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Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 649, 23 April 1870, Page 2

The English mail was telegraphed late last night as having arrived. An extra will be published of the news this forenoon. The new list of persons desiring to have their names jilacod on the Electoral Roll for the District of Westlaud North for the year 1870-71, may be seen at the entrance to the Warden's office. The list will remain there until the end of this month, in order to afford an opiDortunity to any one of objecting to any applicant or applicants for such registration. The objections will thereafter be heard by the Revising Officer appointed for that purpose, at a time and place to be notified by him. The Registration Officer, Dr Giles, has written to the Revising Officer, Mr Lee, barrister, Christchurch, asking whether it is likely a court will be held at Wostport for the hearing of objections, but Mr Lee has replied that it V" 1 " -ho .tnaAa cQ"v/>uiont to hold such court at \V estport, but the objections win most likely be heard at Cobden. It is unjust to hold this sitting at Cobden, considering the small proportion of claimants in the Cobden district, compared with the number from the Buller and Charleston districts. The Hospital Committee had better take some action before their next monthly mooting, with the view of raising funds for the institution. The intended concert is not likely to take place this month, if at all, and the Treasurer reports the state of the exchequer insufficient to pay the current month's expenses. We are compelled to hold over the reply from Mr Franklyn to Messrs Barrowman and Doyle's address to the miners of the Grey Valley, until our next issue. An accident, attended with serious results, occurred at Charleston, on Thursdaylast, to a builder named Mr Treadwell, who was employed pulling down an old building in Princes street. It appeared that the removal of the front was too much for the men employed, and it fell upon Mr Treadwell, who sustained a fracture of the thigh, and injury to his back. He was immediately conveyed to the hospital, whore his injuries were attended to by Dr Bruen. The captain and agent of the s.s. Murray blame the Post Office officials here for the detention of the steamer to-day twelve hours unnecessarily. It appears the steamer reached this port between five and six o'clock j'esterday evening, and they were unable to get the southern mail or their clearance at the Post Office until today, in place of last night. We believe the usual notice was not given in time to the Post Office, but an extension of the courtesy, as is usual in other places on the Coast, might be exercised. The glass-blowers returned to Westport from Charleston on Wednesday, and purpose proceeding by the first steamer to Hokitika. During the past ten days the major portion of the population at Bradshaw Terrace have been engaged in the construction of head-races to carry water to their claims. The prospectors are bringing in a good supply, which will enable them to let thenwater to a number of parties, and they expect to have the race on the ground in the course of a few days. Their waterright is, as far as we can learn, a very valuable one. Applications for registration of dams and head-races in the ..vicinity of Bradshaw Terrace were made in the Warden's Court, yesterday, by John Williams and party, John Cunningham, and Andrew M'Shane. The certificates were withheld for seven days. A pile driving machine was shipped by the Constant for Charleston on Thursday, to be used in the construction of the new Nile Bridge. It is notified by the Government that the old bridge will be closed to horse and dray traffic on and after Monday next, but no period is stated. The Suez February mail, was due at Melbourne on Thursday, April 12th. The New Zealand portion will most probably be brought on by the steamship Omeo, which was advertised to leave Melbourne for NewZealand ports, via Bluff, April 16th. The Omeo was due at the Bluff yesterday. We are informed that the funds, on hand, of the Charleston Library Committee amount to ,£l7O, and that the Committee, have already ordered a goodly number of volumes from Melbourne.

Tho following letter, addressed to the Argus-, from a miner at No Town, if illus-

trating the state of public feeling in tliat district would go to show that Mr Curtis is equally unpopular there as here: —" I can assure you that you say truly when you assert that the miners and storekeepers up the river have a feeling of intense hatred to the Curtis Administration. Indeed, what else can they feel, when they know that their own Superintendent has called them, in his speeches to the " Cockatoos" of Nelson, nothing but "vagabonds." Is it not then astonishing, and humiliating to themselves, that they should condescend to be dependent for their daily bread upon the exertions and toil of these "vagabonds." It is all very well for Mr Curtis to get Mr Kynnersley to visit this district, to try and keep us quiet before the General Assembly meets, and though we all like and respect Mr Kynnersley, we must first think of ourselves ; and I venture to say, if the Nelson Government do not carry out their promises to us, by making roads, and abolishing this system of theirs—of taking all from us, and giving 'nothing in return—a perfect storm of dissatisfaction will result in our petitioning the General Assembly to get quit of our Nelson relationship, once and for ever. I, for one, and five hundred more in this gully, cannot see the sense, justice or wisdom of feeing governed by Nelson farmers, who never saw a goldfield in their lives.

