Interprovincial Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 755, 24 January 1870, Page 3

Interprovincial Items.

The Canterbury Press has the following paragraph;—We are authorised to state that ihe sentence of death passed at the last Criminal Sittings upon the man Smyth, for the wilful murder of his wife, has been commuted, by the General Executive, to penal servitudejor life. A correspondent of the same journal writes :—" <JcOT> help more than one poor woman that I know at this moment in Canterbury whose husbands have been awaiting the issue of the most unjustifiable agitation in favor of aco inmutation of sentence, in order to determine the measure of their further cruel ties!" A sad occurrence is reported to have taken place, says the Daily Times, at West Taieri, by which a man named James Hastie has lost his lif6. Mr Hastie, who was the son of Mr Alexander Hastie, a farmer in the West Taieri, feeling anxious at hearing that the district was flooded, left Dunedin on Monday by the coach intending to go home. On arriving at the West Taieri bridge, it was found impossible to cross, a portion of the embankment having been washed away. He, however, crossed the river in a boat, and having done so, proceeded on foot, his best way being pointed out. by the ferrymen. The water lying on the low flat was very high, onl) the tops of the fences being visible in some places, and although recmested by Mr Ford, who ferried him over, not to venture, he determined to do so, expressing great anxiety for the safety of his parents. JN"o thing more was heard or seen of him until yeste.'day morning, when his body was found lying in a lagoon in Mr James Shand's paddock, about three-quarters of a mile from the place where he had parted with Mr Ford. He was fouud in about three feet of water, although there must have been ten or twelve feet there when the flood was at its height. It is supposed that the strength of the current washed him off his feet, and that he was unable to recover himself, so as to avoid getting into deep water. The deceased was about «3U years of age, unmarried, and had been of late employed in Dunedin as a drayman. We learn from the Evening Post that the new Synagogue recently erected on Wellington Terrace, was consecrated on |he l§th inst. with the usual ceremonies,

Hie building is an exceedingly handsome one, the interior especially being finished in a style of tasteful elegance, equal if not ' superior to any other place of worship in the city. There was a very large attendance at the ceremony, members of all religious denominations being present. The Otago Daily Times, of the Bth inst., devotes a leading article to the late boat accident at Timaru, in which it states that result of the official enquiry can scarcely be accepted as & satisfactory review of the facts, and that more than one circumstance connected with the affair appears inexplicable, the life buoy breaking when a man was being hauled by it out of the sea, and how those on board the Maori contented themselves with throwing ropes to those drowning almost, within reach of them. The Times also considers that it was an '"liprudeut act to transfer the passengers '• from the surf boat to the ship's boat, and ' that the captain's excuse that it was by Mr Balfour's directions is a very lame one, Mr Balfour having no more to do with it ' than any other passenger, and the whole ' responsibility resting with the captain. J The Times concludes, referring to the conduct of those on board the Maori: —"We ' cannot refrain from saying that something more might have been done for the drowning men than throwing ropes to them. 1 Had any man on board possessed sufficient J courage and presence of miud to venture ! over the ship's side as might very safely ] have been done by means of a rope, the '• poor fellows who were vainly grasping at I the bowlines flung to them might have been saved' in a moment," The same ' journal, of the 14th inst,, says;-—" The 1 remains of Mr Balfour, which were picked ] up one mile north of Timaru on Saturday • last, were brought down yesterday in the ' steamer Wainui, under the charge of Captain Gibson, Harbor Master of Lyttel« ton. In accordance with the wish of Mrs Balfour, th>y are to be interred in the Dunedin Cemetery, alongside the body of the late Mr Paterson, who was a friend and schoolmate of Mr Balfour. Mrs Balfour left Wellington for England last Sun ( day, in the ship Halcione." ( The Timaru Herald says:—" The funeral < of the late Mr Smallvvood took place on j Sunday .afternoon. At three o'clock alarge number of "his former friends assern- ( bled in front of the Timaru Hotel, when , the coffin was at once carried to the hearse j by some of his old companions, and the , mournful procession wended its way to the cemetery. The funeral was one of the ] largest ever seen in Timaru, nearly a hundred persons following the remains to the , grave. The Rev. U. Foster read the . Church service. The coffin bore the in* , scription — ct Alfred Beaumont Small wood, drowned off'Timaru, December 18th, 1869, . aged 23 yca-s." < A late Wanganui Chronicle, says: —" A j member of the Wairoa Rifle corps named. ; ieorge Watts was drowned in the Patea river on the night of Wednesday last. It | appvars that on that day ho had been l drinking in company with some of his comrades in the township of Carlyle, and , when returning to the camp of the Wairoa i iLillos, on the other side oi the river, they i were unable to have the cano.3 brought < uver to them. Watts, who was an experienced swimmer, volunteered to swim ■ across. He never reached either shore, ; and on Thursday morning was drawn from the river dead." The evening Post of the 17th writes:— i "A man named Nathaniel French was run over at the Pakuratahi on the 13th ' inst., by a horse and dray driven by Joseph Hay ward —a carrier from Wairarapa—and died five hours afterwards. An inquest was held on Satu day before Dr , Wilford, and a verdict of accidental death returned." The Press of the 17th says :—" An ac- : cident occurred on Friday evening, which resulted in the death of John F. Dennis, , a little boy under twelve months old, the son of Mr Dennis, poulterer, opposite the . new Court-house. The child was playing , about the room when he fell into a vessel « containing boiling water, which had been i left on the floor. His screams brought , his mother to hi= assistance, and Dr Deamer , was sent for, but the little fellow gradually sunk until he died on Saturday morning." From the Otago papers we learn that the late storm was fi-it severely at Clyde. The Avhole of the valley was one broad , sheet of water, and the D uustan Times expresses the fear that the farmers will be' lieavy losers. The Oiago Daily Times, 14th Jan., says: —" Iwo little girls, the children of Mr H. W. Daniels, Queeustown, have had a narrow escape from being poisoned by eating tutu berries. The prompt administration of an emetic, it is said, alone averted fatal consequences." A miner named James Rooke was killed in a fight at Redman's, in the Totara dis j trict, on Chriitmus Eve. lie was very quarrelsome, and struck a man named Mitchell twice. This annoyed Mitche 1, and he and Rooke squared up to each other. Several blows were exchanged, when Mitchell struck Rooke on the forehead, and the latter falling on a log fractured his skull. Tho Wellington correspondent of a ' Southern paper writes: —"There is a report current here that his Excellency the Governor has applied for leave of absence i\,r the purpose of visiting England. The general opinion is that if he once goes it is very unlikely he will ever return, and I can't say any general regret is expressed at the prospect." The Evening Post adds ; : —" We are afraid this news is much too . good to be true." The following fact is related by a correspondent of the Lyttelton Times, writing on the subject of protection to farmers. A r Canterbury commercial house was in.

