PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 189, 24 June 1873, Page 6

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

The Maoris at Raglan, Auckland, are reported to be reducing shop-lifting to a science. A fire brigade' man in Melbourne has been charged with setting fire to his own premises, but was acquitted. A Northern paper says there are no less than 29 secret societies at the Thames, 13 of them being Orange lodges. An Arawa, named Aporo, is employed in the survey office at Tauranga, and he is stated to be an "accomplished draughtsman." An Auckland lady writes to one of the papers to know whether there is any legal hindrance to a female becoming the Superintendent.

In Sydney recently a severe fight took place between a man-of-war's men and the police. The ringleaders of the sailors have been arrested. The Government have offered a reward of £IOOO for Pukurutu, the murderer of Sullivan, and large rewards also for several other Maoris, his accomplices. A fire at Trent's chicory factory near Christchurch the other day destroyed the whole of the buildings except the fireman's house. The buildings were uninsured, and the loss is estimated at £BOOO.

Frederick James, chief clerk to Messsi Henderson and Macfarlane, of Auckland, having been apprehended on a charge of embezzling £ls the other day, attempted to cut his throat; but the wound is not a serious one.

New Zealand lancewood has been pronounced one of the finest timbers in the world for the manufacture of violins and other musical instruments. Orders have been received from Melbourne in Auckland for several instruments.

The Ltjell Argus reports that three men recently crossed the Buller river in a sluicebox with a piece of calico simply nailed across the end. They were driven to this dangerous expedient by a person to whom they owed some money having seized their canoe as security for the debt. The settlement of Wangarei, Auckland, has lately been suffering from an invasion of rats. The animals are supposed to have been drowned out by the floods, and hence to have taken refuge in the settlers' homesteads, "causing no small consternation by their numbers and voracity." The Nelson Examiner publishes a letter from Admiral llous on the question of the disqualification of Peeress. The letter says that the disqualification of Peeress by the Canterbury Jockey Club was a violation-of the law which protects private property. No horse can be disqualified unless it has been fraudulently run, or entered under a false name.

The shearers in Victoria are organisirig'a strike for next shearing season. They intend insisting on 14s. per 100, with rations. Their programme lays down that no two prices shall be given in any shed ; that the word " sheep" shall include all sheep of any sex or age ; and that no shearing shall be allowed except during shearing hours.

The Nokomai correspondent of the Daily Times says;—On the 7th, a miner named King very nearly lost his life from a large slip of earth into the tail-race on Campbell's spur. He was quite buried, but left standing. His mates speedily uncovered his face, but after that were three hours in digging him out. His collar bone was broken, but medical assistance being sent for from Switzers, he is now doing well.

An accident attended with fatal results occurred a few days ago at the new coal shaft now being sunk on Mrs Shand's property at Oreen Island, to a young man named John Motherwell. One man had been lowered, when deceased, who had just come out of the shed, jumped on the sling without being ordered. The horse hook had by some means become detached, and the man was precipitated to the bottom, a distance of 121 feet, and instantaneously killed. An amusing instance of the bigotry and tyranny of that most illogical and tyrannical community, the Sabbatarians, occurred at the Hutt a week since. One of the cases on which Mr Crawford, E.M., was called upon to adjudicate was an information laid against a settler there under the old Sunday Trading Act of Charles 11. for infringing the Lord's Day by driving out his horse and cart on Sunday to fetch home his wife. A technical irregularity enabled the magistrate to dismiss this preposterous charge. A Grahamstown telegram, dated June 13, says : —" A man named Daniel Burke has been remanded on a charge of having, on the 24th April, at Mercury Day, murdered a clerk in the sawmill, named James Marks. They were drinking together, and both the worse for liquor. They left the hotel together, and the body of the deceased was found a fortnight after. At the inquest, the jury returned a verdict of found drowned, but recent facts led to Burke's arrest." Burke, who is a discharged soldier, has already served ten years for manslaughter. At an inquest held in Christchurch on Juno 14 on the body of Walter Aston Doarden, who had his leg broken by a coach accident on the Sumner road, on May 24, so badly as to render amputation necessary, and who died at the hospital on June 9, the jury returned a verdict of " Manslaughter" against Thomas Osborn Crisp, the driver of the coach. The evidence showed that Crisp had driven an overloaded coach, without break and without breeching on the horses, down the steep slippery incline, at the bottom of which the coach capsized, injuring Dearden and other passengers.

Mr James Smith, of spiritualistic and magnetic notoriety, appears to be training up his sun to follow in his footsteps. This will be

seen from the following Maryborough telegram, published in the Melbourne Tehgrapk of the 2nd June:—"Mr James Smith and his son Charles lectured hero to-day (Sunday), and caused much excitement. Crowds attended both afternoon and evening. Ho claimed for himself and his son, aged thirteen years, direct inspiration from ' the Father.' He stated that Heaven was not a place but a condition, and declared leading Christian truths to be 'monstrous.' Some sensation was caused by his professions of 'direct inspiration." That Australia maintains its high reputation as one of the healthiest parts of the world is proved by the statistical abstract of the health of the navy for the year ending 31st June, 1872. In that the returns of ratios for invaliding show 58.2 per 1000 on the East Indies station, 48.9 China, 47.5 West Coast of Africa and the Cape, 37.4 Pacific, 35.2 Mediterranean, 33.8 North America and the West Indies, 30.7 Home, 22.9 south-east coast of America, 22.7 Australia. The death rate was 17.2 per 1000 on the West Coast of Africa and the Cape station, 14.6 East Tndies, 12.0 China, 11.2 irregukr force, 8.9 Pacific, 8.8 Mediterranean, 8.1 south-east coast of America, 7.4 North America and West Indies, 6.2 Home station, and 5.6 Australia.

When some dramatic professionals were leaving Westport somewhat suddenly last week, they omitted to pay the bellman for crying their performances during the nights they were playing. The bellman was indignant, and during the time of the starting of the ship Kennedy, and for a good half hour before, he stood on the wharf, bell in hand, which was freely handled at frequent intervals, exclaiming, " Here's a lot of wajabonds by Act of Parliament has been and done me out of ton days of my lungs, and they are robbing me out of my rights. One of them's the gentleman with the white hat standing near the wheel, and the other's a gentleman with a bine wail over his face which don't hide it a bit, and there's another gentleman with no soles to his boots, &c, etc." And so the bellman continued identifying the renegade professionals, and announcing that he had been done out of two pound ten's worth of lung power. An exciting game of billiards, 1000 up, was recently played in Nelson, at the Custom Hotel, between Mr Gollop and Mr Davis, a gentleman from Invercargill. During the first half of the game the Nelson player maintained a decided advantage, and left off to refresh about sixty points in advance of his opponent. On resuming play, fortune still smiled on him. and he increased his lead to nearly 100. Mr Davis, with a fine break of 56, principally spot strokes, reduced this advantage, but for the next 100 no material change was made in the relative positions of the players. Mr Davis then began to steadily overhaul Mr Gollop, and passed him at 819. On next getting the cue, Gollop again got a lead of about thirty, but Mr Davis played brilliantly, and succeeded in recovering the lead, which he maintained for the remainder of the game, and won by nineteen. The play throughout on both sides was really excellent, both gentleman ranking among the best players of the colony.