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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 549, 31 August 1869, Page 2

The prevalence of a north-easterly breeze, with its usual accompaniment, "warm rain," and lots of it, produced a fresh in the Buller on Saturday greater than any fresh that has occurred this season. It was, in fact, the closest approximation to the flood of October last that has since then happened. Fortunately it did not attain such dimensions as to damage the unprotected and sadly wasted river banks, and the jetties are altogether too contemptible to be removed by anything pretending to respectability as a fresh. But it took with it to sea a sailing craft, the Pearl, and very nearly did the same with another, the Kahuna. Tho Pearl, which belongs to Mr W. Waring Taylor, Wellington, was lying near Stanley wharf. As the fresh increased, she carried away the weak warps by which she was moored, and hang by her anchor; and, although Capt. Leech hailed her-several times, no response was received from anyone on board. In fact there was no one on board. Search was also made for the men belonging to her, but they could not be found. This was at one o'clock in the morning. At daylight she was found to bo on the bar, held by her anchor, which she had so far carried with her, and at nine o'clock, as the tide rose, she stood to sea on her own account, anchor and all. By the steamer Charles Edward, which left in the afternoon, the captain of the cutter sailed, and, as she had drifted northward, the probability is that she has been picked up. The Kaiuma had been shifted to the lagoon, and was moored by every nail to a sand bank. But, as the crew were taking " a quiet cup of tea," she suddenly floated, and was standing out on the same course as the Pearl when she was fortunately, and in the nick of time, brought up by being moored to a chain on the shore. The Mary Van Every, floated high up by tho fresh, has been neaped, and will thereby be detained for a week.

Wo hope the Hokitika Postmaster only requires his attention to be drawn to this circumstance : The steamer Charles Edward brought a mail from Greymouth. It included mails from all the East Coast Provinces, and letters and papers from Melbourne. It did not contain a single Hokitika letter or newspaper. Tins is not the first, but we hope it is the last, time on which the Hokitika Post Office has ignored Greymouth as the port for tlie transmission of correspondence to this district and to Nelson.

It is satisfactory to know, as we are led to understand, that the Directors of the Charleston Water-race Company are determined not to abandon the scheme, though Mr Dobson's estimate of its expense "is greatly in excess of their expectations. At the hist meeting Mr Dobson laid before the Directors a scheme which, if practicable, will enable the Company to bring in water from tho Four Mde Creek or the Deep Creek; wo are not exactly informed as to which it is. This can be done at much less expense than by the original scheme. The plan proposed is to dam up the creek, which would retain water sufficient to meet the present demand, and at a height sufficient to command most of the diggings. For the present all works in connection with the Company arc stopped, pending an answer from the Government as to whether they will undertake tho survey, and the procuring of some estimate from Mr Dobson as to the probable cost.

An anniversary ball and supper are appointed to be held at the Masonic Hall, Empire Hotel, on Thursday evening. These are the anniversary entertainments of the Loyal Westport Lodge of the Manchester Unity of the Independent Order of Oddfellows. History, as represented by the files of the Westport Times, records great successes among the Oddfellows and their caterers in previous years, and hope and a knowledge of what fellows Oddfellows are to " do the thing well" suggest as sure and certain success this year.

We learn that the ground opened by Mees and party, on Rochfort Terrace, in this neighborhood, has been proved forty feet wide, with four feet of wash-dirt capable of paying good wages. The Stewart's Island quartz-reefs, the discovery of which has excited Invercargill and Dunedin, are not yet removed from the region of mythology. The Invercargill papers are " irresistibly driven " to adopt one of two very safe hypotheses— " either something good has been found, or the whole thing is a preconcerted sham." Spiritualism and Gas are the two subjects which seem to be at present most interesting to the inhabitants of Dunedin. Newspaper columns are crowded with letters on Spiritualism, provoked by a lecture of a very " orthodox " order delivered on the subject by the Rev. Mr Gillies. And upon Gas there are reports and recriminatory letters innumerable. Recently a very elaborate report on gas-works suitable for the city was given by a civil engineer, Mr A. K. Smith of Newcastle, and the City Council have resolved to go on with the works according to his plans. After Mr Smith's departure from the city, some Newcastle papers, with some unfavorable reference to him, were received in Dunedin by the barque Free Trader, and Councillor Fish obtained them. Mr Stephen Hutchinson, of the exiting gas works, naturally desired to possess them, and, in that desire, went to an extreme which brought him before the R.M. Court. The circumstances are thus related : T. M. Wilkinson stated that he was in company with Mr Fish when he met Mr Hutchinson, and Mr Hutchinson said to him, " What do you think of a fellow having a Newcastle paper hi his pocket, and having been offered £5 for a half-hour's read of it ? What a low blackguard he is.'"

