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Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 798, 6 April 1871, Page 2

The Bank of New South "Wales, Westport, shipped 19200s lldwfc 12gr of gold yesterday by the steamer Charles Edward, for Hokitika, the export duty upon which amounted to £240 Is 6d. A gold escort arrived from Charleston yesterday. The usual monthly meeting of the Buller District Hospital Committee took place at the Court House on Tuesday evenin"-; present—Messrs Simpson, Powell, Humphrey, Bailie, Graves, Fisher, Pitt, Rowlands, and Dr Giles (Chairman). The business transacted was unimportant. The Visiting Committee reported favorably of the management and condition of the institution; and Messrs Powell, Graves and Simpson were appointed a visiting committee for the current month. The Medical Officer's report showed four patients in the Hospital. The Treasurer stated that the probable requirements for the maintenance of the institution would amount to £2OO for the remainder of the financial year. There was a sum of ,£2O in hand, and the government subsidy due to the fund amounted to £IBB. There were no accounts sent in for payment, and the meeting adjourned. A general meeting of the Westport Volunteer Fire Brigade took place at the Masonic Hall, on Monday evening, Capt. Hughes in the chair. The previous minutes were read and confhmed. The resignation of Mr Hunger, as engineer was accepted. The Treasurer's balance sheet wa3 received, showing a small sum to the credit of the brigade. Captain Hughes laid a proposition before the meeting, to authorise the construction of four Abyssinian wells in various parts of the town to ensure a sufficient supply of water in case of fire. The wells would cost each .£l6 10s, at which price a Mr M'Gregor, of Greymouth, had offered to construct them. It was resolved that Captain Hughes be authorised to engage the services of Mr M'Gregor to construct the wells at the price namad. Other business waa disposed of and the meeting closed.

In the R.M. Court, Westport, on Tuesday, one civil case only was disposed of—Reid v. Wylde, in which the plaintiff obtained judgment for the amount claimed— £7 10s and costs. The business in the Warden's Court consisted of the hearing of a few unimportant applications for the registration of water-rights. The Charleston Escort, forwarded, by the Bank of New South Wales on the 29th ult, to Westport for shipment, consisted of 1003oz 16dwt 12gr of gold. The pic-nic, got np as an entertainment for the Sunday School children, will take place on Tuesday next, weather permitting. An amateur entertainment to supplement the building fund of St John's Church, Westport, will take place at the Masonic Hall, Empire Hotel, on Monday evening next.

A man, named Murphy, fireman on board the steamer Charles Edward, was arrested yesterday afternoon in Westport, charged with stealing £2O from a woman, named Mrs Hawkins. Murphy will be brought before the Bench this morning. We understand that nearly all tho money has been recovered.

The following are the particulars of the mining accident at Collingvvood, referred to in a recent telegram:—An accident occurred on Monday last, at the Canterbury Company's claim, at Collingwood, by which two miners, named Thomas Mavis and John Squires sustained some severe injuries. At the time of the accident, they were engaged in blasting rock down a shaft, eighty feet in depth. The charge having been placed in the bore, and tho fuse lighted, the men ascended to await the explosion. This not taking place a3 expected, Mavis descended the ahaft te see what was the cause, and, finding the fuse still burning, extinguished it by throwing water on it. Squires then followed him down the Shaft with the drill,

and they proceeded to remove the tampion; only a few blows were given, when the charge exploded. Mavis, who was working the drill at the time, had his hand severely lacerated, and Squires was much scratched about the forehead and face—it was first thought that he would lose the sight of one of his eyes, but the injury did not prove so serious as was anticipated. Mavis arrived in Nelson on Tuesday, by the Lady Barkly, and is now in the Hospital, where, we are happy to learn, he is doing well.

A large meeting of the principal merchants and residents of Levuka, Fiji, was held on the 13th ultimo, to consider the advisability of establishing a bank there. A committee was formed to carry out the project, and to depute one of the principal Levuka merchants to proceed to the colonies, to place the matter before the colonial public. The "Press" states that the General Government, acting on the approval of Mr, Blackett, Colonial Engineer, have decided on the adoption of the Rakaia Bridge, for the main line of railways, and that the piles for the additional intermediate pieces have been ordered from Sydney.

