THE Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1881.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 18 April 1881, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1881.

We notice by the Government Gazette, that Mr A. D. Bayfeild of Nelson, has applied to register the Panama Gold Mining Company, Monnt Arthur. .The capital is represented by 20,000 shares of £1 each, and Mr A. D. Bayfoild is the manager. There was a very fair muster at the cricket ground on Saturday last, and sides having been chosen a good match ensued, play being kept up till nearly dark- Arother match will he played to-day, wickets to be pitched at 1.30 p.m. All comers are invited. Tbe next English and European^xnail tin San Francisco will clote at the Reefton office, on Wednesday; the 20th day of April, at 7 a.m. We understand that a memorial has been drawn up, and is being signed by the whole of the alluvial, coal, and cement workers, in the Lankey Creek district, protesting against the granting of large lenses qf^nineral lands at that place. This action has been taken in consequence of the application just made for 1000 acres of mineral land there. Messrs J. Trennery and C. Burgeit of Reefton, were passengers for Melbourne by the «.s. Hero, which left Grey mouth on Saturday last. The Boatman's races will take place to-day, and the weather being favourable we shall no doubt see a very large attendance upon the Cronadun course; Interest will centre chiefly in the race between Lillipee and Dandy, but the other items on the programme will also be numerously contested for. The course in Mr M'Ginlej's paddock has been carefully prepared, and should the Stewards only be favoured with a fine day, the meeting will no doubt be a very pleasant and enjoyable one. Sandon, in the Provincial District of Wellington is an enigma ; it has skinned its local lawyer, who has been compelled to file liie schedule. Got the saddle on the right horse that time. The occupants of tbe Education Reserve at Kumara. and the members of tbe Educa - tion Board at Jlolsi f ika have always been at loggerheads, and a co-respondent of the Kumara Times now suggests that the Kumara people should " Boycott" their tyrannical landlords, by refusing to <Jea\ with any member of the Board until the reDt of the reserve is reduced. A correspondent from Bamprlen writes to us complaining that a notice was recently posted on the door of the Tourt House there mtimaling thnt the Court would be held at a public-hou?e ten chains away, and wishes to know the nccce9ity of holding thp sitting in

a public-house '• within smell of the chain lightning," while the proper "Government building was available. He further coni* plains of the character of maty of the houies licensed along the road in .the following strain :— " It is a greiit pity that the Govern? ment would give many of these shanties licenses; for instance there is one house pn the Nelson road that would not give a man a bit of bread if he was dying at the door. Sir, if a stranger goes in there Jlo have a feed, the landlord ■■■■ -i < or his wife will ask then if they have any money before they sit down to table. Now there is no Christian feeling' in that pair. Every. person you will meet on the road will ask you did you stop at , and they all eav that they should be burned down to the ground. The writer also oomplains of the quality of the liquor sold along the road. He says: "The smell of the chain-light, ning will kill dead as sixty yards, and it i| no w;biidertnat there' is so many lives lost by drowning up here. How can a man go home safe after drinking two nips of that stuff a shilling per nip " The letter is too long for insertion in its entirety, but sufficient may be gathered from the extracts we have made to show that, in the opinion of the writer at all events, the place is soxewbat behind the age. A meeting of the Hospital Committee will be held in the Council Chambers this evening, for the purpose;] of opening tenders for supplies.. To-day (Easter Monday) will, no donbt, begenerally observed as a holiday. The public offices will be closed ; a cricket match will be played in Smith's Paddock, and there will be the superior attraction of the Boatman's races, wherewith to while away the occasion. Mr T. Ccchrane, will, we believe, bo the only representative from Reefton at the Greymonth athletic sports to«day. Mr F, Brennan had a very successful pale at Totara Flat on Wednesday last, when the whole of Mr R, Alcorn's property wn b cleared at good rates'. The freehol d property was purchased by Mr T. M'Kee for ' £VW. i , . We have received a letter from an anonymous correspondent, which though indirectly affecting public interest, is direct! j of a private character. This last objection to i it, however, might .possibly have' been waived, and the communication inserted in pur open column, but for the personalties in- | dulgedin by the author. Oar future course in