INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1167, 14 April 1874, Page 2

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Tho question of erecting a graving dock in Wellington is again being revived. A traveller at Invercargill recently describing the difference between railway travelling in New Zealand and in the Home country, spoke favorably of the civility shown by colonial conductors : —He said that in England the guard thus accosted tho first-class passengers, " Ladies and gentlemen, your tickets, if you please." To the secondclass he said, " Tickets, please." And to the third, "Now then, your tickets." The Bluff guard looked upon all as first-class passengers! A recent visitor by the Luna to Preservation Inlet writes that a short distance from the shore an immense quantity of trumpeter and some rock cod were caught by the excursionists. The fish were so numerous that the lines —and these and the bait would have shocked the practical fishermen by their uncouthness —could not reach the bottom before the fish had been fixed. The Dunedin betting man received a warm castigation from the Resident Magistrate, J. Bathgate, Esq., on the occasion of one of the fraternity named Belcher being committed for thirty days, for assaulting an individual who had not promptly paid up his bets, and the Dunedin press has followed in the same strain. A correspondent, " Pair play," writes to the Otago Times in defence of bookmakers, and explains that it is listbetters who are the transgressors. He says:—" They go about, with their name on their hat, a large board, and perhaps a few other articles which are more easily carried in their pockets. They stay out amongst the crowd, and if a horse is scratched, the longer odds they will lay, from a half-crown upwards, Bookmakers in New Zealand, are found at their post on settling day, and the other gentlemen muster in great force, i aud call out they are there to pay or i receive, when it is well known they have received and paid all (which is very I little) on the course. A schooner called the Maid of Otago has met with a mishap at the Waitara

River. She was from Pelorus Sound, and had timber in her for the railway wharf at the Waitara. The vessel arrived when there was not enough water on the bar for her to enter, so anchored outside. Through having so much heavy timber in her she got strained, and finding that she leaked, bad to maUo-ioi? tlio pivpr. JLi'fcoi*. oroasing the bar her rudder got unshipped, and she drifted on to a sandspit. She then unloaded, aud a tide or two afterwards was floated up to the wharf in river. She appears to be a good deal strained, but with a little repair will be able to go to sea again. The Mount Ida (Otago) Pastoral Investment Company has commenced investing. The Company has purchased from Mr David Maitland the lease of his two runs numbered 219 and 300, consisting of about 59,000 acres of excellent pastoral country, about 20,000 acres of which are summer country, and the remainder can be depastured on at all seasons. Together with the lease of the run 3, they have purchased 21.000 sheep, and valuable improvements. The price is £21,000, and the Company has already been offered a figure for its investment iu advance of that sum.

The journeymen bootmakers of Dunediu have successfully launched themselves iuto a trade union. Their object, as stated, is to assist each other

by unit}', and carry on their principles iu harmony with the masters. No monoply was complained of nor were were motives of selfishness inculcated in its formation on the part of the journeymen.

The process of brewing by steam, introduced iuto this Colony not long ago by a Dunedin brewer, is gradually superseding the old plan of boiling in copper. Steam coils are now be'in" fitted up iu various Dunedin breweries', aud orders come from outside the province to Dunedin manufacturers for new apparatus. The South Canterbury Times says, on the 20thult., during the prevalence of a strong south-east breeze, the seed of the Scotch thistle, growing on the various runs surrounding Timaru, was being wafted to aud fro in the town, presenting the appearance as if snow were falling. The Herald observes '• Poverty Bay was afflicted towards the end of last week with a plague of flying ants," to which the Egyptian plague of flies was not a circumstance. In some quarters they came down in showers. One result was singular, and worth recording. The cocks and hens appeared to think they were in for a good thing, and weut for them. Next day there was considerable mortality " anion" poultry.

The Thames Advertiser gives an account of a new invention for propel, ling a boat in the water, which was lately on view in the yard of Mr Christianson, Davy street Grahauistown. The boat to which it has been applied is twenty-one feet in length, with a beam of six feet, very substantially built and partly housed in for a cabin. Jt is capable of carrying some twenty passengers, and is intended to be used as a pleasure-boat on the Thames

river, or elsewhere The motive power consists of a suit of sails, urnbrellaBhaped, fixed to a crank, which open and shut with the direction of the wind. The crank moves a propeller in the Btorn of the boat, which is likewise available as a treadlo when there is no wind, and can bo worked by the feet of the man at the wheel, who is seated immediately above the treadle. This is connected with fans at the Btern of the boat, which are also of a peculiar construction, opening and shutting with the motion of the boat and action of the water, in the same manner as a duck glides along the stream through the action of its feet. "The boat is intended as an experiment, although.it is of large size, and may be used for pleasure parties or passenger traflic on the Ohinemuri river. The Riverton Western Star says that during the last six months there have been 106 new shares taken up in the Western District Building and Land Society, making a total of 230 new shares since the alteration of the rules in April 1873. During the last six months there has been £2,225 advanced to members. The total number of shares in the society is 61S of which 3G7 are realised. The half year terminates on Monday next, at which time shares can be taken up without payment of back subscriptions The entrance fee we may mention is 28 Gd per share, the subscription 2s per share per fortnight, and the value of the shares £25.