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Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 809, 6 May 1871, Page 2

Owing to a breakage of the wires at Cheviot on the boundary of the Nelson and Canterbury Provinces, telegraphic communication with Nelson and the North Island was suspended the whole of yesterday. The s.s. Nevada is already overdue, and it is just possible that she arrived at Nelson yesterday with the European and American mails. Communication between Hokitika and Christchurch was interrupted on Thursday and resumed shortly before noon yesterday.

The programme of the Westport Race? to be held on the 24th and 25th inst, appears in another column. Some delay had arisen in giving publicity to the matter owing to a difference of opinion as to whether the programme should extend over one or two days. The Jockey Club, however, held a meeting on Thursday and decided that there should be two days' racing, it being impossible to get through the programme in one day at the present season of the year, while to have greatly increased the prizes would probably have resulted, as recently at Hokitika, in the greater portion of the stakes being carried off by one horse which none of our West Coast team could compete with. The rough weather that set in on Wednesday last, resulted in large encroachments upon the beach at the rear of Glad-stone-street. Or Wednesday evening a considerable body of water swept oveAhe beach, lodging on the low-lying portions of Freeman and Molesworth-streets. This was, however, but a precursor of what was to follow. During Wednesday night the storm increased, driving home a tremendous surf, and the tide of Thursday morning inflicted a serious amount of damage. At the end of Freeman-street, and on each side of it extending to the slaughter-yards on the spit and northwards along the beach, a strip of ground, in many places a hundred feet in depth, has been swept* away, threatening the flagstaff. The signal shed had to be removed. The bonds belonging to Messrs Bailie and Humphrey, Powell and Co., and Mr John Corr were condemned by the Collector of Customs, as dangerous, and the contents were removed to a building formerly used by Mr D. Leslie as a bond, and to the Government receiving shed. The residents in the streets exposed to the tide were swamped out of their houses, and portions of the town which had hitherto escaped were threatened with speedy extinction. A number of dwellings near St. John's Church were also flooded, the occupants escaping by means of drays. Dr Thorpe's residence was surrounded with water, a boat plying between the house and terra Jirrna. Of the Old Cemetery not a vestige remains, and on its site the sea has formed a tolerably distinct channel towards the river, but without breaking a clear passage through. In north Gladstonestreet nearly all the houses were flooded, and high water mark may now be defined as about thirty feet distant from the fences at the rear of the buildings in that quarter of the town. The following tide was expected to be attended with most disastrous results to the premises in Glad-stone-street. At daybreak, however, the some morning the storm abated, with a probability of the wind shifting, and, fortunately for Westport, such was the result. At night there was still a terrific swell, but it lacked the assistance of a gale to drive it home with sufficient force to inflict further damage. Large bodies of water were swept over the beach, but it was evident the crisis was past. Yesterday, the wcathor was calm and clear, and the sea fast subsidising. One civil case only came before the R.M, Court, Westport, yesterday—Roukstrow v! Came, in which the plaintiff claimed £8 5 i,

made up of sundry items including repairs to a house belonging to the defendant, effected during the plaintiff's tenancy, somo medicines supplied, cash lent, and overcharge of rent. The plaintiff relied upon a special agreement alleged to have been made between the parties, whereby the plaintiff was entitled to remove all improvements or to receive valuation at the expiration of his tenancy. The defendant denied having entered 'into any verbal or other agreement, and, in the absence of corroborative evidence, the items were struck out, the plaintiff obtaining a verdict for Us 6d and costs. In the Warden's Court yesterday the application of John Murdock was granted for an extended claim for eight men, situated at Caledonia Terrace. There was no other business before the Court. An addition has just been made by Messrs M'Leod and Atkinson to the Bright-street Wharf. The structure now has a frontage of fifty-five feet. The improvement will be a great convenience to vessels using the wharf; A new branch of the Hibernian Society was opened at Brighton yesterday evening, by the officers of the Charleston branch. The event was celebrated by a banquet and ball. 1L meeting of the Committee of the Westport Atherseum was held yesterday afternoon, to consider the advisability of organising an entertainment, to be held on the Queen's Birthday, for the purpose of supplementing the funds of the institution. It was decided to hold an entertainment at the Masonic Hall on that date, and Messrs Graves, Whyte, and H. G. Hughes were appointed as a sub-committee for the purpose of carrying out the proposition. The local traders Three Friends and Standard arrived from Charleston yesterday morning. The p.s. Charles Edward was expected to leave Nelson for Westport yesterday. The "Wellington Independent" of the 17th ult notes the following remarkable phenomenon at sea :—On Friday last, the steamer Duke of Edinburgh, while on a trip from Auckland to Whangarei, and when between Bream Tail and Whangarei Head, experienced a violent storm, accompanied by thunder and lightning. About nine o'clock in the evening, during the heaviest of the storm, a large ball of fire descended in dangerous proximity to the vessel. From Captain Farquhar's description of the phenomenon, it mnsthave been, without doubt, one of the most extraordinary of the kind ever witnessed. He says that the report caused by the atmospheric disturbance and the concussion, were such as to shake the vessel from stem to stern in the most violent manner ; and that as soon as he recovered from the shock he saw a large ball of fire, about the size and shape of a hogshead, descending from the clouds in a perpendicular line. It appeared so close to the ship that he at first feared it would fall on board, but it dropped into the water about 50 feet from the steamer. Captain Farquhar states that at the time of the explosion he experienced a most extraordinary sensation, being totally unable to speak for some seconds. He also states that the ball of fire emitted a strong smell of sulphur."