This conversation occurred between the Temple Chambers and the Bank of New South Wales. Mr Fish was on ahead, hut when Mr Hutchinson got within hearing of that gentleman he repeated the words, adding, " I'd like to give you a d—d good hiding." In Court Mr Hutchinson confessed to having used the language. Mr Fulton said the Bench must come to the conclusion that provoking and insulting language had been made use of. 111-feeling had been existing benween Mr Fish and Mr Hutchinson. In this ease the ill-feel-ing wa3 displayed by Mr Hutchinson, and the Bench would bind him in his own recognisances of £SO, to keep the peace towards Mr Fish and all Her Majesty's subjects for the spaca of three months. At the Police Court, Wellington, a seaman of H.M.S. Challenger was lately charged with the malicious destruction of property in the Crown and Anchor Hotel. James Prosser, the proprietor, said that the prisoner came into the hotel in a state of intoxication, and lolled against the counter. Jack suddenly became musical, and trolled — " The world goes round and round," at the same time sweeping a number of glasses off the counter. The next line of the song —" But its troubles I defy " —was equally fatal to the " cuts" and " wines," for down went another detachment; and before anyone could interpose, the third line (containing something about an old grey mare) came like a climax, for Jack that time made a clean sweep .of the remaining crystals. Sam Kennedy, the barman at the hotel, estimated the damage at £4 193, and handed in a bill containing the following items: — 4 dozen cut tumblers at 14s, £l l6s; 3 dozen wine glasses at 93, £1 7s ; 2 cut decanters at Bs, 18s. His Worship ordered that prisoner be sent on board his ship, and that the facts of the case be represented to his commanding officer, who, he had no doubt, would advance the money for prisoner, and afterwards stop it out of his pay. The discovery of a quartz reef fifteen miles long, and a portion of which is known to be auriferous, is reported on the authority of the Oainaru Times.

A correspondent of the Otago Daily Times considers the price of spirits and beer to be extortionate. Of beer he says:—ln Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, and last, though not least, close at hand, at Canterbury and Auckland, the price charged for beer is 3d instead of Gd per glass' as here. Nov,-, Sir, a hogshead of colonial ale costs £'4, and contains, say 50 gallons, -100 pints; this, at 6d per pint realises £lO, or a profit of £6 on the £-1. Selling, however, as in the common practice here, by the glass, 3 to the pint, at Gd per glass—equal to one shilling and sixpence per pint—would give £3O, or a profit of over 700 per cent. Allowing, however,that a good proportion is sold by the pint, it would still allow a gain exceeding 350 per cent. Mr W. T. Cumine, an old settler at Horse-shoe Bush, Otago, sustained a compound fracture of the leg by a kick from a hoise, and shortly afterwards died. As an indication of the healthy state of things existing in Greymouth, the Star mentions that more than thirty new buildings, principally new dwellings, are in course of erection there. These are irrespective of these being erected on the block destroyed by fire. Mr Barldett, late proprietor of the Duke of Edinburgh Theatre, in llokitika, has undertaken to make a tour through the provinces of New Zealand with Mr Talbot, the eminent tragedian.

Mr Chevc.nnes has opened at "Wanganui the 7iew Eutiand Hotel, which has risen on the ashes of the former building. At Ballarat, lately, a vendor of newspapers, mimed Abrahams, was summoued by the police before Mr Gaunt, P.M., under the 30th clause of the Police Offences Statute,for hawking newspapers on Sunday. From the wording of the 30th clause of the act Abrahams could certainly have been fined under it, but Mr Gaunt said that it would be rather a stretch of the law to do so, besides remarking that ho looked upon a newspaper as a luxury on Sunday !

A Christchurch paper says :— " A private letter received by a gentleman in Christchurch by the last mail from England states that Sir George Grey, with his niece, Miss Matthews, intended to return to New Zealand in August." A Shortland paper reports that a Dunedin drapery firm has purchased two allotments in Pollen-street, near the Karaka Creek, at £-1 per foot, for the purpose of opening a large drapery establishment in that locality.

A Stock Exchange ia about to bo erected at Shortland, at a cost of £I2OO.

The editor of the Oamaru Times very plaintively parodies a well-known quotation. Ho says :—Coleridge makes his "Ancient Mariner" to exclaim " Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink !" and in view of the recent discoveries and rumors of discoveries of gold in Canterbury, Stewart's Island, Wellington, and elsewhere, and the co-existent miserable stagnation of business, we might well exclaim, " Gold, gold everywhere, but not a 'bob' to spend."

