INTER PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1043, 4 February 1873, Page 3

INTER PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Tire has 1 again broken out in the Kawarau coal pit (Otago), which had to be flooded to put out the flames. Mining matters are reviving at Coromandel. Abandoned ground is being again taken up, and worked systematically on the co-operative system. Eecent English telegrams give cheering and significant items of news. A New Zealand Investment Company for the purchase of mining shares, has been started with a capital of £50,000. And a New Zealand Fibre Company, with a capital of £40.000. Unerring indications tbat the latent wealth of the colony is receiving no little attention amongst the moneyed and speculative class of great Britain. An exchange says:—"The inequality of condition which has always more or characterised the different provinces of New Zealand, is somewhat unusually marked at the present time. On the one hand, Auckland is deep in water, Nelson reported to be on the high road to insolvency, and "Westland declared to be in ' Queer street.' On the other hand, the money bags of Canterbury are full to bursting, and in Otago, according to Macandrew, 'affairs are not at present more unsatisfactory than usual,' an expression Thich is probably Aberdonian for * satisfactory.' Wellington is also unusually prosperous, her debts having been paid by the Colony, while the little Provinces of Marlborough, Hawke's Bay, and Taranaki, are quiet, so that they may be regarded as between the two extremes of poverty and plethora." The ' Thames Advertiser's' mining reporter, returning from a visit to the Upper Thaines, says:—The unanimous opinion of the miners is, that Brogan's reported discovery of a rich reef is a fraud. 'On the Hikutaia side of the range scarcely any prospecting has been done. On the "W hangamata side he found some prospectors at work, and hi Bome places saw high outcropping reefs, but the etone generally was of an inferior description, having a ■white and hungry appearance. In some of the gorges where no work was done he saw leads and veins of blue quartz five or six inches wide, and with a heavy show of mundic. Some traces of gold were also found in the casing of one reef. Altogether the country is fine looking, but .has not been even remotely prospected. There has been a little scratching by solitary prospectors, but nothing has yet been found to warrant a rush. About 200 men are already in the district, and steamers are placed on to run daily from the Large numbers of people are waiting for the official opening of the district. While at Blenheim the wellknown -Dr Carr became a member of the Order of Bechabites.

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