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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 543, 17 August 1869, Page 2

The members of the local Amateur Dramatic Club acquitted themselves exceedingly creditably last evening, at the Masonic Hall, in the performance given for the benefit of the Hospital. This Club is deserving of special mention and encouragement, for the several entertainments given during the year for charitable purposes and institutions. The pieces selected on this occasion were the serio-comic drama " The Porter's Knot," with a short comic interlude —"Advertising for a Wife/' and a concluding farce—" Turn Him Out." It would be scarcely fair to criticise the individual acting, or award more praise to a few of the

members of the club than to others, but taking the productions and executions throughout, they denoted on the part of the company and its manager, an improving talent and knowledge of "the business." Some new scenery, which has been recently prepared, was produced, and added considerably to the effect. The audience left fully satisfied with the evening's enjoyment, and the funds of the Hospital will doubtless be considerably enhanced by the proceeds. We feel assured that it is the pleasure of the public that the Amateurs should make more frequent appearances before them. The sitting of the District Comt commences to-day. His Honor Judge Clarke returned from Charleston on Friday last, where his duties were very light. During tho sitting here there will be only two criminal cases, and five in bankruptcy. "We learn by telegraph that Thomas Braithwaiie has been committed at the 8..M. Court, Christeliurch, to take his trial on the charge of bigamy at the nest sittings of the Supreme .Court at Nelson.

It will be observed that tenders for the supplies to the Hospital for twelve months, ending 30th July next, close to-day, at the Secretary's office, at four o'clock. The Committee are expected to meet this evening to decide upon the acceptance of the tenders. It is not to be wondered that Mr Lowther Broad, late Warden at Shortland, should have resigned his appointment, when by a recent Government Gazette he appears as manager of no less than sventeen registered mining companies. If report be true that one of the companies affords him an equal remuneration to that of the office he resigned, his desire for dispensing with the letters B.M. are somewhat excusable.

Dr. Featherstone is reported to have succeeded in his mission to Melbourne, and the lSth Regiment is to be retained in New Zealand, to await instructions from the Home Government.

The assent of His Excellency the Governor has been given to two acts passed by the Provincial Council of Nelson, at its last sitting, intituled the " Floating Dock Act," and " The Provincial Council Act." He has withheld his assent to the " Motueka Ceinetry Act." passed during the same session.

A rumor of a reported gold discovery at Akaroa is going the round of the Canterbury papers. The report is that two Frenchmen had arrived from Akaroa with four ounces of gold, and that they intended sending in a claim for the Government reward. Beyond the fact that the reward has not yet been claimed by them, no further information of a reliable character has been published. By the steamers Wallabi and "Wauganui wo have received files from Auckland to the "';/'"!. :~ 3 f Mr Bakman, member of the County Council for Greymouth. has been appointed temporary County Treasurer for Westland in the place of Mr Winter. . Mr Lahman is to receive no pecuniary reward, the appointment at present being honorary. The accounts of the Gilbert (Queensland) diggings are more encouraging. There are said to be 3000 people on the ground, most of whom are getting gold, but water and provisions are scarce, and on that account many are leaving, The rate of carriage is £GO per ton.

If the wish of our Charleston friends to have their jx>rt gazetttd a port of entry was not favorably entertained by the late Ministry, there appears to be much less probability of the present Ministry doing so, as, according to Mr Vogel, the number of ports of entry already in New Zealand is altogether disproportioned to the population and trade of the country. There are more ports in the Colony than in either Scotland or Ireland, and one-tlurd as many as in England; the numbers being—England, 81; Ireland, 19; Scotland, 28; and New Zealand, 29. A correspondent's letter from Cobdon which has been published in the Nelson Examiner, alludes to the lately appointed Warden there (Mr Lowe) in the following uncomplimentary terms :—" In the first place, I may state that the appointment of Mr Lowe, as Warden and E.M. to this important district, was a most serious blunder. He is very unpopular, and I am sorry to say, deservedly so. In my opinion, and I have observed him closely, lie is the essence of namby pamli/ism. What I look at, too, the Government were warned that ho had no brains."

