WESTPORT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 304, 24 December 1867, Page 2

WESTPORT.

[from our own correspondent.] '7"-' "' - December 19, 1867/ We had quite a treat this week in the rising town of - Westport on Monday evening last, when Mr Betuley, the member for the district, held a meeting ia the large room of tlie Nelsonhotel, Mr A. Beauehamp in the chair. The hon. member, although not a don of a speaker, got an attentive hearing from a respectable audience. At the conclusion of his address a few questions were put to him, and were satifactorily auswered. You are aware that we have had uonie heavy weather lately upon the West Coast, so the hou. member provided fortius by bringing his Macintosh with liiiji. In order to diversify the meeting the hou. member for Brighton came to play the part of Mr Merriman, and the hon. gentleman must feel flattered by the criticisms which have appeared in the local press since, in which he is compared to the patient, long-eared animal tliat he compared an honorable member of Council to upon a recent I occasion. Mr Bentley replied to a question, but not satisfactorily to Mr Donne; so that gentleman, with his usual modesty, got upon liis legs a la Lord Dundreary, and said Mr Bentley whs not clear upon the question, but that he (Mr Donne) was clear, aud he would put it right. After the hon. gentleman had nniute it clear to nobody but himself, he was questioned by a gentleman present as to why he voted against the Railway Bill introduced last session by the hon member for Westport? The chairman came to the rescue, and aid the meeting had assembled for the purpose of hearing hentley's Miscellany that night, and he did not think it right to ..question Mr Donne. However Mr Donne was hot satisfied, but got up and let the cat out of the bag. He said lie appeared as a citizen, and only came to the meeting to see his friend Mr Bentley through. Then he entered upon a long explanation of an occurrence that happened in We-tport some months previously, which whs received with roars of laughter. The hon. member begun to wax warm upon the subject, and told his audience he hoped they would give him fair play, as he expected he was speaking Eng.ish. He walked over the floor in a serio-tragic manner, and placed hijiseif at the table , upon the chairman's left hand, and took a draught of water preparatory to making what no doubt he intended should be a telling speech, when he was stopped short by a medical gentleman present, who observed that the meeting had assembled to hear Mr Bentley, and not Mr Donne, and thus brought the proceedings to their proper bearings, much to the evident chagrin of the hon. member for Cobden. It is a pity Artemus Ward's show is not travelling now, as the hon. gentleman would make a valuable adjunct to it.