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Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 2 May 1881, Page 2

We understand that some charges hove, taken place in the local agency of the Bank! qf New Zealand, Mr Pickering, late of Greymouth, succeeds Mr Gorrie in the management of the Bank here, the latter gentleman, leaving, we believe, for Christcharch. Mr Pickering being a good cricketer will be an acquisition to the local club, and his coming will, we trust, be the means of reanimating the game in Beefton. It has, we learn, been decided to rer-rpqf the local post and telegraph office with iron instead of shingles. The Resident Magistrate's Court will open on Thursday, when the prisoner M'Gahey will be charged with the wilful murder of John Bell. Mr G-. C. Bowman submitted to auction on Friday last the household furniture and> effects of William Beckham r deceased, intestate. There was a large attendance and spirited competition- The cottage in Bridgestreet, built upon the Strand reserve w»s knooked down for £9. The All Nations Hotel, Black's Point, which belongs to the same estate brought £63, MrBT. Lloyd, the present lessee, being the purchaser. 'The roads in many parts of the County commence to show signs of wearing out, and it is but too apparent that unless the County Council begin to look this matter fnir in the face, and devise some means of meeting it, there will be a very troublesome time in store for wheel traffic. The Government having undertaken to provide a through coach road from Nelson to Greymouth and Westport, it may be presumed that the Council has been relieved of the maintenance of those portions of the rond falling witbin fhis County, but it nevertheless devolves upon the Council io sco that the maintenance is duly carried but. The Government may probably not be aware of the condition into which the Westport road particularly is falling, and it would, therefore, appear to be the duty of the local body to bring the matter under the notice of the department. A meeting of the Beefton Jockey Club was to have taken place on Friday night, but owing to the practice of the Fire Brigade falling on the same evening, a quorum could not be mustered, and the meeting stands ad* journed till this evening, when members are requested pQ b. 9 present, as the business is important. Meeting to take place at 8 p.m. The ordinary fortnightly silting of the B.M. and Warden's Court is announoed for next Thursday and the Assessment Court for Friday, but in the event of M'Gahey's case incroaching on the time for ordinary business, some of it will have to be left over for a later date. The directors of the Nil Desperandum Company held a board meeting on Friday night, when some routine business was transacted, including the payment of all outstanding liabilities. The affairs of the company ore in a very sound position, the 14 per oent tribute haying proved a sure source of income. A credit balance remain now in favour of the company, .and it is intended that after the percentage from the next general cleaning up is received to deplare a small dividend, which no doubt will bd very acceptable to shareholders, and which should recommend the liibute system for more general adaptation in the field. The half-yearly meeting of shareholders in the United Alpine Company, Lyell, was held on Saturday evening, a number of Reefton shareholders being present, The report and balance-sheet showed a sound slate of affairs, and were unanimously adopted. The eon» sumption of a tunnel at a lower level was de« cided upon, the fixing of site and other details in connection therewith was loft to the directors. The outgoing directors were all reuolected with exception of MV Gorrie, who declined to stand, owing to hiij leaving the

