PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 190, 1 July 1873, Page 6

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

* Sydney lias about 500 public-houses. Tasmanian hops are being shipped to India. Chiarini’s circus is now drawing crowded houses in Sydney. The Chinese near Tokomairiro have taken kindly to stonebreaking. A potato-digging machine has been tried with success in the Taieri. Mr Musgrave, the new Governor of South Australia, has arrived in Adelaide. The Thames Maoris are reported to pay j half-a crown apiece for sharks’ teeth. For the week ending June 24, the Caledonian at the Thames yielded 536 ozs. A Reefton telegram, dated June 26, says 200 tons of quartz at Anderson’s yielded 536 ounces. Large quantities of grain are being shipped at Port Molyneux for export to Britain, via Dunedin. Captain Moresby, of H.M.S. Basilisk, has taken possession of New Guinea, in the name of the Queen. An Adelaide telegram says considerable speculation in mining stocks in the Northern Territory is going on. The ship Lccter, now due from London, has on board twenty couple of foxhounds for the Sydney Hunt Club. The Wellington Gymnasium is in a flourishing condition, having just paid a very good dividend to its shareholders. A Sydney telegram says magnificent stone has been struck at Carcoar, N.S.W. It is expected to yield 1000 ounces to the ton. The wife of a miner, named Lewis, at Newcastle, N.S.W., chopped her child’s head off, and then attempted to commit suicide. “Not more than half” of the recent session of the Canterbury Provincial Council, says a Christchurch paper, “was wasted in mere talk.” The Wellington journeyman tailors having brought their masters to terms, the shoemakers have followed their example, and have gone in for a “ strike.” A telegram has been sent from Melbourne to Mr Grace requesting his co-operation in sending a cricket team out, to consist half of gentlemen and half of players. An Auckland paper states that Rum, who attacked Mr Mackay, is said to be marching about by himself, hanging his clothes on trees and preaching to them, a regular lunatic. The following suggestive advertisement appears in the Wellington Evening Post , italics and all :—“Just Landed.—Extra stout overcoats : just the thing for the front, and bullet proof behind; to be had,” Ac. The Bay of Plenty Times, in reporting a recent meeting of the Tauranga Light Horse, held at a hotel in Tauranga, states that after the formal adjournment of the meeting, “ each trooper charged his glass.” Resolutions have been passed by the Queensland Assembly, approving of the laying of a telegraph cable between Sydney and New Zealand and another from Normantown (Gulf of Carpentaria) to Singapore. The cost is estimated at £2,000,000. The result of the salmon experiment is, up to the present time, that out of 120,000 ova shipped by the Oberon for New Zeahand, COO young fish have been hatched out at the Makarewa ponds, near Invercargill, and fifty fish have been produced from the ova which were sent to Christchurch, The anniversary of the battle of Waterloo was taken advantage of by a number of gentlemen in Christchurch to present Lieutenant D. Macfarlane, who fought in that battle, with a silver tea and coffee service, as a mark of their esteem. Lieutenant Macfarlane is close upon 83 years of age. A smart shock of earthquake occurred at Wanganui recently, at midnight. The local paper sa vs that “the effect on poultry was most ridiculous, as several ‘feathered lords’ indulging in the usual midnight fit of crowing were cut short in the middle of their clianticleering by the shake, which flustered them considerably.” Here is what Provincialism does in the small province of Nelson : —A return laid , before the Nelson Provincial Council gives the number of persons in the employ of the Nelson Government as ninety-seven. The total salaries received by these (excluding I the Superintendent and his salary of £600) j amount to £16,546 Is. A number of them are also found in house and firing. Th& Wairarapa correspondent of the Wellington Independent writes : —“ I have never . in all my experience seen such a lot of preco- , cions young scamps as are to be found in the , Wairarapa. At ten a pipe is their ambition, . at fifteen they talk horse, at twenty they are experts at the cue, and at thirty too often they have settled down to a besotted life. A dark picture certainly, but a true one.” The running match between Pox and Drake, proposed to take place on the North Dunedin Recreation Ground, on the 19th . in.st., is likely to be a close contest. Pox is being trained by Austin, and Drake, who is at Wellington, has also gone into active training. Austin will start to walk a thousand . miles in a thousand hours on the evening of , the day on which the running match takes . place. A late Melbourne telegram says : —“ The 1 Government having over-ridden the judgment of the Chief Court of Mines regarding : the claims jumped at Stawoll, both parties ; are expected to come to blows. Two hnn- . dred armed shepherds hold the claims against , the jumpers. The position of the Government on this matter is critical.” Later news . says a vote of, no-confidence in the Govcrn- ! incut has been proposed on account of their 1 mining policy.