INTERPROVINCIAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8330, 1 October 1898, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL.

[Per Prkss Association.] WELLINGTON. To-tuv. The amount of Customs dues collected at Wellington last quarter was .£125,857, which is a record for the port, tho largest amount received in any previous quartet being£llß,B22 for thequartcr ending Match 31st this year. CHRISTCHURCH. To-day. Obituary : Captain Daiivergue, aged 81. He arrived in Lytlclton in 1858.

The Princess of Wales has had a singular distinction paid her by England's oldest colony. On the first day of August Newfouud'land issued a new three-cent stamp, which beats the effigy of Her Royal Highness. The likeness is unmistakable, ana as it is the first time tho Princess of Wules has heen portrayed on a postage stamp every collector in the British Empire must secure this addition for his album. It is the third of a series of Koy.il portraits to appear on the stumps of Newfoundland. The first two, the one-cent stamp with Her Majesty's portrait, and the two-cent with tint of the Prince of Wales, were issued in 'November last. The next will he ii hulf-ceuli bUmp with Prince Edward of York, and about the end of this year or the beginning of next a five-cent stamp will appear with the Duke of York's portrait.

A curio in whittling has been done by a youth of 18 at Cheviot. It is a chain nearly 7ft long, of about 40 links, with swivel and hook, whittled with a pocketknife out of a piece of 2,x 2 Baltic pine. The Ranyitikei Licensing Bench has refused all applications for wholesale licenses to soil liquor at Mangaweka, Moawhango, and Utiku. The police objected in every ci\se. The existence of opium dens in Wellington has been known to the police for some time, but they are practically powerless to check it. On Wednesday last llio police visited one of these dens and found a. shocking state of affairs. In a room, apparently used solely for opium smoking, were four Europeans, seeniinglv victims of the habit, and the atmosphere was almost stifling, A thunderstorm which passed over Hastings last Monday possessed several peculiar characteristics. In Hastings proper all that was noticed was heavy thunder and a slight fall of hail. About a mile to the west of the town the ground was covered with large hailstones. At Tomoana, about a mile to the north, there was neither hail nor rain, but at Taradale there was a deluge of both, accompanied by deafening thunder and vivid forked lightning. The Wairarapa Standard reports a dastardly act perpetrated at a Wairarapa flaxmill. For some apparently trivial reason the men struck, and as their demands were not satisfied gave a week's notice., The same rltiy a bucket handle was found in a bundle of flax, a piece of iron in ; another. Had not the machine been in k perfect order, a fatality would have hap- \ pened to the two men working it, besides - serious damage to the machinery. It is s possible that the pieces of iron accidentally s got mixed up and tied with the llax, but ' this assumption did not satisfy the manager, x who immediately discharged the hands. s The story is told in Greytown of a well- ;j known Maori who, with his wife and his 0 two or three young children, came from 0 the East Coast and remained during the sitting of the Native Land Court. The y wife was addicted to " waipiro," and as an H opportunity offered left her husband to ]j look after "the picaninnics while she took g . to liquor. Last week she was absent for q several days, and finally her husband w placed the youngeat child in a shawl at, j< his back and went in search of her, but v returned unsuccessful. Upon removing the shawl he found that the child he had >een carrying was dead.