INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1076, 30 May 1873, Page 2

INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

The New Zealand Herald state 3 " an influential chief at Ohinemuri is reported to have said that if the Government do not take immediate steps to avenge the [ Sullivan's] murder, he should be inclined to believe what Tawhio said when Todd was shot, that this old women Government do not care about a dog (i.e., a poor man) being shot; had a rangatira been shot, the matter would be different." A fire took place in Papanui road, Christchurch, on the 21st, about a mile from tho centre of tho city. It originated in a stable. There was

a brick building on one side, and a right of way on the other side; thus N . the flames were easily stopped. The | damage consists of Simpson's grocer shop, slightly damaged; a Btable, one horse, and a quantity of hay and potatoes destroyed j W. Viuey, confectioner, brick shop, with a shingle roof) almost gutted. It both cases the stock-in-trade was all removed by the fire police. The total damage did not exceed £SOO. A correspondent of the Auckland papers mentions a case of rank ingratitude. There was found in the shop of a tradesman in that city £77 in bank notes. The find was "advertised ; and the owner did what ? not only gave no reward, but actuallyrefused to pay half-a-crown for the advertisement that was the means of his recovering his money. Regarding the cause of Sullivan's murder, And the feelings and practice of the natives ill cases of the kind arising from land disputes between tribes, the Thames Advertiser describes the customs of the Maori in a manner which those who know tho native character and customs say is a true description. Our Contemporary says:—" Some of our readers who have not been long in New Zealand may not be aware of one among the many curious customs of the Maoris. It two sections of natives claim a block of ground, and the Native Land Court, after a long investigation-, adjudges it to one of these-, and the victorious section sells it to a European the correct thing for the losers to do is, not to say or do anything against their native opponents, but to kill the innocent European. One would think that they would expend their rage against those who had wronged theru, but it is not so. And yet another peculiarity is, that those who had sold to the European would think that the Maoris had done quite right in so taking utu. This is a specimen of; native logic. It would not be at all surprising if some of Purukutu's confederates killed any European who might be prospecting between Ohinemuri and Te Aroha, because the Te Aroha land has been adjudged to the Thames natives. And very probably the verdict of the Ohinemnri people would be ' served him right.' That) it seems, is the judgment upon the Pukekura tragedy, and we suspect if we had genuine accounts of the native meetings in the Waikato we would find that that was something like the unanimous native opinion. Te Hifa, it seems, sympathizes with Sir James Fergusson in coming to New Zealand in troublesome times, and regrets that he did not come sooner, so that he might have judged whether Sullivan or his murderers were in the wrong. The movement commenced for separation of Wanganui District from Wellington Province is gaining ground) the Wairoa Settlers' Association having endorsed the movement) and held meeting in the Rangitikei and Patea districts, at which delegates from Wanganui attended* A milkmen's Mutual Co-operative Society has been formed at Grahamstown, the object being to enable the members to buy fodder and other necessaries at wholesale prices in the cheapest market, and to assist each other in case of loss in stock. Up Auckland wav talkists, especially press men, and naval and military heroes, are good at stiff yarns) and ' high falutin' generally ; and often enough the imaginative flight of genius t soaring howsoever high in the realms of fancy, serves but to incite some aspiring romancer to exercise the coinage of his brain in recounting " moving incidents by flood and field that shall eclipse all previous efforts. The following clipping from the Coromandel Mail is too good to be lost:—> D. 8., of Devonport, whose identity must be known to most old Auckland ers, has been spinning a yarn of some ocean hero friend, and B. M. appears to have put the climax on it. The Auckland Star says : We have received the following with a request for its insertion :—Sir, —l have been much edified by reading in the columns of one of your southern contemporaries this morning a letter from "D.B.,'* and dated Devonport. It tells how a person at a dinner party spat up a piece of his shirt and jacket which had been shot into him, together with a bullet, some years previously. It appears the ball remained in the man's belly, and used occasionally to keep moving about there to his great inconvenience, Sir, I know a more interesting case that this. A friend of mine, an officer in a crack regimeut) was engaged in active service in the Punjaub, when he was struck in the small of the back by a shell from a howitzer. Having been discharged from a short distance, and with a feeble charge, instead of rending his clothing, the missile tore with it in its course his pantaloons, and such was their strength that the shell, after passing through the body, was drawn back with a rebound, and both the missile and the breeches remained lodged in his abdomen. The Wound closed and healed, and though the bulky substance in the inside produced consider* able inconvenience, he was not debarred from the pleasures of society. On occasion he Was at a Government ball in Calcutta, and, after dancing, was seized like " D.B.'s" friends with a fit of coughing, when at length one leg of his breeches came out of his throat, and hung dangling from his mouth. To push the article hack -was found impossible without choking, and as it was known that there were matches and percussion caps in his pocket within, close to the shell, those present were

'fvfraid to pull for fear of an explosion, fled from tho scene, and my unnappy friend to this day goes about with the shell in his -inside, and the leg of his breeches hanging outof his •mouth.—l am, &c, B. M.