The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 25, 28 June 1851, Page 5

The Lyttelton Times.

SATURDAY, June 28, 1851

JOUBNAL OF THE WEEK,

* We have to record this week the saddest event which has occurred, or perhaps can ever occur in the colony. It is the loss by drowning of Mr. Ward, and his brother, Mr. Henry Ward, of Quail Island- It appears they started from the Island on Monday morning, for the purpose of bringing home a cargo of firewood from the shore, near the head of the bay. Nothing was heard of them afterwards. On Tuesday, a party went over to Quail Island in a boat, which the youngest Mr. Ward borrowed, for the purpose of seeking his brothers. He took two men with him: they found one oar near the place where the firewood had been apparently taken in—about a quarter of a inile,,fuither up the harbour, the boat was fpund on the beach, bottom upwards. A quantity oif fire wood was drifting about the bay. On Wednesday morning, the dog which went with them, returned to the Island, having run round the end of the bay. As we are sending this to the press, intelligence has arrived that one of the bodies has been found. This sad event has thrown an indescribable gloom over the whole settlement. Mr. Ward was one of the first colonists who declared his intention of joining the body of settlers, he laboured for a long time as Secretary to the Society of Colonists, who used to meet in the Adelphi Terrace, before sailing from England. He sailed with his two brothers and the families he was taking with him in the " Charlotte Jane," and was one of the first to land in the settlement. He was esteemed by all, and was beloved as much as he was esteemed. Not only his friends and family, but the colony has suffered an irreparable loss, both in himself and in his brother. A man named Hudson suffered a compound fracture of the thigh, besides injuries of the head, on Friday, from the falling of a large block of clay in the excavation opposite the Custom House. The cutter " Hawk" has gone to pieces, having met with very rough weather in crossing the Sumner bar, the men in her barely escaping with their lives. The greater part of her cargo was plundered from the wreck.

The names of tlie following gentlemen were posted in Lyttelton on the evening of Thursday, the 26th inst, as candidates for the Council of the Society of Land-Purchasers, at the election which is to take place on the ]Oth of July:— Messrs. Alport, Bray, Brittan, Burke, Fitzgerald, Tancred, Townsend, Wortley, Russell, and Longden. Dr. Barker and Mr. Pollard were previously in the field.