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Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 818, 30 May 1871, Page 2

Among the cargo per Maid of Erin from Melbourne is a considerable quantity of quartz crushing machinery for the Inangahua and Lyell reefs. A sitting of the Warden's Court will be hold at Reefton on tho 14th, and at Inangaluia Junction on the 15th proximo. Yesterday there was a strong north-west gale and a very heavy surf. Fortunately the tides were neap or there would have beon further extensive encroachments upon the beach at the rear of Gladstone-street.

Mr Greenwood, dentist, returned from a professional visit to Charleston yesterday evening. He will remain in Westport until the departure of the steamer Kennedy, and may be consulted at Gilmer's Post Office Hotel. Messrs Dwan and Co.havebeeninstructed to submit to public competition on Thursday nexfc the well-known hostelry, the property of Mr Jonh Behan, situate at the corner of Princes and Camp-streets, Charleston. Prior to erecting the present commodious premises, Mr Behan gave £550 for the site at auction, which for business purposes, is held to be the most valuable in tho township. The miners on Port Molyneux beach are realising good returns.

At the Christohurch races, on Thursday, tho West Coast Cattle Dealers' Race, was won by Mr Duncan's King; Mr Ferguson's Nelly coming in second. The mean numbor of miners employed in Victoria during 1870 is stated, in a return just published by the Government of that colony, to have been 60,265. The total quantity of gold exported was 1.222.798 ozs, which, at £4 per oz, gives £Bl Os 6.46 d per man, being about £1 13s 5Jd per man, more than in 1869. The total quantity of gold exported from the colony from the date of the first discovery to the 31st December, 1870, was 39,399,328 o«s 6 dwts. which, at £4 per ounce, represents the prodigious sum of £157,597,313. Tho " Southland Times" is informed that during the last two months, tho New Zealand Meat Preserving Company are preserving over 8000 sheep weekly at their three establishments. Their exports per month have been over 300 tons preserved meat and 150 tons tallow. The establishments at Timaru, Kakanui, and Woodlands have been laid out to consume, and are able to do so just now, fully 13,000 weekly, but at each of the places not a single pound can be tinned more than is at present done, owing to the tinsmiths' department not being able to produce the number of tins wanted. The company would require double the staff of tinsmiths to do the work, although their hands in this department alone number over sixty. Arrangements will be made next winter, which will ensure a considerable adddition to the working capabilities, and we are authorised to state that a guarantee woold be giuen that during the months of November to July next, 4000 sheep or 250 bullocks weekly would be consumed. Tradesmen are earning between £4, and £5 weekly at making tins. At Woodlands over 120 hands are at work juat now. The " Otago Daily Times " understands that Mr W. N. Blair, Engineer of the Clutha Eailway, has been instructed by the General Government to proceed with the first ten miles of the Clutha Railway at the Balclutha end, and that tenders will shortly be called for.

Shortly before dusk last night (says the "Wellington Independent" of the 12th) the signalman of the outer station caught sight of two men in a boat, well outside of Barrett's Reef. As it is common to see fishermen at all hours in that quarter coming and going, Mr Sawyer saw nothing remarkable in the circumstance until taking a closer look through his glass, he saw the boat was but a cockle ehell, and that only one of the men was pulling, the other apparently sitting still. A very heavy swell was rolling in from the southward, darkness was creeping on apace, and the boat was making no progress, thoug the second man had commenced to labour at his oar. The signalman did not consider much on the matter, and immediately signalled to the pilot station acquainting them of the circumstances. He soon had the gratification of seeing the rescued men transfer themselves to the pilot boat, which started back with the small one in tow. Whoever these two men may be, they are indebted, probably to the extent of their lives, to the chance glance of Mr Sawyer while taking a sweep of the horizon before sundown. Once surrounded by darkness in a frail boat helplessly tossing in a heavy sea, they would have been fortunate indeed to have their eyes gladdened by another sunrise. The Auckland people have already legislated to put a check on the liquor traffic, and it is now suggested to prohibit, by law, persons under age from smoking. We take the following paragraph from Woodhill and Clafin's 'Weekly' published in New York:—"Jenny Lind's husband has at length run through the splendid fortune with which she retired from the lyric stage, and she is compelled to teach music for a living. The ill-matched pair have sepa- ated by mutual consent, and f ha spendthrift must now shift for himself. Peter De Loree, an old West Coast resident, is now in custody at Hokitika on a charge of stealing jewelry. The "West Coast Times" of Friday contains the following particulars. The prisoner was brought up on remand yesterday, when Inspector James applied for a further remand of eight days, further information come to the knowledge of the police, and in support handed to the Bench a telegram received, which the police did not deem expedient should be read in open Court. The prisoner objected to a further remand, having already been in gaol ten days, and he thought that the police had had ample time. Inspector James stated that if his Worship wished, he would place Detective Browne in the box to prove the finding of a key in prisoner's house; also a crucible and furnace. Prisoner said he admitted the crucible, and also having melted the gold. He had himself told Detective Browne so. The Bench considered that there was sufficient in the statement made by the polico to justify a further remand. Bail was applied for and refused. At the previous hearing, the prisoner was charged with larceny from a dwelling and stealing jewelry, valued at .£260. Sergeant Major O'Donnel sworn, stated that he in company with detective Browne, went to the Dunedin Hotel, and saw the prisoner. Browne asked him if he had any gold. The prisoner said yes, and then went 'to his coat which was hanging up, and took out of the pocket a lump of retorted gold. Browne asked if it was Ross gold. The prisoner said that ho had found a lot of pieces of jewelry at a fire at Westport, when Mr Trimble's Hotel was burned down, and that he had since melted it down. In answer to a question put by his Worship, the witness stated that the lump of gold weighed more than sixteen ounces. An assayer at one of the banks had stated that it was not pure gold, but was known as "jeweler's gold." Witness went on to gay that Detective Browne told prisoner he was charged with stealing a quantity of jewelry from Peter Kellar at Ross, and he was removed to the Camp. The following significant sign of retrogression is taken from the "Wanganui Chronicle": —On Thursday last a farm of 138 acres, adjoining the township of Marton, well fenced and partly laid down in grass, with house, barn, &c, was knocked down by Messrs Bethune and - Hunter for the low sum of £350. The former owner, the late E. Prince, refused double that money one year since, when it was offered for sale in the advertisement columns of this paper. The schooner Fairy was to have been sold at Hokitika yesterday. Her depth of water unfits her for other than deep water ports. The " Westland Independent" of Wednesday reports that an attempt at highway robbery was made on Mondny evoning between Hokitika and the Arahura. On that evening as Mr Thompson was going down to tho Arahura, ho was assaulted by two men, who endeavored to stick him up, fortunai ely without success. One of the villains struck him a severe blow with a stick or bludgeon over tho right temple, but luckily without stunning him. Hp at once put spurs to his horse, and got away with no further injury. He bad only a few shillings and a watch on him at the time, so that eveu had they been success-