relation to anonymous correspondence will be to strictly excise all personalities, but in i the absence of arii previous notice to this, effect we do not feel justified in following that course in the piesenf; instance. We shall at all times be glad to receive correspondence for our .open column, whether anonymous or otherwise, but we now lay it down as a cast" iron rule that nothing of a personal nature shall find insertion under 1 that heading. Nowhere has the privilege of anonymous correspondence been more rankly abased than in Reefton, and. we at least have determined to 4>«3ourkge' it for ; the future^ More Bad btbotl fias been stirred up in Reefton, more reckless charges made against individuals, and more private malice im* ported into the discussion of public matters by means of bogus letters and anonymous correspondence, generally, then could; have been possible under any other circumstances, and it is in our opinion time that some restraint was imposed, If public matters, of whatever nature, cannot be argued out on a fair platform, then let them be — anathema. We understand that Dr ;Monckton, formerly medical officer of the Reefton .Hospital, now enjoys the leading practice in the city of Nelson. An accident happened on Saturday morni ing in the Hopeful mine, Boatman's, whereby Mr William Gear, an old "resident in jtb> Reefton district, has been temporarily ins capacitated. It appears that a funnel has been started and driven some distance from an uprise of about 15 feet. The air in the drive is very bad, so that the candles burn with difficulty, and the place remains in consequence in a partial gloom rendering objects indistinct. The sufferer and his mate were working in the face at 4 o'clock, in the, night shift, when the latter had occasion to go for some dynamite. On his return in coming near the bottom of the uprise he beard some moaning which attracted his attention, and looking around he found Gear nearly senseless there. After having obtained assistance the man was brought up, and on coming to said that while groping about for a pick during; the absence of his mate he fell down the uprise and remembered nothing more ; he complained of severe pains about his,, body particularly about the back. He was speedily conveyed to town, and taken to the Hospital, where on examination it was founi that no boue§ were broken nor the spine injured, but that the system bad re« ceived a very severe shock, which a few days' care and attention would correct. M'Parland's express will run between Reefton and Boatman's races to-day. The first coach will g; art from Eeefton at ten o'clock this morning. The Hopeful Company cleaned np on Saturday last, with a return of 1750zs 13dwtsof retorted cold. After the 20th August next the Cliar'eston Herald will be published under the management of Mr Pollmati, the present lessee, Mr D wan, retiring from the business. The Wanganui Chronicle says : — Two large deposits of sand fit for glass-making have been discovered in Canterbury lately, one at Glentui, and the other at ft bite Cliff*. In England, two pianists played for a wogcr forty-eight hours without vourishment. One died, and the other is a lunatic. Lord Campbell (says the Law Times) was a tutor, a dramatic critic, a reporter in the gallery, a luw reporter, a pupil in n pleader's chamber, n barrister, a Queen's Council, a member of Parliament, a law officer, an Irish

Chancellor, Chief Justice of England, Lord Chancellor. He made a happy marriage, had a united family, devoted children, a long life, end a painless death. What mortal man could expect or desire more. • The following is a strange incident, and worthy of mention :~r A few nights ago, a flock of some 9000 sheep were in camp near Cooiah, Victoria, when a terrific thunderstorm set in, with vivid and dangerous lightning. One flash of the electric current mncie a lane right through the flock killing 800 instantly. Mr Bloxsome, one of the Urge pquatters, is the owner, and sutlers a heavy loss. Lord Beaeonfield's new novel, c Endymion ' does not appear to command unanimous admiration. For instance, the Freeman's Journal says : — ' It is not an encouraging symptom of the times that a man who has been an English Premier, and who has for some years passed, the olio ted period of human life, should instead of saying his prayers, repenting of his sins, and looking after his poor old sonl, quietly sit down and write a very bad book.' This is ' rough,' on Endymion. An attempt is about f o be made to establish in Central Queensland an agricultural settlement, on * basis 1 resembling in some respects that upon- which /some of the provinces in Jjfew. " An influential member of the Primitive Metbod'st persuasion in Yorkshire has written to the colonial authorities, intimating that there would be no difficulty in sending out 100 families of Primitives Methodists, if only the Government would give them a free passage, one