INTERPROVINCIAL.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 343, 19 July 1875, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL.

♦ OTAGO. It is with regret that we have to announce the death (says the Daily Times) at Invercargill, of Mr G. Webster, the member for the district of Wallace in the House of Representatives. Mr Webster came from Victoria some dozen years ago and invested his capital in sheep-farming in Southland, and at the time of his deatn he still retained an interest in pastoral property in that pai t of the province. Last week Mr Webster was in Dunedin in enjoyment of good health. He left during the week to visit his home prior to his proceeding to Wellington for the Assembly, and while at Invercargill we are informed that he had occasion to attend at the sick-bed of Mr Gillies, manager of the National Bank, who died a few days ago. It is supposed that he there contracted the disease to which he succumbed. On Monday we understand that he was able to write Ja letter to a Dunedin friend. Inflammation of the brain began on that day, and from that time he remained unconscious until his death. Mr Webster, who was better known and appreciated socially than as a public man, occupied the post of Trustee in Bankruptcy in Melbourne before coming to Otago, and was well known to many gentlemen who formerly lived in that city but who are now Dunedin residents. To these the announcement yesterday of his death proved a great shock, as but little seems to have been known of his illness. Mr Webster leaves a wife and six children. The pedestrian match between Scott and Edwards has, says the Star, fallen through. Articles had been drawn up and were to have been signed at the Empire Hotel last evening, where both parties put in an appearance. On the previous evening the match had been made for £25 a-side, with the option of making it £SO, and last night it was agreed to increase the stakes to the latter amount, with the option of making them £IOO. Just previous to' the articles being signed Austin, on behalf of Scott, offered to make it £IOO a-side, upon which Edwards said he would only walk for £25. As Austin objected to this, the match was declared off. We understand, says the Times, that the day labourers on the Port Chalmers section of the Moeraki railway, who got a verdict against the contractor at the Resident Magistrate's Court, Port Chalmers, will be paid by the General Government on the arrival of the next mail from the North. When Mr Barton was examining a witness yesterday (says the Times, of the 17th inst.). His Honor Justice Johnston humorously remarked, " This is not leading the witness ; it is driving him." There was a good deal of fun in Court. His Honor said that Mr Barton had been promiscuously mixing up 1 lading legal questions with simple evidence to procure an answer that had already been obtained, whereupon Mr Barton indignantly remarked that if his Honor charged him with trying to get what was false, he would throw up his brief. His Honor explained that he meant nothing of the kind, and adjourned the Court for five minutes to allow the learned counsel to consider the matter. On resuming, Mr Barton said he was sorry if he had stated anything that was painful to his Honor. His Honor accepted the explanation, mentioning that Mr Barton really must have control of his language. Mr Barton—Yes, your Honor.—The Court continues remarkable for its punctuality. A fire happened in Dunedin on the 16th, by which a cottage was totally destroyed. Mr M. Hyam, the occupant, losing everything, estimating it at £350, none of his property being insured. The building, which belongs to Mr Smeaton, carpenter, was insured in the Standard Company for £2OO. The fire broke out in the sitting-room, Mr Hyam and family being absent at the time. If all new comers to a district received as good a notice as the Shag Valley Merald ac-

cords of a couple of beagles, the reception would be hearty indeed. The writer says:— "On Wednesday last, we had the great satisfaction afforded us of once again patting on the head two (a dog and a slut) very fine specimens of the beagle breed of hounds just imported by F. D. Rich, Esq, of Bushy Park. We believe they arrived per the Taupo, and ten or eleven weeks ago were running on the sward of ' Old England,' and no doubt their melodious and inspiriting baying will ere long be reverberating over the hills and valleys in the neighborhood of their owner's estate, and afford sport of an exhilarating and exciting nature." WELLINGTON. The Post learns from a correspondent who lately passed along the various sections of the Wellington and Masterton railway, that the several works along the line are progressing as favorably as the unsettled state of the weather will permit. The Rimutaka tunnel is advancing at the rate of something over sixty feet per month, while the chief portion of the outside work of the latter section is likely to be completed in something like five or six months from this date, and eight or ten months will probably suffice to complete the piercing of the tunnel. Mr Buller some time ago purchased, says the Tribune, a block of land in the Paraekaretu for Mr Larkworthy of London, but in intimating the purchase to his client Mr Buller expresses his willingness, if the terms did not meet his approval, to relieve him of it. Mr Larkworthy declined the purchase, and the land, we understand, is now the joint property of Mr Buller and a gentleman in Christchurch. The Wairarapa Standard says that as many as 400 black swans have been seen in one flock on the lake this season, and it is supposed that the total number cannot be much less than 3000. They are a perfect nuisance to the graziers in the neighborhood, as they destroy more grass than they eat. It is high time that the restriction on their destruction was removed. With reference to our Pakuratahi contract the Wairarapa Standard says:—From a visit which we made to Pakuratahi last week we are able to give our readers some particulars respecting this contract, which is the largest one yet taken in the North Island. The length of it is only six miles and forty-eight chains, but the exceptionally broken character of the country which it traverses makes it one of the heaviest sections in the Wellington and Masterton line, the contract price for it being nearly £62,000. It is being constructed under the superintendence of Mr W. K. Mason, Resident Engineer, who, though he has been but a short time in the colony, has a high reputation for ability and for a thorough knowledge of the practical details of railway construction, and there is little doubt but that any contract under his supervision will be completed in a manner that will satisfy both the Government and the public. The contractor for the section, Mr W. Fi Oakes, is an enterprising and experienced man who thoroughly understands his business, and who, though there are special difficulties to contend with in this large contract, is pretty certain to carry it out to a successful issue. An idea may be formed of the work to be done on this section, when we mention that it includes five tunnels, fourteen bridges, seventy masonry culverts, and forty-seven wooden ones, with an almost continuous series of high embankments and deep cuttings. The contract commences on a hill near the main line of road between Mungaroa and Pakuratahi, distant from Wellington nearly twenty-seven miles, and terminates at the approach to the Rimutaka tunnel, which latter work is also under the supervision of Mr Mason. It begins with a thirty-foot cutting, which passes underneath the main road, about three chains from the starting point. Here there is a large party at work, a double iron tramway being used to convey the material excavated to an adjoining embankment, (where a large masonry culvert, already completed, carries off the drainage. At different points working parties of men are busily employed squaring timber for the various bridges which have to be erected. Of the culverts on the line a large proportion are either formed or in course of formation. The tunnels are all short ones, the longest being ninety-nine yards, three others are fifty-five yards, and the fifth forty-four. It will be recollected that about a month ago the longest one was reported to have fallen in. A land slip fell over the mouth of it, blocking it up. It is believed that an open cutting can be made of it at the same price it would cost to bore it and line it, and probably this alteration will be adopted by the Government. In all the tunnels the nature of the ground is so unstable that they will have to be lined throughout, a contingency which was not calculated on in the first instance.