TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4235, 16 October 1874, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

DISASTER TO THE SCHOONER ALMA. [Press Telegraph Agency.] Westport, Thursday, 5 p.m. The p.s. Lyttelton, -which has come in, has brought news from the Melbourne schooner in the roadstead. She was bound from Melbourne to Greymouth. She has lost her jibboom, bowsprit, foretopmast and gear, and mizzenmast. Her deck was swept, and her boat is lost. Half the crew were washed overboard. The s.s. Kennedy is going out to tow her into the Buller.

7 p.m. —The Alma is now safe at the wharf. She is much knocked about. The starboard bulwarks are gone. She has also lost her upper spars, galley, and deck-house, and all the cargo from the forehold. Two hands only were lost, James B. 'harden (chief officer), and Andrew Bramston, A.B. The Alma met with the gale of Monday night when lying-to sixty miles north-west of Westport. The captain and crew are all much bruised, and exhausted from want of sleep.

The Alma, from Melbourne bound for Greymouth, with foremast gone, is now in the Buller roadstead.

No tidings of the Marion from Wellington. The stern board of the Wemyss Castle, an Australian liner, was picked up on the Nine Mile Beach yesterday. It had apparently been a long time in the water. liYEtL, Thursday.

The river between By ell and Westport has been unworkable for about a month, the tracks are quite impassable, and food is getting scarce. The last bag of flour was turned into bread yesterday ; there is only about one ton of potatoes in the place and a bag or two of oatmeal.

Greytown, Thursday. The Masterton mail coach was stopped today by the Waiohine river. The flood was caused by the strong north-west wind, and rain on the hills. The Provincial Engineer has arrived here. Two publicans have been fined for Sunday trading. In one case the evidence was i that of a man who said the publican had refused to supply him, but that a lodger in the house had given him some beer, . which he drank on th« premises. A young man has been accidentally killed at Taueru, by a branch of a tree striking him as it fell His name is McDonough. The coach from Wellington is detained here. Dunedin, Thursday. In the Supreme Court, the Grand Jury threw out the bill against Alexander Grant for embezzlement. Sydney George Alexander, alias the Military Captain, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for obtaining money under false pretences ; ■ John Fairgreaves, for savage assault, to eighteen mouths ; William Bartlett, one year, for forgery. William William* was acquitted of stealing from the person. Heavy weather is reported throughout the province. At Oamaru yesterday, a tremendous gale was blowing. The Emulous was stranded, for the fourth time, and at noon all the vessels in the bay were ordered to sea. Several buildings at Clyde were unroofed, and the front of the Port Phillip Hotel was blown out.

The Otago railway returns for September are £4556 7s.

Russell, Ritchie and Co.'s telegram, dated Loudon, 28th September, says the present value of wheat is 555. per 4961ba. Lower prices are looked for. Wool still improves. The Cromwell Company’s manager yesterday brought down a cake of gold weighing 12000z5., the result of three weeks’ crushing About 3000 tons are at grass, which has run five ounces to the ton. 7 p.m. The Albion Company’s new ship Invercargill is at the Heads, with 390 statute adults, all well. Six deaths and four births occurred on the voyage. The vessel is commanded by Captain Tilly. Dodd, charged with the murder of the seaman Green, on board the Oneca, has been convicted of manslaughter. In reply to Mr. Stout, His Honor the Judge has appointed Monday to hear counsel state the law points he intends to raise on the prisoner’s behalf before the Appeal Court. His Honor said the only substantial point wa* whether the Court had jurisdiction. Mr. Stout said that was the main point he intended to urge. Mr. McGillivray addressed his constituents at Riverton last night, and himself greatly in favor of the abolition of Provincialism in the North Island. . He considered that those provinces were a burden on the General Government. He had, he said, always opposed Provincialism, and would advocate its abolition in the Middle Island. He was against the system of free immigration, and he believed nomination with free grants of land was more desirable. Immigrants who paid their own passages out would work much better than those who were imported at the expense of the State. Such a system, also, would induce a superior class of persons to come out, who would be likely to become bona fide settlers. The speech was an able one, and at its close Mr. McGillivray received an unanimous vote of confidence.