Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 273, 18 November 1867, Page 2

We flnd upon! inquiry at the telegraph office that the continued interruption with Christchurch and the Southern Stations arises from a very considerable portion of the line, in the districts of Kaikouragand the Cheviot Hills, having sustained severe damage from late floods and very high winds prevalent in those neighborhoods for some time since. We are informed that about six miles ofthe line have been rendered ungatory from the above causes. Communication has heen interrupted since the 6th instant, and will probably not be resumed for some three weeks. We shall therefore receive no news as tothe arrival of the steamer at the Bluff with the Suez Mail until the steamer arrives at Wellington. The man Maguire, whose name was so prominently connected with the proceedings at the late inquest, was apprehended this afternoon on the Coroner's warrant and committed to Gaol. The trial of Robert Wilson for the murder of J. Lennox at the Buller will commence to-morrow morning at 1 0 oclock. There will be a parade of the No. 1 City Rifles, with the Rifle and Artillery Cadets, preparatory tothe presentation of colors to-morrow afternoon, at the ground at the rear of the Depot at 6 o'clock this evening. The Volunteer Band will be in attendance. The presentation of a color to the Cadet Battalion, which will take place to-morrow evening at the Botanical Gardens, is one of bo unusual a character, that our readers will probably thank us for giving them an outline of the ceremony to be observed on the occasion. The troops having been drawn up in review order, with certain exceptions, the old color, which, not being in existence, will of necessity be represented on this occasion, will be in front of the left line, the band aud drums being formed as for trooping. The new color, cased, will be in the rear of the centre, in charge of the two senior color-sergeants. The old color will then be ' trooped,'; and 'the usual formula of guard-mounting gone through. After this, three sides of an oblong having been formed, the' drums will be pil<=d in the centre, and the new color will be brought up from the rear by the two copr-sergeants in charge, and placed against the pile of drums. The;; color will then be uncased and placed on the drums. In a regular regiment the senior and junior majors would hand the colors to the lady ahout to present them, and receive them again from her hands; in the present case the junior Ensign will receive the color on bended knee from the lady presenting it, and addresses wiil then be made. The color to.be presented being the regi-mental-or second color, will be presented to the second senior ensign of the battalion, Ensign Wither of the Second Company, and the Queen's color, to provide which a subscription has been raised, and which takes precedence of the other, will, on its arrival, be presented to the senior ensign, Ensign Lucas, of the First Company. We -trust that the weather may prove auspicious on the occasion.