ful, they would liave reaped little benefit from their ruffianism. Information was promptly given to the police, and proper search for the offenders is being made. We clip the following from the " Southern Cross" :—By a typographical error the average speed of the Nevada, on her last trip, was made to appear as 285 J miles, instead of 258}, There are 261 newspaper published in London, which, taking th« population at three millions and a-half, gives a newspaper to every 13,409 persons. The new owners of the steamer Wellington have forwarded her to Dunedin for repairs. In a case tried recently in the Supreme Court, in Victoria, it was decided that a person suffering from delirium tremens was a lunatic under the Lunacy Statute. The prices of the necessaries of life during the siege of Paris have an historical interest of their own. The following can be relied on as the market value during the hardest time, the English pound being taken as the standard:—Bread and biscuits, Is 3d; rice, Is 8d; sugar. Is8d; cheese, 255; fresh butter, £2 8s id; olive oil, £1 4s 2d; ham, £2; salt pork, £1; dog's flesh, German sausage of horse flesh and brawn of the same, 6s 8d ; a fowl, £2 ss; a turkey, £5 ; a goose, £0 ; a duck, £1 15s; a hare, £3 ss; a cat, £1; an egg, 2s 6d; a rat, the same; a tin of sardines, 13s; a rook, ss; a sparrow, lOd; cabbages and cauliflowers, 12s 6d each; turnips and carrots, 2s each ; a bushel of potatoes, £2; a hundredweight of coal, 12s 6d j of wood, 10s; and everything else in proportion. Large fortunes have been made, it is said, out of the very rich and luxurious, by those who managed to conceal provisions. Facts relating to the present condition of the inhabitants of Jerusalem must be of interest to the denizens of this distant portion of the globe. Mr Frankel, a missionary labouring there, reports that the Jews are gradually gathering to the Holy City, "It is a remarkable fact," he says', "that while the whole of its population does not exceed 20,000, of that number 10,000 are Jews, and so great is the influence of the Jews upon the Arab population, that on a aturday the peasants do not think it worth their trouble to bring their produce to market on account of its being the Jewish Sabbath. The population of Melbourne is estimated by the Registrar-General at 180,000. but the precise figures will be given shothly. We understand that Captain Carey, late of the s.s, John Penn, so long and favourably known on this Coast, has been appointed to the command of the s.s. Ahuriri. The Nebraska, carrying the mails, was to leave America on May sth, for Sydney, via Honolulu and Auckland. The passengers and freight by the latter steamer for other ports in New Zealand will be transferred at Auckland to the other connecting steamers. The following hint from one of our Australian contemporaries, may be of service: —Some one in the Bullarook forest who was clearing his land of stumps, finding it expensive and tedious work, thought he would try an experiment. He bored holes with an augur in several stumps, and filled them with kerosene, which after a few days disappeared; he then set fire to the stumps, and they burned entirely up roots and all. The kerosene-, singularly enough, penetrated every portion of a stump, and could be detected in the largest stumps by merely chipping with an axe. The plan is being tried now on a large scale, and it is the cheapest and most expeditious method of clearing land that has been heavily timbered. The friends of Mr Morton, formerly Inspector of Police in Otago, will regret to , jJlearn from an Auckland correspondent's telegram that his health has suffered to such an extent in Fiji that it has been considered necessary to send him to the Auckland Lunatic Asylum. Recently a clergyman in Victoria, who was " reading himself in," explained to his new congregation that, having laboured successfully at Murderer's Flat, he had been promoted to Kilmore.