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Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 960, 9 April 1872, Page 2

Mr Greenfield, Provincial Secretary, and Mr Dobson, Provincial Engineer, paid a visit to the Nokawa coal mine on Friday and Saturday last. Both these gentlemen testify to the valuo of the discovery of the coal'seam, which shows an outcrop oi' twelve to fourteen feet in thickness. They also speak highly of the navigability of the river and the accessibility of the mine. Any of the coasting steamers can go alongside the present seam and be loaded without difficulty with what quantity of coala they may require. We understand it is the intention of the applicants for the lease, Messrs Field, Brown, Chambers, and M' Nairn, to set about erecting a wharf which will carry a hundred tons oi* coal. They mean to keep that quantity always ia readiness to supply demands, and have arranged for the erection of a shoot, landing stage, and wharf, to be commenced immediately the reply from the Waste Lands Board or Provincial Government comes to hand. Their application for a lease is now under the consideration of the Lauds Board, and in order thatjthe works may not be retarded, we understand a prospecting area for two miles has been applied for in the meantime. A meeting of St John's congregation was held in the church on Thursday eveninglast tor tno pin-pose oi receiving ana passing tiie accounts of last year, and of appointing two churchwardens and ten vestrymen for this year. The following are the names of the gentlemen who were elected and appointed churchwardens:—Minister's Churchwarden, Mr W. H. Poole; Parish Churchwarden, Mr William Buchanan. Vestrymen—Mr John Gilmer, Mr J. S. Fieraing, Mr .John Blaeklock, Mr William Carpenter, Mr Bayfield, and Mr Day, for St John's ; Mr Dudgeon and Mr Mackenzie, for Addison's Flat; Mr Braithwaite, for Cal-'donian Terrace ; and Mr Harrison, for Gi'es Terrace. All the gentlemen named have signified their acceptance of office. Votes of thanks were proposed and carried to the outgoing vestry, the ladies and gentlemen of the choir, the ladies and gentlemen of the Sunday School, and man, after which the meeting broke up. An accident occurred on Saturday to a miner named James Hicke.f at Giles Terrace. While engaged adjoining his claim erecting fluming, one of the cross pieces gave way and he fell a distance of from twenty to twenty-five feet, coming in contact with a number of sharp boulders in the fall. When attended to, it was found that his leg was broken at the thigh and he had received several cuts over the eye and a number of bruises about the body. He was immediately conveyed to the Hospital here, where every attention has been paid him, and wo are informed his progress sinee has been satisfactory and his early recovery hopefully tooked to. Hickey recently arrived .on the Coast from Melbourne.

Mr Broadbent's art union of jewellery at the Grey, came off last week. We observe it mentioned that Mr M'Parland of Charleston, was the fortunate winner of the first prize. Should the steamer Charles Edward reach here in time to-morrow from Nelson, it is the intention of Miss Stevenson, Miss Folland, Mr Burford, and Company to perform at the Masonic Hall, in the evening, at eight o'clock, and on Wednesday and Friday evenings, at the same hour. This company have been highly spoken of in Nelson and elsewhere, where they have been giving their high-class entertainments. In the management of the Westport Hospital the difficulty is to obtain a sufficient number of members of committee to make a qualified quorum. The committee would appear to have such extreme confidence in their chairman, treasurer, and secretary, that they consider any additional attendance on their part would be an unnecessary superfluity. On Tuesday evening last themeeting lapsed from want of attendance in this way. At Charleston this prevailing confidence in fellow-men would seem to have attacked the subscribers to the institution there, the retiring committee having been nearly compelled, at the last general meeting of subscribers to re-elect' themselves. The report of the breach of promise case (Mounsell v. Cassius), which is interesting to West Coast readers, more particularly to those of Hokitika, from the circumstance of plaintiff and defendant having been residents there, is published at length in the Melbourne 'Argus,' and copied into the • West Coast Times' of the 27th and 28th ult. The evidence laid correspondence occupy twelve columns in the latter publications, both of which entertain the public to details of matters which would have been better had they been kept under a bushel. The defendant has certainly earned for himself the finger-point of the fair sex, and will doubtless reflect before he *• pops " a second time. The verdict is hardly encouraging to young ladies who think of using the courts to redress grievances. As the Melbourne ' Telegraph' puts it:—The .£350

the plaintiff has obtained may bo compensation for the damage she sustained in the past, but it is nothing to the shock and injury of the trial itself. Under ordinary circumstances, when the engagement is broken off, the episode is soon forgotten; the letters are burned; but unfortunately in these breach of promise cases they get printed, and are read with more avidity than if they'occurred in a novel, and it must take a deal of moral courage to woo a lady whose oiitpourings everyone has perused. Miss Lily Dale had a devoted lover, one remembers, after she had been jilted, but if her letters had been in the ' Times,' and all tho pretty foolish things she said to Crosbie had been laughed over in tho offices, why even her devoted "Johnny" might not have been so faithful. At the same time no one would argue that the male creature should be allowed to trifle with ladies' affections with impunity. Tho man can always find a wife although his letters have been read. In the first instance moreover it is not the lady who seeks him, but he who goes out of his way to seek her. He induces her to enter into a eoutract that affects her destiny, depreciating her value in the matrimonial market the moment it is known. Taking the world as we fiud it, the lesson to be drawn from this latest episode is that ladies should only go to court when they have such a complaint as will arouse men's indignation, and induce a jury to punish the defendant as a heartless scamp. Otherwise, why a few pounds to spare after tho solicitor's bill is met can never pay for brushing the bloom off the poach for over. If the case is not flagrant, then even in a money sense Viola's is the best policy. She " Never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Feed on her damask chuck."

