INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1072, 16 May 1873, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

A Steam Tug Company Las been formed at Wellington with a capital of £sooo> in 250 shares. They intend to send to Melbourne to purchase a tug. ._ Wellington journeymen tailors hare -struck for an advance of equal to 2s per Vday to which masters refuse to concede. Prom a summary of the Canterbury Provincial Council accounts for the 'Quarter ending March 31st, it appears that.; the Province of Canterbury at that'date had "a balance credit of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. A special session of the Canterbury Provincial Council was opened on the 'third. The Superintendent in his speech f stated that estimated receipts from the sale of waste lands funds for the year ending 30th September, 1873, 'were £130,080, bht for the last seven months'which have elapsed they have reached to the amount of £IOO,OOO in 'excess of amount estimated for the 'whole-year. Lieut. Lochner, in a letter to a 'paper at the Thames, offers, if the 'Government will allow him, to raise : 200niento bring in Tawaio and the murderers of Todd and Sullivan, dead or alive. Mr Bathgate, at Dunedin, in replying to the deputation regarding the formation ■of a Volunteer Company •at Lawrence, said for any practical purpose it was high time thecoustitu-

tion was altered, and the force so 'organized that when ordered to attend 'drills they should bo compelled to com • ;]>ly. What was wanted was a body of trained artillerymen, and the only : useful arms in the service were artillery naval brigades. Other clubs were nothing more or less than shooting clubs. The new volunteer Act "would'be brought forward during the approaching session, and would be more stringent than the present one, and would provide, instead of each company drilling two nights a-week, all Companies in tho Province should he called together in each year, at one ' central town, and there be drilled for fourteen days. A'return of the Customs revenue at tho several ports of the colony during j'tfee'qa&rter ended 31st March, 1573, tskjws'th'o following totals from the "principal ports: —Wellington, £15,239; WangMui;£i4,976; Auckland, £43,061; •Dunedin, £00,557; Lyttelton, £29,525; Invercargill, £4.072 ; Nelson, £7,917 ; "Westporl,£3,2SO; Greymouth,£7,l43; Hokitika, £7,548. The total revenue is £210,407, the amount for the correspondingquarteroflS72being£l9G,29l, thus showing an aggregate increase, though at a number of of ports—chiefly ports to goldmining districts — the revenue has'fallen oft". These are the Thames, Westport, Greymouth, Hokitika. Okarito, and the port of Hokianga. Agricultural laborers are so scarce in Otago that farmers in the Taieri have raised their men's wages £lO a year. Temalo domestics were never so scarce before. The Otago Government met the Council with a credit balance of over £IO,OOO. The Province was never more prosperous than at present. There is likely to be a lively contest for the Superiritendency of Taranaki. Tho election does not take place before November, and there are four candidates already mentioned —Mr Carring;ton '(the present Superintendent), Major Brown, Mr Kelly, and Major Atkinson. A Writer in the Otago Daily Times states that imitations of tho Mosgiel tweeds are finding their way into the Dunedin market from England. Hra Honor Mr Justice Johnston pronounced an interlocutory dictum of some importance the other day in Auckland. 'He said where a juryman Was cognisant of a fact connected with the case, and did 'not mention it to the Court, if he gave effect to that fact in the jury room while deliberating upon averdict, he 'would be -acting inconsistently with his' oath. Forty-nino applications were re■cently received by tho City Council of -Auckland for the office of market

inspector. The list of applicants, according to the Southern Cross, comprised the names of those who had followed every pursuit in life, from an ex-policeman to a general in the army, and from a decayed merchant to a preparer of tripe by a new process. A telegram from Auckland in 'the Otago Daily Times states that the 'Daily Southern Cross has been bought by a limited liability company, Mr Vogel getting £4OOO for the plant and goodwill. The chief shareholders are Captain Daldy and Messrs W. S. Grahame, Vogel, and Stanuus Jones. The capital of the'company is £IO,OOO, in shares of £1 each. Low fever is becoming very prevalent in Wanganui. The New-Zealand Tablet, a Catholic weekly paper, edited by Bishop Mo ran, appeared for the first time on the 3rd inst. In the opening article it is stated that the public press, speaking generally, is in its tone, hostile to the Roman Catholic Church, and calumnious in its statements in reference to the church and its pastors. In alluding to the immigration scheme of the General Government, he attributes its failure to bigotry, which has determined, if possible, to exclude Catholic Irishmen.