The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1883.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1246, 16 March 1883, Page 2

The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1883.

Mr. Weston's resignation of the Inangahua seat in Parliament, about which some of our contemporaries have been so sorely perplexed, has at length reached the hands of the Speaker of the House, and as soon as it is gazetted, and the prescribed period of ten days thereafter '. lapses,, the new writ will be issued It may be late in the dr.y now to explain why the resignation has been so long in reaching its destination, but as Mr Weston has been blamed very much, and very unjustly for the delay, it is only right that the explanation should be now made. When the announcement of Mr Weston's resignation reached the Inangahua the work of preparing the new electoral roll for the district was well under way, but still far from completed. Had the resignation been forwarded at once to V\ cllingtori the issue of the writ ten days or so after would have stopped the compilation of the new roll, shut out some hundreds of fresh claims to vote, and all the work done would have been lost. In addition to this, the fresh election would have had to be conducted upon the old roll, which notoriously contained the names of hundreds of persons long since dead or out of the electorate In order then to avert such a difficulty Mr Weston was asked by the officers of the Government to withhold his resignation till such time as the new roll was ready for publication. The matter was not one which concerned either himself or hia "political friends" in the slightest way. , The session was a long way off, the fact of his determination to retire was publicly notified, and in this position of affairs he, as wo think, very properly, and very courteously yielded to the request, and undertook to hold back his resignation for the required time, and he did so, in spite of the abuse levelled at him. It would seem, however, that the time stipulated was hardly sufficient, for the Government have prolonged it since by a week, and now everything is in apple-pie order So much then for all tho ingenious speculations indulged in over the subject, and so much for the justice of the abuse which Mr Weston has had to bear for his desire to do a final service to the district. Mr E Shaw, formerly Resident Magistrate and Warden here, to-day formally announces his candidature for the Inangahua seat. The announcement will be found in another column The Southern Cross Company are packing down between 2Q and 30 tons ofcstone from their mine to tie Just-in-Tii6e battery, Boatman's, for a trial crushing, which will start about Tnesday next It is to be hoped that Miss Ford will receive a bumper house on the occasion, as apart from the excellent bill of fare provided, the object is a worthy oue, and on such an occasion we are sure Eeefton will not be f«»nnd wanting The stewards of the Boatman's Jockey Club have decided to celebrate their autumn meeting by a grand race ball and supper, which has been fixed to bo held in Walker's Hall, on the evening of the races. In order to enable visitors from Reef ton to attend tho Grey races, Mitchell & oauipbell's coach will leave lioefton, at 0 j'clocli to-morrow mornSntj. The coach

