The Westport Times FRIDAY, JAN 20, 1882.

Westport Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1968, 20 January 1882, Page 2

The Westport Times FRIDAY, JAN 20, 1882.

Mr I. J. Mann, Assistant Engineer to the Dublin Port and Docks Board, has published a work written by himself giving a very complete description of the nature and results of the simple process of concentrating the currents of rivers with the effect of removing sand bars at their entrances. Work which has been done at the mouth of the Liffey, Dublin Bay, has been designed upon a similar principle to that being followed in Westport, and some particulars troui Mr Mann's pamphlet, as condensed by a Wanganui paper, will be of int rest. The completed scheme at Dublin Bay consists of a South wall, erected so far back as 1768, and a North wall completed in 1824. The first consists of nearly vertical masonry hearted with sand, while the latter is of rough rubble deposited freely, aud allowed to form its own bed. The author remarks that this mode originally in use before the Christian era has been found to be the best of all systems of building sea works, aud instances in support of his statement the foundations of Holyhead, Kurracb.ee, ami Brest, while he might also have added Cherbourg. Before these walls wcro contructed there ran two channels through the sand banks at the mouth of the river with minimum depths of 6ft. Gin. and Sft. 3in. respectively. During the progress of the works, and before their completion, the process of deepening began, and by 1828 au increased depth of three feet was obtained, which has since been augmented to 9ft. Gin., or an available depth at low water of 16ft. In sumo parts a scour of 20ft. has been effected. Mr Maim summarises the results thus :—" l (, or a distance of about 2000 from the harbor eutrance the average below low water has been increased from lift, to 27ft; for the next 2000 feet the average depth has been increased from 6ft. 9in. to 18ft., and the remaining part of the channel to about GOOOft from the entrance has had its average depth increased from 13ft. to 16ft. so that now there is an available depth over the bar of 29ft. at standard high water, or about 28ft. at ordinary springs." The whole of this has been effected without the aid of dredging, and merely by means of the proper concentration of the ebb current. As may be imagined, the result has been highly beneficial to the port. In 1835 the largest vessels employed in the foreign trade rarely exceeded 100 tons, but at present they are IGOO tons, and drawing up to 23ft. The income from dues in 1825 was £12,311, and in 1879 it was £59,315. With evidence of the above practical character, we hope the Government will not be backward next session in setting aside a sufficient sum to carry on the work of harbor improvement here,

We understand that several shareholders in the Koranui Coal-mining Co. will come down from Wellington by the s.s. Grafton for the purpose of inspecting the works at Waimangaroa. A meeting of members of the Jockey Club is convened for this evening. Should the Club decide not to hold a race meeting on St. Patrick's Day, it is proposed to arrange for a pic-nic in aid of the Catholic School funds, but if it is intended to have a day's races the pic-nic will take place on Easter Monday.—Star, yesterday. The Directors of the Westport Coal Company were obliged, on account of the numerous applications for shares, to close their share-list eleven days sooner than was originally intended. An application from England for several thousand shares was refused, and a reserve which had been set apart at the request of the Australian shareholders, has been reduced. This reserve will only be sold at a premium of 20s per share. The Company is virtually a New Zealand one, two-thirds (about £50,000) of the capital being held in New Zealand, and one-third (about £26,00) being held in Australia. His Worship, the Resident Magistrate, is, from time to time, addressed in queer fashion by witnesses unused to the intricacies of law court proceedings. For instance a lady litigant on Tuesday morning styled Mr Revell " Your Reverence." Intending investors in Art Union of London tickets are informed that the returns will be sent Home by the next mail, closing here next Monday. The Borough Valuation is now completed, and the List is open for inspection at the Council Chambers. A heap of old boots and shoes collected on the Palnierston street footpath, ojiposite to the Empire Hotel, attracted the attention of passers-by, on Monday afternoon. A couple had that day been joined in the holy bonds of wedlock, and their friends invoked good luck in old-fashioned style