SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC.

West Coast Times, Issue 591, 16 August 1867, Page 3

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC.

The sub-committee appointed to draw up the League Petition have rendered useful service in the collection i<f a body of valuable statistics, illustrating the rapid development and large trade of the district. The Customs Returns date back to no more remote period than the 22nd March, 1865— that is, a period of two years and two months only prior to the 30th June last. During that period the export of gold from the two ports of Hokitika and Greymouth, upfra which duty was paid at the Custom House amounted to one million twenty-one thousand five hundred and fifty-thre*e ounces, of the computed value of four millions sterling, and yielding a revenue in the form of export duty of one hundred and twenty-seven thousand six hundred and ninety-four pounds. During the same peiiod, duty on imports was paid to the amount of three hundred and twenty-two thousand five hundred and ninety -two pounds, and fees, business-licenses, Sec, to the amount of seventy-six thousand seven hundred and three pounds. The total contribution of Westlaud from all sources to the general revenue of the colony during the two years and two months was not less than six hundred thousand pounds sterling. During the same period 289,665 tons of shipping was registered inwards at the two ports. Hokitika, the capital town of this large and flourishing district, which comprises nearly three millions of acres of land, is a corporate town, with a rateable .property of ninety- three thousand two hundred and four pounds. 1 With the exception of items referred

to under other headings, the domestic history of the past fortnight has been almost a blank. Unusually severe weather has been experienced throughout the whole colony, and the mountain ranges that separate West from East Canterbury have been thickly covered with snow. During the whole fortnight the overland road has been shut against coach travelling, and for many days it was utterly impassable even to horsemen. The travellers who started by Cobb's coach from Hokitika, were literally " snowed-up " for days at the half-way house,at the Cass. Amongst the prisoners detained there, were the Commissioner, Mr Sale, who happened to time what was intended to be a brief visit of a few days to Christchurch, badly. On the trip last preceding the heavy snow-fall, the weather was gloriously fine, and the grandeur of the Alpine scenery of Arthur's and Porter's Pass was seen at its best. The sky was deliriously clear, the white-clad peaks of the everlasting hills standing out in bold relief against the azure back ground whilst a hundred fantastic cascades fell down the mountain sides. Then suddenly came the leaden snow-charged heavens ; the h»\ivy and continued fall ; the descent of avalanches ; and the . blocking up of the pass. To add to ' the practical inconvenience of this suspension of coach and mail traffic, the telegraph wire was broken down for a length* of upwards of forty-eight miles, partly by the weight of the. frozen snow that accumulated on it, and partly by the violence of the hurricane. Such an interruption to traffic has never been known since the road was first opened, or the telegraph wire fiVst erected. The repairs to the latter were effected with a marvellous rapidity, that reflects great credit upon the efficiency of the staff connected with the department, and the energy of Mr Bird, the Telegraph Manager. The restoi ation of the road will be a more costly task, and many thousands of jiounds will have to be expended on the work. This is by no means the most unsatisfactory part of the case. No amount of money spent in repairing thi.s load will avail to protect the recurrence of damage of a similar character, whenever similar weather may again set in. Cut for a considerable part of the way along precipitous mountain sides, the fall upon it of heavy accumulated masses of snow, must always be attended with more or less destructive effects, entailing; upon this district an enormous expenditure of money that might be much more beneficially employed iv the construction of local roads and other useful works. From the beginning this road has been an expensive toy, and it is plain that the cost of its annual repair will double or treble in the course of every three or four years the original cost of construction. One result of the Separation of Westland from East Canterbury would probably be the abandonment of this road, ex ;ept for driving stock from 'the Eastern side to supply the meat market of Westland.

Very disastrous accounts have reached us from the other side, of injuries done by the heavy floods and swollen rivers. Large quantities of sheep and cattle have been destroyed, and a great extent of country laid waste.

The damage effected here has consisted chiefly in the encroachments effected by the sea on the beach, necessitating in many instances the removal of outhouses and other buildings — iv some instances the high tides sweeping them away. Owing to the rams which usually feed the llokitika River and scour out a passage to the sea through the sand-bar, being locked up in the form of snow upon the Hills, the bar has been, for some time past unusually shallow and difficult of navigation — the consequence being tVecjuent hindrances to the commerce of the port, and an occasional misi.ap in some one or other of the steamers that tend the vessels in the roadstead gsounding on the Spit. No accident of any hnportaiids however, lias happened since the date of our last summary.

It will be seen that the gold and population returns covered by these notes are very .satisfactory, the export of the former being well sustained, and the arrivals in the district being considerably in excess of the departures. We have nothing new to report in the way of amusements or ecclesiastical matters. The work of town improvements is proceeding steadily, every week witnessing a marked step in advancement.

The following- is a return laid on the table of the House of Representatives, on the motion of Mr Wells, which admirably illustrates the effect of the postage, tax on newspapers in restricting the circulation of the public organs 01' opinion and information. It gives the number of newspapers that parsed through the Post-office during the first six months of last year, when there was no postage on newspapers, ami during the corresponding six months of the present yea I',1 ', since the postage was imposed. The returns are as follows : — Nowspapers posted from January 1 to June 30, 18GG 2,0i!),593 Newspapers, posted from January 1 to June 30, 1867 .., 1,511,317 Deuroase of circulation . . 535,276 In other words, the fixed pol'cy of the Government has resulted in contracting the newspaper circulation by one-fourth, or to the extent of one million copies per annum ; and as the reward for this magnificent stroke, the Government has derived from the sale of newspaper stamps during the last six months, the sum of L 3,80 0! It had better have spent an equal amount in encouraging by extraordinary facilities the wide diffusion of journals, \yhieh .not

only disseminate political information throughout the colony, and thus foster that healthy public opinion which is the best gaurantee of a wise and pure government, but which furnish both the governing and the emigrant class of the old country, a more life-like picture of our politics, and our social aud industrial life, than any number of volumes of blue books could do. Is there no chance of this most mischeivous impost being repealed ?