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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 575, 7 May 1868, Page 3

The Wasgasui Bridge. —The Provincial Government are now inviting tender? for erecting the Wanganui Bridge, and as the work is one of considerable magnitude, it may bo well to call the attention of contractors, both here and throughout the collony, to it. The iron bridge sent out from j England—the material of which is now {lying at Wanganui—consists of five spans. The span next the town of Wanganui will be 141 feet 4 inches from centre to centre. There is to be a swing span, moving on turn-tables which will alibi'd two openings of 40 feet broad for vessels to pass. The three othci spans will be 115 feet each The structure will consist of wrought iron lattice girders, earned up ; and east iron cylinders, 7 feet in diameter, sunk into the] bottom of the river, and filled with concrete ! {The bridge was designed and executed in j (London under the superintendence of G. |R. Stephenson, Esq , C.E. In addition to I (erecting the bridge, contractors will require to construct approaches to it on each side,! which will be made of timber. It is understood thst the work will occupy two years, and there i? no doubt that the bridge, when finished, will be one of the handsomest structure? in the colony. In a Gazette published last night, tenders for doing the necessary work are invited, but if the Government desire to obtain such from oilier provinces, they should advertise for them in a journal possessing both a local and colonial ciro.nlanon,—Wellington In■dependent, 30th April, i

The Damage to the Goveeement Whaep at Wellington,—The Evening Post, April 30, says:—Our readers %vil! share with us the re ry groat satisfaction which has been caused by the announcement made in town this afternoon, to the effect that the impending action in the nest session of the Supreme Court and the Panama Steam Company, for damage done to the wharf by the s.s. Otago last September, has been compromised. A careful examination of the wharf has convinced ail parties that it would not be desirable to go to the expense of repairing the damage jin iron, but that by the use of wooden| oile-, Ac., the wharf may bu made firmer,| and the repairs effected at less than half the cost. The estimates for repairing in wood vary from £ISOO to £2300, but there is no doubt that the cost will be at least slightly over £2OOO. Taking into consideration that by going to law each party would j spend £SOO, and that it is not to the in j terests of this port, unnecessarily to make enemies of snob companies as the P., N’.Z.,] and A.R.M. Co., the Superintendent andj Ids Executive yesterday decided to clench | the negotiations which have lately been going on by a definite and final offer. Captain Benson haring (without prejudice), offered to compromise the dispute for £OOO or £7oo—which the Government would not listen to—the Executive decided yesterday to take £10 : JO in full, being onehalf of the estimated cost of repair. This 1 offer Captain Benson, on the advice of his friends, has to-day consented to accept, and the last of the disputes which lately threatened an appeal to law is at an end. We thidk there can be no two opinions as to the sound common sense which the Go vernment and Captain Benson have mutually shown in this matter. The 'W.\\gantl Got.o'Ftsn a Hoax.— The excitement in Wanganui about the gold hoax is now over. The Evening Herald published t!jo following as an “extra” on Sunday, April 2(5 ;—“The party that left town this morning for the supposed gold diggings have returned to town, A large number of practical diggers are amongst tin in. They have boon shown the exact pot where the original sample is said to have coni'- from They have washed considerable quantities of the dirt; there is not even the color of gold in it. The person who .»ailed the original sample deserves the execration of the whole community. We deviate from our u-tia! cus tom in publishing on Sunday, but taking! into consideration the disastrous results that would arise from a large inllux of I population, for whom there would be no! employment, we fell it, incumbent upon usi to do so.” The Wanganui Times thus no ! tiros the affair-.—“To clear matters up, Messrs. \\ . F. Russell, J. Kirkpatrick, J.I H. Perham, Dr Brewster, A. McDonald,j Walter Tar lev, T. Rowe, and J. M*l 'oiiald,! 'visited the U aifoiur-i to examine that part,; j«l' the gu ly on Mr Russell’s property, ': j where gold is said to have been discovered.] 'Mr Russell comfit.- ed tlie party through a idmso bush, which skirts the gully and; hues it to the very bottom. There, Mr | Rowe, a practical digger, wont to work | with shovel and dish, washed up for some I time, but did not discover a speck. Seve--1 ral pieces of the conglomerate pointed out jby Mr Hus-ell w.-;-o broken up and found jto be thickly studded with mica, but uo |gold. The committee appointed to investigate the matter raise upon the evidence throe hypotheses ; —Ht. That Mr Rut-ell really found gold in the gully. 2nd. That ho has been most cruelly deceived by some person or persons unknown, who had obtained access to the specimen in the paper previous to his seeing it at Mr Meyers’. 3rd. That he himself has deceived the public. The committee unanimously reject the last hypothesis, and think the weight of the evidence point* to the second ; but here they must stop, as they cannot refer to any particular person and say he is the man who tampered with the clay contained in the paper.”

The Govehmjii's Salahv.— The Christ- 1 church Evening Hail has the following ; —( Despatches from England state that the Du’r." of Buckingham cannot advise the confirmation of the Act of the Assembly which reduces the Governor’s salary. It will be remembered that the Act referred to, which w’.s reserved for the signification of her H j •-ty’s pleasure on the 10th day of October, IMII7, Trcluced the salary of the Governor, after Sir Geo. Grey had ceased to hold office, from £4,500 to £3,500. The former sum therefore remains. Tire salary of the Governor was originally £2,5.i0, when the revenue of the colony was £1(51,£37, and the population 36,707. It was increased in ISSS to £3,500, the revenue then being £6(56,653, and the population 61,224; and ng.nu m 1562 it was increased to £4,500. It is not generally known that the late Governor was also receiving a supplementary puvment of £ 1,500 a-year from the Imperial Government.

