Untitled

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 807, 29 April 1871, Page 2

The following letters are detained at the Post Office, Westport, for postage .—Steward, Owen, Staffordtown; J. I). Goodwin, Maori Gully, Greytnouth; Postmaster, Grey Eiver; W. H. Forder, Wanganuij P. Kelly, Brighton; F. W. Moore. Akaroa; Mrs A. Walker, Charleston.

We understand that the Hon. Mr Sewell is engaged in inspecting the gaols and lunatic asylums of the colony, in view of the probable creation of a central establishment of both kinds for the whole of the Middle Island. A meeting of the members of the Westport Jockey Club and others in organising a day's racing, to be held on the Queen's Birthday, took place at the Post Office Hotel on Thursday evening. Present . Messrs Gilmer, Simpson, Carr, Suisted, Jones, Luff, Courtney, Lempfert, Emanuel, Colvin, and O'Conor (Chairman). The Chairman having explained the object of the meeting, it was moved by Mr Emanuel, seconded by Mr Jones, and carried, " That races be held on the 24th of May." The question of the terras upon which Mr Jones would lot the conrso and stand was discussed. Mr Jones stated his ■willinguess to place them at the disposal of the Jockey Club for one, two, or three days' racing for the sum of .£lO. It was carried that Mr. Jones's offer be accepted. A committee was then appointed to carry out the necessary arrangements, said committee consisting of the gentlemen present, and Messrs Hughes, Falla, Seaton, Draghicavich, Garsides, Bailie and Clarke. The following gentlemen were appointed to canvass for subscriptions: Messrs Lempfert and Emanuel, Gladstone-street north; Messr.; Suisted, Corr, and Simpson, Gladstone-street south; Messrs Gilmer, O'Conor, and Garsides, Kennedy-street and Gladstone-street west; Messrs Hughes,

Falla, and Draghicavich, tho remainder of the town; Messrs Luff and Courtney, Orawaiti Road ; and Messrs M'Kenna and Jones, the Ncrthem Terraces. Mr Jchn Gilmer was appointed treasurer to the committee, and Mr Mirfin secretary. 'J he sum of £25 was collected in the room ; and, a vote of thanks having bson accorded to the chair, the meeting terminated..

Some misapprehension existing on the part of masters of vessels with respect to the colonial bar signals being intended for the information of masters of vessels outward bound, we publish the following, received by Captain Leach from the late Mr Balfour . —" The colonial bar signals are intended for the information of inwardbound vessels only. The masters of outward bound craft must themselves be responsible for crossing the bar, seeing that they have the same opportunity of observing its condition as the Harbour Master himself. They might, however, if in doubt, consult the Harbour Master as to the ad- ■ visability of attempting to go out." A meeting of the Race Committee took place at Emanuel's Little Grey Hotel, yesterday evening. Mr John Hughes in the chair. The lists of the various canvassers were submitted to tho meeting, showing a total of £SO already collected. A number of persons were yet to bo called upon who, it was expected, would be willing to subscribe. The sum of ±'24 9s was handed to the Treasurer. The canvassers were requested to complete their lists as early as possible, and report to the next, meeting of the committee. It was proposed and carried that the amount of subscriptions finally collected be handed over to the stewards of the Jockey Club, to whom would be entrusted the entire management of the proposed meeting. The meeting then adjourned. The Fire Brigade at New Plymouth has been broken up, Referring to the telegram libel case, the Sydney correspondent of the " Argus " says : — " Some attention has been drawn here to Mr Barton's quarrel with the New Zealand Government, partly because he is a Sydney man, and partly because bis case exemplifies the small and personal persecutions to which our little colonial Legislatures will occasionally descend, and the ' down 'that petty politicians have upon troublesome editors. Mr Barton may be wrong in the accusation he has made, but any government ought to be above displaying animosity against a particular writer.

