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Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 242, 11 May 1868, Page 2

there is nothing to justify a large population going there. That the Upper Bullor will yet prove one of the largest and most productive diggings on the coast we have every confidence. When the track is completed the country will have a chance of being thoroughly prospected, but till that is the case it will remain in statu quo. The following telegram in reference to the safe arrival of the salmon ova atDunedin, is taken from the Wellington Independent and will be read with interest.—" The Celestial Queen, with the salmon ova en board, arrived at Port Chalmers on Saturday the Srdiust. Of the live fish shipped on board at London, the gudgeon, tench, and carp, either died, or were lost on the passage. The first boxes of salmon ova on being opened were found to be in good condition. The greater part of them were at once shipped to Molyneux, and have reached the Waiwera stream by this time. The ova in ten boxes have been placed in hatching boxes at the Water of Leith. These ova are in fair condition. The boxes of salmon " unabla and orown" [so the telegraph clerk writes, whatever that may mean.—Ed. W.l.] were in very bad condition, nearly all of them being dead. Those living have been placed in the Acclimatisation Society's breeding boxes at Boyd's Creek, but with only faint hopes of their coming to any good." Mining affairs at Addison's Flat are improving. The shafts put down on the other side of the river have struck very coarse gold and in more than payable quantities, whilst the claims on this side are yielding an amount hitherto unknown. The cement lead is also paying well and operations are being pushed on with great energy. Applicants for the medical charge of the Westport Hospital are invited, as will be seen by advertisement at a salary of £3OO per annum. As private practice is allowed this is by means niggardly remuneration, and there will no doubt be a large number of applications for the post. The Government have done what is perfectly right and fair in this course, and no doubt will thus obtain the offer of the best, talent in the profession. Apropos of the hospital surgency we may say that Dr. Cotterell holds the temporary appointment. As a month has to elapse before the vacancy will be permanently filled, time is offered to gentlemen at a distance to proffer their services. The gift auction held at Mr Munro's rooms, on Saturday night last, in aid of the Parsonage Building Eund, was a great success. A large number of persons attended, and the multifarious stock was cleared off both rapidly and at good prices, the whole sum realised amounting to £75. Many of the articles were of comparatively considerable value, and fetched tolerably fair prices. A very good microscope with stand, &c\, complete, most liberally presented by Dr. Giles, realised £5 ; and a rifle given by the Eev. B. W. Harvey, sold for £4. An immense amount of fun attended the sale, and both the auctioneer and the buyers seemed in equally good spirits. The debt was we believe, about £BO, so this windfall will clear it very nearly off. As we have previously said, we trust the next step will be to build an Episcopal Church. The West Coast Times of the 6th inst thus records the sudden death of a warder at the Hokitika gaol:—The dull routine of prison life at the County Gaol was rudely disturbed yesterday by the awfully sudden death of Cornelius Whelan, one of the warders, a man very much respected on account of his uniformly steady conduct and creditable antecedents. Yesterday morning he rose at half-past five o'clock apparently in the enjoyment of good health, and went outside to wash prior to going on duty. Whilst in the act of stooping a choking cough, and other alarming symptoms came on, and with some difficulty he staggered into the warder's mess-room and sunk upon a seat. He uttered a few faltering sentences to one or two of his comrades, and then fell back insensible, and died in less than five minutes after being conveyed to bed. Beyond the fact that he had lately suffered from a severe cold and pains in the chest, no cause can be assigned for his sudden decease. A messenger was immediately dispatched for Dr. Dermott, who attended with all speed, but found life had departed. He considers that death resulted from heart disease, accelerated by cold. Whelan was an old soldier of the 40th Regiment, and served many years in India under Lord Gough. His body bears the marks of several wounds received in the Seikh campaign." A very hot opposition is going on in Hokitika between the rival newspaper proprietary. As we stated some days ago a new morning daily paper is about to be published there by Mr Sale, under tho title of the Westland Observer.