district, Mr I. M'LaugUlin wan elected in his place. WeJ take the following items from the 1 Mount Ida Chronicled— <• The Looal School committee have adopted the following resolution re the Dunedin School Committee. "That this Committee approve of what is contained in the letter and jesolutiori-referred to, and declare theijr willingness to join the Dunedin Committee in petitioning Parliament for an amendment of that part of the Education Act, relating to the present manner of electing school committees j with i the view of having' those bodies elected in the same style i as town councils." A somewhat amusing incident is told of a.' woman whose husband, a wealthy man, died suddenly without leaving any will. The widow, desirous of securing the. whole of the property, concealed her husband's death, and persuaded a po6r shoemaker # Jtp. take h's. place while a will could be made. Accordingly, he was closely muffled in bed, as if very sick, and a lawyer was called in to write the will. The. shoemaker , in; a feeble voice bequeathed half of all the property to the widow. ' What shall be done with the remainder?' asked the lawyer. 'The remainder,' replied he, 'I give and bequeath to the poor little shoemaker across {he street, who has been a good neighboured a deserving man '-"thus secjurinj? a ncft bequest for himself. The Widow was thunderstruck with the man's audacious cunning, bntdiff not dare to expose" the* fraud, and the two rognes shared the estate. ■ ■;_.- . The fir<t note of a High Church war has been sounded in River ton, aMr J.B. Hunter charging the curate of St Mary's with 1 idolatrous practiced. ' ' In these days of rapid communication with America, we have come to regard the Atlantic a9 a very narrow, not to say insignificant piece of water (says the London Chronicle). Ten days in a magnificently equipped ocean steamer constitute a mere pleasure trip ; and. although passengers see from time to time the white sails of ships, it seldom occurs to them how long, how dreary the voyage, which to them is so short and pleasant, may be to the vessels dependent for their progress on the wind alone. The details of the terrible voyage of the ship -Hannah Morris, from Liverpool to Philadelphia, will serve to remind us how serious a matter a voyage to America was in the days of our grandfathers, and in what fortunate the lives of pre» sent voyagers are cast. Leaving Liverpool on the 6th of September, she arrived afc Barneget on the 6th of January, having been 126 days on the voyage, the longest passage but one on record. It is the more singular that this extraordinarily long voyage was not the result of the loss of her masts or any 1 other disaster. - . Her; cargo, composed of one thousand tons of iron, is said to have shifted somewhat ; but this does not appear to have retarded her voyage. The duration of the journey arose from storms and head winds at starting, and afterwards; by the barnacles which gathered on the bottom of the slowmoving vessel, and rendered her rate of progression even less than that usually got out of her. The crew endured ereat sufferings from want of food ; indeed, had if; not been? that supplied were from time to time obtained from passing ships, all on board would have, perished. The voyage of the- Hannah Morris i will take its place among the singular incidents of modern maritime history. The surveyors, who are employed in the vicinity of Parihaka (says the Taranaki News), are still subjected to much trouble and an« ; noyance through the Natives pulling up their pegs, Even when buried, the Maoris ! find them out, but the survey as driven in extremis to stratagem, have secured themselves by fixing particular points by certain bearings and this last subterfuge has been worse than the fifteen gem puzzle to the Maoris, who are looking pouti accordingly. A writer in the Cornhill Magazine," in an article on London, gives the following as the origin of the greateast city of the world :— "Apparently, the very first (London was a' Welsh village—an ancient British village, the history books would Bay— whioh crowned the top of Ludgate Hill, near where St. Paul's now stands. The old Welsh, who owned Britain before the English took it, were a race half hunters, half cultivators, as Crosar tells us. In his time, the Britons of the south* eastern country, which consists of open cultivable plains, were tillers of the soil ; while those of the hilly north-west were still pas* toral nomads, or savage hunters, dwelling in movable villages, and having mere empty forts on the hill-tops, to which the whole population retreated with their cattle in case of invasion. These duns, or hill-forts, still exist in numbers over all England, and are generally known as « British camps.' Now, what made London the; centre of the Thames valley P for that of course was the first step towards making it the Metropolis of the British empire, Well, the Welsh trij>e whiah inhabited the lower part of the. valley ljiust have originally needed > dun Ufieali their; neighbours. But there are not many ooni»: spioious hills in the flat basin of the ThaiT)ieß between Richmond and the if ij and.Luflgate/, Hill was perhaps the best that the Ttitfnr;bantes of Middlesex could get. Thus, as the' old Welsh become gradually more and more civilised, a regular town grew up, around the low dun, and bore from the very first ita modern name of London, for no name in Eng* land has altered so little with the wear and tear of centuries. It was not williout. natural advantages of situation, fora belt of marsh* • girt it round on every side, from the estuary of the Lea and the Finsbury flats to the Fleet river and London fen, where the Strand now stretches. When the Romans conquered Britain the aspect of affairs changed a little. JTlie • conquered tnrned the island into an agricultural exporting country, a subsidiai'y granary for the er wded southern cities, which already devoured all the corn of Egypt and the Black Sea. All the main Roman roods converged on London because the river could there be crossed ; and these roads became the framework for the whole currying ejstem of England, till canals and railways revolutionised th« highways of the country. Tha Roman remains occaeioD-

ally dug up in the Ciy show that Londinium was a place of some pretenlions. It was probably even then the largest town in Britain. Perhaps its population may already have amounted to as many as twelve or fifteen thousand souls/