THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1881.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 20 May 1881, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1881.

After a deal of delay Mr C. Y. O'Connor's Report upon the €hristchur.ch«Greymouth railway route via Maruia, tins been prepared and forwarded to the Government. We yesterday received the following telegram on > the sutject from Mr T. S. Weston, Chair* man of the Bailway Committee, Christchurch :— " Government .telegraph that Mr C. Y. O'Connor's Report on West Coast Railway route has arrived in Wellington, and will reach here shortly." We have not as yet heard anything as to the bearing of the Report, but full information on the sulject will reach us in the course of a day or so. The Golden Treasure Company, Murray Creek, started crushing on Wednesday last, and will be kept going for some time. Sailors have a rooted superstition against parsons as passengers, and when the Tararua left Dunedin the other day. having on board tWe Australian representatives at the Wet* leyan Conference, the seamen were indulging in a little chaff at the fact of so mnny clergy* men being on board, when one of the crew remarked that if the steamer got to Mela bourne safe that tiip, h« would never believe in the superstition again. Mats, the New Zealand hone, is first favorite for the Adelaide Cup. The census returns give the population of the electoral districts of the Colony at 486 861, which with that on shipboard and at Chatham Islands brings the total up to 489,561. The Greymouth Star states authoritively that Mr C. Woolcock and Mr J. Morris will contest the vacant seat for the Grey Valley with Mr FitzGerald, and considers it not improbable that Mr F. Hamilton will consent to be nominated. Mr William Gardner has b9en appointed by the Just-in-Time Co., to make a survey of the mine, and report upon the most advisable means of raising stone from the low level. The itone just crushed from the deep level has been proved to be highly payable, so that it is probable the company will now enter upon the erection of permanent winding gear. The Chinese have established a camp on the short track to Boatman's in the vicinity of Painkiller, and some two hundred of them have erected what are no doubt intended for permanent huts. Europeans travelling between the two places don't quite relish having, to pass the locality after nightfall, but this feeline will no doubt soon wear away. The Chinamen themselves lay that ihere is room for 600 more of their countrymen in the Jnangahua. We understand that Mr G. G. F'tzGerald left Wellington on Wednesday last, for the West Coast, and would therefore probably reach Greymouth to-day. . There was a sitting of the Magistrate's and Warden's Courts yesterday, but the business was unusually light. There was the usual batch of applications by Chinamen for alluvial rights, showing that they are surely investing all the alluvial ground, and fastening on to all available water rights. Mr Curtis, Counties' Auditor for the Provincial District of Nelson, visited Reefton on Tuesday last, and subsequently audited the accounts of the Inangahua County Council. Mr Curtis left for Greymouth this morning. The friends of Mr Carreras will be sorry to learn that be has been in ill-health for many months past, and now lies in a very danger* ous condition. The Government and Mr Hans Jaeobsen have come to agreement in regard to the sale by the latter of a portion of section in Sin-namon-street, required for construction of the northern approach to the bridge. This difficulty, which bas so long delayed the progress of the work, being now removed, every effort will be made to get the bridge out of hand at the earliest possible date. Messrs W. Cochrane and Sons, are the successful tendeters for the construction of the dray bridf o over the Orawaiti river, 'on the Reefton-Westort road. Mr Joseph Ivess has published still another paper, this time an evening journal ' The i Wairarapa Evening Star,' at Masterton. Alluding to the Tararua disaster in sermon delivered on a recent Sunday, by a Rev. Mr Sidey, he said he recognised in it a judgment from Heaven, and said that by overwork the company had lowered the morals o{ their wen. The company also manifested supreme contempt for the breaking of the divine law, and the moral well-being of some of the communities with whom their trade brings them in contact, in their treatment of the Sabbath. To this ihere has scarcely been a matter of protest on the part of those communities whom they afflicted. They had been left to pursue their own way regardless of any claim of heaven or earth. Whether due to the prospect of railway communication being established between the East and West