year's provisions, with soeds and necessaries to produce a first crop, besides granting them two square miles ofland in the centre of the colony for a township ; thepartv would undertake to repay the advanoe in ten years. The Primitive Methodist community in the colony have promised to correspond with the Government, who have intimated their willingness to pay the passage of a limited number, and to facilitate their settlement on terms which approximate cloiely to those proposed by Mr Bootland of Yorkshire. The Hokitika Star says :— There is on view at the Harbor Board office, two dummy bolts, which have been lately drawn from the waling of the wharf, and which are to be preserved as mementoes of the swindling jjerpetraWd| by contractors in |he early days df. Holritika". These bolts were supposed to go through the two walings and the pile, fastening the three together, and to do so ought to have been three feet in length ; but instead of that, they are about three inches, with a spiked end, and when driven into the wdod. have all the appearance of a genuine bolt. The saving to the contractors by the palpable fraud in the cost of iron and labor must have been considerable ; while the .chance of defection, by ev«n the most careful inspector; was very slight indeed. It has not come out who the contractor was, and such a length of time having elapsed since the deception was there is likely to be considerable/difficulty in tracing him. The revised, edition of the Bible is now printed.^ and > will «em to ' most people a strange neVb^ok. Chapter and ferae are abolished; and eaoh ' book ' or epistle runs on in a series of paragraphs without any break from first to last. Of course this is only reverting to the ancient form, the division into chapters being modern date. .; There are now twenty-two starch factories in full blastin Aroostook county, Me. Each one of these factories requires from 1500 to 2000 bushels of potatoes a day, and as they intend to run ninety days this season, the total. quantity of potatoes used will reach about $,000,000 bushels. The factories have been paying 20 cents a bushell for the potatoes, an unusually low figure, but even at this price the farmeis of that section would receive a revenue of 600.000 dols. from this O/rie source; Some have fields of forty acres devoted exclusively to potatoes, and the crop has been known to yield as high as 400 bushels to the acre. The factories take both large and small, but the farmers plant the large variety principally, and potatoes weighing one pound and three-quarters are fre» quentiy seen in the bins, The Wanganui Chronicle says :— As soon as the Virginia Lake was taken over by iho Borough Council the foreman of Works turned the water on from thence to the town, and the supply from the Westmere was shut off for the purpose of examining the 6in. earthernware pipes which convey the water from it to the reservoirs. These pipes pnss through two belts of gum trees on the Westmere Estate, and it was found when they were raised that the roots of the trees had managed to effect an entranoeto the pipes through small cracks in the cement of the coupling*, and had been nourished by the flow of water to such an extent that they threatened to block up the pipes altogether. A quantity ofthese roots were takan out in one place which were matter together and formed a string twelve feet in length and about four inches in diameter. It has been found impossible to form a cemented joint which will be impervious to these roots in soil of the description in which these pipes Bwv loid, as it is permeated with springs of wnter K and the cement has not time to set before the notion pf the water takes effect upon if. The Clerk of the Council ha?, in consequence of this, ordered forty 6in. iron pipes from Wellington, which will replace the tile pipes in the places likely to be reached by the gum roots. The tile pipes which are to be taken up will, of course, be useful for other works. -A London armourer is having great suck cess with, the discovery he has made of a coat impervious to the bullet of a revolver fired at ten paces. The coat bears no evidence of its purpose, and is in form and texture nothing more than a common shooting jacket. Outwardly lies the Scotch tw eed then a thin w:i<Min<? of cotton, next a layer of narrow, thin hands of tempered stepl, kept in plam much as whalebone as put into oorsf to , only the steel bands are very close together, being sewn into the canvas and with only one line ofs'i'ching between each

piece. Three layers of these steel bands sewn into canvas complete the armour of the coat. Another piece of wadding is placed between the bands and the final lining, and and that is all. The steel bands are supple and not long, so that the coat hangs in a natural manner, and would never attract notice. It is somewhat heavy, bat the weight falls principally upon the shoulders The jackets are sold at £25.