The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI- WEEKLY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1883

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1219, 12 January 1883, Page 2

The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI- WEEKLY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1883

The Buller News i& now published as a morning daily.

Dr Giles R.M. and Warden of Hokitika has been appointed a Fellow of the University of New Zealand, vice the Hon. H. J. Miller, M.L.C.

Monday, April 2nd, and Monday October 19, have been appointed the dates for the sitting of the Supreme Court at Hokitika.

The sittings of the Warden's Court at Reefton wiil open on Monday next, and the Magistrate's Court on the following day.

The new regulations relating to the leasing of lands, came into force on the Ist instant, and copies of the same may be had at the Warden's Office.

We regret to learn that a lad at Crushington, son of Mr Prentice, hotelkeeper there, dislocated his arm yester day afternoon through a fall.

Mr Fitzgerald, M.H.R., is on his way to Hokitika from Wanganui in order to deliver his post-sessional address.

Sir William Fox and Mrs Fox are now visiting the Hot Springs at Rotomahana. We regret to learn that Mrs Fox has been suffering from severe indisposition.

It was reported in town yesterday that a nice solid reef, of from Bin. to 12in. thick and carryirigrgood gold had been struck in the Sir Archibald Alison lease, Snowy River. Further particulars will no doubt come to hand before the end of the week.

An advertisement elsewhere in our columns under the hand of Mr Stead Ellis, Secretary of the Central Board of Education, fixes the hours and places for meetings of the householders of the Inangahua to elect school committees for the current year. The date of the elections has been fixed for Motfday 22nd instant.

Bishop Moran, if we are to credit the Press Association telegrams, intends to woo the sweet voices of the Peninsula electors for a seat in the House of Representatives. This is a new departure. The Right Rev. Dr Moran is a Denotninationalist of the severest type, and his candidature is due to the fact that Mr Donnelly, although a prominent Catholic, and one whom it was believed was a supporter of denominational education has, announced that he favours (like Mr Sheehan) the present national system.

Under the new Licensing Act any publican supplying drink to an intoxicated person, is liable to conviction and fine, but in spite of this prohibition cases of drunkenness are just as frequent in Reefton indeed as eveywhere else ,now as they were before the coming into force of the Act. All these cases of drunkenness of course mean so many breaches of the Licensing law, and although it may at times be difficult for a publican to know when a customer has reached the limit of legal repletion, still there must be many instances where the law on this point is knowingly disregarded, and it is high time that some check should be interposed. We are led to these remarks by a case which occurred in the Magistrate's Court, Reefton, on Wednesday last, when a man was brought up on a charge of being drunk and incapable. The evidence of Dr Collins Bhowed that the man when in the lock-up was suffering from delirium tremens arising from a'prolonged "spree," and it was some days before he was in a condition to appear bejfore the Court.

Mr 6. Thornton, C.E. announces in our advertising columns that he has commenced practice in Reefton, and may be consulted upon every description of civil engineering and surveying. Mr Thornton has been in active practice since 1845, and his name is associated with some of the largest railway, water and sewerage works and other engineering undertakings in England. In the year 1862 he was appointed Provincial Engineer of Canterbury, and held the position up to the date of the abolition of Provincialism. The breakwater and wharves at Lyttelton, Northern railway to Ashley, Rakaia bridge, enlarging and lining Lyttelton Tunnel, Malvern water works, East and West Coast road, and many other of the

large public works in Canterbury, representing an aggregate expenditure of some two millions, were designed and carried out by him, as well as a host of minor works throughout the colony. Mr Thornton therefore stands in the front rank of the profession, and we trust that his accession to the community will be as advantageous to himself as it cannot fail to be to the public.

Some members of the Licensing Bench for the Boatman's district appear to make light of their positions. Tuesday last was the day fixed for the quarterly meeting of the Bench, and Mr Lucas and Serjeant Neville proceeded to Capleston for the purpose of being present at the sitting. At the appointed hour there was no quorum and a message wis accordingly sent to one of the absent members requesting his presence, in order to deal with a long standing application, but he cooll y sent back word that he was too busy to attend, and the meeting therefore lapsed. This is, we are informed, the second consecutive meeting that has lapsed through the non-attendance of members.

The following is Mr Inspector Hodgson's report to the Central Board of Education upon the State School Reefton : Miss Morrison, Miss Moller, and a probationer. (Present, 171 ; on roll, 184.) This school had been deprived of the services of its head-master for more than a month before my examination, the work having been carried on in the meantime entirely by the two assistants, a probationer, and one of the elder scholars. It is much to their credit, and more especially to the credit of the senior assistant, Miss Morrison, upon whom the additional burden of labour and responsibility mainly fell, that the scholars should have acquitted themselves so well under circumstances so disadvantageous. I was prepared to make large allowance for failures, but very little allowance was needed. In every subject but one the scholars passed a better examination on this than on any former occasion, especially in the Third, Fourth and Sixth Standards. The exception was the arithmetic of the upper standards, which was of very poor quality. There was also a marked falling off in the discipline. The older scholars, as might have been expected, missed the firm hand of a master, and were noisy, and, as a necessary consequence, slow workers. Quick' work and silence usually go together. The discipline of the juniors also falls short of what I expect, and now almost invariably find in our larger schools. For this defect there is comparatively little excuse, the lower division being but slightly affected by the loss of the master.

