Postal Communication with Australia.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 496, 5 August 1857, Page 5

Postal Communication with Australia.

We learn that the tenders received in answer to the advertisement issued by Mr Dillon Bell at the request of the Superintendent, were opened yesterday. They were found to be so high in their demands as to preclude all hope of the Provincial Exchequer being for some time able to meet such a drain as a Steam Postal Service would prove.

The Provincial Government, we presume, will now fall back upon sailing vessels ; nor will these be by any means a bad last resource. The same exact regularity of arrival and departure as that insured by a well-appointed Steam Service cannot be expected ; but, looking to the later performances of the Denny and the Zingari, we see no cause for fear that three clipper or fast sailing schooners or brigs would not secure the transit of the mails within, on the average, a day or two in excess of the time occupied by our late Steam-service. There are parties in the province, we know, who are prepared to tender to put on three such sailing vessels as we have named, as soon as ever the Provincial Government is in a position to advertise the contract. The cost of such service, we have been told, will not much exceed the third of the bonus voted to the Denny, or the half of that last year voted to the Wonga—a saving which will be of some moment in the present state of the Provincial finances. There will also 'be this further compensating advantage, that, in return for a moderate bonus, the contractors can not only be bound, but will be quite ready to bind themselves, to reasonable rates both for passenger and goods traffic— lbid, July 1.

Fatal Accident at Ngunguku ( Wan-gaeie).-—On Tuesda}-, the 16th ult., an inquest was held at the house of Cornelius Murnane, Ngunguru, before T. B. Kenderdine, Esq., coroner, on the body of William Murphy, who met with his death on the previous day under the following circumstances. It appeared from the evidence that the deceased, who was a sawyer, was engaged |with several others in raising an immense log of timber on to a pit, supported by two pieces of timber termed " skids," by means of "blocks and tackle," the duty of the deceased being to place a piece of wood termed a "chock" behind the log to prevent it rolling back. The deceased was last seen thus engaged, with one arm resting on the " skid " and his head leaning over it, when part of the tackling gave way, the log rolled down, and the whole, weight passed over deceased's head, crushing it frightfully and breaking "his arm ; he was taken up immediately but was quite dead. The man similarly engaged on the other side had a most narrow escape. The jury being satisfied that the result was accidental, returned a verdict accordingly.— lbid, July 8.