PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 141, 23 July 1872, Page 7

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

petty thefts by children are becoming very common in Dunedin. In a late census in Victoria, one honest--Bpeaking individual returned his religion as£ s - dA shipment of 300 German immigrant* is to arrive in Dunedin during the course of next month. A woman in Auckland has been sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour, on her fiftieth conviction for drunkenness. The journeyman bakers in Auckland have obtained the concession that working hours shall be from five in the morning until five at night. A San Francisco paper speaks of the Mohongo, one of the steamers engaged in the mail-service to this Colony, as a " Satan's Death Trap." A Mr Perston, Secretary to the Kaueranga Board, recently committed suicide by blowing out his brains. The accounts of the Board s how a deficiency of £6O. William Nixon Morton, formerly Inspector of Police in Otago, died in the Lunatic Asylum in Auckland, from exhaustion, owing to extreme attacks of delirium. A Mr Hannan, a member of the Arahura Eoad Board, Westland, was recently fined £SO, by Mr Warden Price, for filling the office of assessor to the Board, at a salary. The West Coast Times reports that there are now about 400 persons at the Woodstock rush. Gold has been struck by five different parties, and prospects are showing well. A Captain Souter has shown to a Thames paper some very fine specimens of fossil flax, which were found imbedded in a reef, some 300 feet from the surface, in the Californian Company's ground, Tararn. In a breach of promise of marriage case in Dunedin the other day, the plaintiff received damages to the extent of £4O. The defendant was a stockman on the Bellamy station, and was only 22 or 23 years of age.

A destructive fire occurred at the Thames on the morning of the 16th inst., by which seventeen buildings on the north side of Pollen-street, Shortland, were consumed. Many lost their all, escaping only in their night-dresses. Some of Mr Brogden's navvies have arrived at Well ngton. Before going to work, they demanded more wages than the ss. a day they had been promised. Mr Brogden agreed to give good men 6s. for nine hours, and to allow piece-work.

In connection with the Green Harp case of " salting" at the Thames, of which mention was made in our telegraphic news a week or two ago, the manager, a sharebroker, and several others connected with the mine, have been arrested for conspiring to defraud, and are now under remand. Much fear of a serious disturbance was entertained on July 12 at the Thames. The Orangemen had announced a procession ; and two thousand Hibernians, many of whom went from Coromandel on purpose, paraded the streets with a view to stopping it. The procession was abandoned ; and a collision happily avoided. The small-pox is creating great excitement up North. Several deaths from it are announced in Auckland, and one or two in Wellington. Vessels from Auckland are to be quarantined on arrival in other ports ; and all mails thence are to be fumigated. In Wellington, it was suggested that the opening of the Assembly should be postponed. One morning recently as the R.M.'s Court at the Thames was about to be closed, an individual appeared at the " bar," and wanted to make a complaint against the police. The next morning he appeared as a prisoner for being drunk and disorderly. It is to be presumed that for the future he will not complain of dereliction of duty on the part of the guardians of the public peace. The following are the total amounts of dividends declared, up to the 12th June last, by the undermentioned companies at the Thames : —The Caledonian, of course, comes first with £567,710 ; the Golden Crown next, with £122,268; the Long Drive, £79,940 ; All Nations, £39,015; Moanataiari, £13,844; and Kuranui, £1,587 10s. ;—making a grand total for the companies named of £824,005 10s.

, The Christchurch House of Refuge is an institution which does a great deal of good in a quiet and unostentatious manner. From we accounts appended to the recent report <* the chaplain, it appears that the receipts airing the year have been £4OO 14s. Id. Wd the disbursements for the same period, "84 10s. Id. ; leaving a balance in hand of *l6 4s. The institution, as its name implies, 13 for the reclamation of abandoned women, *no, after a probationary period, are placed to situations. In this way, a great number "i females have been reformed. The Lyttelton Times of the 24th ult. says : "-; Another striking instance of the uncertainty of human life occurred at Woodend on Saturday evening last. A man named George ttoltby, an old resident in the Northern disp, was sitting in the taproom of the White lr ane Hotel, in company with two or three %ra, when he was observed to cease taking W in the conversation then going on, and «lay his head down upon the table. Those Present thought he had gone to sleep, and % shook him in a few minutes afterwards, J» told him to go to bed. As he did not the call, one of them, a man named jjey, went round the table to assist him to JJ; but when he laid hold of him he was Meetly horror-stricken to observe that the J was dead. The only reason that can be for his sudden demise is that he had drinking rather freely the day before.