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Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1092, 25 July 1873, Page 2

The English mail closes at Hokitika and Nelson on tho 31st inst. Correspondence will be despatched from Westport as opportunity offers to each of those ports before that date.

Latest information from the Lyoil district states that the Excelsior plates are looking well, and everything about the mill is in satisfactory order, and the crushing going on steadily. About 100 ounces of amalgam have been got out of the cover boxes and the skimming of tho rmicksilver ripples, obtained at such times as the shoes of the stampers arc lifted. The other ripples and plates will not be touched Until the finishing of the crushing. Dp to Friday last 137 tons had |been put through, all good weight stone. The mine is working well, but owing to the quantity of water, work has been knocked off in the lower shaft, much to the fegret of the manager, as the reef there is three to four feet wide, all splendid stone and thickening as it deepens.

The Kennedy left Nelson for Westport yesterday afternoon and will most likely show up to-day. Tho subscription lately made at Charleston for tho widow of Mr M'Kerrow, who was recently killed by a mining accident, resulted in L 214 being collected. The subscribers have decided that L2 per week shall be paid Mrs M'Kerrow for three months, and that all accounts due from the death of Mr M'Kerrow to date shall be paid. Messrs Smith, Aldous, and Morris are appointed trustees, and will disburse the funds in haod. It is to be hoped that the creditors, while claiming their just dues, will be mindful that "L2 per week for three months" will not much avail in relieving the daily necessities of the widowed and fatherless.

Tho annual report of the Greymouth Hospital Committee shows that the number patients treated during the year was 764, viz., 252 indoor patients, and 512 outdoor patients. The financial condition of the Hospital as shown by the Treasurer's is not so prosperous as it was last year, owing mainly to the decrease in tho amount of subscriptions from the public, and the Committee urge the necessity of continued exertions and liberality in order to meet the large and increased expenditure required in ordder to maintain the institution in its present condition of usefulness and efficiency.

A raid has been made upon all urn-egis* tered dogs kept by Maoris in Westland, and the natives are indignant at being compelled to submit to the usual rule.

A decided improvement lias been made in the Court-house by the erection of an entrance lobby with doors opening right and left into the building. A considerable quantity of superabundant cold air is thus excluded, and the business of the Court obtains freedom from tho occasional risk of interruption by too eager talkists outside tho porch.

Notice of intention to claim bonuses offered by the Government for the promotion of Colonial Industries, have been sent in by the New Zealand Titanic Steel Company, and Magnus Manson. of Motupipi, for steel; and by Edward M'Glashan, of Dunedin, and Joseph Mackay, of Tokomairiro, for paper. It is rumored that Mr Carreras will receive a requisition to stand for Central Buller for the Provincial Council. Mr Carreras is well known and respected by the miners throughout the district, and has a thorough knowledge of quartz and alluvial mining. As a practical man his services would be of use in the Council.

John Farrell> late of Boatman's, expired at the Eeef ton Hospital at noon on Friday last* the cause of death being disease of the lungs. Deceased was of Irish parentage, but a native of Liverpool. Very excellent Btone is being obtained from the Maruia claim, Lyellj but the leaders are exceedingly thin, and show ho present indications of widening. Mr Joseph Ivess has got into hot water. Mr Pinkerton, of Ahaura, has published a statutory declaration to the effect that the statement made by the member for Eeefton that he drove about Nelson in Mr Mirfin's buggy instead of attending to his duties in the Council, is false. Mr Iveas has also foUnd it necessary to disclaim having used the expressions towards Mr Donne, the member for Charleston, which are contained iri a telegram forwarded to the Nelson Evening Mail, and published in that journal of the 10th instant. His remarks in respect to the Government being imbecile, &c, so he says, have also been much distorted.

The Grey Valley Times of Wednesday states that a detailed survey of the basin of Lake Hoehstetter is being made by the staff formerly engaged upon the race. The object of the survey is to ascertain the exact altitude of the Lake, and to find whether it has any other outlet but the one from which the Ahaura takes its rise. Th e circuit of the Lake will be inado, and a map prepared, showing as far as possible the contour of the surrounding country, with the bearings and distances of the most prominent natural objects, The party is camped about thirteen miles from Hatter's Terrace, Neison Creek, and within twenty feet of the Lake. It is expected that the survey will occupy threemonths longer. The country is described as very rough and difficult to travel.

