Untitled

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1079, 10 June 1873, Page 2

The arrival of Mr Commissioner Sharpe is anxiously oxpected, and strong hopes are entertained that he will come the bearer of full powers and authority to deal comprehensively and defiuitoly with the allotment of sections to all who need them. The grave necessity of the situation demand this. The present is not a time for the tediousness of slow and formal routine, but for prompt and decisive action. The crying need of the hour is the right to instantly occupy land for building on, and the public expect that the action of the Cpmmissioner will, within a very few days, satisfy their claims and enable them to at once recommence the building of their dwellings. The Executive and Provincial Council rousing up to their duty at the tidings of Westport's disaster, have done wisely in deputing to special authority the award of such scant compensation as the right to occupy and build afresh on what, at the best, is but a treacherous foundation. The privileges to be thus gained will be enhanced in value just in proportion as they are promptly accorded. Prom the tenor of the brief telegrams received, notifying the action of the Provincial Council Committee, it may be inferred that the Council were all in favor of full discretionary powers being vested in the Commissioner, and it is fervently hoped that no excess of cautiousness, finding vent in afterthought and secret instructions, will curb the action of the gentleman to whom the duties are deputed. A telegram received late last evening says, Mr Sharp cannot come per Kennedy. And of course the people of Westport must wait. What is there to prevent some local authority performing the duty? It seems a moral and physical impossibility, for Nelson authorities, to act with ordinary businesslike promptitude in anything affecting the interests of Westport. i

REMOVALS. Messrs Graves and Fleming, taking time by the forelock, and unwilling to run the risk of a hurried exit from their premises at the corner of Kennedy street, are shifting their stock of drapery for a few weeks to the premises lately occupied by Manson and Co., at the corner of Lyttelton and Palmerston streets. Messrs Gilmer Brothers are now carrying on business exclusively at their new premises, corner of Wakefield and Palmerston streets. The building known as the Clarendon Hotel will be re-erected on the section adjoining the new Post Office Hotel. Mr Hughes of the Empire Hotel has arranged to carry on business temporarily, at the hotel lately occupied by Mr Maguire, corner of Palmerston and Pakington streets. It may be fervently hoped that when the Empire is again reared it will be on a solid and lasting foundation. Mr Struther has removed to Palmerston street, and may be fouud in his new premises, opposite the gravel pits, by his customers. The business of Mailer's boot shop will be carried on at the store under the Verandah, next Sheahan's Hotel Lyttelton street. P. Sontgen, Tailor and Clothier, will be found ready to transact business at Roche's Hotel, Wakefield street. Mr Pitcher, who has recently opened in Palmerston street as watchmaker and jeweller will continue to carry on business in his present premises, pending the erection of a more commodious shop on the upper township.

The nomination day, preliminary to the first election of the new Municipality of Westport, has been fixed for the 7th July next. Taking all things into consideration it has perhaps happened fortunately that the election has been deferred until the confusion and general subversion of public and private affairs, consequent on the disasters of the past week, -will have somewhat abated. Between the present date and the day of nomination there will be ample time and opportunity for the electors to make their choice, and for aspiring candidates to air their flowery eloquence. Clause 77 provides that for the first election of councilllors the whole number shall be elected from among "those persons enrolled on any electoral roll, which, under the provisions of ' The Registration of Electors Act 1866,' shall, for time being, be in foree, whose qualifications are in respect of lands or tenements situate within the borough, and none other. If the roll for the year 1873-74 can bo adopted there will bo a considerable accession to the number of persons qualified by the Electoral Eoll of 1872-73.

The Provincial Engineer has received instructions to at once survey and lay off sections on the Coal Eeserve facing Palmerston street, and also to open up one or more streets leading down to the river. Sections will be surveyed facing these streets, as in Rintoul and Wakefield streets, leaving the intervening blocks of timber intact for the preservation of the river bank. The time for receiving tenders for the Nine mile road was extended until 2 p.m. on Saturday last. We have authority for stating that some of the tenders received were below the estimated cost of the work, and that the amount of the lowest tenders has been already telegraphed to the Public Works Department in Wellington. The schedule of contracts was forwarded by the Murray, and it is probable that the accepted tenders will be telegraphed during the present week.

The local banks have advanced the price of gold, and miners need no longer travel to Charleston to dispose of their parcels. The Murray, arriving on Sunday last from Greymoutli, brought three Melbourne mails, the latest dates being May 31st, as late, by the way, as either Lyell or Reefton files yet to hand for Westport readers. The Provincial Engineer despatched a party of men yesterday afternoon to the Mohikinui to commence the preliminary work of blazing a track from the township up to the reefs. As soon as that is completed the survey will be pushed on and a pack track formed, which may hereafter expand into a road wide enough for dray traffic.

Messrs Thompson, Smith, and Barkley notify that they have decided on continuing business at their Westport branch for some time longer with a renewed and larger stock of goods.