SUBSTITUTE FOR PAPER Ha>'GlSCt. —The Panama Star and Herald says that a very delicate, simple, and bea!s.tifr,l machine has been constructed in Cambridge, ll issaehusetts, which will take a portion of a tree i-ftep it has been cut the right length and width, and shave it up into thin ribbons a? wide as a roll of house paper, making one hundred or one hundred and fifty to the

inch. These rolls are placed on 1 lie walls of a house by paper-hangers with paste and brush, precisely in the same manner as paper. The wood is wet when used, and really works easier than paper, because

it is much more tough and pliable. In these days, when variety is sought for, one can finish his house in different woods to suit his taste. One room can bo finished in birds’ eye maple, another in clicsnut, another in cherry, another in whttewood, and so on. Thus he has no imitation, but the real genuine article upon his waiL

Fesiavtsw ok tue West Coast.— Tho West Coast Times*, lotit April, says that “ reports were rife in town yesterday concerning the very disturbed and unsatisfactory condition of social affairs in the Buller district. It is said that a Fenian Society, numbering several hundred members, has been organised there, and something very akin to a reign of terror is established in consequence of the uncertain stand taken hv the Government through its agent, Mr Tvvnnerstey. We are given to understand that many loyal miners, who took part in the late procession, and who were afterwards assaulted on their return to Addison’s Flat, have been dispossessed of their claims there, and look in vain to the authorities for redress. Business languishes, it being next to an impossibility to collect accounts whilst the law, that under other circumstances would enforce payment, is openly defied. If the above ha true, the interference of the Genera! Government is imperatively demanded, as it is only too patent that the local authorities are utterly incapable of dealing with the emergency. We are also informed that one of the runners of the Westport Times was stuck ut> near Addison’s Flat by a mob of Fenians, who seized bis bundle of papers and b rnt them, and threatened him with dire consequences if ho ever ‘showed his nose that way again.’ ”

Communication between Wiituiraxoir and Hawke's Bay —Mr A. Peters, proprietor of Cobb’s line of coaches in the Hawke's Bay province, arrived in Wellington last night overland, bringing with him soma later Hawke’s Bay papers .to the 21st inst, with copies of which he has courteously famished us. We understand that Mr Peters contemplates making arrange, ments for running a line of coaches right through from Napier to Wellington ami back, °if the support of the Wellington Provincial Government can be obtained towards the undertaking. At the present time Mr Peters runs coaches once a week each way between Napier and Poraugahau —a distance of seventy-five miles—a road having been made by the Hawke's Bay Government. The distance from JYrangaban to Masterton is about eighty miles, aud Mr Peters estimates that for u moderate outlay the present track between the two places could be made into a passable road. Asa large part of the latter distance is in this Province, our Provincial Government might fairly be called upou to incur such I expenditure as would establish the desired [means of communication. Already Mr jllastwell’s coaches run from Wellington to i Masterton, so it would bo an excellent I plan to connect that line with the other which is proposed to be established by Mr I Peters-—lndependent, 2Sth April. Distress in London. —Fifty-one persons, men, women, and children, were committed to the City Prison, Holloway, in three days, by one alderman, last week rhey had been found destitute in the streets of the city by the police, and they hud been taken into custody on the charge of begging. For this offence the delinquents were sentenced to an average punishment of from 14 to 2L days’ imprisonment with hard labor, on a diet of dry bread aud gruel. They were by no means lof the class known popularly us ‘‘jolly 'beggars.” Among the whole the amount of ! money found in their pocket? amounted, it iis sai l, upon authority which there seems ho be no reason to doubt, to the sum of I,me penny. That coin was found upon gibe person of a blind man. They contained amongst their number the representatives not only of every form of misery, [but almost of every class except the crmii!;ial. One was a stockbroker, who at one [time had been possessed of a fortune of [.£100,000. He came, to grief through hav!mg invested too confidingly in Spanish [Bonds. Some were young women who Iliad come up from remote villages to get [situations as domestic servants in Loudon, bur being disappointed in their expectations, had come to sleep incisud wards, 110 beg, aud to bo sect to prison. A young Scotchman, who come up to make his mis* fortune in the metropolis, wm.t into the streets to beg “ sooner than starve.” Two young men from Yorkshire were in the fsaio case. Others had taken to the streets after being refused relief at tba workhouse gates. Married women with infants in thi warms, whose husbands aero unable to obtain work, formed a oonsi lerable percentage of the unlucky destitute Abie little child two years of age was locked up with its mother. The whole iilt.v-one were more or le.-s suffering from starvation thirty-four of them were in a state of phy-ical exhaustion from want of tood. Young women were seen to stagger from [weakness when entering the prison. Nino |of the poor wretches had legs so sore from [excessive walking, from exposure to the linclemencv of the weather, ami from verjiniu (die invariable concomitant of filth 'and starvation) eating into neglected ulcers, itbat they had to be placed in bed in gaol, laud there they remain. Another, less Ifortunale than these, had no legs at all. [Most of the culprits were in rags; those [who were exceptions in this respect were 1 clothed, or rather covered by canvass [sacks, the gift of work-house authorities. One of these unfortunates, committed on iSaturday afternoon, and died on Sunday, [from exhaustion. His name was Michael [Lyon, aged 27 years. He was a tailor out [of work, and had been sentenced to twentyjone days’ hard labor for begging. i tie [jury returned a verdict, at the inquest, [that the deceased died in Holloway Prison from serous effusion on the brain, from weakness of the heart, and debility ; and the jury desire to add that they consider iit would be advisable that, the governor of [the prison should have the power of Sterling the diet of prisoners whenever he see* an rccse-ity for doing so.—English Paper.