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Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 930, 22 February 1872, Page 2

There being no criminal cases to be tried at the District Court, the jurymen who had been summoned to attend on Saturday next will be glad to find, on reference to the advertisement in another column, that they will not be required to attend. At the adjourned extraordinary meeting of the Shareholders in the Excelsior Quartz Mining Company, which was held at the Empire Hotel, on Monday evening last, in addition to other business, the following directors were elected Messrs Bailie, Dickenson, Ealla, and Whyte. We understand that the Bishop of Nelson is to hold divine service at ileefton next Sunday, and that he is expected to visit Westport'in the following week. Two vessels are outside, conjectured to be the Maid of Erin and the Northern Light, both from Melbourne ; one of which bas been expected here for some time past, she having left Melbourne about the middle of last month. In lie Warden's Court on Monday the case of Sorrensen against M'Leod ' and Bossare occupied the Court some two or three hours. Mr Fisher appeared for plaintiff, and Mr Home for defendants. The plaintiff claimed damages for injuries done

to his race by defendants undermining the hill along which ran. The defendants denied that the injuries complained of was caused by their working below the race, but that the heavy weather so general of late caused the breaking away of the banks of the race. Many witnesses were examined, and much conflicting testimony offered. The Warden deferred judgment until ho had been on the ground and examined the injuries complained of. By the shipping advertisements in the " Otaijo Daily Times" of the 13th inst., wo see that the schooner Ouehunga was to sail on the following day via Oamaru for Westport.

Inspector Shallcrass, the head of the Nelson Provincial Police Force, is on :m official visit to the Nelson Goldfields in the Grey District, and is making some important changes, among which it is rumoured that the strength of the force on the Inan•gahua will be considerably increased. Constable John Jeffries has been transferred to Reef ton, and Constable Henry Hunter will it is said, take charge of tho important district of No Town, including tho TwelveMile, Landing, Lake Brunner, and Upper Red Jack's districts.

New Zealand wool fetched over 2s per •lb. in the Boston market. And it is reported that New Zealand flax is more active, and is fast superseding Sisne hemp in the American market, as it makes a better rope; although not so clear looking still for actual service it is far superior. There* is none now in first hands.

A lunatic patient named Charles Frazer, died at the Sea View Asylum, Hokitika, on Feb. 18, after lingering i n a state of paralysis for the last five or six months. He is not believed to have any relatives or friends in the colony. A man named John Bloy, also a patient in the Asylum, was drowned in the Hokitika river on the 17th inst.

The industry of carriage building seems to be getting well established in Hokitika. Carts, waggons, and drays, are now being built here instead of being imported as heretofore, and lately some very well-built coaches have been turned out by a loca* builder for Mr Cassidy. The " Otago Daily Times" says:— " The Borough Council of Hokitika employ only one day-laborer, and the ' post' being lately vacant, seventeen persons applied for it."

A party of miners on the Waiinea terraces, Westland, have sent to Melbourne for .£BOO worth of iron piping to be used instead of the old method of fluming. It is reported in Hokitika that in the neighborhood of Longford an auriferous quartz reef has been discovered. Prom Oollingwood, Nelson, we hear that a new vein of quartz has been opened in the claim belonging to the Perseverance Mining Company, from which claim so much gold has been taken without (through mismanagement) any benefit to the shareholders.

We copy the following account of intestate estates just published in a General Government Gazette : —County Westland (.T. M. Buchanan, curator) ; Annie Russell, Greymouth, died Oct. 16, 1871 ; horn at Roscommon, Ireland. Patrick Heffernan, Greenstone Creek, Nov. 14, 1871; Limerick, Ireland. Thomas Daly, Ahaura, Nov. 14, 1871. Joseph "William Bennett, Hokitika, Dec. 6, 1871; Dublin, Ireland.—Provinces of Nelson and Marlborough (Robert Pollock, curator) : "William Kenny, Charleston, Oct. 10, 1871; Ireland. James Hodge, Murray Creek, Nov. 8, 1871; England. George Howe Wavr, Murray Creek, Nov. 3, 1S71; England. John Anderson, Wangapeka, Dec. 27, 1871 ; Scotland. In some of the above cases the "value or estimated value of personal estate " is very little or none ; but in the ease of James Hodge it amounts to over .£3OO, and in that of George How Warr to over £6O.

We are indebted to the " Grey Argus " for the following remarks on a paragraph in the Hokitika " Times " reflecting on the Captain of one of the Anchor Line of steamers: —Writing of the arrival of the steamer Charles Edward at Greymouth, • direct from Westport, on the occasion of her last trip southward, the " West ■ Coast Times "is generous enough to say :—" We should be sorry to say that the departure, in this instance, from the usual course of the Anchor Line of steamers has been prompted by pique on the part of Captain Holmes, in consequence of his having been fined for an infraction of the Diseased Cattle Act." It promises well for the morals of the community to have every little movement of a steamer, a coach, or a post boy thus carefully criticised and scrutinised by the Press, especially when it is accompanied by an expression of sorrow at the contemplation of even the remotest possibility of a ship-captain being prompted by pique. The simple fact is that, in this instance, Captain Holmes had on board an equestrian troupe consisting .of twentythree persons, six horses and one donkey, and even the last mentioned animal, had his position been that of Captain Holmes, would not have been so assive as to have conveyed to Hokitika a company whose cost per diem is something considerable, and whose destination was not Hokitika but Greymouth. The " West Coast Times" gives the following news from Greenstone, dated Feb. 16:—Mining here, on account of the heavy floods of last week, is quite at a stand-still. The Erin-go-Rrah race has suffered very n»ueh, the Hunting beiag carried away. The Union raoe, that commands the same terrace (the Argus), is likewise very much damaged, the head dam being quite destroyed. There is not any water in the Hohuna race at present owing to a landslip. The slips on the road to the Tcremakau, mentioned in my last, have- been cleared away and the traffic is resumed. Maori Point has suffered with the rest, the dams being all carried away.