INTER-COLONIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1159, 17 March 1874, Page 2

INTER-COLONIAL NEWS.

We have Fiji news to the sth February. In politics there is not* anything to report. The antagonistic parties are resting on their oars pending the result of the British commission, The Grovornmcnt coffers are empty, local creditors troublesome, the civil servants unpaid, and the Government notes dishonored by the bank. Upon these troubles is the fact that taxes are coming in very slowly, and uot nearly in sufficient amount to relievo the embarrassment of the Treasurer. A trilling circumstance perhaps in itself, but considered as significant in the present juncture is the changing the denomination of the Fiji currency. A notice has been posted at the Custom House that money will be reckoned by the British style of s. d., instead of by dollars as hitherto.

The Cornwall Chronicle, Tasmania, writes:—"A rumor has reached us from such a variety of sources that, horrible as its nature is, we fear there must bo some truth in it. It is alleged that some of the sugar seized for railway rate has been deliberately poisoned; that the bags were opened, the sngar mixed with arsenic, and the bags carefully sewn up again and left ready for ttie baiiifts to seize." The Ballarat Courier remarks that they do strange things at Buuinyoug sometimes. Last week the deputyregistrar of the "ancieut village" registered his own death in due form. When the coffin reached the cemetery, and the usual document, bearing the well-known signature of the deceased, was presented to the sexton, that officer despatched a messenger to make inquiries at the registrar's office, where, fortunately, the registrar was discovered still in the flesh.

The South Australian Register states that " the body of Mr J. L. Stapleton, late telegraph stationmaster at Barrow's Cree'lv, who was speared on Sunday night, February 22, and who died from the effects of the wounds he received, was buried on Tuesday morning, February 21; and that whilst the burial was taking place, the natives were watchiug tho building."

The Pastoral Times reports that a squatter on the Castlcreagk River went to Glen lunes to visit his brother, whom he had not seen for thirty-five years. He died on his journey, having passed his brother on the road without recognising him.