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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 486, 3 April 1869, Page 2

The sub-committee appointed by the Separation Committee to attend to the finance department, so requisite for the furtherance of the object, set about their work with activity on Thursday last, and in a few hours obtained subscriptions amounting to nearly forty pounds. Only a portion of the town has as yet been canvassed, and should our Charleston neighbors exert themselves in a similar way it will do much to procure a large num • ber of signatures to the petition and to otherwise further the object so earnestly sought for. Another meeting of the Committee will be held on Monday evening, when the petition in form will be placed before them for their final revision and for arranging the best course to adopt to secure the largest number of signatures from the whole district. . We are given to understand that a course of lectures is in contemplation for the winter months in aid of the funds of the Athenaum. One or two gentlemen in town have signified their willingness to take part in a course of lectures or readings for such an object, and the Athenaeum Committee are expected to arrange the same at their first meeting. The school-house has been spoken of as the most appropriate place for the holding of the lectures, and most likely an application will be made for the use of that building. Those favourable to the formation of a pri" vate dancing assembly are called upon to meet at the Little Grey Hotel on Monday evening, with a view of carrying out such arrangements as may bo considered necessary for the holding of weekly or fortnightly assemblies during the ensuing winter months. It is notified elsewhere that a public school will be opened on Monday next, under the management of a female teacher holding credentials from the National Board of Education, Ireland. This school has been initiated by the Rev Mr Walsh and a local Committee who will watch its operations. We observe that the prico of ■' nobblers " has been reduced by at least, one house in Charleston —the Melbourne Hotel—to the same scale as advertised by the Licensed Victuallers of Westport a few days ago. Elizabeth Wilson, who was recently committed for trial at Charleston, on a charge of perjury, has been forwarded to Nelson, to be detained until the sitting of the Supreme Court.

Thc contracts for keeping in repair the Caledonian and Addison's tracks have now expired. As it is during tho next six months that such repairs will be especially required, it is to be presumed that the contracts will be renewed, or fresh tenders called for.

The tenders called for by the Postal Department for conveyance of mails between Charleston and Westport, Brighton and Grreymoutli, closed on Thursday. A daily mail will not run, hewever, for at least six weeks ; it being necessary to give the mailman that notice. The Charleston Herald believes that Messrs Greening and Co. are the successful tenderers. Tenders are at length called for, for the formation of "a horse track round Hawk's Crag, on the Buller Road." An illustration of the necessity for the law requiring steamers to be provided with proper gangways, and an illustration also of the breach of that law, occurred a few evenings ago. In consequence of an insufficient gangway, Mr Buchanan, agent for the Union Bank, when leaving the steamer Wallabi, after putting some letters on board, was very nearly precipitated into the hold, and, as it was, was injured and disfigured by being thrown upon the deck, and against the combings of the hatch-way. Of course Mr Buchanan was very considerately treated by Capt. Daniels, after the accident; but that is not enough, and it is be expected that, as there is now a remedy at law, the Harbor-Master, or whose duty it may be to prosecute in such cases, will do so, so that delinquent ship's officers and seamen may be reminded of their liability, and that the necks of Her Majesty's lieges may be preserved. The Superintendent of Nelson considers that a mining community is a community which is " necessarily migratory, which has no settled place in the country, and which for the most part has no home or property—who are but wayfarers in the land." We recommend, for the perusal of HU ignorant and bigoted Honor, the following summary of mining progress in Victoria, as it .appears in a recent issue of the Mining Record :—"Where eighteen years ago not a man worked, there are now 64,658 miners and 1043 steam-en-gines engaged on 884 miles of reefs, the total value of plant being estimated in round numbers at £2,150,432.

Amotion "That annexation to Otagois desirable, if it can be accomplished on equitable terms," brought forward by Mr Johnston, has been discussed in the Southland Provincial Council, but was finally withdrawn.

The wife of a well-known and respected old settler of Canterbury, Mr R. Fleming, of Port Levy, has died from the effects of an accidental dose of strychnine.

It is currently reported that Messrs Holmes and Co., contractors for the Lyttelton and Christchurch Railway, are about to commence an action against the Provincial Government of Canterbury for the sum of £23,537, being the amount of what they consider extra work done beyond the terms of their contract in the formation of the railway.

