INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1201, 11 August 1874, Page 4

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

On the Southern Trunk Railway, between Dunedin and Green Island, a, large deposit cf lire clay has been found The seam is ten feet thick, and the contractors for the railway offer to deliver this fire-clay in Dunedin at the rate of four shillings per cubic yard—a cubic yard being rather more than what is known as an ordinary load. The fire-clay generally in use there is imported from England, aud its price is about £8 per ton. Besides the fire-clay, there is also great quantity of clay suitable for potterj', which will no doubt find a good market, now that tka Provincial Government offer a bonus for pottci'y work. Referring to the probable successor of D.r Featherston, as Agent-General, the ilawkc's Bay Herald says: —Probably no better successor to Dr Featherston could be selected than Mr Thomas Russell. lie is a self-made man, the architect of his own fortune, and a good example a successful colonist. He is thoroughly acquainted with the wants and resources of New Zealaud, aud has been a leading man in her social, financial, and political history for many years past. In the late negotiations in reference to the mail contract, Mr Russell did the colony service, and his great experience and practical business abilities might be Drought to bear with good effect upon the colony, were he placed as Agent-General in Loudon. A correspondent of the New Zealand Herald write : —lt is all very well to bring down a great pile of reports on forests in Europe, which I see were obtained by the Governor from the Colonial Office in London for the express purpose of enlightening the Legislature. It would be more to the purpose if they would send someone out to see what is actually being done in New Zealand. They would not then allow their own contracts to bo the greatest source of destruction to that they express themselves so anxious to preserve. The Coromandel News says s —A somewhat serious complication lias arisen out of th« late Orange Banquet. We are are sorry to learn that Mr John Brame, onoof the most prominent members of the Good Templars Association, so far forgot his oath aud the sanctity of those vows which he had made to abstain for ever from the demon of alcohol, as to partake of a portion of plum pudding which had been served up to table amid the blazo of glowing Hennessey. The matter is to be seriously discussed at the next Lodge meeting. We sec, however, a ray of hopo for this

desperate renegade. A Good Templar is allowed to use alcohol uuder medical advice. It was the worshipful master of the Lodge who sat at the end of Mr Brame's table and carved the pudding, and therefore when Mr Brame was asked to take pudding and partook of the forbidden thing, it had been duly prescribed for him by a medical man. No doubt he liked the medicine, and so seemed two or three others to do— Good Templars likewise—as was remarked to us by our next neighbor at the banquet. The W.M.G.T. need not, however, prick up his ears, as we don't intend to tell tales out of school." The Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister Bill has been thrown out in the Upper House by eighteen to eleven votes. The Times says that the Hon. Colonel Brett told the Council that he " promised his dear wife that he would vote against the measure as she had a handsome sister of whom she was iealous."

The Wellington correspondent of the Wanganui Herald says:—The rather | ambitious prospect of establishing a j really Colonial journal in the shape of the New Zealand Times, has not so far, been productive of satisfactory results to those who have embarked their money in the undertaking. It is stated that at a recent meeting of " The Times Company" Directors, a somewhat stormy scene ensued, after an investigation had been made of accounts, and a comparison instituted between income and expenditure. The Directors, it is said, are sick of the undertaking—as indeed they may well be—and would be willing to hand the paper back to Mr M'Kenzie, the former proprietor, at a certain price. The fact is that the Times is too big a paper altogether for a comparatively small place like Wellington Province. It has a staff strong enough to break the Bank of England, —throe editors at £7 7s per week each, besides reporters, readers, et id genus omnc. The increased outlay in salaries alone since the Independent was transformed into the Times, is something like £I2OO a year. It is utterly impossible—and I know something about Wellington newspapers —that a journal conducted on such a scale of expenditure, can possibly pay as a business venture.

The Guardian of the 3rd instant says :—The Clutha river is at present so lo'.v that the punt at Clydesdale Station cannot be taken across. The river has not been so low for several years.