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Inangahua Times, Volume II, 23 November 1881, Page 2

Quite a furore was occasioned in mining circles at a late hour last night by a report that etone of great richness had been met with in the Gelden Point winze. A number of persons who visited the mine during the alternoon all concurred in tbe opinion that no better stone has been seen in the district. It is also said that the reef is widening in tha winze. The intelligence caused quite a flutter amongst those interested in adjoining leases A largely attended meeting was held at Mir Brennan's office last night to consider the question of driving low level tunnel. AH the companies affected were fully represented, and after due consideration it was decided fehnt the Welcome 2, Occidental. Homeward Bound and Specimen Hill Companies should jointly drive a tunnel a distance of 2003ft, and a committee was appointed consisting of one director from each company, to carry out the pros ject. A meeting of shareholders in the Bonanza lease will be held at Mr Hind marsh's office* to-morrow evening. J The sharemarker still evinces a moderate degree of activity, and some heavy sales are | reported during the past few days, bufc operan Hobs are mainly confined to Welcomes- and Keep-it-Darks, both of which command firm prices. Tbore has not been uuich busi« ness doing of late in outside stocks, but this is partly explained by the fact that nearly all forfeitures have been redeemed, and conse* quently the market baa been left comparatively free of this class of scrip: Mr Conning, thr Otago agent of the National Mutual 'Life Association of Aus» tralasia, (Limited), has arrived in Reefton, and will bo glad to meet iutending insurers at M'Gaffin'a Hotel We have received a full report of the public meeting bold at Boatman's on Monday night last on the snbiect of telegraphic communication with Reefton, but it reached us too lute for insertion to-day. An influential committee was formed to give effect to the resolution* passed. The report will appear ! nn our Friday's issue, A lnrgfly attended meeting was held at C)>p!eston on Monday night, for the purpose of obtaining an expression of opinion as to the urgency of the establishment of telegraph I communication with Boatman's. It v/119 resolved that immediate steps be taken to lay the matter before the Government, and a memorial embodying sufficient and reasonable grounds for claiming nn extension of the telegraph system to tho district was numerously signed, and will be forwarded to headquarters. The great and increasing importance of the district fully warrants the inhabitants in strongly urging their cluim, pind as n 'oop line from the Reefton•■West-

! poit lino nt Cronadun could be constructed at ! comparatively email cost, owing to the fact j that the distance is only about 4 miles along an already cleared road line, and that sufficient material belonging to the department is at hand, it is to be hoped that the Government will at once acede to this very reasonable demand, and take immediate steps for constructing the line. The next English and Europeaan Mail via San Francisco will close at the Bcefton Office on Monday, the 28ih day of November, at 7 a.m. TheLyon's Tourists had an ovei flowing house on Monday evening last, on the occasion of young Parlato's benefit, and the per* formance went off very successfully.. They roadp their farewell appearance lastniuht to ft good house, and left by coach for We^tport this morn ing.. The company is one of tbe best that has yet visited Reefton, and we are glad to learn that they were successful beyond expectation. The annual celebration ball and supper of the Heather Bell Lodge will be held in Dawson's Hall on Friday evening next. The gathering promises to be a very brillant one, and will no doubt be very 1 argely attended. Mr C. Lemon, Commissioner of Tele* graphs, nnd Mr Mucaiister, Superintendent of line construction, arrived in town last night. Wb were in error it peems in stating that Mr Rae had been delegated by a number of Dim 9(l in gentlemen to report upon the quartz reefs of the Inangahaa, Tbe gentlemen thus appointed is Mr Rowe, of Nelson, whose name is familiar in connection with numerous geological and mineral ogical reports of this colony. Mr Rowe has been in Bee/ton eoTe weeks, and has already visited many of the leading mines, and we believe we are eowrct in stating that the highly favorable reports he has been able to furnish from tbe inspected mines has had a good deal to do with the heavy investments recently made here by Punedin capitalists, The new County Council will hold ita first, meeting to-day, for the purpose of appointing a Chairman for the ensuing twelve month?, A wonderful serpent, known a3 the glass snake, divides the honors with the toad in making the upper Brazil and Western Texas an interesting field for the naturalist. It is from two to four inches long, has a striped back, and is not dangerous. When attacked by a foe, instead of fighting back, it emulates the possum or skunk in using ttratagem. To the utter astonishment of its enemy, it breaks up into a dozen pieces, each part d'etincfe in itself, lying on tbe ground apparently dead. Sometimes the pieces are a foot apart. On the disappearance of the^foe, they gradually come together and the snake crawls away. Cbernbino, tbe correspondent to the London Figaro, says :— ' The Chinese Theatre in San Francisco stands in one of the. principal streets in the Chinese quarter, and is entered through a narrow and dirty passage. The doorkeeper, who receives tho half dollar entrance money, is the only Caucasian about the establishment. From him I learned that the performance lasts from six in the evening till about tbreo in the morning — an hour and a half of it was quite enough for me The theatre is semi-circular and has one gallery — the stage occupying the whole diameter of the semicircle, and being merely an open platform, without proscenium, curtain, or scenery. The whole place is absolutely devoid of decoration, and is moreover unspeakably dirty.- It seemed as if it had been imported direct from China, where it stood uo dusted since the days of Konfut«se&. The audience was not very numerous, and wa3 composed eati?ely of Chinamen, who sat and smoked cigarettes with suoh stolidity that they seemed absolutely unconciousofwhat was passing on the stage. Applause was unknown — amusement and emotion were equallv absent — there was not; even the smallest sign of interest discoverable. We Western barbarians, who understand not a word of what was said, were the only" persons who shewed the dimmest conciousness that anything was being performed. The precautions taken at Wodonga, says the Border- Post, to fumigate passengers to and from Sydney have proved very unpleasant. to travellers. Besides having the railway carriages thoroughly saturated with tha fumes ot brimstone, the custom has been to place a pan of the burning material (flowers of sulphur) in the doorway of the lobby, so that everyone passing from the train to the coaches outside waiting to convey them to Albnry should get a dose of it. Publicans and brewers do not seem to be aware that it is necessary to cancel stamps under the Beer Duty Act before contents are drawn. At the Milton Court on Tuesday last we learn from the Bruce Herald. Michael Kett, hotelkeeper, was charged with knowiDgly drawing beer from a cask containing the same before destroying the stamps fixed thereon, [t was pleaded on his behalf that he did not know it was necessary ty cancel the stamps until the tap was withdrawn. Mr Carew said this was an offence which was now repeatedly being committed Casks with undefaced stamps upon them might be seen daily at almost every railway station. Th« full penalty was £50, but he thought a small penalty would meet the case, and be sufficient to draw attention to the provisions of the Act. Defendant was fined in the mitigated penalty of 30s. An amusing story (says the Auckland Star) cjme* from one of the Northern settlements which amongst other estimable institutions is blessed with a post-mistress. This lady ia ip the habit of allowing her fowls \o wander along the sacred precinots of the post-office, A short time ago, a man called for hi9 letters just at the inopportune time when the favorite black hen had taken possession of the letter ' box, as a preliminary to depositing an egg. The lndy in charge made no bones about the matter, but told the man he would have to wait, and wuit he did till a ,joyou3 cackling announced that the box could be approached without fear of disturbing the posl-mistress's pef. The New Grand Stand of the C. J C Christcburch. is 144 feofc loiig and 30a deeo

