INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4195, 31 August 1874, Page 2

INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

NORTH ISLAND. WELLINGTON. On the 9tli of June James Donovan, the steward of the p.s. Manawatu, whilst walking across a plank to the shore at Wanganui, through being shortsighted missed his footing and was drowned. The obstructions placed on the Palmerston and Wanganui Road by the Maoris, after the horse-shooting case, have been removed, and the mail coach now does the distance in half a day less time than formerly. Persons about to travel overland to Wellington or Wanganui, through the Seventy-Mile Bush, will be glad to leam that the flying bridge across the Manawatu Gorge has been replaced by a cage, holding four persons, and now the most timid can feel safe while crossing the chasm. AUCKLAND. On Thursday, the 23rd ultimo, Dr. George Topp, who has resided at Waiuku for the last sixteen or seventeen years, expired very suddenly in the house of a man named Frederic Ooverly. The deceased, who was in his seventy-fourth year, having been appointed Government Vaccinator, in the fulfilment of his duties has been talcing an unusual amount of walking lately, and being feeble, owing to his age, and suffering from disease of the heart, he died so suddenly that it was necessary to hold an inquest. A new discovery of oil springs has been made near the mouth of the river Waiapu, in Poverty Bay district. These springs are about six miles distant from those previously known to exist.

The City Council have resolved to proceed ■with water supply works according to Mr. Moriarty’s proposal, and upon plans prepared bf Mr. Errington, C.E. Indications of the progress of the Bay of Plenty aud Poverty Bay are given by the establishment of a steam flour mill at Tauranga, a water-power mill at Wairoa, aud a brewery at Gisborne. It is said that 12,000 bushels of wheat were grown last year at Taurauga. The bones of Kami, a great Tauranga rebel, were disinterred lately, and were buried today in the Church Cemetery, next to the grave of Colonel Booth, who fought against him. The body was followed to the grave by three hundred Natives. The pall-bearers were old European settlers, leading citizens who respected the old warrior for his brave conduct and his merciful treatment of European women and children in the hour of need. Silvering plate-glass for mirrors, is a new industry in Auckland, where there is said to be the only apparatus in New Zealand for carrying on that trade. Mr. Leech, of Shortland Street, is its owner. TARANAKI. Instructions have been received to commence the survey of the railway from Waitara towards Wanganui at once. A rata tree, twenty-two feet in diameter, has been found near the road at the back of the mountain, about fourteen miles from town. The Provincial survey party, with a number of the Waikato immigrants to assist in falling timber, loft' New Plymouth on . Thursday morning last, to commence surveying some of the new blocks of laud recently handed over to the Province. In announcing that more immigrants are to be sent to the Province, the Herald says:— Those who arrived last week have found employment; and, as the public works are almost at a stand-still for want of hands, the Government lias determined to send for a further supply. The Deputy-Superintendent has telegraphed to Wellington, requesting that 100 immigrants, exclusive of wives and children, be forwarded. Of this number, Messrs. Brogden and Son undertake to employ thirty-five; and the Government has work for over fifty. Application has also been made for fifteen servant girls. HAWKE’S BAY. A seam of lignite coal, ten feet thick, of good quality, has been discovered in the Forty - Milc Bush by the General Government survey party. The spot is about three miles from Allardice’s store, towards the main road from the Ruahine ranges. Two ships with largo numbers of immigrants arrived lately, within a few days of each other, at Napier. Within a very short tune after their arrival all the single females were engaged, and most of the tradesmen; All the others, the local journals remark, will find engagements in a very short time. One of tho Hawke’s Bay journals mentions as a gratifying fact in connection with the immioration to that Province, that amongst the immigrants who arrived a few days ago by the' ship Winchester there were several who were possessed of sums of money ranging from £■loo to £I2OO. A Norwegian boy named A r aldemar Morteusen has been drowned, together with eleven bullocks, in crossing the Waipawa river, Hawke’s Bay. About £3OO worth of stores have been also lost by the accident. Dr. Bergren, tho Swedish botanist, who lately visited Wellington Province, is now in Napier, and purposes visiting the hot springs and Lake district. Te Wananya is the name of a new publication in the Maori language, copies of which we have seen, and which is thus referred to by the Hawke’s Bay Times :—We have to acknowledge the receipt from the publisher, Honaro Tomoana, of No. 1 of Tc Wananya, a small printed sheet in the Native language. J During a late visit to Auckland, Henare be-J came tho purchaser of a press aud types, and

brought clown with him a Native printer. Te Wananga was issued on Wednesday, the sth inst. It is well printed, on a sheet letterpaper size, occupying three pages, and contains a long and somewhat florid leading article, and a number of news items, the latter being extracted from our own Maori column. The object of Te Wananga is set forth in the introductory article. It will agitate for reform in the laws affecting Natives, additional Native representation, &c.

