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Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 728, 25 October 1870, Page 2

We learn from Mr John Dick, who has arrived recently overland from Nelson, that the contractors were unable to proceed with the rna-ehinery for the Murray Creek Quartz Mining Company. The contractors had succeeded in reaching the Saddle, but found all effort to proceed further unavailing, owing to the ponderous and unwieldy pieces of machinery that had to be packed, and the frightful state of the road. Our informant states that some pieces of the machinery weighed 4ewt., and that the horses were up to the girths in a quagmire, totally unable to proceed further. He believes that the entire machinery, or at least the more cumbersome portion, will have to be returned to Greymouth and despatched to the Murray by some other route. It is matter for regret that the opening up of these extraordinarily rich workings" should have been thus unavoidably delayed. The latest information from Murray reef states that a ton of stone has been forwarded from the workings to Greymouth for the purpose of further testing the richness of the reef.

A very handsome boat, making the second that has been recently built for navigating the Upper Buller, wa3 launched at Westport yesterday. She was constructed by Mr Etevenaux, is 48 feet long, and has great carrying capacity. An accident, resulting in considerable damage to a waterman's skiff, bolonging to James Ferguson, occurred in tho Buller river yesterday. The boat it appears was moored alongside tho piles of the old wharf in Gladstone street, and one of Mr Pell's atone barges in coming down the river came into collision with the skiff, wedging her against the piles. Her port quarter vas completely stove in. Wo are glad to learn that tho condition of Mr Chapman has grootly improved since hia removal to the Hospital, and that ho is now progressing most favorably towards convalescence.