The total number of aboriginal natives now existing in Victoria is stated by a Melbourne paper to bo only 1834. Few particulars with regard to the last Derby race have reached the Colony. Some have been sent by the London correspondent of the Dunedin Ec?.o, who says:— The Derby was won by Pretender by a short head only; Sir J. Hawlty's Pero Gomez contesting every inch of the ground with determined pluck. It was a great and exciting race, but not a fast one, being 2 niin. 52£ sees., as compared with 2 min. 43J sees, last year. The Drummer came in a good third. Pero Gomez, who came in second in the great Derby event, took the Ascot Cup, with Conrad for second. The Great French Race—the Grand Prix of Paris—was won by a French horse, Glaneur; Drummer being second.

Coal of good quality is reported to have been discovered at Otipiri, in the province of Southland, by a prospecting party. The extent of the bed discovered is believed to be " almost limitless." Mr Dawson, C.E., is of opinion that when boring is resorted to, a bed much superior to that at present tried _ will be found at greater depth. Working once commenced, no difficulties exist in the way of getting the coal to the port. It is said to be quite equal to Newcastle coal. By the time that Bluff Harbor, Preservation Inlet, Greymouth, and Auckland become great exporting coal-ports, the Nelson Government will probably think of offering some special inducement for the development of the Mount Eochfort coalfield.

One item of Fiji intelligence is that " Bully Hayes," of unenviable notoriety, is carrying on a trade with laborers from Tanna and other islands; and, in consequence of some unfair dealing with the natives, has not been able to get labor himself, and has injured the market for others. " Bully" Hayes is the Captain Hayes whose wife and children were drowned in Queen Charlotte Sound or Blind Bay (we forget which) and who was himself reported to be shot in the South Sea Islands.

The dressing of flax engrosses a very large share of public attention throughout the colony. New companies are starting into existence every week. At Wanganui and Taranaki steam machinery is being introduced, and several new dressing mills are being erected in other places. Ninety-three Chinamen arrived in Otago by the steamer Gothenburg. The rumour regarding Mr C. E. Haughton's intention of settling down at the Thames appears to have been well-foundnd. The Wakatip Mail states that Mr Haughton has entered into partnership with Messrs Broad and Keddell, lately wardens on the Thames goldfield, under the style of Broad, Haughton, and Keddell, legal mining agents. Mr M. B. Hart, junr., Christchurch, has reprinted in a compact form, a number of the Acts of the Legislature, under the title " The Law of New Zealand Uelating to Mining." A sporting correspondent of the Otago Times complains of the want of a sporting paper in the Colony, and of the incomplete reports which are usually given by nevrspapers of racing events. He supplies the following information as to the race meetings from Ist July, 18G8, to 30th Juno, 18G9 : —25 race meetings have taken place in the Colony between the periods abovementioned, and the money run for, subscribed by the public, amounts to £ 10,870 (not including trotting races), which was competed for by 256 different horses, 99 of which turned up winners. Mr H. Bedwood, of the Wairau (j>rincipally with his two three-year-olds, Peeress and Manuka), took the lion's share of the prizes, viz., .£2030, the rest being divided between 71 different owners.

It is expected that Mr Cracroft "Wilson, Mr Gisborne, and Dr Featherston will bo the gentlemen sent Home to obtain the assistance of English or Ghoorka troops. A ship is expected to have sailed by this time from Canterbury, with 2SO Welsh immigrants, the larger proportion of whom are about to establish a flannel manufactory on the Heathcote, whilst the remainder will embark in farming pursuits. _ Madame Durc-t and Mr Le Roy, dramafists, are shortly expected to visit New Zealand. It is said that the steel melted at Taranaki is worth .£-±0 at ton, and it can be sent home for .£lO. A company has been formed and shares are in demand. A Brisbane telegram reports the discovery of coal near Allora, which is represented to be equal to Newcastle coal. At a banquet recently given at Auckland to Count do la Eoneiere, the representative of France in Tahiti, the first toast of the evening was "his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the Trench," which gave offence to one gentleman present, who demanded that her Majesty's health should take precedence, and on this not being complied with, he left the room. Otherwise the evening passed oft' pleasantly. A Bill is now passing through the Assembly for the purpose of aiding the establishment of free public libraries throughout the colony. In noticing the death, at Nelson, of Mr Carlisle Hammond, of the late firm of Hammond and Davis, the Grey liiver Argus of the 24th says:—"Since that firm sold out Mr Hammond gradually declined in health ; he proceeded to iNelson in the hope that the change would be beneficial, but he sank steadily, and died yesterday forenoon at 11.30, in spite of all that was done for him by his brother and medical attendants. These brief particulars were forwarded by telegraph."

A foot-race took place the other day at Shortland between Charles Williams, known as the Sydney Deerfoot, and Patrick Twohill, for £SO a-side. On starting "Williams had a slight lead of his antagonist, but the West Coaster (Twohill) speedily -went a-heacl of the Sydney Deerfoot, and came in a winner nearly two yards in advance of his competitor, after a beautiful race. Heavy rain prevented the race being timed.