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Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 958, 2 April 1872, Page 2

Up to the hour of going to press, the San Francisco mail news had not been advised. As the steamer is several days past due, the news will in all probability be telegraphed in the course of to-day, when an " extra" Will be issued to our subscribers containing the full intelligence. The Superintendent of Nelson has replied to the telegram forwarded by last mail, petitioning that au additional quantity of stone might be deposited in the laying of the groin at the end of Gladstone street. Mr Curtis in reply says that instructions will be given to havo six hundred tons additional laid, and tenders will be called for the same at an early date. The picnic held yesterday in connection with St John's Sunday-school formed the attraction of the day, not only to the school children, but also to the parents and friends, who congregated to the Orawaiti in large numbers. The Eev Mr Soatar and the teachers made it known that though the picnic emanated from St John's Sundayschool, that all other children, parents, and visitors were made equally welcome. Consequently Mr Courtney was freely patronised during the afternoon, his tramway carriages frequently getting loaded hofnre returning halfway to town. About a hundred and fifty children and nearly as many adults took part in the numerous games and dances, and large supplies of cakes, fruits, and refreshments were freely dispensed, and heartily relished by the merry youngsters. The enjoyment was kept up until a late hour iu the day, when terminated one of the happiest annual picnics ever witnessed in the district. Yesterday morning, the Ist of April, or what is commonly known as All Fools' Day, various " sells" were perpetrated on the unmindful of the community. One innocent was awoke from his slumbers and marched post haste to the wharf to meet a friend who was reported to have arrived and who had been inquiring for him; another, on being informed that a certain hotelkeeper had been at his store with a large order, went off with such an air of business that a telegraph messenger or bailiff could not have the slightest chance of overtaking him, a, thud was driven from pillai- to post in search of a letter which was reported to have arrived from the reefs, doubtless supposed to contain some welcome enclosure, from the fact of the word "important" having been reported to have been seen on the envelope. The jokes were carried to such an extent that in one or two instances where bona fide messages were sent, they remained for the day unattended to. The local Hospital Committee holds its monthly meeting this evening at eight o'clock. Messrs Pell and Atkinson's ■ tender for section -No 3, between Larry's Creek and Fern Flat, and Messrs Ferris and Co.'s tender for section jSTo 1, between the Gorge and Christy's, have been accepted. Those who require operations in dentistry are reminded that Mr J. Greenwood has returned from Charleston, and intends remaining in town until the departure of the steamer Kennedy on Wednesday evening. A meeting took place at Monahan's Commercial Hotel, Eeefton, to take into consideration the construction of the Eeefton and Murray Creek Tramway, for which protection has been granted to Mr Courtney, the originator and proprietor of the Westport and Orawaiti Tramway. Mr. Pitt was in the chair, and Mr Courtney explained the details of his plan. The Government, it seems, limited the time for the completion of the work to three months, therefore Mr Courtney has been obliged to make a public matter of it. He proposes to make the capital of the Company ,£2OOO, being £SOO in paid-up shares to the promote:-, and £ISOO to be subscribed by the shareholders. We trust that Mr Courtney will find no difficulty in procuring- the requisite sum to push forward so desirable a work. To construct such a work it is estimated will cost about £1500; which includes forming of road, rails, sleepers, horses, trucks, receipts are calculated to amount to £7 6s a day; and the expenses for five horses, two men, and one boy, will amount to £25 10s per week, leaving a profit of over £25 per week. Mr Courtney at the meeting stated that he had rather under than over rated the probable receipts, and instanced the tramway at Brighton, where the weekly receipts'ranged for some time from £SO to .£7O. The following gentlemen form the committee for carrying out the project:— Messrs Barker, Brennan, (reed, Franklyn, Ivess, Jackson, Mace, Prichard, Eamsay, Slattery, Steel, and Trennery. A party of miners, five in number, at Irishman's Creek are reported to have obtained no less than five hundred ounces of gold in five weeks. We observe that the "Inangahua Herald" states that the same quantity has been obtained in " five days " by a party in the same locality, but this", we are inclined to think, must be an inadvertent exaggeration on the part of our contemporary or its informant. There will at least be three new members of the Council during the approaching session—Mr W. Wastney, who fills his late father's seat; Mr Kynnersley, who has just been elected without opposition for the Grey district, vacated by the resignation of Mr Mackley; and a successor to Mr Rutherford, who has notified his resignation of the seat for the Amuri district, Au application is pending at the Warden's office, Eeefton, by Messrs McGoi-van and Fleming, for protection for a tramway, commencing at Monohan's Hotel and terminating in the hush about a mile distant. It is reported that there is likely to be some delay in carrying out the construction of the Eeefton and Bullcr road, as contracted for last week, owing to the difficulty of obtaining hands, the reefing and alluvial districts being the greater attractions.

