The West Coast Times. AND WESTLAND OBSERVER,

West Coast Times, Issue 1008, 15 December 1868, Page 2

The West Coast Times. AND WESTLAND OBSERVER,

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1868.

The Government have called for tenders for per ft. rming a two monthly steam service to the southern ports, including Okarito, Martin's Bay, Bruce Bay, aud Big Bay. Particulars and conditions of service can bo had on applying to J. Heawood, Secretary to the County Council. ' The tenders will be received at the office of the Chairman of the County Council, until noon on Thursday the 24th inst.

The weather, which during the last few days has been remarkably five, has undergone a change, which although probably iuconve" nicnt to the dwellers in town, yet even to them will be productive of sanitary results, and to the miners, whose very existence depends upon a copious supply of water, will prove invaluable. On Sunday morning tho atmosphere wa^ close and sultry, but later in the day a cool breeze sprang up, and at night the rain set in heavily, and continued falling with scarcely any intermission during the greater part of yesterday. The effect of the rainfall will bo not only to supply the diggers with water for washing up, but also to disperse the miasma, which in a town like Hokitika must necessarily arise in warm weather, on account of defective drainage and swampy ground.

The District Court sat in Bankruptcy yesterday, but the business disposed of was principally of a formal character, and the Court then adjourned sine die.

The official declaration of the poll for the election of four members for the Kanicri Road Board, was declared at the Court House Kanieri, at twelve o'clock on Monday, December 14, 1868. The following members were declared duly elected : — Mr Henry Lee Kobinson, Mr Thomas Farrell, Mr Frederick Dale, and Mr James Gemmell. The Returning Officer announced a meeting of the Board to take place on Thursday, 17th inst., at two o'clock at the Court House, Kanieri.

At the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, four prisoners were charged with having been drunk and incapable, and one with having been drunk and disorderly. They were severally fined 10s and 20s, or in default the usual alternative. The charge against J. li'inlay was dismissed, there being no evidence to support the prosecution. The Court adjourned until 1 1 a.m. to-day..

We understand that the whole of the carbines at present in possession of the Westland Light Horse, have been called in by the Government. These and all the spare rifles in the district will be shipped on boaui the Alhtiinbra for Wellington.

Recruiting for the armed constabulary has been carried on with considerable activity here, and iv addition to those already despatched to the North, there will be shipped by the s.s. Alhambra twenty-seven recruits, raised in this district.

Yesterday a miner, named Peter Mulrahey, was carried down from the Waimea, and conveyed across the river to the HospitalMulrahey, whilst enjoying himself in the township on Friday evening last, missed his footing and fell, at the same time fracturing his right leg between the knee and the ankle.

We beg to call the attention of parties furnishing to the sale of furniture to be held this day, at the Auld Reekie Hotel. The furniture and fittings are of a superior quality. The sale takes place at 2 o'clock> and Mr Richard Reeves is the auctioneer.

Despite the unfavorable weather Hanson's Rooms were crowded last evening, when Dr Carr gave the last of his mesmeric and phrenological sconces in Hokitlka. The first part was devoted to a phrenological examination of the heads of several gentlemen wellknown in Hokitika, and which excited not only the laughter, but the applause of the numerous audience. An interval of a quarter of an hour succeeded, and then followed some of those marvellous examples of fascinations by the eye alone, which must be witnessed to be realised. The bird, doubtless under a mesmeric spell, impelled onward by some mysterious power which at length completely controlled its power of volition, hopping onwards until at length it reached the extended jaws of its deadly enemy and destroyer, — the snake — exhibited no greater, nor indeed so

great a phenomenon as those who last night drawn from a crowded throng solely by the mesmeriser's power, bounded over every obstacle until at length they lay powerless at the enchanter's feet, or reclined in Ids arms. The success which attended these experiments must have convinced the most scepti,cal. The chair Avas taken by Mr Sale, who, during the evening, announced that during the day an interesting event had occurred, viz, that Mrs Carr had presented her husband with his first-born — a daughter. Three hearty cheers for the little lady followed this announcement, and the Doctor briefly ackno wlcgcd' the compl iment .

