The Westport Times. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1870.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 714, 22 September 1870, Page 2

The Westport Times. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1870.

A meeting of the Excelsior Quartz Mining Company, convened by Mr Munro, will be held at the Empire Hotel to-morrow evening at eight o'clock. In the Resident Magistrate Court, on Tuesday the following civil cases were disposed of: —M'lntyre v. Savage: Claim for £ls 12s; judgment for the plaintiff in the -sum of £3. Forsyth v. Savage : Claim for .£l4 14s; judgment for the plaintiff for tiffs obtained judgment by default:— Gilmer v. Benjamin Balmer: Claim for JJIS lis 6d ; M'Farlane v.Zachariah: Claim for £3. The case of Rafferty v. Drane was adjourned until the 27th to effect service of summons. In the Warden's Court a number of applications were disposed of, and in the case of Jacobson and party v. Whartman, an action for damages for tailings laid at £9, the plaintiffs obtained judgment in the amount claimed and costs. The Christy's played to a good house last night at the Masonic Hall. They proceed to Charleston to-day, and will appear at the Casino de Venise there this evening. The Orei/ River Argus has a paragraph about the Nelson Police Force which is in some respects right, and in others wrong. It says : —" Senior Sergeant Samuel Goodall will be the officer in charge of the Grey District, stationed at Ahaura. Senior Constables Rowley, M'Myn, and Jeffries are in charge of Cobden, Camptown, and Napoleon respectively. Sergeant Mayberry will take charge of the Buller District, with headquarters at Westport; Sergeant Kiely at Charleston, and Senior Constable MArdle at Brighton." The reference to the Buller District is a mistake Mr Kiely has been Senior Sergeant of the Buller District for some time, continues to be so, and may well continue to be so while there is a [police force on the West Coast. Captain Bascand reports that the carcase of a large whale—ninety feet long—had been washed into Big Bay, and that the late master of the ketch Esther Anne (lost in Martin's Bay), is engaged securing the blubber, with a view to boiling it down. Mr James Osgood, licensed victualler, Melbourne, and formerly of Dunedin and Wellington, has filed a declaration of insolvency in the former city. The causes of insolvency are described in the schedule as follows: Losses sustained at the Thames goldfield through a defaulting broker; losses from sale of property, and falling off of business as a licensed victualler. His liabilities are set down at £1,473 16s 7d; and his assets at J81.043 lis 3d; making a deficiency of L 430 5s 4d. Murray, the missing man, one of the discoverers of Murray's Creek, Inangahua, has been found by one of the search parties dead ■ in the bush, between Maori Gully on tho Saddlo and the New River, having fallen over a precipice and broken

\m neck. The deceased was an experienced buEshman, and it was thought that it would be scarcely possible that he could lose himself in the locality where he met his death. The body was brought to Greymouth for interment. Deceased was well known and much respected throughout the Upper Grey diggings. He wa3 a native of Draperstown, near the city of Derry, Ireland, and about 32 years of age. William Dale, newspaper runner, of Greymouth, has been sentenced to three months imprisonment, for libel on Mr Joseph Kilgour, the mayor of Greymouth. One of the country correspondents of the Grey River Argus is persistently complimentary to the merchants of Westport on the violent interest they take in the trade of the Inangahua and Upper Grey districts. In his last letter he says:— *' Meantime the Westport people are absorbing all our upcountry trade, and much good may it do them, for their energy and public spirit are commendable." We suspect that the gentleman who writes this is disposed to be satirical.

Horace George Spencer Baker, midshipman of tha Challenger, has been committed for trial on a charge of forging Commodore Lambert's endorsement to a bill of exchange. The new Goldfield Eegulations in Westland seem to be the cause of great dissatisfaction. On Saturday week, the County Chairman, Mr Hoos, was burnt in effigy in Stafford Town, and suspended round his neck was a bill on which was printed in large charactero the " New Goldfield Rules and Eegulations." Over 200 signatures to the petition for repealing the new rules have arrived from Okarito, and about 700 are expected from Stafford Town and the Waimea.

George Knopp, charged in the Supreme Court, Hokitika, with a criminal assault upon a girl under twelve years of age, was found guilty of an attempt, and sentenced to two years' hard labor. Gilmer's Hotel at the Ahaura is described as being. one of the largest hotels on the Coast. It is one of eight hotels there, and two other licenses have been applied for. A warrant having been issued by the Provincial Grand Master, W. G. Collings, for the holding of a Purple Lodge at Westport, a number of Past Grands assembled at the Masonic Hall on Tuesday. Several brethren* were duly admitted to the Purple Degree. At the Randwick race meeting, Florence won the Derby easily. Lady Clifden won the Spring Maiden Plate. Croydon won the Great Metropolitan; Tim "Whiffler second.

A sailor, belonging to the s.B. Keera, in afit of insanity, jumped overboard in Hawke's Bay and swam straight out to sea. The pilot boat with great difficulty overtook him outside the breakers.

In the Supreme Court, Hokitika, the case of Warder Birt, gaoler, v. Tilbrook and Ivess, printers, late proprietors of the Tomahawk, an action for libel, in which damages were laid at £SOO, a verdict was given for the defendants on all counts. The Westland Gazette, of the 13th inst., notifies that the County Chairman has leased to Peart and Co. and Bramwell and Co., for fifteen years, five acres each of ground on the south beach, containing quartz veins or lodes. This is the first intimation of there being any quartz reefs on the beach.

At the Supreme Court, Hokitika, on Thursday, Joseph Pickup and Joseph Pitts were charged that they did, on the 15th of May last, steal one bag of gold, and one bag of amalgam from the person of Samuel Holdsworth at Nelson Creek. Mr Button appeared for the prisoners, and asked that they should be tried separately, which the Crown Prosecntor agreed to, and elected to try Pitts first. On the case being opened by the Crown Prosecutor, it proved to be so weak that his Honor suggested that it should be withdrawn, as a conviction was entirely out of the question on such evidence. Mr Harvey consented to this course, and the prisoners were discharged. The coal mine up the Hokitika River is reported to be turning out quite equal to expectation. The miners have followed a well defined seam down for 25ft, where it is fully sft 6in thick. It burns exceedingly well but is rather brittle.

The following paragraph as to the " seven thousand five hundred French prisoners" appears in the Melbourne Age of the 31st ult:—"Our contemporary, the Argus, fell into a mistake yesterday, in quoting- a telegram from the Ceylon Observer, of which it made a sensation. We refer to that of the Prussian victory. Had the paper from which the extract was made been read, a little addendum to the following effect would have been found:— * For seven thousand five hundred prisoners taken, read Jive hundred." We point out the error merely to allay public anxiety on the subject."

A serious accident occurred at Wakapuaka. near Nelson, on Friday last, to Mrs Wastney, the wife of Mr Wastney, M.P.C. It appears that she was driving home and on arriving at her gate she got down, and opened it and led the horse in, and was in the act of getting into the trap again when the reins slipped down against the legs of the horse, which became restive and plunged so violently that Mrs Wastney was thrown out, the wheel passing over her arm and breaking the two bones below the elbow.