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Westport Times, Volume 1, Issue 135, 6 January 1868, Page 2

Providential Escape. Gratitude (?) —On Sunday evening, about 10 o'clock, Mr O'Connor, of this town, happening to be on the quay, near Gladstone-street, heard cries of "help" proceeding from the river. The night was pitch dark and the rain descending in torrents. Mr O'Connor appealed to several of the boatmen to put off, but they refused, saying that the river was too dangerous. Ultimately he succeeded in inducing two—Lawrence Larsen and James Ferguson— to accompany him on the mission of mercy. Guided by the cries, they pulled off with all their might, and at last they discovered, by means of the lightning, two men in a boat drifting hopelessly towards the breakers. At length they overtook them, near the bend of the South Spit, and succeeded, after considerable difficulty and danger, in landing the boat, which was a flat-bottomed one, belongingto the dairyman at Packers' Point, and which had evidently been appropriated without his knowledge. Having taken the two men, one of whom said he belonged to the Union Bank and the other a carpenter, into their boat, the watermen pulled over to Westport, and haying landed them the two gentlemen disappeared, leaving Mr O'Connor so settle with the boa£ men, who, in conjunction with that gentleman, risked their lives to save them. To the honor of the boatmen be it said they refused to take anything from him except a drink, but declaimed bitterly against the ungrateful conduct of the gentlemen whose lives they had saved, but who evidently, when they were on terra firma appraised those lives at but little value. The least they could have done would have been to substantantially reward the boatmen for their gallant conduct, which would have been a small incentive for them to perform a similar action should their services ever be needed. We only wish they had given their names, and we would have published them for the benefit of the community at large as an illustration of—gratitude.

TnE Weathbk.—The weather up to the time of our going to press is about as bad as it can possibly be. From between eight and nine o'clock last night it has been nothing but thunder, lightning and rain, peal succeeding peal in rapid succession, accompanied with drenching showers of rain. Whenever will the weather clear up; we have almost given it over.

New Lead at the Caledonian. Good news continues to come in from the Caledonian Terrace, and now that all the men have returned to work we have no doubt that wo shall be able to report fresh discoveries in this the Ballarat of the West Coast. On Saturday afternoon a hole was bottomed on a new lead situate about a quarter of a mile north of the creek, and it yielded a prospect of one and a half pennyweights to the dish. The sinking is about 60 feet, and all the ground along the supposed line has been taken up for nearly a mile, and from all appearances there is every probability of a rich back lead being traced, in addition to the new discovery reported last week, and which is trending northwards. Should this be the case, there will be distinct alluvial leads. Although pretty certain as to the result, we would not advise many more miners to visit the locality at present till more holes are bottomed, so that some definite result may be arrived at as to its capabilities for supporting a larger population. But there is one thing that requires immediate attention, and that is the road, which is simply abominable. The Postal Act in delation to Vessels Catjrying Mails. —Some discussion having arisen in consequence of a letter addressed by Capt. Kerley, of the Bruce, to our evening contemporary, relative to the notice required to be given by masters of vessels carrying mails, we beg to print for their information the 25th" section of the Postal Act bearing thereon, premising that instructions have been sent by the Postmaster-General to the various Postmasters to enforce the penalty if the rule was not complied with ; and, after stating that he (the Postmaster-General) had been informed that vessels had remained in port after the time first notified for sailing, without giving due notice thereof, proceeds ; —" And if any case of detention occurs hereafter, and timely notice thereof is not given on behalf of the vessel, you will proceed to enquire whether such notice might have been given, and in the event of its appearing that due diligence was not used for that purpose you will take steps to recover the penalty imposed by the Act." The 25th section of the Postal Act runs as follows : " The master of every vessel about to proceed from any port to any other port, shall give at least twenty-four hours' notice at the Post Office at such port of his intended departure, aud if the vessel does not sail at the time appointed, shall also give timely notice of any alteration as to the period of her departure, so as to enable the Postmaster or other Post Officer to be prepared to dispatch mails on board such vessel; and if any such master shall refuse, fail, or neglect to give such notice, he shall for every such offence forfeit and pay a penalty not exceeding. £100." Resident Magistrates' Court.— Julia Lewis, whose name figures so frequently and so prominently in the bills of this place of public entertainment, was the only one who appeared on Saturday on that interesting record the charge-sheet, but she maliciously deprived the attendants of their expected sport by forfeiting her bail. Presentation of a Gold Collar to TnE Mayor op Melbourne.— The gold collar which a number of the citizens of Melbourne had caused to be prepared as a gift to Mr Butters, the mayor, was presented to him on the 23rd ult., at the Melbourne Clubhouse, by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh. There were about a dozen gentlemen present, including Captain MacMahon, M.L.A., who stated that he had been requested to ask His Royal Highness to make this presentation, the particulars of which would be found in the instruction attached to the collar, and which was to the following effect:—"To the right worshipful the Mayor of Melbourne, J. S. Butters, Esq., this collar is presented by a number of his personal friends and citizens of Melbourne, in commemoration of the visit of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh to and as a mark of their appreciation of the manner in which he performed the duties of his high office during such visit, December 23, 1867." His Royal Highness, in presenting the gift to the mayor, expressed the pleasure he felt at being in a position to perform such an act. Mr Butters said he was much pleased to find that his conduct since his appointment to the position of

