INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1179, 26 May 1874, Page 3

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Messrs Baird and Chambers, e\ginecrs, of North Melbourne, have, (says the Argus) executed an order from a New Zealand firm, for a machine for us.e in the manufacture of spokes, axehandlcs, pick-handles, and so on, and which is constructed according to an American design.

Samples of beer are reported by a contemporary to have been collected from the principal breweries in the colony, with the exception of those on the AVest Coast and subjected in the Colonial Laboratory to a searching examination for deleterious ingredients ; but " in no case," says Mr Seed, " were traces of such ingredients discovered." This is satisfactory as far as it goes, but it would be a much greater pleasure to hear that samples of beer had been collected from all the public houses in the colony, and tested for adulteration. Says the Otago Times of the 11th instant: —£9o,ooo per acre ! It was about this rate that the freehold on which the Oriental Hotel, Princes street, stands, was sold yesterday to Mr Braithwaite. "Who can say after this that laud is not valuable in Dunedin. In the libel case Macassey v. Bell, Mr Barton chose to make some inviduous remarks as to the appearance of one of the witnesses, a gentleman connected with the "Wakatip Mail. The Otago Times says;—Mr Barton evidently judges a man by his dress, and, if he is he is sure to be a gentleman connected with the Press. This is truly lamentable! To think that we have no well-dressed men who earn an honest living by journalism. But perhaps, after all, it is better to wear a " seedy-coat" than to be designated a " turncoat!"

The Napier Daily Telegraph considers that it is unfair for members of the General Government, Superintendents of Provinces, and other officials, to travel free on the Colonial railways. All these gentleman, it remarks, receive handsome salaries, or are in receipt of pay, paid by the general public, and to grant them free passages by the railways is equivalent to increasing theii remuneration for the performance of their duties. This is certainly not fair to the public who, in addition to having to pay for (he railways, are now called uptn to allow an army of officials to travel gratis.

The Bank of New South \\ r ales' net profits for the half-year were £1)2,700 out of which a dividend and bonus equal to 17-i per cent, is declared, -and £SOOO voted to the officers' guarantee and provident fund. The Turner gold mine, near Picton has had a crushing. The stone crushed was between 90 and .100 tons, and the yield was seventy-five ounces eighteen pennyweights, of retorted gold. The battery was working S hours per day. There is being published in the Otago Daily Times a scries of sketches of our public men. The subject of •the first sketch was Mr Yogel, and itis the intention to give from time to time portraits of Mr Stafford, Major Eichardson. Mr M'Lean, Sir Francis Dillon Bell, Mr Ecynolds, and other leading politicians. The Southern Mercury has been incorporated with the Otago Guardian, and will henceforward be published by the Guardian Printing Company, Exceedingly good news comes from the Cardrona, to the effect that several of the Companies working on the deep lead have struck first class gold. Writing a day after the finds, the correspondent of the Cromwell Argus says : "I had just posted my letter to you, when I was informed that today (Wednesday, April 29) the Great Extended Company, in working down the clip, have struck payable gold, at the rate of about three ounces to the set. This is almost certain to continue, and the company have a nice winter's work cut out. This news is all the more important from the fact that the further to the eastward the ground is proved payable, the greater becomes the extent and value of this place as a goldfield.

The Otago Guardian of the 12th hist, says : —An effort is to be made in the Provincial Council to effect a re duction of the export duty on gold. Mr De Latour will move to-day that the duty should be reduced (id per ounce. The Uawkc's Bay Herald, of the sth instant, has the following important paragraph : —" We understand that a firm, whose representative is at present in the Australian colonics, would be willing to undertake to build the Napier breakwater on a guarantee of five per cent on its cost of construction." The man Colbourne, who for years lias been amongst the natives atMakau, we (Tavanaki Herald) learn, hi fast losing his recollection of the English language, and now speaks it in a broken manner like the natives. The man is used as a slave by the natives, and even the children speak to him and older him about as such. Mr Joseph Mackay, the proprietor of the Bruce Herald, Otago, has purchased " the coal quarry" recently found in that district. Mr Mackay must have made a good investment, as Captain Hutton estimates that millions of tons

of coal exist within the sixty acres purchased by Mr Mackay, which can bo judged from the fact that the seam is twenty-two feet thick of solid coal, and may be worked from a face. Mr Eeid is retained in Mr Mackay's employ to work the mine, and says that with his own hands he can turn out from ten to twelve tons a day of it. The Dunedin Guardian states that thoro is in Dunedin gaol a prisoner for debt, who has beeu incarcerated for ten months for a debt of 3E3G. The detaining creditor is the sheriff; and the debt is for costs of Court. The Dunedin Star says that when (he census was taken there were only 120 uninhabited houses in Dunedin, and 56 in course of erection. When the 1871 census was taken, there were 614 uninhabited houses, and. 38 in course of construction.

[For remainder of news see idh par/c.~]