THE The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 14, .1881.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 14 September 1881, Page 2

THE The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 14, .1881.

' The following letter received from Mr R. E. Gulline, of Tasmania, by a gentleman in town, will, no doubt, be read with interest : — "Sbvhoy (Nine-Mile Springs), August 82nd, 1881— Having now been a fortnight » Tasmania, and got myself into harness, I will make a start with you, to try and fulfil some of the many promises I made before I left, about letting you know what I think about the prospects of this country. To begin with I may say that from the little I have seen as yet the impression made is favourable. I received an appointment as mining manager within 48 hours after I landed and took possession to-day, aving stipulated to have a few days for a run round before commencing. Managers here are not expected to do any work, and are allowed to take the management of two or three com* panics if they can get them. From what I have seen, the place, to make the money <t in Launcestoo, the brokers there are doing a roaring trade*' and there is no scarcity of them either. They are floating fresh com* paniek both tin and gold every day, and they appear to go off flying. Since I arrived here the stock in one company, the "Victoria," has risen from £2 to £4, and they have not had a crushing vet, having only started to crush a week ago, and there are companies in the Mount Cameron district that have gone up to £7 per share which have not had a crashing at all yet. There are only four or five good claims opened as yet, and the shares are up to very big prices. A lot of money is being spent in prospecting mines and no doubt some of them will turn out trumps, and in the ordinary course many of them will not be so fortunate. The claim I am in is called the Land o* Cakes Company, 15 acres, in 15000 shares. They have got a reef at 60ft deep, 4ft wide and showing gold, say lOdwts per ton, and the shares are worth 6s. I ant starting to sink a new shaft to cut the reef at 100 ft. This will give yon a good idea of the value of shares in progressive mines in this part of the world. The only place that I have had time to visit besides this is Brandy Creek, now called Beaoonsfield. It is there the crack mine is situated, the Tas*, mania, and there is no doubt but that she is '•a stunner." They keep 40 head of stampers going, and average 2ozand Box per ton. The population of Beacontfleld is 1500, tnd of Sefroy (originally Nine-Mile Springs),' 1000. Launceston has a population of about 12000. Miners wages are £2 5s per week, and board and lodging costs 20s per week. There is every indication that the speculative fever will ran high here daring the conn ing summer, and there should be good chances for making money." We understand that the directors of the Low Level Tunnel Company have secured from the Government a promise of the loan of one of the diamond drills to be purchased in accordance with the recommendation of the Goldfields Committee. The directors are also negotiating with the Dauntless Com* pany for the use of their upper race as a motor for working an air-compressor. The Buller river has added another to its long list of victims, David Condy, Patrick Carey, and Thomas Clare were crossing the river in a canoe on Sunday last, when the boat eapsised. Carey and Clare managed to scramble ashore, but Condy was swept away and drowned. The deceased was well known in the lnangahua and Grey Valley, and was j for many years storekeeping at Black's Point. We observe that applications are still being lodged with the Waste Lands Board, Nelson, for land at Maraia. It is to be hoped that timely objection will be lodpod against the granting of all such applications. Although s good deal of capital was made both in the House and out of it at the fact ofMrWeston yotingwith the Government while disagreeing with their local government proposals, or as it was vulgarly expressed, '• spoke at both ends and voted in the middle," it seems that many members of the House were not above taking -a leaf out the same book in regard to the Represents* tion Bill, not because they did not hate the Government, bat bdoeuee they liked the measure. The ordinary half-yearly meeting of share* holders in the Homeward Bound Company. Boatman's, was held at the office of the manager. Mr Lee, on Monday evening, The report of the outgoing directors was read and received. The report drew attent tion to the improved prospects of the undertaking, owing to the circumstance of tie Welcome reef being followed towards the south boundary of the company's lease, and to the fitct that negotiations were pending for uniting with the adjoining companies, namely the Eureka, Occidental, and Specimen Hill in a scheme for driving <i low lerel tunnel from Boatman's Creek. The following were elected directors for the ensuing six months : Messrs Breen, Lecky, Bowman and Beeche. Mr Roulston was appointed auditor. Constant complaints are made by mining compnnies of damage done to watenracet through persons felling trees across them. In the case ot sidling races the injury thus occasioned ib often very serious, but up to the present time all offenders of tlu3 class have escaped detection end punishment. With the scarcity of tin ber, however, the evil i?

