CANTERBURY RAILWAYS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 828, 22 June 1871, Page 3

CANTERBURY RAILWAYS.

The works in connection with the various new lines of railway in Canterbury are progressing in a satisfactory manner. The formation, fencing, and earthworks on the Northern line are entirely completed to within a very short distance of the Biver Styx, and both formation and fencing between that point and the south bank of the Waimakariri are well advanced. Between the south and north branches of the Waimakariri no work has yet been done but the contract for the formation has just been signed, and operations will be commenced forthwith. Two of the bridges over the Avon have been completed, and the third one, over the north branch of the river, is well advanced. Several of the small timber bridges on the line have been constructed, and others are now in hand, whilst all the culverts between Addington and the Styx have been completed. The Styx bridge has been commenced, as also that over the south branch of the "Waimakariri, and both are now being actively pushed forward. The surveys have been finished one and a half mile beyond the north branch of the and the remainder of the line is to be put in hand at once. Ou the south the surveys for the extension from the Selwyn to the Bakai, were to be commenced on the 12th instant, and the works will be proceeded with as soon as other matters are fully prepared. A survey has also been made of a line from the Kolleston station, on the great south line to the Malvern Hills, but a second route is to he surveyed before any decision is arrived at.

WONDERFUL CATCH OF SEALS. The St. John's correspondent of the " New York Sun," writing on the 30th of March relates the following wonderful occurrence : After a lapse of more than twenty years of general unprogressiveness and poverty the dull city of St. John's was aroUsed this morning by a report which gladdened every heart, and sent a thrill of excitement over the whole island. A steamship, the Nimrod,. belonging to Job Brothers and Co., was said to be in the Bay, awaiting wind enough to bear her into the harbour of St. John's, as her boilers were unavailable, the bunkers being literally stuffed with seal-skins. On her arri. val, we learned that her precious cargo was 28,000 seals—the largest number ever known to have been captured. The vessels and steamships whose arrival I have already announced, trimmed their rigging with bunting from stem to stern, and with their signal guns fired a salute to the champion of the fleet —in fact, of all sealing craft the world over. The captain of the Nimrod says that he left St. John's harbour on the Ist instant, and with a favourable southwesterly breeze behind him, steered northward. After sailing through clear water for several days he struck the ice on the 7th of March. Owing to a severe gale he was compelled to lie to for forty-eight hours, after which the ice was found to be broken up, and the Nimrod could steer in tho probable direction of the mass of seals. On the 17th—St Patrick's Day—the watch at the masthead gave the welcome cry, " Seals ahead !" whereupon the firemen were ordered to quicken the fires. In another hour the Nimrod was an island amid an ocean of seals. In six days afterwards she was loaded, and bore up for home.

The excitement that prevails here can only be estimated by what must have been the furore on the discovery of gold in Australia and California ; for certainly this is the Q-olconda of the North Atlantic this year. Ton will also take into account the wretchedness of our condition for the past fifteen years, which fact will render us more joyful, while you must not forget our independence, in spite of the misery of our people, in rejecting the terms of union with Canada. "What a haul Canada would have had out of us thisyear had she caught us in her net. A few hours after the arrival of the Nimrod, the steamship Hector hove in sight. Yet a few hours, and we learned the amazing fact that she carried with her 21,500 seals—an amount that in old times would be considered a fairy-land tale. The captain of the Hector announces that in the ice off which he loaded, he communicated with more than fifty sail of vessels, all loading or laden. The merchants of St. John's are compelled to extend their premises, and build temporary vats for the rendering of the enormous quantities of oil consigned to them.

In the harbour of St. John's there are now eleven arrivals from the seal fishery, and their average catch is 21,000, making the extraordinary total of 231,000 seals, more than the entire catch of any one season ; though over a. hundred vessels are yet to arrive in St. John's. In Harbour Grace the success of the seal hunters was equally great. The total catch of four steamboats now arrived at that port exceeds one hundred thousand seals, while one hundred and fifty vessels belonging there are yet to be heard from. Each steamship carried about 500 men, and all will make another trip this season—a fact never previously known. As yet the wages and share of each seal hunter may be estimated at 1,200 dollars. All this has been earned by the heads of many poor families since March Ist. Tou may expect cheap furs this year, and no dearth of oil for your machinery and manufactories.