Respecting the probable success of the Kanieri Water Race, the Westland Register says:—We have seen a document which exhibits more clearly than anything else the value and importance of the proposed water r ace from the Kanieri Lake. It is a somewhat premature application to the company for twenty-eight heads of water, which demand, being supplied, would of itself do all that the most sanguine supporters of the speculation ever promised themselves or others, would result from the completion of the scheme.

An editor of many years experience said not long since, that the man was yet unborn who could write a local item and he perfectly sure that nobody would be offended. People are so sensitive, you know !

The estimated receipts and expenditure of tho Westland County Council for the ensuing half year are: —Eeceipts, Gold duty, £4500; miners rights, &c, £2800; spirit licenses, £4000; incidental receipts, £OSO j tolls, punts, aud ferries, £2OOO ; land revenue, £5000; fines, &c, warden's courts, £100; due from Nelson Government for maintenance of prisoners and criminal prosecutions, £987 T0ta1,£20,037. Expenditure: administrative, £950; justice, £737 10s > police, £2885; gaols, £5993 14s; lands and works office, £262 10s ; survey, £1697 10s; harbor, £483 10s; education, £510; charitable, .£3025 18s; public buildings, £940 ; roads and works, £4680 ; miscellaneous, £2758 9s 2d. Total L 19,898 9s 2d. Nelson men, at least some of them, whose ideas do not extend much beyond the objects within range of their own limited notice, would have the world, that is the little Blind Bay world, believe that the Goldfields residents are " never satisfied,'' and that grant what they may the Provincial Executive never get any acknowledgment of even barren thanks. Supposing such individuals could possibly look beyond the distance occupied in this sublunary world by their own noses, would their sentiments agree with those of a Writer in the Otago Daily Times? who says :—" I must really congratulate the Cromwell folk upon the happy audacity which leads them to put forward their just claims upon the Government, and the zeal with which the mining representatives demand what they hold to be their rights, First Mr asked for L3OO to compensate the Corporation of Cromwel 1 for a road which they made at their own expense soma years ago; and got it. Again, onthe same afternoon.Mr moved that a race course should be set apart for the use of the inhabitants of Cromwell. This they got too. Then they demanded the incorporation of the Cromwell Athenaeum Committee—one Corporation being obviously insufficient for so stirring a township—-and received it. Then they demanded an endowment for the Cromwell Public Library, and got that. I do not blame them, far from it; may we all have as good friends to the fore to see after our interests. Cromwell certainly takes after its type, the great Protector, and is riot inclined to lot any false sentiment or nonsense of that kind interfere with its material success.

The Grey Eiver Argus says :—The Greymouth Coal Company is about to be prominently brought before the public of New Zealand, and tho work of opening up the mine shortly commenced. Arrangements were made at a meeting of the directors on Saturday, which it is to be hoped will enable them to place all the remaining unsold shares in the principal towns of the Colony. The directors aro

determined to lose no time in proceeding with the practical working of these coal seams, in the opening and development of which it is their intention to secure the services of a practical engineer and coalmining manager from Newcastle. Tho exceeding liberal manner in which the Government has uigt the Company—in granting a lease for 21 years, with a right of renewal ; to select, during twelve months, 1000 acres of the reserve, by charging no royalty; and making the rental the nominal sum of £2O per annum, cannot fail to induce the public to take an interest in' this promising investment. Tho favorable and liberal lease granted is in a great measure due to the manner in which the interests of the company were represented to the Colonial Government by Mr W. S. Smith and Mr H. 11. Labman, who were elected as delegatesi proceeded to \Vellington, and arranged the lease on behalf of the Company.

