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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 567, 14 October 1869, Page 2

We publish, along with our present number, a supplement containing a full report of the speeches mado at Nelson, on the day of nomination, by the four candidates for election as Superintendent. It may be well to remind the electors that the polling for the Superintendency takes place on November Ist. The nomination of Provincial Councillors is appointed for November 13th, and the polling for November 17th. We understand that neither Mr M'Dowell nor Mr Iteid intends again "soliciting the suffrages of the constituency." Since Monday night the weather on this part of the coast has been oxtre nely boisterous. It has rained heavily, and the Buller is now in flood, though not yet so high as on the occasion of the heavy Hoods last year. The barometer is also extremely low low enough to indicate a harricane. On Tuesday it stood at 29dcg. ; yesterday it was 2Sdeg. Somin. The lowest reading last year, on the_ Kith, was 29deg. 12min. It is a coincidence that it was exactly at the same date last year—on the 14th and 15th of October—that the great flood in the Buller occurred—the flood which carried away the protective works, such as they were, and large slices of the river banks. What the effeet may be to-day and to-morrow it is impossible to say. Circumstances are in favor of the fn sli being not much greater than at present. It is more showery than Bteady rain, and fortunately it is the period of dead neap-tides. Two "mining incidents"—such incidents as occasionally occur in a mining township—amused the few pedestrians who passed through Westport streets on Tuesday, a persistently wet day. In the afternoon a '' party" suffering from the pressure of the atmosphere and a plethora of beer, voluntarily or involuntarily seated himself among the piles of clothing at a draper's door, and fell into a condition of probably "calm repose." Except that he nodded his head occasionally, and

was more of a figure fitted to adorn a secondhand clothes' shop than a first-class draper's, he might have been mistaken by the unobservant for a etraw-fctuffed " dummy." A wit passed by, and, appropriating one of the show-cards attached to " Bliss's Tweeds," he'very soon obliterated the latter word, and, pinning the word *' Bliss " on to the crown of the " party's" hat, left "the party" where he sat, to continue nodding for several hours in ignorance of the caricature of bliss which he represented to the uncharitable passers-by. Another "party" a type of the ancient lucky digger—and probably a friend of him who was in this blissful state of beer, paraded the streets, in the midst of the pelting rain, attired in clay-covered moleskin trousers, a " loud " Crimean shirt, and a new white belltopper, protected by a parasol! The Rev. Mr Harvey, of Westport, was among the passengers who arrived from Nelson by the steamer Charles Edward. We have received from Capt. Leech, the Harbor-Master, memoranda of barometer

readings, and of wind and weather, during the " Saxby week." The memoranda, which are from Ctipt. Leech's carefully kept Harbor Journal, are interesting as a means of comparison with other places, but at present we are unable to use the figures. Those who jeer at Saxby should have seen the surf on the Boiler beach yesterday, and, in their imagination, have added that to the higli tide of last week. They would then, in their imagination, have had to substract from Creation a considerable part of Westport. As it is, the surf has already substracted a portion of the protective works lately put down, and the property which they protected is now in as imminent danger as ever. A man named Martin Ford was brought to the Hospital yesterday, injured about the abdomen by a fall of cement in a claim on the Pakihis, on this side of Addison's Flat. Telegraphic communication was interrupted yesterday between Hokitika and Christchurch —the result, no doubt, of stormy weather among the ranges. A smart shock of earthquake was felt in Wanganui at a few minutes to nine o'clock on Thursday night. We should like to know from our Nelson contemporaries what has become of "the possessive case "in that neighbourhood. We continually read of "Mr Curtis' meeting," or of "Mr Edwards' office." Do the printers lisp in these parts ? Vide Chambers's Journal or Dickens's Household Words. An emergency sitting of the Westport Hospital Committee was held on Tuesday evening, al which a report was brought up by a sub-committee appointed to inquire into the necessity for building an extra ward, and for fencing in the Hospital ground. It was directed that tenders should be invited for the works, to be opened and decided upon at the next sitting of the Committee. The skeleton of a man named William Abbot, who disappeared from Motueka six or seven years ago, has been found at the foot of a steep cliff in that neighborhood. A second party of prospectors has started from Nelson for the Devil's Arm-Chair by way of the Dun Mountain. Mr Henry Paap, Selwyn Place, Nelson, has been killed by being thowu by a young horse which ho was riding.