7> ■»- starts thus early in order to catch the mid-day train, which will reach the course before the livst race is run. 1 A report having been circulated in | Christchurch that Mr T. S- Westou favored, or was interesting himself on ; behalf of Mr Shaw's candidature for the Inangahua scat, the former goat lonian writes that the minor is without the ! slightest foundation There was a very large attendance at Mr G C, Bowman's auction mart yester. day, when a number of valuable town '. allotments were submitted to public, com. petition by order of the Registrar of thu Supreme Court, Nelson. The bidding over some of the lots was very spirited, and on the whole good prices were realisedi The Boatman's races will commence tomorrow, in M 'Gin ley's paddock, on the Builcr road, aud aa there will be no kind I of public amusement in Reefton to detain . people here, we may expect to see a large exodus from the town. The race-course is delightfully situated, and the easy dis- . tance, and ftovelty of the drive out, will i no doubt tempt many to make the jburney. A very sad case of premature death ' through consumption occurred on Wednesday last. A young man named ! Patrick M'Keogh, living with his relatives 1 in Church street, died at the early age of 5 18 years. \1 c had been suffering for some 3 timo from the dreadful malady. The funeral will move from the Catholic Chapel at 3 p. m. to-day. * It seems that the I *, projected return Cricket match betweefcrthe Greymouth and Reefton elevens, which it was announced would be played at Reefton on the 26th instant, has fallen trough. The Grey club will not send an eleven up on that day, but eleven players from Greymouth will probably visit Reefton during the Easter holidays, when a match can be arranged for. A telegram appeared in the Grey Argus of Wednesday last, announcing that Mr B Shaw, of Wellington, had received a requisition inviting him to contest the seat for Inangahua. It was. not stated where the requisition came from, but it is to be presumed that it emanated from the electors here. We have been unable, however, to learn that any such document has been seen or signqd in this portion of the electorate. A complimentary benefit will be tendered to Miss Maggie Ford, by the Reefton amateurs, to-morrow night. The performance will open with "The Miser's Daughter," a piece of sterling dramatic merit, and as it has been carefully rehearsed, will no doubt be worth witnessing. The burlesque of " Alladiu " will follow. A large number of amateurs will take part in the performances, the chief characters, however, being undertaken by Mis 3 Ford and Mr R. J. Brooke. With the large coaching accommodation now available in Reefton, no difficulty should be experienced by the public in getting comfortable to the race-course tomorrow, and competition will no doubt bring the fare to a very reasonable sum. It may be mentioned that, every precaution has been taken by the Jockey Club to prevent a repetition of the accident which happened on a former occasion, to traffic, so that passcngera may now take the road with the most perfect safety. Mr R. H. Shakespeare, C.E., hydraulic and gas engineer of the Corporation of Melbourne, in his recently issued handbook on "The relative cost of lighting moderate-sized towns with electricity or gas" says:— "On the whole, then, it would appear that, where coal is obtainable at a tolerable moderate rate, and coke is disposable in a country town where a large surplus of engine or water moiive power is not cheaply obtainable, lighting by gas is by far the most economical ; whilst, under the opposite circumstances, the electric light might be profitably and satisfactorily usod." A resident of Reefton who recently proceeded to Christchurch for the purpose of obtaining from Mr Milner Stephen a miraculous cure for deafness, has reypurned with his faith in miracles severely shaken, but with his deafness intact. He states that he attended a large number of Mr Stephen's seances, and for the first four came to the conclusion that the whole thing was humbug— on the occasion of attending the iifth seance, however, he saw several patients who were undoutedly relieved by Mr Stephen, but the relief was only temporary. It is his opinion that the ailments of a large percentage of, those who go up for treatment are purely imaginary. For instance ;he says that a "great fat lump of a heifer of a girl, who looked as if she was able to do a good solo on a wash-tub," went on to the platform and complained of pains in the legs. The professor told her to run past him once or twice, which she did sprightly enough, and having made a couple of passes at her, he told her she was "cured," and off she went giggling. This, of course, will be duly chronicled as " another astonishing cure." Our informant who in early life accidently received a hit on the side of the face with an axe, is deaf in one ear, and although Milnor Stephen tried what he could, failed to afford the slightest relief. Wallace County has been alloted the sum of £5250 out of tlio £14,000 applied for under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act for main roads ; and the whole of the amount applied for district roads— viz., £000— has been granted. • The electric light in the Kaiapoi Woollen Factory appear?, to be a success. The exterior of the building is lit by an arc lamp of 2300 candle power ; a second' arc lamp is used in the carding room, and there are sixty incandescent lamps about :he building. The tlynamo h driven by m engine working to ten horse-power. in criminal life it has often been observed that a strange fascination ex erases

itself, attracting the evildoer to the place which, above all, from the association with the crime itself or its punishment, should be most 'shunned by him. An instanceibf 'this occurred somistimp ago at tho Water Police Court in Sydney. A man had been arrested on a charge of having brutally assaulted and robbed, in ' company with two others, a man passing through a park at midnight. The prosecutor, whilst giving his evidence in Court, said, "I recognise the man in the Court as one of those who assaulted me ;" then looking at the crowd in the Court reserved for the public, said, " And I see . the two other men who aided him in the ' Court." The exits from the Court were , fit' once blocked by the police, and the prosecutor then picked out the two remaining offenders from among the crowd, and they afterwards received sentences of three years' imprisonment each. We have been requested by tho trustee to notify that the Stock of Boots and Shoes in the Bankrupt estate of W. J. Shaw, is for Positive Sale on behalf of the Creditors only, and must be cleared off immediately at a Great Reduction on Cost Price. [Advt.]