To-morrow is to bo a gala day in Greymouth. The commencement of the works of the Brunner Kailway will be initiated by W. 11. Harrison Esq., M.H.K., turning the first sod. A procession will be formed in Boundary street, and a ball will be held in the evening. The Borough Council contribute £2O towards expenses, the remainder to be borne by the public. From the Lyell, a correspondent of the Nelson Examiner writes regarding the prospects of that district:—"our returns show that in the matter of quartz wo can beat any other part of the known World " hollow," as the saying is. Gipps Land tops Victorian returns with loz Bdwt, while the much-neglected Lyell district yields its 4ozs for every ton of stone crushed, and as far as the Government and the mercantile community of New Zealand are concerned, is allowed to slumber on in its normal condition, without hardly an effort being made on their parts to develop its vast resources. It is a burning shame and a disgrace to any Government or community that would allow a Government to so grossly mismanage the rich ea ates committed to their charge. Had such a district as the Lyell been discovered in Victoria or New South Wales its fame would have been trumpeted (and deservedly so) far and wide, and ere this a second Bendigo and Tambaroora would have arisen amidst its snow-clad mountains, aad every gully would have reechoed tne 'steady thump of the nevertiring stampers. Such would have been the case in either of those countries, and why?—simply because the miner, the merchant, and the Government could each and all appreciate to its fullest extent the value of their possessions, and would each and all lend a willing hand in developing them. A correspondent signing himself " Citizen" writes to the Greymouth Evening Star averring that Mr W. H. Harrison, to whom has been deputed the duty of turning the first sod of the Brunner railway, put himself into communication with the contractor, and begged, by telegram, to be allowed to have a finger in the pie. Begged in such a beseeching manner that no M.L.C. M.L.A. M.P.C. or M.8.C., but Mr Harrison would have done. We learn from the Inangahua Herald that the heavy rainfall of Monday night and early cm Tuesday at Reefton resulted in one of the heaviest floods yet experienced in the Inangahua, it being only excelled by that of February, 1872, and but for the cossation of rain for a few hours the consequences must have been equally serious. As it was, a large volume of water flowed

for hours from the upper portion of the Strand into Broadway, and a rough survey showed that the flood for several hours was running at a level in the river fully two feet above Broadway. But a very slight increase in the flood would have resulted in the greater portion of the township being inundated. Considerable damage has been done to the river bank above Smith street, and the river now threatens to make a new channel for itself which would intersect Broadway. Considerable deposits of shingle and timber on the opposite bank of the river at each successive flood are adding to the tendency, and it would be very desirable for the protection of property that a protection work should be constructed a few chains in extent, the cost of which would not exceed £SO or £6O. The street improvements in Broadway have also been affected/ the gravel where resting on dead timber, leaving a hollow below, having given way, causing gaping apertures in several places. The Creek in Broadway was filled to overflowing and the street inundated to within a few inches of the footpaths, the latter being erected five to six feet above the level of the old road. It was not until evening that the flood showed signs of abatement, but we are happy to state that Dalton's suspension bridge, though subjected to a very severe test by the heavy trees coming in contact with the abutments, striking them with immense force, sustained not the slightest injury. A correspondent writes to the Greymouth Star from the Ahanra, as follows: —•' I have been waiting very anxiously for our new member's speech, but he seems provokingly coy. Why, I have heard him spin more eloquence across the bar, with one hand on the beer-pump, than would do any ordinarily loquacious politician throughout a whole session. Ah! he's a "ruin'un" to •talk sometimes. Hear him on American steam boats and high pressure engines. Ehu ! you could'nt get a word in edgewise. Well, he's silent now, but look out for him when he does commence to blow—he's a regular whale. An Auckland barber advertises himself as a " professor of the striped pole." A somewhat remarkable case of sudden death occurred last Saturday week at Woodstock, near Hokitika. The report published by the Times states that the deceased, who was named Thomas Edmund Hughes, bad been chopping some wood, and was observed by a miner named James Irwin to be leaning against the garden fence. Irwin went on, and finding on returning that Hughes was still in the same position, called to him exclaiming. "You are taking a long look at your cabbages !" Getting no answer, Irwin went over to deceased and found that his head was between two of the pailings of the fence. On lifting the head deceased fell down, and then Irwin perceived that he was dead, of which he was unaware previously.

A miner named Edward Haines on last Thursday was admitted into the Eeefton Hospital, suffering from injuries received bp the upsetting of a truck near the "Westland Company's coal mine. According to the Herald, Haines was running down stone from the Inglewood paddock to the Westland batteries, and, as the rails were slippery, he had taken the precaution to sprinkle ashes over the dangerous portions where the gradient was steep. A heavy fall of rain, however, had washed away the ashes, and as the truck descended the velocity increased through the break not acting, and Haines then sat on it in order to bring all the pressure to bear possible. Its speed, however, continued to increase, and the driver seeing his imminent danger, had decided to throw himself from the truck, but was unable to extricate his coat which had become jammed between the body of the truck and the framework. His only course was to hang by the truck—which once actually got off the rails, but regained its position—until approaching the coal mine, where several men were anxiously watching its progress. When within a short distance of the coal tramway, the truck was pitched into the air, throwing Haines a height of five or six feet, who fell, and when assistance was rendered to him, was found to be unconscious, having received injuries about the head and body. The truck performed two or three somersaults before landing in the gully.

The Southland News states that the first locomotive constructed on the narrow gauge principle for use in this colony, made a trial trip on the line of the Mataura railway on Thursday, the Ist inst. This was done under the superintendence of the railway manager, Mr Conyers, and it was in all respects successful.