PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 167, 21 January 1873, Page 6

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

A public band is expected to ba foraud H J shortly in the Arrow district. j y Newspapers are to be carried free in future BLri in New South Wales, South Australia, andßor Tasmania. BL a Two hundred thousand pounds worth ofHL silk, in various forms, is annually imported into Victoria. r ■* a] In the Arrow district, Chinese are em- y ployed in the harvest fields. They are to " shape" fairly. | (J The girl Osborne, who was burnt during L, the pantomime at a Sydney theatre, has since L] died in the Hospital. |' re Sir Benjamin C. C. Pine, Governor of the i OII Leeward Islands, is to succeed Governor Fer- T gusson of South Australia. 'j. () . Mr John Williamson advertises that he i„ will be a candidate at the next election for j a j the Auckland Superintendence 7 . . j^ The Caledonian claim at the Thames seems to be falling off greatly in its yields. Last pemonth's yield was only 530 ounces. .^ Arrangements are being made for the ap- J pearalice in Dunedin of Madame Cora, a ft, ; male magician at present performing in Aus- i ra ' tralia. • [ f a tj Two reef claims on Yam Creek, Northern |,"-f rol Territory, (where the hundred-ounce stone-1 was recently discovered,) have changed hands L 0 at £2OOO each. J, or Large purchases of native land on the JL C Coromanclel Peninsula, Auckland, have been made by the Government. Gold has been gi lt obtained in parts of it. A constable, while examining the scene of ie the late bush fire at Tapanui, came across a fe lir small still which had been concealed in an» j|P. xr old saw-pit and covered with scrub. M es Two splendid nuggets, weighing together j n , nearly 570z5., were lodged in the Bank at .- t j ir Westport recently. They were found twelve po j months ago in Irishman's Creek at the Lyell, A hotelkeeper at Akaroa, Canterbury, has en (under a Provincial Ordinance) been fined £5 for keeping his licensed house open, and al- m ; lowing billiard playing therein, on Christmas m [\ Da . , . , hoo The General Government intend shortly to sancommence the construction of a large reser- ; lan voir and water-race to supply the Waimea ran district, in Westland. The cost will be about lT £45,000. |«ve At Lawrence, the Governor was presented l-j n c as he passed the Chinese Camp (which has m been christened Chinatown) with an address p a , from the Chinese residents of the district. R in The Camp was gaily decorated. jpo On the opening night of the Opera season ;. cll p in Dunedin, the gas went out during the ptv- ; 7 ,„ foraiance. Candles were obtained, and nV ; ; Sk .j orchestra kept the audience interested £v ; : half-an-hour, when the gas "came in" again,. „ e^ There are 126 breweries in Victoria, arc; t. TO „ the beer brewed last year amounted to " the |jj„j enormous quantity of 13,001,145 gallons, or p m ! an 18-gallon caskfull for each mai , woman, w 0 g and child (teetotallers included), in the Co-1^ i leny." The capital invested in plant and 1^ premises is £470,000. jthe There appear to be some excellent claims H e&l on the West Coast. The Alpine quartz claim ft^ at the Lyell yielded a Christmas crushing of g^fi 1500 ounces of gold from a little over 100 Mm tons of stone, taken from the main reef ; and || e the Golden Crown alluvial claim, at Clear- | o p< water, Boss, is giving splendid returns, as ||j much as £BO a man per week having been ] iea obtained. irer Georgia Clark, one of the female pe: ft rinera ||di connected with Chiarini's circus, now per- ||v< forming in Auckland, is known in California ling as " the lady with the iron jaw." She is ae- mv customed to hang by her gaiters and held a ;aS ; man, with a strap round his body, by her iliis teeth. A Californian paper is of opinion fthe that such qualifications would doubtless en- mm able her to develop great strength of language Ane when so disposed. |jasc At Manawatu, Wellington, a man named K"V Humphries died recently under rather pecu- pis liar circumstances. The deceased had walked/ Hi,] about twenty-five miles the day before his, km death, and announced that he believed he and i was about to die. He then made a will, pain I which was duly witnessed, though no parti- : j cular importance was attached to the circumj stance, as the man seemed to be in ordinary . * health. Next day, however, he was found |h | dead, after a fit of apoplexy. j^cr The Daily Times has been shown some |' eo ' specimens of steel manufactured in Dunedin §? from iron sand by Messrs Binnie and M'Gill. md One of the specimens was made from the M & much heard-of Taranaki sand, and another | ero from sand from the Molyneux, and the latter | ron . ■ is the better of the two. Messrs Binnie and sava M'Gill are very sanguine of having solved per the long-vexed problem of successfully and Bt i cheaply" smelting the iron sand, and, to judge P by the specimens referred to, their anticipa- 1 tions would appear to be based on good d' '. grinds. _ fej In connection with an article in another k. column headed " Strange Wagers," the fob fe\ lowing may be of interest. We take it from g] the Marlborough Express, and the incident j a occurred at Christmas sports in that Province: » —"The extraordinary feat of Punning » Pe quarter of a mile, Bieling the same distance, m Pulling a Boat a quarter of a mile, Walking ■»'< f and Hopping each a quarter of a mile, and B|! finally Swimming a hrndred yards, in aqua l ' ■ ter of an hour, was also performed, orve ■ . should rather say nearly performed, the HL >' match being lost by only fifteen seconds, ] t This was attributed to the fact of the boat E^ e having swung round to the current, which i^, • caused a slight delay. The public were, how- lent ever, so well pleased with the manly way in m^ T which the several tasks were performed, that Kg. a purse of four sovereigns was subscribed on ft, ' the ground, and presented to tlio performer §j of the feat." " |