PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 166, 14 January 1873, Page 7

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

In the Dunedin Athenceiim, there are 8815 Works. The anticipated deficit for next year in Tasmania is £71,000. There is to be a grand Orange meeting at the Thames next month. Thirty-two entries have been received for the next Australian Cup. Extensive beds of petroleum have been discovered in South Australia. Pleuro-pneumonia has broken out amongst the cattle in the town of Adelaide. 15,000 people have travelled on the Port Chalmers railway since its opening. It is announced that Mr Driver has ceased to be American Consul at Dunedin. A bazaar held in Naseby recently in aid of the Presbyterian Church realised £2OO. 3000 persons were present at the Caledonian Gathering in Invercargill on New Year's Day. At the Tararu (Thames) butts, on the 2nd inst., a boy was shot through the arm while marking. Sunday trains are to be run on the Dunedin and Port Chalmers railway, three times fcach way every Sunday. In the Auckland Acclimatisation Society's garden, China and Assam tea plants thrive vigorously in the open air. On the opening night of Chiarini's circus in Auckland, 3000 persons were present. The performance exceeds anything ever seen in the Colony. The first coach from Greymouth arrived in Reelton on the evening of Jan. 3, and was greeted with loud cheers. The trip occupied eleven hours. A great thunderstorm passed over the city of Auckland on Sunday, Jan. 5. The peals ■of thunder were terrific, but there was no great amount of rain. A " terrific" bush fire occurred at Tapanui •on Dec. 24. "The sound of the roaring flames was like muffled thunder," says the correspondent of the Tuapeka Times. For a large native meeting to be held shortly in the Auckland Province, the natives have prepared 100 kits of dried shark, 60 head of cattle, 400 sheep, and 600 pigs. Quartz from the Ohinemuri country has gone an ounce to the ton. At the Thames, an agitation has been raised to have Ohinemuri opened, for the purpose of prospecting. At the Supreme Court sittings in Wellington, a man named William Thomas, convicted ■of an indecent assault, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment, with twenty-five lashes. At a cricket-match in Timaru, between the Oddfellows and Foresters, a ball hit by one of the batters struck a Mrs Edwards in the face, and rendered her insensible for a considerable time. The MontezUma hotel and store, at St. Batlians, owned by Mr Ps Mellon, was burned •down on the morning of Friday, Jan. 3. Mr Mellon lost his all, and much sympathy is felt for him-. The Bill introduced to amend the constitution of the New South Wales Upper House, provides for the division of the Colony into twelve electorates, each to return three representative?-. Mr Call, a Police Magistrate in Melbourne, recently dismissed a charge of brothehkeeping brought against Madame Diana de Beaumont, remarking that such houses were perhaps necessary* In Winn's claim, on Yam Creek, Northern Territory, a reef of extraordinary richness has been struck. It is stated to be nine feet thick, with an average yield of one hundred •ounces to the ton. The Roman Catholic? decline to accept State assistance under the new School Act •of Victoria. They propose placing all their schools in that Colony in the hands of the Sisters of Mercy and Christian Brothers. A number of Taranaki natives—hitherto the strongest opponents of the sale of land—have offered to sell to the Government a large quantity of Valuable territory. Mr M'Lean visits Taranaki this month to negotiate the purchase. In a letter to the Southland Times, dated 30th December, Messrs Brogden (through their agent) thus complain : " 95 people ex Bebington were lately landed by us at the Bluff, their passages having been paid by us, in pursuance of an agreement whereby they Unreservedly bound themselves to allow us to retain one-fifth of their earnings until the whole amount of their passage-money should be repaid. Out of these 95 people, one only is now working for us, the remainder having been absorbed, in most cases without our consent, by the employers of labour in this district, none of whom (with one exception), so far as we are aware, have made any provision for securing the repayment of the moneys due to us."

A late Grey River Argus says :" A party W Chinese arrived in town yesterday, after receiving, at the hands of some of the inhabitants of Maori Gully, treatment which is the reverse of hospitable or creditable-. According to the report which has been furnished to the police, and which will probably have to bo acted upon to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents, the Chinese in Question arrived in Maori Gully from the direction of Clifton ; and, as soon as they appeared, they were, it is said, chased out of the township by a number of the residents—miners and business people.' Although no great amount of violence was used towards them, beyond pulling and pushing them along the road, some forty or fifty people joined in the crowd, and the Chinese were sufficiently alarmed to run as if for their very lives. The names of those who were prominent in the outrage are known to the police, and, as fre have said, it is likely that some proceedings will be taken."