INTER-PROVINCIAL.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1148, 6 February 1874, Page 4

INTER-PROVINCIAL.

OTAUO. A presentation from the Dunedin mercantile community of a purse containing 1()0 guineas was recently made at the Club Hotel, Dunedin to Mr Hill late Collector of Custonis. The Southern Mercury suggests the advisability of adopting the Belgian plan of allowing patients under restraint for lunacy free communication with their friends, relatives, or the Government authorities, by which the confinement of sane persons becomes next to an impossibility, 'lhis is thoplacing in some convenient part of the building accessible to all the inmates a post-office letter-box, under lock and key, and the contents of can only be got at by author Sties who are in no way connected wrjh the asylum. Any patient who places a letter in the box stating that he is not insane, has his case immediately inquired into.

Mr Alhin, Immigration Officer, for Ofcairo reports having, forwarded by the last Suez mail applications under the nominated system for 188 souls, equal to 108 statute adults. These have been received since the last mail on the 24th December.

A portion of the Wmtou estate, in Southland, amounting to <iDOO acres, has been sold under the hammer at Invercargill for £ 19,000. According to the Taupeka correspondent of the Bruce Herald, one claim in that district continues to yield about £6O worth of gold a man per month.

The Presbyterian Synod has voted in favor of the establishment of a Theological Hall. The Synod agreeing 'to the several recommendations contained in the University report, and also appointing a Committee to report as to appointing tutors, and on the carrying out of other matters referred to. I CANTERBURY, The Board of Governors of Canterbury College have made arrangements for obtaining a Professor of Mathematics and philosophy at £6OO a year and fees, and Professor of Classics, History, English, and Literature, at £6OO a year and fees. Plans for the new College buildings have been adopted and it has been decided that the reading room in the .public library shall be thrown open free. WELLINGTON. The Independent states that it is to ship to England quantities of pulp, Tnado of the fibre of the New ■Zealend flax plant, as a material for the manufacture of paper, for which it is said to be well adapted. Specimens have been shown, the whiteness of which is unexceptionable, and as it is very tough it will find a ready market if it can be landed in England at a price to oiiit the manufacture of paper. We should be glad to see an experimental shipment tried. It is reported that Mr M'Kay will shortly return to the Thames from Waikato to resume purchasing operations in the district.

The p.s. Luna has brought up from Wellington a number of Armed Constabulary men on board, to be stationed ■at some of the posts in the Waikato. A local paper states that at the next meeting of the Wanganui llifle Association prizes to the value of £65 will be -■competed for, A meeting has been held at Wellington to form a Seaman's Uuion. It was resolved that an advance of £2 per month be made in the pay of officers, carpenters, cooks, and stewards; the wages of firemen to be £2 per month ; trimmers, £8 ditto ; and foremast hands in sailing vessels, £7 ditto. The Independent order of Pechabites intend erecting a hall, costing a thousand pounds, and they further intend to ask the Provincial Government for a free site.