INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1141, 13 January 1874, Page 2

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Dr Carr is successfully fetching the public at Christclmrch.

The sum of £IO,OOO is tho amount of damages Mr 13e Courcey Ireland intends to sue Capt. C lapmau (H.M.S. Dido) for. The ground of action is the alleged false imprisonment of Mr Ireland on board the Dido at Fiji. It is said that the deduction of five per cent, on the premiums allowed by the Government Life Insurance offices to officiating ministers, and permanent officers of the General Government, will cease on all policies granted after the 31st ultimo. At the Dunodin commercial travellers second annual re-union over fortygentlemen were present. The chair was filled by Mr F. Russell, Mr J. W. Thomson acting as viee. After the usual toasts, " The Commercial Interests of Otago" was proposed by the chairman, who said that it was only in Dunedin (of the New Zealand towns) that such a number of representatives of those interests could be brought together. He trusted that all would unite in endeavoring to further their own interests and the interests of their firms. Dunedin held the palm as the commercial city in the colouy, and its " bagmen" were to be met with in every town in the country. Wellington was only a subsidized place, and if deprive! of its subsidy must inevitably collapse. The Oamiru Railway Station, the contract for which has been let to Mr J. Campbell, of Dunedin, for £llOO, has been commenced. The site chosen is at the east end of Wansbeck-street, close to where the Government flag staff stood. The building is to be of wood, resting on stone piles, is of neat design, and will cover an area of 64 by 21 feet; containing passage with entrance from the platform and from Wansbeck-street, ticket room, general waiting room, ladies' waiting room, lamp room, &c. It is to be completed in two months from date. The Bruce Herald's Oamaru correspondent says : —" A more suitable and central position for traffic could not well have been chosen. The effect of the railway in progress is seen in the demand for sections having a frontage to the main business street, and I have heard of a sale of one small corner at £l2O, being in advance of over £2O on the reserve price. The purchaser was Lieutenant-Colonel Gorton.

The Rev. Mr Rigg, a Wesleyan minister, preaching at Dunedin the other day, denounced kiss-in-the-ring, at Church festivities especially, aud spoke warmly against kiss-in-the-ring at any time, especially on such occasions. It had, he said, an evil influence upon those who took part in it, and was a blot upon our Christianity. A case is mentioned by the Ilawke's Bay Herald which New Zealand emigration agents in Britain should bring under the notice of the working classes there. It is that of Mr G Macdonald, who has bought hind for a tannery and fellmongerf. Mr Macdonald was an assisted immigrant, and he landed in the colony only 18 mouths ago. During that period he has not only p lid off his debt to the Government but has amassed capital sufficient to start him in busine-s on his own account. The publication of a lew authenticated cases of success such as this could not fail to exert a beneficial influence in inducing immigration to New Zealand.

The Eoss Guardian of the 6th inst. reports that a melancholy accident occurrad at Blanchard's Bluff, on the sth instant. About 7 o'clock in the evening John Lusk, the packer for Messrs M'Fetrich and Co., was returning from the Five Mile to Okarito, and in riding round the Bluff, where the surf was very heavy at the time, a sea struck the horse, and carried him out for a short distance. Lusk was washed off the horse's back, and his body came ashore about fourteen minutes afterwards 350 yards northward of where the accident happened. All efforts to restore him were useless. An inquest was held before Mr La Nauze, when a verdict of "Accidentally drowned" was recorded.

The Governor arrived at Timaru a quarter of an hour before he was expected, and in consequence there were only present to receive him the Town Clerk and the reporters of the local Press. These formed themselves into a deputation, and the clerk—so the ' Gazette' tells us—took out of his pocket a sheet of paper on which an address had been written, and read it to Sir James. His Excellency then came forward and congratulated the Town Clerk on his appointment as "Mayor of the important borough of Timaru," which it is almost needless to say was a pleasant fiction.

Agitation has been suggested at Tokomairiro to break down the monoply of the local bakers, who have raised the price of bread to 8d the 41b loaf. The ruling prices in Dunedin and neighborhood are 6d and 7d.