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Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 746, 6 December 1870, Page 2

Yesterday was one of most unseasonable weather; at intervals the rain fell in torrents, and the raw, bleak wind was more suited to midwinter than to the orthodox midsummer weather. Having a heavy rainfall now may, however, be the means of affording a succession of fine sunny days at Christmas; at any rate according to the law of probabilities, there is the greater likelihood of its being, genial sunshine during the coming holidays. Taking this view of the matter, the present depressing weather becomes supportable. Yesterday the glass fell rapidly until reaching 29-40. A private telegram states that Mr G. Donne, Goldfields' Representative, is at present in Greyinouth, blockaded by the weather. He will arrive in Westport at an early opportunity. The steamer Kennedy left Nelson on Saturday for Westport, but owing to the terrible weather, has not yet put in an appearance. She has probably sheltered in Golden Bay. The Secretary of the Boss Volunteer Fire Brigade has received a cheque for £SO from the County Chairman, in aid of the funds of that institution.

In the Mayor's Court, Dunedin, on Nov. 21, Anne Manning, for habitual drunkenness, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, and Mary Young was similarly dealt with for being the associate of known thieves and prostitutes.

At the late Supreme Court sittings in Napier, a Mr J. J. Pritchard sued a MiHenry Parker for .£SOO damages, for the seduction of his daughter, a girl of 14 years of age. The jury returned a verdict for d£l2s. In two actions for false imprisonment, brought by J. S. Buchanan and T. B. Buchanan against a man named Roper.damages amounting to .£75, and .£lO respectively were awarded.

Claims have been sent to the Lyttelton Fire Relief Committee amounting to over ,£IO,OOO.

At auction, on Nov. 22, the s.s. Wainui fetched £1450, the purchaser being Captain Clarke of Port Chalmers. The Taioira was bought for £925, by Mr R. M. Robertson.

A waterman, named Thomas Rhurt, was drowned on the 26th ult, at Otago Heads, while endeavouring to swim off to his boat. The body was picked up four minutes afterwards, but animation could not be restored. The deceased leaves a wife and family.

The Rev. Mr Stock, of Wellington, has been appointed as Archdeacon at the Hutt. The Wellington Diocesan Synod closed on the 23rd ult. The Bishop stated, in his charge, that the Irish Church had been on the model of the New Zealand Church; that Bishop Selwyn, twenty years ago, prophesied its disestablishment ; that the Hauhaus are dibsenters, not apostates; that they are seeking for re-admission to the Church, and have hailed his elevation to the Episcopate as a pledge between the two races.

Mr Fitzherbert addressed the electors at Wellington on the 23rd ult. He said he was bound to support the ministerial policy because it was his own, and he made a long defence of the Weld Ministry. He objected to the provincial relations with the provinces as likely to destroy the unity of the Colony, and he also opposed the item of ,£50,000 for Road Boards. The meeting adjourned for a week in order to hear Mr Ludlam.

Eight Chinese, who have adopted the Christian Religion, were admitted in the Church of England at Sandhurst recently, by the Right Rev. Bishop Perry, Bishop of Melbourne.

A correspondent of the "Mount Ida Chronicle" states that the native veronica is an effectual cure for dysentery, having cured thousands on the West Coast. He says : —" You simply chew the leaves and swallow the juice, or make an infusion of the leaves and drink it as you would tea. Its use in this respect was made known by the Maoris."

An artillery corps is about being formed at the Thames.

The following table of distances from Honolulu to the main ports of the Pacific will be found valuable :■■—From Honolulu to Arctic Ocean, 2700 miles; Petropaulovski, 2700; Yokohama, 3250; Hongkong, 5400; Sydney, via Fiji, 4341; Auckland, via Fiji, 3879 ; Auckland (direct), 3817; Tahiti, 2400; Valparaiso, 5600; Callao, 4800; Panama, 4500; San Francisco, 2103; Victoria, V.1., 2300; Sitka, 2350.