The Inangahua Herald says:—"lt is with very great pleasure We learn that recent investigation has led to the discovery of a new resource to the Buller district in the form of considerable deposits of iron-stone; With extensive coal of superior quality already proved to exist in abundance and valuable iron ore, Westport is certain to become a place of some importance in the not very far distant future. From the report of the Westland Commissioner of Police we learn that the whole army of Westland constabulary comprises twenty-seven souls, of the following grades —1 Commissioner, 1 inspector, 1 subInspector, 8 Sergeants, 2 mounted constables, 13 foot constahles, 1 detective, These are distributed as follows—Hokitika, 9; Lower goal, 1 ; Greyuionth, 5; District gaol, 1 ; Clifton, 1 ; Maori Gully, 1; Stafford, 2 ; Wainiea, 1; Greenstone. 2 j Ross> 2 ; Okarito, 1; Kanieri, 1. The force is said te be unable to prevent the spread of petty larceny, and the police buildings are notified as being dilapidated and rotten. The Inangahua Herald reports a series of mishaps at the Wealth of Nations claim, Murray Creek, following each other in quick succession, but fortunately causing no delay in the crushing. Some time ago an order was despatched to Auckland for a new wire-rope, to be used in running down stone from the mine to the machine. Through some unaccountable delay, the rope failed to arrive, and the old one was retained in service long after it was considered unsafe. The rope at last parted, and operations would probably have had to be discontinued until the arrival of the over-due rope had not the creative genius of the manager proved equal to the emergency. Application was made to Anderson's for an old rope recently cast off the trucks belonging to that company, as useless. The application was courteously granted, and by constant renewal of sound wire to the parts most exposed, it was made to do duty, though imperfectly, until Saturday lust, when a loaded truck broke away while a party of men were in the act of splicing the rope. Away went the truck, a ton and a-half weight, down the declivity—one foot in two—at lightning speed. One-third of the distance from the mine to the machinehouse was passed over in safety, when the wheels of tho truck left the rails, and its career of destructiveness and destruction commenced—rails and sleepers were torn from their beds by every blow of the truck, which maintained a continuous series of evolutions for full fifty yards, when, in defiance of the law of gravity, though only for a moment, it shot into the ah and performed the prodigious leap of one hundred feet, piling up at the mouth of the Vulcan company's tunnel, an utter wreck. The rope was spliced, and a spare truck, always in readiness, was at once attached to the line, and the work of running down stone resumed, and continued until Monday, when the rope again parted, entailing results similar to those which befel truck number one. During the rain-storm on Monday a large tree that had been partly undermined, fell across the race, and carried away a portion of the embankment. On Wednesday a small slip occurred near to the terminus of the race, which caused some trouble to remove.

The Superintendent of Canterbury told a Timaru deputation the other day, that the Colonial Government had recently got from India a gentleman expressly for the purpose of marine engineerings We understand that he is the Mr Higginson, C.E., -who recently was deputed to inspect and report on the Buller Protective Works; and Ngakawhau mine and river l .

A seventh call of one pound per share haa been made on shareholders in the Nelson Examiner Company, Limited. It is suggested in Nelson that a testimonial should be presented to the Itev. Gr. H. Johnstone, on his giving up the incumbency of Christ Church, as is his intention a few months hence. The Examiner says: '• The kindly and Christian life by which the reverend gentleman has been known in Nelson has won him general esteem, and we believe the proposal mooted will be generally responded to by persons of all classes and denominations.

The New Zealand Gazette of the 10 th instant contains the half-yearly statements of affairs of the following companies:— Golden Fleece, Vulcan, Wealth of Nations, Peep-o'-Day, Phoenix, Anderson's, Ajax; Enterprise, Energetic, Band of Hope, Golden Ledge, and United Band of Hope > and also the application to register the Monto Christo Company. The N. Z. Herald says the watchword of Auckland is taihoa, which means " wait a while," Aucklanders being, as is well known, eminently fitted for waiters. The present Superintendent of Taranaki is thus described by a Wanganui paper:— Mr Carririgton is treated as a good-natured fool, who never means what he says. All he does is a farce in tho cyos of the settlers,

and becomes at once the subject of fun and ridicule. The New Plymouth people can hardly conceive the comic nature of his deliverances, but it does not require any proof of tho fact to tho Patea settlers, who have witnessed so many Of his performances.