INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1176, 15 May 1874, Page 2

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Very large hauls of herrings have lately been made at Picton. Three tons of this delicate fish were taken in one morning. It is supposed that the herring fishery there this season will be a very plenteous.

On the first of May the "premier chimney sweep' of Wellington, one Jimmy Lindley, organised a grand May day procession of sweeps, including Mrs {Sweep and, a number of Master Sweeps. Winding up with a may-pole dance.

It is remarked upon by the Auckland press as curious that while the whaler Albion had returned from an unsuccessful voyage in comparatively remote whaling waters, the beach on the coast of the North Island appeared to abound with whales. " Had the Albion, with her fishing gear," says the Southern Cross, " been uut between Bangitoto aud Whangaparoa, she could have made an attack upon a school of whales, and if successful she would probably have returned to port a full vessel. Of the nineteen girls who recently competed for Otago Provincial Scholarships, not one succeeded in obtaining 10 per cent of the possible number of marks. The minimum amount for honors as fixed by the regulations. It has long been supposed to have been proved that at Perservation Inlet there were deposits of true coal. Mr Hutton, Provincial Geologist of Otago now describes his inspection of seams of brown coal, but the brief report does not imply that coal of another description there exists. In a report submitted to the Provincial Council, and probably referring to his visit by the Luna, he says : —" I found a three feet seam of brown coal favorably situated but clipping at an angle of -ludeg. A considerable quantity of coal could be got out, but the quality is such as to render working the mine a certain loss. The coal is simil;>r to, and not superior to that from Tokomairiro andKaitongata. Consequently it will never do for ocean steamers, and quite as good can be got much nearer to Dunedin."

The opening of a railway from the shores of Lake Wakatip to the seaboard, is a subject exciting considerable atttention in the district which the proposed line would intersect. The Lyttelton Times notices the sale of a station in that Province, which was effected by auction in Dunedin last week. It is that of the Ben Ohou run, at Lake Ohou, comprising 81,000 acres, which, with 30,000 sheep sold for £20,000. The following notice of a meeting of the promoters of the proposed Colonial Bank appears in the Otago Daily Times : —" There were about fifty or sixty gentleman present, and several hours were spent in discussing the various arrangements for establishing the bank. The discussion, which proved to be of a satisfactory and business-like nature, concluded with the appointment of a committee, upon whose shoulders will fall all the labor which is incidental to the starting of an institution of this kind. When the meeting was over, no less than 26,000 shares were applied for in the room."

The providore of theatrical gossip to the Duncdin Star, speaking of Allen's English Opera Company, says :—" They can have no reason to complain of the treatment they received at the hands of the Duncdin people. £2700 in five weeks, which represents their takings isn't at all bad, and just shows what novelty will do." The people of the Bluff, or, if properly named, of Campbelltown, appear to hold very easy views on the subject of smuggling, especially where it involves the landing of a little good ruin, and they are benevolent withal. The lnvercargill correspondent of a contemporary says:—"The Customs regulations are necessarily very strict, but a case of hardship occurred to the mate of tho barque Omega at the Bluff, who was charged with landing a three gallon keg of ruin, and fined £2o, although there did not appear any attempt to smuggle. However, the public at the Bluff took the matter up, and in a short time

raised a subscription to recoup the amount of penalty in which the mate had been mulcted."

A correspondent writing to the Otago Daily] Times "complains that Captain Hutton in classifying the coal on the Tokomiariro and Kaitangata coalfield as merely the best brown coal, has done the district any injustice. The geologist, says the irate correspondent, was not on the Kaitangata Coal Company's ground over forty minutes, and failed to notice or record that the coal at Kaitangata is so much better than at Coal Point, nearer Tokomiariro, that many people send from the latter place to the former to obtain supplies. Among recent new arrivals in Otago is a member of the famed Alpine Club.a society of kindred spirits who spend weeks every autumn in scaling the. glaciers and icy mountains of the Alps. He proposes to form a party for scaling Mount Earnslaw and Mount Cook, and to furnish the Alpine Club with a journal of the tour for publication in its annals. This, if effected, will doubtless lead to members of that society, and many other English tourists besides, paying a visit to this colony by one of the many speedy modes of transit now offered.