INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1090, 18 July 1873, Page 2

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Heavy floods have occurred at Blenheim, and much damage has ensued. The Wellington Independent, in an article advocating Provincial borrowing, refers to Nelson as an example of stagnation, in part owing to the want of capital to develop its resources. Tho Government intend to legislate during tho session for the inspection of steamers, and preventing them overloading, and being shorthanded or insufficiently ballasted.

The Prose states that a case of plants Of the English cranberries, the first imported iuto New Zealand* has been received by the Christchurch Acclimatisation Society, and that the plants are new ready Hot distribution to members. Arrangements had also been made for sending out in the same case a nest of bumble bees, but without success. Further efforts in this direc* tion will be made. The Auckland correspondent of the Daily Times Writes:—"The position Of native affairs in the Waikato is urn changed, and I can give no news beyond that already furnished, to you by the very contradictory and unin=. telligible telegrams that come from that quarter. It ia clear the Government don't mean war, and that the extra expense to which they ate putting the colony is only a blind. They are totally unprepared for War in men, in money, of in organisation.

The Oamaru paper says that " The Harbor works at the Point are steadily progressing. The platform and ways have been laid for the steam crane, and the locomotive is now run<ning on the tramway conveying shingle te the reclamation. The engine, which weighs five tons, is capable of drawing fifty tons at as speed of twenty miles an hour, and is just the sort of thing required for our light railways. It is inexpensive in first cost, and burns very little coal." The Independent Says that Mj? Stafford has intimated his intention not to lead the Opposition, but simply to observe and criticise the actions of the Government. It throws the blame of the failure of immigration upon the Agent-General, who had ignored the instructions of the Government, and blames the Government for not dismissing him. There was a great demonstration at Tuaranga recently. The occasion being the arrival for the first time of a coach and four from Napier. The day was observed as a general holiday. A triumphal arch was erected, and the coach was escourted into Tauranga by a numerous riding party. A supped was given in the Masonic Hotel at the expense of the landlord, to which about sixty persons sat down. Mr Vogel's promptitude id so liberally responding to the request of the settlers for an overland mail was en* thusiastically acknowledged, and hia health cordially drunk. The Christchurch Jockey Club haa held a meeting to reconsider the disqualification of Peeress It waa ultimately agreed to submit the facta similar to those sent to the Australasian, to Admiral Bous for his opinion. This virtually means a rescinding of the disqualification, as the sporting Admiral has already strongly condemned it. The Wellington Evening Post says i —Were the Native Department conducted in the most satisfactory manner, its existence would still be repugnant to the principles of our government, since it is virtually a despotism, wielded by Mr McLean, in the midst of a number of departments responsible to the Genoral Assembly, and whose proceedings are done in public ; whereas the control of the Assembly over the Native Office is but nominal, and it moves in the dark, But when thia abnormal power is used with evil results to the country, the sole plea fof its maintenance vanishes and it must be got rid of at the first opportunity. Until the Native Department be re-, constituted upon the same principle as that by which other departments of the Government are regulated, the relations between Eufopeans and Maoris will never be cordial. The abuse will have to be attacked with a bold hand. It feeds a vast number of persons, and concentrates into the hands of an individual a vast authority, which will not be readily relinquished when once obtained ; so that the task of reform will be difficult enough, and can only be accomplished by united and determined efforts."

The Rev. Father Nivard took hig final departure from the Thames by the steamer the other day. The ladiea of his congregation presented him with an address and a handsome gold watch and chain at the chapel just before he left. The address was feelingly replied to by Father Nivard, and immediately after a number of lads presented an address. Father Nivard was accompanied to the steamer by hundreds of persons, anxious to do honor to him at the last moment of his departure, which was a most affecting one; and one to be remembered by many in the community for a long time. In hia reply the Rev. Father Nivard, referring to the peace and good will existing between all religious denominations there, said that " even the bell in Shortland had been a present from a Protestant"

The Hawkes Bay Herald says:— " Heuare Mataua, we hear, with hig 1 committee,' started overland yesterday for Poverty bay. He is canvassing actively for a seat in the House of .Representatives, which he hopes soon to see vacated by Karaitiana. He w ill find Henare Potae, probably, his most formidable competitor. He has adopted a notion which is a novelty, at least in New Zealand electioneering tactics. White rosettes with his red, white, and blue—attached.are sent about the country, to be worn as badges by his supporters. The colors are loyal, and his present action, we are glad to learn, has been in keeping with them." Strawberries, three parts ripe, are now on view at the shop of Mr A. Duncan, seedsman, Cashel street, Christchurch. The straw berries arg

four in number, and were grown in the open air on the property of Mr Armitage, Governor's Bay. They are of the kind known as Keen's seedling. —-Lvttelton Times.

An hotel, 83 feet by 163 feet* is about being erected in Napier. It will be by far the largest in the Province of Hawkes Bay. " One who would like to see the batives get the law as we get it—without favor,'* writes as' follows in the Tafanaki NeWs: —" Tawhiao, Esq. —Can you inform me if the abovenamed gentlemen is recognised by the Imperial or New Zealand Governments as a British subject. If he is, how is it that he has more honor paid to him than I, in my time, have ever heard of being paid to any British noble Ido not remember ever having seeU in the Times, or any other English paper, an. account in the telegrams or in the general Uews of an announcement that the Imperial Government were waiting to hear from Lord Somebody as to whether he thought fit to allow the officers of the law to go on his estate to arrest the perpetrator of a cold blooded murder. I should have thought that in Great Britain there would have been at least one man who would be «s wealthy aud as well worth consulting as TaWhiao, Esq., but it appears there is not such a person. Therefore, I should suppose, it must be that the head of the Native Department would rather let the murderer run at large than allow the slightest chance of hurting the feelings of Tawhiao, Esq. It would be a grand thing for the Colony if there was such a man at the head of affairs as there was at the head of the Nelson South- West Goldfields in 1868 There was a general riot at Addison's Flat, where 800 men as fine as ever Tawaio, Esq., could muster, put the law at defiance ; they were armed "with guns, revolvers, and tools of every description except cross-cut saws. These men defied Mr T. A. S. Kynnersley, the Eesident Magistrate, to send a writ into Addison's Flat for the arrest—not of murderers—but of men ■who committed a bold but common assault. Mr Kynnersley told these 800 daring miners that though he had only a few police at his command, the law would be upheld at all costs and all hazards. The eonsequence was the miners knew that what their chief magistrate (who was also an officer in the Eoyal Navy) said was not only what he meant to do, but what, having said it, he would do> though it cost life or money. The miners knew his word Was law, and the result Was that the officers of justice had no trouble in making their arrests. Eor what purpose do we pay 700 as fine men as ever were drilled, if it was not to enforce the law. It is hard to be taxed to keep Up a fine body of Constabulary who are ready and willing to do the duty for which they are paid, but not allowed to execute ; yet if a white man did wrong to a native, how soon would the A C. be down un him."