Coast, or tt fresh discoveries, we notice that a revival of interest is manifested in the silver mines at Mount Rangitoto, below Hokitika; The rent on all the leases there has just been paid up. Six years ago we reported that unmistakable traces of native silver had been found in the vicinity of the Cannibal Gorge. The indications were undoubted, but in the all-pervading reefing excitement of the time the discovery was not followed up, and has since slipped out of notice. There could not be a better time than the present for returning to the search, for should the deposit even approaoh to what was represented at the time, it would be of prodigious value. A sale of yearling colts and fillies was held at Randwick (says, the Sydney f>aily Telegraph) on Tuesday last. The highest prices given' were: — 1205 guineas, by Mr A. A. Danger, for a bay colt by Yattendon, out of Lady Chester ((he dam of Chenter and many other celebrated horses) ; and 1001 guineas was accepted for a brown dlly, a sister to

Grand Flnneur, Mr W, A. Long being the purchaser. The Femhill yearlings having been disposed of, the vourg-ters of Tocal were submitted to auction, but the prices realised were not up to exoectations : but a grey colt, a brother to Spinningdale, foa'ed in November,, 1879, found a purchaser in Mr W. A. Long, who secured the eon of Sappho at 1450 guineas. j The Rangtikei Advocate has the following remarks with regard to the recent Sports held at Marton:— "The Wanganui Herald, not B'ltisfiud with baying done its utmost to injure the Marton Easter spor(j in Wa-^gaaui dealt very unfairly in its report of them. It ttatea that the attendance did not number ' more than 700, whilst, as a matter of fact, there were fully 1 200 persons present. It dealt in the same unfair spirit with the handicapper, by insinuating that the handicaps were of such a character as to deprive all but professional of a chance of winning. This is quite incorrect, for the handicaps were in every respect worthy of the high reputation of Mr Pollock as a handicapper. The time was first-class, and, though Webber and , Woods were very successful, that was due to their intrinsic, merits. As long, as professionals are^alfowed to compete, they musf j not be handicapped out of all chance of winning. It would be just as wise to so over* weight a crack horse like Grand Flaneur as to deprive him of all hope of passing the winning-post first. People really like to see good racing, and the people who attended the Marton sports were certainly not disappointed." A case presenting more than ordinary pecu> j Harities was reported in the Melbourne Argus a few days ago:—* Some months ago,' says our contemporary, ' the justices at Melbourne directed a person, named Collins, to find security to pay a sum for the maintenance of his wife for twelve months. Collins lived at Greymouth, New Zealand. His wife and be had been living apart from each other for several years, she apparently having left him voluntarily. In October last he left New Zealand for Melbourne, taking a return ticket to New Zealand by the steamer. His wife heard of his departure, and believing that he did not intend to return to New Zealand, but that he meant to proceed to Scotland, she followed him to Melbourne, and had him arrested on a charge of leaving her without any means of support. The magistrates made an order directing him to give security for payment of maintenance, and an application was subsequently made to set aside this order, on the ground that there was no proof that the wife had no means of support. The Court on April 13 decided that there was no evidence that the wife had no means to support her, and, therefore, quashed the order made against the husband It was statedhusband and wife had returned to New Zealand by the same steamer shortly after the order of the Police Court was made ; so ,that, practically, the objeot of the application was to get out of Court a sum of money that had been lodged in lieu of security for costs.' The Evening Post of the 29th instant says : —A very heavy northerly gale was experienced in. the Wairarapa last night and this morning. It was felt with especial severity at Fea.thers.ton, where packipg-oa|es and sheets c/ iron, &c., were carried about in wild confusion, and in the railway station yard, goods waggons, with the brakes hard down, were blown out of sidings and along the line while all loose articles were scattered in every direction. On the Bimutaka Incline this morning a perfect hurricane was blowing when the Masterton train passed toward town, the most furious gale experienced since the fatal accident of last September. Two Veil engines were attached to the train, and the breakwinds proved thoroughly efficacious in protecting it. But for these safeguards, however, we might have had a repetition of the formsr catastrophe, for a(; one pojnt a gust of wind caught the trading engine, and actually tore off the heavy iron sliding door of the cab, the rod on which it slides being smashed like a pipe-stem. