GENERAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 862, 16 September 1871, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

An elderly woman, named Grimshaw, hungherself in Christchurch last week, during a fit ot despondency. The Joshua Bates, with 286 Chinese on board, has put in the port of Auckland leaking. The Chinamen are suffering from scurvy, two having died in the harbour and three before arrival. The entire ship's company and passengers have been placed on Motuiki Island.

On September sth the Caledonian Company, Thames, declared a dividend of £3 per share. The following were the quotations for shares at that date: — Caledonians, £145 ; Thames, £27 10s ; Tookey's £44 ; Moanatairi, £5 15s; Otago, £4 2s 6d; Central Italy, £2 ss. The following are the particular 3 given at an inquest held by Mr "Whiteford on the body of the miner killed at Nelson Creek on Saturday last: — From the evidence it appeared that the deceased, with two other men, John Kirwin and Daniel O'Donnell, were carrying timber across a temporary bridge laid on the framing of a partly finished flume over a deep gorge, and forming a portion of O'Donnell and Go's large water-race from the head of Nelson Creek. The three men had passed over the bridge six times on the morning of the accident, each loaded with two boards of the same dimensions as those forming the bridge, with which they intended to make boxes to carry the water across another gorge a little further along the race. While crossing the seventh time, O'Donnell was first, and had reached the opposite bank, deceased was next, and Kirwin was about fifteen paces behind him. When the deceased was within a short distance of the solid ground, Kirwin heard a noise as ef falling timber, and glancing forwards saw Jones falling sideways off the bridge. Kirwin threw down his load, and ran forward to where deceased fell off, and, looking over, saw him lying below at the bottom of the creek, a distance of about 80 feet. Kirwin called out to O'Donnell, and both at once took measures to rt cover the body. When

it was reached it was found that life was extinct. Oue of the temples was bulged or stove in; the neck appeared to be broken, and also one of the arms. From the nature of the wound in the temple and the circumstances, it would seem that the deceased struck the side of the gorge as he fell, so that it is probable the poor fellow was dead before he reached the ground. There was nothing in the evidence to account for the immediate cause of the accident, and it is sup. posed that the deceased was either seized with a sudden giddiness or struck his foot against one of the lap. pings of the gangway and overbalauced himself.

An Auckland contemporary says : We are glad to learn that an effort is being made to obtain sufficient funds to erect a monument in memory of the victims of the Poverty Bav massacre. There have from time to time appeared in the press letters and paragraphs upon the subject, and a Committee has now been formed, who have appointed Mr R. B. Hunt to collect subscriptions in the "WaikatO. "We are sure this effort will commend itself to all settlers who remember the shocking details of the murders, which have served to mark Poverty Bay as the cause of the saddest event in the early history of New Zealand. As the nature of the monument will be in accordance with the amount of money subscribed it is to be hoped the response on the part of the public will be liberal. It would be better had no appeal been made than that such au effort should fail from want of sufficient general sympathy. Cummins, defendant in a debt case at Tauranga, has been committed for contempt of Court, for asking the magistrate to take a pint of beer.

The plant, &c, of the " Grey Valley Times " newspaper was sold by public auction by Mr 3?. Guinness, at Aliaura, on the 2nd September. Mr Alexander White, the mortgagee, became the purchaser for £SO. The book debts of the estate, and the cottage, furniture, &c., of the late proprietors were afterwards disposed of at merely nominal prices. "We learn from the " Otago Daily Times" that a race thirty miles in length, and to carry from twenty to thirty heads of water, is being constructed from the head of the Beau* mont river to Tuapeka Flat, and ia eventually to be extended to Tuapeka Mouth. It is owned by eight sharehplders, and is expected to be completed in about a year's time.

A telegragh station for the receipt and transmission of messages was opened, on the 14th instant, at Hawera, in the Province of Taranaki.

The following telegram in reference to the notorious Captain Hayes is published in the Melbourne " Argus " :- " Sydney, August 9th.—The Bestless, from Bangkok, brings 4,284 bags of rice and 1232 bags sugar. The notorious Captain Hayes has arrived at Bangkok with the Brig Lenore, formerly an American vessel called the Waterlily. He had a cargo of rice on freight from Saigon to Hong Kong. He had the brig thoroughly refitted, and then sailed suddenly, leaving the cargo as payment. He also chartered a schooner from a Mussulman by the month, and placed his mate in command, with instructions to join him at a rendezvous in the South Seas."

The Mount Benger correspondent of the " Daily Times" writes :—Our local ! iEsculapius has, by the mail, received j notice of his accession to a fortune variously estimated at from £15,000 to £150,000, the latter, I believe, being nearest the mark. The time when he j " fought wild beasts at Roxburgh," will ! no doubt furnish material to the happy j legatee for anything but flattering reminiscences of Otago. As a measure of justice to Mr H. a Smythies, barrister, of Dunedin, who fl petitioned the House of Representa- ■ tives to consider his case, the Public m Petitions Committee have recom- | mended that he sbould be heard at the | bar of the House in furtherance of hi 1 claim to be permitted to practice in 1 the Law Courts of New Zealand. I The Peninsula and Oriental Steam S Navigation Company, with a view to j improve the present mail service be- j tween England and Australia have de- J termined to place the Pera and Ceylon j on the line between Galle and Sydney, j In the Borough Council, Hokitika, a Councillor Jack is to propose " that mFthe Public Works Committee report B upon the advisability or otherwise of S erecting a public market and the best M site for the same." M An important discovery seems to 9 have been made on the South Werf 9 coast of Otago. A prospecting party m from Dunedin, which left for Preser-pE vation Inlet some weeks ago, to look §j after slate and stone quarries in that m locality, returned to Invercargill oa Wm the 17th instant, bringing some excel* s lent samples of slate obtained there, gj and a piece of stone from Chalky pj Inlet, well adapted for paving pur-H» The "Hobart Town Mercury ". of ß the 10th ultimo, records the snappingßJ of the last link but one that cdnnecWßß the aborigines of Tasmania with tboH land of their race. One, a half-casteßß has died, and there remains but onegj aboriginal, and that one is a womanaM whose years approach the a^?l. e rlH span of three score and ten. Wto* hor last breath the aboriginals of ■ mania will actually, as they havelonfßß virtually, cease to be. JH In reference to the assault made ujM Mr Maddock, a Napier solicitor, "P°]H a Mr Lord, a newspaper editor of tn«H same town, we loarn from our oxchangJß papers that the case has been brougnßß

before a court of justice, and a nominal fine of ten shillings inflicted upon deBench holding that he had acted under great provocation. A subsequent action for recovery of the value of the whip wherewith the chastisement was inflicted, terminated in the favor of the aggresßivo man of law, who.now, doubtless, feels himself fully relieved from the terrible accusation of being a "bid egg," launched against him by the malevolent editor.