Auriferous ground is reported to have been discovered on the Upper Dart, Martin's Bay. A miner named George Saunders, working in the Shotover claim, Thames, recently had his hut broken into. A chest in the hut was also burst open, the burglar decamping with £23 in cash, and other valuables. A bank deposit receipt for £2O, and a purse had been taken from the ches , but were left on the table. Three men, named Stone, Bennet, and Hesket, have been arrested on the charge of having been concerned in the robbery. A coalfield, of a supposed area of 400 acres, has been found between the Waikato and the Frith of the Thames. The seam is about ten feet thick, but is not reported to be of superior quality. The other day, some Justices at Hobart Town sent- a girl to prison for six weeks for stealing from her mistress a penny, which penny she had expended in the purchase of a loaf of bread. The girl had been ten years in the service of the woman who prosecuted her. 4

The sum of £66 7s has been subscribed in Ross for the family of a resident recently deceased, named Joseph Goad.

An Auckland paper states that the gas company there recently advertised for a junior clerk, and received no less than 80 applications for the office. AMr T. Page was the fortunate appointee.

We learn from.the Invercargill papers that three youths, half-castes, were sentenced by the Resident Magistrate to two j ears'servitude in the Dunedin Industrial Reformatory,- for having committed a series of shocking assaults upon a girl at the Bluff. The punishment inflicted by the Magistrate, has occasioned a good deal of comment. The " Southland News'.' has an indignant leader on the subject, in the course of which it says that " when it is known to the world that a crime only inferior to

murder is hero expiated by two years at school, we may expect to find this part of Otago the resort of the filthiest blackguards in the colonies. They will come here for education, and who shall say that we have not invited them if this great wrong we now protest against bo suffered to pass ?" The " Wellington Independent" has been informed that a gentleman, at present on a visit to New Zealand, has swum across Waikato heads—about a mile broad—and this feat has not been performed for a long time before. It was attempted about seven years ago by a Maori chief, who was drowned.

An inquest of more than usual interest took place recently at the Devil's River, Victoria, on the body of a groom, named Lawrence Bourke, aged 27. It seemed that he had been in the habit of taking large doses of chlorodyne, having taken four bottles of it in this way. One or two witnesses who were called, stated they also were in the habit of taking large doses of chlorodyne, but- had not sustained any injury from the practice. The medical testimony was to the effect that death was caused by inflammation of the bowels, aggravated by the use of chlorodyne, and the delirium tremens from which the deceased had suffered was also ascribed to the use of this drug. The Corouer, in summing up, remarked that " chlorodyne was a deadly drug, which paralysed the brain, and, like the use of opium, after being commenced, was increased until madness was produced. He believed many cases of madness attributed to alcohol arose from toking chlorodyne, of which he understood there was a large consumption in Melbourne."

A correspondent, writing from Auckland, says:—Mr Vogel's late visit to the Thames appears to have done some good. For some time back funds have been accumulating in the Provincial Treasury; but though miners were leaving the district in hundreds —for want ef employment, and because urgently needed works were not carried out —the Provincial Government preferred hoarding their money in an " old stocking," as Mr Vogel put it, to expending it in reproductive works, which would certainly have stayed the exodus. The result is that the Provincial Executive has apparently been shamed into doing what might have been advantageously done months back. What has been termed Mr Vogel's " unjustifiable interference," etc., etc., has given considerable umbrage, it appears, to Mr Gillies; the so-called "inteference" simply amounts to this.—A deputation of miners waited upon the Treasurer to state their grievances, and asked for a remedy. In return he explained that the remedy was in the hands of the Superintendent who had funds at his disposal for proceeding with any public and very necessary works.

A Southern paper says that the Omeo recently took a consignment of bread to the Bluff, not that the article was scarce there, but that it could be sent from Dunedin and sold at the Bluff for twopence per 4 lb loaf less than the Invercargill price.