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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 592, 11 December 1869, Page 2

We understand that the removal and fresh appointment of Wardens on the Nelson South-West Goldfields are events which are likely soon to occur. They will arise as a consequence of the resignation of Mr Lowe, Warden of the Grey district. We anticipate that the appointment of tho new "Warden, when it is made known, will give satisfaction to everyone. The Grey River Argus, we notice, has an article strongly condemnatory of Mr Lowe as an official who is " arbitrary" and "tyrannical." This may not be the time to say anything on such a subject, but wo are sorry to have to agree with our contemporary. Judged only by his correspondence to" officials in other departments in his own district, Mr Lotve is, in his official capacity, a "snob." Our contemporary has found it necessary to complain generally of " the Camp " being a terror in the district. In this district, also, " the Camp " was once feared. It has been on its better behavior lately, and it is now respected. William Chapman, a "hand" onboard the steamer John I'enn, and a very harm-less-looking individual, was brought, before the local Justices of the Peaces—Messrs Eeid and Thorpe—in the Resident Magistrate's Court on Thursday. He was charged with attempting to stab somebody who was also a " hand" on the John Penn, and whose name the police pronounced in the usual guttural fashion. The witnesses called were James Arthur Maguire aud Sergeant Kic-ly. Mr Maguire had been standing near Sheahan's Nelson Hotel on the nrevions evening, when he heard tho worus "Take the knife from, him." He entered the bar, and Baw tho prisoner with an open pocket-knife in his hand, held in the most effective mariner for stabbing another man opposite him whom he was addressing as a "bloody sod." Fortunately the prisoner was held by another man, who pinioned his arms behind. Mr Maguire attempted to take the knife from the prisoner, but ho said—" That knife goes into n-.y pocket, and no man takes it from me." Whereupon be put tho knife in his pocket. Sergeant Kiely, attracted by the disturbance, came up, and airested the prisoner. Tho " other man " went away, and the John Penn people did not want a pro-s---cnrion. The prisoner, hi reply to the charge, said he was not the worse of liquor, and he did not intend to do anything-, but the " other man " would never let him alone wherever he went. The Justices said it wa3 a good thing for the prisoner that tho assault was net associated with a more serious

charge. They were disposed to deal with him leniently, and gave him a week's imprisonment and hard labor.

We hear of a deep lead, for 1 which some parties have been in search, being struck on the Shamrock Lead, Addison's, on Thursday. _ Rejoicing and whisky are said to have considerably prevailed on the occasion. We understand that to-day there is to be an official inquiry as to the cause of the late fire.

Writing of the result of the trial of Thos. Braithwaite for bigamy, a Nelson correspondent says : — " The Judge walked into somebody—said it was a failure of justice— that it showed the unwisdom of the interference at Christchurch with the xjroper discretion exercised by the Eesident Magistrate at Westport, and concluded by telling the jury to find Not Guilty. He adjourned the Court, after thanking the jury, but seemed so disgusted that he went out of Court leaving the prisoner in the dock. There the prisoner stuck until the Registrar (seemingly to the prisoner's surprise at such luck) told him to go." Yesterday Mr John Harris made a purchase of what he supposed was gold. It proves, however, not to be gold, and looks much more like native copper than anything else. It may have emanate;! from tlio ruins of the recent fire, but the statement of the seller is that it was got between Westport and Charleston. If it be so, the discovery is well worth foil owing up. People will, no doubt, know more about it by calling upon Mr Harris, who has- made us no special payment for saying that he is to be found at the National Hotel.

