Interprovincial News.

Bruce Herald, Volume VII, Issue 649, 13 November 1874, Page 7

Interprovincial News.

The Natives at Kuiti (Auckland Province)are,iu desperate sbrai's for food, and are trying to raise advances on their crops. Our population, says the 'Taranaki Herald,' during the next twelve months will be so largely increased, that if our farmers do not add considerably to their cultivations, it will become necessary to import food for the requirements of the people in the place. The 'West Coast Times' states that aH soon as the weather is sufficiently settled to allow a steamer to proceed to the south, the Superintendent will send a survey party to select the site for the proposed special settlement. It will be probably in the neighborhood of Jackson's Bay, though the exact whereabouts has yet to be determined. There appears to be a reasonable prospect of the erection of the Christchurcb Cathedral being carried on with vigor. A Select Committee appointed by the Synod find that Church property to tho amount of £12,000 or £15,000 is now unlet and unproductive. They recommend that a portion of this property should be sold to the amount of £10,000, which should be devoted to Church pur poses -£5000 towards the completion of the Cathedral, and £5000 for the erection ofchurches and parsonages in country districts.

Mr R. C. Hammerton, Deputy-Regis-trar of Supreme Courfc, has been appointed Secretary to the Stamp Department, Wellington, which fills up the vacancy caused by the retirement of Mr Brandon. Mr Hammerton will occupy a higher position than Mr Brandon did, and will remodel the office altogether. The office of chief clerk will not be filled for the present, pending certain changes. The opening of the Ohinemurigoldfield (Auckland) is now almost a settled thing. A meeting was held there on Monday, and it was expected to settle final arrangements. Te Hira and other leading men having consented to the opening. Mr Parris has made arrangements with the Taranaki Natives for the purchase of four hundred thousand acres of land, consisting of five blocks. The land stretches from Waitotara to that already acquired at the back of the mountain It is spoken of as beiDg splendid soil. Surveyors are now engaged in surveying the boundaries.

Commenting upon Sir George Grey a petition, the * New Zealand Times ' pointß out that, amongst the last of his official acts as Governor, was the transmiaiion to the Secretary of State of a memorandum by Mr Stafford, in relation to the County of Westland Act, in which the Imperial Parliament was invoked to grant; to the New Zealand Legislature that very power to make alterations in the Constitution of the Colony

The following description of W elhngton weather is from a correspondent of the ' ftlar) borough Express ' :— " Thejweather is wonderfully bad ; the wind is constantly howling night pnd day, and the moment the rain ceapes. gravel begins to fly, notwithstanding that the leading streets are in a wretched state, even the main ones, where I have seen more than one overturn owing to the rutp, and. some of the outlying streets are impassable " From the ' N. Z. Herald ' we learn that; the first shipment of this season's wool from Auckland was made on the 22nd instant by the Counters of Kintore, for London. " The parcel consisted of fiftyone bales, and is shipped by Messrs J and Co. It arrived two days aeo from tbe asfc C^asr, by the schooner Effie Meikle, L* vill S. been ce £ fc dow ° b ? a native grower from tW tv ViJ. A portion of the shipment was openC 4 nere^ior examination, and was found to be uj* B honestly packed, and a very good sample." The Auckland ' Evening Star,' of the 21st ult., says:— "A laughable mci dent took place in the Supreme Court this morning on the swearing in of the special jury who were empannelled to try the case of Ireland v. Brogden. Ooe of the jurors, no doubt having before him the prospect of a night's imprisonment, eimilar to that endured by his predecessors, had provided himself with a flask and haversack, which he did not attempt t& conceal, and which, no doubt, contained creature comforts for the place of his contemplated confinement. The Judge spotted these preparations, and was down on the provident juror in a twinkling Having stated what he had seen, he said he must inform jurymen in general that they were not allowed, under pain of being fined, to take refreshments into the jury-room. Under any circumstances it was not allowable that one should be comfortably provided and the reat not so. He must insist on all starting fair. The unfortunate juror was compelled reluctantly to disgorge." A Waimean farmer complains in the Nelson ' Colonist ' of the depredations of the imported English birds. He says : — "On one piece of oats, which I believe was sown to be cut for oat-hay, there appeared at the rate of a bushel and a half to the acte destroyed, the shells of the corn lying thick all over the field, while the headlands and for some distance from the hedges the land was thickly strewn with the blades of the young copn which had been pulled up. With oats at 5a per bushel, and a loss of weight to cay half a tod of bay at £3 per too, this would make a total iorf-tf #1 l7 i<l d P c l ™ c ' l Jff of straw, but; this would not compc^ in oat-hay. My own oats stand now at about half what was sown. My peas were sown very thick and lightly ploughed in the hope of Baying them, but as fast as they came up they were picked off; they appear to stand now at about half of what was sown, aDd other crops that I have seei* bay© been destroyed ia tbe wroe w*y/*

The Canterbury 'and sales for last month show no diminution, fetching in the aggregate the haudsome sum of £67,715.

The Hokitika Fire Brigade Company has imported a steel fire-bell weighing half-a-ton. It is said that under any atmospheric circumstances its piercing tones will be heard distinctly three miles off.

It is reported that the Superintendent and Provincial Secretary of Auckland proceed to England by the next steamer to arrange for special settlement under the new Auckland Waste Lands Act.

A woman in Canterbury recently committed suicide by jumping into a pigtub. Another case of suicide by drowning in a tub of water is reported from Wellington by the ' Post.' A young half-caste boy, ten years of age, named John Ah Tong, has been accidentally drowned in Wellington harbor. It is supposed that he had fallen into the water from one of the wharves unnoticed when fishing. The 'New Zealand Times' mentions, as indicative of the care taken by Mr "Redwood in the preparation of bis horses for their engagements in Victoria, that he ships hence the oats, water, &c.., required for them, that they may not suffer from change of food or drink. The precaution i» not unnecessary, for the water of the Van Yean, it is well known, is for a time not a little troublesome to new arrivals — men as well as animals. . The Ohinemuri correspondent of tn"e 'Thames Advertiser' reports that Mr Mackay has commenced business with the Natives. The Maoris held a meeting at Shortland on Monday, and condemned the proclamation prohibiting the sale of land by Natives to any but the Government. The 'Advertiser' gives the following translation of a circular lately j circulated amongst the Natives :— " Hold on ! hold on ! hold on ! Wait the arrival of Mr M'Lean ; he is the principal man ; he is the minister for the Maori side. He will consider the correct regulation for the welfare of the people. The practice of issuing licenses is very wrong; it is a treacherous proceeding, and has neither head nor tail.— From Mr Dickson."

Smuggling,— The ' Southern Cross ' in a recent issue says : — ' We have heard from some of the ports in the Colony vague whispers of such things as bales of blankets embracing far more valuable articles of small size, and parcels of calicoes enclosing, in one-fiftieth of their Bpacp, commodities of ten times the worth of the ostensible article as recorded in the invoice Nay more ; we have heard it bruited that some of the importers have ceased to import certain ' lines ' because these can be and are sold by others at a price which, with duty added, would produce an absolute loss to a fair trader."

The Nelson ' Colonist,' of the 24th ult., says: — Yesterday morning about nine o'clock a rumbling sound was heard at Stoke apparently comins: from the hill* 5 on the east side of the valley. The sound continued for the better part of an hour — now scarcely heard and then becoming quite loud, as if a heavy waggon waa passing over a bridge. Sounds of a similar character, and of apparent explosions, were heard some years ago during the prevalence of shocks of earthquake, and seeing that there was an earth tremor the evening preceeding, possibly the sound spoken of was attributable to some volcanic action below the earth's crust.