by showering old boots upon them. Some fifteen years ago a party of miners put down a shaft on the pakihi, opposite where Mr M'Gillivray's store now stands. The water, however, proved too much for them, and it was found that a tunnel 2000 ft. in length would be required to effect necessary drainage. Gold was too plentiful elsewhere and more easily obtained, in those days, for the work to be followed up, and the ground was abandoned. Many subsequent attempts have been mada to overcome the water, but unsuccessfully. Messrs Blackmore Bros. have now set to work at the old shaft, and have decided to drive the drainage tunnel. Should their undertaking be as successful as they and other Terrace miners expect many other claims will be taken up on the pakihi. Messrs Blackmores' enterprise will, we are sure, receive the best wishes of all. Mr Revell, R.M., acting under instructions from the Government, is, we understand, making enquiries into the circumstances connected witli the last Mayoral election here, for the purp se of determining its legality or otherwise. St. John's Sunday School children were entertained at a pic-nic, held at Mr E. Suisted's paddock, Orawaiti road, on Tuesday. Many adults were also present. The various amusements incidental to such occasions were heartily enjoyed, until the rain in the latter part of the day put a damper on the fun. The Wellington correspondent of the O. D. Times says it is practically certain that Parliament will not be called together before May. No valid reason exists for inconveniencing the country by an earlier meeting, and the precedents laid down by May and other authorities are conclusively against the premature assembling of Parliament after a general election, especially when no political question is at issue or submitted to the country. The University presses of Oxford and Cambridge will shortly publish the New Testament with the Authorised and Revised Versions in parallel columns. Mr Speight, the unsuccessful candidate for the Thames, was on Christinas Eve presonted with a purse of 100 sovs. by some Thames people. Opposition papers aro advocating the re-construction of the Ministry, with Messrs Rolleston and Bryco as the new leaders. The Kumara Times of the 10th says that an information was laid against a man named Haylock, who resides at the Kawhawa Accommodation House, on the Christchurch road, charging him with having attempted to murder one Andrew Curie, by firing at him with a doublebarrelled gun. It is asserted that Haylock went to the house of Harris, a settler, and demanded if Curie was there. Curie attempted to escape, but was fired at, the shot luckily taking no effect. Hoylock was brought up before Mr O'Hagan, and remanded till Friday. It was a cold night in a certain Australian town, and a dozen adventurers gathered round a good fire at Tattersall's—a medly of surveyors, commercials, and supers, a first-rate lot of fellows, half of whom had come out to rough it for a time in the colonies. They drifted by degrees into a conversation as to one another's antecedents. One was the son of an ex-Viceroy of India ; another the son of an admiral ; yet another claimed the Duke of as his father. A commercial (he travelled in the soft goods line, so it didn't much matter) darkly hinted that the Prince of Wales was a half-brother. This was too much for a slightly muddled railway surveyor—a clever, rollicking customer, who had sat silent in the corner for half an hour. "Look here," (hie) he said, "all my people died of drink, and I'm (hie) going to emulate their example. Who's going to shout ?" The Inangahua Herald reports of the Specimen Hill Extended. Still driving on the reef. Since first the reef made in the drive the quartz lias exhibited payable prospect, but on Monday last a much richer quality of stone came in. It is the intention of this company to erect a crushing battery during the present summer, as they are of the opinion that beyond a doubt there is sufficient inducements to justify such outlay. It does not always do to credit people with over-sensitiveness. The other day one of our " rising young pianists," says a San Francisco paper, was giving his opinion of the vulgarity and meanness displayed by our " gold-fish aristocracy." " Why," he said, " for instance not long ago I was invited to attend a musical at the house of old Fulbags, at Nobb-hill. 01 course I played a gqod deal tq ami^e

