PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 152, 8 October 1872, Page 7

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

A fire brigade haa been established, in-Law-rence. ■

A shipload of Scandinavians have arrived in Hawke's Bay. The Supreme Court was to be opened in Dunedin yesterday. The Dunedin Spring Race Meeting is to be held on November 30. Two bear cubs have been imported to Canterbury from Canada. Hop-culture is about to be commenced in the Wanganui district. Fever is rife at present in Christchurch and the country nund about. Mr Vogel has been asked to stand for the superintendency of Auckland. Mr Macassey has resigned his seat for Waikari in the Provincial Council.

The Wellington cabmen are on strike, and the Christchurch carpenters threaten one: The Australian Eucalyptus, or "blue gum," is said to be making its way all over the world. At Auckland, a man has died from the effects of a fall while attempting to throw a chair at his wife.

The third crushing of the Ajax Shield Co., at Reefton, yielded 600 ounces of gold from 300 tons of stone.

As a sign of the dullness presently pervading Reefton, it i 3 mentioned that but one lawyer is resident there. Last year, 38,770 gallons of spirits manufactured, in N.Z. were exported, the duty on which amounted to £10,731. Twenty Leicester rams, chiefly the property of Mr R. M'Morran, were worried to death ! near Arrowtown the other day. The Tuapeka Times urges a conference—to beheld in Lawrence, of course, —of delegates \l from the various Mining Associations. I Tauranga news says that Mr Morrison, a publican, has gone to interview his Maori majesty, to obtain his consent to prospect for gold. Two Blue Spur companies are to have a case in the Lawrence Supreme Court in December, in which the damages are laid at £6OOO.

A sample of black sand, found within six miles of the Bluff, yielded upon analysis by Professor Black 58 per cent, of metallic platinum.

The Colonial Government, it is said, intend spending £OO,OOO upon the construction of the Tuapeka railway during the next twelve months.

According to the Nebon Examiner, it is rumoured that Mr Vogel will be taken in hand by Jewish friends, and helped into the British parliament. In urging upon the Government the other dav the appointment of a Minister of Mines, Mr Mervyn said he thought Mr Curtis was well qualified for the office. A Maori recently died in the Auckland Province who distinctly remembered having been taken off while a child to see the ship of the u great navigator," Captain Cook. A perfect fossil oyster has been found while sinking a shaft in a coal-pit at Green Island, at a depth of about eighty feet from the surface, embedded in grey sandstone rock. Messrs Ormond and M'Lean, late Ministers, have commenced an action against the Wellington Evening Post for a libel contained in a.Maori letter published by that paper. Mr Horace Bastings, late Jtfayor of Lawrence, has been presented by the Town Council with a very handsome address ; and by the townspeople, with a •ilver tea and coffee service.

fcfiiA Q u icksilvexr mine is reported to have been %Lscovered about twenty miles north of ihe Bay of Islands, near an old crater. A quantity of the mineral has been sent to the Thames to be tested.

It was stated, in a recent issue of the Australasian, that the Llanberis Company, at Ballarat, had crushed 3000 tons of quartz, averaging only 2dwts. 4|grs. per ton, and yet had made a profit of £l5O.

Th'd library in connection with the Thames Mechanics' Institute has, for some time past, been opened for a few hours upon Sundiv afternoons. It is proposed now to open the reading-room on Sunday evening. The existence of large animals in the upland lakes of Tasmania is thought by Mr C. Gould, F.G.S., to be "a good and substantial foundation for the Bunyip stories." He thinks the animals are fresh-water seals. There are now open in New Zealand 2135 miles of telegraph,—in all, 3823 miles of ■wire. The cost of their erection, together with the cost of the submarine cable between the two islands, has been £187,072 19s. 2d. A piece of ground in Melbourne, having a frontage of 30 feet, with a depth of 150 feet, was disposed of at the enormous prtce of £370 a foot, or £ll,lOO for the 80 feet. Undoubtedly this is the highest price ever paid for land in any of the Colonies. An interesting controversy is now being carried on at the Thames, between the Rev. James Buller and a writer in the Evening Star styling himself " Histriomaitix," on the effect of theatres. The clergyman, of course, takes the rather narrow-minded view that theatre-going is productive of wickedness in every variety ; while the other is much more liberal.

We (Sydmy Morning Herald) have been requested by the Colonial Secretary to publish for general informttion the following telegram received from the Government of South Australia :—•" Chief Secretary, Adelaide, to Colonial Secretary, Sydney. It is absolutely necessary that you should warn persons leaving your ports for the Northern Territory, that there Are no means of conveying them from the 9e«,-board to the reported gold-fields, and that there is no stock of provisions in the country upon which people can »ely for support." " ■ "