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Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 881, 31 October 1871, Page 2

The schooner Maid of Erin, Capt. Cairns, left Port Phillip Heads on Sept. 25, and experienced strong westerly winds until the night of the 28th, when the wind freshened to a strong south-west gale which necessitated heaving to. At 8 p.m. the vessel shipped a tremendous sea which laid bor on beam ends, carried away the starboard bulwarks and stanchions from the fore rigging right aft, burst tho deck over the cabin, smashing in the latter, and filling it with water, burat the mainsail, and carried away the compass and binnacle. Those- in the cabin narrowly escapod

drowning, the master got above water only with difficulty, and tho mate who was standing near to the Bteps leading on deck, was carried upwards with the sea, but received Beveral wounds from floating debris about the head and body. A boy passenger named Grant, son of Mr Grant of the Star Hotel in this town, very narrowly escaped drowning, as he remained in the eabin until the water had subsided. Singular to say, he received 110 injury from the floating timbers and broken glass which obstructed all ingress or egress to or from the cabin. The vessel lay on her beam ends fur two or three minutes and then righted. As soon as the weather moderated hove up for Sydney, arriving there on the 7th, and remained until the 21st undergoing necessary repairs Left for Now Zealand at noon on the 21st, and after a fine passage with winds between north-east and north, and fin o clear weather, sighted tho Steeples at midnight on tho 28th, making the passage from Sydney to the Coast in 7i days. Sailed across the bar on Monday morning, and moored alongside the Bright street Wharf. Wo are glad to learn that the cargo is less damaged than was expected. The p.s. Charles Edward left Greymouth yesterday, and will be despatched from West port to Nelson to-day. Return tickets from Westport to Lyttelton, enabling passengers to attend the Canterbury races, will be issued for £7. The schooner Day Dawn, from Lyttelton to Charleston, has put in at the Buller for provisions. She will proceed to Charleston at the earliest opportunity. The widow of the late Captain Cargill, founder of the settlement of Otago, expired at Dunedin on Thursday, aged 81 years. Mrs D. Sheahan, of the Governor Brown Hotel, Auckland, died suddenly on Tuesday last of apoplexy. One thousand persons attended the funeral. A bill entitled "An Act to provide for enforcing contributions towards the cost of draining gold mines by the owners of adjacent gold mines," has been brought into the House of Representatives. It provides that the owner of any machine, employed in draining water from any machine, shall be entitled to serve notice upoi the person benefited by his operations, and the amount of contribution will be settled by the Warden's Court. The Star Minstrels gave an admirable enteitainment at the Masonic Hall, yesterday evening to a crowded house.