Untitled

Westport Times, Volume 1, Issue 144, 16 January 1868, Page 2

By the courtesy of Mr Houghton, purser of the s.s. Beautiful Star, we have received our usual files of Weli lgton a'id Ofcago papers. Boat Accident.—As Wm. Hunter, Henry Wright, Alexander Baumann, Bishop and another, all professionals connected with the Theatre, were coming down the river yesterday afternoon, in a sailing-boat belonging to themselves, they fired at a hawk while near Snag Fall, and being more engaged in watching the flight of the bird than the boat's course, they allowed her to drift on to a snag, and she was instantly capsized. One of them, threw off his trousers to swim ashore. The pockets happened to contain £lO which are lost. The others managed to clamber on to the boat's bottom, and although frequently immersed by her turning over, retained their hold until they were rescued, with no other damage than a thorough ducking and the loss of some portions of their clothes. Gold from New Zealand.—We find that the P. and O. S.S. Geelong, whtch cleared out from Melbourne for Suez 0:1 the 28th ult., took awa? 32 259 ozs 2 dwts 22 grs of gold, of wiich 18,576 ozs 11 dwt3 10 grs, was the produce of New Zealand. _ Extraordinary Low Tide.—The river, after rising to an unusual height for two or three tides, sank unusually low yesterday afternoon, so much so as to reveal very prominently the devastations it has caused all along the shore. The Custom-house is now in course of removal, so as to be out of the way of further mischief. It will be placed alongside the other public buildings in the Camp Reserve. Dissolution op the Victorian House op Assembly.—The Australasian of the 4th inst. says:—" The holidays and pleasure>-making to which the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh has led are now nearly over, and the sounds of approaching political commotion are again heard in the air. An extraordinary issue of the Gazette of Monday contains the following proclamation :—' Whereas the Parliament of Victoria now stands prorogued to Tuesday, the 31st day of December instant, and whereas it is expedient to dissolve the Legislative Assembly: Now, therefore, I, Sir John Henry Thomas Manners Sutton, the Governor of Victoria, in exercise of the powers in me vested in this behalf, do, by this my proclamation, discharge the honorable the members of the Legislative Council and the members of the Legislative Assembly from their meeting and attendance on the said Tuesday, the 31st day of December inst. ; and I do dissolve the Legislative Assembly, which is hereby dissolved

accordingly. And, inasmuch as it is

desirable that Parliament should be summoned, without delay, I do hereby declare that I have this day given order that writs he issued in due form, and according to law, for the election of members to be duly returned to servo in the Legislative Assembly.' We understand that the writs for the first batch of the elections will be issued immediately, the elections to take place about the 10th of January. The whole of the elections will thus be got over within the next six or seven weeks." Tons Instead of Tins.—The Melbourne Argus of the 23rd ult., says : "A very simple error—the substitution of the letter 'o' for 'i' in a word in our Adelaide telegram of the English news by the mail, led to the commission of an error of some importance. The message intended to communicate the fact, that in a limited period of months 38,000 tins of Australian preserved meat had been sold in the London market; but in the course of transmission, the word ' tins' became ' tons.' The error was obvious, but it does not seem to have been perceived in Eiverina, where there was some rejoicings over the fact of 33,000 tons of Australian beef having found a market in England."

Earthquake.—The Timaru Herald of the Ist inst, says : —" Another, and a rather severe, shock of earthquake was felt in many parts of the district on Saturday morning, about 1 o'clock. The shock was felt by numbers of people in town, who,were woke up by the noise made by the moving of glasses in their bedrooms. We have received accounts from the Orari and the Cave of the shock being felt in each of those districts. To the south of Timaru it was also felt, and once recognised."