! treaty in January, 1870, with an Auckland I house for £IOOO value of this year's barley, ; A Californian brig has just arrived there with barley, and Canterbury has lost the money, .the market, and the profit. On this point the Evening Post remarks, "The above series as a practical comment on Mr Stevens' political theories." Our contemporary looks at one side only of the question. Though Canterbury might have been a loser in the case referred to, the Colony as a whole was the gainer. Agricultural operations seem extending in the Titnaru district. Nineteen of Eobinson and Co.'s reaping machines were landed there recently at one time, and above thirty have been sold during the present season. Unfortunately, rust is beginning to make its appearance to a serious extent in some of the wheat crops, and on several farms the damage is extensive. An Auckland correspondent of the Otago Daily Times says:—The latest rumor is that the next session of the General Assembly is to be held in Auckland, and the there seems nothing improbable in it. The next step will be to have the seat of Government back. The following paragraph has been forwarded to us for publication :—lt is ex pected that harvest in Otago will commence in the Oamaru district shortly. The ' acreage under crop in Otago in 1868-9, as : per Government return, was 152,568 acres. The acreage for 1869-70 will be greater; ; the official return, however, will not be published until February. Ample ' employment will thus'~be afforded to hun- ; dreds of hands for the next tiro or three months. The following was the crop in . 1868 9 (exclusive of crop of the aboriginal natives): —

We learn from an Otago contemporary 1 that a company has been formed in Dunedin under the name of the Forbury Park Company. They have purchased over 100 acres of land at Forbury, near Caversham, which they are having drained, cleared, and fitted for a race-course and general recreation ground. We believe the Dunedin races this year will take place on this new course. We find the following paragraph in a late issue of the Wanganui Evening Herald, under the heading " The Kaimanawa Hoax " :—" The imposter who caused so much trouble, disappointment, and expense to this community, through his reports of finding gold at Kaimanawa, is still going about the town with the coolest effrontery exhibiting a gold specimen alleged to come from the same quarter. We have been informed that the specimen is i'rom Coromandel, and would advise the public to be cautious of what credence they give to his stories. We take the following from a late issue of the Evening Post:—The public generally are aware that the House of Eepresentatives numbers amongst its members an ex-publican named Timothy Gallagher., who in his own person presents a lively example of the manner in which men by accident sometimes get pitchforked into positions nature never intended them to fill. This illustrious senator, presuming on the forbearance with which ho has hitherto been treated, has, like Jeshurun of old, " waxed fat and kicked," and at a recent meeting at Charleston, in the course of what he meant for a speech, has stigmatised the Press of New Zealand, with one exception—the Charleston Herald —as being the most " venial" in the world. It is to be supposed that this Solon of Honifaces meant to say "venai," and one scarcely knows which excites the greatest amount of wonder —Tim's boundless audacity, or the base ingratitude he displays towards a Press which has forborne to castigate him so long, but which will scarcely exercise such forbearance in future. The Charleston Herald will scarcely be proud of a compliment coming from such a quarter, and the rest of the "venial" Press may well exclaim, if " ignorance itself is thus to be a plummet over them," "Have we lived to stand at the taunt of one who makes fritters of English ? 'Tis enough to be the decay of journalism throughout the land. Are we ridden with a dorilcey too ? Shall we have coxcombs of frieze ? 'Tis time we were choked with a roasted potato."

OT.VGO NEW ZEALAND Wheat .. 20,11-2 64,517 Barley and Oats ... . .. 43,425 100,433 Potatoes . .. 3,033 11,557 Sown grasses ., 83,782 501,580 Other crops .. 2,186 8,178 Total acres . ., 152,568 687,015