The Provinces.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 13, 9 February 1870, Page 7

The Provinces.

A handsome Jewish synagogue has just been completed at Wellington, at a cost of about £I2OO, It is Bituated on the Terrace.

The financial prospects of Wellington are described as growing daily worse and worse and more hopeless, A man named Eitzpatrick Was lately run over by a cab in Queen-stlect, Auckland; and received such injuries that he died in half-an-hour afterwards. Another man was also run over by the same cab and.badly hurt. The jury at the inquest returned a verdict of accidental death. The cabman was afterwards fined .£lO for furious driving on the occasion. It is proposed to place a stained glass wiudow in the church at Timaru in memory of the late Mr Balfour, C.E. To enable all classes to join in this appropriate expression of esteem for a valuable public servant, subscriptions are limited to 10s Gd. All persons desirous of contributing can , pay their donations into the Bank of New jZealand, to the Balfour Memorial Fund. All the seaport towns in' the Colony have been invited to assist.— Octniaru Times.

A rara avis was seen a few days ago on the north road about a mile out of Oamarti, in the shape of a pure while lark. It is well known that albinos are of occasional occurrence amongst most species of animals, more particularly among birds: white sparrows, white crows, and even, to use a contradictory phrase, white blackbirds find a place in most English museums; but this is the first instance that has come under our notice of a similar freak of nature in New Zealand.— lbid.

The Wellington Independent learns on reliable authority that all opposition to the surveys at the Manawatu has been withdrawn by the natives themselves, and that the trigonometrical survey of the block will be at once resumed. It is stated also, on the authority of a native letter, that this course is adopted by the advice of the King, and that all future causes of complaint are to be referred to courts of law, and their decision accepted.

The Southern Cross has been informed that an immense tract, of flax country, extending all the way from Raglan to Port Waikato, a distance of about 30 miles, and having a breadth of three or four miles, has been leased by a gentleman named Young, who, it is said, intends to have it surveyed and cut up into portions to suit persons desirous of entering into the flax-preparing business. This will supply a want very much felt at the present time, for there has lately been considerable difficulty in obtaining flax land in convenient places, and at a reasonable figure.

A serious accident (says the Oamaru Times of the 28th jilt.) happened yesterday to a man named Morgan, who is in the employ of Mr James White. He was engaged in assisting at a reaping 'machine, when by some means or other he .fell in front of the knife. The horses were stopped immediately, but it was found that one of Morgan's legs, had. been seriously injured, the tendons being" severed, and the knife penetrating to the bone.The sufferer is under the care of Dr Ebbs.

A very distressing accident, says an Auckland contemporary, occurred the other day to a young lady, Miss Mary Coultas,, the only daughter of Mr John Coultas, proprietor of tho Whangamarino Fjax Mills, Waikato. It appears that on the evening of Friday, the I.4th January, Mr Coultas started from home about half-past eleven to proceed 'to Auckland, and as it was a beautiful moonlight night, Ins daughter accompanied him for homo distance on the road, and after leaving him proceeded, accompanied by a younger brother, to a creek in order to indulge in a bath before retiring to bed. It is supposed that she must have been suddenly seized with cramp while bathing, for almost as soon as she entered the water, she disappeared from her brother's sight. Although a very diligent search has been prosecuted, the body lias not been found, and it is premised that it must have been carried by the stream into the Waikato Biver.

One of the divers engaged in getting wool out of the ship Lightning has been enjoying a submarine " forty winks." The day before yesterday, the men engaged in the above-named operation thinking their mate was rather longer than usual in sending anything to the surface, made tlie given signals in such cases without getting any reply, and.having exhausted all means of communication from above, began to feel somewhat seriously alarmed lost some serious accident had occurred to tlie man below. They accordingly equipped another diver, whom they sent down to see what: was the matter. Judge the Surprise of the last named individual when he found his male fast asleop, dreaming the happy hours away iis comfortably as'if he had beon lying on a bed of down. The story of the men who played cards in the diving-bell at Westminster Bridge, or Shakespeare's shij> boy whose eyes were sealed upon tho high and giddy 'mast, are very ordinary tales compared to this. man was quite sober at tho time. It is necessary to state this, as some persons have circulated a report that he was halfacas over.—Canterbury Press.