The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. MONDAY,JUNE 16, 1884.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1414, 16 June 1884, Page 2

The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI- WEEKLY. MONDAY, JUNE 16, 1884.

The political atmosphere of Wellington continues very unsettled, and the issue of to-morrow is awaited anxiously. Opinion is much divided as to the probability of His Excellency granting a dissolution, more especially as the Ministry are believed to be averse to it. Mr Warden Revell reached Reefton yesterday. At. the. Landing, the punt being laid up for repairs, he had to swim hia horse, the trap being taken across on a boat. The river was much flooded during Thursday and Friday, but no serious damage is reported from the lower valley* Mr V. Fama, hotelkeeper, Jjyell, has called a meeting of his creditors, atid purposes leaving the district. The meeting convened for Friday evening last to form an Early Closing Association; lapsed, through non attendauce on the part of those interested . Another meeting to deal with the question will probably be held during the week. The Weßtport mail was brought up ori Saturday last, reaching here in the evening on horseback about 8 o'clock. The do wp r >ard mail left yesterday niorning^iiJrti s spring cart. Amongst tire amendments proposed in the Licensing Act for this session is one tb? prohibit barmaids from aerviug in Hotels. * ....... s The New Zealand Clothing Factory, Reefton, announce the arrival' of their autumn and winter Btocks of cloths aud colonial madeanits, the consignment being • of unusual variety and excellence. We again remind all those .who are not : already on the electoral roll for the House (if Representatives that it is necessary that they should make early application to the Registrar of HJleqiors for enrollment. ;Tlie< ; forms of application may -be obtained free/: ' cost from- Mr H. Lucas, the EJeetoralRegistrar for the district. We learn that a number of teamsters on the Westpoft-Reefton road are stuck up ' at Berlin's accommodation house, awaiting the repair of one of* the road bridges in the. vicinity! ] It is also reported that by the flood in the inangahua on Friday last the contractors. for the erection of dolphins in the river above the Junction bridge lost their Btaging and a good deal of material, the whole having been swept away. The Mission Service and addresses of the Rev. Mr Inn is Jones and Mrs Nightingale, at Reefton, during the latter part of the week were well attended, although the weather .was.. very . unfavorable. Mrs Nightingale leftior.Gteyihouth on Saturday morning, the Rev. Mr Innis Joncst continuing the' services at St. Stephen's Church yesterday. - The. Fiery Cross Extended Company's battery returns did not reach us in time 'for publication this morning. ! -( . , The County Chairman, has apparently > gone on a bootless errand to Wellington, and dissolution or^ no dissolution, his chances of obtaining *jjjfo\; advance from the Government are just a^f£iuot;e as they j well could be.. . --■- ->;•- '■%'%£ " The Greymouth Star's correspondent says :- It is said that the deficiency really amounts to about £400, 000, but this is partially eovered by Treasury bills. — The Government Insurance scheme will get a terrible cutting. Some peculiar disclosures will take place. A Bpecial correspondent of the Dunedin; Star, writing of the West Coast mines, says that, from inspection, the Red Queen, Golden Crown, and Guiding Star claims at Mokihinui, "seem to be in course of development. in a rational way, and with every prospect of success." Tbe Arrow correspondent of the Lake Wakatipu Mail is of opinion that "in the kea the sheepowner has an enemy that causes him fully as much loss as do the rabbits. Although not so numerous and prolific, they are still very difficult to extirpate or keep down. One instance will be mentioned, to give a Blight idea of the enormous losses that are sustained through these pests. About a fortnight since, when the shepherds of a certain station were mustering sheep in tbe back country one of their number drew attention to some peculiar looking heaps in a small basin or hollow a short distance below them. One of the party brought his glass to bear upon the heaps and discovered they were dead sheep. Some of the men descended int« the hollow and counted 74 wethers and hoggets lying dead in small heaps or singly, and nearly | all showing the hole in the back of the loins caused by the cruel beak of the kea. Little or no sun strikes this hollow at this season, consequently the sheep were frozen to the ground or to each other, so that it was impossible to remove them to save the skins, although they appeared quite fresh." Mr Steward, the member for Waimate, intends to bring before the House the Licensing Act Amendment Bill (which passed through the Legislative Council last session but came to grief in the Lower House), with a view of saving the expense of animal elections. It is proposed to make the elections of licensing committees triennial, and to hold them concurrently with the local option polls. Another clause enables auctioneers to hold wholesale licenses, which they are unable to do at present. Mr Steward also proposes that when any person against whom a prohibition order has been issued shall be found intoxicated, he shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding one month for the first offence, with a severer penalty for subsequent offences, and for creating a disturbance in his or her own house, or ill-treating any -.number of his or her family. The London correspondent of the New York Herald says that an extraordinary case has occurred in the auditing of the

British army accounts for 1883. The j Comptroller and Autlitor-genorol found \ that the pemiuns included one granted to •' the widu>v of a Roman Catholic chap- j lain," an anomaly to which he of course 1 directed his immediate attention. On inquiry ho found that the Roman Catholic chaplain had actually been married, . though under an assumed name, to the lady in question, and that on this ground the War Office authorities granted her a pension. But Sir Henry Duubar pointed out that the chaplain, baing a Roman Catholic, was precluded, from marrying* and consequently from leaving a widow ; and that immediately his vows of celibacy were broken he ceased to be, legally speaking, a Roman I atholic priest, and therefore a Roman Catholic chaplain. Tho Comptroller and Auditor-general sunder these circumstances, declined to recognise the lady as a Roman Catholic chaplain's widow, and the pension was . disallowed.