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Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 666, 2 June 1870, Page 2

In the resident Magistrate's Court, Greymouth, on Thursday, W. Dale was charged with a libel on Mr Joseph Kilgour, Mayor of that town, and was remanded till Wednesday next. Bail was accepted, defendant in £IOO and two sureties in ,£SO each. The libel arose out of a letter thijf was refused publication in the previous week's Tomahawk. A runaway horse and dray tore down Wallabi street at midday yesterday, but luckily without inflicting injury. A number of children were playing in the neighborhood at the time of the occurrence, who, contrary to their usual custom, were safely located on the footpaths, in place of congregating in the gutters and centre of the thoroughfare. The horse was headed on its approach to the river bank and brought to a stand.

The coffin referred to on Tuesday last, as having been exposed by the encroachment of the sea, contained the remains of a miner, named Hoare, who was admitted to the Westport Hospital, from Mokihinui, about two years and four months ago, and died shortly after having become an inmate of the institution. The remains have been deposited in the new cemetery at the Orawaiti.

The custom of playing among the boats and canoes, moored alongside the wharves, has become so thoroughly established among our juvenile population that it is only matter for surprise that fatal accidents are not of common occurrence. A child was capsized on Monday last out of a canoe into the river, and would have been drowned but for timely aid rendered by a spectator, who rescued him from his perilous position. The Greymouth, Star says the township of Ahaura, usually so quiet and serene, was aroused from its lethargy on Saturday night, when a number of the inhabitants met and burned in effigy Mr Franklyn, their representative in the Nelson Provincial Council. A very excellent figure was made up, and so arranged as to present a vraisemblance of the ousted representative. Then was the figure suspended in the centre of four cross roads; afterwards kerosene was poured over the effigy; then a fight was applied, and amid the hootings and howlings of the multitude, the effigy was burned to ashes. This appeared to give great satisfaction. We are afraid that Mr Franklyn, when he stands hte candidature for re-election, will give the Ahaura a very wide berth. A landing stage, we are informed, will be immediately erected on the river bank for the accomodation of the boats carrying cargo to the up-river workings, and to avoid the constant injury which has accrued to the river frontage by the conveyance of packages of merchandise from tho thoroughfare into the boats. Large masses of earth have been detached by this agency, and it is certainly time that the Government applied a remedy, which in this instance fortunately is easily available. The inference drawn with respect to Mr Franklyn's nomination, from the telegram received from our Greymouth correspondent which appeared in our last issue, was altogether incorrect. Mr Atkinson, his seconder, though expunged from the new Roll by Mr Lee at Cobden on the 23rd ult., can still exercise his franchise by virtue of the old Roll until October. Mr Franklyn's nomination therefore is perfectly valid.

His Honor Justice Clarke arrived per steamer Kennedy on Monday evening, and will hold a sitting of the District Court of Westland North at the Court-house, Westport, on Tuesday next.

Tenders have heen called by the District Engineer for the construction of a drain in Bright street, closing on Saturday the 4th instant.

Feed oats are quoted at 2s, at Oamaru, chaff £4, to MA 10s, and potatoes £2 2s 6d.

The telegram published in our present issue with respect to the Californian service is from Mr E. Pearce, a member of a committee formed for the purpose of promoting the establishment of a monthly steam service between Melbourne and San Francisco, the vessels to call at Wellington and Honolulu. Auckland is the present port of call. Alice Cummings, charged with vagrancy and with stealing money from the person of Robert Colons, has been sentenced, by the Charleston Bench, to two months' imprison ment with hard labor.

At the R.M. Court, Dunedin, on the 12th ult, John Creagh, solicitor, was charged, on the information of Frederick Bayley, with having on the 10th day of February, forged and uttered writings purporting to be orders signed by Frederick Bayley, Alexander Davis, and Simon M'Donald, trustees of the Ancient Order of Foresters, Court Pride of the Leith, for the payment of the sums £lO5 3s 9d, and £8 9s, from the Dunedin Savings Bank, they having money in that Bank standing to their credit as trustees of the Order. After the charges had been heard, he was committed to take his trial at the ensuing session of the Supreme Court.

The Wellington correspondent of the Oamaru Times is responsible for the statement that a Punch is to be published at Wellington during the ensuing session of the General Assembly, and that Mr C. H. Haughton is to fill the editorial chair.

An Auckland paper says larger quantities of Kauri gum are now being brought to Auckland than were ever brought before. The reason of this is, that a great number of persons failing to find employment at the Thames are now gum digging.

Mr Emmanuel Mendelsson was arrested on Tuesday on board the Waipara as she was leaving the Hokitika wharf. He was lodged in gaol by virtue of a warrant, charging him with conspiring to defraud bis creditors.

According to the Otago Provicial Council Order Paper, notice has been given by Mr Ashcrof t of his intention to move that a sum should be placed on the estimates "sufficient to purchase 50 acres of land at Martin's Bay, as an endowment for Martina M'lnto3h, the first child born at Martin's Bay." This refers to the daughter of the Rev. Mr M'lntosh.

An Adelaide telegram bearing date 12th ult., published in a Melbourne paper, says:—The Russian corvette Bozzarine sailed last night. No international courtesies were exchanged during her stay in port. People say the captain left thus suddenly and unceremoniously in consequence of the strictures of our shipping reporters upon the condition of hia ve3aol. When the Russian officers attended Heller's perforjn-

ance3, the " Battle of the Alma" was part of the programme, and Heller, not knowing that the Russians were present, played it. The Lyttelton Times of May 17th, referring to the subsidy required by Mr Collie for a line of steamships between Australia and California, says:—Mr Collie is ready to put four of these first-class steamships on the line between Australia and California as soon as he can obtain a total subsidy of £150,000 a year. Of this amount he calculates on obtaining ,£BO,OOO from the United States and Honolulu, leaving £70,000 to be subscribed among these colonies. Mr Collie mentions £30,000 as the amount he expects to obtain from New Zealand. This appears to be too large a contribution from a colony that will only be indirectly benefited. Forty thousand pounds ought to be readily paid by the colony that is made the terminus in Australia. There will then be left thirty thousand to be divided among the colonies more or less interested in the establishment of the service. The half of thirty thousand would, under these circumstances, be a liberal contribution from New Zealand.

Mr W. Jackson has invented an original arrangement in the construction of breakwaters. This consists of a sort of honeycomb, formed, by fastening together in parallel lines a number of cast-iron tubes; the structure is so placed that the waves flow through the pipes, that is to say, the axes of the pipes are parallel to the direction of the most dangerous winds or currents. Mr Jackson has recently submitted to the War Office a scheme for the erection of a small breakwater, according to his system, in Seaford Bay. He is not the first inventor of metallic breakwaters. Captain Vetch, K.N., invented, some years ago, a system of iron caissons, which he proposed for the Plymouth breakwater; and in 1857 Lieutenant Manico, E.N., patented an apparatus which he called also a caisson, though it would be more accurately defined as a crate, which he proposed to fill with stones, so as to form submarine blocks. Mr Jackson's breakwater is widely different, however, from Captain Vetch's and Lieutenant Manico's inventions. The latter are proposed to be used in the body of a pier or sea defence ; the former, according to the inventor's ideas, should be placed at some distance outside. The inventor says he has erected a tubular breakwater at Odessa, and that it has answered very well.