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Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 722, 11 October 1870, Page 2

The European mail, via San Francisco, was due in Auckland yesterday, and should arrive in Nelson to-morrow. The steamer would leave San Francisco on the lath Sept., bringing six days' later war news than was received via Suez.

The Provisional Directors of the Excelsior Quartz Mining Company, Lyell, have, we are informed, received overtures from the prospectors, Zala and party, to assist in bringing 1 in a water-race, the latter undertaking to crush their stone with the machinery which has already left Westport, and will shortly be erected. As soon as a few outstanding deposits have been collected, the Excelsior Company, consisting of 210 shareholders, will be registered under the Mining Companies' Limited Liability Act. Mr Munro has been appointed temporary legal Manager to the company. From the Waimangaroa we learn that the Enterprise Quartz .Mining Company are sinking a shaft about 150 south of the first shaft sunk, and, according to the dip of the reef, the manager expects to strike it in the second shaft, after sinking about twelve feet further. A trial of stone taken promiscuously from the reef has already shown a result of three ounces to the ton, and the present delay in crushing is for the purpose of fully testing the extent of the reef. It is expected that something definite will be known in a fortnight. The Westporfe and Orawaiti Tramway is fast approaching completion. The lino is laid from St John's Church to the Hospital, and the remaining portion to the Orawaiti terminus will be completed on the 22nd inst. The Government portion of the line, from the Bright street wharf to the Church, is not being so quickly executed, owing to the trouble and labor necessary to clear the stumps, and form the streets, preparatory to laying the sleepers and rails. When all is prepared, however, for laying the lino, but a short time will bo necessary to finish the work, as the length of road to be laid by the prisoners does not exceed a quarter of a mile. The first export of flax from Westport, recently shipped by the schooner 10, has been disposed of at auction in Melbourne, realising =£23 per ton. The price, though not equal to that obtained for very superior samples, carefully dressed and packed, is still highly encouraging. We hope to see the culture of flax form one of our staple industries.

Many of the earlier settlers on the "West Coast will ba glad to learn that Mr G. S. Sale, M.A., late Commissioner of WeStlimd, has been appointed Professor of Classics of the University of Otago. Mr Sale was formerly Fellow and Classical Lecturer of Trinity College, Ca abridge. While on the subject we may mention that the Council of tho Otago University refused to amalgamate with the New Zealand University, as the nominees of the General Government were objected to.

Mr G. W. Jackson has proceeded to Nelson by the s.s. Kennedy, for the purpose of arranging with the Government for the payment of the £7OO, voted by tho Council, duringitslast session, as a grant hi aid of the Charleston Reservoir.

Sumo very satisfactory specimens of stone were brought from the . Murray reefs, Inangahua, to Westport on Thursday last. Some of the least promising, in which no gold was visible, and weighing 36ozs, were tested and yielded lugrs of gold, or nearly at the rate of 35ozs per ton of stone. The population of this district is increasing daily, and seeing that Westport, from its natural position, is best calculated to advantageously supply the locality, the Government, we trust, will undertake to improve the few miles of country between tho Inangah.ua landing stage and tho site of present mining operations. Although a greater distance Has to be traversed via Greymouth, it will be seen from the letter of our Inangahua correspondent that the machinery for one of the claims has been forwarded by that route, the cost of transit being £45 per ton. Had the means of communication between the Inangab.ua and the reef been at all favorable, the machinery might have been transported from Westport for a considerably less sum. In the matter of forwarding supplies also we shall bo similarly prejudiced, unless prompt measures are taken to profit by tho advantage Westport naturally possesses, in the workings beiug at a more convenient distance from this port than from Greymouth. On the Ist hist, the Maori Chief Company, Back Lead, Charleston, had a scraping up of the plates, after seven weeks' crushing, resulting in a parcel of 820 ozs of amalgam. A sum exceeding J250 has been collected in Brighton and neighborhood for tho widow and children of the deceased Richard Hawkeswood, who recently met his death by drowning. A hitch has been spoken of as having occurred in the new Gold Duties' Act, which is likoiy to prevent the collection of gold duty till the Ist of January next. It is more than probable, in the event of any of the Banks refusing payment, that the Governor will, by powers vested in him by the Goidlieids' Act, prevent the exportation of any gold from the Colony until January. The shock of earthquake of Monday last was felt also in Nelson. The local papers say that it took place at twenty minutes past two in the afternoon and lasted several seconds. The direction was from north to south.

