PROVINCIAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 93, 18 April 1873, Page 2

PROVINCIAL.

Wellington, April 18. Mr Reynolds has been gazetted Colonial Secretary. 36,000 acrea of land in the Manawatu district, sold yesterday, realised £25,000. The Patent Slip Company met yesterday. The report was favorable. , Mr. Tancred was appointed Chancellor of the New Zealand University, and Mr Carleton ViceChancellor. Sir G. Bowen's Prizes are fixed for not less than £5 a-year for the best essay on :a prescribed subject The Ladybird sails to-morrow for Nelson and the Manukau. The Albion sails on xVlonday. The Wallace sails on Monday for Blenheim and Nelson. Westport has been proclaimed a municipality. Flour £13 15s to £14. Wheat _s 3d lo os 4d; oats 3s 10d to 4s ; maize and barley none ; potatoes 5s lOd to 6s lOd. Timaru, April 18. Races. —Tradesmen's Plate, Malice 1, Miss Flat 2. Second day: Handicap hurdle race, Sir Tatton l.Maid of lhe Mill 2; South Canterbury handicap, Hatred 1, Tambourini 2; Free Handicap,' Malice 1, Miss Flat 2. Wanganui, April 18. The race meeting is fixed for May 29. Aramoho steeplechase £100. Port Chalmers, April 18. The Zealandia, for London, takes 2549 bales wool. Dunedin, April 18. The Bank of Otago has been taken over by the National Bank. Auckland, April 18. The Ohinimuri Mining permits have been stopped by Te Hira. All diggers have been warned off. Canterbury flour, £11 to £13, wheat, ss. 3d ; oats, 38. 9d. to 45.; hams and bacon, lid. For remainder of news, see fourth page". (

A New Zealand Government rifle was recently found in the possession of a Chinaman, who was at the time taking his departure from Port Chalmers. Dirty Bank NoTES.-*-Regarding the dirty bank-notes in circulation in the colony, the writer of " Passing Notes," in the Otago Daily Times, says: — ',' What is a pound" was the Statesman's question in a debate upon the currency. Had he asked the question here the answer would have been easy. A. pound ? Oh ! a pound is a dirty square of manufactured raga over which a little ink was once upon a time upset, but which is now as if no accountant or manager had ever * written a wrinkle upon its dark brown brow.' For my part, I object to them. Even •when I inscribe a ' passing note ' on thera, I must really decline to pass them any more. Can nothing be done to make them a thing of beauty and joy for ever. It is hardly an-exaggeration to say that it is possible to smell some of the pound possessors of the dirty paper as they walk along the street. Non olet cannot at any rate . be said of these riches when unrighteously gotten ; indeed, they olet very much, whether they are earned or annexed. Perhaps the Government will kindly introduce some provision into the National Bank, insisting upon a new issue at more frequent intervals of the current paper. Half the pleasure of possessing a note is at present taken away by the greasy feeling which seems inherent in it. Paper may, and I believe is risen in value j profits may be, and I believe are decreasing, but there must be a margin sufficient to buy a few reams in most bank coffers one would think." During the sittings of the Supreme Court recently a salutary lesson was read by his Honor to. a couple of witnesses who had been wiling away the time until they were wanted in Court by a to free indulgence in liquid stimulants. On the presentation by the Grand Jury of the last batch of true bills, the foreman (Mr Blakiston) complained to his Honor that a witness named John Alexander Coburn,' in one of the cases whom the jury wished to examine, was not forthcoming, and that another named William Clarke Earl presented himself before the Grand Jury in a state of intoxication ; refused to give his evidence properly, and finally usurped one of tbe juror's chairs, from which it was necessary to invoke the assistance of a constable to eject him. . His Honor directed that the delinquent should be brought before him, when, on making his appearance, in answer to a question" from his Honor he denied that he had baen drinking. The fact, however, was to apparent for denial, and his Honor imposed a fine of £5 for gross contempt of Court, and the money not being forthcoming the bibulous witness was removed to undergo the alternative of forty-eight hours' imprisonment. The other witness Coburn will, when he turns up, have to show cause why a similar penalty should not be enforced in his case. — Canterbury Press The Biter Bit.— -A Will Case. — A Melbourne journal of tbe 22nd ultimo, relates the following : — The biter is sometimes bit with a vengeance. The latest victim of his own sharpness is a host of an hotel not a hundred miles from Melbourne. There arrived at his house a young man from New Zealand whose father was known as the squire in the English village in which the landlord saw the light of day. The stranger from New Zealand produced a paper in which the death of his father was* announced, and in which it was stated that the son was entitled to £10,000. The heir confessed that he had no money, and proposed that the landlord should lend him £200, promising to make a will in his favor in case he should die on the passage home. The bargain was concluded, the money paid, and the will drawn; but instead of repairing on Bhipboard the young man began a career of dissipation in Melbourne, the landlord being in no wise anxious to put a stop, to his vicious courses. At last an attack of delirium tremens ensued. A doctor was called in, and then as the case grew serious, another was sent for: Chloroform waß administered, but this and two medical men were too much for any mortal frame to stand, and so the patient died. The landlord gave each of tbe doctors a*• stiff cheque, paid the funeral expenses without a murmur, and even erected a handsome headstone over the grave of his friend. He then wrote to England, and enclosed the will in order to touch the fruit of his generosity. He had thrown his bread upon the waters truly in vain. News came back that the old squire was alive and in good health, and it was then ascertained that the youngster had himself caused the advertisement which was to establish his identity as an heir to be inserted in the. paper. The landlord has now a supreme contempt for the veracity of. the press, and looks upon heirs as pure mythical creations of adventurous or impecunious brains.

