Interprovincial Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 794, 9 June 1870, Page 3

Interprovincial Items.

The New Zealand Herald of the 26th May, alluding to the evil of landing sheep on the Queen-street Wharf, says :—" A number of these animals were yesterday landed from tbs Oomerang, and it was apparent that they were hardly able to stand. Two of them, however, stronger than the others, made a bolt up the wharf, falling at every few steps from sheer exhaustion, and on the way meeting with a considerable amount of ill-treatment. One of them, which was bleeding profusely from the head, in consequence of its left horn having been knocked off during its landing, ■ was stopped by a man on the wharf, who took it up bodily and threw it down again,' pitching it several feet from him. The poor brute at once fell to the ground, thoroughly exhausted. Constable Carrigan very properly took the young fellow's name and address, and it would serve him well right to bring him up to the court for his cruelty. These things show the necessity of sheep not being allowed to be landed on the wharf at all and we hope some steps will be taken to prevent it for the future.

The Canterbury papers inform us that Timaru has been visited by the most severe flood ever remembered. A large amount of damage has been done, both in the town and surrounding districts. Communication was for several days cut off with all other places, and a very heavy sea rolled in on the beach.

We (Daily Southern Cross) have heard that a case of interest, especially to members of the Press, is about to occupy the attention of the Courts, being a criminal prosecution instituted on a libel of no ordinary magnitude recently published in a local print,

On the Sunday afternoon, when the Hauhau prisoners, now in confinement in Mount Cook Barracks, landed from the Star of the South, it was universally admitted by the hundreds who witnessed their debarkation, that they were a miserable wretched decrepit looking lot. The assertion that such was the case, has, however, given great offence to those who have to display them, as the sole trophies of the war; it would have looked very much better to have paraded a band of fierce desperadoes for the admiration of the good folks of Wellington, and consequently, we are informed, that orders have been given to spare no expense or trouble in getting the prisoners in prime condition before the trial. Good food and judicious treatment are working marvels, and in the course of a few weeks longer, with the aid of a little " set up " drill, they will look very promising villains indeed, worthy of having the epithet applied to them of "false traitors, who, moved by the instigation of the devil, did assemble in warlike array, &c, &c," and of having the sentence of hanging, drawing, and quartering pronounced upon them iu due form. —Evening Post. From the Auckland papers we observe that the schooner Lulu returned to that port from a cruise amongst the New Hebrides on the 20th May. That vessel was the bearer of a novel addition to the population in the shape of 27 South Sea Islanders, who are to be employed in a flax mill at Waitakere. They are engaged for a period of three years, when, according to the terms of agreement entered into, they must be returned to their homes' The Lulu will probably return to the Islands for another batch of laborers.

Reports reach us from Taranaki that the Pariaka and Opunake natives are rendering themselves pests to the European settlers by their thieving propensities. In one case a native seized a shawl in a store, and on the storekeeper demanding its restitution became insolent. He was however, taken to the lock-up with great difficulty, and subsequently fined four times the article stolen. At Opunake the natives are causing much annoyance to the settle;s by their depredations. The Daily Southern Cross mentions that recently about 300 natives from the West Coast, being the Waikato and the Kawhia, assembled at Maurea, opposite Rangiriri, at the invitation of Te Wheoro to consider the question of disinterring the bodies of the natives who fell at Rangariri on the 20th November, 1863. After long de* liberation the proposed exhumation of the bones was overruled. At the Native Lands Court, at Ohinoinuri, on the 21st May, the chief Te Hira, others was examined, and at the conclusion of las evidence, significantly said, " 1 hold Ohinemuri in my hands, and 11 shall not let it go."

The "inimitable" Thatcher arrived at Wellington on the 27th May, from the South, on his way to Auckland. Ho was quite alone, his company having broken up. It is said that he contemplates a visit to America. A laborer named Frederick Na9h has come to a miserable end at Mercury Bay recently. One evening he got intoxicated at a wretched native dram-shop, and, having been placed in his bunk, by another Euro poan, was found lying dead on his face in the morning, having apparently been euf focated. Aniinquest (at which no medical testimony was taken) was held and the jury returned a verdict of "Death by the visitation of G-od." Referring to the above case the Daily Southern Cross makes the following remarks : "The practice of sly-grog-selling is carried on in some parts of this provinco to an extent of which the authorities have little conception. In many localities the natives arc the vendors of frightfully adulterated spirits to gumdiggers and bushmen ; and occasionally a native settlement is turned into a perfect Pandemonium, when hard-earned savings are dissipated in a few hours or days. We think it is high time that step 3 were taken by the authorities to suppress the wholesale | sly grog-selling that is carried on by natives and Europeans, especially in many parts of the North."

A Blenheim telegram in the Evening Post, of date 27th May, says:—Last night many returned from the gold-field; little but the color has been found, and even residents do not believe that the diggings are genuine. The auriferous nature of the country is indisputable, but much scattered, requiring industry and capital to find gold. [The creek has been well-tried by Havelock men.