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Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1134, 18 October 1882, Page 2

A meeting of the Reefton Jockey Club was held on Monday evening, when a very fair attendance was present. The only business was to consider the alterations and improvements of the stand. These were agreed on, and tenders for the work ordered to be called for. These will close on Monday next. The telegram from Westport, appearing in another column, contains good news indeed for the residents in the district, as well as for the Coast generally. The Guiding Star seems to have struck very rich stone, and the shareholders arc no doubt jubilant. An excellent proof of the confidence that is being created in the Westport district is the fact of G7 leases having been applied for within its boundaries during the present year. At the peculiarly named Rough and Tumble creek it seems very payable stone has been found, and six leases are about to be applied for. A very sudden death occurred on Monday morning last, Mr Jacob Schmidt Wildt, better known as Mr Schmidt, who has for nearly seven years been assistant to Mr Gissing «f this town, having been found dead in front of his cottage. Full particulars appear in another column in the report of the inquest. The deceased was a Dane by birth, born at Odeuso on Fyen. He served lu3 apprenticeship to a chemist in his native town, and afterwards took the B. A. degree in theoretical and practical chemistry at the Copenhagen University, and held its diploma. He was an excellent musician, and was a member of the Conservatoire of Music, Vienna, and was master of several instruments, though he chiefly, and greatly excelled as a violinist. This accomplishment ho turned to account of Lite years and at many a social gathering he will be jnissed in time to come. Ho was one of the class who have no enemies but themselves, and was liked and respected for his good nature and readiness at all times to assist in any charitable entertainment that might be got up. It is supposed that he was suffocated, as the medical evidence showed, whilst in a fit. He had one a year or so ago, but medical help was obtained and he recovered. The funeral will take place at 3 o'clock this day. Some consternation was caused in a girl's school at Nelson the other day by the entrance of a stalwart and excited female, who marched up to the head teacher and struck her several blows in the face, making her mouth bleed. It appeared that she was the mother of one of the girls, and was aggrieved at her child having been punished. The affair has been reported to the School Committee. The Wellington correspondent of the Press believes he is warranted in stating that it is the intention of the Government to take, almost immediate steps towards the initiation of the direct steam service sis authorised by Parliament last session, and that unless anything should intervene

to prevent this being done, it is probable I tho advertisement calling for tenders will be issued next week. It is contemplated I tlnvt the advertisement shall appear simultaneously in Great Britain and New Zea- I land, possibly also in Australia. With ft view to ensure the utmost fairness in the competition the advertisement will first lie sent home with instructions to the AgentGeneral to acknowledge receipt by cable directly it roaches him. Immediately on a cable nii^-agc being received to this effect from Sir Dillion Bel), the advertisement will be published in the colony. Ministers of course are limited by Parliament to a maximum subsidy of £20,000, and it is understood they hold themselves bound not to exceed that sum, but he believes they have reason to anticipate that no serious difficulty will be experienced in arranging for a very satisfactory service on these terms. A Wanganui paper says that a great deal of annoyance is caused there by a number of beggars who go from door to door soliciting money, and in one or two cases their demands have been accompanied by threats of violence. " Civis " in the Otago Witness remarks : "There is no class in the colony more entitled to sympathy than our M.H.R.'s — for tlie first two weeks after the close of the session. Up in Wellington they are all great men, law-makers, guardians of the State, very superior persons indeed, nay, the collective wisdom of this great nation that is to bo. They would be more than human if they were not a little pulled up in their own mind while they sit as demi-gods and weild the destinies of such an important branch of the British Empire. But the moment Parliament is prorogued the spell is broken and they become as other men, not a whit wiser or greater than their neighbors, the three letters which attend so dutifully on their sweet names having no longer any more magic in them than A. B.C. The very thought of them in solemn conclave is awful, but when I meet them single, or even in little knots of two or three, I can look 'em full in the face and I confess I can no more discern a -lalo round the head of Mr Fish or Mr Bracken, or even Mr W. Green, than I can see the sun at midnight. lam thankful to he delivered from my burdensome veneration, but none the less do I pity the objects of my disenchantment. What a change, to be sure, from the 'ampler ether, the diviner air' of the Wellington Olympus to the common day as it shines or drizzles — sa}*, in Dtinedin or Invercargill; or from Bellamy's to a common tap-room! Who would not pity a poor M.H.R. during these dis-illusiouizing weeks 1 Indeed, but for the honorarium jingling in his breeches pockets he would be of all men most miserable — till the glory fades quite away, and he gets reconciled to the sober realities of life."