built of etonc, brick anil iron, vcith sitting room for 600, and standing room for 400 m or3. It « approached from the course by seven flights of steps. The front is sup* ported by iron pillurs. Tho saddling paddock & c -> 1199 bflen enlarged and a building set ap art * or * n * P reßß an d telegraphists surmounted by a little stand for them. It is not however, in a very good position. The railway platform is extended to a length of 600 feet. After Mass at St Mary's Catholic Church, Nelson on Sunday morning, the 16th ultimo., the Rev. Father Mahoney rend a circular from His Lordship Dr. Eedwood appointing a special Sunday for a collection throughout tbe Colony to erect buildings at Nelson for tbe Catholic orphauß of New Zealand. — Weatport Times. A daring robbery lias been perpetrated at Kadino, a town about i)6 miles north-west of Adelaide. The premises of Mr B. E. Walters, draper, were . broken into on Tuesday night, and about £200 worth of jewellery was stolen. The Lyell Times of Saturday says :— Mr J. Ot, Blackett, Resident Engineer for Nelson district, arrived from Nelson last evening. He drove through in a buggy, being the first to muke the through trip per vehicle over the new main road. The object of his visit was to pasa t-h© Matira contract, and he informs us that the work has been carried out most satisfactorily. The road was taken over Jrom the contractors, Messrs Cullen and May, recently. Mr Blackett has also taken levels &3., at the sites of the proposed bridges over the Matira and Hope rive'B. The Sandhurst mines produced £340,000 worth of gold this half year, and paid £135, 000 in c ividends. There are 22 applications for Mining Leases in the Lyell Biding (says the Buller Miner) all awaiting survey. There has been deposited with the applications over £200. It is time the Government should have done something further than simply receive the deposits. The Arrowtown Obser>er of a lite date says: — Two thousand two hundred and thirty-four ounces of melted gold from 400 tons at Ohinemuri has directed attention to that district. The result was 2,0370zs from the Smile oi Fortune, 119ozs irom tho Lucky Hit, and 78ozs from the Waitekauri Heatman's Tribute. Bishop Kedwood has addressed the following letter lo the Tablet, hoping that it may serve to J|ide Catholics in their votes at the coming elections: — 1. It is a notorous fact that Catholics in New Zealand, as a body, are clear and unanimous on this vital point : that in comparision with the education question, all other differences of opinion sink into insignificance, Libaral versus Conservative, LanJ Tax versus Property Tax, Grey versus Hall— nil these dispute* are iu their minds of comparatively litt'e moment. 2 Accordingly, in the next elections, they will conform to the following rulfes :— First, whenever out of two or more suitable candidates one or other publicly declares his willingness to do justice to Catholic, claims, Catholic electors will give him their votes against the secular candidate. Secondly, in case the candidates are all secular, Catholic electors will, at their own discretion, cither vota for no candidate at all, or vote, according to their judgment, for the least obnoxious one in other reupects. It does not seem expedient that Catholics, in the present circurmtauces, should in all places practi-r cally disfranchise themselves by systematical voting for no candidate when all those in the field are seculars. But they should effectively remember at tho polling booth their known opponents in the past- By the observance of these lules, Catholics will, in my opinion, sufficiently discharge their duty to the main question of education, and while doing their utmost to obtain the redress of their present galling grievance, will not show themselves indifferent to other important questions in which, with their fellow citizens, they ara necessarily interested.