We are informed that it is the intention of the Nelson Fire Brigade to send to Melbourne by the first steamer for three lengths of India rubber hose, aud also for twelve leather buckets, to replace those destroyed by the late fire, together with the proper solution for repairing the hose. As we stated in our issue of Saturday, his Honor the Superintendent has ordered the public offices to be closed after 1 o'clock to-morrow, and it is generally understood that the various places of business throughout the town will be closed at an early hour in the afternoon, in order to permit of the employes who may happen to be members of the several Volunteer Companies, or who may desire to witness the presentation of colors, to be present on the occasion. The complimentary benefit offered to Miss Annie Merton on Friday night, under the patronage of his Honor the Superintendent, and a host of officials, civil as well as military, passed off very successfully, and the performance, which combined a great variety of entertainments, tragic, comic, and musical, did not conclude until close upon midnight. The principal responsibilities of course fell upon Miss Annie Merton and Mr Newton, and we need hardly say that they acquitted themselves most ably; the closet scene irom Hamlet in particular being admirably given, and ' serving to display the versatile powers of both artistes to great advantage, in combination with the opening comedy and the concluding sketch, Winning a Husband, in which Miss Merton sustained no less than tour parts with equal success. The musical arrangements, instrumental and vocal, which latter included a capital local song on the Prince's birthday, having reference to the late auto-da-fe in effigy, were very satisfactory, and the whole entertainment appeared to afford the utmost gratification to the audience present. Those of our readers, and we trust they are not few in number, who delight in the contemplation of objects of art, will find ample opportunity to gratify their tastes in this direction by an inspection of some most exquisite specimens of the photographic art which reached Nelson f rom London last week, consigned respectively to Mr Davis, the well-known photographer, and to Mr Hounseil, of Trafalgar-street. Amongst the numerous photographs imported by Mr Davis are some late portraits — cabinet size — taken by Disderi, the fashionable London photographist, of her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh, a large three-quarter length of the young Queen of Bavaria, by a Munich artist, one of the most lovely portraits, both as regards the subject and the faultless distribution of light and shade — success in which is the very touchstone of photographic excellence — which it has ever been our good fortune to behold, and a large collection of beautifully colored vignette portraits of operatic and theatrical celebrities, which exhibit the immense progress which the coloring of photographs has made at home within tbe last year or two. Mr Hounsell's collection includes a large number of very fine photographic copies of several of the most popular subjects by Landseer, Ansdell, Scheffer, Millais, Rosa Bonheur, Turner, etc., many of them the size of the originals, and suitable for framing. The very moderate price at which these photographs are offered, with the certainty that they are correct duplicates of the original pictures, or of engravings taken from them by the first artists in that line, will certainly ensure for these beautiful objects a ready sale, and. we would counsel those who desire to profit by so rare an opportunity to make an earlyvisit to the establishments to which we have alluded above. The Westport Times of the 12th instant states that the weather at the Mokihinui during the past week had been most trying. The town was threatened with a second inundation, but fortunately the water did not rise so high this time as on the first occasion. The river however has caused more damage to its southern bank this time. Most people removed to the higher part of the town ; others took to their counter-tops. The river is how one-third wider than it was a month ago. Good coarse payable gold has been found about 30 miles from the head of the Wanganui river, and payable gold has also been struck on the flat within a quarter of a mile from the town, and the ground has been pegged out quite down to the little bay. Mx Kynnersley had arrived on the llth, but an opinion is very generally expressed that a Warden should be appointed to this district exclusively. Mr Kynnersley has granted protection to an enterprising contractor for the erection of a' suitable wharf and a tramway through the principal street of the town. The recent flood seems not to have been confined to the Buller district. At the Grey a great amount of damage has been done. From the reports it appeared that the rain commenced on Monday night, and continued until Wednesday morning at daylight, when the river was bank high. ' Before noon the river had overflowed all along the front of the Mawhera- quay, and the whole of the Government township was under water. Shortly after 3 o'clock Mr Southam's boot shop was swept away, and at half-past 5 both the townships were under water, with the river flowing in volumes into the town. The Grey River Argus says: — We can only form a very vague estimate of the wreck that will be disclosed when the flood subsides : but the picture is sure to be a melancholy one. Judging from present appearances scores of houses have been injured, if not destroyed, a vast amount of property sacrificed, and probably life lost. During the Prince's visit to Adelaide, the Lyster Opera Company gave a grand representation of ' Lucrezia Borgia,' at which H.R.H. was present, but the house was but thinly attended, a speculator having bought up all tJhe box seats and offered them for sale at five guineas each, to which extortion the public were determined not to submit. Private letters received at Sydney by the last Panama Mail, state that the new Governor, Lord Belmore, and his suite had engaged their passages by the clipper ship Sobraon, which was to sail from Plymouth for Sydney on the 10th October. Under ordinary circumstances, therefore, his arrival may be looked for about the opening of the new year. At the request of the colonists, Sir Jolm and Lady Young have delayed their departure until after the Prince's visit, who is to leare Melbourne on the 13th December,

A friend writes from Golden Bay: — So many members of the House of Bepresentatives have relatives in billets that it will be a difficult matter to weed that garden now. It will require tp be composed of men of sterling sense and integritysuch men as I imagine Mr Shepherd to'be. I think I can get a hundred votes for hini if be will stand for the Bay. We muster' about a thousand souls in Golden Bay. The Takaka district is very much undervalued at present; it is muoh larger than the Wairneas, and the land is better, but the mischief is, a great deal of it beloDgs to absentees, and that near the port is Maori or Government reserve. We learn from the Marlborough Express of the 9th instant that the body of Mr Fyffe, of the Kaikoura (whose death, as was supposed by drowning, was telegraphed to Wellington and recorded in our issue of yesterday), has been found among the rocks near his residence, having apparently fallen from a considerable height; it was much bruised about the head and face. An inquest has been held, when an opeu verdict was returned.