Colonel M'Donnell was married to Miss Lomax, of Wellington, on the 9th inst. A private meeting of the shareholders of the Moonlight Quartz Mining Co. was held at Christchurch on the 11th inst. The result did not transpire. The quantity of gold sent down by the various escorts in Otago, during the quarter ended March 31st amounted to 32,067 ozs., showing a considerable increase upon the returns of the corresponding quarter 1869. Mica, for spectacles, is rapidly coming into use in America, for workmen exposed to the heat and glare of iron furnaces. Complete masks of this material, and even cylinders surrounding the entire head, have been made so as to form a more perfect defence.

A fire, by which considerable damage was occasioned, has taken place in a coal-pit at the Deep Creek, Kawaraw. The fire burned for a week before it was subdued, and its origin is attributed to the act of an incendiary.

A correspondent to a home paper writes : The Russian Government is making a very important experiment. The Oxus now flows into the Sea of Aral. It once flowed into the Caspian, its old bed being still visible enough to be a feature in maps. If it could be brought back, the Russians would have an unbroken and impregnable water communication from the Baltic to the heart of Khiva, and with further improvements to Balkh, would, in fact, be able to ship stores at Oronstadt for Central Asia, and send them without land carriage. The addition to their power would be enormous; for instance, thev could send 10,000 riflemen almost to Afghanistan by water, and without any sound audible to the West—and their engineers think it can be secured. An energetic officer, with I,SOO men, is already on the south bank of the Caspian, the natives are reported friendly, that is, we suppose, quiet, and the Russian Government has the means through its penal regiments of employing forced labor on a great scale. Wo shall hear a great deal more of this engineering enterprise. Dr Day, writing to an American paper, suggests the following plan for ascertaining the temperature of the interior of a bale of flax: —As it is very desirable to a -00/ls. ' ■>" " f ~—— « iV , „„„ dition of the centre of a bale of' flax as to the heat and moisture, as I think may be done by driving into the middle of a bale a piece of _ gunbarrel, beveled off to sharpness* spilico fashion, then pass down a small thermometer until its bulb touches the flax, previously noting the degree at which it stands; leave it for a moment, and on withdrawal you at once learn the state of the flax both as to heat and moisture by the rise of the mercury and the dew on the bulb if the bale be heating.

The exclusion of the Mormons and all polygramists from the privileges of citizensin]) in the United States is proposed in a bill introduced into the House of Ropresentatives by Mr Cullom. Tenders closed yesterday for the delivery of 4000 tons of granite in the Buller river, said tenders being lodged at the Engineer's office, Westport, and also at Nelson. It will be known in a few days which is the lowest tender, and whether the Government decide upon the execution of the work. Ten tenders were lodged at Westport. We notice that drafts of an amended Licensing Bill have been prepared by Dr Steel and the Hon. J. B. "Wilson for presentation to the Parliament of New South Wales. The drafts provide for objections to license, for a guarantee of character and conduct from the publican, for shortening hours, and for punishing adulteration. The object of the framors is to promote the greater sobriety of the people. The lumber trade of Michigan in ISG9 reached the value of 34 millions of dollars. The Wellington Independent states that it is probable that the whole of the West Coast, which includes a portion of the two Provinces of Tarauaki and Wellington, will be placed under the control of a special officer, who would have to exercise many of those executive functions of a Superintendent which could not be carried out by the two Provincial Governments. Mr Barlow, with whose humorous performances most of our readers are familiar, is now sugar-growing on the Albert River, Queensland. Mr J. G. Macdonald, grazier, of Bowen, Queensland, has failed for £ 170,000. Bird and Higgins are matched to run in Melbourne, on the 20th May, three distances—half a mile, one mile, and ten miles. Bird gives the following odds : Twenty yards in the half mile, 100 yards in the mile, and one mile in ten miles. The flood at Ipswich, Queensland, rose forty feet above high-water mark. A rumor is current in Auckland, that it is the intention of the ministry, when Parliament is asßembled,immcdiatoly to dissolve and go to the country. On Saturday last the lunatics confined in the Lunatic Asylum, South Spit, Hokitika, wore taken on an excursion to the Manahapua Lake, at the head of Hospital Creek. The whole party landed at a convenient spot, and, after they had enjoyed themselves with a ramble amongst the beautiful forest land, they were regaled with a suitable luncheon. They returned at dusk, evidently well pleased with the excursion. Messrs Miles and Co., the agents in Christchurch of the Californian line, have informed the Press that the whole of the berths in the chief cabin of the next mail steamship (the City of Melbourne) for San Francisco, are already engaged. The extent of railway in operation in the United States, at tho commencement of 1870, was, according to the best information obtainable on the subject, 48,860 miles.