Interprovincial Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1540, 9 January 1874, Page 74

Interprovincial Items.

An Auckland Botanist.

A late Southern Cross says:—We are sorry to observe that another able scientific man is about to remove from Auckland, and carry his learning and his abilities to another province. Mr Thomas Kirk, Fellow of the Linnajau Society, and who for a number of years has been secretary to the Auckland Institute, and to the Acclimatisation Society, shortly leaves this city for Wellington. At the meeting of the last-named society held yesterday, Mr Kirk tendered his resignation as secretary and at a meeting of the Institute last night regretful reference was made to Mr Kirk's approaching departure. Several of the members spoke in very flattering terms of the energy and ability displayed by Mr Kirk, during the time he has held the secretaryship o£ the Institute. It is not too much to say that Mr Kirk was the life of the Auckland Institute, and to his efforts, to a very large extent, is due the premier position which that association occupies amongst all the affiliated societies of the New Zealand Institute. In each of the volumes of the Transactions which have been published by the last-named body, Mr Kirk's papers upon his botanical researches in the colony are amongst the most useful. Many of them contain information which is invaluable for. settlers, giving, as they do, the relative value of the various grasses, clovers, &c, native and exotic, as articles of food for stock ; and in them are given manifold practical suggestions Ly acting upon which the pasturers of the province might be greatly benefitted. Mr Kirk's labors in this province during the last few years will be more valued some years hence than they are at the present time. He leaves Auckland to fill the honourable appointment of Lecturer on Natural History in the Wellington College, which office he is to assume about the beginning of next year. It is a source of no little regret that the South is so successful in enticing away numbers of our best men from amongst us.

Sale of Live Stock. Mr W. G. Watt reports, in the Wanganni Chronicle, 28th December, that at the sale of rams held by him at Marton, though the attendance was good, the weather was very unfavorable, and buyers were plentiful. Mr Fox's English rains brought from £0 to £ls; Southland rams, from £7 7s to £23; owes and lambs, 16s each; hoggett ewrs, and wethers mixed, 9s Gd each. Horses— Hacks f.om £4 10s to £l4. The Oldest Colonist.

Kiverton (says a contemporary), possesses the honor of numbering among its citizens the oldest New Zealand colonist. He arrived at the Bay of Islands in 1821, and consequently has resided in the colony over half a century. Although he has attained the patriarchal age of 84, he is still hale and hearty. An Improvident Celestial.

The opponents of the introduction of Chinamen into the colonies ou the ground that they only come to gather all the cash they can and return to their native land, might have had an illustration at the Grey mouth Court recently (says the local journal) showing the crroneousness of such an opinion. A Chinaman named Tasnui, was sued by another named Ah Yung, the former appearing to answer the demand after the service of a fraud summons, calling upon him to show cause why he could not or should not pay. Defendant admitted that lie had been in receipt of a salary of £2 per week and board for the past three months. He had been regularly paid, but his inability to meet the present claim, he stated, was attributable to the fact that he " spends a good deal in drinks and biliards." The Magistrate, doubtless tickled with the novelty of the excuse of drinks and biliards, took his cue from the defendant's statement and hazarded an opinion that neither the Court nor his Yung friend would deem the excuse satisfactory. Therefore while ou the spot, he hoped he would pocket the advice of no longer indulging in the science of chalking down, but practice more the art of tipping up, seeing that he could make such a good screw, and accordingly ordered him to pay 10s per week, commencing next Friday, but " John " before leaving the Court preferred handing his solicitor five weeks payment in advance rather than be compelled to knock off his engagements once every seven days. Minerals in Marlborough.

A further search for the mineral treasures of this district (says the Press) has led to the discovery of an extensive and valuable lode of antimony in the vicinity of Endeavour Inlet, in Queen Charlotte Sound. Although the oxact locality has not been made public, the discoverers are not very reticent as to the situation of the find, as they have made application for a lease of the ground on which the mine is situated. It is intended to form a Company to work the mine so soon as necessary arrangements are made; and as the scarcity of antimony has limited its use in trade, a plentiful supply will increase its value, so that the projected Company will start with every prospect of success.

" Ah Sin" and the Maoris. A writer in the Wairarapa Standards says: The medical fraternity of the Wairarapa has been augmented recently by the arrival of an individual whom I fear the members of it will hardly recognize either as a man or a brother. The new-comer is a foreigner, a stranger, an infant, child-like, and uncommonly bland, who, if he be not a graduate in physic is a physician in fees. It is said that he kindly undertook the cure of a sister of a Maori Chief in this district who had been given up by the pakeha doctors. It is rumoured that he has nut exactly effected a cure, nevertheless he has handed a little bill of over £BO to our Maori Chief, and the latter, in spite of remonstrances from European friends who have assured him

that he is being-robbed and swindled, has paid it. The Heathen Chinee has got his money, and I hardly know which is to be more admired the assurance of John Chinamen, or that touch of honor or affection in the Maori which made him voluntarily pay so large a sum of money because he either imagined the heathen had benefited his relative, or because he had given his word for the payment of it. Fatal Accident. A man named Michael Douohue, residing at Greymouth, choked himself whilst eating his breakfast, by a piece of meal sticking in his throat. A Counter Attraction. A number of men are reported to have left their claims upon the Waipora diggings, Otago, to " work upon the railway." A Female Miner. Twenty coal miners, specially shipped to Ddiiedin, were unable on their recent arrival to find work in Dunedin,in that lineOne of these workers, who is described in the list as a veritable skilled miner, is a female aged 17. Phormium Paper. The New Zealand Herald states that it has been shown a small volume printed upon paper made from the leaves of the New Zealand flax plant. Our contemporary says that the paper in appearance and strength closely resembles parchment. Pulp from Flax Refuse. The Auckland Herald says:—A Mr de L'Eau, a gentleman of scientific attainments who at one time was a large Continental manufacturer of paper, has succeeded in extracting a very fine quality of pulp from the refuse of our flax-mills, which, unless those who have pronounced upon his preparation be greatly mistaken promises to awaken a new industry likely to be attended with the most important results. It is proposed that the pulp shall be manufactured from the refuse fibre of the phormium tenax, and afterwards shipped home in a solid state for conversion into paper of the finest quality." An Unpalatable Correction. The Examiner says:—ln the report of a recent speech by MrVogel, in Otago, on a public occasion, in reply to the toast of the " General Government," he was reported by the Daily Times to have said, that" with reference to Dunedin, he looked upon it as destined to become the principal city in the colonies." The reporter, to flatter the people of Dunedin, put very different words into Mr Vogel's mouth to those he uttered, as the following correction subsequently made will show. What Mr Vogel really said was this, " He believed that Otago, with the assistance of the other provinces, would cause New Zealand to become the premier colony in Australia." Singular Notice of Motion. Mr Buckley, a member of the Canterbury Provincial Council, recently give the following notice of motion :—"That in the opinion of this Council it is expedient that the services of the present Superintendent and Executive should be dispensed with, and that his Honor be therefore respectfully requested to place on the Estimates a sufficient sum to enable the Council to obtain the services of another Superintendent from England, or elsewhere." Election Libels. A libel case in New Plymouth, says the Taranaki Herald, is something of a novelty in its way, yet the preliminary proceedings of one have been commenced, in which Major H. A. Atkinson and Mr W. Bayly, jun., are the plaintiffs, and Mr C. D. Whitcombe the defendant. The libel complained of appeared in a " skit" issued during the election, entitled " A Dismal Plaint," of which the defendant has acknowledged himself the author.

The Christchurch Museum now contains eighteen complete mo a skeletons.