The Caledonian Company's Claim, at the Thames, about which so much has been heard recently, is situated on the hill-side, just above Tookey's and the Golden Crown Claim. It is 14 men's ground, and scarcely one-thirtieth part of it has been wo ke t out. The workings are still 140 ft from the nearest part of Tookey's claim. There are two shafts sunk in tiie o.aun, of which the main shaft is 234 ft in depth (being 140 ft below the level of the sea), and the smaller shaft 218 ft in depth. The bottom of the latter, however, which is sunk through a spur, while the main shaft is sunk from a hallow, is 30ft above the lower point of the main shaft, or GOl't below the level of the sea. The dimensions of the two shafts are : —Main shaft, 9ft by 4J-l't; smaller shaft, 7ft by 4ft, A winze, sunk from the Golden Crown Co's drive at a depth of 113 ft, joins the two shafts. The pumping engine, which is on the horizontal principle, is of 40 horse power nominal, with a 22in cylinder. During my visit it was pumping out water at the rate of 250 gal per minute. The winding engine is of 14 horse-power, and has a lain cylinder. There is also a 14£ in double-acting plunger pump, supplied by two drawing lifts, 12in and 9in respectively. The number of stampers at present kept in use by the company is 54, of which only 24 belong to the companj', though the purchase of another battery was being negotiated. The engine power of the company's own battery is equal to 16 horses, being about the same as that of the other two batteries collectively. The three batteries crush on an average 220 to 240 tons of stone per week. They are kept going night and day without intermission from 10 o'clock on Monday morning until 10 o'clock on Saturday night, the men working in three shifts of eight hours each. The number of men and boys employed in connection with the mine, carting, and the batteries is 100. The average wages of the men are from Gs to 8s per day. The tailings are sold by the company for £1 per ton, which pays more than twice over the cost of crushing. The " Grey River Argus " states that it is very probable that the Provincial Council of Nelson will be invited, at its coming session, to express an opinion on the subject of accepting the proposal to attach the Westland portion of the Grey District to the Province of Nelson. We are informed that the approval of the Council will be recommended by the Superintendent, and that it is exceedingly probable the suggestion will be accepted. Should the Provincial Council fortify the Superintendent's own views by formal resolution, there can be little doubt that if our member should renew his efforts in favour of the alteration of the boundary he will be successful. In the Hokitika district 2SO applications to be placed upon the electoral roll have been received, and 93 applications have been made in the Totara district.

The " Wanganui Herald" gives the following suggestion anent the question of removing the bar of the Wanganui or any other river :—" 1 he bar of the Danube was at one time similar to that of the Wanganui. The Turks invented a harrow which each vessel leaving the river had to drag after her, buoying it outside, and each vessel that entered the river had to drag the harrow in. The harrow was much like an ordinary agricultural one. It operated by the teeth loosening the particles of sand, which the force of the water carried out, and the result was that the bar had the same depth of water that existed in the river, and outside the mouth. During the Crimean war, when the Russians put a stop to all Turkish commerce, the regulation was sot aside, and the consequence w.is that the bar filled up, and vessels of large draught were unable to enter. This appears a very simple plan for deepening the bar." We are informed that the s.s. Phcebe has been engaged to distribute the incoming mail and collect the outgoing mail per s.s. Nevada. The Phcebe will bo at the Manakau on May Hid, and bring on the mails for New Plymouth, Nelson, and Pieton. She will leave tho latter port on May 16th calling at Nelson and .New Plymouth, arriving at the Manakau on the 18th, the day prior to the sailing of the Nevada.

A telegraph station was opened on Tuesday, at Eiverton, Otago. Home papers state that on January lith, J. Bennt tt, the champion, played the second match of a sericr< of exhibition contests announced for every Saturday throughout the season at ot. James's Hall, London, and the one in question will long bo remembered for having given William Cook an opportunity of excelling his hitherto unequalled monster break of 531, The table upon which this wonderful feat was accomplished is a perfectly true one, the balls rolling

most accurately along the bed. Prior to commencing tho break, Bcorcs of 108 and 90 had already been credited to Cook, whoso figures had reached 350 to Bennett's 218. Then after a few cannons and hazards, the ex-champion worked his way up to the spot and scored 37 in succession off the spot hazard, after which he lost position, but regaining it soon afterwards, added 85 more. Again he failed to get situ ited properly for the spot stroke, and made nine more before he got back to tho old place, when ho soon finished tho matoh by making 64 more " spots." As, however, the spectators wished the break competed, Cook went on scoring, and added 34 more hazards ere be made a miss-cue and broke down, after scoring in all 752 (220 spots). After he had scored 446, an interval of a quarter of an hour was allowed, but the break was otherwise uninterrupted. Cook scored 204 points in 1G minutes, and.the last 102 in seven minutes. Tho gam) was the most rapidly played on lecord. It is said there are no fewer than 47 candidates for the vacant Commissionership of Armed Constabulary. S'r Patrick Gran*, the Governor of Ma'ta, has lately recommended a grant of £IOOO a year for ten years for forming plantations in that island. His Exc jllency admits that he has made the recommendation on the suggestion of the Scottish Meteorological Society, which shows that plantations will increase the water supply of the island, and ameliorate its climate, and this, Sir Patrick Grant says, has been confirmed by scientific men resident in Malta.

