INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4382, 6 April 1875, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

NORTH ISLAND. AUCKLAND. The fire which destroyed Mr. Olson’s premises and Mrs. Meurant’s house in St. George’s Bay, has not been .traced to its origin. There is no doubt that it first broke out in a portion of Mr. Olson’s sauce factory, and afterwards spread until the damage already shown was occasioned. Mr. and Mrs. Olson were away on a visit to a friend at Dedwood on the evening in question, and a man named ■William Martin was left in charge. He had, after seeing everything apparently safe, left for his home, in Conquest-place, close at hand. The news of the disaster that had befallen the property, was communicated to Air. and Airs, Olson whilst on their journey home from Dedwood, about eleven o’clock at night. Poor Airs. Olson fainted away on learning the intelligence, and it was deemed advisable to convoy her back to Dedwood. Air. Olson proceeded on to Parnell, but arrived on the scene too late to save anything. The whole of his books, papers, &c., connected with hie business

are destroyed. His whole stock of tomato a sauce was also destroyed, while a large cont. aignment of empty bottles, received from the barque Ada, from London, which had only been -. deposited at the store on the day of the fire, was d also demolished. The loss is estimated by Mr. d Olson at about £IOOO. The stock was insured by o him in the South British Insurance office for o £20.00, hut half this amount was re-insured in ,t the New Zealand, so that the loss to the offices :s is equally divided between them. The factory >. premises were insured in the South British for p £IOO, and the dwelling-house and furniture in 0 the New Zealand office for £IOO also. Mrs. Meurant’s house was covered by an insurance a in the Victoria office of £2OO, hut her furnif ture was uninsured. Mrs. Blundell’s furniture - was insured for £IOO in the South British, but s this will amount only to consequential damages, as the furniture was saved although injured by r hasty removal. A portion of Mr. Olson’s furt niture was saved, also Mrs. Meuraut’s furni- , ture, but botli are much knocked about by 1 hasty removal. The scene of the fire was visited by numbers of persons during Saturday ) and yesterday. > Mr. C. A. Harris, senior, who came over . from Whangapoua on horseback on Wednes- ; day morning, says the Coromandel Mail, speaks i in the highest terms of the Government track i lately cut between Wangapoua and Coroman- • del. The road from end to end is, he says, a most excellent one, and will be a very great convenience to the inhabitants of Wangapoua, , who are now brought within an easy two and a half hours ride of the steamer in the Coromandel harbor. This is one of those works for which the district is indebted to the late Superintendent, who took an active interest in the concerns of the goldfield. Mr. W., T. Swan, M.P.C., reports the Star of the 16th March, expired very suddenly at his residence yesterday. He had been out during the morning, and returned home early in the afternoon. Shortly after reaching his lodgings in Symonds-street, he was seized with an apoplectic fit, and, although attended by Drs. Stockwell and Goldsbro’, be expired at ten o’clock at night. Mr. Swan was the first member of the General Assembly for the Thames district, having taken up bis residence immediately after the discovery of that field. The Star of March 22 says :—lt is very desirable that Obinemuri should bo connected with the telegraph system of the colony as speedily as possible. There can be no doubt now that the Upper Thames will become an important mining and farming district, and a connection with the telegraph at Katikati could be effected at a small cost ; the distance is only ten or twelve miles. But for the employment of carrier pigeons, which the Star first used in the colony for Press purposes, the public would have been placed at a great disadvantage with regard to the true state of matters ou the new field.