the compauy ; and, when I left, old 8., aa he shook hands, slipped into my hand a twenty-dollar gold-piece." " Why the thick-skinned old humbug!" said one of his auditors indignantly. "What did you do?" "Why you just bet I got even with him? I haughtily threw the money on the floor and left, after first exchanging the coin for a counterfeit twenty I happened to have in my pocket just then; don't you see ?" " Capital idea that! Served detestable old vulgarian right V "Ye 3, it was a huge idea ; but the trouble was that his twenty turned out to be a counterfeit too !" In accordance with advertisement the shareholders in the Try Again and Reefton Quartz-mining Companies held a meeting at Gilmer's Hotel on Tuesday evening. A discussion took place as to the advisability of amalgamating the Try Again aDd Reefton Companies, but a motion to that effect was negatived. The meeting was then resolved into one of the Try Again shareholders, Mr Calders in the chair. The following resolutions were carried:—That two men set in forthwith to prospect the mine ; that each shareholder contribute £5 per share to cover miners' wages and incidental expenses ; that the Bank of New Zealand be the Bank of the Company ; that Mr Calders act as Treasurer and Mr Pain as Secretary until next meeting. A sum was voted for the purchase of tools, and the meeting then adjourned for a month. Messrs P. Hanlon and F. Ray are about to set in to prospect the lease they are interested in at Mokihinui. Rumors are afloat (says the Kumara Times) that an attempt is about to be made to abolish the Borough of Kumara and merge it into the County of Westland. If such is the case, it becomes necessary to consider what the result of such a step, if carried out, would be. As a matter of course there are arguments for and against. It appears that the preposterous manner in which the Licensing Act has been framed has more to do with the matter than anything else. There is a most absurd difference between the license fee to be paid in boroughs, and out of them. In the first instance the fee is fixed at £45, and the latter at £25. This disparity is too great, and it is difficult to understand how any legislature could arrive at such a conclusion, except upon the consideration of the fact that there was a large number of new members in the House who knew positively nothing of the previous legislation on the subject they were dealing with. The Greymouth public library has recently received a consignment of 200 new volumes. Messrs Wilkie and Co., publishers, of Dunedin, intend shortly to bring out a journal devoted to scientific matters of interest to New Zealanders. It is to be a. 48-page journal, and is to be published bi-monthly. The first number is to come out during this month, and will contain in addition to reports of meetings of scientific societies, general notes, &c., articles by the editor (Mr G. M. Thomson, F.L.S.), Professors Hutton and Parker, Captain Brown, and Mr Maskell. The annual subscription is 10s. A telegram received from Auckland states that a very heavy gale occurred at Melbourne on the 28th ultimo, causing considerable damage to property. The large pavillion in which a " go-as-you-please" match was going on, and which had been specially erected for contests of that description, was blown down. A tent at Queenscliff, in which a religious meeting was being held was swept away, no doubt much to the astonishment of the congregation, and a boat was capsized in the harbor. The departure of the Cotopaxi had to be delayed owing to the severity of the gale. The girl that Sir Charles Gavan Duffy—formerly Chief Secretary of Victoriamarried recently in Paris, was his niece, formerly Miss Hall, of Rock Ferry, Ireland. Sir Charles is G5 years of age, and his young wife barely 21. The Town Clerk at Patea lias been allowed a salary of £l2O per year. The Mayor has been voted a salary of £IOO per year, and it was decided at a late meeting to call for applications for a resident engineer, salary £l5O, with permission to take private practice so long as it does not interfere with public duties. We (Taranaki News) should not be surprised to hear next week that the Councillors had each been voted a honorarium of £SO a-year. Says the Waimate Times :— " Some idea of the magnitude which the sparrow nuisance has assumed in certain localities may bo gathered from the fact that at a meeting of the newly formed Sparrow Club held in Oamaru on Saturday, the chairman reported that during the week no less than 2970 eggs and 407 heads had been collected, for which £5 10s had been given. It was announced that Mr Dunlop was prepared to give a prize of £5 5s to the boy who at the end of the season could show a receipt for the largest number of eggs and heads." Wouldn't some of those English boys jump at the idea of nesting on such terms as these 1 At Home the boys are taught that it is a very naughty thing indeed to go a-bird-nesting, and they do it