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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 32, 5 March 1873, Page 2

Tauranga must be a lively place for news. The erection of a town pump has furnished the local paper with a subject for about a score of paragraphs, and several leading articles. The pump itself has at length been erected. But the spout through which the water is discharged is said to be defective. Thus speaketh the quid nunc of the New Zealand Herald. His veracity is not, however, very reliable, as he states this journal demands that Mr. Dalziell’s artesian well should be placed in charge of the Road Board! We take the following items from the Weekly News:— The Timaru Herald reports that the damage done to the crops in that district by the high winds is but partial, and that a fairly prolific harvest may be confidently reckoned on. —Whooping-cough is said to be prevalent at Tokomairiro. —A. clergyman in Melbourne attributes the visitation of locusts; the farmers over there are suffering from to the passing of the impious secular Education Act.—The number of deaths in the Wellington district is unusuaMy large, and it is remarkable that seventeen of the nnmber are those of children two years old and under. —The employment of com-mon-place colloquialisms is becoming frequent in the colony.—The Otago Daily Times says the building in which an entertainment was recently given was filled “ chock-a-block.” —At Nokomai, in the programme of Christmas sports were included a billiard match, a euchre match, and a cribbage match; while at Biverton their “ sports ” were embellished by a cock-fight!— According to the Taranaki Herald a Mr. Gyde has discovered that the ironsand needs only to be sun-dried to be ready for smelting.— A. substitute for papier mache for ornaments has been found in Christchurch, in refuse flax. Various articles, well moulded, which take the varnish admirably, have been made for the Vienna Exhibition.—The formation of a blanket and flannel manufactory in the Southland district is being agitated in Invercargill.—The whalers at Mahia, Hawke’s Bay, had captured twenty whales up up to the 13th ultimo. —Some of the cattle at Poverty Bay have been attacked with staggers. —The Roman Catholics of Stafford Town and Waimea propose to give Bishop Moran a banquet in honour of his visit.—Building Societies, according to the local newspaper, appear to be “all the rage” in Oamara just now. —At a Rechabite’festival recently held at Marton, near Whanganui, Mr. Fox made a long speech, in the course of which he said that he had been told by a gentleman connected with the Government, that at Napier the number of Rechabites had increased to such an extent as to seriously affect the revenue there.—A sixteenth share in the Gabriel’s Gully Quartzmining Company was sold last week by Mr. William Best, for £5OO, the purchaser being Mr. Philip Uren.—The scarcity of timber is so great at Napier that the erection of some projected'buildings is delayed in consequence. —At one of the United Prayer Meetings in Dunedin, the Rev. Dr. Stuart is reported to have said that those present were engaged in praying “along with the elite of Christendom.”—The validity of the Wanganui election is challenged on account of the electoral roll not having been properly signed, and the proceedings will therefore probably have to be gone over again.—The alterations to the General Assembly buildings are being pushed on with great rapidity just now. The skeleton framework of the debating chamber of the House of Representatives is nearly completed, and that for the Legislative Council, is in an equally forward state of progress. —An earthquake shook the houses of the residents of Tuapeka for about ten seconds, commencing at 9 minutes to 9 o’clock on the evening of Friday the 31st January.