BRIGHTON.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 502, 11 May 1869, Page 2

BRIGHTON.

('FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) May 5. I have to preface my remarks in my first letter from here by commenting, like a faithful scribe, on the weather, and, oh, what weather! —cold, wet, and stormy, with a vengencc which has produced an unmistakeable dulness in every industry, mining not excepted ; the floods rushing down the various creeks in this district to the sea with tremendous velocity, but fortunately doing little harm, save in a few isolated cases which can be easily repaired. The introduction of your spirited paper amongst us has been to many here a source of very great pleasure, the copies being purchased up apparently with great avidity—a very fair criterion, in my opinion, of the value of the article referred to, and a sure sign that our feelings and sympathies are to a great extent represented by your journal. "Wo have been hitherto systematically neglected and cast aside apparently'as unworthy of much attention. Our Charlestoniau friends look upon us as you would look upon a crabbed old maid, with mingled feelings of pity, good humour, and Christian charity. They smile upon us complacently, give us the usual nod of friendly recognition when they see our miners and business people, the former Wending their way heavily laden with the precious amalgam, and the latter with deposits for the banks, &c, uuder the protection of one of " Colt's own," mounted on one of " the Lightning Line," knocking fire out of the street stones of Charleston, just to show our friends, as it were, how we Brighton folk can do it when we are riled, or when our " monkies " are up. And I assure you that we as a people are not in the best of good humour at present. We are not to be trifled with, and the sooner our wants are attended to the better for that paternal Government of ours located in the vicinity of " Sleepy Hollow." But, to write more seriously, we have great cause of complaint. "We have beeu deserted by our banks, our courts of justice are partially closed, we have little or no protection for our property, our gold swells the yields of Charleston, our cash is laid out there, and were it not for the indefatigable exertions of our worthy E.M. and Warden, I believe we would have to go there for a summons or a miner's right. Now I would like to know the why and the wherefore of all this. A stranger would think we had gone to the dogs

—that we had threepenny taps in our midst, or sold Hennessy with the battleaxe brand diluted with soda in order to make it more palatable (as our Charleston friends say) for Gd. Now we have not come to that yet. We can afford to pay the " pubs " the usual " bob." AYe can keep our own, and enjoy a little luxury now and then without cutting it so fine altogether. It is a bad sign to see things cut so fine —a sure forerunner of impendiug disaster. In my frequent journeyings to Charleston, with my precious amalgam, and after safely converting the same into cash, through the zealous efforts of my friend " Mac," that prince of agents, I had a look round to pee what all the banks were doing in Charleston, and it struck me very forcibly from what I saw myself that some of them were not making tucker, and it surprised me very much that some one of them did not abandon such poor ground and take up an extended claim amongst ourselves, where, at all events, wages could be got if not something better; but like the " pubs " of Charleston with the celebrated battle-axe, &c, for 6,1,1 supppse they mean to see it out with each other, and if they do I am afraid there will not be a margin showing 10 per cent, per annum. And now for mining matters. lam happy to say things are looking remarkably well generally. If we had only a Government which would take the slightest interest in our welfare or progress we would do well. The expenditure of a little money in the right direction would open up our highly auriferous district. Fancy what a dire necessity we must be reduced to when the storekeepers, butchers, bakers, and others too numerous to mention had to volunteer and, armed with picks, shovels, and other road-making implements, proceeded towards Roehfort's diggings recently in order to repair some frightful places so as to prevent themselves and horses from being killed. AVhen people who are so heavily taxed are driven to this extremity in order to keep open a road almost impassable to a portion of the district where one claim pays eighty pounds sterling per man per week, the Government having charge of such a district and people deserve to lose it. Had we been under the fostering influence of n Government like that of Westland, our wants would be attended to, and our fine auriferous country would be teaming with life and animation. As it is at present, '. our only hope is a " free and united " County. Why should we be dragged down to the dust in this manner by a Government hostile to our best interests ; whose great ambition appears to be to make a railway from Nelson to Cobden? Could anything be more absurd or ridiculous ? I see we have been deserted by Mr Home. Well, it serves us Brightonians right. What else could we expect? Still we did not deserve this at his hands. He was elected principally by Brighton votes. Surrounded with banners, upheld by friends, by cheers and Kentish fire, and ia the face of all the distinguished honors conferred upon their idol by his admirers, he at the last hour showed the white feather, and upon a ridiculous imaginative pretence abandoned his constituents to their fate. What a contrast between the political conduct of Mr G. W. H., and our brave old Donne. Smelling the battle from afar, he buckled on his armour like a man, and appeared in his place to do his duty. It is a well known fact that when Mr Donne left Brighton to attend to his duties as M.P.C., he was doing a very fair business, and he could ill afford either time or money, hut the conduct of Donne was always that of a thorough honest fellow, and I hope when he stands before his constituents again his career of unselfishness will not be forgotten.

A Coroner's inquest was held on the 3rd instant at Slattery's Hotel, Brighton, for the purpose of inquiring into the death of Ann M'Allister, infant daughter of Mr Daniel M'Allister, of this town. From the evidence of the father, a respectable and hard-working man, it appeared that the child enjoyed good health from its birth (being two months old) to its death. Dps. Saunders and Worrall held a post mortem examination of the deceased, and the evidence of the two medical gentlemen satisfactorily proved that the child had died from natural causes. On the morning of the 4th the funeral took place, and was largely attended, the greatest sympathy beins: felt for Mrs MAllister under "the painful circumstances of her bereavement.