The velocipede mania, now spreading bo fast over the Colonics, has, we understand, attacked one or two individuals in town, who have despatched an order to a neighboring colony for a byciclc or unicicle of somo sort. It is prophesied by some that velocipedes will yet be as common as walking sticks, and the difficulty at present seems to be to meet the demand. Not so much to thwart the adventurers in their new importation, as to offer them a word of caution when it arrives, we quote an American correspondent's description of his first ride on the two-wheeled velocipede (the bycicle). He writes:—"l tried or,e the other day. It is a sulky kind of steed. To get on is not difficult—to stay on is a labor of genius. I stayed on about threefifths of one second. It first got mo off by lying down on one side ; the next time it unhorsed mo by lying down on the other. Then it ran away and threw mo through a picket fence carrying off four pickets in the operation. Then it ran away again, and shied me off into the gutter. Next it stuck fast in a crack in the side walk, pitching me over its head. Then it backed violently down a small hill, throwing me over its tail. The following are among the results :—Two tired feet, two tired arms, triumphant faith, many sore trials, many sore muscles, plenty of idlers, a hundred unexpected and incalculable twists, three falls, and a determination and expectation to master the machine in a few more days,"

An inquest was held at Nelson last week on thebody of Mary Ann Bradcock, a married woman, whose corpse was found floating out to Bea that morning by some persons in a boat. It was shown that this woman, who was addicted to drink, and her sister, -were seen together that evening in a state of intoxicaton, and it appeared probable that she had fallen over the unprotected sea-wall, on the Haven road, about half-past nine o'clock, at which time cries of distress from a woman's voice were heard. The night, however, was pitchy dark, and the rain fell in torrents at intervals, and it was impossible to trace anything or discover the cause of the screams> which were doubtless the wretched woman's drowning cries. The police watched the locality, but nothing was observed until the chance boat, returning from the Boulder Bank next morning, found the body bomc seaward by the receding tide. The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Drowned."

Mr John Eddington, a Tasnianian colonist of sixty-one years standing, died on the 29th ult. He was the father of masonry there, the first srjortsinan in the colony, and the first clerk of the course. He had reached the age of seventy-eight.

We notice that the Committee of the Hospital, Hokitika, are advertising for a qualified surgeon-superintendent. The salary is .£550, with residenco and fire free.

The following is the only news yet received as to the new rush at Coromandel. It appears in the Thames Advertiser of the 2nd iust: —A gentleman who returned from Coromandel last night lias furnished us with the following particulars concerning the rush in that/juarter. The leader struck in.M'lieod's claim is about six inches in 'width, and is very rich, gold being visible in almost every piece of stone knocked out. The drive in which the leader has been struck is about sixty feet in. When our informant left there were about 200 men on the ground, and about sixty moro have, to our knowledge, since left for the ground. So confident were some of those at Coromandel that better days were in store for the locality, that already some speculation in frontages had taken place. The following is a description of To Kooti' by a Maori who reports having seen him : A short man, with straight nose, point turned down (hoocked), a scar on right eye-brow, from a wound received in his youth, bald head.

The total quantity of wool exported from New Zealand during tho year IS6B, is shown by a return recently issued to amount to 28,875,1G31b5, of a declared value of d51,51G,554 J being at the rate of about Is o£d per lb. Official statistics recently issued show that the total value of the grain and flour imported into New Zealand during the year ISGB was ■£313,-170. The total value of the same articles exported during tho same period was ,£122,200. Of this, however, only £Uy,rAi) was the produce of the Colony, thus making tho excess of imports over exports £191,341, or 163.13 per cent.

A Stock Exchange has recently been established in Auckland. At a meeting of gentle" men interested in the matter, it was resolved that the scale of charges should bo 5 per cent, up to £100; to £SOO, 2i per cent,; £IOOO, 1J per cent, and documentary evidence of the right to sell must be produced at the sale. A person residing and carrying on business at Parncll, in Auckland, lias been arrested on the charge of selling some of the arms and ammunition to the thrccMaoris remanded on the charge of illegally removing fimvnis and ammunition from one place in the colony to another.

A northern contemporary states that the good people of the Bay of Islands are in a state of intense excitement. AMr Davis, of Kororareka, found on tlio beach in the early part of the week, a pieco of stone which, attracting more than ordinary attention on his part, was broken up, and found to be full of gold. It was thoroughly waterworn. Wc are informed that two Thames miners, who went up to the bay by the last trip of the Coraerang, have already leased some of the land in the vicinity, with the intention of mining on it, and wo really see no reason why, if proper steps are taken to develop the capabilities of the field, the Bay of Islands should not yet prove to be a rich goldfield.