This will be printed at the Evening Star office, and the proprietor of the West Coast Times, therefore, has started an opposition evening paper, of twenty columns, under the title of the Despatch. Not content with vigorous measures in Hokitika, Mr -Shaw has carried the war into the camp of the Grey 'River Argus, at G-reymouth, by engaging a reporter in that town who will forward every afternoon copy for the West Coast Tir.es of the following morning ; and arrangements are made to express the latter journal to G-rey-mouth every morning, and deliver it there to subscribers by eight o'clock. This is sharp work indeed, and as all the opposing parties have nailed their colors to the mast, a very pretty newspaper scrimmage indeed may be expected. There was nothing to occupy the Resident Magistrate's attention at the Court on Saturday, and the police sheet was a perfect blank. In reference to the sittings of the Supreme Court at Hokitika, which were to commence to-day, we learn from the Times that—" It is notified in our columns that the sittings of the Circuit Court will be adjourned on Monday, the 10th to Wednesday, the 13th inst., at 10 o'clock in the morning, as his Honor the Judge will not be able to reach Hokitika in time for business on Monday. It is further announced that jurors and all other persons who have been summoned to appear are released from attendance until Wednesday next at ten o'clock in the forenoon. It is with sincere regret that we have to chronicle the stranding of the p.s. Nelson at Hokitika. She left here on Wednesday night and arrived off the bar about 10 a.m. on Thursday. The bar is described by the local papers as being exceedingly bad. This, combined with the Nelson being very deeply loaded, is said to be the cause of the accident. The following is abridged from the West Coast Times: —She had just come up from the Buller, and took the bar with the beacons fair in line. The captain says that they lead too far south, and that, in consequence, the vessel hung for a few seconds upon the point of the South Spit, and being unable to recover the steerage way thus lost, she took a sheer across stream, and grounded hard and fast upon the extreme point of the North Spit, her bow being within thirty feet of the deep water of the river. Her engines were at once reversed full speed, but budge she would not, and also defied the power of the Challenge. The tug strove desperately to get her afloat, but without success, and only desisted when the tide just, ebbing, left the steamer's water line far above the water-level. To lighter her to be ready for a heave off, was the first care of the agent, Mr Henderson, and Captain Dillon. A number of carts were engaged, and so soon as the tide had ebbed sufficiently they backed alongside, and the work of discharging commenced. By sunset the bulk of her freight was ashore, and heaving off warps run out ahead, and to the South Spit. At high water last night the warps were taken to the winches, but we are sorry to say the attempt to heave her off failed." By the Lioness we hear that she was still ashore on Saturday night, and it was considered impossible to get her afloat without relaunching her. The following appears in the Wellington Journal, and should be a caution to those living where the tutu is found. —"Two little children belonging to Mr M'Kelvey, Makara Hill, were poisoned last week from eatinw tutu berries, but their lives were luckily saved by the prompt administering of strong emetics ; parents cannot be too careful more especially at this season of the year when several kinds of poisonous berries are ripe." On hearing a clergyman remark, " The world is full of change," Mrs. Partington said she could hardly bring her mind to believe it, so little found its way into her pocket.

The sittings of the Supreme Court at Hokitika will not commence till Wednesday next, and it is probable that the ordinary cases will be disposed of prior to the political trials coming on. In order to keep our readers aw couran £with their progress we havemade arrangements with a gentleman fully competentfor the task,to forward us the latest particulars by every boat or mail of any kind leaving. The fullest and most reliable information may thus be depended on, and we shall lose no opportunity of placing it at the earliest possible moment before the public. Wanganuites have not given up all hopes of finding gold within their boundaries. The Evening Herald of the 6th says :—" The Wanganui prospecting party started this day at 4 p.m. in two canoes, to prospect the country between here and Taupo, on both sides of the river. A large number of people were down on the beach watching the party off." We beg to draw the attention of the trade to the sale of stock to-day by Messrs Robertson and Co. Its quality ia first-class, and should realise good prices. On Saturday three large canoes were loaded and despatched for the diggings up the Buller, and the accounts from there are very encouraging indeed. Those at work are doing well, but at the same time till some better and surer means of obtaining provisions than canoes afford can be employed