The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 815, 20 May 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1871.

The European intelligence received on Thursday, and published in a second edition of the Times, appears in our present issue. The latest dato is to April 17, being nine days later than the news received by tho steamship Nevada, and of a similar date to that expected by the Suez mail. The s.s. Rangitoto was expected with the mail some days ago, but owing to the breakage of the telegraph wires, we have no news of her whereabouts. Had she arrived off Hokitika, she would probably proceed to Nelson, in consequence of inability to tender her in the present weather.

On Thursday evening communication by telegraph was found to have been interiupted between Westport and Charleston, and remained suspended the whole of yesterday. We fully expect that, owing to the heavy gales, the wires are down between most of the coast stations, and that there will be no communication for several days. There was not much business before the Warden's Court at Reef ton on Wednesday. The principal and most interesting case was a dispute between P. Kelly, hotelkeeper of Brighton, and M. Burns, late of Giles Terrace, relative to a half share in No. 1, North, Shiels's line of reef. The interests involved represent a value of about £250. Our Inangahua reporter will furnish us with a summary of the case. The mailman made his first appearance at Reef ton on Sunday evening and was heartily welcomed by the residents. Hitherto great inconvenience has been experienced by the business men of that township in forwarding letters aud orders to Westport and elsewhere, and the present postal service is accordingly thankfully received. Owing to the heavy rains of Wednesday last, the Ohika rose ten feet in three quarters of an hour, and at the commencement of the freshet the ferryman narrowly escaped being drowned. It appears that he crossed the river for the purpose of fetching three passengers and succeeded in getting the boat over, but in returning it was swept over the Falls into the Bailer river. The boat was towed up the right bunk of the Buller as far as French's, where the men were crossed. Had the boat capsized at the Ohika Falls none of the men would have escaped drowning. The reports from the reefs show that matters are. steadily progressing. In the prospectors' claim at Anderson's, the work has been to a certain extent neglected pending the amalgamation with No. 1. Their new tunnel has been commenced and will take about six months to finish. The sinking of the shaft is continued and is now abont sixty feot down. The stone looks exceedingly well, and if a.nything apprears to get richer as the shaft descends. Shiels's party have nearly completed their track preparatory to placing the necessary machinery on the claim. The track is about three quarters of a mile long and a chain wide. No. 1 and No. 2, North, on Kelly's line of reef, are endeavouring to throw the two claims into a company. Their shaft is down 70ft and they expect to strike the reef immediately. Newton and party have nearly completed the tramway and shoot connecting their claim, on Kelly's line of reef, with the Cement Company's battery in Murray's Creek. The latter company have, at last found profitable employment for their plant in an arrangement with Newton and party to crush their stone for the ensuing twelve months. Mr Oxley, storekeeper, at Reefton, has received the appointment of postmaster for that district. Mr Mace, of Hokitika, who lately purchased shares to a considerable amount at the Murray reefs-, wa3 at Reefton on Monday. It is reported that he is disposed to make further investments in mining property iu that locality.

The Secretary to the Civil Service Board of Examiners at Wellington, has sent us a circular, with a copy of amended regulations. The following passage from the circular will explain the nature of these regulations :■—" Youths not seeking employment in the Civil Service can now be examined by the Board, and that the Board will issue pass certificates on payment of a very moderate fee. The class of examination, and the preliminary enquiry as to character which candidates must go through, will, it is believed, render the certificates of the Board valuable testimonials to youths seeking employment in banks, merchant's offices, and elsewhere. Examinations will be held in the month of April and October, in the principal towns of the colony, before gentlemen appointed by the Board; but with the Board will rest the decision as to the merits of the candidates. The names of successful candidates will be published in order of merit. It is proposed to add to the Board five gentlemen of known literary attainments, not connected with the Civil Service, and resident in different parts of the colony. The Inangahua mail arrived in Westport on Thursday, the mailman having been delayed several hours by a freshet in the Ohika river. Anxiety with respect to Mr Harry Wylde, of Greymouth, who. it was supposed, had been lost in the bush, was allayed on Monday morning by the absent one making his appearance in a very forlorn and dilapidated condition. It appears that he ascended a terrace for the purpose of tracing out the head of a creek, and had crossed the ridge, when darkness came on, and he found himself benighted in a very rough broken country, full of caverns and crevices. Finding it exceedingly dangerous to attempt to travel in the dark, he was obliged to wait till daylight, when he succeeded in retracing his steps, and arrived at home as stated above. The road to Inangahua is in a very miserable condition. A correspondent suggests that the portions of road already constructed, would be very cheaply maintained in repair, if residents in the vicinity were invited to tender for the work. In its present state the road is, in many places, positively dangerous, owing to the deep holes and the very incomplete attempts that have been made at corduroying portions of the track.

