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Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1083, 24 June 1873, Page 2

The English mail via Suez will close at Greymouth about the 30th inst., and at Nelson on the 2nd. July. Correspondence will bo despatched from Westport, as opportunity offers, to thoso ports before said dates. (

The General Government Gazette of the 12th instant contains a proclamation appointing tho seventh day of July next " to bo tho day whereon tho first election of councillors for the Borough of Westport shall take place," and also notifying the appointment of Joseph Giles Esq., "to be tho person by and before whom tho said election shall be held.'' Electors and candidates are referred to the proclamation appearing in anothor column. On Friday afternoon a deputation of Westport residents interviewed Mr Warden Giles for the purpose of bringing under his notice, in the absence of tho Provincial Engineer, tho inconvenience likely to arise if the construction of the Nino Mile road forming an extension of Pahnerston street, should be carried out according to present

plans and specifications, which provide merely for the -formation of ono drain on tho north side, and a narrow roadway barely wide enough for two drays to pass each other. It was considered that tho road until it reached the town boundary should correspond in width and general formation with Palmerston street, and it was pointed out to Mr Warden Giles that the work, if carried On as commenced would, instead of proving any public benefit, entail an unnecessary _ outlay by the Municipal Corporation in making good the extension of the street, along which sections facing thereto are now being allotted. The Warden telegraphed to Mr Dobson on the subject, and meanwhile the work has been stayed until Mr Dobson's return to town. We are informed that he has gone from the Lyell to Greymouth. The rain falling intermittently for the last three or four days, had not, up till dusk last evening, caused any great fresh in the river, and hopes are entertained that Wostport may be spared the infliction of a second flood for yet another season. Still the few buildings facing the river bank maintain very precarious positions. Tho allotment of new sections, on tho Coal Eoserve above Rintoul street, took place yesterday in tho Court House. Our next issue will contain a list of the names of allottees and the numbers of their sections.

Mr F. Sontgen notifies by advertisement that he has opened his new premises in Palmerston street, opposite the camp. Where, having extended space, greater facilities for business, and a renewed stock, he will be in a better position than ever to fulfil the wishes of his many customers. The diptheria scare kaving, for the time> subsided, the Westport school will be reopened this morning, but the school committee have considered it necessary to recommend to all parents whose children are suffering from the slightest symptoms of incipient diptheria, or even ordinary ,coughs and colds, the expediency of keeping them at homo for awhile longer. The wisdom of this suggestion will assert itself and will, no doubt, meet with ready compliance. Tho District Court Sitting will commence to-day. The cases set down for heariug are a special mining case Halligan and another v. G'Bourke, and in bankruptcy applications for final hearing and discharge by Pell and Atkinson, Crowall and Jacobsen, William Morris, R. N. Gill, Stephen Lowin, and William Eathburn. J. B, Eteveneaux to surrender.

The impending election of Municipal Councillors has not stirred up the lively burgesses of Westport to anything like energetic action. So far as we are aware the only requisition in circulation has boon in globo to nine honored individuals, who, in the estimation of the sixteen requisitionists, pledging themselves to support them individually and collectively, are the most fit and proper persons to be entrusted with the cave of Municipal affairs. Whether the proffered honors will be accepted or declined wo know not. The excessive modesty of all parties concerned, which prevents them from even publishing their names for the edification of their fellow townsmen, of course precludes us from attempting to lift the curtain higher. Still it may be hopefully presumed that silence gives consent, that the sixteen requisitionists have not wooed in vain, and that the sentiments of each councillor expectant may by epitomized, in the words of Dickens' immortal car man, " Barkis is willin.'"

A Mr McDonald and his wife who keep a road side accommodation house between Charleston and Brighton wore bound over at the Charleston Court last week to keep the peace for sis months each in ,£2O and two sureties of £lO each, upon the complaint of a man named Boyd, who swore that McDonald had threatened to shoot him as he passed by the house, had hit him over the mouth and knocked his hat off, and that the female McDonald had assisted in the assault. For the defence it was alleged that complainant had insulted Mrs McDonald and the assault was in retaliation.

The resignation by Sir David Munro, of liis seat in the House of Representatives for Waikouiaiti, has been accepted. It has been suggested by some members of the VVestport Fire Brigade that as soon as the necessary funds become available a new and larger lire bell should be purchased. Tho following hint from tho Lyttelton Times, showing how the sound of alarm may be most elfectually produced, is worth notice: —" Tho clapper of the Lichfield street bell having been removed, an iron cross with four arms of equal length is fixed in a perpendicular position on an axle immediately beneath tho bell. At the end of the upper arm there is a round knob intended as a balance weight, and a rope being fixed to each of the arms at right angles with these, the cross when pulled moves on its axle in such a manner that the upper knob strikes first one side of the bell then the other, A very short pull at the ropes is sufficient to give tho requisite blow, and tho balance-weight adds to the ease with which the work is effected. Formerly a pull of more than three feet was required to ring the bell, but now eleven inches will suffice, while pulleys being dispensed with the rope cannot get stuck, and tho weight to be applied is vastly reduced, in fact, a child can now do much better than a man could do before.

Tho Iteeftou Masonic Lodge, E.C. will bo consecrated on Monday, July 7, by tho District Grand Master Judge Harvey, and others.

