CHARLESTON NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 325, 15 August 1868, Page 4

CHARLESTON NEWS.

A case of some little interest was heard in the Warden's Court on Thursday, wherein Aiden Doyle and party sued M'Carthy and party for £7l 2s. It appeared a contract was entered into whereby the plaintiffs agreed to raise and deliver 1000 tons of cement out of the defendant's claim on the town lead, at the price of 9s a load, and the plaintiffs averred that a certain block was pointed out to them from which seven or eight hundred tons of the cement was to be taken. After getting out 158 loads the defendants, finding the stuff was not paying so well as expected, wanted the plaintiffs to knock off working at that place, and eefc to in another face. They however declined to do so, chiefly because the new place was dangerous to work in. On applying to the defendants for payment, the latter refused to give more than 75 per cent of the amount, as the contract was not completed. The defendants on the other hand denied that any particular block of ground was selected to work on, and declared that according to the contract, payments of 75 per cent only were to be made until the job was completed. Each party handed in what purported to be a copy of the agreement. The Magistrate said the case for the defence evidently depended on the written contract, but no such document had been handed in, or appeared to be in existence, both the papers professing to be merely copies. Even had one been an original document the signatures were faulty. Under these circumstances the plaintiffs were entitled

to claim for tho work and labor done, and a verdict was accordingly given for the full amount without, however, any costs.

A patient has just been received into the hospital, suffering from a complaint which is happily a singular one. Tt seems T)r Dakers was called out at daybreak on "Wednesday morning to see a mm out on Whiskey Terrace, and oa proceeding there, he found him suffering from a most severe attack of cholera. He was taken ill during the night, and was much reduced when the doctor reached him. Dr Dakers ha;! him conveyed into town to the hospital, and he is now recovering. Tins is the first case of English cholera that we have heard of iu New Zealand.

Thursday night was the first of the gift auction in aid of the building fund of the Church of England. It was held in the new addition to tho European Hotel, which Messrs "Weitzell and Co. kindly placed at the disposal of the Committee. There was a very large attendance during the hour and a-half that the sale continued, a great many of whom were buyers, some rather unexpectedly. The officiating auctioneers were Messrs Bain, Dwan, and and the office was not an idle sinecure for in one instance, a pet sheep from Messrs Shepherd and Co, was put up, given back and resold by Mr Dwan no less than twenty-five times realising over £lB in all. A child's frock in like manner fetched £3 7s 6d, and so on with a numl er of other articles. A galvanic battery, lent by Mr Williams, the chemist, was made use of during the evening, the charge being a shilling a shock. The total amount of sales when the business was closed at nine o'clock was £3B : comparatively very few of the articles, however, have been sold, and the bulk will be disposed of on Saturday evening in the same manner. It rs well known that Lord Lyndhurst and his family were all longlived ; but a long long life seems to have been common to the Broughams as well as to the Compleys. Lord Lyndhuist's mother lived to 90, and saw her son seated on the woolsack ; Lord Brougham's mother lived to be 98, and did the same thing. Lord Brougham's grandmother was 93, at he" death in 1807, and his great-aunt, whom he well remembered as a child, rnd with whom he had often conversed, died in 1786 at the age of 106, having been born in the reign of Charles 11., and having therefore lived in the reign of no less than seven sovereigns in succession. Indeed, six generations of the Brougham family, according to Sir Bernard Barke, carry us back well into the reign of Elizabeth.

A writer of an interesting column in the Melbourne Leader, headed " Under the Yerandah," asks : —" "What think you of £3900 for a ship of say 2GOO tons ? Who wouldn't be a shipowner when big ships are going a-beg-ging in that fashion ? Thirty shillings a ton for a Melbourne and Liverpool liner! Ships, like racehorses, wear out and break down, and as they can't be put to the drawing of dung-carts or the feeding of hounds, they are sold (probably in damaged condition) to be huge sea-going coffins for the watery interment of a few ftundred Irish or German emigrants. The good old ship White Star, late of the White Star line, has been sold out of the line for £3900 ! She may be cheap, but, on the other hand, she may not." The Wanganui Times is responsible for the following : —Some fortnight ago Mr. Booth went to Wellington, and took with him Tauroa, a chief whom Colonel M'Donuell then held as a kind of hostage for the good behaviour of his tribe. On being introduced to the Govenor, Tauroa, expressed sentiments of loyalty, to which Sir George Bo wen is said to have replied nearly as follows : —" Tauroa, I accept your professions of loyalty and offers of lasting and unbroken frieudship, but at the same time advise you that any tribe in this colony that perpetrates atrocities similar to those recently committed in the Patea district, I will consider it my duty to pursue and exterm'nate. You, Tauroa, are at perfect liberty to return to your people, and with them join the Hau Haus and fight against us, but if you do so you and your people most stand the consequences. I want no natives to assist in putting down the rebellion. With a European force I will pursue and exterminate atrocious murderers ; if you wish to join those men you may do so, but if you take my advice you and your tribe will remain perfectly neutral." With that caution and advice Tauroa withdrew, and since his return has freely stated the result of his interview with the Governor. Thanks to Sir George Bowen for that manly and straightforward declaration of policy. Had the native race been firmly dealt with years ago, they might be saved from the exterminating pro.

cess to which Sir George Grey's policy has subjected them. In mercy to both Maori and European, we trust that Si r George Bowen will firmly and permanently establish British supremacy over the length and breadth of this Island. Then, and not until then, will both races of her Majesty's subjects live in peace and barmouy with each other. A pusillanimous policy is, for the native race, an exterminating policy which, meautimo, burls ruin upon the colony." Amongst the passengers by the s. 8 - Penola, yesterday, 20th ult., from MacDonnell Bay, was Captain Gascoisrne, of the cutter Sperwer, which arrived at M'Donnell Bay last week, from Batavia. The story of Mr. Q-ascoigne is one of a romantic and in some par ticulars tragic character. He was for years master of a vessel belonging to the late firm of Young and Martin. He, jointly with them, owned the Postboy, schoooner, and was employed in salvage pursuits in Torres Straits. During his last expedition there his vessel was wrecked. He with his wife and crew fell into the hands of the Malays, who treated his wife in the most barbarous manner, tearing off her eai'-rings and the rings from her finders. By some means the Dutch Government obtained the news of their captivity, and immediately, in a most humane and business-like manner, despatched a man-of-war to rescue them and punish the Malays. Mrs Gascoigne left for these colonies in a French vessel, which sailed under Dutch colours, and no tidings were ever heard afterwards of ship, crew, or passengers. Mr. G-ascoigne then visited Brisbane. He had lost his all through shipwreck, and the dishonesty of his previous employer? ; bnt several gentlemen of Java, who had. some knowledge of him before his misfortune, on his return there procured for him a diving dress, &c, and employed him in the salvage of a cargo of hemp from the wreck of an American ship. Large quantities of the salvage have arrived here in the Quatre Bras and- Johannes Antonius, and it is certainly strange that the master of the latter could give no information of Captain Gascoigne. The latter left Java for the purpose, we learn, of buying a larger vessel, and once again endeavouring to better his position.— Arqus.