COLONIAL ITEMS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 92, 1 October 1873, Page 2

COLONIAL ITEMS.

(FROM THE ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN PRESS COMPANY.) Wellington. Further information respecting the ship Punjaub shows that twenty-eight deaths occurred duriug the passage, out of 350 souls. Measles broke out in the Channel, subsequently intermittent ferer made its appearance. Twenty-one persons who died were Danes. Returns relative to the cost of telegraph forms showed that Mr. Lemon prudently saved threepence three farthings per thousand by arranging with an English contractor. Arrived—Douglas, ship, from London, with 400 immigrants. There have been six deaths on the passage. Small pox and low fever are on board. The ship has been placed in quarantine.

The Committee on Colonial Defence recommend torpedoes and heavy batteries for external defence, and a thorough Militia and Volunteer system for internal defence, and that a fixed per-centage of the population of the colony be trained to arms. Where this is not reached by Volunteering, the First-class Militia to be drawn by lots. Capitation money £3. Two years’ enrolment, and a continuous day’s drill under canvas yearly. Snider rifles. All corps to be instructed in the use of field and Beige guns. Mounted corps to be armed and drilled the same as Infantry. An annual competition for a challenge shield. Regulations uniform ; compulsory parades increased to eight; inspections twelve. Commissions of company officers to lapse when the corps was below its proper strength. The tender of Mr. John Beaton, of Wellington, for the erection of the Taranaki Steel and Iron Company’s furnace has been accepted. The amount of cost is £3,219. A cablegram has been sent home for the price of fire bricks. Tauranga.

Great indignation is expressed among the Arawas at the Government employing C. O. Davis, he being looked upon as a kind of Tuwhiao advertiser. Ringori, hitherto Davis's pet and supporter, seeks Mackay, promising him to expose the treachery of Davis. A messenger from Waikato states that the King natives are quickly planting. There is great distress amongst them through the scarcity of provisions. Hornes and men are dying fast.

Cristchurch. The immigrants per Punjaub have been landed on the quarantine ground. There are twenty-three cases of fever at the Quarantindstation amongst the passengers of the Punjaub ifelght cases are considered dangerous.