A company of Irish Volunteer Rifles has been raised in the Province of Canterbury, and his Excellency the Governor has been pleased to gazette the company as the " First Royal Irish."

A good story is told (says the Ofago Daily Times) about one of the reasons which induced Mr James Stark, tragedian, to hasten his departure to America, instead of staying as he had originally intended, for a month in Dunedin. Among the passengers by the Tnrarua (in which steamer he arrived), was a gentleman, who for many years filled the position of theatrical critic to the Melbourne Age and Leader, and who was coming to New Zealand to fulfil an engagement on this paper. Those journals condemned in severe terms Mr Stark's impersonation of King Richard 111. at the Theatre Royal in the revival of the tragedy from the original text. The. actor and critic were unknown to each other personally, aud it was not till the last morning of the passage that the former heard the hitter's name. Directly he did so, however (some Svicked wag has whispered), he held a consultation with the wife of his bosom, and there and then determined to flee the seductions of the town, in order not to run tire risk of further flagellation. How dreadfully thin-skinned your would-be great actor 18 to be sure ! Speaking of the Panama Company, the Sydney Morning Herald, November 28th says : '\if the financial failure of the Panama line had been iv any respect due to bad ships, incompetent commanders, stingy management-, or general unpunctuality, we should have had to say that the fculure was deserved. But the very contrary has been the case, and this aggravates the hardship. No finer mai' ships have ever entered our harbor, and they have performed the unprecedented feat of crossing the Pacific with ' speed aud regularity." Speaking of the advantages of this line, the Herald says' — "The colony has gained, this year at least, fully the amount of the Panama subsidy in the diminished price of flour. No complaint is more frequently uttered in the colony than that which concerns the necessity of sending away money to buy bread. The amount sent away this year has been kept vrithin bounds by the operations of the Trans-Pacific mail service.'' The Herald's able article concludes as follows :—": — " Whether it will be possible to keep open the route under any more economical arrangement s, and wait the return of better times, remains to be seen. It would be a matter of congratulation if the Company should have nn opportunity of retaining it;; position, and ultimately retrieving its losses. There can be no doubt that the route will be a paying one some day, and that if the pioneers do not reap profits their successors will. It has been hinted that if English capitalists drop the enterprise, American eapi alisls are prepared to take it up, and that the American Government will subsidise it, perhaps shifting the American terminus from Panama to San Francisco." We see by a paragraph in a Batavian journal (the Havdelshlad of October 21) that an adventurer, who is recognisable without difficulty as the pretended Count Attems, whom many Sydney people have too good cause to remember, had caused some little interest there, and had ultimately succeeded iv getting into custody. The paragraph states that some noise had been occasioned at Sourabaya by the doings of an Austrian count, who arrived there some time ago in a yacht from Australia. The count first attracted notice by complaining that an English schooner which he met on the way had refused to auswer his salute. Another version of. this matter was given from another source, by the report made by the captain of an English schooner called the Diamond, which had arrived in Passoeroeau with horses from Java, that he had on his way fallen in with a Russian or Prussian yacht, which had fired first a blank cartridge, and afterwards a shot*

at his vessel. However, attention was soon (I raw a to the count on account of other circumstances. A commercial iinn in Balavia received a warning from Australio to look out for an Austrian count, who had in a questionable way obtained possession of a yacht and was sailing in ifc to Java.. This warning was conjoined with the reports of a great many impositions practised in the preceding year in Europe, particularly in Holland, by a person who represented himself to be an Austrian count, aud it was thought that the tourist from Australia might be this person. These suspicions were telegraphed from Batavia to Sourabftytt. The warning, however,

came in some respects too late. The count had already discounted at the bank a bill of exchauge for a sum not stated, aud it was subsequently remarked that the paper in many respects resembled some of the fraudulent paper nogotiated the year before by the pseudo count at Amsterdam. Although the warning came too late for prevention, it came in time, perhaps, to bring to a stop the career of this successful swindler, as it was thought proper under the circumstances to arrest and detain him pending inquiry, This -was the condition of the much-toadied Sydney visitor at the date of our latest intelligence—lying in custody, while inquiries were being instituted preliminary to a criminal prosecution.