SOUTH ISLAND. OTAGO. A meeting of recently arrived immigrants has been held in the Dunedin Athenaeum, when the following resolutions were passed : “ That this meeting pledges itself not to work for the Government under the certified rate of wages.” “ That the newly-arrived immigrants are reasonably entitled to look to the Government for prompt employment on public works at a reasonable compensation, in accordance with promises held forth to the emigrants ere they embarked for New Zealand.” , “That in the event of the Government refusing to satisfy its promises made to immigrants, authentic representations be forwarded to the Loudon Times, Daily Telegraph, and Daily News, setting forth the treatment they experienced on landing in the Colony, and that a Committee be formed to press upon the Government the resolutions passed at this meeting.” The deputation appointed by the immigrants waited upon Mr. MacKellar, the Acting-Secre-tary- of Public Works. They submitted to him the resolutions which were passed by the meeting, and in a conversation which extended over an hour and a half, ' set before him all their grievances. “ Chinese cheap labor” is making itself felt about Cromwell, for the local- Argus mentions that one Mah Hoy was the successful tenderer for constructing a dam for the Bannockburn Water-race Company. Mah’s tender was for £267. The highest tender, by Europeans, was over £SOO. A new Temperance Hall, built of brick and stone, has been opened in Dunedin. The building includes a lodge-room for Good Templars, and, according to the description of a local paper, a room “for hailing tea.” A brother of the Rev. Mi - . Morrison, of Switzer’s, at the Upper Waikaia, has been missing for ten days. The snow is from 3ft. to sft. deep where he is said to have been lost. At Lawrence, Otago, cabbage-tree leaves are being converted into brooms by a colored American. . .They are superior to the imported article.'.. An attempt is being made to breed and rear, sheep on Stewart’s Island. Messrs. Baird and Scott shipped some 500 or 600 sheep by the brigantine Sarah Pile at Riverton, but meantime have disembarked them, in consequence of the severity of the weather. Dr. M. Moughtrey has been appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the University of Otago. A sale of unreclaimed sections in the Bay ‘yesterday reached £16,600, the highest amount ever received for one day's sale in this Province. The Australian and New Zealand Land Company are at present, according to the Southland Times, carrying on extensive operations on their property at Mataura. Prom thirty-five to forty double-furrow ploughs are constantly at work, and each day, when the weather is at all favorable, from seventy to eighty acres of virgin soil are broken up. It is calculated that, at the end of the season, some eleven miles of country will have been operated upon by the plough. A Bluff correspondent writes to a Southland contemporary :—“ I have to record the death of one of the oldest residents of the Bluff — Mrs. McGregor, commonly known as ‘ Granny.' She lived at the Green Hills in the year 1858, and then removed to the Bluff. She lived in the old thatched hut so well known to visitors to this port, and so prominent in entering the harbor. The old lady passed her 80th year last March, and up to -within a few months of her death, was able to earn her own living. Her fame is widespread, as the peculiarities of her dwellinghouse often induced strangers in passing this way to enter.” The Southland News states that the settlement at Martin’s Bay is likely to be abandoned, owing to the difficulty of saving grain crops, from the ravages of small birds and the effect of the prevailing wet weather. The following were some of the total earnings of the Otago railways for the month ending 31st ultimo :—Passenger traffic to and from Dunedin, Port Chalmers, Green Island, and Caversham (15,500 passengers), £1,232. Goods traffic to andfrom do. (4,734 tons), £975. Passenger traffic to and from Invercargill, Bluff, Winton, and Woodlands (3,196 passengers), £519. Goods traffic to and from do. (3,029 tons), £765. The total receipts were £3,592. CANTERBURY. An old Canterbury settler, who is a shrewd observer and graphic writer - , has been contributing “ notes by the way” oh his travels from England to the Colony. He concludes his last letter by giving his impressions of the Province on his arrival there by the overland route from Hokitika. He says ;—“ I had not been in the Province many days before I found things in general so strangely altered, -and people so vastly changed, that it seemed to me almost like a new country, and I could hardly realise that I had been away for about three years only. According to the predictions of your wisest men, you should have been ruined long ago, but you seem to persistently object to fulfil the prophecy, which is rather awkward for the prophets. I have faith enough in you yet to be quite willing to' hold property amongst you. I shouldn’t at all object to a thousand acres of good land or a parcel of 5 per cent, bonds at about 90 ; and wouldn’t mind helping to bear the ‘crushing burden of taxation’ under which you are supposed by some to struggle. You will survive Vogel, and erect a monument to his memory." The balance of the immigrants ex Northampton were landed at Lyttelton on the Bth August. One of them fell over a cliff and was killed, the fence giving way. It is mentioned in the Canterbury papers, as an indication of the local railway traffic, that 123 trucks went from Lyttelton to Christchurch on AVednesday last. Lectures on Chemistry are being given at Christchurch by Professor Bickertou, in connection with the Canterbury College. The first lecture was attended by 400 persons. An unusually large quantity of powder was lately used in one blast at the harbor works at Lyttelton. It consisted of not less than 300 kegs, each containing 251bs. of powder. They were placed in two -■ chambers, and fired simultaneously. Seventy thousand tons of stone were displaced, and the explosion made scarcely any noise. MARLBOROUGH. .

