The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1882.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1191, 3 November 1882, Page 2

The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI- WEEKLY. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1882.

Mails for Australian Colonies per Arawata close at the Bluff to-day, at noon.

The members of the Heather Bell Lodge have decided to celebrate their anniversary by a ball and supper, to be held on the 30th instant. The advertisement reached us too late for this issue.

Scratch matches at cricket will be played in Smith's Paddock, this and to-morrow afternoon, at 4 o'clock sharp.

We observe that in several of the West Coast racing programmes fot the present year, the stake money is supplemented by sweepstakes. It might be well for our sporting neighbors to ascertain in time how far this case will bring acceptors within the purview of the Gaming and Lotteries Act.

Some misunderstanding seems to exist as to the exact situation of the find recently made on the Keep-it-Dark line of reef. It may be mentioned that the No. 2 South Keep-it Dark adjoins the Nil Desperandum on the south, and next, still further to the south comes the Pandora lease. But there was left at the time ,of pegging out a {triangular piece of spare ground, which was taken up by Mr Thorburn, and subsequently sold by him to the No. 2 South Keep-it-Dark Company. It is upon this latter area that the reef has been found, and as the stone is directly on the line of the Keep-it-Dark reef, little doubt is entertained that it will prove to be a very valuable discovery.

The weekly meeting of the members of the Executive Committee of the Reefton Railway League will be held in the Council Chambers, this evening, at 8 o'clock.

A very important piece of intelligence reaches us from the Maruia. It appears that Mr Charles Gassier and party, who for many monthß past have been working alluvial ground in the upper Maruia, some little time ago took advantage of the fine weather to prospect in the vicinity for quartz lodes. They were induced to do this from the fact that a large percentage of the gold obtained by them was intermixed with quartz,- and the result of their explorations was the finding of several quartz reefs in tne vicinity, one of which 4 was proved to; be gold bearing. They did no moire than break off some stone from the (Sap of the reef, as they had nothing but a pick to operate with. The gold is reported to beJine, but there is; not the least dpubt as to the gold bearing: nature of the lode. Near another of the reefs, in which, however, they could see no gold, a specimen was obtained which contained four or five penny-weights of gold, and this fact determined them to give the reef a more careful trial. With this object they came to Reefton and procured the necessary tools, and have since returned with the intention of putting in a cross-cut, to test the stone at a depth of some twenty or thirty feet from the surface. Mr Gassier, who is an experienced miner, informed us that the country bears every indication of a reefing locality, the formation being slatey, and bears a strong resemblance to the Murray Creek district. For obvious reasons the men are not anxious just at present to indicate the precise locale of the discovery, but sufficient that it is some 45 miles from Reefton in the direction of Christchurch, and within a very short distance of the Cannibal Gorge, and directly on the proposed route of the East and West Coast railway. This is really an important matter, as it proves the existence of auriferous lodes within a distance of some 70 or 80 miles of the Canterbury railway system, and should act as a strong incentive to the people on the other side of the range to push on the north western railway extension as quickly .as possible. It is further reported that several large Beams of coal have also been found in the same neighborhood. It is not generally known that there is a considerable population in the Maruia district engaged in alluvial mining, the workings consisting of sluicing claims, and some of the men are said to be earning very fair wages. In the course of a week or so we shall be in a position to furnish our readers with some full information relative to the discovery.

We are indebted to the Government Printer, Wellington, for the final instalment of the Acts of last session. They form a very bulky and important addition to the statute book of the Colony. The Registration of Births and Deaths Act Amendment Bill passed last session, and now in force, provides that if for any reason whatever, any parent haa ommitted or neglected to register the birth of an infant as required by law, he may now do so upon the payment of a fee of £1. The clause run 3as follows: — "Tt shall be lawful for the Registrar-General to register the birth of any child born in the Colony previous to th? period of 12 months before the date of the pausing of this ' ct, but whose birth hai not been previously registered." The following conditions are to be observed : — '> That satisfactory evidence on oath and such other proof as he may deem necessary of the fact, place, and time of birth, and of tho particulars of tho parents, shall bo sent to the Kegis-trar-General within twelve months from

the date of the coming into operation of this Act, that on application to have such birth registered, a fee of £1 shall be paid to the .Registrar." We are aware that there are inßeefton, as probably throughout the Colony, a large number of persons who have failed in this duty to their offspring, and the Act in question now affords them the opportunity of rectifying the omission.

An extaordinary meeting of shareholders in the Eureka Company was held at Kater's Hotel, on Wednesday evening last, to consider the action recently taken by the directors in changing the management of the Company. Mr A. M'Kay was in the chair, and about twenty shareholders were present personally, and the balance, with the exception of some eight or ten, were represented by proxy. At the request of some of the directors, a reporter foom this paper attended for the purpose of reporting the proceedings, but this course was not approved of by the majority of the meeting, who passed a resolution that the Press be not admitted, and the reporter consequently withdrew. The proceedings were, we believe, very stormy, and lasted for several hours, and ended in a motion being carried that the late legal manager, Mr T. Lee, be reinstalled. No other business was transacted.

