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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 436, 23 December 1868, Page 2

The Gourlay Family have returned to Westport, and resume then- series of excellent entertainments at the Masonic Hall, on Christmas Ere, when there will, no doubt, be a crowdedjhouse.

Thirty-nine acres held under agricultural lease, with six and a-half years of the lease to run, were sold by Mr Munro on Saturday. The lease was held by Mr H. A. Keogh, who had effected considerable improvements upon the ground, which is admirably situated immediately north of the mouth of the Orawaiti. The lot was purchased for £l4O by Mr Jones, of the Orawaiti Bridge Hotel, who has some similar ground contiguous, also in the course of being cleared or put under crop.

We have received copies of the first two numbers of the Hokitika Daily News, published by Messrs Curie and Co. It is a paper similar in size and style to the Westport Star in its enlarged form, and it is already so well patronised by advertisers that the proprietors have resolved to enlarge its size to double demy on Thursday next. Mr Sinyrk, of the Tramway Hotel, is instituting, at a low entry, a sweepstake on all the events of the races, to be drawn for on each evening of the sports. The full amount of the sweepstakes will be handed over to the fortunate winners of the first and second horses, less a small commission as advertised. A convenience which has been long wanted in town has been supplied this week by Mr D upuis, in Gladstone Street, by the opening of his new baths. The bath rooms have been constructed at considerable expense and with an amount of care as to comfort which will be recognised and appreciated by the public. Hot, cold, and shower baths may now be obtained at a reasonable price, and at all hours.

The following were the sufferers by the late fire at New Pymouth:—Messrs Bartlett, boarding-house; Lowry, house; E. M. Smith, house; E. J. Cudd, furniture warehouse and grocery store; Watson, building and workshop; Mrs Smart, house ; Hoby, photographic gallery and. empty house; Nicoll, tinsmith.

Mr Quadri, who has returned from Europe, has purchased the Auld Eeekie Hotel, Hokitika, and named it the West Coast Hotel.

Mr J. Shephard and Mr N. Edwards have been nominated at Nelson as member cf the House of Representatives, in room of Mr Stafford. The show of hands was in favor of Mr Shephard. The poll takes place to-mor-row.

A Hokitika correspondent, writing on Saturday, says :—" The Hokitika bar is very good just now, and the Kennedy came in before full tide to-day with the Nathan Troupe on board. The town looks busy. All the shops are covered with posters, and the newspapers are filled with large advertisements, in preparation for Christmas. We are to have sports at both ends of the town' (there being two separate committees), and three days' racing. Mr Prosser has been elected Mayor again. Mr Harrison holds a meeting at the Volunteer Drill Shed this evening, when he gives an account of his stewardship as M.11.E."

With reference to the discontinuance of the Panama Mail service it is now stated by telegram in the Christchurch papers from Wellington that the Panama contract was never executed. It was signed by Mr "Benson, and sent through Mr Morrison, the London agent, in July last, for the Company to attach their seal. For obvious reasons, it has not yet been returned executed. Mr Marshall, the agent of the Royal Mail Company, having completed his business in Sydney, was a passenger home by the Rakaia, but just before starting from Sydney he was induced to remain in the hope of making arrangements. The Tararua and Otago are considered to be fully equal to the service. The Government is assured that all the three boats now in Panama waters will return hence. It will be seen by our telegram of English news that the Company appear to have got over their difficulties. Some more specimens have been brought in to Bkn'.ieim from the Kaituna quartzreef.

Mr Balfour, C.E., is at present inspecting the Canterbury rivers. Mr Barff has been elected for the district of Okarita, by a majority of twenty-five over Capt. Heron.

Mr Cosgrave is leaving Hokitika, having purchased a business in Auckland.

A man named Edmundson, a milkman, aged 25, has been drowned by falling out of a boat when crossing the Hokitika river, and a man named William Double, a native of Cornwall, has been drowned in the Three Mile Creek, Okarita.

Letters from the Fiji Islands state that gold has been discovered on the Navua River. A prospecting expedition was proposed.

The WeUington Independent says that, in the competition between the Otago papers, the Times and Sun, the Northern war news has been telegraphed to both lately at an enormous expense. A week's telegrams cost the Times .£75 and the Sun £56. A Wanganui contemporary considers this " a species of mild insanity," and if our readers saw the telegrams, especially those in the Times, they would agree with him. More worthless telegrams we ha ye never read. The American reporter did a much wiser thing when, to hold the wires, he telegraphed the book of Genesis.

Mr Masters has been elected Mayor of Greymouth.

■£70,000 worth of property was destroyed in the late fire at Tiinaru. The Insurance Companies have to pay £30,000. The news from the Gympie diggings continues to improve, but the improvement is confined to the quartz claims, which are yielding better.

As yet nothing has been done in WeUington towards subscribing some money for the sufferers of Poverty Bay. A telegraph station has recently been opened at Temuka, in Canterbury, near Timaru.

Lieut.-Col. Lyons, late of the Imperial service and recently of the Waikato regiment, has been appointed the temporary Commander at Wanganui.