The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. TUESDAY, MAY 2, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 808, 2 May 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. TUESDAY, MAY 2, 1871.

A meeting of the Westport Jockey Club, took place at the Empire Hotel yesterday evening, Mr Simpson, in the Chair. Further subscriptions wero handed in by the collectors to the Treasurer, and it was decided that the races should not extend over two days. A Committee was appointed to draw up a programme of one day's racing, particulars of which will appear in our next issue.

The Wostport Athenaeum is closed for a few days, pending alterations that will greatly contribute to the comfort of the members. The building is being lined throughout with boarding, and when finished will have a very complete and neat appearance. The committee, we understand, have ordered among other works, " Knight's Encyclopedia," and it is

intended to make further additions .to the library. We need scarcely point to the advantages this institution offers to the publio as a means of recreation and profitable instruction. Intending subscribers are reminded that a yearly subscription of one guinea gives a member the privilege of taking works homo for leisure reading. The usual monthly meeting of the Westport Hospital Committee will take place this evening at the Court House. Mr E. J. O'Conor, one of the representative for the Buller district in the Nelson Provincial Council left on Sunday by the steamer Charles Edward for Nelson, to attend the session. We see by our advertising columns that Mr Greenwood, dentist, has arrived from Nelson on a short professional visit, Mr Greenwood, we understand, will also visit Charleston, The Westport Volunteer Fire Brigade met for muster at the engine shed yesterday evening. A large number of members were absent, and the usual fine was recorded against them. The monthly meeting of the members took place at the Masonic Hall the same evening, particulars of which we hold over.

In the R. M. Court, Westport, yesterday, Joseph Baulte appeared to answer an information of Catherine Macarthy, charging him with assault. The complainant did not appear, and the matter was adjourned for three weeks, to enable Macarthy to appear. Baulte was released upon entering into a recognizance of £4O to appear on the 22nd instant. We regret to learn that the Nelson Goldfields' Police Force is about to lose a very efficient officer in the person of Constable Irwin, the Government, in view of proposed reductions in the departmental expenditure, having, we believe, decided to dispense with the services of this officer. Mr Irwin has been connected with the force almost since its establishment in this portion of the province and is one of its senior members. He has always borne the reputation of a very vigilant and energetic officer, whose loss it would not be easy at any moment to replace. A telegram to the " Argus" from Sale, the chief town in Gipps Land, relates that a shoemaker named Martin, a married man, has been arrested, and was remanded on the 4th, on a charge of throwing vitriol on a young woman with a child in her arms. The woman refused to elope with him. The victims are in the hospital. The case of small-pox said to have oc jurred at Auckland has turned out a mere rumour. The authorities are urged, however, to take due precaution against the introduction of the disease. Important native intelligence was received on the 21st in Auckland. Some time ago, it will be remembered that some of the TJrewera tribe gave themselves up; and two native chiefs, then residing at Napier, named respectively Paerau and Whenuanui, were quietly despatched by the Government to the Urewera country to see what could be done with that hitherto hostile tribe. These native chiefs being thoroughly instructed in the pacific intentions of the Government, but their firmness to punish, should such a course be necessary, have been instrumental in gathering all the remnants of that tribe. Tired with war and hardship, they have all forsaken the war path, deserted Te Eooti, Titokowaiu, and all other rebels, and placed themselves in the hands of the authorities. They have forsworn all other hostile risings, and resolved to live under the shadow of the Queen's flag. We understand that the Government has taken the question of their future disposal into consideration, and that for the future the remnants of the Urewera tribe will all be gathered together at Euatahuna, which will be their only settlement.—" Cross." At a public meeting in Auckland, on the 12th ultimo, a resolution to the effect that collections should be made for the relief of the French was carried; aid a com-

mittee, consisting of the ministers of the different churches in Auckland, the Superintendent, and the members of the Povincial Executive, and several other gentlemen, was appointed.

