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Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1015, 22 October 1872, Page 2

The sale of the Long Tunnel claim, Addisons, yesterday, realised £7OO, after a spirited bidding-. The purchaser was Miss Jane Cochrane. Has the Kennedy brought the Englidi mail? was the general questiou yesterday morning. The reply No, she sighted the Wellington in the bay with the Auckland mails on board, but would not return to take transhipment; not being subsidised. Mr Curtis, during his very brief reign as Fostmaster-General, had the calm assurance to tell the member for Hokitika, that the West Coast mail service was as good a3 might be reasonably expected. Had be remained in office we might have been expected to accept as proof of the efficiency of the service, the present delay, whereby the public on the West Coast must run the risk of losing the chance of replying, per return mail, to their home correspondents. Under the new regime, we hope for better things hereafter; less cheese paring economy, and a more business like respect for public convenience.

Mokinui bids fair to become a place of unenviable notoriety. Another breach of public peace aud decorum has occurred there, and will form the subject of a police case in the R. M. Court

The shifting of the Government Buildings to the new site in Palmerston street, will be commenced forthwith, the tender of Messrs Bull and Bond having been accepted, one of the stipulations being that the work shall be completed within a certain time under penalty of daily forfeit. There was a great jollification at Andersons Claim on Saturday last. The manager Mr B. Tapley, evidently a close relation of the immortal Mark Tapley invited all shareholders to the christening of the claim. They came, and with them troops of friends, and as our informant saith the heaps of toothsome things demolished, and the dead marines on view the next morning wero a caution. The machinerywas christened with copious libations of orthodox No. 2, the dishes that graced the banquet table might have satisfied an epicu e, toasts were proposed and duly honored, neat speeches made, good wishes expressed, general jollity prevailed, and the machine started under most favorable auspices. The Miners Franchise Extension Bill, introduced by the Buller member, and which was designed to give to holders of miners rights the power of voting at the election of Superintendents, passed its second reading, but ultimately was rejected by a majority of 24 to 22. It was a measure little needed. Every miner who chooses to place his name on the electoral roll may vote for the election of superintendent, and those who are too careless to do so do not deserve the privilege. Shippers of freight to the southward need no longer complain of heavy charges. The Standard will in future take loadin" at seventeen shillings and sixpmee per ton to Charleston, and twenty-five shillings for Brighton. Such enterprise should not be unrewarded.

In the District Court to be held on Thursday next, the following cases are set down for hearing : —Civil cases—Regina by Quadri v. Williams ; Regina by Williama v. M,Shane. Bankruptcy— re James Simpson; George Nicholas; Charles Bishop; George William Brown ; Christian A. Far-

The Napier ' Telegraph , states that tlie last ton of coal has been sold in Napier, and if householders run short before the brigantine Amherst arrives from Newcastle, N.S. W., they will hare to use wood if it can be procured. ,If not, chairs and tables must furnish the necessary fuel for cooking purposes.

The ' Grey River Argus ' thus refers to the contents of a letter, recently allowed to grace the columns of the 'Nelson Examiner':—Mr W. N. Franklyn does make some extraordinary discoveries regarding both himself and others, lie once discovered himself to possess attributes fitting him for election to the Supenntendency of Nelson. He also discovered himself a member of the Nelson Provincial Council, and found himself out of his seat as soon as he was in it, He subsequently discovered and revealed in a speech at Cobden, that one of the Buller members of the Council was a brother-in-law to Mr D. M. Luckie an allegation which rather astounded the parties interested, lie has now discovered in "a certain editor of a Greymouth newspaper" an " old friend and school-fellow" of the said Mr Luckie, and attributes to that person certain action which would be quite legitimate on his part, but of which he happens to be perfectly innocnt. Writing to the " Nelson Examiner," on September 30, Mr Franklyn says :—" There is a paragraph in a recent ' Colonist,' informing the public that a. requisition is being signed on the West Coast, asking Mr Luckie to stand forthe Superin tendency. Now this is sue- an unblushing exaggeration of what is really being done, that as a West Coast resident I think I should just give a glimpse of the other side of the picture. As soon as Mr Curtis took office in the present Ministry, Mr Luckie immediately despatched news to an old friend and schoolfellow (a certain editor of a Greymouth newspaper) of his intention to stand for the Superintendency, and forthwith articles appeared in that journal lauding Mr Luckie's (invisible to ordinary visions) virtues to the skies. Something more, however, had to be done to lead the Nelson voters to think that Mr .Luckie would be supported on the Coast, which resulted in his old friend and schoolfellow writing out a requisition on behalf of Mr Luckie, and forwarding it up country to the reporter of this Greymouth newspaper that he might obtain signatures." Now there is °no '•school-fellow" of Mr Luckie connected with the Press in Greymouth. There are undoubtedly old friends, to whose vision, as it is not so very " ordinary" as Mr Franklyn's, his virtues are apparent. But the statement about Mr Luckie " despatching news" of himself to them in re the Supeiv intendency is a mere assumption on the part of Mr Franklyn, and it is altogether untrue that a requisition was written and forwarded to the up-country correspondent of any Greymouth newspaper for the purpose of obtaining signatures. Mr Franklyn's disposition to rush into print and into the language of the insane is well known. It is painful to contemplate him exhibiting traces of moral insanity by perpetrating gratuitous falsehoods.