The establishment of a public market by private individuals has been mooted in Christehurch. The * Oatnaru Times' complains of the defective gum on the postage-stamps. The complaint is a very general one. The ' Kaikoura Herald' publishes the following advertisement:—Notice to the ladies. Wanted, a wife, A widow preferred. A good home and a loving husband. Apply to, &c. The Akaroa correspondent of the ' Press' writes that very little over one-third of the quantity of cheese hitherto made in that district has been produced this year, and butter is also scarce. A sample of quartz from a reef at the Four-teen mile Beach, on the Molyneux, has yielded at tno rate of .sosss 17dwts per ton. The lately collected agricultural statistics of Canterbury show the total area under crop in that provinco to be 282,203 acres, being an increase on last year of G0,741 acres. In Marlborough there are 28,313 acres under crop this year. By a coach accident near Invercargill Mr J. 'A'. Thomson, chief surveyor, has sustained a fracture of a small bone in one of his legs. Fever is prevalent in the Cromwell district, Otago. The Wakefield monument, brought out to Wellington about 25 years ago, is likely to be erected in a suitable spot centrally situated in the city. A number of gentlemen having this object in view have set afoot subscription lists, and Wellington, .ike Christehurch, is soon to have some tangible reminder of the career of one of -New Zealand's early colonisers. Tlic roundatlon stone of the Oamaru Hospital was laid last week. A Mr Sydney Stidolph has been sentenced to seven days' imprisonment for assaulting Mr Perrier, sub-editor of the ' Evening Star' at the Thames. A four-year-old shorthorn heifer, weighing nearly two tons, has lately been exhibited in Auckland. It was reared at Wanganui. The Canterbury Government have definitely determined to reduce the pay of their railway employes.

The Dunedin 'Echo' sarcastically rem arks —We suppose we are to have no more Sabbath prosecutions. We saw three boys laughing last Sunday in the South Recreation Ground? Is this sort of thing to be tolerated. Where are the police ? Mr M'Beth, Postmaster at Greymouth, has been instructed to take temporary charge of the postofflce at Hokitika. Meantime the Greymouth office is in charge of Mr Andre'.vs. A singular recovery of lost money occurred last week on the bank of the Hokitika river. A man who had just come up from Martin's Bay was fishing just after dusk, when, in taking a knife out of his pocket, he dropped a five-pound note into the river. It was useless attempting to look for the note then, as it was too dark to see anything so small floating on the water; so search was deferred until next morning, when as soon as it was daylight the loser went in search, and was lucky enough to find his note washed ashore close to the flagstaff. Later in the day he returned to Martin's Bay in the Charles Edward. The adoption of a system of immigration similar to that of Canada, by which young girls of from 12 to 15 years of age are brought out, is advocated by the ' Ilawke's Bay Herald.' A correspondent of that journal supports the proposition, and adds : —I am acquainted with a lady, who has the credit of possessing a considerable amount of energy, as well as of being well able to influence and control young people. This lady is not connected with any society, nor would she require any pecuniary remuneration for her services ; but she woi.ld be quite willing to choose any number agreed upon, and either bring them out herself or send them under a careful matron. She would require that in any town in New Zealand to which they were consigned, one or two ladies would undertake to receive them on landing, and to take a friendly interest in their welfare—some one to whom the girls might always apply in any doubt or difficulty. . From private letters received by the City of Melbourne, we learn that business in Sydney is very dull, and that " hundreds of men are doing nothing," At the Sailors' Home, about 100 men were waiting, unable to get afloat. Wages for laboring men are 255, or 12s a week and found. In alluding to the early-closing movement the ' Echo' portly says:—ln the lists published we notice no hotelkeepers' names; now is this? If we do not require tea, boots, and coats on Saturday afternoon, surely we might dispense with beer and brandy. Is it to ba said " nothing sold in Dunedin on Saturday afternoon, except beer, whiskey, brandy, rum, and gin ?" And talking of early closing, why might not the clergymen get a half holiday on the Sunday? Might not all the work be over by two p.m.? Why could not the churches meet earlier? Is" it fair that clergymen should have to work up till Bp.m. Mr Reid, in a "powerful speech" might talk about this grievance. Strachan Bros., farmers, Kaiapoi Island, lost nearly the whole of their grain by fire last week. While the men engaged working at Messrs Pashby and Edwards' threshing machine were in Messrs Strachan's house '

having dinner, the stacks, nine in number, caught fire, and were totally destroyed. The threshing-maehiue and engine were also burned. The loss is not covered by insurance. A man named James Grafton has been killed at Oamara through the upsetting of a dray. Wild cats are becoming a great pest in the bush in Southland, and a correspondent of one of the local papers says that in selfdefence settlers will be obliged to have re3ourse to offering a price per head in order to extirpate them, or at least lessen their number. A return of the amount paid to each newspaper and printing-office in New Zealand, for Government advertising and printing, the amounts paid in advance of the completion of the work, and the actual value of the work done, computed on the scale used in the Government office, would open the eyes of the public to the disinterested motives of certain journals in affording a thick-and-thin support to the present Ministry. A glance at the adveristing columns of any New Zealand journal will in fact at present suffice to show what its politics are. If a Ministerial journal, these columns will teem with Government advertisements; if independent or avowedly opposition, Government announcements will be sought for in vain. Ordinary advertisers look to the circulation of a paper before advertising l in it, and ccmaidar whobkci. 11 reaches the class of readers to whom their announcement is addressed. The Government however is quite above these considerations, and so long as the editorial columns are of the right complexion the advertising columns must be tilled.