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Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 811, 13 May 1871, Page 2

The Bank of New Zealand, Westport, shipped by the steamer Murray, to Hokitika, on Thursday, 2890 ozs of gold, the export duty upon which amounted to £361 ss. The first mail to the Inangahua was despatched from Westport this morning. The sale of the right to the grand stand and refreshment bar, during the races, will take place at the Post Offico Hotel, at 2 o'clock p.m. In the E.M. Court, yesterday, the following civil cases came on for hearing : In Neil v. Cuthbertson the plaintiff had issued a fraud summons for the recovery of 15s 6d. The defendant was ordered to pay the amount of judgment and costs in twenty-four hours, or, in default, ten days' imprisonment. Patterson v. Gardiner: was a claim for £6 9s for goods supplied to three brothers. The defendant admitted two items only, amounting to £1 16s, for which sum the plaintiff obtained judgment and costs. Harrison v. Gardiner, claim for £l4 19s 6d. Judgment confessed in the amount claimed and costs. Harrison v. Ridley, claim for .£l3 7s 2d for good 3 supplied. The plaintiff in this case is a storekeeper at Giles Terrace, and the defendant formed one of a party of miners working in that locality. It appeared that the plantiff had kept two accounts with the party, one for requisites supplied on account of the claim, and the second, for provisions, &c, supplied to the party. The plaintiff, in his evidence, admitted that he had refused to give the defendant credit, but stated that he had subsequently supplied him and the other parties who were residing in the same hut. He further stated that the general account against the claim wns settled, and shortly after the defendant came to the store and asked that

the amount, now sued for, should be divided into four shares, and each party held liable for bis share. The plaintiff replied that if any one of the party was prepared to pay a fourth of the demand he would givo hiui a quittance; but, if no money was to be paid, he should decline to enter upon such an arrangement. He subsequently asked the defendant to write his name, and those of the others in his day-book, which he now produced, and the defendant did so, and went away. The defendant denied having got any provisions from the plaintiff subsequent to the refusal to give him credit, except for cash. The names in the book under the items now sued for were in his writing, but those names had reference to the articles delivered on account of the claim, and not to the provisions supplied. He was quite certain that the claim account was not. settled when he wrote the names. A witness, called by the defendant, stated that he lived with the defendant, and was a mate of his. He distinjtly recollected the plaintiff refusing the defendant credit. In consequence of that he got the provisions from Westport, and never got anything from Harrison afterwards. They got some rations from a miner, named Hamilton, to last a few days until provisions were obtained from town. Witness was with the defendant during the whole time that he was in the store on the day of leaving the terrace, and the defendant did not write any names in the plaintiff's daybook on that occasion. Hamilton gave corroborative evidence with respect to the rations. His Worship, in giving judgment, said that he should have had no difficulty in at once deciding against the plaintiff upon his distinct admission of having refused the defendant credit, but for the fact of the names having been appended to the account by the defendant. At first sight that appeared to establish the plaintiff's case, but on hearing the explanation of the defendant, which was corroborated by a witness, he must conclude that the names applied only to the account which had been settled, and that they were written previous to the settlement. The plaintiff had asked why, if the names had applied to the liabilities on the claim, the defendant had not written the names of the eight shareholders ; but that had been also explained, as it appeared four shareholders only contemplated Ijaving the locality, and the names were those of these four shareholders. If the plaintiff had been able to show that the claim account was settled prior to the names being written, the matter would have been clear. Failing that, he must revert to the first statement made by the plaintiff that he had refused to give the defendant credit. Judgment must be for the defendant with costs. Askew v. John Stitt and Alexander Stitt was a claim for £lO4 lis, for rent of a section in Gladstone-street, reduced to £IOO to bring it within the jurisdiction of the Court. Mr Fisher appeared for the plaintiff. The defendants stated that they had served a notice upon the plaintiff of intention to apply for an adjournment. It was applied for on the ground that the summons was served upon them the day after their solicitor, Mr Home, had left for Hokitika, and all necessary papers were in his possession. After some discussion, an adjournment was agreed to, and Tuesday, May 23, fixed for the hearing, or, if it could be called on at an earlier date, notice was to be given to both parties. This case excited considerable interest, the claim arising out of the refusal of the defendants to pay rent for a section which had been flooded by the sea encroachments in May, 1870. A publican's license was granted to Ellen Mehegan for the Boatman's Arms Hotel, and the Court then adjourned. Two dairymen, named O'Dowd and Osborne, resident at the South Spit, had a very narrow escape in endeavoring to cross to the opposite bank of the river early on Thursday morning. Osborne, it appears, had been sacrificing too freely at the shrine of the rosy god, and in the darkness mistook the direction, making for the bar. On perceiving the danger, he displayed an over-anxiety to reverse the oars, and in the confusion lost them overboard. The tide was rushing out at the time, and O'Dowd, aware of his critical position, used his best efforts tojkeep the boat head on to the break. He could at that moment have sprung out of the boat and made for the spit, but Osborne's condition forbade the idea of deserting him, and fortunately they succeeded in crossing the bar safely, making in the direction of the Steeples for shelter. The weather was overcast, but calm, and the sea was unusually placid, or the result must have disastrous. In the afternoon they succeeded with some planking in paddling the boat alongside the steamer Kennedy, and were towed into the river. In the darkness they hailed the schooner Wild Wave standing off and on the entrance, but the master, mistaking them for fishermen, took no further notice.

