GENERAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 911, 9 January 1872, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

The interprovincial cricket match between Canterbury and Otago was won by the former by ten runs with tea wickets to fall. Parliament is convoked to assemble at Wellington on March 18.

The Colonial Secretary requests information of Michael Hogau, of Cain, County Tipperary, Ireland, who left that place about twenty years ago, and is now supposed to be residing in New Zealand.

A free pardon is offered to any person implicated in the fire-raising at the Cboral Society's Hall, Aucklaud, not being a principal offender, who shall give such information as will lead to the apprehension and conviction of one or more of the other offenders. The tender of Messrs Frederic and Co , Queenstown, amounting to £329 2s GJ, has been accepted for building a post office and telegraph station at Arrowtown.

We learn that Mr Balph Richardson, the member of the House of Representatives for the district of Nelson suburbs, has resigued his scat, and that Mr J. C. Richmond and Mr Luclrie will probably contest it. There is no one even among those who opposed Mr Richmond's election for Wellington who does not regret his absence from Parliament, or who would not be sincerely glad to hear his voice once more in the political arena. His ability is well known, his honesty unquestioned, and if for nothing else, the Colony owes him a debt of gratitude as the one who was mainly instrumental in the great question of education being brought last session

prominently before the House and the colony. Had he been in a position to further the work he commenced, there is every probability that the Education Bill of last session would not Lave come to such an untimely end.—" Post."

Fijian arrowroot, equal to the best Bermiulau,is being sold at Ballaratfor half the price of the West Indian article. Fiji is beginning to export arrowroot largely. The following are the latest quotations in the Thames sharemarket taken from the " Southern Cross" of 30th »lt. : " Caledonian, £63 ; closing, buyers, £6l 10sj very few shares offering. Cure, 2s 6d; Nonpareil, 82s Gd. Tookey in demand at £l9 ; none offering. Buyers for Insurance and Gas shares, Tookey, Nonpareil, and Cure.

"The Walker and Christie rifle match is exciting the liveliest interest here," remarks a Thames correspondent. "As is only a natural result of a long personal intercourse with Mr Walker, combined with unbounded faith in his prowess as a marksman, the folks here favour the local man, and are prepared to back him uo anv amount of cash that may be laid by the opposite side. As yet the sum does uot exceed £IOOO, but unless Walker's backers in this province choose to give odds to start with, the stakes will either have to be increased, or the several amounts deposited for Walker will have to be lessened. At the Thames alone £IOOO have been already guaranteed, provided that the match be shot in Auckland. This time the contest between these two men will not be one of individuals, but of provinces. It will be Aucklaud against Otago, and I shall be very much mistaken if thousands of pounds do not change bands on the issue."

Captain John Meiks, who, in 1867, crossed the Atlantic on a life-raft, is preparing for another voyage to Europe on a smaller raft of similar construction. The raft is composed of inflated indiarubber tubes, which, when not filled with air, fold up in a comparatively small compass, but when inflated will carry all the persons that can crowd on it. The raft on which Captain Meiks performed his last voyage was 25 feet long by 18 feet wide. He then had two men with him. A canvas tent was erected on the raft, and tho three crossed the Atlantic, arriving safely in England in 40 days. Captain Meiks is now having another life-raft made 25 feet long and 12 feet wide, in which he j intends going to Europe, accompanied I

only by a boy. He will be ready to start about the middle of August, and will tako with him sixty days' provisions. He intends taking the direct steamer's track, and is confident of success. This is, we believe, by no means so silly an adventure as that of the City of Kagusa. Captain Smith's raft is a genuine life-saviug contrivance, the value of which its inventor proposes to prove by going across the ocean upon it.—" New York Times."