Mr Dobson has accepted tho tender of Mason and Holman for erection of Lock-up and Police and Wardens' Quarters at Lyell, for .£3lO. He has also settled the arrangement of the sections on Lycll Township—a road being laid off fronting Louis Tensinis' agricultural lease. The Camp will be erected at the corner nearest tho present township, "We are receiving from Messrs Letts Son & Co., of London, tho Shippers Monthly Circular, and prices current, containing illustrated reports of Novelties in all trades, and a vast fund of information peculiarly serviceable to shippers from home markets. Tho Circular will be filed for tho convenience of our subscribors.

Mr Calcutt accompanied by Messrs Mackay and Sale, arrived on Wednesday at Howe's accommodation house overland from Nelson, to inspect the ground offered by the Province as security for the railway proposed to be constructed. Thoy have gone up the Mangles, returning by the Matakitkki via Lyell to lioeftou and Oroy Valley. The three rival journals in Ilokitika delight in catching each other napping. The Register of a recent date says:— Our morning contemporary yesterday announced the discovery of some human remains on the South Spit, and particularised them as ribs and other bones. From inquiries made by us, we learn beyond a doubt that the bones are those of a deceased cow. Had thoy been human the ribs could only have belonged to a man weighing about half-a ton. Tho Nelson Council has at last closed its sittings—we wish we could say for ever, a

wish we fool sure we will be heartily joined in by all save one or two wlio delight in the questionable honor of affixing to their names, M.P.C., and one or two others to whom the honorarium is a consideration. The next infliction will be the meetings, at which members will address their constituents and magnify, as largely as their eloqnonco will permit them, the little molehills of "what they have done" into the very large mountains of " what they intended to do.,' Every good tree, we are told in a certain book, is known by its fruit (not by its intended fruit), and likewise we are warned to root up every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit of its kind. There will bo a little weeding for the electors to perform if they would follow a good precept.

In the Lyell Resident Magistrate's Court, held June 19th before Charles Broad Esq., R.M., 6 drunk and disorderly conduct conduct, police cases were disposed of.—An fnformation by Goldstueker against Knopp, ior using abusive language, was struck out, there being no appearance made by either party.—The Warden gave a long written judgment in case of Wise v. Cullen, for damages done to a horse hired by defendant at Reef ton, resulting in a verdict for plaintiff for £lO and costs, £S 135.. The bridle and saddle still remaining property of plaintiff.—Some 9 other civil casus were then heard. In the Warden's Court a case was brought on for hearing. John Carroll v. 'Directors of Oriental Gold Mining Company, Registered. Mr Pitt appeared for defendant, the plaintiff not being prepared with the necessary proof to support his claim, the Warden adjourned the case until July 3.—A number of applications were then disposed of from claim-holders at Lyell and Matakitaki.—The Warden refused to recommend May's apjnieation for agricultural lease, as the Matakitaki River went through the centre of it and the beaches are being worked for alluvial gold. Tho Bler>heim public who considered the Carandini performances as " all rattle and smash with nothing in them," now, according to tho Marlborough Express, greet with enthusiastic applause the " Star Combination peojsle who recently honored Westjjort with their distinguished and profitable presence. The Wellington Independent, giving a new version of their leaving Westport, says: —■ When some dramatic professionals wore leaving Westport somewhat suddenly last week, they omitted to pay the bellman for crying their performances during t'ie nights they wore playing. The bollman was indignant, and during the time of the starting of the steamer Kennedy, and for a good half hour te"ore, ho stood on the wharf, bell in hand, which was freely handled at frequent intervals, exclaiming, " Here's a lot of vagabonds by Act o? Parliament has been and done me out of ten days of my lungs, and they aro going away and robbing me out of my rights. One of them's the gentleman with the white hat a standing near the wheel, and the other's a gentleman with a blue wail over his face which don't hide it a bit, and there's another gentleman with no soles to his beets, &c, &c." And so the bellman continued identifying the renegade professionals, and announcing that ho had been done out of two pound ten's worth of lung power. In his prorogation speech, his Honor the Superintendent stated his assent to the following Acts passed during the session just concluded: —An Act to amend the Nelson Highways Act, 1572; an Act to amend the Impounding Act, 18G1; an Act to amend tho Cattle Trespass Act; an Act to amend the Education Act, 1963 ; an Act to constitute districts within the Nelson Goldfields, and to appropriate a portion of tho Provincial revenue to tho making and maintaining of Public Works therein; an Act to appropriate the revenue of the Province of Nelson for the year ending the 31st day of March, 1874. An Act to alter the Electoral Districts, and number of members of the Provincial Council of Nelson, has been reserved for the signification of the Governor's pleasure thereon.

The New Zealand Herald says:—The Nelson Provincial Council refuses to sanction the borrowing of money to make roads, railways, or wat ir-races. It is high time this very conservative body was " wiped out." The Nelson province got rid of its lands in a very questionable way. It made no roads worth mentioning beyond the old settled districts. It gloried in wool and made merry over sheep-runs; and when the gold rush set in on the "West Coast, it was unable to fulfil any one of these conditions of local Government, except that of pocketing the revenue, and spending it in and around the pleasant little settlement of Blind Bay. Why tie the West Coast to Nelson? Why have Nelson Province at all ? " Let the dead bury its dead; " and Mr Superintendent Curtis would aptly fulfil that injunction if he undertook the duty of grave-digger. But as long as salaries can be screwed out of the public, and patronage can be exercised, Provincialism will live.