The following story of unswerving perseverance is published in an Auckland contemporary. About four years ago an eccentric personage, who follows the pursuit of bird-catching, purchased a small plot of land on the eastern side of Nhnhead Cemetery. Here he resolved to build a good-sized six-roomed brick house with his own hands. He at once set to work, and, strange to say, has nearly finished his stupendous task. He has been his own architect, his own bricklayer, his own labourer, his own joiner, his own plumber and glazier, and what is still more strange, has built the house without one particle of scaffolding, and even carried his own bricks from the maker by the armful as he was able to afford them. The work appears to be very substantial, and does him great credit. During the operations he has been living in a small brick hut, built by himself on the plot at the outset, in company with a little son and a loquacious parrot. The report is that the Duke of Edinburgh will, on his return from his present tour, marry the daughter of a wealthy London banker, who will start them in housekeeping with £5,000,000. The Hastings correspondent of the " Thames Advertiser" announces an important gold discovery at Tapu Creek. For some months past a party of the M'lsaac's have been out prospecting, and, with the exception of seeing them getting picks repaired at the blacksmith's occasionally, little was known of their whereabouts. Last week, however, it oozed out that they were on a hill about a mile and a-half from the Panama Route, and careful watching found them actively, though secretly at work on a fine reef about two feet thick. Next morning, some forty or fifty men's ' ground was pegged off. About half a hundredweight of stone has been taken to Grahamstown, and it is expected to run from lodwts to 20dwts to the pound. On Saturday, I saw two samples of stone from t'.ie M'lsaac's claim, which is called the Columbia. One is the ordinary kind of leader, showing the gold freely, while the other is quite different from anything I seen. The stone i 3 white, with a mixture of very light brown, and although gold is invisible to the naked eye, the assistance of a magnifying glass shows the precious metal to be thickly distributed. Tapu is now developing its recuperativo properties, and as soon as the machines are again at work, I have no doubt but the yield of gold will be steadily on the increase. Meantime, there is a great scarcity of good miners, not one out of employment. An incident in the adventures of Chang has been brought under the notice of the " Ballarat Courier." The giant's agent met a rather attractive young woman, whose acquaintance they had made at Pleasant Creek. When visiting one of the charitable institutions there,-she presented Chang with a splendid bouquet, and asked to be allowed to kiss his celestial countonance, with which she professed to be enamoured. Chang blushed, and after

some hesitation, consented. The inamorata detailed her worldly prospects, her wealth in shares in a golden claim on the North Cross Keef, which she would place at his disposal if he would make her his bride. Pursuing the object of her love, she has come to Ballarat to make a fresh offer of her heart and hand to the tallest man in the world.

In a romance published by Alexandre Dumas pere, called " The Thousand and One Phantoms," the following curious passage occurs :—" Hoffman (one of the characters of the story) bent his way to the Louvre, but he had the grief to be told that the French, now being free, did not allow themselves to be degenerated and made effeminate by going to see the pictures of slaves, and that even supposing the Commune of Paris had not already roasted them at their ammunition foundries, they knew better than to feed those' rats with the oil of the paint, seeing that those rats might one day become the food of patriots, if ever the Prussians should come and besiege Paris." Dumas little thought then that he would live to see the Prussians besieging Paris, and the Parisians eating rats. The "Fiji Times," Bth March, thus naively narrates a personal encounter : " The proprietor of this journal went to the post office yesterday afternoon on business. This was the first time he had visited the post office since the last issue of the "Times," and whether it was that the warm weather had stirred his (Dr. Freeman's) bile, or that what had appeared in this paper had fired his blood and goaded him to madness we know not; but, asking Mr Griffiths how he could have the impudence to come there, he struck him in the face with some Of course, the favor was warmly acknowledged; and immediately Dr. Freeman introduced a ruler to Mr Griffith's notice, striking him over the forehead with it. He snatched it from the postmaster, and returned the compliment, when Dr. Freeman introduced a broom on the scene. Both gentlemen were rather warm, but, notwithstanding the high range of the thermometer, a good deal of active business was transacted, although it was perhaps foreign to what was first intended.''

We have received a printed circnlar copy of the conditions of the contract entered into by the Postmaster-General the hon. Julius Vogel and Messrs "Webb and Halladay, for the new mail steam service between San Francisco and New Zealand, which commences on the Bth of this month and is to be continued for a term of 10 years, unless determined otherwise by the Post-master-General, and then it would cease at the expiration of three years. The contract is too voluminous to publish in full. The steamers to be employed are the Nevada, Nebraska, Dacotah, and Moses Taylor, with a proviso that the latter vessel shall be used only in case of emergency. The Santiago de Cuba to be used only in case of accident to the their firstnamed steamers. The contract specifies that one of the steamers shall run once every 28 days from San Francisco for Port Chalmers, calling at Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttelton, and vice versa. In passing Hawke's Bay the vessels are to call off Napier, the Colonial Government providing a steam tender to land mails. Two intermediate ports of call between San Francisco and Auckland, in the Hawaiian or Society Islands Group, may be determined upon or altered at the option of the postmaster and contractors. The contractors also bind themselver to run a steamer each month to Sydney, and to Melbourne if the Victorian Government subsidise to the extent of £30,000. The time to be occupied, including detention for coaling, shall not exceed six hundred hours to Auckland, and from thence to Port Chalmers one hundred and ten hours. The terms of the contract for the service to be paid by the New Zealand Government, are fixed at £50,000, with certain penalties for the due performance of the contract.