NELSON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 283, 18 July 1855, Page 6

NELSON.

A Local Steam Navigation Company is forming in Nelson, under the title of " The Motueka, Nelson, and Massacre Bay Steam Boat Association." The proposed capital for working the. company is to be £2,000, to be raised by 2,000 shares of £1 each ; ss. to be' paid on signing the agreement, and the remainder within three months. The plan proposes the purchase of a paddle wheel steamer of about 40 tons measurement and from 10 to 20 horse power. Don Mountain Copper Mine. —The bridle road to the copper mine on the Dun Mountain is now so far advanced that a fortnight's fine weather will see it completed, when, instead of the toilsome and somewhat dangerous trick which has hitherto been followed, the mine may be reached, with perfect ease, in a a three hours' walk, or on horseback; and the few tons of ore which have been got out for the purpose of being sent to England as a specimen, will then be readily brought down on pack-bullocks, in time sufficient, we hope, to be shipped by the Nelson. Parties connected with the company which pui'poses working the mine have secured upwards of 1,600 acres of land in its neighbourhood ; and by the Sir Allan McNab, which will probably arrive from England in the course of two or three weeks, several miners may be expected, who have been sent out specially to work ths mine. We shall expect, therefore, to see, in a very short time, the working of the Dun Mountain Oopper Mine begun in earnest. TASMANIA. A villain, named Rocky Whelan, has been hung in Hobart Town, for murder. Previous to the execution, be made the following confession, which was read by the Colonial Secretary at an inquest held by the coroner on the body of one of his victims, named James Dunn. Hobarl Town Gaol, 25th June, 1855. I, John Whelan alias Rocky Whelan, condemned to suffer to-morrow morning for robberies on William Kearney and Richard Carpenter, which I acknowledge to have committed; with deep sorrow, and in order to make what reparation I can, do solemnly and sincerely declare, that I did, and being then alone, commit the following murders :— 1. An elderly man between Brown's River and Northwest Bay, about a month ago ; I shot him in the head and robbed him. 2. A young man (I learned afterwards his name was Dunn) on the Huon track, about six or seven weeks after Carpenter's robbery; I shot him in the head, and struck him on the head with the butt of the pistol; then robbed him. 3. An elderly man at Bagdad, six or seven weeks ago; I shot him in the head and then robbed him. 4. A young man on the Westbury Road, about a week after the last murder ; I shot him in the head and took away a few shillings. 5. A hawker, near Cleveland, about three days before I was taken; I shot him in the head, and took away several things, most of which are now at the police office. The full particulars of these murders I have given to the Very Rev.W. Hall, Vicar-General, and, the Rev. W. P. Bond, hoping that the bodies yet undiscovered may be found. I most humbly and sincerely beg forgiveness of the friends of these victims of my cruelty, and hope that the Almighty will have mercy on my poor soul. his John X WheijAN. mark. Taken before me in the Gaol of Hobartou, this 25th June, 1825, at five minutes before seven o'clock in the evening, having first been read over to Wbelan, who declares that the same is true W. T. N. Champ.