HOKITIKA.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 252, 27 September 1865, Page 3

HOKITIKA.

(From the 1 Nelson Examiner?) The principal street in Hokitika is Revellstreet, nearly half a-mile long, containing 246 buildings—not miserable shanties, but substantial and commodious business-places, where merchants and tradesmen of all classes follow their daily avocations —in fact, I consider it a surprising place for its age. Hotels fifty-five, the principal ones being the Empire; the Shamroclc, by Wagner & Hughes; the Queenstown Hotel, by Bracken, or the gallant major, as he is termed, stands next—indeed, I think I might give the major the preference he being to my fancy the most popular man in the hotel trade in Hokitika, consequently his bar trade is second to none in the town. Harding's Corinthian Hall is a large building capable of holding between 600 and 700 people; there the inimitable Thatcher, with Madame Vitelli, and Small, performed nightly for more than three months to excellent audiences. Since the local satirist has discontinued his performances, mine host, is, I believe, to have a new company shortly, and fearing that they would not prove as attractive as Thatcher and Company he is now laying the floor in the hall, and intends also to provide seats for the audience. There are two dancing saloons in Hokitika, but owing to a want of the fair sex as partners they are not extensively patronised. There are fifty-five stores. The butchers in this street are eight in number; as a general rnle they keep good meat, and the shops look particularly clean. There are three banks —the New South Wales, Bank of New Zealand, and the Union—neither of them looking like banks at all. However, I suppose in course of time when things are settled down, they will erect sightable buildings. Speaking of the hotels in Hokitika, I must observe that not one of them has anything like good accommodation for families or travellers. They depend solely upon their bar trade and only five are doing anything like a good business.

Of the recent heavy find of gold on the West Coast, the 'Canterbury Standard' remarks:— " Everyone is talking of the 4 extraordinary find of lOOlbs of gold,' and we heard some who ought to know better, indulging in the. most extravagant speculations with regard to the goldfields. Why should this find of lOOlbs create 6uch astonishment? Does anyone know how long the men who sold this gold to the bank had been at work ? It seems to us that we ought to settle this question satisfactorily before we indulge in any extravagance. The men may have been at work six months, three months or twelvemonths. No one seems to know. When this is done, we are willing to throw up our caps and shout as loudly as anyone." Novel Cure for the Toothache—ln a certain border town there lived an old woman, who, being almost at her wit's end with toothache, bethought herself of a cure. Knowing the causes of lock-jaw, she thought the thumb of the left hand must be connected with the teeth or gums, and therefore resolved to try a mustard poultice on the thumb. Strange to say, it had the desired effect of entirely removing the sting. Such a cure, so cheap and simple, is surely worth a trial by those afflicted with toothache, especially since the discoverer herself was a victim, and can give her own testimony as to the efficacy the remedy.