PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 146, 27 August 1872, Page 6

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL

The County Council of Hokitika have voted L.SUJ for the discovery of 100 tons of quartz, to produce not less than 100 ounces of gold. It is expected that the usual grant of L.23,0)0 made by the General Assembly f] Militia and Volunteers, will be red need" this session to such an extent as to virtually put an end to the Volunteer movement throup out New Zealand. The correct return of the crushing from the Golden Fleece claim at Keefton was 8790 a from 1542 tons. * During a heavy gale which recently oc< eurred at the Thames, the Albion tramwaj was washed away by tlio sea, and fell ontfff houses. A heavy frame of the tramway fell upon a man and his wife in bed, —in suehl manner that they had to be released bvtha neighbours : yet they were unhurt. At the Thames, a man named James Mow riu has been lined L.s'o for a, breach of the Stamp Act in signing an unstamped share Uansi T. Very few of the Coromandel mining com panics appear to be self-supporting. A late issue of the local paper says that no less than seven companies are making fresh calls upon the shareholders. A suggestion having been made to the! Wellington I'o.tt that, seeing that the smallpox infection is carried through tlie mail-Dags, the telegraph wires may also be instrumental in the same direction, that paper has recom-J mended that the telegraph posts bo vaeci-l nated. One of Mr Brogden's recently imported] navvies is serving a sentence of two months fur trying to beat out a man's brains against! a stone. Auckland is said to be able to boast of aj greater number of drunkards and vagrants; than any other Province in the Colony. During a heavy snowstorm which prevailed lately in the Mount Ida district,—and, indeed, over the most part of the Province,—S miner resident in Speck Gully, on his return home, was unable to riad his domicile, the whole a Hair being buried in snow. A dogon j the chain was also buried. In the Wellington Province, good wages i can be made at pig-killing. One individual, after completing a contract to kill 500 wild pigs at 4d a head, killed 90 in two davs, at lid a head.

In the debate in the Assembly on the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, Mr Taiaroa, one of the Maori members, suggested reform ins new direction : —in his opinion it was absurd to wait till the death of a wife to marry her sister —the Maori custom was infinitely pre* forcible ; he failed to see why honourable members should not have half a dozen wives. A providential escape from a serious if not fatal accident occurred one evening recently io two children travelling in a coach front Arahura to Hokitika. As the matter has been related to the IVest Const Tim-?*, a wed« ding party was going dovui to Hokitika, and: just as the coacu started the horses bolted. With a courage that cannot be sufficiently commended, tlie driver jumped off, leaving the horses, coach, and passengers to arrange, the affair between themselves. The passejM gers, however, were not to be outdone m gallant bravery, for they also contrived to scramble out, leaving, with a humanity quit? ' bevond praise, the two children in the vej hide. The burses galloped on, and having* length expended their supertinence of spirit, trotted up to the stables in Hokitika, without having dune any damage, although they passed several vehicles on their way to town. ; The children were unhurt, though certainly i somewhat scared.