INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1225, 3 November 1874, Page 4

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

The Auckland Star in jocular mood says : —A facetious hair-dresser up in town (we shall not mention names) sold a Dottle of scent to a young lady in the neighborhood of Ponsonby who was of a sentimental and fastidious turn of mind, and sent it to her home. The young lady took it back to the perfumer, and said "I don't think you forwarded the scent I meant; it is so different to what I expected." The barber replied, " Miss, I am sure what you meant I sent; the scent I sent was the scent you meant, consequently we are both of one sentiment." The ladv rejoined, " whatever your intent, and however well meant, I never will consent to keep this scent," and she left the bottle on the counter, and the hairdresser speechless. Scientists, remarks the Guardian, have laid it down as a rule that in Otago there can be no regular goldbearing quartz lodes. The last answer to their theory is supplied by the last fortnight's returns from the Cromwell Company's claim at Bendigo : 23000z for six weeks' work, and a prospect of a speedy yield of 15,000, is a remarkably practical answer, and may be said to have effectually demolished the theory, if previous answers of a similar character had left any life in its miserable body. The miners does not ca;e for science; he never consults the learned in his search for gold, but depends entirely on a species of instinct he has acquired in the course of a long and varied experience. The Wanganui Chronicle has again changed hands, and two Presbyterian clergymen, one of whom is to be the editor, and the Hon. W. Fox, are among the new proprietors. The Inangahua Herald of the 27th instant has the following remarks about the recent meeting at Westport, and the utterances of some of the speakers respecting the Greymouth and Reckon road:—"According to the tone of the public meeting held at Westport recently, in connection with road communication to the Inangahua, it would appear an impression prevailed among the speakers that the agitation in Reefton for the completion of the road from Squaretown to the Junction, involving an expenditure of some £SOOO, was intended to be antagonistic to the interests of Westport. It was felt, and we think rightly, that the country to the Junction presented great facilities for cheap and rapid road construction, and also that while the Buller road from the Nine-mile to Granger's Point required to be constructed at the earliest moment, it was of little benefit to push on road construction from the Grip to the.Lyell to the exclusion of more pressing and important lines of communication. In the interest of a very large portion of the Inangahua district it. is necessary that communication should be established with Westport. but it is of still greater importance that Reefton and Murray Creek should be connected with Greymouth. Already the local foundry there is furnishing a large proportion of the iron work used at the various crushing plants." A handsome present has been made by the Rev. Father Maguire, of Auckland, to the Hibernian Rand of that city. It consists of a complete set of new musical instruments, which cost the donor a hundred guineas. The Cromwell Company's manager recently brought down from Bendigo to Cromwell a cake of gold weighing 1200 oz. A telegram described it as a " pudding." This 1200 oz is the yield from the crushing done during three weeks or so, and there was .another cake of 1100 oz brought to Cromwell not long since, the result of the crushing for the previous three weeks. There are now about 3000 tons of quartz at grass, the average yield has hitherto been 5 oz to the ton, and it is expected that all the stone that has been brought to the surface will give at least the same average. The mine is held in sixteen shares. The fortunate proprietors are Messrs Logan, Goodyer, and Baird, Gold Receiver, of Cromwell, each of whom holds a five - sixteenths interest, and Messrs Black and Thomson, of Duiiedin (the predecessors of Messrs Black, Thompson, and Co.), who held a one-sixteenth part. This really magnificent return will, no doubt, give an impetus to quartz-mining, not only in the Cromwell district, but in other parts of Otagoi With the exception of the Caledonian mine at the Thames, we do not know of any reef in the Colony from which so large an amount of rich stone has been taken. From, the quartz now at grass it is expected £60,000 worth of gold will be got. The Wellington Tribune, touching the " big" incident of the live moas a Mr R. K. Smythe said he had captured in Canterbury—but which he afterwards reported had escaped —facetiously remarks : —" In re moas (in remorse) we have to state Atorality is at a discount in Christchurch —for the moas though not mort .are perdu." We question whether any sensible man ever did place faith in the truth of the statement made by Mr Smythe, who. ever he may be. This last hoax is worse than the one perpetrated some few years ago when a live moa was reported to have been seen in the Dunstan district. The Dunedin Star reports the death of a prisoner named John Hartley,

who had been convicted in 1872 on two charges of horse stealing. The deceased had previously served a term of imprisonment in the Hokitika gaol, and while there he administered a flogging to Chamberlain, a prisoner still in that gaol, and who was known in connection with the Sullivan, Burgess and Levy gang. Hartley afterwards, just as his term of imprisonment had expired, performed the office of execution upon a colored man named Noble, who was hung in the Hokitika gaol about three and a half years ago. The Westland Government remunerated Hartley for his service with no grudging hand, for besides a substantial payment in money, his passage to Melbourne was paid for him. But he came back very soon and got himself into "trouble" in Otago. Hiirtley was a native of Scotland, and bad been troop sergeant-nnqor of the 2nd Dragoon Guards, serving under Lord Gough m the battles ol Goojerat, Allival, and Chililawallah. During the trial at Dunedin of Dodd, the second mate of the Oneca, the Crown Prosecutor, wishing to show the jury the instrument with which the accused knocked the deceased Green overboard, asked the constable at the door to fetch the belaying pin. The constable, apparently thinking a witness was wanted, proceeded to the outside of the building and vociferously called out " Bill Hayes" three times. As may be imagined this caused no small amusement. A member of the Armed Constabulary at Opotiki has been dismissed the force for having married without the permission of his chief officer.