PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VI, Issue 311, 27 October 1875, Page 7

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

The discovery of a new goldfield, fourteen miles from Coromandel, is reported. According to the Inaugahua Times, it has been reported, but upon what authority the Times knows not, that Patrick Bough, at one time.a resident of Reeftoo, has been fortunate enough to draw the first prize of £24,000 sterling in the great Austrian and Hungarian Loan Lottery. The Melbourne Cup day is now being looked forward to. A large number of horses exercise,on the course each morning. Kingsborough, Imperial, and Melbourne are at present the best favorites. If the weather is fine, it is expected fully a hundred thousand persons will be on the course, as the day is a public holiday for the Prince of Wales’ birthday.

At Reefton, West Coast, the residents are taking time by the forelock in the matter of Christmas sports. From the local paper we learn that a meeting on the subject has already been held, and it is confidently believed that the committee will be able to offer prizes in the aggregate amounting to over £230. The prize of the Handicap Foot Race is to be £72.

The latest betting on the Christchurch meeting is as follows : —Canterbury Cup—s to 1 against Kauri, Ranolf, and Tamburini; oto 1 Guy Fawkes, King Philip; 7 to 1 Rory O’More, Certainty colt, Tattler, Daniel O’Rorke, Blair Athol, and Pnngaw'erere. For the C. J.C. Handicap—Guy Fawkes and s.ory O’More receive support at 6 to 1, and 6 to 1 is obtainable about King Philip, Hercules, Ranolf, Kauri, and Pnngawerere, A Nelson telegram of 20th inst. says ;—A discovery was made to-day that a valuable case of drapery and jewellery, consigned to Mr Miller, draper, per ship Chile, had been opened, and some of the contents, of the value of £l7O, abstracted. The ship was searched, and a quantity of the jewellery found behind a bulkhead. The chief officer, having been selling jewellery of that description, was arrested.

According to an Australian exchange, about forty ladies and gentlemen from the Riverina district met most accidentally at Epsom Downs on the Derby day. The meeting of so many who had lived on the plains of Riveriua, 16,000 miles distant from England, was ■one of great pleasure, and possibly, nay probably, the like will to them never occur again.

The trial of a patent horse-clipper recently took place at Melbourne, and the Argus skives the following description of this new invention : —The American horse-dipper consists of a stand of stout iron about 4ft high, attached to which is an iron arm .about sft long, having another at the end of it about the same length. At the extremity of thi? arm is the clipper—a small round comb, with n cutter on the outside. The motion is obtained by working a wheel attached to the upright standard. The two arms give the greatest freedom of movement, and when •once the workman is used to the machine, the clipping can be done so rapidly that a •quiet horse can be easily clipped under an hour. These machines are in general use in America, and have found considerable favor in England. ,

The Cross, thus comments on the appearance of the defeated Auckland football team on their return to their homes “ Henderson returns with a ' lovely black-eye Pilling has got a tremendous knee, and is very bad ; Woon’s appearance is ‘ fearfulEllis shows pretty little abrasions of the cuticle of the frontispiece, the nasal organ, &c., and has a ‘leg Sharland has been left behind in Taranaki, with a bad .•shoulder; Whitaker'has got a very bad le" ; Peacocke’s instep is not altogether the thing ■ Burgess has caught it in the ankle, and had to be -carried off the field in Christchurch; Nolan is •also ‘very had.’ Indeed, the glory of hard lenocks never received g-eater exemplification than in the late trip of the Auckland football ieam to the South."

Scarlet fever has made its appearance in Invercargill. A medical man has written to the ; v al Board of Health to the effect that there • c 'ire six children in one family suffering from the •disease. The family in question number fourteen, and occupy a small house near a quantity of stagnant water. The board resolved to •cleanse and quarantine the house, and take •other precautions.

One day last week (says the orepaid •correspondent of the Southland News) a rather thoughtless young fellow, an employe on the Pahi Station, was trying to fire a gun off, and -came very near losing the number of his mess. It appears that the cap snapped right enough, hut no report following he thought he would take a peep down through the muzzle to ascertain if possible the reason. His inquisitiveness was met by a blinding flash, the charge exploding just as he was about to peer into the barrel. Two pellets of shot ploughed their way along the surface of his forehead, the burning powder making a clean sweep of his eyelashes and eyebrows, and rendering his optics useless for two •or three days. He says the next time a cap snaps with him he will wait a reasonable time and then ■examine the nipple.