INTERPROVINCIAL.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 131, 14 May 1884, Page 2

INTERPROVINCIAL.

[Per Press Association.] EXTENSIVE FIRE. Invercargill, May 14. A serious renewal of the lire in Dee Street occurred on Monday evening about eight o’clock, the cause being the burning of joists in part of the wall abutting on those of the adjoining buildings. This set fire to the upper floor of the shop of Mr. Hayes, chemist, who had returned his stock to his shop after the first fire on Saturday morning. The building, which was also occupied by Messrs. McPherson and Prentice, grocers, was entirely ruined, and has been partly pulled down for safety. The second disaster will also increase the cost of renewing Messrs. Rodgers and Co.’s premises, as the walls are now erected. The following are the insurances: buildings, £l,OOO in the Liverpool, London, and Globe Co.; .£l,OOO in the Colonial (£5OO reinsured). Messrs. McPherson and Prentice—stock, £5OO in the Victoria and .£5OO in the Equitable; J. D. Hayes’ stock £3OO in the Australian Mercantile ‘Union and £3OO with the New Zealand Co. Great excitement prevails over the incendiarism scare and the frequency of fires.

IMPORTANT DECISION. Hokitika, May 14. At the District Court yesterday the case of the Borough of Hokitika v. Westland County Council was heard. The question was whether the borough or the county were entitled to the fees paid by Robinson. It appears Robinson’s empowers him to sell anywhere in the Provincial District of Westland, and he sometimes conducts sales at Greymouth and Hokitika, and he conducts correspondence from there and also keeps books there. Judge Broad held that a man’s usual place of business was where the supreme management or administration was carried on as a whole, and not any place where he might transact some special portion of it, and decided that the borough, and not the county, had a right to the fees. LOST IN THE BUSH. Christchurch, May 14. Robert Hislop, who was employed at Parkerson’s Lakes Station, started six days ago to muster sheep and has not since been heard of. He had three dogs with him, two of which have returned. New Plymouth, May 14. A strong N.E. wind is blowing, which caused a very rough sea this morning, and as the steamer Hawea kept well out, the boatmen had great difficulty in tendering her on arriving with the passengers. A small stream of oil was allowed to flow from a can which prevented the sea breaking over the boat, and it came ashore in almost calm water. This is the first time that oil has been tried in subduing the sea here. Z. N. TIMES. Wanganui, May 14. Mr. G. Fitzgerald, who for the past five years has edited the Wanganui Chronicle, has been offered and has accepted the editorship of the N. Z. Times. ANOTHER FIRE. Oamaru, May 14. At Kurow yesterday, the threshing mill and two stacks of oats were destroyed by fire. The mill was insured for £2OO in the New Zealand office, and the oats for £5O in the Equitable. On the same day two uninsured stacks of oats were destroyed by fire on the Plain. The New Zealand Insurance Company offer £lOO reward for the conviction of the person or persons who fired Melrose’s stacks on the 7th inst. Nelson, May 14. The ketch Prospect, bound to Nelson, with a cargo of coal, when running into Astrolabe through stress of weather, became a total wreck by striking on a reef. She was owned by J. C. Burford, and was valued at £2OO, she was uninsured. HEAVY GALES. Wellington, May 14. The following was received from the Museum — The “ Dandenong ” gales, to which the storm, at present raging in Australia, is compared by the Sydney Observer in to-days telegrams, passed over Australia on the Oth and 10th of September, 1876. It followed a long period of drought, aud began with a hard N.W. wind which lasted several days, and then changed suddenly on the Oth to a south wind, as the centre of the storm passed on in a N.E. direction over Victoria. The great strength of the gale was thus a south wind, which commenced at Portland at 6 a.m. on the 9th, and broke over Sydney with a terrific thunder storm at 6 p.m. on the same day. On the 13th this depression passed altogether to the North of New Zealand bringing a heavy easterly gale over Auckland, but no great disturbance was affected to New Zealadd generally until the 22nd, when a depression south of the Bluff with a violent N.W, gale, chahging suddenly to S.W., with thunder and hail storms. On this occasion a maximum force of winds, nearly 700 miles in 24 hours, was recorded in Wellington. The storm now being felt in Australia is not yet affecting New Zealand weather, but strong winds prevail owing to the existence of another depression approaching from S.W., the centre of which shows a tendency to pass over the south island.