Some very fine specimens of quartz have been brought to Picton from Turner’s mine. The stone is impregnated with gold. Numbers of the immigrants who proceeded to Blenheim have already been engaged. They were received with three cheers as they arrived in town in waggons. Captain Shilling, of the cutter Dido, furnishes the Marlborough Express with an account of a curious fish seen by him and his crow during one of his recent trips. He describes the fish as being from 18 to 20 feet long, with an elongated shovel-nose shaped head and very large eyes, the body black on the back and.yellowish about the belly. It had something like the flippers of a seal, only larger, situated about 4 or 5 feet from the head, and two tails, each about 6 feet long. When it came above water it made a snorting noise, but it seemed to be very tame and kept coming alongside the vessel, looking up at the crew intently. ’ It would then stand up some 5 feet or so out of the water. The fish remained close to the cutter about a quarter of an horn" and then glided away towards Cook's Strait.

The Malborough whalers have at length mot with sufficient success toinduce them to continue the fishing with a prospect that they will bewell repaid for their labor* at the end of the season. On Monday first, says the Press, two “ right ” whales wore captured near Tawhaite, which are calculated to give upwards of twenty tuns of oil, besides a quantity of bone. Good results have been obtained from a crushing of quartz at the Turner mine, Marlborough. About 140 tons were crushed, yielding 114 oz. of retorted gold.

NELSON. There were unprecedented high tides on Saturday and Sunday at AVestport. The lower part of the town was flooded, the sea encroaching a long distance. Houses in Kennedy Street were rendered untenable, and more of the river bank was destroyed on Sunday. The body of Mrs. Carruthers, wife of theTown Clerk, was disoovesed on the sea beach, some miles north of AVestport. An inquest has been held, and a verdict of “ Drowned while in a state of temporary inanity” returned. Mr. C. Y. Pell has been appointed a Governor of Nelson College, in the place of Mr. Brunner, deceased. ’ A destructive fire took place lately at Zalatown, Lyell, by which a party of men who could ill afford it have lost their all. Their hut, clothes, private effects, and all they possessed, were destroyed. Mr. Charles Canning has been appointed Chief Inspector of Sheep for Nelson Province. The first of a number of immigrant ships to Nelson—the Adamant—is reported by telegram to have reached that port. Most of the immigrants are English—the majority are from Kent, Surrey, and the Midland counties, while Corwall, Devon, and Somerset are also well represented. If the female members of families above fourteen years of age are added to the list of single girls, the number eligible for service will be about 34. The Adamant left Plymouth on the 7th May, and the total number of souls on board was 341. The Provincial Government, says the Colonist of a recent date, are erecting an Immigration Depot on the acre in the AVaimea Road, on which the Hospital formerly stood, but as this will not be ready for some time the immigrants by the Adamant, and those by the Charlotte Gladstone, which was to follow about the latter end of July, will have to be accommodated in the building erecting for a Lunatic Asylum, which is now being got ready for their reception. AVork on the Mount Roohfort railway wasr commenced on August 13. Sixty bushmen are clearing timber. The Mayor performed the ceremony of felling the first tree, and made a congratulatory speech. We have already indicated the result of an interview between the Nelson members of the House of Representatives and the Minister for Public AVorks. Previous to these members waiting upon Mr. Richardson, they had had an interview with the Premier, and the result of that interview is reported to the Nelson papers by Mr. Luckie and Mr. Richmond, members of the deputation. The following is a copy of the telegram to the Colonist ;—“The interview with the Premier was of considerable length, and the subjects impressed on his attention. He pointed out that it was necessary to have a survey before fixing the railway route beyond Fox Hill. He showed us a plan with a red line diverging from Fox Hill, round by the way of Tarndale, and over heights of great altitudes, as the country is known in Nelson, The great cost—£Booo a mile—for the Buffer route made it objectionable, but he hoped on the country being revurveyed that a route would be discovered wnich would render the construction of the ine less costly. He considered the line connecting Nelson with the West Coast one of the necessary works of the Colony. Mr. Vogel vvj declined to increase the grant of £SOOO extra allowance to £IO,OOO, and as to the advance of the £50,000, he said that he (Mr.Yogel) had understood from Mr. O’Conor that that sum would satisfy them. The proposal of the AVaterworks Loan Bill was not well received by the Premier, who said it was a project for giving the Province a sum of several thousands from the City Corporation without applying it to reduce the debt, and without any appropriation of such money, which did not appear in the estimated revenue of the Province.” Floating break-waters, moored to the river bank, are being constructed at Westport as temporary protection works. The Duller News informs its readers that the retrenchment policy of the Nelson Government has been developed another stage. The solitary policeman who had hitherto been ’ stationed at the Police Camp at Westport has been removed to the gaol, whereby, we are informed, the expense of lighting wiU be saved. Truly, there is nothing like economy. Mr. McLean, the contractor for the construction of the Westport and Mount Rochfort railway, has called for the services of 400 men. A public meeting has been held in one district of the Grey Valley, to consider the increasing price of butchers’ meat. The butchers were represented; but they could not promise a reduction of. price, and the meeting ended in nothing.