"Captain Renatjt, of the Celseno, has such faith in New Zealand timber for shipbuilding and cabinetmaker's purposes, tbat he is taking home a quantity of beavy logs, 24ft long and 16in x 12iu. of red pine, from Mr Cruickshank's mill, atgthe Hutt. — Post. Trout in Tasmania.— A Tasmanian correspondent writes to the Australasian: -— " I have just seen one of the finest trout ever caught in Tasmania. It was taken, by order of tbe salmon commissioners, by a net in the Derwent, and was weighed before my. eyes. It turned the scale at 101 b. 20z., and was a splendid specimen. It belongs to that debatable class of fish often seen here, which have the characteristics of both the brown trout and tbe salmon trout, so they are goiDg to send him home to England for some of the scientific Bwells to see. " * Getting on in the World.— "iEgles," writes iv the Australasian : — I noticed the other day the purchase of a valuable station property for £20,000 by an enterprising and successful man, who, a few years ago, was a packer on the- Gipps Land road. A great part of his profits have arisen from profitable mining ventures, and it is said that his most valuable mining interest he obtained in baiter for an old pack-horse. If the property alluded to had been valued at twice as much money he would have had no difficulty in paying for it. -This is the bright side of the picture of what may happen to a man in Victoria. A list of charges is given for the transmission of Telegrams via Port Darwin an d Java Cable, both from Sydney and Me Ibourne, to all parts of the world united telegraphic communication. The charsre for twenty words or less to great Britain, except London, which is one shilling less, is from Sydney, £9 12s 6d; from Melbourne, £9 9s 6d; and for each ten or fraction words beyond twenty, one-half of the above rates . To any less distant parts of Europe the charges are a trifle less, while to more distant countries it is slightly increased. To New York the additional charge is £2 for a message of ten words, and 4s for each extra word ; to San Francisco, £2 12s 6d., and 5s 3d for each extra word. In addition to the above rates, telegrams presented^ for transmission will be charged with " New Zealand rates. Names and addresses are charged for. Fiji versus Mauritius. — The following is an extract from a letter, written by a gentleman, at Mauritius, relative to the prospects of Fiji as a sugar-growing country :— "^Mauritius, January 25, 1873. — You say in your letter that Mr. would be willing to buy my land in Fiji. I am not in a hurry to sell those lands, but if he would make rae a good offer, I will consider what I shall do. Before long, the Fiji's are sure to make more sugar than the Mauritius, and their proximity to the Australian colonies will cause the Mauritius sugar great prejudice in the market. Already the Mauritius planters are afraid of such results, and they talk of sending their sons to Fiji to grow sugar. Such a thing would have been already done if England or the Australian colonies had annexed Fiji. And as soon as this is done, 'Viti Levu,' which tbe planters here talk of as their place of predilection, will swarm with Mauritius youth and Mauritius money. Then my land will be worth £30 to £40 an acre. Good sugar land here in the Mauritius is very often sold at £100 an acre, and I flatter myself that the land which I picked in Fiji is the very best land for sugar-growing. Indeed, I assure you that if to-morrow the news reaches us that Fiji has been annexed to the Australian colonies, planters here are sure to buy my land at something like £30 an acre. A Sydney morning paper relates the following: — One of the vessels now in port recently made a voyage with tea to America, and the master, who was about as shrewd a specimen as could be desired, was specially cautioned that the wharf thieves were sharper than in an other part of the world. Of course he took precaution accordingly, and, having engaged stevedores to land the cargo, the several officers were drafted off to watch the different stacks of boxes as they were made on the wharf. It was no use the attempt to steal a box of tea from that ship's cargo, for between master and officers there was a good look-out kept. In the afternoon, when approaching knock-off time, it was found, however, with every precaution, the master was swindled, for seeing there was no chance of stealing a box of tea, the thieves had stolen the tea from a box, and the modus operandi was as novel as effective. * The tea stack bfeing built on a platform wharf, the scoundrels had procured a large borer, worked their way under the pier until in a locale of the stack a hole upwards was made, and the genuine " souchong " abstracted with the. utmost ease. The master acknowledged himself beaten, as the empty -box; was; discovered, and the hole .beneath -showed how daylight robberies were penetrated.; ;