The prospects of the Moonlight Quartz Mining Company are spoken of by the Greymouth papers more favorably than ever. The Argus speaks of an " interference " with the company, and of " an attempt made to secure half of the ground." Perhaps our contemporary will find that the attempt is a proper interference, and that it will not be "entirely unsuccesful." The question has yet to be triedThe first sitting of a Bench of Justices under the Amended "Westland Public-house Ordinance, for hearing applications for renewals of publicans 1 licences, took place at Greymouth. Mary Buggy applied for a renewal of her licence for the Niagara Hotel, and was informed that her husband's name must be inserted in the application. J. P. Thomas applied for a licence for the Ballarat and Bendigo Hotel, Johnstonstreet. Mr Sub-inspector James objected because the house was very dirty, and not fit for a hotel in its present condition; besides, the applicant was not a lit person to hold a license. When this house was formerly licensed, it was the resort of bad characters, and he had reason to believe that it would be so again. The application was adjourned for further consideration. These are new and proper features in the licensing system on the West Coast. Mr Eees, late the representative for the Kauieri in the Westland County Council, has sent in his resignation, and a new member, to fill the vacancy thereby occasioned, will be elected forthwith. An auriferous quartz reef has been discovered at Saddle Hill, eleven miles from Dunedin. The reef is three feet thick, and gives fair prospects. It runs in the same direction as the Cromwell and Mount Ida reefs. The analysis is being hopefully waited for. A new line of reef has also been struck at JLJenaigo unity, 'ren claims have already been pegged out. A deliberate attempt at incendiarisn in Hokitika is reported by the W. C. Times. Mr Bennett, with two ladies, was walking along Tailored street, when the attention of one of the latter was attracted by seeing fixe under the store lately occupied by E. find T. Haworth. Mr Bennett immediately went to the spot where the flame appeared, and found a man under the store busy endeavoring to kindle a fire. On being detected, the scoundrel endeavored to escape from the other side of the store, but MiBennett ran round and stopped his ogress that way. He then crawled under the floor to the same spot, and got out, making off as fast as his legs would carry him. Mr Bennett gave chase, but failed to overtake the fugitive. A rich quartz reef, at a depth of 430 feet, has been struck at Ballarat.

The following paragraph in the Hokitika Slar applies as much to the Nelson Goldfields a3 it does to Westland:—"How is it that it ia impossible to obtain official information of the progress of our goldfields ? In Otago and everywhere else the Wardens send to the Government monthly statements of what has been done in their districts, of the population, rates of provisions, &c, and the Government allow the information thus received to be made public. In Westland nothing of the kind is done. Surely the duties of the Wardens are not so arduous as to prevent the performance of what ought to bo done as a duty." The Wairarapa Maoris prophesy that the coming summer wiil be very dry and hot, and that tho rivers in that district, which are already very low, will be altogether dried up. If the prophecy is as correct as other Maori prophecies, it will be a very wet season. One of those persons who have more money than wit lately amused himself in Auckland by scattering money in the street for the city Arabs to scramble for. In this way he squandered between .£2O and £3O, when some friends bore him off and put a stop to his amusement. A bill to legalise the eight hours system has been read a second time and passed through committee in tho Victorian Assembly. The Melbourne Aryn.t characterises it as a practical joke, inasmuch as the Bill stipulates that eight hours shall be " a legal day's labor, unless there shall be an agreement in writing to the contrary." Hokitika papers report that during the past few months houses in the neighborhood of the wharf, on Gibson's Quay, and even up Revell street as far as the Empire Hotel, have sunk, the sand beneath the piles having been by degrees moved away.

The Greymoutk Star considers the English telegrams respecting the construction of the Nelson, Cobden, and Westport" Railway anything but satisfactory. The Star saj s :— *' There is not much difficulty in getting a newspaper paragraph in a London paper; but we want something mere authentic than what is to hand, before we buoy ourselves with the belief that such an undertaking hag been duly organised and entered upon." An Auckland contemporary cautions all those who are in receipt of golden money that there has been a considerable amount riling and sweating of geld coins lately. Of some Australian sovereigns, the edges have been filed away, until almost the whole of the "milling " has by removed, and other pieces have been recently incautiously taken, from which a great'portion of the gold lias been abstracted through holes being bored in the edge, and afterwards neatly filled up with lead. A Hansom cab is now plying between Short-land and Graham's Town.

An extensive rush has been going on up the Ahaura river during this week. The Grey River Argus says there is no foundation for it, beyond the fact of a party of miners (foreigners) having commenced to take up a tail-race to some paddocks which they sunk on a ten-ace about three miles above Cook and Owen's ferry, and about 10 miles from the junction of the Ahaura and Grey rivers. On Saturday Mr Buller, with a force of Armed Constabulary and 20 Ngatipa, went to Manawatu to arrest Wirihana (Williamson), who lately interfered with the surveyors, and destroyed the first trig station. Thirty-five Ngatiraukawa resisted the capture, and a scuffle ensued. Plenty of hard blows were exchanged, but no damage was done. The sellers sided with Mr Buller, who secured his prisoner, handcuffed him, and took him to Wanganui. The following paragraph has been going the round of the papers:—" Messrs Eees and Tyler seem to be making their way rapidly at the Thames. A glance at our files show us that they have plenty of Court work and are very popular. They were engaged in the celebrated M'Leod's case at Coromandel, appearing for the defence. Mr Eees obtained a non-suit with costs. Upon delivery of the judgment there was great cheering in the Court. Tho eliccro were token up by a crowd outside, and when Messrs Roes and Tyler came out they were hoisted on the shoulders of some of their admirers, and borne off in triumph." The following appears in a late number of the Nelson Evening Mail: —"The person or party who stole my Rabbits and Ducks last night can be supplied with Green Pease on application, to-night, to J. Patching, Toi Toi Valley." Messrs L. G. Cole and Co., (Cobb and Co.) no longer exist as a firm in Canterbury and the "West Coast, the proprietary having disposed of their business.

