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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 515, 10 June 1869, Page 2

Mr Lightband, as the agent of a " commictee of gentlemen in Nelson" desirous of maintaining the Province in its integrity, &e., &c., visited "Westport yesterday, and has been busy in soliciting signatures to the petition which he is, by courtesy, supposed to have in his possession. He has assiduously waited upon the frequenters of bars and bar-parlours, loungers by the wharves, and " men in the street," hut we are not aware that the amount of success

he has had in obtaining signatures in such an equivocal style has been anything more than contemptible. Mr Donne, M.P.C., returned yesterday by the steamer Bruce, ?rom Nelson, and from the discharge of hi . duties as representative of the Grey c .strict in the Council. The other members rom the West Coast— Heunelly, M'Dowell, and Keid—are on what we presume are holiday visits to other Provinces after the fatigues of their first session in the House.

We learn that, lately, the removal of drift-wood from the beach has been carried on in a most flagrant and systematic manner; the offenders not being content with a handful or two of " little sticks to boil the billy," but deliberately breaking up great logs and trees, and carting them away wholesale, either for their own use or for disposal as firewood. The effect of these offences against a regulation which must now be sufficiently known is too seriously demonstrated by the daily encroachments of the sea; and it is to be hoped that, not only will the police make the best use of their scanty forces in detecting offenders, bat that the offenders, when detected, will be severely punishtd. Much valuable prop arty is already sufficiently in danger without the limited natural protection to it beiag thus destroyed. His Honor Judge Clarke, with the Crown Prosecutor, Mr Pitt, visited Charleston on Monday. At the Totara, his Honor was met by a deputation, mounted, and headed by Mr Dwan; and, after a formal greeting, was by them escorted to the township. One of the Lyell boats, belonging to George Nicoll, met with an accident this week in the dangerous fall of the river immediately below the Lyell township, and some of her cargo was destroyed. Another handsome and commodious boat for the same trade has just been built and launched at Westport.

The contest for tlio seat in the Borough Council ox Hokitika, vacated by Mr Prosser, waxes warmer eaeli day, and promises, says the Daily Keivs, to bo exceedingly "hot" before it terminates. Batchelder's celebrated diorama, representing scenes in the American war, is now on its way to Hokitika. An advertisement appears in the IV. C. Times, containing a challenge from Francis Johnston, of Greenstone notoriety, to fight any "Fenian Irishman" in Hokitika, man'aud money to be heard of at our contemporary's oiQee. The Daily Xews remarks that the sooner Mr Francis Johnston takes his departure, or is bound over to keep the peace, the better.

Amongst the novelties of the Auckland holiday season has been an amateur theatrical performance at Government House, by theotucersof li.M.S. Galatea; a number of the oilieers, led by his Royal Highness on the violin, composing the orchestra. We learn that Mr Vogel has presented the Duuedin Museum with a canoe seven feet in length, the exterior of which is covered with the carving and tracery peculiar to Maori art. It is a splendid specimen of native workmanship, and well merits inspection. The " inimitable and irrepressible" Thatcher appears to be doing well at the American Theatre, Thames. V. r o regret to notice the sudden death of Mr Chas. Thomas, landlord of the Albion Hotel, Wauganui. He was in the prime of life. A considerable shipment of tallow has been made from Waagauui, the result of boiling down sheep. A large quantity of potatoes has also been exported from the same place to Sydney.

Mr C. C. Graham has boon unanimously elected to represent Oamaru in the General Assembly in place or Mr E. Campbell, who resigned.

The roofs in the Waterhouse goldfield, Tasmania, are said to bo increasing in richness as the prospectors go down.