INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4250, 3 November 1874, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

NORTH ISLAND. AUCKLAND. His Honor the Ceief Justice held a sitting in banco on the 28th October, and delivered judgment in the case of Williamson v. the Auckland Improvement Commissioners, which was an argument on demurrer to a plea. The action, it will be remembered, was brought to recover £5300 for breach of contract to take over certain property which the Commissioners had intended to include in their scheme of improvements, but which they found, it unnecessary to purchase after the value had been assessed by a jury at £5500. The question was as to whether the notice of non-intention to purchase was given in time. His Honor overruled the demurrer, and judgment passed for the defendants, with costs. Mr. Clayton, Colonial Architect, is now in Auckland, engaged in inspecting some of the public buildings, with a view to their improvement in several necessary respects. The chief object of Mr. Clayton’s attention is, we are glad to learn, the long-neglected Supreme Court. It is intended to renovate the exterior, and to improve the inside by making alterations so as to do away as far as possible with the acoustic defects, and the' inconvenient arrangement of the jury-box and other portions of the interior. MIDDLE ISLAND. . MARLBOROUGH. The Chile will be the first wool ship for the season to load at Pork Underwood. The Chile is now discharging in ' Nelson, and although there has not been much wool down yet, there will be, no doubt, good loading for her by the middle of November, when she is expected to he at the port. C. H. Langston, who was committed on the 27th ult. on a charge of fraudulently procuring an acceptance from Mr. John Shepherd, Grove Town, was remove.d to Picton Gaol on the 29th, in default of finding hail. We learn that a considerable number of sections situate on the south-west side of the town of Blenheim have recently been purchased by Mr. John Ewart from A. P. Stuart and Co., of Wellington. A smart shock of earthquake was felt in Blenheim on the 22nd inst. It seemed to proceed from south to north. A road through the district of Opawa, and a bridge over that river, are to be constructed as soon as possible. Lime-buming is, being prosecuted vigorously in the neighborhood of Picton. Tlie Rev. G. S. Harper, of Blenheim, is endeavoring to raise funds for the erection of a Wesleyan chapel near the far-famed Massacre Hill. There is a scattered population in the distx-ict who are ready to do their share towards it, hut they require outside assistance as well. “It is possible,” says Mr.' Harper, “that some for whom Massacre Hill has a mournful interest may be glad of the opportunity of assisting in this good work.” A large sum of money has been subscribed at Picton to be given as prizes for the various events to be contested on the day of the regatta, and the celebration of the anniversary promises to bo a great success. Several new boats are expected to be entered for the pulling and sailing 1 races, and as the owners .of each are confident of winning, a good deal of excitement will be felt until the events are decided. In the evening a ball will take place in connection with the regatta, -- WESTLAND. The first barges which have arrived at Greymouth loaded with coal, the product of the Greymouth Coal Company's mine, reached the wharf on the27th ult. It is understood the company is not yet in a position to -bring down a regular supply, owing to the unfinished condition of the winding machinery. It is stated on good authority that Mr. Canavan, the member for Okarito, intends to retire immediately from the Provincial Council. Some most singular fish have been cast up on the beach within the last few days, and have been secured by the scientific of the town for preservation. They range from about two to three feet in length, soaleless with shining skins, and in shape like along attenuated barracouta. They have only two pectoral fins, dorsal or vental being altogether wanting, but in lieu of the former they have a succession of prickly spines along the back, without,any connecting integument, and as fine as needles. Under the lower jaw is a spike, hard and bony, quite unlike the beard found in some kind of fish. The head otherwise is very like that of a barraoouta, the mouth and teeth being formidable in proportion to the fish’s size. It is a riband in thickness, its greatest depth not ex- . ceeding at the outside in any part an inch, whilst, as we have already said, the length is from two to three feet. The eyes are very large and prominent, and the color is that of mackarel, or . barraoouta. Some of the old fishermen set the new arrivals; down as' .frost fish, hut though similar in some respects, their size prevents the supposition. The tails, we omitted to say, are forked. Whether they are or are not curiosities,- the West Coast Times cannot say, but they have puzzled some of the wisest naturalists in this town, and if wo share in ignorance of what they are, it is not surprising. The singular part of the matter is that they were stranded on the morning’s tide, when the sea was calm, and there seemed no leason whatever for anything swimming in the sea, or floating on its surface, to bo carried unwillingly to shore. The value of Westland country, says the West Coast Times, is becoming better known and appreciated daily, and applications for runs under the recently relaxed conditions of occupation arc pouring in to 'the Westland Waste Lauds Board. Should they continue at the present rate, there will be very little acreage fit for pastoral purposes unoccupied in a few months, and settlement generally will bo largely promoted thereby. It will also render the Coast in a year ’ or two quite independent of meat supplies from other places, at least as far as cattle are concerned, and a famine of the kind that we are now suffering from will be rendered impossible. The postal authorities in England cannot be made to know that Canterbury and Westland are two distinct places, and they are still in the habit of mixing the correspondence of the two provinces, to the great inconvenience of the Westland people. Though Mr. Vogel was successful in getting the Australian mails transferred to the Tararua, it seems, the Times says, that the English correspondence has gone, at least the greater part of it,, to Canterbury, and we were therefore premature in congratu-

lating our readers on the probable eax-ly receipt of their home letters per Tararua. The new provincial seal has arrived from Melbourne, and we have been favored with one of its impressions. The design is a very simple one, but at the same time'exceedingly appropriate. It consists of a fern tree, with five fronds, under which two kiwis are in the act of feeding. Around the upper edge are the words “ Province of Westland,” and at the lower the Latin quotation “El mea messis erit.” NELSON. The Boss Guardian learns that private advices from Wellington state that the sentence of three years’ imprisonment passed upon S. M. Spiers, late postmaster at" Ross, for embezzlement, has been commuted to fifteen months. John Dougherty, a cattle-dealer, well known in the Grey Valley and on the Inangahua, was on the 23rd October committed for trial at Nelson for stealing sheep from a Mr. John Kerr. Mr. E. 0. Kelling, Clerk to the Resident Magistrate and District Court at Reefton, has arrived at Nelson, and will take the place of Mr. George Hodgson, as Clerk to the Superintendent .and Executive. The latter gentleman declined to go to the West Coast, and has left the Government service altogether. Now that the Nelson Loan Act has passed into law, we may hope, remarks the Colonist, that the works for which the province was authorised to borrow the money will be begun without any unnecessary waste of time. The amount of the loan is £30,000, and of this £27,000 will be devoted to the construction of a dry dock and a new wharf, and the remaining £3OOO to the completion of the new lunatic asylum 1 . One of the new arrivals by the ship Chile, a boy aged about- seventeen years, says the Colonist, met with a very serious, accident on the 27th nit. About ten o’clock on the evening in question, he was lying in a state of intoxication on the tramway, in front of the Colonist office, when one of the projecting parts of the ’bus caught his leg, inflicting a Very severe wound. Dr. Ootterell was immediately sent for, and he on arriving had the sufferer conveyed to his surgery, where ho attended to the wound. The youth was afterwards removed to the hospital, where he now lies. It is stated that he will lose the limb. A public meeting has been hold in Westport, at which resolutions were adopted praying the Provincial Government to form the road between that port and Reefton, Larry’s, the Lyell, and Boatman’s. Several waggons readied Reefton from Greymouth on the 26th ult. The difficulty attending the- passage of the Saddle was overcome by; unloading and sledging the goods over the bad pieces of the road.