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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 244, 17 October 1867, Page 2

The new county of Westland will include the whole of the territory from the River Grey on the north, southward of the Otago boundary, and from the sea inland to the dividing range. Over this district the Canterbury Government has ceased to have either legislative or administrative control. The present Provincial Acts are to be in force, until they are overridden or amended by General Assembly legislation. The district is to have all its money at its own disposal, with the enjoy meut of its entire goldfields duty, and of the same proportion of its customs. duties as is allotted to provinces. According to the new financial scheme of the Government, one-half of the customs revenue is to be given to the pro\ince for local use,/, after certain administrative expenses within the provinces have been defrayed. The officer delegated by the Governor (the Hon. John Hall) will exercise bis powers by the advice of an Elective

Council of nine members in the same manner as tbe Governor acts by the • advice' of his Executive. Eight of these are to be elected, the ninth being the chairman, nominated by the Governor. The Westland accounts are to be kept separate by the Colonial (and not the Provincial) Secretary, and provision for »the temporary expenses of the local government is to be made by the Colonial Treasurer. In fact all has been done by the Government that was possible to meet tbe requirements of WestJand, short of constituting it a separate province. However, a? we have already stated, the measure is only a temporary oue, and a more permanent settlement, more iu consonance with the prayer of the petitioners of the Grey district may ultimately be obtained. The followiug debt case was heard in the Resident Magistrate's Court, on Friday last:— H. H. Stafford v. T. R. Fisher aud Thomas Ritchie. This action, the fiuai hearing of which had been adjourned from the sth instant, was to recover the sums of £19 12s for the freight of 49 sheep from Nelson to Hokitika iu April last iu the Eleanor, at 8s per sheep, aud of £16 16s7d, the net proceeds of the sale of 25 wethers, said to be consigned to the defendants, who were partners in th.e vessel, making a total of £36 8s 7d. Mr H. Adams appeared for the plaiutiff, Mr A. Pitt for the defendauts. The case, which has been already before our readers, had been adjourned iu order to enable the plaintiff to produce evidence to prove that the defendant Mr Fisher was in partnership with Ritchie, and had therefore profited by the consignment transaction, but having failed to do so, the plaiutiff was uousuited. — Oa Saturday last Robert K. Turner was charged with driving an unlicensed hackney carriage in this city, and, having admitted the offence, was fined £1 and costs. — On Tuesday last James Dolbel, Win. M'Cormack, David Maclea, George Dowdell, and Jeremiah Gulliven, seamen belonging to tbe barque Leonidas, were charged with wilful disobedience on board that vessel on the night of Monday last. It appeared, from the evidence of the mate of the Leonidas, Samuel Johns, and also from that of Mr Joseph Garrard, who was on board the barque at the time, that on the pilot bringing the steamer Otago alongside her about 9 o'clock on Monday night, the prisoners refused to make the steamer fast, saying they were in bed. It was proved that the men had behaved very quietly, and they were ordered by the Magistrate to be sent on board in custody.— Yesterday the two following cases were heard : — S. Knarsten v. Joseph Edwards. An action to recover £1 17s. It appeared that the plaintiff had asked the defendant to sell him some bricks, to which he agreed. The next day he received a load of bricks which he imagined came from the defendant, whom he therefore paid for them. If afterwards transpired that the bricks in question had been delivered by Mr Osman, and not by defendant, from whom the plaintiff had never received any at all. The defendant, in reply, stated that finding some bricks on his premises had been removed, he conjectured that the plaintiff had taken them, and under this supposition received payment for them. Judgment for tbe plain- . tiff, for £1 17s and costs. — J. W. Bond v. John Barrett. This was an action to recover £2 8s 9d, for articles supplied by the plaintiff, a painter. The defendant bad admitted the debt, and was adjudged to pay the amount with costs. ' The Marlborough Express observes that the General Assembly has very properly refused a'graut of £500 to Dr. Mouatt, the chief of the medical staff dnring the war, and one of the calumniators of the colony. Last session they refused him a land grant on the petition of Taranaks. We learn that the Government has not

yet arrived at a final decision with reference to the tenders sent in for laying down the pipes of the new Waterworks now in. process of construction, but that their ultimatum will be made known to-morrow morning. We recommend the following to the notice of our local lady amateurs: — Mr Schachner's oratorio of Israel's ]&tfyirn was given on "July 3rd, at Exeter^alf, r with her Grace the Duchess of Newcastle as the prima donna, the wife, of the Bishop of Gloucester,, Mrs Ellicott, taking the second soprano. Her Grace sang in a sweet, sensible, and natural-way, with; a. pure and persuasive tone of voice, at first somewhat veiled by the novelty of position. After the duet with Mr Hohler, for which the calls for repetition were not to be denied, her voice became settled,, and the next recitative was well — thoroughly well — given. In the former portion of the oratorio her suiging met with the acclamatious it was entitled to from peculiar circumstances, but the applause warmed from the real earnestness of the vocalist, and in this recitative the beauty of the scriptural passage, the strength of the composer, aud the revelation of true artistic power on the part of the vocalist, excited the audience to enthusiasm, and there was of course an encore. Mrs Ellicott's singing is marked with great accuracy and good tast^, with here and there a just expression of powerful declamation. Her solo and quartette parts were given faultlessly. Mr Scbachner is well known as a great performer on the piano and successful composer for that instrument. The oratorio is written in the true oratorio vein, abounding in counterpoint, and some of the choruses are far beyond the touch of ordinary hands. He has much improved the work since its first production, and will no doubt be called upon for fresh aud increased exertion. The Duchess of Newcastle is the daughter and heiress of the late Mr Thomas Hope, of Deepdene, and belongs to a family in which talent and benevolence are hereditary. We would caution the more juvenile members of the community, who rejoice in the possession of catapults and other instruments of destruction to small birds that by the provisions of the Animals Protection Bill, which has just passed the Legislature, and has consequently become law, all boys shooting, bird-snaring, and birds-nesting, will be fined, and if the money is not forthcoming, whipped in the presence of a magistrate or justice of the peace. The Empire Dramatic Company will appear again this evening at the Oddfellows' Hall. The programme is a very attractive one, including one of the best of our modern comedies, Delicate Ground, by Charles Dance, and Planche's very favorite operetta, with the incidental songs, The Loan of a Lover, which is always welcome. Besides these, we are promised a musical interlude, including a song by Miss Annie Merton, the new American war song, General Sherman's March through Georgia by Mr W. H. Newton, another local song, after the fashion of those which were received so enthusiastically on Tuesday night, by Mr Man ton; and, though last not least, two overtures by the little orchestra which accompanies the party, whose performances alone should induce those who have not yet visited the Hall, to accord their patronage to this very deserving company. We hope to see a bumper house this evening. A train on the Louisville and Nashville road was brought to a dead stop by the hosts of caterpillars on the rails. Captain O'Mackeby, passing" through a field of: cattle, said to a friend, ' Whenever you see a herd of cows all lying down, and one of them only standing up, that one is sure to be the bull.' ;