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and the train reached the summit with* out further mishap. A peculiar case came before (he Sandhurst Police Court the other day when the manager of a mining company was charged with having unlawfully imprisoned j. E. Reardon, draper, and Philip Young, engine cleaner on the Victorian railways, in the mine for a period of an hour against their will, and without any legal warrant or authority, or reasonable excuse. The prosecutors were shareholders iv the company, and on the date named, having procured from the legal manager an order to descend the shaft, proceeded to the mine, and the defendant being absent, they presented the order to the brace* man, who permitted them to go below. After inspecting the stone, which had lately been struck, they remounted the ladders ; but in the meantime tjje ipjning manager (M'Donnell) had returned, and hearing that the prosecutors were below, he battened down the mouth of the shaft, and kept the two men standing on the ladders about an hour. After hearing the evidence, defendant was committed for trial, bail being allowed. Last week Mr Brunton, of Otara Station, had no lees than sixty visitors, all of whom had lost friends or relatives by the Tararua i ■ ■ disaster. The Gippsland Mercury, referring to the Boers, says :— " We are informed by a gen« tleman who has been resident at the Cape, and who often came "in 'contact with the Boers, that they are an ignorant, lazy, and brutal people. They have nothing of the British perseverance. In fact, our informant describes the Boers to be real chips of the old phlegmatic Dutchman in disposition, with a considerable cross of the savage. Although pretending to have a great love of liberty for themselves, they treat the poor Kaffirs in every way as slaves ; and the only virtue our informant gives them the credit of possessing is that of being good shot 3 with the rifle, in consequence of their supplying their larders to a great extent with game by their prowess in this respect." Captain Q-armrd wii9 a son of M> Joseph Garrord, an officer in the Revenue Service at

Horn?, and wa9 born on March 2nd; 1852. When about eleven years of age he entered i he Royal Naval School at Greenwich, and here he studied bo successfully that at the age of fourteen he was admitted to the Nautical Schools to receive a course of instruction in navigation and nautical astrons omy. At the finul examination he came out at the head of the list, and received a special recommendation of the Admiralty for six months' further tuition. When he left the schools be was head captain of his company, and carried with him the respect of all who knew him, both master* and boys. He entered Lidgett'a line of ye€«els. and served five yeara' apprenticeship, visiting during that time the principal commerc'al ports of the world. During his career as thi.-d mate he was wrecked in the ship Humber on an island in the Baj of Fundy, but fortunately no lives were lost, and this may be attributed mainly to his exertions after the crew had succeeded in effecting a landing upon a most inhospitable shore. The disaster occurred in the depth of winter, and the men suffered considerably from drownsiness, caused by the intense cold and the drink taken ashore with thenf. Captain Gairard, who then was, and fas always beeuj a total abstainer, appears to ha?e_i^U^y)|y£y^k^ withstand the cold. He succeededTnmaking I his way over the frozen cliffs and through the snowdrifts to a fisherman's cottage where he gave information of the accident, and the men wero rescued. Capt. Garrard subsequently gained some experience in steam navigation in the Mediterranean, and came out to this colony about fire years ago in the Dilhawar to 'Wellington. He went with the?vessel to Adelade on the return journey, but there he succeeded in obtaining his disoharge. witb the intention of finally settling in the colonies. He joined the Hawea as second mate, and obtained rapidjpromotion,"being shifted from one boat to the other at frequent intervals. Captain Garrard was chief officer of the Taupo on the occasion of her loss at Tauranga, and bis coolness and presence of mind on that occasion will be remembered. He tben returned to Dunedin, and was appointed to the command of the Ladybird and subsequently of the Albion. On the occasion of the changes in the Tararua, consequent on the gold robbery some two months back, he was transferred to that vessel—Canterbury Press.