INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4359, 10 March 1875, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

MIDDLE ISLAND. ; • • OTAGO. , A transaction likely to give employment to the “gentlemen of • the: long 1 robe ” took place "recently at Riverton, "A banking clerk".there, had -a quantity of-gold ’ amalgam presented 1 'to’ him for Sale. He‘ r bought;’but. from'sdme'iriis.take in his weights or 'calculations; the vendors - /were paid "something'like-bne hundred pounds more than : they l were’entitled to. It was not long,before, the" error ‘wasjdisc6y“ered,""and'a7 request made that, it .should ’.be ; rectified.' t ‘_ : JEJie' miners refused to refund, and .the. matter "is now in the hands .of tl^e, police. , The Bruce Rej-iW learns’‘that Brogden and .Sons expect" to 'be 'ih"" a position to hand the entire'lifie between'Mosgiel and"the GliTtKa” RiVer to the Goyernmentlih about tyyq months hence. - -The railway bridge-over-the—Taieri-Ri vert near rOtalda is beingi'rapidlyitn’bceeded, with, the main beams ’upon ;which the Super- ' structure will rest beinginOW laid 'overthreefourths of the entire length of .the:, bridge. "Th'e heavy beams of the bridge nGar the Taieri ferry are on the ground waiting the completion of the heavy work on the Reliance bridge, when it too will be gone on with, and should they not be delayed for timber supplies; both bridges are expected to be completed within two months hence ; meanwhile, the permanent way is being laid between the two bridges, and it is very shortly expected that this portion of the work will be facilitated by the locomotive being enabled to cross the Reliance bridge for ballasting purposes. The Waitaki bridge will be, finished for traffic in nine months. : The piers of the bridge consist of 220 cylinders. The main stream cylinders are already in position and the girders placed. The woodwork' is to go on as soon as the 'ironbark timber arrives. -

Messrs. McKenzie Bros, are making preparations for commencing the tunnel on the railway at the Round Hill, Tuapeka, ami have men employed making bricks for lining the tunnel. A large number of Chinamen are employed on this contract, and a gang under" a European foreman are forming a new track outside the great slip that occurred last year. The Rev. Wm. Gillies has received a call from the Presbyterian congregation of Timavu. There died at the Benevolent Institution, Dunedin, lost week, a very old man named John Cooper. He was a native of Tahiti, and was admitted to the institution two years ago, when he came up from Stewart’s Island, His age, according to his own account, was 117 years. He frequently stated that he remembered the landing of Captain Cook at Tahiti. Asthma was the cause of his death. He was walking about till the day he died, and was smoking his pipe till the last moment. A Highlander named McLeod, recently avived from: Home, and living in one_ of the new immigrants’ cottages with his wife and six children, is, we (North Otago Times) regret to hear, very bad with rheumatic fever. On Friday night one of the boatmen, named E. Williams, hearing that tho man and his family were starving, took' over somo food in the shape of beef, potatoes, &c. When he arrived at the cottage he found the wife" and children were unable to speak a word of English, and that tho poor man was lying on the floor of tho. house, which-was quite damp. Williams then procured a stretcher from his own house, and; after seeing that tho man was made as comfortable' as possible, and that the family had had something to eat, he left, promising that ho would do what lie could for them. Next day (Saturday) he, assisted by W. Baker, started a [subscription for the unfortu-

uate family. All the boatmen on the beach, as is usual when -they are appealed to for charity, subscribed willingly, and before Messrs. Williams and Baker left the beach they had collected ,£6 ■ 10s. They then can-j vassed the town for subscriptions, and,during the day managed to get £ll more., , .This, with the £6 10a. subscribed by the boatmen, made the amount up to £l7 10s. The money was handed over to McLeod’s wife on Saturday evening, and will go a long way to procure the unfortunate family .the - necesssary comforts wherewith to keep them from starving. ~- .... b A great raid has been. made by the Sheep Inspector at Queenstown. on the, small.- runholders. A number of them have been summoned for trespassing on the: .great . cattle country, and some of tsem were fined 9d. per head of cattle found trespassing. , ; Mr. George Allan,'in the employ of Butterworth Bros., has met with rather a serious accident. He had been to:see some friends iii Arthur-street, and was on his way home, when he fell into a cutting in York-place,;a depth of twenty-two feet. He appeared to be severely hurt about the right side, and was taken by Sergeant McNally to Hr. Sorley, who attended to his injuries, and recommended his removal to the hospital. Tlie fruit harvest at the Dunstan appears to be a prolific one. The Times never recollects the trees having been so thickly loaded with such a store of tempting luxuries before. Dunstan, growers are travelling everywhere between Queenstown and Mount Ida with express waggon loads of the produce of their orchards, and find la ready and profitable market, while consignments are also forwarded by coach to Dunedin. With railway communication ■to the metropolis, a very: lucrative branch of industry will be opened to the people of the district. ; . . i ‘

The ,Bruce Herald says that a great scarcity of carpenters exists- in Balclutha at the present time. A number of extensive buildings in the township are contracted for. Unless an influx of good workmen takes place, it will be an' utter impossibility for the builders to carry out their contracts within the time specified. The commencement of other, buildings is delayed indefinitely from the same cause. ~., CANTERBXJBY. A girl about twelve years old, named Edlin, met with an : accident at’Woodend yesterday morning. She was riding on a dray without sides to it, and by some means managed to get her legs in between the spokes of one of the wheels. Both'legs were severely bruised and one of her ankles was fractured. ; The narrow gauge line-from Ellesmere to Southbridgo is nearly completed. At Leeston, the railway goods shed, is finished, and is a very commodious and suitable building. The station will also be finished in a few days. At Southbridge, affairs are likewise progressing, favorably. The . station-master’s, , house, is; nearly ready, and the station itself is In, the. course of erection. The post, and telegraph offices, which have oirly recently .been opened, -give the town a brisker appearance, and.wdl no doubt be fully appreciated. As - instancing’ the rise in value of town sections in South-, bridge, it .may be mentioned .that a section opposite Mr.. Luckie’s Hotelkwas recently sold, realising as much'as £4 per foot frontage, the same ground a few mouths ago being valued,at about one-fourth pf that sum only.

