The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI- WEEKLY FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1883.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1222, 19 January 1883, Page 2

The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI- WEEKLY FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1883.

Mr Gilbert, dentist, will leave for Greymouth on Monday morning next, ■At a meeting of the stewards of the Reefton Jockey Club held on Wednesday evening last, the opening day of the Autumn meeting was fixed for Easter Monday. We publish elsewhere addresses by Mr D. 0. Preshaw and Mr R. Patterson to the electors of the Reefton School District. The nomination of candidates for school committee takes place in the State School on Monday next. His Honor Judge Broad is expected to reach Reefton to-morrow, and the sittings of the Distriot CouH here will open on Monday next. The list of cases both civil and criminal, set down for hearing is an unusually heavy one, and the business will probably occupy several days. A good idea of the injury the Inangahua is suffering through the want of rain is conveyed by the number of applications made in the Warden's Court, on Monday last, for protection of alluvial and quartz claims rendered unworkable owing to scarcity of water. The whole of the sluicing claims in the Soldiers' and Maori Gully district, are now "hung up," and some hundreds of men must thus be reduced to temporary idleness. The present drought is quite unprecedented in the history of settlement in the Inangahua. In the Warden's Court on Wednesday last, the County Chairman applied on behalf of the Council, "for a right of water in Auld's Creek, near Pluck's Point, and race commencing in the creek named, and terminating on the South side of Inangahua river, opposite Bridge-street, foijtown water supply. The Warden said he had no power to make the grant in the order presented. The application would have to be made in accordance with the 31st section of "The Mines Act." The application was accordingly withdrawn, and will be again brought on in the required form. According to the Government statistics recently published, the gold export of New Zealand from 1857 till December 31, 1881, amounted to £38,365,012. The gold export last year was £1,002,720, thus making a grand total of £39,367,732 worth of gold exported from this' colony since its first discovery at Coromandel. The Wellington press has been for a lengthened period boasting of the successful floating of the Wellington-Manawatu railway Company and urging the settlers of the Middle Island, if they desired to connect the East and West Coasts by rail, to take a leaf out of their book, and form a company for the purpose. If we had placed any reliance on their statements, we should have believed that nearly all the capital required had been subscribed in the Wellington provincial district, and there was no doubt as to the undertaking being carried to a successful issue. It has, however, recently transpired that this much vaunted company is already in financial straits. The only money raised is a loan of £50,000 raised from the Wellington Trust and Loan Company, which will soon be absorbed. An attempt Jto float a loan in Victoria to carry on the work having failed, the Directors, taking advantage of Sir Julius Vogel's visit to the Empire city, have secured his services to raise a loan in the London market. It is the general impression that either in the next or the following session of Parliament, the company will attempt to foist their undertaking on to the colony. " Asmodeus " in the New Zealand Mail writes: — "And the biter was bit as he often had been before. 'Tw.is just prior to a jolly meeting of a robust joint stock company that a particularly wide awake would-be shareholder put in an application for a certain numbur of shares and then proceeded to take steps to oust some of the provisional directors, whom his soul loathed, by scuriu^' vi! the posi^a

he could. With touching consideration, allied to modesty, he applied to many of the friends of the doomed directors, and by dint of clever and reputable misrepresentation, secured their proxies and smiled blandly as he though c of the 'do ' that was on the boards. He was right too, only the ' do ' did not happen quite exactly as he expected. For by some means a shareholder winded the affair and put the directors up to the little game and they euchred the plotter by simply declining to allot him any shares. A staff of workmen was sent to Boatman's this morning for the purpose of erecting the telegraph posts and wires to connect Capleston with Reefton. It is expected that by the Ist of February Boatman's will be in telegraphic communication with the rest of the Colony. The following are the cases sat down for hearing at the sitting of the District Court on Monday next. Regeina v. O'Neill (appellant), Savage v. Clifford ; Hooker v. Kater ; There is also one case in the original jurisdiction under the Mines Act, and several applications for rectification of share-registers, besides several motions under the Mining Companies and Bankruptcy Acts. The stewards of the R.J.C. met last night to consider tenders invited for printing and advertising in connection with the forthcoming races. The following tenders were received, Inajjgahua Times, £15. Herald, £8, the tender of the latter was accepted. A disastrous fire occurred at Ahaura on Wednesday evening. It commenced in the building lately used for the Convent Bazaar, and before assistance could be rendered the place was wrapped in flames. Bank's smith shop adjoining, and a private cottage, next caught and were soon beyond all aid. The fire spread up the street, burning all the houses up to Kennedy's Hotel, the latter being saved with great difficulty. It is said that some six or seven houses in all were destroyed, including McLaughlin's Hotel, and the. only insurance as yet reported is a small sum on Mr Bank's premises. An alarm of fire was given last night, and a groat rush took place in the direction of lower Church-street, where it was found that a cottage occupied by Mrs Stanton was on fire. Assistance was at once rendered by the public and the fire gqt under before much damage was done. At a farewell dinner given to Mr Herbert Spencer in New York, his reply to the toast of his health was a criticism of the individual characteristics of Americans. The burden of his speech was that with Americans work is a passion, and even deaths from overwork are not infrequent. Their hair is grey 10 yoars earlier than is the case in England. Relaxation becomes with them a physical impossibility. The result is to impair the physique of the nation, and this evil would become worse each generation. A man's constitution should be regarded as an entailed estate. An -excess of labour was irrational, like the miser's useless gold. It was high time to preach the gospel of relaxation. He confessed to an anxiety leat the decadence of the race should impede the development of the nations great futme. The Wesport Times says : — Some passing excitement was caused yesterday by the bolting of the Reefton coach team, just previous to the commencement of the journey. The two leaders are young horses, unused to the work, and are consequently very restive. When the driver was stowing away some luggage the horses started off ; the reins broke away, and thus all control was lost. Dixon (the driver) jumped off, with the intention of heading the Runaways, but they soon outpaced him and everybody ehe on footDixon and Geo. Holmes went in pursuit on horseback and were successful in bringing the team to a standstill in the heavy sand at the Overflow, about four miles from the pLace where they started. The coach was not injured in any way. It was brought back to town, passengers, luggage and mails taken on board, and a start made without any further trouble. It is a matter for surprise that all the corners along the road were negotiated by the driverles3 horses in safety.