PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VI, Issue 294, 30 June 1875, Page 6

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

The Charleston Herald has it very bad. Writing of a Council election about to take place, it guahea forth thusly :—" Before the morrow's sun beams over the horizon, the election of a member to fill the vacant seat in the Provincial Council for the Buller will have transpired, and.the result flashed like lightning, on the wing 3 of electricity, through the length and breadth of the colony." A man in Blenheim was recently summoned for arrears of school fees. In Court, he commenced to abuse the School Committee, saying that rank spite was at the bottom of the case, because he would not send his children to the Borough schools. He further stated that he would sooner rot in gaol than pay, upon which the Bench ordered the constable to take him into custody for contempt of Court. He subsequently apologised and was liberated. Captain Charles worth, one of the oldest Canterbury settlers, died at Christchurch on the 12th inst., from an axe wound in the foot, accidentally received whilst watching one of his men cut down a tree. When the burial took place, the procession was stopped by the police, on the ground that an inquest must be held, as death resulted from an accident. The friends of the deceased are of course greatly aggravated, as Dr Frank had given a cercificate of death caused by erysipelas. The Wellington Tribune has an amusing story from Wanganni to the effect that during the late session of the Supreme Court some Maoris got into the Judge's room and tried on his wig and gown, and used the Sheriff's hat in a similarly disrespectful way. Having committed these sacrileges they got away unscathed, but not so the lawful owners of the head gear, one of whom has since made his appearance with his face painted wi«h iodine or aome other insect destroyer, much to the diversion of an irreverent public. The Palmer River correspondent of the Cooktown Courier is responsible for a rather good yarn about Bishop Quinn's intercourse with the diggers there. He says :—" At the Lower Township the right rev. gentleman was discoursing to his congregation in digging parlance. His lordship would 9how them the road to a much better rush than anything terrestrial, and where the reward would be infinitely greater. Is it anything to be wondered at, with flour at 3s and 4s a pound, that a digger should put the question in sober earnest, ' What's the price of tucker there, mate?' or another should ask, ' What's the fare V " A singular and mysterious affair occurred at Warrington. A man named Gibson, a discharged soldier, went to a bakehouse and asked the man in charge if he might be allowed to warm himself. His request was complied with, and the man, having left the i bakehouse for a short time, found on his return that Gibson had fallen into the trough in which the sponge was set, and that he was completely covered with the soft and yielding dough. The body was pulled out, but life wa3 quite extinct, the deceased having no doubt been immediately suffocated by inhaling the carbonic acid gas generated in the . process of fermentation, and the soft dough • stopping his mouth and nostrils. The baker • gave orders to throw away the dough in • which the deceased was smothered. As L Gibson's coat and waistcoat were found on the kneading table, it is supposed that he committed suicide. The Timaru Herald of a recent date, in an able article on the lofty distinction Sir Julius t Vogel has so well merited, says :—His first . intention, if we mistake not, on arriving in I this Colony, was to open a tobacconist shop ■ in the Arcade at Dunedin, a sort of colonial 9 Houndsditch, where Jews in a small way of 3 business congregate, and ply their respective " trades with their proverbial industry. Meeting, however, with an opportunity of attach- '" ing himself to the Press, he took advantage s of it, and applied so much power and energy {m to the management of the Otago Daily Times, ; . that he soon made it, without exception, the j, best paper in the Colony, and established for i-1 himself the reputation which he has never lost, of »u exceedingly able jouiualiifcv