in fear and trembling. But the delight of the London boy at having all restrictions removed, and being promised £5 into the bargain for the largest number of sparrows' heads would bo more easily imagined than described, as the novelists say. The average London boy is the natural enemy of the small bird. Perhaps the small birds nuisance will attain audi proportions presently that it will be found necessary to import a few ship loads of London boys to lessen it. The examiners of the Nelson and Marlborough College scholarships the Rev. J. C. Andrew, Principal of Nelson College, and Mr W. C. Hodgson, Inspector of Schools for the Nelson and Marlborough districts, have given their award, which is printed below :—" In Nelson the two Governor's scholarships, which confer a free education for two years at Nelson College, and which are competed for only-by the boys who attend the first division of the Town schools, were gained by Kelly 462, out of a possible GOO marks, and second, Johnson with 441 marks. Stone was an excellent third. The two country scholarships, each of £4O a year and free education at the Nelson College, were won by, first, Painton, of Upper Wakefield school, with 462 marks, and second, Rutherford, of Foxton school, with 405 marks. The Marlborough scholarship, of £4O a year and free education at the Nelson College, was won by Douslin of Bleu-

heim Borough School, with 462 marks. It is a singular coincidence that each of the best boys in town and country in Nelson district, and the best boy in Marlborough, should have got exactly the same number of marks," 462. In Nelson the competition was restricted to boys under 15 years of age who had passed the sixth standard. In Marlborough both sexes were allowed to compete, the age being extended to sixteen years, scholars being also admitted who had passed the sth Standard. No girls attempted the contest this year." The marks scored by the Westport boys for the country scholarship were : —Munro, 378 ; McKay, 365 ; Whyte, 325. INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, CHRISTCHURCH. [advertisement. ] Those that wish to be represented at the Intercolonial Exhibition to be held in Christchurch in March next, should inform us of their intentions. We have been connected with all the Intercolonial Exhibitions held in the Colonies. At the late Adelaide Exhibition we represented 00 exhibitors, for which we received 10 gold medals, 4 first and 1 second awards, 3 of which were New Zealand firms (D. Strang and J. T. Martin, Invercargill, and T. Bevan, Wellington.) Our plan is to represent the exhibitors, transact their business, fix the exhibits ki their space, attend to the judging of exhibits, and anything necessary while the Exhibition remains open ; at the close re-pack and send their exhibits back, or sell them or duplicates thereof, if required. It is very inconvenient for visitors to come up to the Exhibition and fix their exhibits, which amount to an expense besides the loss of time which they must necessarily expend on them. Then again the exhibitors have a benefit—they have no trouble of getting space, they let us know how much is required and we get it for them, as we have a large amount of space granted to us. We fix up the exhibits on a better space than if they applied themselves. Our terms are moderate. We specially caution the public against giving their goods in charge to so-called Exhibition Agents, who go the rounds of the Exhibitions, and run exhibitors into debt and other difficulties. ALBERT ,3. MANDERS, & CO., British & Colonial Manufacturers' Agents, Head office, 91 Little Collins-street East, Melbourne ; and at London, St. Paul's Buildings ; Adelaide, 67 King William-street; Perth, W.A., 6 Town Hall. —A permanent branch is now established in Hereford street, Christchurch. All letters addressed to the above firm, Hereford street, will receive prompt attention, and circulars sent on enquiry. Hollowat's Pills.—This cooling medicine has the happiest effect when the blood is overheated, and a tendency to inflammatory action is set up in the system. One Pill taken shortly after dinner does away with the indigestion, fulness, and flatulency indicative of a weak stomach or disordered liver, A few Pills taken at bedtime act as alter* atives and aperients : they not only relieve the bowels, but regulate every organ connected with them : overcome all acrid humors, and encourage a free supply of all the secretions, essential to our well-being. Holloway's Fiils thoroughly cleanse and perfectly regulate the circulation, and beget a feeling of comfort in hot climates and high temperatures, which is most desirable for the preservation of health —Advt