INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1181, 2 June 1874, Page 4

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

A splendid nugget was lately unearthed at a small gully near the Upper Taieri. It weighed lloz3.2d.wts, and tho Under just previous to turning up the nugget came upon a patch of ground that yielded £7 worth of gold. The North Otago Times states that tho red deer, sent out to Otago by Lord' Dalhousie, and which were released at Morven-hill Station in 1871, have thriven remarkably well. The proprietors of the Station say that there are at least twenty on the station. Those bred here are very wild, and well able to take care of themselves. Tho acclimatisation of these animals may bo pronounced a great success. The increase since March, 1871, has been thirteen, the number turned out loose being two stags and five hinds. Tho Southern Mercury, published in JJunedin, lias been incorporated with the Guardian. Mr Vincent Pyko is solo editor of the Mercury, and assistant Editor of the Guardian. The following is an extract from a letter received in Dunedin from a gentleman in Scotland. Speaking of Dr Begg's lecture, he says : —" He (Dr Begg) will do more here for emigration that all the Birch's, Auld's, Andrew's, &c, who ever were paid by the Province. This speech of his will be read all over Scotland." " Good wine," says Shakespeare, " is the provoker of three things ;" but the Maoris have found that the purple vine has still an additional virtue. One Parone Kaura, a Maori, in giving evidence lately before the Hawke's Bay Native Lauds Alienation Commission said, that he was not a very good penman, except when ho was drunk, and then he could write " first rate." Whether this was intended as a covert sarcasm upon the Flour and Blanket Policy of the Celonial Government it is hard to say, but it seems to show that cognac and copybooks have done a good deal towards training up tho Maori in the way he should go. This story reminds us of a scrap of Victorian aboriginal humor which, though rather more forcible than elegant, may bear repeating. A. zealous missionary was endeavouring to convert a rather sagacious " King Billy" to Christianity and had made —as he thought—considerable progress in tho laudable work; but, when asked to undergo one more trifling humiliation, in token of his conversion' the blackfeliow " struck," and said, " You gibbut blanket, dat plenty pray; yon no gibbut blanket, dat no (adjective) pray !" The fifth annual report of the Otago Industrial School shows a most satisfactory state of affairs. (Che Institution has been in existence live years, and tho amount of good it has done is beyond calculation. The number at present in the Institution is 94, viz.:— 55 boys, and 39 girls. Tho total number of admissions to tho Institution since its establishment is given at 216'—being 125 boys, and 91 gins.

The Waikouaiti Herald, is going in for a new thing in journalistic literature —namely the production of " songs ancient and modern." Two issues ago its readers were favored with " Simon the cellarer," and in last number appeared the time-worn ballad "Annie Laurie." The idea is, certainly original, if not the verses. Two hundred and fifty residents in the city of Wellington have been notified that, in default of compliance with the Sth section of the Public Health Act, which relates to compulsory vaccination, a penalty of 40s may be imposed by any Justice of the Peace after the expiration of one month from date of notice: At Tokomairiro, in Otago, three bakers have been convicted under the Bakers and Millers Act, 1871, of having ammonia, tartaric acid, and cream of taitar in their bakehouses. Sixpence a pound weight is offered by some Chinese for the resin which is so abundant in the lignite deposits of the Lawrence coal pit. The Chinese doctors convert it into some kind ot medicine. The number of telegrams forwarded throughout the colony for the quarter ending 81st December last was 182,596, being an increase of 45,051 on the corresponding quaater 0f1572. The revenue of the former period was £ll,l-17, and the value of Government telegrams transmitted £3210.