A memorial to the Superintendent of the Nelson Province, praying that the allotments in the Ahaura township would be offered for sale immediately, was extensively signed at the Ahaura, on Saturday, 6th inst. A counter petition, praying that the land would not be sold, on the ground that the town and district were not far enough advanced, and that the town lots would fall into the hands of speculators if sold now, was also taken round, and numero asly signed. It is with regret that we have to record a most shocking and lameniable accident which occurred in the Upper Hutt on Wednesday morning. It appears that several children belonging to Mr Cruickshank, an old and much respected settler, were playing together, and amongst other freaks, lighting fern fires, when Emily, one cf the children, .was severely burned by a flame. The poor little creature must have endured much agony, and she died about three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. Arrangements have been completed (understands the " S. M. Advertiser) for starting another paper at Levuka. The plant has been purchased and the staff engaged, and the first vessel for the Fyis will convey the whole to the islands. It is said that Mr D. Murray, of Levuka, now on a visit to Sydney, has accepted the ftditor's chair. The paper will be published as a bi-weekly. At the Auckland police court, recently, David Marks, pawnbroker, was fined Is and full costs, for demanding excessive iuttre3t on goods pledged, namely, ss, on a sura of ,£3 5s for one week.

There are now at the Cape of Good Hope diggings, two colonial magistrates, four attorneys, four medical men, and a host of the Press—all looking for diamonds. The widow of the late Mr J. H. Plunkett, who for many years was a public servant in New South Wales, and in the enjoyment of a salary of £ISOO a year, and who for thirteen years had a pension of £I2OO a year, is said to bo starving. Verily, civil servants like to live up to their incomes. Yesterday (says the "Lyttelton Times " of the 4th inst.), a child named William Wilkinson, aged thirteen months, whose parents reside near the High School, died suddenly from suffocation. It appears that the mother sat down to dinner, taking the

