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Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 800, 11 April 1871, Page 2

There is at present in Montreal a widow of twenty-two, who is the mother of nine children. She was married at sixteen, and, before her seventeenth birthday, presented her lord with twins ; the following year she produced, at one birth, three boys ; the next year she had twins, and repeated the performance the following year—making nine children, the oldest being barely four. The children are all living and doing well. " It was a very unfortunate selection of a hymn which our minister made last Sunday," writes the rural correspondent.. He had finished a very good sermon on the vanity of worldly things, when he gave notice—The parties to be joined in marriage will present themselves after we had sung the 225 th hymn beginning «' Mistaken souls that dream of Heaven."

THE NEW CALIFORNIAN MAIL CONTRACT. The following is a summary of the/ contract recently concluded by the Hon. Julius Vogel for the conveyance of mails to and from San Francisco:— The eontract is between Messrs "Webb and Halladay on the'one hand, and Mr Vogel, Postmaster-General of the colony on the other. The line is established for a term of ten years, terminable, however, at the end of three years. The service is to be performed by three first-class steamers—the Nebraska, Nevada, and Dacotah ; a smaller one, the Moses Taylor, is to be kept as a reserve ship, and is only to be used in cases of emergency. There are to be thirteen services in the year, a steamer of the line leaving Auckland and San Francisco respectively every twenty-eight days, calling at two louvenient coaling places in the South Sea Islands ; and in New Zealand, calling at Auckland, Wellington, Lvttelton, and Port Chalmers. The time allowed for each trip between San Francisco and Auckland, and vice versa (including stoppages) is twentyfour days. Tne contract provides for the establishment of a branch service to Sydney, New South Wales, by ships of the same size and equal in every respect to those employed on the main line, and may also, if Victoria is willing to pay a sum of £25,000, which is to be equally divided between the contractors and tbis colony, run the branch vessel on to Melbourne. The time allowed for the branch services is—Auckland to Sydney, four days and three-quarters ; Sydney to Melbourne, fifty-five hours, or thirty-two days from San Francisco to Melbourne. For the new service the New Zealand Government has to pay £50,000 per annum, and if the branch steamer to Sydney is not run during the first four months of the contract, the Government for that period has only to pay at the rate of £40,000 per annum. The contractors reserve a right to run during the first year of their contract, if they so wish, the main steamer from Auckland to Sydney, instead of down the New Zealand coast, that service to be performed by one of the steamers provided for the mail service to Syd. ney, which must then, on returning to Auckland, go on to San Francisco. In subsequent years, the contractors are only to have the right to send one of the principal boats on te Sydney twice in each year. The Postmaster-General may make a contract with the Government of New Caledonia, or with any of the Australian Colonies, the profits, as in other cases to be equally divided between the colony and the contractors. The contractors are rigidly bound not to run mails or branch steamers except from New Zealand ports without the consent of the Postmaster-General. The Postmaster-General is to fix the dates of departure, the penalty for delay in starting with or delivery of mails to be at the rate of £2 per hour; on the other hand, the contractors, are to • receive a bonus at the rate of £2 per hour for as many hours as the mail may be delivered under the contract t»me. On all the steamers a proper sorting room is to be provided, also accommodation for a mail agent and assistant. No charges are to be made in any New Zealand ports for light and harbor dues, wharfage, &., and the Government is to use its influence to get similar concessions made by the Australian Governments. In order to encourage trade between New Zealand and America, the contractors pledge themselves to use their influence with the American Government to induce them to admit phormium tenax and wool produced in the colonies contributing to the line duty free. The contractors are liable to a deduction of £IOOO per annum if the mails are not, in terms of the postal convention existing at present between the United States and New Zealand, carried across the American Continent free of expense. For any breach of the contract, the Postmaster-General can determine the contract by giving three months' notice. The contractors are bound in a sum of £25,000 to commence their contract, and are to be bound in a penal sum of £25,000 for its due pertbrmanco.