The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1870.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 751, 17 December 1870, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1870.

Up to the hour of going to press the European mail had not arrived. Dr Giles, accompanied by Mr Pitt, arrived in Westport from the Inangahua yesterday evening. The journey was performed in three hours by boat. The Warden's Court sat on Tuesday and Wednesday, when about 59 applications were disposed of, and 'eight cases upon summons tried. There were more than a hundred miners and others present, including several Greymouth residents. The case, respecting which the largest interest was displayed, was one in which Greymouth shareholders claimed half of the prospectors' claim in Anderson's reef. We have received a full report of this case which will appear in our next issue.

The Bev. J. White will hold divine services to-morrow at Mr Eraser's School Boom, at the hours of 11 in the forenoon and 7 in the evening. We have to ackowledge from the Government Annuities Commissioner, the Hon. W. Gisborne, a pamphlet containing revised and extended regulations and tables under the Annuities Acts 1869 and 1870.

There was a strong fresh in the river yesterday, in consequence of the heavy rain of the previous night. The groin continues to act as an effective protection to the Upper and Bright street wharves. There were four tenders lodged for the Buller ..protective work at the District Engineer's Office. Mr Dobson. has telegraphed their contents to Nelson, and the determination of the Government will probably be made known to-day.

We understand that the track between Christie's and the Maori bar has been completed, and the work is said to have been most satisfactorily performed by Mr Edmondson, the contractor. We notice that Mr H. J. Price, formerly of Melbourne, has opened a photographic studio in Moles worth street, Westport. Already he has received considerable patronage, to which the admirable style of his pictures fully entitles him. We have been shown a series of very beautifully executed cartes im visite of some of our townspeople, taken within the past few days, and as works of ark the photographs are really perfect in ffctdr way. Mr Price will visit Charleston and Brighton at intervals. It is notified in the General Government "Gazette," of the Bth instant, that the Secretary to the Central board of Civil Service Examiners has reported that the under-mentioned candidates have passed their examination under the Civil Service regulations, viz., Garner Ward, Wellington; Claude Bevans, junior, Peatheraton; J. M. Tabuteau, junior, Napier, now of Westport j Edward Marks, Auckland. '' A public meeting was held at M'Mahon's Hotel, Welshman's Terrace, Brighton, on Saturday evening last for the purpose of devising MMina of raising subscriptions in ajA df sfce French sufferers. The meeting m» *H numerously attended owing to hi—aClent notice." Mr -Slattery, of Brightou, was voted to tb a ohauvemd a com-

mittee was formed who, will canvass the district for subscriptions. Upwards of JB2O was collected in the room after the business of the meeting was concluded. A telegram received by Messrs Freeth and Greig, the owners of the a.s. Storm Bird, announces the violent death of John Hastings, the second engineer of that vessel, on Thursday morning at Wanganui. The vessel is supposed to have been on the point of departure for Manukau when the unfortunate man was accidently entangled in the machinery and crushed to death. The Storm Bird would leave for her destination yesterday morning.

The entertainment at the Charleston Literary Institute on Monday evening last was well attended. The performance was for the purpose of raising a fund to be expended in prizes for the pupils of thevariuus schools. Some of the scholars acquitted themselves very creditably in the rendering of some of the pieces of literature selected, and the tricks of ledgerdemain, by Mr Bavan, also contributed to the success of the entertainment. The audience numbered nearly two hundred. Mr Nevin, of Brighton, on Monday last, obtained some signatures to a requisition to Mr L. Broad, to the effect that he would place himself in nomination as a candidate for the representation of Westland North in the General Assembly. We understand that a similar requisition from the electors had been prepared in favor of Mi- Donne, prior to his expressing an intention to solicit their suffrages. On Wednesday evening a meeting was held at Behan's Hotel, Charleston, to arrange preliminaries in connection with the local Christmas sports. It was notified that the sum of .£6O had been subscribed for the purpose of holding the customary sports during the holidays, and it was resolved that the same be held in the town—the wrestling to take place on the first beach. Mr Maearthy was elected treasurer, and a Committee of nine were appointed to arrange all preliminaries. During the discussion it was stated that there remained a surplus from the funds raised for the festivities on the 17th of March last, and Messrs Hehir and Fenton were appointed to institute enquiries with respect to the alleged unexpended balance. Mr Neale, on being referred to, stated that he had been appointed secretary on that occasion, but did not act. The meeting then adjourned. The temperature at Nelson has exhibited sudden and singular variations. On Sunday, says the local paper, at two o'clock the thermometer, in the shade, was 78$ degrees. In was taken out and placed in the sun, and rose to 99i, at which figure it remained until four o'clock. Before five, it had sunk to 56£, making a fall of 43 degrees withiri the space of an hour. The Rev. W. Kirton, lecturing recently at Kaiapoi on " The Present Crisis " said "he had given the subject his close study for over thirty years, and held the opinion of Elliot and Cumming before those opinions were published by them. He alluded to the popular opinion that the world was to be gradually converted, and considered such a supposition absurd. He thought the Church at present was in a state of tribulation; that Christ would come and reign personally and destroy the man of sin, and just prior to this advent the world would experience a short, sharp crisis —which crisis, he believed we were now entering upon—times of revolution, war, and bloodshed; the beginning of the pouring out of the seventh vial referred to in prophecy. The slaughter going on in France at this, moment, in his opinion indicated this. It was evident" other powers would be drawn into the war, and Europe broken up and reformed into three great confederacies, Prussia absorbing the smaller kingdoms. The ten kingdoms are already assuming a new form; they will exhaust their present form in war. Russia, will become the dominant power, and form a confederacy to rob the Jews of the Holy Land. Then will fall judgments from heaven, and Christ suddenly commence his reign." The following interesting acccount of the process of blasting rocks under the sea, is from the New York " Tribune:"—The granite rocks which have so long impeded the navigation of the arm of the sea between New York and Long Island, are now being blasted. An apparatus is erected for working a drill under water by steam. The drill bar at its cutting end is \\ inches in diameter, and has nineteen diamonds embedded in its face. When in motion it makes from 300 to 500 rotations a minute, aud in that time, such is the cutting effect of the diamonds, the hole is sunk 14- in.; a number of holes, consequently, can be drilled in a day. A diver then descends and charges them with nitro-glycerine, which is exploded in the usual way. Over two hundred immigrants, consisting chiefly of demestic servants and farm laborers come out by the Zealandia to Lyttelton, due about the end of the month.

Mr Ludlam has retired from the candidature of the Hutt, and Mr Fitzherbert is not likely to be opposed. In Wanganui, as in Westport, the riverbanks would appear to cause anxiety. The local paper states that a deputation from the Town Board, waited upon the hon. Mr Pox on the 7th inst., to represent to him the condition of the river-bank and their claim to some assistance from the General Government, Mr Fox was very courteous, but failed to see the liability of the Government, who had no funds for any such Provincial purpose. The Premier, however, threw out the suggestion that, inasmuch as the General Government had property on which they paid no rates, something might perhaps be given on a representation to that effect being made. "A lunatic, recently sent from Picton to become an inmate of the asylum in Christchurch, leaped on shore from the deck of the steamer as she approached the wharf at Lyttelton, and made off. The mate of the vessel .gave chase and, after a slight struggle, in which the mate received severe contusion, the unfortunate man was recaptured.