INTERPROVINCIAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1640, 28 April 1883, Page 14

INTERPROVINCIAL.

Tho Waikato will shortly be stocked with cheese-factories. Nearly every township ia getting one. Alexander Stewart Gilchrist was fined £10 at Christchurch on Thursday for acting as solicitor in connecti»n with a divorce suit, he not being on the rolls.

A man named cimith, while working at Wilding's steam sawmill at Waipukurau, was cut in half one day last week by falling from a log on to a circular aaw. He was instan taneously killed. The Governor has commuted the sentence of death passed at the last sittings of the Supreme Court at Christchurch upon Ratima Jacob, who murdered his wife at Kaikoura, to imprisonment for life.

The machinery for the Oaswell Sound Marble and Portland Cement Mining Company is now almost completed, and will be ready for shipment next month. Large orders for the marble have been received from the Australian Colonies, besides those from various parts of New Zealand. A fatal accident occurred at Wanganui on the 21st. Mr Wm. Kirkwood, licensee of the Red Lion Hotel, in shooting at a pigeon on the hillside at the back of the hotel, hit his son of seven, and riddled him with shot. Some went through the heart. The little boy died in a quarter of an hour. The gun was a breechloading fowling-piece, and No. 4 shot was used.

intelligence was received on Thursday from Tenui that the telegraph-office in that township was struck by lightning at about 8 o'clock on Saturday night and set fire to. The operator was fortunately on the premises at the time, and succeeded in extinguishing the flames before much damage was done. All the wires in the office were broken by lightning," and no fewer than 11 poles on Black Hill were shattered by the electric discharge.

News from Wairoa states that an unusually severe thunderstorm was experienced there on Sunday. A valuable horse was killed instantaneously by lightning. At 4 o'clock on Sunday afternoon a huge waterspout of an exceedingly well-defined character was observed just off the beach, between Te Wakamai and Wairoa bar, travelling in a southerly direction. It was of an inky blaok colour. After a short time it burst, and a deluge of rain followed. The Maoris were considerably alarmed, believing for the time that it was one of the signs predicted by Te Whiti.

The nominations sent by the San IVanciscomaihvere, for the Colony: — 204Engli8h,171 Irish, 183 Scotch, and 9 foreigners — total, 567 souls, equal to 491 adults. The amount of pas-sage-money deposited was £1892 3s yd. The total number of immigrants nominated to date since the renewal of assisted immigration iB : 2242 English, 2211 Irish, 1383 Scotch, and 145 foreigners— total 5981 souls, equal to 5207 adults ; the amount of fees received being £26,491 13s 7d. Of the returns Bent Home this month 145 are for single men, and 128 for single women. Up to date the returns have been 1401 single men and 2164 single women, the remainder being families.