The average circulation of the London " Telegraph " during the half year ended December 31,1870, was 190,855 copies daily. Captain Beveridge, late harbour-master at Hokianga. has received £250 in liquidation of his claim in connection with the salvage of the barque Cantero. Many of our readers will remember a Mr Caspar, who formerly kept a cigar shop in Dunedin, and afterwards brought out the patent fire-extinguishing machine, " L'Extincteur." He went home to England some years ago as principal agent for this machine, but appears, according to the London correspondent of the " Age," to have got into trouble in connection with some contracts with the French Government. Entrusted by the Defence Committee with a contract for boots for the French army, he was afterwards accused of conniving with the manufacturers in London at substituting pasteboard for leather in the soles. He is now imprisoned in France. This and other similar frauds will account for the fearfully seedy appearance of Faidherbo's and Bourbaki's troops. An English correspondent of the Melbourne " Age" gives the following explanation of the origin of the rumour relative to an Americanfiiiibusteringexpedition against the Australian Colonies :—" A Mr Stewart, a native of Tasmania, whose present residence is 15 Norfolk street, Strand, made a communication to two of the Colonial Agents General that a scheme had been revealed to him of a proposed predatory attack upon Melbourne, Sydney, and Dunedin, by a vessel fitted out in the United States. Without attaching much importance to Mr Stewart's tale, tho Colonial representatives took the proper steps to test that individual's veracity. The particulars elicited from him were to the following effect: —Two young men—one of them calling himself Bethune, and who represented himself to be a nephew of the Bishop of Toronto—came to lodge at Stewart's house. They had recently arrived from Melbourne. Becoming intimate with Stewart, they one day told him that a ship wa3 being fitted out in the United States, nominally on behalf of France, but really for the purpose of making an attempt upon the chief Australian towns, and upon the mail steamer. The plan was to slip through the Heads at night, get up alongside the Nelson, take possession of her, turn her guns upon Melbourne, and then levy black mail upon the Treasury and the banks. Mr Stewart added that, according to the representations of his lodgers, General Butler and Mr G. F. Train were concerned in this notable scheme. Bethune and his companion—the latter, named Stott—invited Stewart to join them, and promised to telegraph to him from • America, telling him when to start. He pretended to enter fully into their designs, but as soon as they left for America he divulged the whole particulars to Captain Mayne, A gent - General for New South Wales, who consulted with Mr Verdon and Mr Morrison on the matter. At the suggestion of some members of the Government, the case was laid before the Secretary of State, who advised that the respective Colonial Governments should be communicated with on the subject, by telegraph. Such telegrams were accordingly forwarded, and in the meantime Colonel Henderson, the Chief Commissioner of Police, has taken the affair in hand. Nothing, however, of a character confirmatory of Stewart's statement has been discovered, except that Bethune had recently returned from Melbourne. I give the tale as I received it, no further vouching for the facts than expressing confidence in the source from which I got it. Mr Huddlcston, Secretary to the Nelson Acclimatisation Society, has received advices from Auckland that by tho next steamer from San Francisco, an order given by him twelve months ago for Colifornian quail will be executed, to the value of £25. The temporary obstruction to the working of tho two Anglo-American submarine cables lias given rise to a fresh project for connecting England with America by the telegraph. A fresh company proposes to lay a new wire across the Atlantic, which, according to the prospectus, is to be worked under every conceivable scientific and mercantile advantage. This cable communicates direct with Liverpool and with New York ; it will be laid in deep water, and the capital invested will be only about one half that of either of the existin? companies. It is also reported that a company, projected some years ago in New York to lay a cable from that city to a point on the French coast, has been revived, with the important modification that the European terminus will probably be a Russian port. The Russian Government is said to have made valuable couces>ions to the company. Another cable is spoken of, to cross tho Pacific from the western coast of America, to the eastern coast of Asia.