There are to be no Christmas Sports in Hokitika except a regatta. A varied programe has been issued by tho Greymouth Sports Committee.

Those who can leap, run, wrestle, or " put the stone " should read the advertisement of the Westport Sports Committee.

A Thames paper says " We are very glad to see that the people are coming to their right senses, and treating those remarks made generally by persons under the influence of drink in the proper way. A person on Saturday was rather demonstrative in the middle of Pollen-street, saying ho was an Orangeman, an Englishman, &c, when he was gently taken by a few persons who heard Mm make these assertions and rolled over and over in one tf the largest mudholes they could find in the street." The Thames paper, whichever it is, must be a sneak and a toady to Fenians when it is "glad to see " that any man, drunk or sober, is maltreated because he calls himself an Englishman.

A supposed case of infanticide has been discovered in Christchurcli. The LytteUon Times of the Ist instant says:—On Wednesday afternoon the body of an apparently fullgrown healthy female child was found in the river Avon, under she most suspicious circumstances. A Mrs Thomas, residing near the river, has been in the habit of fishing daily for whitebait since the anniversary of the Prince of Wales's Birthday (theOth u'lt.), and had each day noticed a strange-looking bundle in the stream. Being in company with a neighbor on the occasion named, and their joint curiosity being aroused, the bundle was pulled on shore by mean, of a whitebait, net, and on being opened the dead body of an infant was discovered. The body had evidently been wrapped up in the most careful maimer, and every precaution taken to sink it.

There has been another case of drowning in the Grey river. This time the victim 13 Peter Stewart, a boatman, who has been resident there for over three years. Ho was drowned while tracking a cargo boat over a fall near the Twelve Mile. A painful accident occurred on the Akaura river on Tuesday week. Messrs Coot and Owens, who had just finished loading their large canoo at the Ahaura, were proceeding' up the river to their store, and when about halt-way the canoe fouled a snag and capsized. The cunoe floated down to one of the benches with one of the men—Dan Wilsher—clinging to it, When ho reached the shallow water, by some means he got jammed under tlie bottom of the canoo, and, besides being nearly drowned, the lower part of his abdomen was completely torn to pieces, so thut his intestines protruded. One of the partners, who was in the canoe, took off his coat so that he could use a paddle. The coat was lost and a pocket-book, which was in one of the pockets, contained cash and cheques to the amount of .£179.

It is statedby the Grey River Argus that the Bank of Xew Zealand has positively refused to allow the overdraft to the County Council to bo further increased. It now amounts to something like £SOO \ and was to have been £1(1,0(10, so that a large number of liabilities must yet remain unpaid. An accident which threw Dunedin into darkness for a time, and nearly caused the death of several men, occurred at the gas works on Monday week. By some mischance a stop-cock got turned the wroug way, which caused an immense escape of gas from the holder into the gas work, nearly suffocating the men at work and entirely emptying the large holder. The apparatus was put to rights in an hour or two, and the men all r - covered.

A rather singular coincidence occurred at the Masonic installation in the Kilwinning Lodge, Hckitika, on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Mr Lazar, as 13 -wellknown, is one of the highest Masons in tho colony, and has assisted at all occasions like the one in question. As a matter of course his health is always a toast of the evening, and on Wednesday morning it was proposed at a quarter past 12 exactly. Mr Lazar, in responding, remarked that that day sixty-six years, in the year ISO 3, on December Ist, at twenty minutes past 12 o'clock he first saw the light. As might he imagined, this created a furore amongst the brethren assembled, and foaming bumpers of champagne were drunk to • the health of their veteran guest, in honor of his natal day.