The removal of the Government building —a calico tent—was accomplished at Reeflon on Thursday last. The Warden's office will in future be at tho west end of the Camp Reserve. Mr H. 11. Lahman; Chairman of the County of Westlaud, has been gazetted as a Justice of the Peace for tho colony. Edward Fuller, a miner, has been missing from his claim about ten miles above the Lyell, for the past few days. It is feared some accident has befallen him. If has been authoritatively announced that Mr J. C. Richmond will offer himself for the City of Nelson in the event of Mr Lightband resigning, as he has stated he intends to do. We believe Mr Luckio has also decided to be a candidate. Operations have been commenced again at tho Melbourne glass works after an interval of nearly two years. The company, says the " Telegraph," has been reconstituted, and in a short time it is expected to have the manufactory in full working order. At present sodawater bottles are turned out which are little if any inferior to the imported. A Cape newspaper states that the discoveries at the diamond fields are on the increase, and estimates their value at not less than ,£SOOO a day, or £1,500,000 a year. The new railway station at XorK Wilt De the largest in England. The Hutt bridge at Wellington was opened for traffic on the 25th, without any ceremony. The Wellington ' Independent' says, a painful piece of intelligence reaches us from Dunedin. Poor Mr St John Branigan, on account of whose affliction-so much sympathy was evoked, we now learn has had a relapse, and attended with symptoms which preclude all idea of a restoration of his faculties. His condition was such as to necessitate his being placed under restraint, and it is even thought that his physical o; ganisation will not long outlive the loss of reason. A contemporary speaking of old sailors, fell unwittingly into a pun. He said " they are never so much at sea as when they are on shore," resembling in this respect, says a friend, certain henpecked hut-bands, who are never so much at home as when they are abroad.. Three Princesses are performing as public singers in Kussia. A women's Suffrage Association has been formed in London. The corporation of Christchurch have decided to borrow <£sooo fo» drainage purposes. It is said that the chief justiceship of Fiji has been offered to Mr St Julian, law reporter on tho Sydney ' Herald,' and is likely to be accepted by him. The tender of Mr Carter for the erection of the gymnasium at Wellington on the reclaimed land has been accepted, The cost is estimated at about £4OO, and the erection of the building will be proceeded with immediately the timber is placed upon the ground. A new management of the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, made a revolution in the pi ices previous to its being burned. The figures were—Dress circle three shillings, the stalls one, the upper circle eighteeupence, and children half-price. A new protection society, lately started in Melbourne!, has hit upon a novel method of collecting debts. They send round to ilr-btors scarlet-colored envelopes, with only a small oval of white in the middle for tho address. Round the scarlet part appear the words "Trade Protection Society." This is almost as bad as the dunning postal card. The following advertisement appears in tho " Morristown Jerseyman" :—" To whom it may concern. Whereas Parmelia Bush, a resident of Chester, did promise to marry me on the 19th inst., but instead of doing so did funk and run off. I brand her as a liar, and a person of bad character generally.—Edwakd Pratt." To take wine stains from linen, hold the article for a short time in boiling milk. The population of Victoria is estimated at 752.257 persons. The increase during 1871 is set down as 25,GSS. The proportions of the sexes are 411,953 males, 340,334 females. Co-operation is gradually but surely making its way into notice in New Zealand. In Lyttelton the other day a society was started under the title of the Industrial Co-operative Society, Limited. Dr Cummiug is said to be engaged in an elaborate attempt to show that the end of the world will certainly come in 1575. The' Evening Post' of Wednesday last has a leading article, in which it shows that the only member of the Ministry who is in Wellington at the present time is Mr Gisborne. If this gentleman is able to perform the whole of the ministerial work the sooner the drones are got rid of the better, and then- salaries saved. We presume the sketches takai in water-colors on the West Coast by Mr Fox will adorn the walls of the Government offices.