We take the following from the Argus correspondent's report of the Ahaura races : — " The trotting match brought out a field of seven ; Duggan's Black Bess proved to be the winner. A little excitement was caused by the rider of a horse called The Cow during the Trotting Race. Immediately after the start, the rider of The Cow commenced to gallop his cow. The first time he passed the stand the Clerk of the Course charged him to stop, but he kept on galloping round the course, the onlookers thinking that The Cow'b rider must be an escaped lunatic ; but there seemed to have been a method in his madness. A clique of three or four held two tickets on The Cow in the totalisator, and the object was to get the animal first past the post and then claim the money. Before The Cow reached the winning post it was charged by a gentleman and the rider pulled off the horse. The rider used the butt end of his whip with some effect, a proceeding which ho may thank hia stars did not make him a fit subject for an hospital for some time to come. No doubt the Stewards will take steps to prevent a "cow " swindle on the course in future race meetings.

Mr Milner Stephen, who effects miraculous cures by the "laying on of hands" is now making a tour through New Zealand, and is expected to come to Reefton after exhibiting his healing powers in the principal centres of population. Mr Stephens is a barrister, over 70 years old, and is accompanied by his good lady, who has also arrived at a septugenarian age. He professes to have received his power to cure from Divine inspiration. There is no'doubt since his arrival in the colony) he has made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear and effected other marvellous cures. His advent to this coast will be eagerly watched for.

The Hon. W. Rolleston is at present making a tour through the Otago goldfields. Mr Rolleston as Minister of Lands has been somewhat successful, but as Minister of Mines up to the present, he has not been a success. He is full of promises, but his promises are seldom if ever fulfilled. In the neighboring colonies of Victoria and New South Wales, no Ministry would be permitted to exist, which did not include among its members one having a thorough and practical acquaintance with mining matters. In New Zealand, we have a Minister of Mines, whose time is principally occupied in advising his colleague, Mr Bryce, on Native matters and discussing new and novel ideas on land tenure.

It is rumored that when Ministers take the oaths of office before Sir Wm. Jervois, who is expected in New Zealand by the steamer Wakitipu in the course of a fortnight, there will be a re-arrangement of portfolios. What the charges will be has not transpired although it is understood that Mr Dick will be relieved of some of his duties which will be transferred to Mr Connolly, the Minister of

Justice.

The various Victorian gold-mining companies during the past year paid dividends to the amount of £863,000, being a large increase on the previous year. The quartz-mines paid £565,000, and the alluvial £293,000.

The last Government Gazette to hand contains the names of foriy-one candidates who passed, out of one hundred presented at the junior civil service examination in October last. Of the fortyone candidates ■ who passed, ten hailed from Wellington College, eighteen from Nelson College, nearly the whole of the remainder being scholars of either Grainmar or High Schools. Amongst the names of the successful candidates is that of Master James McKay, of the Reefton state school. The latter is the only state school pupil who passed the examination. This of itself is a highly creditable result, and taken in conjunction with the fact which we gather from Mr Hodgson's report that the percentage of passes at the Reefton State School during the past five years has never been under 90 per cent, and once as high as 96 per cent, goes to show that the local school In point of efficiency is certainly not behind, if not really in advance, of the other state schools throughout the colony.

Whether the fashion of selling one's wife was introduced from Smithfield to China or from China to Smithfield is (remarks the "Pall Mall Gazette") not known with certainty. In a China paper we read that a husband sold his wife for 130 dollars. It was a/ sale of affection. The man loved the wife, and she loved the man. The husband stipulated, however, for payment by instalments ; and on the deed of transfer being presented to j him he naturally refused to sign it till he ! had received all the money. There was an awkward legal hitch ; the wife belonged to him till he signed the deed. Acting on legal advice the buyer and wife saw one only way out of it. There is no action for specific performance in China. They drugged the husband, and inking his hands and feet, stamped the document. The happy pair had scarcely sat down to their wedding breakfast when the mother-in-law, accompanied by a mandarin, arrived, and they were both hurried off to separate dungeons. As in England, these sad cases bring their own bitter ends. The wife took opium and died, while the buyer committed suicide, and the husband is a widower and has lost 130 dollars. After these misfortunes he will probably do the same.

According to an exchange the latest astronomical observation has discovered vast cnnals connecting the great lakes and inland seas of the planet Mars, which Mr Proctor declares to be the work of intelligent laborers.

The vicar of Newchapel, Staffordshire, was ; summoned at the Hamloy Police Court foi kissing a girl, and " squarred " the case by paying the complainant £5 ss.

France having determined to substitute nickel for bronze for her small coins, has now to undertake the re-coinage of about £20,000,000 worth of * pence and halfpence.