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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 358, 23 September 1868, Page 3

The Hokitita Mveuiug Star says ; —"The cutting of the new channel is progressing favorably, although the time of its completion will not meet the views of the most sanguine of the committee. Great hopes were entertained that the river water would flow through the ebb tide this afternoon. This, however, could not be accomplished. There is every probability that sufficient depth will be arrived at to give the water sufficient fall to flow through the morning's ebb. The channel is being cut about 500 yards to the northward of the old flagstaff, and is almost in the same place as where the old South Channel was situated. The enterance on the river side is about 30 feet wide, and the river water has already penetrated about half the distance to the sea. The gap is, of course much narrower on the sea side, but once the water commences to flow through from the river, this end will, through the scouring process of the stream, rapidly widen. It, is not however, likely to be in working order until Monday, as consiberable difficulty will have to be surmounted in keeping the waves from silting up the sea side on the flood tide. Once, however, that the river water commences to make there can be no doubt of the channel becoming navigable. The contractor for filling up the north one is keeping pace with the works at the new channel, and his work is in such a state of forwardness that when the stream commences to flow at the sonth end, he will be able effectually and at once to close the north channel up. Romance of the Abyssinian Expedition.—Nothing which has occurred ot late years on a scale of any magnitude has had about it so much of the air of ancient romance as the Abyssinian expedition. For a t ; me the thing seemed paltry, ridiculous, Quixotic. A few adventurous people —some of them English, some of them German, not a few of them Eastern by birth and descent, but all of them, for the sake of personal convenience, claiming English protection —got into, trouble with Theodorus, a man who claimed to be a descendant of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and who was the acknowledged Emperor of Abyssinia, the far-away and little known Ethiopia of the ancients. Was it worth while, many asked, to waste millions of money, and to imperil, if not to sacrifice, the lives of many thousands of men in what might prove the vain attempt to deliver a few adventurers who ere imprisoned in a strong fortress on the summit of an inaccessible height somewhere in the neighbourhood of the mountains of the moon? It was pronounced by many a perilous, hy moat a hopeless, undertaking. It was undertaken, nevertheless, carried on, and in an incredibly short space of time, and at a small cost of life—which has no parallel in the history of war —brought to a triumphant conclusion. Now that the thing is over, and that the wonderful and romantic character of the expedition, and the still more wonderful character of theresultsare made known to the wocld, Europeans generally, even the British themselves, open

their eyes in amazement. A fact of to-dav, it begins slowlr to be seen, is grander wilder, more daring, more romantic, that the grandest, wildest, most daring, most romantic tales of all past times. The siege of Troy was a protracted bungle and failure in comparison.— N. Y H Rumoured New Ministerial Arrangements.—The Advertiser, a few days ago, gave the names of the gentlemen who would form the next Ministry in the event of Mr. Fox defeating the present (Joveruraent, and the office of Treasurer was assigned to our Superintendent. Mr. Curtis. As the Advertiser is the organ of Mr Stafford's Government, it is not likely to be in the confidence of Mr. Fox, so that no value is to be attached to its statement on such a subject. Should the Government be defeated, Ministers will dissolveand not resign, so that a change of Gov. eminent will not take place until MrStafford's policy is condemned by a new Parliament. Should Mr. Fox come into power, and the office of Treasurer be offered Mr. Curtis, it is most unlikely the office would be accepted.— Colonist.