The "Wellington Independent" says, a romance of t&e goldflelda came to light the other, day in the case of Morwood v. Watson. The evidence showed that four years ago a twelfth part in the Golden Fleece claim was sold for £2O 103, and now the value of the share is givea at £IO,OOO. The Maoris who have been recently paid for their land on the West Coast are "knocking down" their money in a fine sUle. The "Chronicle" says the ladios have beeu going, in heavy for riding-habits, tall hats, &e., and have been thronging the photographers for photos of themselves. Their money is fast finding its way into our storekeepers' hands. Over forty guineas have been paid for a buggy and turn-out complete, and .£3O for a dogcart—the former purchased by a lady. A dreadful accident occurred at Harris's mill, at Watigapoa, Auckland, on March 18th. The engineer, David Maynian, was discovered lying under the main shaft on the floor of the building. The engine was stopped, when it was found that the poor man had been dreadfully mutilated ; his right arm was torn off, and both legs and several rib.a *v ere broken. Nothing 0 could be done to alleviate his poignant sufferings, which were happdy shortly terminated "by death. The Mayor of Wellington, at a supper given to tho Wellington regatta crew, said —" Much had been said lately about the so-called salary which had been lately attached to his office. He could assure them that he should look upon it as a sum to be distributed solely for the benefit of the city." Among the remarkable events of 1871, the " Times * places the production of tho biggest gun ever manufactured in England. This ghn, constructed for the turret of the new ironclad Devastation, weighs 35 tons and throws 700-lb shot. A smart 42-gun frigate in former times threw from her bro:idsido about 4501bs of metal. The American frigate President, a ship of extraordinary power, throw about 850lbs. But

tho "Woolwich infant" alone throws 7001bs at a single discharge, and when we consider that this is thrown in one mass instead of being distributed among 20 balls, we may form some notion of the effeccs obtained. If the Devastation should actually carry two 35-ton guu3 in each of her two turrets, they would be as destructive as the broadsides of a whole fleet of our early ironclads. Not a week passes but one or more women are tried in Melbourne for infanticide. The stage at which servantgalism. has arrived in some districts may be inferred from the following cleverly satirical advertisement in the "Maryborough Advertiser.-' —Wanted, a young lady to take the entire charge of tho culinary department of an hotel, One who doos not object to assist in cleaning linen, &c, once a week inliuitely preferred. Another young lady, as companion, constantly on the premises. Chignons not objected to, but strict cleanliness expected. N,B. Master and mistress good tempered. No family. Moderate in washing, if convenient. Apply, Hose's Commerckd Hotel, Maryborough. The Government organs (says the Otago "Times") arc beginning to make game of each other. The Wellington 'lndependent ' holds up to scorn tho Nelson ' Colonist's' grammar, and the ' Lyttelton Times' accuses the ' Independent' of writing ''sensational t±n,ch." The hawks are apparently going to "pike out" each other's " een." Nineteen now cotton mills are building in Fall Kiver, Massachusetts, which is growing so rapidly that it bids fair to become the leading manufacturing city in America. The wool export from Napier to England this year has been double that of last year, namely, £173,172 worth. A little grandson of Mr Coupland, of Auckland, aged three years, lost his fingers by thrusting his hand into a chaffcutting machine. A lad, residing at Mount Albert Auckland has been gored to death by a cow, the horns penetrating his heart. The sale of sheep belonging to the late Mr Austin, of Barwon Park, Geelong, realised between 20,000 and ,£30,000. Major Stapp, Officer Commanding the Taranaki Volunteers las been presented with a sword by the men under his command.