HAWKE’S BAY. The life-boat brought out by the Baron Aberdare for the port of Napier has, since it has been landed on Auckland wharf, attracted a great deal of attention. She is an ordinary life-boat, built by Forest and Sou, the life-boat builders, of Eimehouse, Loudon, and is similar to the ones that have been placed at various stations on the sea-hoard of Great Britain, The boat bears on its bow the scroll of the National Life-boat Association—an association supported entirely by voluntary contribution. The boat was imported by the General Government. We learn by telegram from Waipukurau, says the Herald of the 2nd iust., that a fire occurred at Ferguson’s Railway Hotel, Takapan, on Sunday afternoon, by which the stable was burnt down; 500 bushels oats, 3 tons chaff, hay, &c., of the value of £4OO, being also consumed. The hotel and store were saved with great difficulty. There was no wind at the time. The building was not insured. MIDDLE ISLAND. WESTLAND. From the Hokitika Evening Star we learn that intelligence had arrived there that gold had been struck in another shaft at the new rush in the Kanieri district. The shaft is not bottomed, but the washdirt was struck at a depth of 1 Of t. The prospect is from a grain to a grain and a half to the dish. The claim is on lower ground than the prospectors, and there is a great deal of water to contend with. The prospectors arc engaged in putting in a tunnel to their shaft. The length of the tunnel when completed will be about 150 feet. The rest of the claims marked out have been merely shepherded up to the present time, but a third party have decided to sink their shaft day and night. The depth will probably be about 120 ft,, and the shaft will require to be slabbed all the way down. MARLBOROUGH. We learn that the railway works are progressing rapidly towards completion, so far as permanent way is concerned. Just now, however, there is such a scarcity of sleepers that the men are unable to get on as fast as they could desire. We believe the first freight to be earned on the line will be the materials for the railway bridge over the Opawa. There is no tidings yet as to when the tenders for the extension of the line are to be called for. We notice that two openings or water-ways are being made, one near Palmer's bridge, and another opposite Parish’s brick-yard at Grove Town. A private telegram in Blenheim conveys the pleasing intelligence that the Wairau horses have done pretty considerably at Greymouth. In addition to the £242 won by him on the first day, Guy Fawkes won the Goldfields Handicap of £125, and the Stewards’ Handicap of £3O. The latter was a very tight race between Yatterina, with Bst. 81bs., and Guy, carrying 7st., Septimus third, Tambonrini was the fourth horse on the first day, and was scratched for all engagements on the second day. The Consolation, won by Magenta, was worth £2O. There is a vacancy in the representation of Picton in the Provincial Council, in consequence of the resignation of Mr. Jeffreys, who is going to England. Messrs. Western and Chaytor have issued addresses, and rumor says Mr. Godfrey will also be a candidate. NELSON. The Mokihinui correspondent of the Westport Times states that some prospectors in the locality of Maori Creek have found a few little nuggets of gold, varying from nine pennyweights, but the roughness of the coun try and the very high cost of provisions render prospecting unremunerativo as well as difficult. At an inquest held at Charleston, to inquire into the circumstances of the death of the infant daughter of Mr. Henry Masters, a verdict of accidental drowning was recorded. The principal witness, a lad named Bowater, said that he had, with the permission of Mrs. Masters, taken the little girl down to the bay, his errand being to fetch a can of salt water, that he had left her on a flat rock in a little gully and had gone to the water’s edge to fill the can, and that on returning he had missed the child, who was' afterwards found on the edge of the surf. The little thing had strayed away unnoticed until too late. OTAGO. The Municipal Council of Oamaru offers a bonus of £l5O to be paid to tlie engineer who shall submit, on or before the Ist July next, the most practicable plan of providing the town with a plentiful supply of good water. A reward of £SO has been offered by tlie police fo» the conviction of the murderer in the Arrowtown infanticide case. Owing to the holidays but very little has been done at the Immigration Barracks during the past week. On Saturday the immigrants by the Dallam Tower were open for engagement, and the following hirings have been effected : —Three ploughmen at £52 per year, one female servant at £3O per year, two at £36, and two at £4O, all found. A most successful surgical operation has been perfonned by Drs. Sorloy and Cole, in removing the disfigurement known as “ harelip.” The little patient—a babe a few months old—was horn with this peculiarity as well as with fissured hard and soft palate—a circumstance that rendered the case more complicated. When the child was three months old

the necessary means were adopted for closing the lip, and the cure has been most successfully accomplished. The medical gentlemen named have not thought it desirable to operate on the fissured palate until the child reaches the age of. ten or twelve years, when they propose, if opportunity is afforded, to close that also.

Mr. Barr, C.E., arrived in Tokomairiro yesterday, says the Bruce I/erald of the 30th March, and this morning will commence a survey of a brauen line to Tokomairiro coalfield, as ordered by tbe Provincial Council at its last sitting'. While passing along Princes-street, Dunedin, tbe other day, says the Bruce Herald, we observed a basket of bramble berries in a fruiterer’s window, and could not resist the temptation of partaking of so strong a reminder of the hills and waysides of Auld Scotland, where in our young days ■so many pleasant hours were spent in search of these berries. Here they command the fancy price of 2s. per lb., or double the price of grapes. CANTERBURY. A large bulb is now in full bloom in the Rangiora tea gardens; it has a thick stem, about fifteen inches high, at tbe top of which • it throws out forty-four spikelets about twelve inches long, with a red flower at the extremity of each, and altogether has a very handsome appearance. This is the fourth time of flowering in sixteen years. The bulb would weigh about five pounds. About a.quarter to eight o’clock yesterday, morning, says the Lyttelton Times of the 2nd inst., a laborer named George Sharkiss, while in the Acclimatisation Gardens, observed the body of a man lying in one of tbe small lagoons. Assistance being obtained, the body was taken out of the water, and life was found to be quite extinct. Subsequent inquiries proved that the deceased, whose name was Edward Silton, a laboring man from the Bays, bad been under treatment in the hospital for typhoid fever-, and escaped from there while in a state of delirium on the previous evening. He was observed going to tbe water-closet about 7 p.m. by another patieut named Charles Clifford, and he apparently got out through a small window into the hospital yard, whence he must have wandered into the Acclimatisation Gardens, fallen into the lagoon, and been drowned. During yesterday afternoon all illquest was held at the hospital before Dr. Coward anu a jury, of whom Mr. Gavin was chosen foreman. Evidence in accordance with the facts stated , above was given, and the jury returned a verdjet of “ Accidentally drowned."