Interprovincial.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 893, 30 March 1877, Page 3

Interprovincial.

It it usual to have races at Hokitika either immediately before" or after those at G-reymoutb; thut at a meeting of the Jockey Club on Friday last, the secretary reported that he bad attempted to obtain subscriptions for the purpose, but had been unsuccessful,' and- tbe committee resolved on proceeding bo farther with the matter. „ ' > x The Hon. Dr Pollen, Native Minister and Colonial Secretary, has taken up his 'permanent residence in the ministerial building in' the- Ttnakori -* rbad r Wellington, lately occupied by Sir Julius Yogel, and which has been unoccupied since his departure. From late Wellington papers we learn that the whole of the coach line through to^ New Plymouth is once more in the bands of Mr' Andrew Young, who was the first to establish the line. He has now bought out Mr.Honi Pihama, to whom the Government a few. years, ago insisted on giving the contract for the portion of the line u irom" 'Hawera to ' New Plymonth. . ' ' A-disoovery , bat been made in the Inangahua, which, although but little importance appears to be attached to it by: tj^finder, must, says the .\ Times,' tarn pntfpf greaf valued It is a deposit bf^i^e' f wlus in all its chief cbaracteristics resembles the Turkey stone of com. merce. It is h&rd, identical in color,, and for sharpening tools it is quite equal to the Turkey stone in, general use. Mr Kater, ironmonger, of Broadway, has squared and mounted a piece of the .•tone, andfind* that it answers every purpose. The exact locality of tbe deposit ia at present kept a secret. In Invercargill lately a horse belonging to Mr William Gumming, Richmond Grove, met with an awkward accident. The -animal, which was yoked to an empty cart, was being driven by a boy, and when crossing tbe railway the shoe of a forefoot caught, and stuck fast in the apace between the rail and the iron guard. The sudden shock threw both horse and cart over, and the shoe remaining fast, tbe hoof was broken open, and nearly halved at the coronet. Fortunately the shoe and its fastenings yielded a bit, or the hoof would have been brought off entirely* Assistance, was soon at hand, and an iron lever' soon released the imprisoned foot/but the animal will not be fit to work for weeks. A good many people, says the 'Auckland Herald,' were surprised when chinaaien advertised here for the fungus which grows about the roots of decaying trees in the bush, giving somewhere about 3|d per lb for the article, for the purpose of exportation to China, to make soup for Chinese grandees. There is another curious branch of trade which the Chinese pursue in the Pacific Islands, and at which the captors of the big shark now on exhibition might make some money if they understood the process Jt seems that sharks fins are one of the greatest delicacies in creation. On catching a shark —tbe bigger he is tbe better— the Chinamen in tbe trade make a cut with a long blbded knife on each side of the fin, and draw it out of the body, having attached to it a mass of tendons and filaments. The whole in then beaten and macerated with salt water. After it is properly prepared and dried it will keep for any length of time, and the long filaments attached to the fin are clear and crisp, like isinglass. Shark's fin, dressed, is sold at six dollars perlb; and the weight whuh could be cut from the big fellow caught near tbe Wynyard Pier would be something considerable. Chinamen are truly ingenious, finding their delicacies in what we should never have thought of — birds' Bests, sharks' fin« and fungus. The proceedings of the District Court on IViday afternoon last, at Reefton, were (says the ' laangahua Times ' of the 14th , *flist) of an exceedingly somnolent character, and the spirit of Morpheus rested heavily upon more than one gentleman present, who is ordinarily accounted "a wide-awake customer," Messrs Button and Staite were engaged in a long and dry argument upon the law of trespass. One learned gentleman who was not engaged in the case, but sitting at the barristers' table, could be seen with his head dangling over the back of his chair, the of his thoughts being fitfully inftV"** 0 * b J * ■obdued " silvery ■nore/' which nC w »nd *gain broke the monotony of the proceJ* 10 *?- Th « of the Court's head-or raw*' tbe bead , of the Clerk of the Court— c."? o *"* languidly forward like " a big sunflower ; but not all his spasmodic efforts could " shake off downy sleep," and finally he too drifted into the blissful Land of Nod. The officer of tbe Court for a time struggled manfully, but gradually the up-jerk-kings of "Ills' heavy bead " became less and less frequent, and finally the dulcet influence seized him holus-bolus, and leaning gracefully against the pannelling of - the Bench, he too indulged in a beautiful doze. But as an instance of the " ruling passion strong in" — sleep, he would suddenly wake up and cry out " Silence," bat it happened on one or two occasions that just at the instant he awoke and ' uttered* hismandate there was not a soul in the body of the Court, and the Graveyard stillness of the scene was broken only by the measured 'voice of his Honor the' effect may be imagined, A little later on his Honor remarked that he thought he beard somebody yawning in the Court — and, said his Honor, "it appears to come from somebody sitting ~ Tery near me. If any of the officers of Court" have-hadtrinsufiicient steep" it •would perhaps be -as well for them to , retire To a more convenient place." 'You : can bet there was ' some considerable wakefulness on the premises about ■ tjfts period. .

Tbe • Post* thus talks of the B.M. and Police Inspector of Wellington : —Mr James Coutts Crawford ia no lawyer. He had been a mate in the Boy a I Navy when he started as a New South Wales settler ; he was one of the 4< overlanders" with stock in the early days of South Australia; migrated to Wellington early ia 1840 ; became sole proprietor of Witt peninsula, a grazing farm of 1800 acres, between the city and the harbor's mouth ; and has been for' 20 years tne Resident Magistrate of Wellington, preferring, on 'one celebrated occasion, that billet to aj seat in the Legislative Council. Mr Atctieson is not a lawyer. - He was a grocer's boy in London and Wellington, and grocer on a small scale in Wellington afterwards; a loud political agitator against Dr Featherston, till he held his tongue and got his police billet from that shrewd politician. A s Inspector of Police, | he is in a position to dictate to the Magistrate what constitutes " compounding a *fejony." According to him, if a publican a cheque* and on first presentation find "no funds," but on second presentation after the accused's arrest finds the cheque is duly honored, that publican is guilty of compounding a felony,'ia illegally " interfering with a case when it is in the hands of the police," and doing that which tends to defeat the ends of justice ! Perhaps the policeman will dictate to the Magistrate that the banker is also a party to the monstrous conspiracy, by honoring— after funds were paid in to meet it — a cheque that he bad previously refused to honor while there were no such funds. We trust that, under the new organisation^ if the Magistrates have not dignity enough to keep policemen in their places, the Minister of Justice may be able to teach both their respective duties.