" A fruitful vine!" as may be judged by the following from the Sydney Empire : —" At her residence, Bunyan, on Monday, stli February, 1572, the wife of W. Scanes, senior, o£ a son ; tVie seventeenth child." Mr M'Neil's farm at Balclutha, Otago, was destroyed by fire a few days ago. The loss is estimated at £990, of which .£SOO is covered by insurance in the Australian Alliance Company. A man named William Goodwin, a recent inmate of the hospital at Nelson, but who, at his own request, had obtained his discharge therefrom, went to the garden of Henry Adams, Esq., and deliberately lumped into the well; fortunately, a young man in the employ of Mr H. Hounsell, named George Galland, was near at the time, and seeing what Goodwin had done, immediately raised an alarm, and the unhappy man was secured—at the time calling out for persons to cut his throat or assist in drowning him. Mr E. Constable, of Waiuku, Auckland, sent away in the Nebraska the last of a shipment of 600 bales of flax prepared at his mill. Seventy tons more are nearly ready, and this will be forwarded in the next steamer. An unreasonable and somewhat rnisanthrophic acquaintance remarks he has often heard the proverb, " A friend in need is a friend indeed," but says he can't see where the laugh comes in. He has a friend in need who is always borrowing money from him. In Stewart's Island, for the intended special settlements, land has been divided into three classes, subject to various conditions of disposal, viz., 10,000 acres subject to free grants; 30,000 acres to be sold at (is per acre ; and 60,000 at the upset price of 5s per acre. The Parae Karetu Block, says the ' Wanganui Herald,' having a frontage of 18 miles to the Turakina liiver, and containing nearly 50,000 acres, was legally conveyed to the Queen, on Saturday, by the owners thereof. The purchase money, about 4s. per acre, was paid on the spot. On referoneo to the import returns of printing paper, we find that £21,904 worth of the kind of paper used for printing alone was imported into this colony from the "United Kingdom, New South Wales, and Victoria, last year. The returns of previous years show that the importations have been steadily increasing. An explosion of fire-damp occurred in Shaw and party's claim, at Nokomai, a few days since, by which one of the men was much burnt, and had a narrow escape of his life. These explosions, although numerous enough in Victoria, are of rare occurrence in New Zealand. The following paragraph from the Southland ' News' teaches a lesson: —Whilst the porters were loading the railway trucks on the 12th instant it was discovered that a bale of wool, received at the railway station sometime previously, was quite hot and emitting fumes the very reverse of agreeable. On examination, its contents were found to be damp, the bale having been rrobably exposed to the weather on the way down from the station, It was of course put aside to be dried and repacked, Had it passed through negligent and inexperienced hands aa far as the hold of the ship, tne consequence would in all probability have been another '* fire at sea," The Wellington " Evening Post " states that Mr Stewart, M.H.E. for Oamaru, has received the appointment of Immigration Officer in England, and will, therefore, resign his seat in the Assembly. Several grain-stacks belonging to Messrs Mair Brothers, Timaru, wore totally destroyed by fire. The loss is estimated at £350. An extensive fire occurred at North Melbourne, on March 9th, in Lee's timber yard. The damage is estimated at ,£4OOO. The insurances reach £2300, in the following offices : —National, ,£433 ; Adelaide, £7oo° Sydney, £700; other offices, £467. Large soap-boiling works are in course of erection in Wellington. One of the vats has a capacity of 14,000 gallons. The Customs revenue collected at Auckland during the month of January amounted to £11,012 153 3d; and for February, to £13,867 18s 4d. A company lias been projoeted to work the site of the opal deposits in Queensland. A General Gorernmout immigration depot is to be erected at Green Island, Otago. Two boat loads of goods left for the landing yesterday; and a passenger boat, with a number of passengers for the reefa, including Mr Pitt, solicitor, left on Sunday morning, There are three moro boats

loading with cargo to-day, and orders for goods continue to come to hand in larger numbers than the limited modes of conveyance can assist in executing. In the way of amusements the Thames has been well off lately. Tho Zavistowski Sisters—a host in themselves—have been delighting the people at the Theatre Royal, and now a Gymnast troupe is performing there; and at the Academy of Music a number of Fijian natives of the war tribes and ex-cannibals are performing a drama illustrative of Fijian life, and introducing scenes of the murder of Bishop Patteson and tho result of the kidnapping trade. The 'lndependent' says that one capitalist at Bendigo received .£52,000 last year in the shape of dividends. Had another dividend been paid at tho close of the year, instead, of the beginning of the new one, his income for 1371 would have been just £IOOO a week. When will we have similar incomes to report for tho West Coast reefs ! Everybody is becoming disgustingly rich in Victoria. '." JEgles" writes as follows in the " Australasian'':—'' Richer and richer. The money deposited in the banks of issue now amounts to more than Hi millions sterling, and this irrespective of deposits with other financial institutions and with building societies. It is outside of landed property, house property, squatting properly, mining property, shipping property, manufacturing property. It is the outcome of some of these, but they crxuH) independently of it. Nearly three millions in coin and gold bars lie in the banks. They have lent 12 -4- millions, so that altogether we are getting into big figures." Plain needlework and knitting are undertaken at the Auckland Gaol by female prisoners. The work will be received by Captain Eyre. We c nnnend the step, and are surprised that a self-suporting feature of the kind has not been initiated before. The custom has prevailed at home and ■in the colonies for some time past. There have been complaints of scarcity of coal at Auckland lately, owing principally to the Kawa Kawa coal mines having been flooded to such an extent that tho mines cau only turn out about 50 tons per week. In about six months time, however, ifc is expected that the Miranda coal mine will be at work, and the working of the Wangaproa mine is likely to be proceeded with atran early date.