growing, and the time is at hand when .tome action.will have to be taken by the compauw* in common to put it down. The provisional committee appointed by the public meeting last week to take the preliminary steps for organising a Diamond Drill and rock-boring company, met at Damson's Hotel on Monday night The subject was very exhaustively discussed, and various proposals and suggestions were made to* the successful floating of the proposed company, but in the absence of an/ reliable data as to the exact cost of the maohine, and other matter i elating thereto the meeting' was adjourned till Saturday evening next. All available information will by that time have been obtained, and the projept will thereafter be submitted to the public in a tangible form. .■* The fire brigade concert last night passed off no less successfully than the former one, the hall being well filled. It is notified that owing to the inclemency of the weather Mr Bowman's sale of dairy cattle, which was announced for to-morrow, at Boatman's, has been postponed until Thursday, 22nd instant. The uninterrupted stream of immigration which flows into New York is one of the most eignificent facts of our time. Theoxodusia this year attaining unprecedented proportions. Most of the immigrants come from Germany driven outjof the Fatherland, they say, by 'poverty, military service and excessive taxes ;' while some who come from Posen say that they are flying from persecution. Three thousand three hundred Irish hare landed at New York since the month of June began, and, says the Daily News correspondent, < there is a constantly increasing proportion of skilled artisan* and families with considerable sums of money, who say they have been obliged to leave Ireland on account of the Laud League. They go directly west to Colorado and Nebraska, where they buy homestead! of uncultivated land. Mr Richard Beeves gave the following ye*« sion of the honorarium scandal before the Select Committee appointed by the Legisla* live Council :— Last session I happened to be in the lobby of the Bouse, and certain boa. members were there talking about the question of honorarium. It was about the time Mr Seddon's Bill was under consideration aS to the abolition of the honorarium, and hort. members talked about it, and said they thought they would get about one hundred, guineas. I said : Oh no ; I will guarantee £150. An hon. member of tfie Council said : 111 take it; I said I would give a cheque there and then for the £150, but he said : Ob, that is no matter. The understanding was that if over £160 was voted, I was to get the difference, and if aot so muflh t ■ was to make it up. Mr Wood was one of the gentleman. I don't feel justified in mentioning the other gentleman's name unless it is requested by .the Committee. 1 On being pressed Mr Beeves said it was the Hoo. Robert Campbell, and that at the end of the session he received from Mr -Campbell the amount id excess of the, £150, namely £39. The Hon. J. N. Wilson : Was the arrapgement carried out with Mr Wood? Mr Reeves : No. Intended writing a dote to Mr Wood before the end of the session. I thought no doubt that he h*d forgotten it. The other evening in the lobby it oame up quite accidentally. I think Mr Brownr mentioned it. I regret very much it came out if any unt pleasantness is likely to arise from it. Those are the plain facts as I remember:' Mr Wil* son : Was there any payment of money at the time ? Mr Reeves: 'No j there was no pay* ment. I offered a cheque in each case, but they said it did not matter just then about that. 'Mr Wood cross-examined Mr Reeves at considerable length. In reply to the question as to whether Mr Reeves bad ever asked him for the money, Mr Reeves said pointedly, I sometimes make bets with gentlemen. I never dun a man for abet unless I thought he had omitted it altor gether. The Hon W. Maatell! From the manner in which you say you treated this, you lead the Committee to imagine yon eon sidered it in the light of a bet ? Mr Reeves : That was actually it ; it ids guarantee almost in the light of a bet ; Sir W. Fitzherbert: In what shape was the vote passed, by a Bill or vote ? Mr Reeves : By vote of the House, I think ; Sir William Fitzberbert : Where you present at that vote | Mr Reeves : Yes i Sir William Fi'zherbert. M*v I ask what amount you voted for ? Mr R ;eves : I voted for the reduction. A San Francisoo paper, having been driven/ desperate by voluntary poetical contributors/ sounds this note of warning :— • We don't know exactly how newspapers were conducted at that distant period, but during some reoent excavations in Assyria a poem on the silver moon was dug, up. It was en* graved on a tile, and olos* v besides it were lying a large battered oluband part of a human skull. You may draw your own con* elusions,' There hadn't been a murder in the oity for nearly two days, when the news of the butcher's wife murder reached the offices of the dailies the other night. A pile of Bonanza stock would not have been more heartily welcomed by the reporters. They just bouncr d that murder for all it was worth. A perfect corruscation of sputtering gore flew from their pens as they worked up the imaginary details and converted maps of the Holy Land into diagrams of the ' scene of the Tragedy.' The foot that the murdered woman left a trail of blood behind her as she fled from home was a splendid opportunity for ' apt alliteration's artful aid,' and the headings next morning were a sight to behold 1 The Ghastly Gash made by a Gory Ghoul, The Bloody Blotches left by a Barbarous, Butcher's Brutality,' and 'The Terrible Tragedy Told by a Trail of Trickling I,if e . blood,' are only three instances of what the average leporter can do when his brain has lain fallow for forty-eight hours. For »he Bake of the three or four daily ebeets who each soloranly swear to having the ' largest circulation,' we sincerely hope that another murder will be committed before Monday end we'are willing to lay odds that our wish will

