INTER PROVINCIAL.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1149, 10 February 1874, Page 4

INTER PROVINCIAL.

The Southland News says:—A second narrow-guage engiue, filled up in the railway workshop, was placed on the Mataura line this week. It is smaller than the one previously in use, and has only four wheels—the other has six. In comparison with the carriages, it looks quite a small affair, but we have bceu informed that its power is much greater than its size would lead any one to expect. It was almost laughable yesterday to see the little thing pushing along a string of

carriages, in either of which itcould have been stowed away quite comfortably. Alongside tho largest engine on the Bluff line the new coiner looks much as a Shetland pony in juxta-position with a draught horse.

Advocates of women's rights will be gratitied to lepra that tho two highest ] offices in the Kiverton Lodge of Good ] Templars are filled by ladies. Miss E. < Daniel is W.C.T., and Miss A. Daniel is YV.V.E. These are the first instances of ladies holding such offices in Good 'letnplar lodges in New Zealand. The local paper says, tho manner in which the fair officers fulfil their arduous duties of directing the business of the lodge excites tho admiration of the brothers especially the unmarried oiicb —and fills the hearts of the worthy sisters with—well, we shall say emulation. The Superintendent of Otago has the reputation of what vulgar printers call " striking brights"—j <?., iuveuting happy thoughts. This is Mr Macandrew's last uttered at the Taieri Agricultural Show : —" Although I am no judge of horse flesh, 1 could not forget, when looking round the yard to-day, that.in England they import annually over 12,000 horses, and I seo lio reason, when more rapid communication is established, why New Zealand should not export to England any amount of horses." A recent number of the Wanganui Herald says:—We understand that a new religion is fast gaining ground among the natives of this district. Its founder and propagator, Matia, is a native of Kaiwaike. The language of the ceremonial is partly unintelligible to the natives. One pleasing feature in the new religion is its striking resemblance to many of the religion of the old world, and Europeans are to be converted by " the power of truth," instead of driven into the sea as formerly. A Tattersall's Club, for the purpose of regulating betting, is being formed in Auckland. The Maoris on the Upper Wanganui are reported to be rebuilding their flourmills, At one place a " very costly mill and iron-framed waterwheel," of Glasgow make are to be erected. Two Christchurch tradesmen have been fined for not having the New Zealand stamp on their measures, though the English stamp was on them. Referring to the oil springs on the East Coast, a special correspondent, writing to the Poverty Herald, says : —" The extent of the line along which they lie scattered here and there, seems to .place it beyond doubt that the vein, if not an inexhaustible one, at anv rate, one which will take years to exhaust; and the evidence in favor this conclusion is strengthened by the fact of other veins being known to ._i»*. ,•„ t-v, a nolcrhlinrhnnrl. and. indeed, , all along the East Coast from Hawke's Bay and the Bay of Plenty. The whole district, in short, appears to be a rich oil-bearing one. Referring to the company about becoming formed to utilize the whole island sulphur deposits, a correspondent of the Bay of Plenty Times says : " Mountains of sulphur exist on its surface, thousands of' tons of sulphuric acid and other valuables lies dormant in its bottomless hot lake, waiting only the enterprising hand of man to render them a source of profit and general benefit to the colony. The commercial columns of the Auckland Herald of the 31st ult, give a return of the quantity of gold and silver exported from Auckland province from April, 1857, to the 31st December, 1873. From this we learn that during that period 853,658 ozs of gold, valued £2,989,876, and 215,584 ounces of silver, valued at £61,228, or a total value in money for both items of ,£3,051,104 has been realised. A gossipping correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, writing from Christchurch, says : —" lam not given as a rule to present ecclesiastical matters to the public from a ludicrous point of view, but a scene occurred hero the other Sunday in a ' fashionable' church -which I cannot help recording. A very stout old gentleman—a very respectable member of society, a retired wholesale and retail crockery merchant —named I e, had taken his seat with all due decorum. But his equanimity was somewhat disturbed upon finding that the owner of a toy and fancy shop—Mrs A—n, a dear old lady, whose rotundity was equally disproportioned with his own, was coming up the aisle, and had to pass him to reach her own seat, he being already so wedged in that all he could do was to rise. The lady tried to pass, but her efforts were unavailing. In fact, affairs had come to such a crisis that an actual dead-lock ensued. The situation was most distressing, inasmuch as everybody but the hero and heroine were sitting down, aud tho tittering was quite audible. At length, by dint of more than one terrible struggle, a passage was effected, and the lady reached her seat, after the most painful exhibition that was ever witnessed in a place cf worship.