The Lytleltou Times of Friday last, speaking of the forthcoming Christchurch races, says :—": — " The Nelson contingent of horses for the Metropolitan meeting, ai'rived by tile Airedale yesterday, and appear to be in. excellent condition. They comprise representatives f rotn the stables of Messrs Redwood and Stafford. Mr Redwood's lot includes Blackboy, Manuka, and PeeresSi Mr Stafford's are Magenta, Laccttfeed, Lady Elorence, aud Conquest. Owning to the railway horse-Muck Hot being prepared, the horses remained in Lyttelton lost night; but they will be brought through to-day, and will imm diately proceed to the vicinity of the racecourse, where siables are provided for their accommodation. Those entered for Wie cup ere Magenta, Lady Florence, and Manuka.

Information has been received by the Government, under date Auckland, December 2, that the Waikato storm has blown over. The King has recalled the man Louis Hetzell, who was ordered out by the war party, and they are said to have taken themselves off in the direction of Mokau. The settlers along the Waikato frontier to Waiuku,and at the immigrantsettlements, are baing rapidly armed. Guildry's Arawa contingent, a fine looking body of mcii, sixty in number, who had objected to go to Patea, except luidei their own chiefs, and with a large number of men, are now all right, .and auxious to have a run at Titokowaru. They will be despatched to Wanganui by the first opportunity. Eifty armed constabulary recruits, fully equipped and clothed were to leave for Napier in a few days.

We (Taranaki Herald)hare much pleasure in inserting the following letter from Patara which he has forwarded to our office for publication. This, we trust, will give confidence to the settlers in the out-districts, who, we hope, will not believe all the idle rumors that are circulated :— " Friends : Maoris aud Europeans,— Listen, put a stop to telling lies, Maoris and Europeans. Let the Euro* peans remain at Okatoj Tatarainiaka, and Oakura, there to live quiet. Don't talk noiii. sense and deceit; Slaying is put a stdp to ; the slaying that remains is only an investigation by the laws. Whether good or bad, leave it to the laws to settle. Leave Titokowaruaud his adversaries to settle their matter; whether for good or for evil, leave them to settle it. Ye Europeans within the lides df Okato and Oakura remaiii (iliiet, and leave it to the law to investigate. That is all from your loving Mend. — From Pataiia."

The Tuvamikt Iferald lias been favored with a copy of the followiug assay of the quartz from Kaitakc ranges forwarded to Auckland to be tested. The samples No. 6, 7, and 8, arc merely the casing of a reef which was filled with water, but the party now making a drive so as to continue their work t— '* Assay Office, Bank of New Zealand, Auckland, Nov. 23, 1808. The samples of quartz submitted for testing by Mr Robert Hughes have been carefully assayed by me

with the undermentioned results .- — Sample marked 1 and 2, no trace of gold ; 3, 4, and 5, no trace of gold ; 6, 7, and 8, very faint trace of gold, say 10 grains per ton. F. C Smith, As&iyor, Bank of New Zealand.'' The Perseverance gold prospecting party are still pushing on their operations. They discontinued work for three days, waiting the result of the native meeting at Okato. From the favorable report brought in as regards peace, the party started again on Thursday morning ; they have increased their number by two additional men ; they now number six, the object of which is to examine fresh reefs or try for alluvial diggings. A tunnel has been driven 55 feet into their choice reefs and got below the shaft in which the water accumulated on the first starting, it was. penetrated into the drive and run clear off leaving the shaft perfectly dry. The men are quite satisfied with the appearance of the stuff, and are iv good hopes of shortly being repaid for their labour by a find.