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Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 823, 10 June 1871, Page 2

A collection will be made on Sunday evening at St. John's Church, Westport, in aid of tho wounded and sufferers by tho recent war. The sum received will be forwarded to the Committee, disbursing tho L >rd Mayor's Fund. No fewer than seventeen applications for agricultural leases havo been applied for between Christy's and Rcefton. This may be accepted as evidence of the anticipated prosperity of this rapidly inrproving district. No. 1 North and No. 2 South, on Smith's lino of reef, have struck the main reef with very excellent prospects, the gold being very generally distributed and distinctly visible throughout the stone. The Claud Hamilton arrived at Hokitika on Thursday from Melbourne. 13 pto her leaving the Suez mail had not arrived in Australia, but it is due in Now Zealand on Monday. In our issue of the Ist instant wo noticed that a human leg had been picked up on the beach between Fox's river and Woodpecker Bay, Brighton, which was supposed to have belonged to the man that has been missing from Razorback. An arm was found on the bcajh between Brighton and. St Kilda on Thursday. Yesterday the weather was exceedingly threatening, a heavy surf was breaking as far as the eye could reach, and the waves dashed with great violence upon the beach. In some places the foam had lodged to the depth of two feet, and tfcelow-lying portion of Freeman and Molesworth streets were flooded. Fortunately the tides being neap the damage done was less than would otherwise have been effected. The encroachment upon the beach during the past fortnight has been very considerable, and many valuable properties are now threatened. The third Abyssinian well, sunk at the end of Freeman-street, furnishes an excellent supply of water. The remaining two will be proceeded with immediately, one at the intersection of Kennedy and Molesworth streets and the other in Wallabistreet. We are requested to state that Mr Salamon's sale of jewelry will continue until Wednesday next. An early inspection is desired. A telegraph station was opened on Thursday at Kokoranga, in the_Province of Marlborough.

The census returns show the population of Sydney to be 75,000. One of the greatest (perhaps tho greatest) feats of newspaper reporting and special despatch by land and sea was achieved lately by the "Times." Dr Russell, the well-dnown war correspondent, and Mr Kelly, of the " Times " staff, were tho reporters of tho entry of the Germans into Paris on Wednesday morning with the Prussian troops, and he and Mr Kelly left Paris by special train of the Northern Kailway at 2 - 50 p.m. that day, and arrived at Calais at 9 - 30, Thence a special steampacket conveyed tho despatches across to Dover, and they proceeded by special train to London. The courier reached the " Times " office and delivered his despatches at 1 - 15 a.m. Thursday, and the whole of the report of those special correspondents was published in tho regular first edition of the •' Times " on Thursday morning. Mr John Fredrick Clark, of Auckland, deserves to be held up to the commercial world as a bright and shining example in these mercenary, schedule-filing, deeds of arrangement times. Mr Clark announces to his creditors that—" Whereas in the month of August, 1870, certain of my creditors assented to a private deed of arrangement favourable to me, I have much pleasure in informing the said creditors that, upon presentation of their respective accounts at my office, they will receive the balance of the original amounts in full." Mr Vincent Pyke, Warden on the Otago goldfields, has threatened the proprietors of the " Cromwell Argus " with an action for libel alleged to be contained in tho following paragraph:—" During tho hearing of tho applications, the Warden took occasion to remark with considerable emphasis, ' that ho would sooner do seven days on the tread-mill than to come to Alexandra,' clearly showing to the residents here tho amicable feelings which the Warden entertains towards Alexandra." A correspondent of a Southern paper makes the following suggestions on the subject of collecting bad and doubtful debts: —Genius ? I never did know but ono personally, and he was rn enterprising geaius that made a fortune, in'jiNew York, debt collecting. He was a genius and deserved his fame. And yet his invention, like all other brilliant discoveries when you come to know them, was as simple as could be. When ho started business he invested in a buggy and pony. Tho buggy was second-hand, and had got the rickets very bad; but the pony, I guess, was at least seventeenth-hand, and had got them ten times worse. However, that did not matter; the pony could manage to stand, and his work consisted principally in standing. His master had a big placard stuck on each side of the buggy ''badand doubtful debts collected j" and when a case was put into his hands, if he asked for the money two or three times without observing symptoms of payment, he used to drive up in his buggy to the door of the delinquent, and there he would sit all day, if need be, with the gravity of a judge, amusing himself by flipping tho flies of his pony's ears, until, for the sake of getting him to move on with his pernicious advertising van, the exasperated debtor would contrive to raise the money and pay him. As a rule, tho buggy was always kept in the background—trotted out in emergencies, as it were—but so sure as there was anything like tightness in the money market, so did I seo my ingenious friend driving about in his glory. Fancy the effect of such a conveyance drawn up at the door of some of our "would-be upper ten." Oh, rapture.! What would be the profits of tho new conveyancing agents compared with those of the proprietor of such a conveyance as I have described ? But, alas ! there are no geniuses here! A Seri cultural company has been established at Adelaide.