INTER-PROVINCIAL,

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 103, 29 January 1870, Page 6

INTER-PROVINCIAL,

Died, on the 31st ult., •' The Wanganui Times," to the intense joy of its rivals. Its end was peace. Jenny Lind has become quite poor. Her husband has squandered most of her money. It is thought that she will open a school for opera singing in Paris. A number of immigrants under engagements arrived yesterday in the Maori from Lyttelton, having come out in the Celoeno, which arrived in Lyttelton on Sunday. She made a passage of 106 days from London. A correspondent of the " New Zealand Herald " says that pheasants are becoming a nuisance in the lower Waikato — the animal is.fast becoming a complete pest. It has already demolished that fine preserving plant, the Cape gooseberry ; it also digs up the potatoe, maize, and other seeds. A man named John Sheehan was drowned at Napier on Sunday, the 2nd inst., in attempting to secure the carcase of a sheep floating near the shore. Two or three heavy breakers knocked him down, and he was carried out to sea. At the inquest one of the witnesses said that deceased appeared to be out of his mind, and that he might have been saved had appliances been handy. The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death by drowning." The foreman suggested that life-buoys, ropes, &c, should be left at different places on the beach, so that, in the event of accident, assistance might be rendered without delay. The " Thames Advertiser," of the sth inst., writes as follows : — A letter has been received by Mr. Honiss, Secretary to the Thames Hospital Committee, from his Honour the Superintendent (J. B. Gillies, Esq.) in answer to an application made to him. The late Superintendent promised to contribute to the Hospital £2 for every £1 collected on the goldfield, and also to appoint and pay a surgeon. The present Superintendent, however, takes a different view of the duties of the Government in respect to local institutions, refusing, in respect to these, to supersede local control. The contribution to be made by the Provincial G-overnment will be a matter of arrangement, and in that respect we daresay his Honour will carry out the arrangement formerly marie. His Honour, however, considers that the appointment of a surgeon and other matters, is the duty of the Hospital Committee as representing the subscribers, and ought to be undertaken by them. One of the Kaimanawa explorers writes to a contemporary : — "The Taupo hot springs are such a curiosity that all hands determined to visit them ; to go there and back would* not occupy above four hours, and the prospect of a good wash was too tempting to be resisted, and all hands except Richards, who had seen them before, visited them, and partook of potatoes cooked both by steaming and boiling, and excellent they wei'e. The ground round about is so hot as to be almost unbearable with bare feet, and the natives simply dig a hole, put the potatoes in, cover them up, and leave them ; in about 20 minutes they are cooked. Another plan is to put a quantity into a kit, and suspend them in the same way. The holes whence the water springs are from about three to twenty feet in diameter, and most of them boil furiously, with a noise like a mill. On some occasions they throw up jets of water to a height of two hundred feet, and then the noise accompanying the gust is like thunder. Several of the party had a good swim in one hole where the temperature was not quite up to the boiling point, but the bottom in the centre was like a hot cinder, and could not be touched by the bare foot. Near this hole is a Maori image fixed on the spot where a native slipped through the crust, and has never been seen since. A constable also broke through the crust some short time since, and was very severely scalded. A whole native village was smothered here some time ago, only one man escaping. The body of the chief only was afterwards recovered, and is, I believe, buried near the spot where the accident occurred. It is a most wonderful place, and worth any amount of trouble to see." An Auckland journal has the following with reference to the Kawakawa coal mines :—ln: — In the North, however, there are the Kawakawa mines, from which Auckland is almost wholly supplied, .and from which more than 30,000 tons have been produced. At the mines some fifty men are constantly employed, and a considerable fleet of small coasting vessels is engaged in conveying the coal to Auckland and the Thames. Until a company was formed for working the Kawakawa coal mines, we imported large quantities of Newcastle coal, but since the formation of the company operations have been conducted on a more systematic and extensive scale, and at present our foreign coal import has dwindled down to a comparatively small item, and is rapidly disappearing altogether. The importance of this coal industry is perhaps too little understood and appreciated. The Kawakawa coal costs less than the Newcastle coal by £1 a ton, and there has thus been a saving of £30,000 on 30,000 tons which the Kawakawa coal mines have produced.