WESTLAND. A new. and large telegraph • office—much needed-—is to he erected at Greymouth. A handsome testimonial has been given to the Rev. Eather Belliard, on his leaving Greymouth for Christchurch. Mr. Geisow, the District Engineer, is said by the Grey River Argus to bo doing what he can to put a stop to the track system, which has lately been so openly carried on in connection with the public works on the West Coast. With regard to the Westport Railway contract, he has given public notice that contractors will be strictly held to the clause ‘prohibiting the system. In reply to inquiries respecting the movements of Eox and party, who started on a prospecting expedition in the southern districts of the Province some ten weeks ago, the Register states that no intelligence has yet been received on the subject by the Provincial Government. Considering the difficult nature of the overland route, it seems unlikely that any communication from Eox will be obtained until a vessel visits one of the southern ports. The Ross diggings lately contributed to the export of gold from Westland, in five weeks, and through the Bank of New Zealand alone, thirteen thousand ounces of gold. The retirement of Mr. Beale from the service of the Bank of New Zealand, on his assuming office in connection with the new Colonial Bank, has led to some changes, one of which is the transference of Mr. Roberts, of the Bank of New Zealand, from Hokitika to Dunedin. Mr. Roberts' has been Manager in Hokitika for many years, and chief officer for the Bank throughout the West Coast, where it has many agencies established. The public appreciation of the manner in which he discharged his official duties is sufficiently indicated by the character of the banquet and presentation which preceded his departure from Hokitika and from among an extensive circle of friends on the Coast. His successor has not yet been named. Good reports continue to ,be received from the Greenstone rash. Sixteen claims have been bottomed, and parties are at work in them with excellent prospects. Mi-. W. C. Roberts, for nine years manager of the Bank, of New Zealand on the West Coast, takes the management of the Dunedin branch in a few days. He was presented at a banquet at Hokitika with a souvenir of plate valued at £250. The banquet was the largest ever held on the Coast. A miner named Christian Lawson has been accidentally shot at Greek’s Gully, a gun going off in his own hands when in company with his mates, shooting. His wife and family arrived in Wellington only five days ago, and he intended meeting them there by the next steamer. The short supply of cattle in Westland has led to the exportation of carcases from Wellington to Hokitika- A consignment was sent by the steamer Albion, and others are ordered to follow. The same cause has induced cattleowners in the southern parts of Westland to draw upon their stock, and some very superior animals have been brought into the market from localities where, a few years ago, it was thought impossible that stock could bo reared. A new telegraph office is being erected at Hokitika at a cost of £I3BO. A quartz reef is said to have been discovered recently in the neighborhood of the Greenstone rush, and a party is being fitted out to prospect it. A number of Californian quail have lately been received in Greymouth and Hokitika, and liberated in suitable situations in the neighborhood. Mr. Carruthers, C.E., who lately visited Hokitika, reports that the liver there shows a dangerous tendency to leave its present channel alongside the toum and go over to the opposite side. He makes several recommendations with the object of preventing such a contingency.