It is expected that the Hokitika river will be bridged in a few months. The Daily News says : —The proprietors of the Westland Saw Mills seem determined to lose no time in bridging the river. Already a number of piles are on the proposed site, squared and pointed, ready to be driven home to form the abutments for the structure. Men are engaged fastening timber, constructing *' shear legs," and other necessary work. A piledriver maehine has been fixed upon the spot and is ready for action.

It is stated that the country members of the Westland County Council draw JJ7S each, for expenses during the last session. Two more of the Greenstone rioters have been arrested. They are Peter M'Grath, a publican, and Patrick Morrissey, a bootmaker. A disgusting story is told by the Hobart Town papers in connection with the treatment of the body of William Lanny, the last of the natives of Tasmania. It appears that a rumour had got abroad that an attempt to steal the body was to be made, and Sir Richard Dry and others made every exertion to save the remains of the poor aboriginal from desecration. It appears, however, that a surgeon obtained an opportunity and removed the skull, substituting for ,it, under the original scalp, that of a patient who had died on the same day in the hospital. The members of tho Royal Society then determined to remove the hands and feet of the corpse. This was done, and afterwards, it appears, the mutilated body itself was stolen by, it is supposed, the person who had removed the skull. It is stated that Dr Crowther, one of the honorary surgeons of the hospital, and his son (a student) were the offenders. Dr Crowther has been suspended, and it is stated that proceedings will be taken against him. The funeral of Mr John Jones took place in Duncdin on Saturday fortnight, when upwards of three thousand persons were present.

Speaking of the Bill to be introduced by the Nelson Executive for the reduction of the number of members in the Provincial Council, the &rey River Argus remarks : "The proposed Bill includes the whole Valley of the Grey in one electoral district, and will permit of its being represented by local men, which it never has been hitherto. It -would be premature to discuss the question further until it is brought before the Council ; but so far as appears on the face of it we think the scheme a very equitable one, and one which will be very generally approved of outside of the city of Nelson." The Superintendent, in accepting Mr Dutton's resignation as Warden, wrote : "I have recommended the acceptance of your resignation with much reluctance, and have, on behalf of the Provincial Government, to thank you for the able and zealous manner in which you have, from the date of your acceptance of them, fulfilled the duties of those offices, and to congratulate you on the success which has attended your exertions."

Two inquests were hold at Hokitika on Tuesday, in both of which cases the jury returned verdicts of " found drowned." The one was on the body of John Clark, a boatman on the Hokitika river, who was supposed to have been carried out to sea while attempting to cross the river on Friday night. The other was on the body of James Giles, who was found drowned, lying on the fascines near the Australasian Hotel. A miner named Eichard Cox has been killed by a fall of earth in a claim at Eoss. He •was born at St Just, Cornwall, and was about 27 years of age; his father was living at Bendigo, Victoria. A fatal accident is also reported from Nelson Creek A miner named Edward Thomas, a native of Penzance, Cornwall, was working in a tailrace, in a claim some distance above the Upper Township, when a tree fell on him and crushed him fearfully. On the last voyage of the steamship Alhambra from New Zealand to Melbourne, a man named Hugh Dwyer threw himself overboard and was drowned. Dwyer had placed a sum of money—about .£7o—in the hands of Captain M'Lean, and it has been paid over to the man's legal representatives. There has been a fire at Napier, by which Benker's Ferry Hotel was destroyed. The Press says that an epidemic of an unusually violent description, intheformoflow fever, attended with vomiting and diarrhoea, is just now prevalent in Christchureh and the neighbourhood, more especially amongst children.

It is stated by the Grey River Argus that Constable Jeffrey Macpherson, lately stationed at the Twelve-mile, was telegraphed for by the Superintendent of Nelson to be presented to the Dute of Edinburgh as the first white man born in the Middle Island. He went to Nelson by the s.s. Murray, on her last trip. One of the most important discoveries that, in the annals of quartz-mining, has ever taken place in the colony of Victoria, has been made at Pleasant Creek. An extensive and paying horizontal reef has been discovered 350 feet below one formerly worked at 560. The existence of these horizontal or flat reefs gives quite a fresh interest to quartz-mining.