COLONIAL NEWS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXXII, Issue 120, 19 September 1873, Page 3

COLONIAL NEWS.

The Kurunui Company, the oldest on the Thames, has paid £8,000 in dividends this ) uai\ A cockatoo farmer near the South Line (Christchurch) was run over by the train and cut to pieces. From tho indications it would appear he had been drinking, and had fallen asleep on the line, a bottle of rum having been found near the body. The Otago Times learns by telegram that Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and Co. have reduced their freights from London to New Zealand to 30s. per ton. Newcastle coal is being sold at Oamaru at £6 per ton. Could not a shipment for that market be sent from the Grey, or West Wanganui, or Colliugwood ? By the outward English mail taken by the Alhambra, there were forwarded from Canterbury applications for 540 nominated immigrants, equal to 400 statute adults. The cash deposited amounted to £1,396. The Hutt furnishes an instance of longevity in a married couple that is seldom paralleled. An application has just been made to the authorities to admit to the Colonial Hospital ail old man named Doreen, aged 94, who has been bed-ridden for some time.

His " better-half" is 97 years of age. This worthy couple are what the Chinese would call " very rare birds." The Marlborougli Express states that on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, when the weather was unusually severe in the Straits, the tide in White's Bay was higher than was ever known before. Upwards of fifty sharks were washed ashore, varying from six to eight feet in length. The photograph of a fish which was recently found on the ocean beach, and shown at the last meeting of the Otago Institute, waa forwarded to J>r. Hector, aad a reply has been received to the effect that the fish " appears to be a specimen of the Natastoma, or the glass eel. Only one specimen of this genus is known, and is confined to the Mediterranean. I will be glad to describe it if you can send the specimen up." In the same letter Dr. Hector reports upon a youug fish which was found dead in the Shag Eiver, and which bore a great resemblance to the sea trout or Salmo trutta. He expresses his opinion that this specimen is " the young of the true Salmo fario (var. Garmandi), or small burn trout of England ; not the large Thames trout (var. Ansoni), which is the co-nmon brown trout now in New Zealand." There is published with the Government papers a very encouraging report of the state of the Native Schools in the Hokianga district, by Mr. Spencer Yon Stunner, the local Resident Magistrate. There are 58 pupils at Waima. The Waitapu school has -M pupils ; this school is spoken of in terms of high encomium. Mr. H. Williams spoke in similar terms of the Native Schools in the Bay of Islands district. The Oromahoe school has 43 scholars, 38 attending regularly. The progress in " pronouncing " English is said to be imperfect, but in writing, reading, and arithmetic the advance is very marked. The native contribution is regularly paid, In the Hokianga school needlework is taught to girls. The body of Captain William Simpson, who was drowned at midnight on the 21st August, was discovered floating in the Hokiaaga river, about a mile from, where the accident occurred, on Saturday morning last, the 6th instant. An application was lately made by the Board of Education of Auckland, through the Deputy-Superintendent of the Province, that the Central Government should lend to the Province £30,000 for the building of new school*, and £10,000 for building and endowing a college for the education and training of females. The answer was a direct refusal. Iv Hawke's Bay Province two boys went out pig-hunting the other day. A " porker " was baled up, and one of the lads took a loaded gun by the muzzle to club the animal. In doing so the gun went oft', the contents being lodged in the boy's stomach. The boy was killed. A remarkable instance of prolific birth ha 3 occurred amongst a flock of sheep at Pigeon Bay. The flock are pure bred Leicesters. One ewe dropped four lambs, all of which are healthy, and twenty others had triplets, so that twenty-one ewes have produced sixty-four lambs. Nearly the whole of the remainder that have lambed have produced twins. Captain Morris is a candidate for the representation of Tauranga in the Provincial Council. He has been engaged addressing the Maori electors with great success. A requisition is being signed calling upon Mr. Robert Macdonald, a publican, to stand as a candidate for the seat. The "strike" of the tailors of Christchurch is at an end, the difference between them and the masters having been amicably adjusted. A country correspondent supplies the Soutliern Gross with the following :—": — " He stuck to his pipes to the last. A sad fate has been reported to us of a well-known character to some of our readers. Scotty, the Highland piper, who has rendered our Caledonian Games so attractive by his playing the pipes in full costume, and who lately ran away with a friend's wife, was playing for a picnic on a steamer lately, and having — as was his custom — filled his bags with wind and his stomach with beer, he fell overboard, and went down blowing the pipes to the last."