It is really shameful that something cannot be done to rid the town of Reef ton of the truly unsupportable pest of vagrant animals. The nuisance has been slowly growing, until it is imperative that something should be done. At the hospital, great pains has been taken by Mr Preshaw to form and curb a footpath fronting Broadway, and this walk seems to be made a special nocturnal parade ground for all the stray waggon horaes and dairy cattle that roam the streets nightly, the consequence being that an hour or two daily is required to obliterate the tracks of the animals on the path. The annoyance caused to the patients nightly by the noise of the cattle is also a matter of grevious complaint by the Hospital attendants. Every day brings up a fresh crop of complaints by ownera of gardens against the ravages of goats, until it is quite evident that sufferers will simply have to resort to such a remedy as the exigencies of the situation may suggest. It ia only a day or two ago that some score of goats broke into Mr Beeches grounds and devoured almost every plant, besides utterly ruining a large number of valuable fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs, many others in the same neighborhood have suffered in the same manner, and in this way, a very large amount of damage has been done. If the owners of these pests will not take warning, there is but one course to take, and that is to urge' a war of wholesale extermination against the animals.

Of late there have been many complaints in other parts of the Colony of the difficulty of obtaining general details of the working and management of Beefton mining companies. Time jaras__when shareholders in Peefton companies were almost wholly confined to residents of the West Coast, and the proceedings of local directors were therefore w^ell known, bat within the last year or two interests have become so scattered through the Colony, that there is probably at the present time hardly a town in New Zealand which does not include among its inhabitants a number of persons directly interested in this field, and it is therefore worth the while of directors of companies here to consider whether something should not be done to keep people at a distance beiter informed of what is really going on in the management of companies. To publish the proceedings of every directors meeting would, perhaps, not be at all times expedient, but there is no reason why the weekly or monthly reports of the mine managers of each claim should not be published, either locally, or say in some one newspiper in Dunedin, and by doing this one great, and it seems to us reason able cause of complaint would be removed. This course is almost generally followed in Victoria, the Age newspaper, and we think the Argus also, publishing once a week supplements contaning manager's reports from nearly every quartz mining company in that colony. The proceedings of the half yearly meetings of the companies there are also published as they occur, jand thus shareholders residing hundreds of miles away from the mines are kept thoroughly au rourant in all that passes. In Reefton the mine managers' reports, unless they are particularly favourable, are never published, and there seems to be a strong repugnance to the attendance of reporters as half-yearly meetings. It must be confessed that the field has now outgrown this condition of things, and the sooner those here who have the control of mining ventures see the matter in this light the better it will be for the field as a whole.

The contractor for widening and other works at the slip on the Black's Point road, is now making good progress, and will, doubtless, finish the work in a few days. Drays can at all times pass, without having to go through the dangerous and risky sluice box.

The two men employed hy the Edinburg Company are progressing favorably, having already 2 seta of timber in. The ground is hard, and requires blasting. A small leader, of about 3 inches wide still continues in tlm Lisa.

At the Wealth of Nations mine the hands are still engaged getting out stone, and it is expected that crushing will be re-commenced at the end of the month.

Mr Gordon, the new Inspector of Mines, has lost no time in getting into harness, He has commenced his duties amongst the Otago mines, and we believe will next visit the West Coast. His salary is £460 per annum.

It is notified that a meeting of shareholders in the Bonnie Dundee Gold mining lease will be held at the Southern Cross Hotel, to-morrow evening at 8 o'clock sljarp.

At noon on Wednesday last an alarm of fire was given in Reefton, and at the same

moment a dense column of smoke was seen to rise in the direction of Breen's Hotel, a short distance • across the bridge on the Grey road. Before any .assistance could be rendered the whole place was wrapped in flames and in the space of a few minutes reduced to ashes. The fire ia supposed to have originated near the kitchen chimney, and the flames spread so rapidly that scarcely anything was saved. The place was, however, insured in the Imperial office for £300. Venus just now occupies a very prominent position in the western sky, being in the head of Scorpio, and forming part of the gigantic S by which the constellation is so easily recognised. The bright red star a little above her is Antares. On dit, that Mr William Lloyd intends to offer himself as a candidate for the Maynrality of Westport, and also that Mr Haselden will run again. There is a feeling abroad that some of the other businessmen of the place should allow themselves to be placed in nomination for this honorable position. Westport imes. We take the following mining items from the Westport Times :— A number of splendid specimens of gold-bearing quartz were brought down, frnm the Red Queen Company's ground, Mokihinui, on Friday, and have since been shown to many persons in town. The reef from which these pieces of quartz were broken off must be exceptionally rich. A meeting of shareholders in the Golden Crown Company was held at Mr Home's office, on Friday evening, when the following business was transacted : — Messrs Ray, A. Horn, Rasmussen, Sontgen, and Pain, were appointed directors and Mr Z. C. Home was appointed Legal Manager. It wa a resolved to send out men to prospect the lease at once. It is stated on very good authority that the statement made by the Mount Ida Chronicle in respect to Mr Stratford being superseded by Mr Dalgliesh is entirely erroneous. The attention of borrowers of umbrellas is called to the fact recorded in Truth, of London, that a man has recently been sentenced in England to eighteen months' hard labor, for stealing an umbrella.