The Lyttelton " Times " says: *' We are glad to leard that there is a reasonable prospect of a company being floated in this province for the manufacture of salt by the evaporation of sea water. The project has been warmly taken up by several leading merchants and others, as those who have a technical knowledge of the subject are convinced that Canterbury possesses unusual natural advantages and facilities for the enterprise. A policeman, whilst arresting a prisoner, was recently fired at in Launccston, and wounded in the face. The would-be assassin was captured, and gave his name as Alfred Maiden. Our correspondent at the Inangahua states that public opinion in that district strongly approves the proposed grant by the Council for facilitating the navigation of the Buller and Inangahua rivers. Boring for water, upon the artesian well principle, has been successfully accomplished in Auckland. At Timaru, joints of meat are sold by auction, averaging threepence per pound. The meat is sent in sides from A.karoa. The Oamaru market quotations for potatoes are £2 10s per ton. Some portions of the Yass district, New South Wales, would seem to be anything but prosperous. One of the census collectors, says the " Courier," whose district was an outlying one, states that " during his travels he witnessed more abject poverty amongst the settlers than he had ever seen in the poorest districts of Ireland." The picture is surely exaggerated. Tho "Daily Telegraph" (Jan. 16) observes that for every shell that is thrown into the capital, for every monument defaced or destroyed by Prussian fire, for every hour of hunger endured by Paris, for every child that has died of famine, or woman that has sickened of disease, France will feverishly demand revenge. M. John Lemoine justly says that the furrows dug by the cannon balls will bring forth only harvests of vengeance. The starved mother who has seen her baby die at the exhaused breast will cry to the survivors, " Remember me!" The fathers who have lost their sons will plot for the day when France shall do unto Berlin what Germany has done unto Paris. Tho women will train up their children to hate Prussia with the hate that leads to battle. The whole nation will wait and drill, and arm, until it can strike with tenfold the strength now wielded by France. The bombardment of Paris will never bo forgiven. Its results will be the tears and blood of generations. Scarlatina has made its appearance in Sale, Gipps Land. The manufacture of printing ink is established in Adelaide.

The following on the rat plague is from the " South Australian Register" . —The army of rats appears to have spread a large portion of the north, and Mr G-. L. Debnev writing to us from Mundowadana, on April 12, remarks that they are in swarms, infesting every watcrhole and spring. The creatures are of the common brown variety, aboriginally termed my-ar-roo, and by the blacks, who consider the visitation as a windfall, are regarded as a great dainty. The natives state that thoy seldom visit that part of the country, the latest instance having been many years ago, and before the whites settled in the far north. On the last remembered occasion they came from the east and north-east, destroying all the feed, and after staying about six months left as suddenly as they arrived. In some places their tracks cover the ground for mils. Our present informant remarks that they seem chiefly to attack the grass and roots, and although he has been more than 10 years in the north, this is the first time he has seen them. The Census returns give the following as the population of the Province of Marlborough: —Electoral District of Wairau, 2256 ; Picton, 22G9 ; Cheviot, 500. Total, .1025. Diamonds are reported to have been found by a police-trooper, seven hundred miles north of Adelaide. Mr Mollison, a police magistrate of Victoria, has decided that a church is not a " public place," within the meaning of the Police Offences Act, and discharged a man charged with being drunk and disorderly. The ruling appears equally bad in law and morals. 1

Love in a Cottage ! —A young lady who has been married six months Fays it is all nonsense to talk about love in a cottage. The little rascal always runs away when there is no bread and butter on the table. There is more love in a full flour-barrel than in all the roses and posies and woodbines that ever grew.