The Grey Argus says, " the miners at the B runner coal-mine complain bitterly, and with just cause, that their salaries, paid monthly, due on the Ist of each month, are not paid till some time between the 10th and 16th. Besides being productive of a vast amount of annoyance to the business people who have to supply the men, it is a most pernicious system, and a great injustice to the working-men. It is to be hoped the matter will be looked into, and the old system which prevailed up to within the last, six months, substituted, by which every man was punctually paid for his labor on the Ist of the month." We have previously had to reft r in terms of complaint to the same subject. Business people and laborers employed by the Nelson Government feel themselves much aggrieved by the system of deferred payments which has been introduced of late; and in the case of the latter, it is the more aggravated inasmuch as it facilitates a system, of fraud upon tradespeople, by offering a ready pretext to the dishonast to delay the payment of overdue accounts and, in many instances, to evade altogether a settlement. At a conference recently held in Hokitika to suggest amendments in the new mining rules, it was stated, that it was the wish of the miners in the various districts represented, that the old mining regulations should be substituted for the new ones. The delegates accordingly waited on Mr Hoos, who said he could not do as the Conference recpiircd, but he would legalise any amendments submitted to Mm by the delegates, taking the new rules as a basis. This latter course was adopted. Shocks of earthquake were distinctly felt at Taranaki, "Wellington, Nelson, and Ohristchurch, on Monday, the 3rd instant. Immediate steps are to be taken to put an end to the system of gambling so prevalent among the Chinese in Otago. Mr John Alloo, the Chinese interpreter, intends making his first raid among the gambling houses in Naseby. There are stated to be fifteen or twenty gambling dens, frequented by the Chinese, scattered over the various goldfields of Otago. A private telegram received from Greymouth yesterday states that the market at Gveymouth and Hokitika is run perfectly bare of cattle. Not an ounce of beef is obtainable in Greymouth.

The earthwork for the Dunedin and Port Chalmers railway is being carried out with rapidity. It now extends from the Stuart-street jetty to near the Pelichetßay jetty. A breakage of the wires occurred on Saturday night last, between Brighton and Greymouth, and communication was cut off with Greymouth until the following evening.

We have been favored with a reprint copy of the London Times of October 3, 1793. The issue, printed on a single sheet of the size known by the trade as ' royal,' contains but G3 advertisements, while the columns of reading matter are devoted to the copy of a despatch from Lord Nelson, transmitting the account of his decisive victory over the French fleet off the Nile, a theatrical critique, a few items of continental intelligence, and a law report. What a contrast is presented, within the comparatively short space of 72 years, between the leading journal of that day and cue present Times !

The General Government have decided to establish a District Court at Timaru, a.nd the appointment of a judge is likely to be determined in the course of a week or two. The Timaru Herald believes the judge will reside at Timaru, and will also hold a Court periodically at Oamaru. He will bo entrusted with full criminal and bankruptcy jurisdiction. Mr Barlf, M.H.R., addressed a meeting of the electors at llokitika on Thursday evening.

A few calculations regarding the cost of working the proposed mail service between San Francisco and Port Chalmers (says the Daily Times), will show how inadequate a subsidy has been voted for it by tho Assembly. Looking at tho consumption of coal alone, we obtain the following results: —Tho distance between tho two terminal ports of the line (3,500 knots, equal to 722 nours, steaming at 9 knots per hour, tho rate nxed. Allowing 1$ ton of coal per hour, the total consumption of coal for a trip either way would be 1083 tons, or, in round numbers 1100 tons. This, at 30s per ton, which is avery moderate price, will give .£1(550 as the cost of the coal consumed on each trip, and £3300 for the whole voyage both ways. Consequently, as twelve voyages are to be made yearly, the cost of tho coal consumed during that period will be £39,600, leaving the noble sum of £4OO to meet all other expenses, and give the contractor his profit.

Another pheasant has been caught in tho streets of Auckland.

The number of Morioris now alive in the Chatham Islands is only bot ween 50 and 60. A piece of land, between 50QO and 6000 acres in extent, has been reserved for them as long as they Eurvive, to revert after death to the Maoris. The greater portion of the land in the Islands has been leased to sheep-farmers in runs of from 5000 to 30,000 acres, for terms of 15 and 21 years. Tho several races inhabiting the group— Europeans, Maoris, and Morioris—are described as living together on the most amicable terms.

The French paper, the Temjps, has published a review of Mr Disraeli's novel, "Lothair" written by tho eminent critic, M. Edmund Scheror. In his judgment, the views on all subjects which are set forth in "Lothair" are childish. The romantic interest of the story is feeble ; the dialogue can scarcely be called original; and tho characters are not striking. Mr Disraeli, he says " was never a great writer, nor even a remarkable novelist ; but the gifts which he lacked were supplied by a sort of diahlerie, go, and ■savoir fairs; and even these qualities abandon him." The only person who will find much to reward him in " Lothair " is the man who is in quest of " little nothings, and of amusing scandals." We note that in an ably written note, " Blackwood " defends the position taken up by it, aad attacks rather hotly tho London papers. The number is on the Atheiieeum table.