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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 599, 28 December 1869, Page 2

We have received the details of the programme of Town Sports, and shall publish them on Thursday. Entries will be received by the Secretary, Mr Hughes, and the Treasurer, Mr Sheahan, and competent judges are to be appointed for each sport. The suggestion of our correspondent '* Citizen " as to a meeting of miners being held for the purpose of forming a Miners' Protection Society has been so far adopted that a meeting to promote such an object has been appointed for Thursday evening, at the Empire Hotel. A conference of the Wardens in the Province of Otago has been summoned by the Provincial Government for the purpose of discussing a question that has arisen with respect to the granting of leases to the miners of Bendigo Gully. The Wardens are now in Dunodin. The '"rovernmei it dc tormined not to grant leases, but for what reason is not yet stated. The Provincial Government of Otago have accepted a tender from Mr Proudfoot, the contractor, for the construction of the Port Chahner3 Railway, for the sum of £70,000. This sum is to include permanent way, rolling stock, and stations.

At the Anniversary sports in Christchurch there was a velocipede race in which there were six competitors. Hindnian, on a tricycle, won. Strange disclosures respecting Butterworth (the bailiff in Timaru) have been made before Mr Justice Gresson lately, in the examination of Abram Blackinore, of the Otaio, a bankrupt, His Honor expressed himself strongly on the matter. The Trustee in Bankruptcy intends to take proceedings against Butterworth. We gather from advertisements in the New Zealand Mining Journal, published at the Thames, that there are no less than fifty-five firms in business there as mining and commission agents. The number of registered companies is put down at 442. Only 11 companies appear in the column headed Last Dividends, and, in the column headed Calls, 128 appear. The address delivered by the Bishop of Nelson at the opening of the last Synod, has been received by Mr Bishop, Gladstone street, printed in pamphlet foim. The latest news received from the Brighton Lead, Hokitika, is of an encouraging kind. The information of gold having been found for about a mile and-a-half beyond the Brighton Lead is confirmed, and the whole of the ground on the terrace between Arthur's Town and Woodstock has been marked out. A large population is already on the ground. It would appear as if the old Hau Hau lead had been struck on the south side of the river.