child on her knee. She gave it some potato, and in a few moments the child expired. Dr. Nodwill was sent for, but he found the child to be quite dead on hia arrival. His opinion is that a potato got into the child's windpipe, and suffocated it. The Thames mines are yielding wonderfully. Several now claims are turning out magnificent stone. The present quotations are—Caledonians, ,£122 10s ; Thames Gold Mining Company, £22 10s; Cures 20s; Tookey*s, .£l2 ; Monataiari, £3; Prince Imperial, jE4 ; Otagos, ,£2. . The s.s. John Penn has been purchased by the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company, for the sum of .£7400. It is expected that Captain Turner, late of Auckland, will have command of her. The Emperor Alexander 11. is generally known in St. Petersburg to have become a confirmed drunkard. He imbibes nothing but the strongest kind of alcoholic liquors. All the efforts of his family to reclaim him have proved fruitless. A practical route for the Darien Canal has been discovered. There is only one rise of 250 feet, and the remainder of the line across the Isthmus will be easily cut. An engineer in the employ of the Turkish Government has planned a railway tunnel, made in sections, to be submerged thirtyfour feet below the surface of the water, and moored to the bottom by chain cables. He proposes to sink it across the Bosphorus, and thus connect Europe and Asia by railway. The following dialogue between a witness and counsel for the defence occurred some time ago in a court not a hundred miles from Ballarat. The witness was a stout stolid-looking fellow, with a face as grave as an old headstone in an ancient churchyard, and seemed expressly made by nature for being snubbed and played upon. The counsel in question stands alone in his glory as an adept in the use of colonial Bilingsgate, and enjoys a wide-spread notoriety for his singular ability in badgering and browbeating witnesses, and all who are opposed to him. As soon as the witness entered the box, the learned counsel eyed him with a quick, sharp glance, which plainly said, " All right, my man, I'll polish you off directly;" and, drawing his hand across his legal forehead with a majestic sweep, he smiled a significant smile, clearly intimating to the assembled court that they might expect some rare fun presently. He then opened fire. Counsel: " What are you?" Witness. "Aquartz feeder." Counsel: " What! are you really so very fond of quartz ?" Witness: " No, I prefer pints when I can get them." (Laughter.) Counsel : " Pints, indeed ! do you mean pints of colonial, or points of law ?" Witness : " Colonial, of course; a pint of colonial beer is more to the point, and contains more spirit than all the law and lawyers in Victoria." (Great Laughter.) Counsel: " Come, now, you seem a very smart fellow, what does the battery do with the quartz ?" Witness : " The very same that a lawyer does with his clients." Counsel: " And what may that be ?" Witness : " Why, it extracts every particle of gold out of them." Counsel: " You can go down." Which the witness did amid roars of laughter.—Victorian Paper. A young man, named William Bidmead, about twenty-four years of age, recently a steward in the steamer Taranaki, was found dead in his bed, at the Nelson Ale House, Wellington, on the sth inst. It has been notified that under a commission from the Argentine Government, Messrs Waring Brothers are sending out a staff of engineers to snrvey a railway route of about 12,000 miles, from Buenos Ayres across the Andes, to join the Chilian railway system from Santiago to Valparaiso, thus connecting in the southern hemisphere the Atlantic and the Pacific.

At the half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of the Wanganui Steam Navigation Company, the balance-sheet showed a net profit for the six months of £734 18s Id, -while that of the half yaar ended 11th October, 1870, was only £486 lis 3d. It is stated, as the result of recent experiments, that pale yellow is to be preferred to all other signals, as being the tint most quickly and readily recognised at a distance. The *' Wanganui Chronicle " introduces the following rumour :—lt is reported that, on the expiration of Sir George Bowen's term, the Marquis of Normanby will be the next Governor of New Zealand. Messers Cobb and Co., true to the instincts of that faculty of übiquity with which that enterprising firm are gifted, have made their appearance in the Upper Grey district. Mr K. Busbridge, late of Ashton's establishment at Greymouth, has commenced running a two horse conveyance between Totara Mat and the Ahaura, at a fare of 5s each way, and he intends, should sufficient inducement offer, to extend the lino to the Little Grey Junction, and to Duffer's and Half-Ounce Creeks. This conveyance will be a great convenience to the residents in the Upper Grey district during the ensuing winter months, and we wish Mr Busbridge success in his undertaking.