The contractor for the extension from Ashburton to the River Bangitata will finish work in time for the line to/be/opened: on ;May 1. Seeing that the Bangitata bridge will not be completed for- at least twelve months from now, he has suggested to the Government the advisability of. erecting - temporary station -buildings on the north bank of the Bangitata. If this is not done) trains will not be able to run beyond the Hinds—where station buildings are in course of erection—and this l is nine miles from the Bangitata. Nine miles of the line would thus be" standing idle until the Bangitata bridge was finished. , ‘ Last says the'i’rcss of thebthirist., a,' man named Edmond Haylon, living at Addington, met with an accidebt which 1 terminated fatally;' 1 ' He is'supposed *to - have'gone to the well situated on the premises for the purpose -.of 1 drawing water, and to have accidentally/ 'overbalanced himself and fallen in. His wife! ,heard a splash, and, on ascertaining' that :her ,husband was in the well, obtained the assistance of .two .men, who happened, to be near : at hand.. After getting him, out, Dr.,Patrick was ■ immediately sent for, but 'the map was. dead when he arrived.- • I ; n : '.c r- . i o j > NELSON.’ ’ Work on,the,firat section,of ,the railway dine (says the WesipbH Times' of' the 26th instant) is now steadily progressing towards, completion,, the iteara 1 pile driver_iri. use.at. the. Orawaiti, bridge having;enabled the contractor ;to make? good work with pile driving. The contract fori the second section is. signed,-the/price being .£9005 12s. fid., and the distance, including siding, is,about,{jour.miles; The pricels higher! in proportion per chain, than .on the first* section, but the quantity ofmuck work,” as it is technically termed,on; the;.secondicontract, Is within three'thousand : yards .of the quantity bn I the first, and thus the, apparent advantage is reduced-,. The .on the; new ; section’; will, probably be, of, stone;, such iwprk having i been tendered for'at a price|as..low, -ifi,not : power,-than.for-timber. -The one mile section-■-leading up the Whimangaroa gbrgeHo Roche’s l cbil lease has been, pegged off, and'it is probable that-.tenders will be soon .called'for the work. :,|ln such case it; .will be possible to’ lay rdopm coal at the wharf fori'shipment ;withnr seyen months.- Tenders for the first section of .thb stone wharfage woika will also be shortly -called for.’ 'The site for the; railway station'is 1 now-cleaved from-timber, and the work of levelling win i be; commenced forthwith. • The Bank of New Zealand, Ileefton, forwarded to Westport the following quantities of gold per escort on Saturday week: —El Dorado, 4840z5.; Wealth of Nations, 2200z5. Gdwts.; Anderson's Clock, 2600z5. 14dwts.;' Just-in-Time, 440z5.; alluvial, 85ozs. 16dwts. Total of ozs,, 1084ozs. ICdwts. The Inangaliua Herald reports that Mr. Bichard Ching, of the firm of Ching Brothers, BeCftbn; had’ :& very harrow escape from drbwning. Ho was crossing the Inangaliua on; horseback, and had a led horse in hand. The river was high, and he encountered some difficulty, and. in his efforts to retain hold of the horse he was leading he was dragged from his horse into the river; After releasing his hold of one of the horses, he found it'an impossibility to remount, and his position consequently became one of great danger, as he was only saved from being washed down stream by the hold lie had on the halter round the horse’s neck. His cries brought Mr. Thomas, a blacksmith on tho Strand, to his assistance, who, being a powerfully built man, entered the ‘river, and after having assisted Mr. Ching on his horse, succeeded in leading horse and rider safely to the bank.

The road is now opened via the Devil’s Grip into the Duller Valley as far as the Matakitaki, or within fifteen miles of Lyell. Two or three drays, the first that have travelled this route, started from Nelson a few days ago, with 35cwt. each, and although the.' loose gravel which has recently been laid ,on . the road will prove somewhat trying to the cattle, they will doubtless be able to got as far as the Matakitaki with their full loads. In about six Weeks it is expected that the road will be opened to the Newton, within eleven miles of the Lveli, ; ■ . •

By the Tafarua, on her next trip from Melbourne, Messrs. ■N. Edwards and Co. expect twenty-five pure-bred: merino rams from the flock of Mr. Henty, of Victoria. With reference to' this flock, 1 an authority upon such subjects says ;—“ They ore derived from the original Hampton Court stud of George TV. They have been carefully bred from pure ewes, which is more'than can be said' of the flockfe that have been for some time in great repute in Victoxia, in fact, the Broildoun sheep were raised by rams got from Mr. Henty’s flock out of selected ewes, and the same holds good of the celebrated flocks of the Gibsons, of Tasmania.”' A good opportunity will, thus be afforded to, breeders of merino sheep in the Nelson province of improving their stock. Samples of the wool of ten months’ growth may be seen at the warehouse of Messrs. N. Edwards and Co.