A telegram in our last issue stated that the General Government have at last decided to appoint Land Brokers under the Land Transfer Act. A contemporary, referring to the matter, says:—"This step has been taken in deference to the strong opinions expressed in Dimedin, Christchurch, and elsewhere against placing the whole of the business in the hands of the legal profession, to the exclusion of persons who have larger experience in land broking. The Land Transfer Act provides for the appointment by the Government of licensed brokers who, upon finding security for the faithful performance of their duties, and a payment of £5 annually as license fee, may transact business for thenclients in relation to the registration of their titles or mortgages at certain fixed charges. In order that these appointments may be most reliably conferred, it is the intention of the Registrar-General of Land, Mr Moorhouse, to visit the various divisions of the colony, and decide upon such applications as may be made to him. It may be as well to state that each Licensed Land Broker must find two sureties in .£SOO each for the performance of his duties, and that he must be sworn • to faithfully and to the best of his ability execute and perform all such business or duties as may be intrusted to or imposed upon him according to the provisions of the Land Transfer Act, 1870.' The following is the scale of fees and charges authorised to be made by land brokers under the Act:— ' For application to bring land under the Land Transfer Act, 1870, where the land remains in the original grantee, although it may have been or still remains subject to lease or mortgage, 10s; where the value does not exceed £4OO, one-eighth per cent.; where the value does not exceed £BOO, £1; for filling up and entering caveats, exclusive _ of any professional charges incident to litigation pending, 10s; memerandum of transfer, lease, mortgage, or encumbrance—Where the value does not exceed £4OO, 10s; where it exceeds £4OO, oneeighth per cent.; where it exceeds, ,£BOO, £1; whenever any implied covenant is modified, or any covenant not being of those for which abbreviated forms of words are hereinbefore prescribed is introduced in any instrument, extra 5s ; whenever any original section or allotment or parcel of land included in an existing grant or other instrument is broken in any dealing, extra 10s; transfer of mortgage or lease, 5s ; power of attorney without registration abstract, 10* ; power of attorney with registration abstract, £l. These charges include filling up application, procuring declaration and signatures, procuring diagram from Land Office, and attendance and delivery at Registry Office. When the title has not remained in the original grantee, an extra charge may be made proportioned to the trouble, such cases being more in the nature of conveyancing. In the case of lease, and of annuity secured by encumbrance, ten years' rent, or ten years of such annuity, to be assumed as the value for the purpose of calculating the per centage,'" Jeremiah Creed, charged with unlawfully cutting and wounding a miner named Barnard Candau, at Napoleon Hill, on the night of the 27th instant, was arrested on the following day by Constable Dorris. and brought down to the Ahaura, and lodged in gaol. According to the " Tuapeka Times," the quantity of new oats in that market this year is about double that of last year, one farmer at the Beaumont alone having produced 10,000 bushels. At Waitaliuna, also, there is an increase of 6000 bushels over the crop of last year. The supply is about equal to the demand. There are some very fine samples of wheat in the district, although there is no great quantity under crop. Barley i 3 scarce. There is an average potatoe crop this season; no old ones in the market.

On Monday, March 2, at Rangiaohia, Waikato, Constable Muirhead shot Constable Gilfillan through the body. The unfortunate victim died an hour afterwards. An inquest upon the body of deceased was held on Tuesday, when the jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Muirhead. It was reported that Muirhead entered the room where Gilfillan was lying in bed, and, after simply saying, "I have no grudge against you, Gilfillan," deliberately pointed the rifle at the breast of the deceased, and fired, the ball lodging a, few inches below the heart. Muirhead was said to be a very hard drinker, and it is surmised that when he committed the act he was suffering from delirium tremens.

The " Nelson Examiner," referring to the subject of the proposed Grey Valley Railway, says :—A report, which' received some credence, was circulated in Greymouth last week, to the effect that the General Government had determined to undertake the construction of a railway up the Eiver Grey, as far a3 the coalmine, and that his Honor the Superintendent had proceeded to Wellington to confer with Ministers on the subject. "VVc are fully aware the Superintendent is anxious to see such a work undertaken, but the wishes of the residents of the Grey Valley are, we fear, outrunning facta. During a recent sitting of the Bankruptcy Court at Auckland, his Honor the Chief Justico referred to the practice followed by certain solicitors there, in riot promptly paving their annual fee of «£;3 3s for their certificate. He read certain clauses of the Legnl Practitioners Act, r.nd showed that such neglect was not only a contempt of Court, but w,".s an offence for which they might be fined .£.io, Ue regretted that the negligent practice of not promptly paying the fee for tiieir certificate was so prevalent, and took that opportunity of bringing it prominently before them. In the list, of bankrupt causes set down for hearing he found the rames of several solicitors who had neglected the customary payment, ard he thought that such a practice of putting their names down for Cases to be heard before the Chief Justico, while they weic not qualified to do so by having obtained their certificates, w.is a procedure which lie hoped to see put an end to, without puttir.g the law in operation for the purpose of imposing fines on defaulters.