mayor had giveu such satisfaction. Ho had exerted himself to the best of his ability, and he hoped that in his future career he would continue to merit the esteem of the public. He accepted this collar, not only as a recognition of his public services, but also as a mark of personal friendship, and if anything could add to the value of the gift it was his receiving it from the hands of the Duke. His Boyal Higness having examined the collar, and pronounced it a " very pretty piece of workmanship," withdrew. A Pleasure Trip Across tiie Bat*. —Yesterday was a busy day as well as a gala day, for that stout craft the Southland. Induced by the fineness of the weather, Captain Kirkpatrick left his snug moorings over in the lagoon, and invited his friends to come on, board for what he was pleased facetiously to term a pleasure trip across the bar! As the captain has many friends, a large party assembled, comprising most of the notables of Westport, both male and female. The ship took in two vessels and also tooh in a great many ladies and gentlemen who were unprepared for the humors of the mightv deep and the commotion they are apt to excite in unaccustomed stomachs, especially just after dinner. " All went merry as a marriage bell" util she got outside, but then the " rollers" encountered caused many gentlemen to roll portentously, while the " curlers" had the effect of taking all the curl out of the ladies' hair. There being no wharf left to land at, the party had to embark and disembark in boats, and this produced many immersions and much consequent saturation of muslin as well as broadcloth. One well-known Court-house official received the baptism of the Buller in a way that much disturbed his usual equanimity. His bran new black pants were speedily converted from " shiny" into " briny," to his infinite discomfiture ; and when —arrived on board—he succeeded in borrowing another pair from somebody about four sizes bigger, and emerged in a suit of most disproportionate proportions, the old joke about the resemblance to two towns in Prance, Toulong and Toulouse ; was repeated with painful iteration. Another conspicuous member of the late Sports Committee, who has frequently expressed his dissatisfaction that the Duck Hunt wag omitted from the programme of the Regatta, found an unexpected opportunity, while gallantly assisting a lady from a boat, of playing the part of Duck, and dived so naturally that nothing was left visible but his coattails, which he continued for a moment or two to waggle in the most playful manner like a genuine specimen of anas sponsor. He emerged just a little damp and looking very rueful, and, strange to say, his watch has since obstinately refused to record any other time but ten minutes to six—thus emphatically denoting the hour of the party's return to terra firma. Communion Service.—The Eev. B. W. Harvey administered the sacrament yesterday to a considerable congregation in the Court-house, whom he addressed iu a most impressive and appropriate sermon.

Adeiphi Theatre.—On Saturday, there was a very fair attendance to witness the farces of Perfection and Crossing the Line. The latter is a very old absurdity of that antiquated order of fun which depended upon the broadest possible burlesque and the most outrageous situations. Perhaps, in consequence of these characteristics it was received with irrepressible shouts of laughter, and would probably bear more than one repetition. A new feature has been introduced in the shape of a sort of petite concert, under the leadership of Herr Schmidt. In the course of this,- several songs are sung by the company, and several pieces played by the orchestra in a very admirable style. Among these, not the least noticeable were the overtures of La Gazza Ladra and L'ltaliana in Algeria, and Herr Schmidt's really talented violin solo on "The Harp that once in Tara's Halls," for which, when encored, he substituted " The Blue Bells of Scotland." To-night, Miss A. Merton takes her benefit, and *as the programme includes a vast variety of entertainments, and is given under the patronage of the Oddfellows' Lodge, we anticipate that it will turn out a real and not a nominal benefit. The Bass's Straits Cable.—'We are glad to know from the Holari Town Mercury that " highly satisfactory advices have been received from Captain GKlmore with regard to the construction of the cable for crossing Bass's Straits. He had been put inpossessionof the wishes of this Government with regard to some modifications in the working of the contract, but had not had time to confer with the directors of the Telegraph Construe ton and Maintenance Company'on th«S

subject. He has no doubt, however, of being able to send out the contract in the desiderated form by the next mail, and he learns from the managing director of the company that the cable will be ready for shipment in the month of January. All is being done in the best manner, and everything will be provided by the company to keep the cable in a constant state of repair." Seizure of an Illicit Still. —An •event which hitherto has been very uncommon among our annals of crime, transpired on Saturday, in the capture by the police, of a worm and other apparatus, for the illicit distilatiori of spirits. It was discovered in a very ingeniously devised receptacle—partly subterranean, among the rocks on the road to Charleston, so contrived as to afford ample means of egress and ingress to the parties engaged in their unlawful pursuit. Of these they appear to have availed themselves, as there was no person taken into custody for the offence.