be fulfilled.— 3an Francisco Ncwtletter. Tbe Ballarat Courier states that the local reform league has completed arrangements for a monster demonstration in honor of the Hon. Graham Berry and his late colleagues on Monday, September 12. A con* ferenoe of delegates, representing the Liberal party,, from the surrounding districts will be beld on the same day. A letter received by the secretary on Saturday from Mr Bern states that he * trill endeavor to prepare a speech which shall be worthy of the occasion/ Suohisfame. It is said that Sir William Stawell, Chief Justice, of Victoria, was recently kept in pawn in a small bush pub in that colony, because the host would not cash his cheque. The landlord said he knew the ♦diggings,' but no ' Sir William.* The Bangiora Standard says ;— The next annual eleotions for the Parliament of the oolony of New Zealand will witness a new era in the bistort of representation, asrepresenta> tives will only be eleoted for a period of tbree years, and whether it will add new dignity to the country legislation remains to be seen. Some think not. Three years of legislative glory is. according to some members altorgether too ephemeral for • well regulated . ambition, A member will hardly have time/ to get the run of the Howe ropes, let alone shake bands with his confreres all round be« fore the legislature collapses, and the chanoes are that he will be relegated to the humdrum of private life, without being of use to his con* stituents or the country at large. There was a prospect, so some think, of a man doing something for himself and the country in five solid years. Who could name the moment when a member of the House might not be called to fill in a gap in the ranks of the Cabinet, with all iU emoluments and piokings and become a live member of the Government —not a dead one, stuffed with last year's straw— to which great office representatives consider they have a fight to look forward to in serving five years. When the sues mail left England the liquidators of the Oity of Glasgow Bank were inviting tenders for the interest which, they held in the New Zealand and Australian Land Company (Limited), amounting to about £348,403 preference 4 per oent. stock and £923,000 ordinary. For the former no tender less than £90 per cent. wo«ld be entertained; for the latter, nothing less than £63. The share list of the Oamara Wollen Factory Company is (says the NorfkOtago Times) rapidly filling Up, 7000 Shares having been taken up. A disposition has been manifested by the promoters to proceed with the establishment of the factor} so soon as 10*000 shares have been taken up, and there is strong probability that that number will be reached before a month has ended, A contemporary says :— One of theJeatures of this afternoon's debate was Mr Gisborne's incisive epigrammatic speech. He described the Ministry as ' * a Ministry reclining between two sides of the House and blindly groping on either side for support.' He implored them 'tot to dishonor their deathbed by an aot of spoliation.' Pointedly addressing the Speaker he said, with all res • pect, • I advise you to vacate that chair, and allow some minion of the Government to occupy your place.' At a reoent tangi, or mourning oeremony, held over a noted chief in the North Island, there was, as usual, a large assemblage and a * big drunk.' Orders, carte blanche, had been given to an undertaker to provide the de» ceased chief with coffin furniture of the best. Accordingly a coffin, bedizened with gilt laoe, 4c, was sent up. Amongst the usual ornaments was a gorgeous silver-gilt coffin-plate, duly detailing the name, age &0., of the deceased, which was greatly admired by the assemblage, and after a long discussion it was unanimously agreed that it would be disgraceful to bury such a splendid trophy. Forthwith the plate was taken off the coffin.the worthy rangitira duly interred, and at a recent Native Lands Court the eldest son of the deceased excited the enyy and admiration of the Court by strutting about with the coffins plate attached to his dignified person as a breast plate. The height of Mount Cook, as derived from the Trigonometrical survey of West* land, is 12,349 feet above sea level. Hitherto the supposed height was 13,209 feet. . "Recently a well-dressed Maori marched into a crowded restaurant in Wellington and signified his intention of dining. A waiter presented the bill of fare, and the Maori intimated that he would take ' sausages.' The waiter in the usual way, called out the order, viz.. ' sausages one ' whereupon the Maori created a sensation by shouting aloud in tones of great disgust,' What the good of one sausage. Kapai, five or six ! '