurance losses occasioned by which reached £8000, go that the fire companies have yet a good deal of slack to haul in. True it is, that until recently there were no appliances for the extinguishment of fires, and now that they are here, the chances of fire spreading are reduced to a minimum. The interior of the continent of AustiaHa is not (observes the South Australian Register) the terra incognita that it once wa», and in view of what is being done by equal ters and others, the necessity for organised exploration parties is rapidly becoming less and less. Two or three weeks ago a drover arrived in Adelaide with 200 fat cattle, which he bad brought from Burketown, in the Gulf of Car» pentaria. He travelled in a straight line alj the way to a point a little east of Lake Hope, and the journey to Adelaide occupied six months, during half of which he saw no white men beyond the two who composed his party and very few animals. He passed through country which hod never been explored, end the oharaoter of the feed may be judged when it is stated tbat the mob reached Adelaide in splendid condition, while the apparent scarcity of natives is a good sign for the safety of travellers. At the recent meeting convened in Dunedin by the Mayor, to raise funds for the die ■ tressed Irish, Mr Justice Williams, who was amongst the speakers, said : He feared it was only too true that their Irish fellow subjects were face to face with famine, and that the distress was nearly as bad <ts in 1846, the fearful accounts of the miseries of which year he could remember. In this country people did not know what distress was, for although there might be individual cases, there was no general distress. It was not for them to endeavor to ascertain what was the caurse of the famine in Ireland, nor what would pre« vent a recurrence of suoh a state of things All they knew was that hundreds of their fellow creatures were in a state of deep destitution. Here' the people had enough and to spare, and their duty as Christians— as human beings — was to come forward and render assistance. No doubt the appeal now being made would be liberally responded to, and be considered that it was the duty of every man in work to give something ton wards the fund. There was one class to which he felt assured the appeal would not be made in vain. He meant Irishmen and Irishwomen. Englishmen and Scotchmen might forget their countries and those they left behind them, but that was not the caee with Itishmen and women, and he believed these, in proportion to their numbers, remitted more to their relatives at Home than the English and Scotch did. He felt certain that no sectarian of religious feeling would step in to > check this * movement. He was happy to say that he saw around him clergymen of all denominations, and that showed that all felt that it was a sacred duty to assist in the present crisis.