The reported improvement in Mr Branigan's health does not appear to have been long continned. A recent Wellington telegram states • —Mr Branigan arrived from Auckland in the Phoebe, but refused to go to the South. His mind is greatly disordered, but he insisted on resuming the command, and behaved in an extraordinary manner, so that the Government had an informal ion laid against him under the Lunacy Act. He has been committed to the Dimcdin Asylum, and will go South in the first steamer under the care of the keeper who accompaniod him from Auckland. Mr Vogcl left America for England by the Cunard steamship Russia, on the 9th March, immediately after the consummation of the contract with Messrs Webb and Holladay. A recent Auckland telegram stated that inconvenience was experienced in the working of the Permissive Bill, owing to the fact that each signature to a petitition for closing any public-housc must be witnessed by three persons. In Sydney they get over this difficulty by going about the thing systematically, for we read that in the case of 'a recent petition, signed by 9986 electors, against the reduction of the salaries of the civil servants, each signature was witnessed by the same two persons, who thus signed their naniC3 very nearly 10,000 times in a few days. Tho Provincial Government of Wellington, not having funds to replace the bridge ove° the Hutt River, which had become insecure, has placed a punt over the river instead. The provinco is thus, the " Post" remarks, " after thirty years of colonisation, going back to the appliances which the pioneer settlers were compelled to use for a time The Provincial offices," the same journal adds, "are fast falling into a most dilapidated condition, an in a short time will cease to bo habitable, and judging from the conduct of the authorities in the matter we have just mentioned, we may expect to see them replaced by toi toi whares." The value of property in Arrowtown, Otago, is increasing. £IOOO has been obtained for an hotel with two aeros of land which was sold eight months ago for £BOO. It is notified in a recent number of the General Government "Gazette" that his Excellency the Governor has been pleased to appoint Matthew Price, Esq., J.P., to be a Resident M 'gistrate for the district of Hokitika. Mr Warden Aylincr has been appointed Resident Magistrate at Okarito. The census returns just published give the entire population of the Province of Nelson at 22,396, which shows a falling off 1418 in the aear 1867, the decrease being confined exclusively to the south-western part of the Province, the settled parts of the Province showing an increase of nearly 6(10, as follows.—Motueka, 1481 males, 1261 females; Collingwood, 810 males, 522 females; Cheviot, 335 males, and 103 females; total of settled districts, 13,861. Electoral district of the Buller, 3566 males, U93 females. Electoral district of Grey, 3221 males, 555 females. Total, 8535, Among other things brought to light by this year's census is the fact that there is only one widow in the city of Nelson, which would have been a perfect paradise to Mr Weller, senior, in this respect. There are abo more married women in the town than married men, the explanation being that many miners leave their wives in town while absent on the goldfields. The Christchurch "Press" states that apiece of quartz containing gold has been found at the Malvern Hills, and that application will be made to have the ground on which it was found reserved. We take the following significant paragraph from tho circular of the Now Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, dated London, February 21st . "Now Zealand securities do not stand so well as when wo last wrote, tho decline dating from tho receipt .of a telegram from New South Wales stating that the Now Zealand Treasurer was on his way to this country to negotiato loans for £4,000,000." " '