INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1227, 10 November 1874, Page 4

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

The ship City of Auckland recently brought to Auckland from London fifty-eight pieces of sawn ash. It is somewhat remarkable that New Zealand does not possess any indigenous timber which possesses the elastic properties of the ash. Nearly all boat-oars, shafts, coach - building material, and other articles for which wood having such properties is needed in New Zealand are imported ready made from America and Australia. The slabs brought by the City of Auckland were from twenty to forty feet in length, and five inches thick. According to the Otago Guardian a serious omission has occurred with respect to bring the Act for the abolition of imprisonment for debt into operation. Our contemporary says : —• " The General Executive have contrived to extend the principle of abolition of imprisonment for debt very far beyond the intention of the Legislature. The Act passed last session came, or rather it was intended to come, into operation on the first day of the present month. And in view thereof, those sections of the Resident Magistrates Act, ISGG, which relate to the subject of imprisonment for debt were repealed. Now that the repealing Act directs that all proceedings taken thereunder shall be in the manner '* prescribed by general rules aud orders to be made by the Governor" and it so happens that the Governor (meaning of course thereby his Executive) has not thought it necessary to make any such rules and orders. The existing state of affairs is therefore very pleasant to all fraudulent debtors. The old Act is repealed, and the new Act cannot be put into operation.

In reply to a question contained in a paragraph in the Otago Daily Times, a correspondent, who considers that a writer in that journal displayed the "gushing innocence of a Good Templar," tells us how a "John Collins," should be made. He says :—" Take a large tumbler, and put into it a good nobbier of gin or schnapps ; add a slice or more of lemon, a lump of ice, and sugar to taste; into this mixture pour a bottle of sodawater, and drink whilst • hot.' N. B.—A soupcon of Curacoa is an improvement. Let any of your readers try this on the first hot day, and they will 1 am sure, be ready to admit that a John Collins' is by no means a bad long drink." A " duffer" claim on Jones's Creek, Wakatip, was purchased by some Chinamen some eight months back. A few days ago the same Celestials cleared out for the land of their fathers, carrying amongst them the sum of £IBOO, realised from the claim. The Inspector of distilleries, in his report presented to the General Assembly, states that in 1873 the consumption of spirits was three gallons per head, and recently it had fallen to one and four-filths. This, Mr Seed believed, was owing to the decrease of the drinking habits of the people. Mayors, Councillors, and Town Clerks need retentive memories to qualify them for their duties in Otago. The following is a list of the Ordinances and Acts, so fur as we have been able to ascertain, which are in force in that province :—The Otago Municipal Corporations Ordinance, 1865; Amendment Ordinance, December, ISOO ; Amendment Ordinance, 1870; Amendment Ordinance, 1873; Amendment Ordinance, 1874; Otago Municipal Corporations Empowering Act, 18G5 ; Amendment Act, i860; The Municipal Corporations Act, 18G7; Amendment Act, 1S68; Amendment Act, 1871; Amendment Act, 1872; Amendment Act, 1873; Amendment Act, 1874. Tne Invercargill Times says : The difficulty is enhanced by the fact that the parts of the Act under which the Otago Corporations are proclaimed, override the provisions of the Ordinance on the same subject. The other Ordinances enumerated, which the Municipal authorities have to administer under the provisions of the Otago Local Revenue Ordinance, are " Auctioners," " Licensing,'' '" Dog Nuisance," " Licensed Carriage," "Hawkers," "Goat Nuisance," "Theatres," " Reserve Management," and its amendmenr, " Public Health Act," " New River Harbor Board Ordinace," "Gas Act," A hint to hotel-keeper's is given in the plan on which it is proposed to construct Walter's new hotel in Dunedin. We notice that all the bedrooms will be lighted with gas from the passages, the light being reflected inwards. The light will, however, be of such strength as to permit of a person in any of the rooms reading. This will give the proprietor control of the lighting throughout the building, and will obviate the danger that often arises from the careless use of candles. A lodger may regulate the amount of light coining into his room, but cannot have access to the gas itself. A Waimean farmer complains in the Nelson Colonist of the depredations of the imported English birds. He says : " On one piece of oata, which I believe was sown for oat-hay, there appeared at the rate of a bushel and a half to the acre destroyed, the shells of the corn lying thick all over the field, while on the headlands and for some distance from the hedges the land was thickly strewn with the blades of the young corn which had been pulled up. With oats at 5s per bushel, and a loss of weight of say half a ton of hay at £3 per ton, this would make a total loss of £1 17s Gd per acre. The Coromandel .News says: Within eighteen mouths no less than three marriages have taken place from the Empire hotel, so many of MiMiller's servants having exchanged a state of single blessedness for that of matrimony. We need scarcely say that service at the Empire hotel is at a premium, and the expected vacancy is bespoke lorg before the wedding takes place. An Auckland settler gives a hint for amateur gardeners. He writes to one of the local papers to say that he has found a few tame pigeons kept down the slugs in bis garden better than anything else, and adds : —" I know many people who think pigeons are destructive to seed and young plants, but my experience teaches the contrary. While they can get slugs they will eat little or nothing else. When there are none you must feed them, or they will naturally help themselves to anything going. The Wanganui Herald furnishes this clipping : —A good story, and a true one, of an effectual cure in Wanganui has just leaked out ' It appears that some time ago a young lady took ill, and sent for the doctor, who pronunced her case a serious one, and told her he would send her some pills, which she must take with the utmost regularity. Accordingly, this iEsculapius despatched his disciple with the pills. The messenger, however, was fond of a game of billiards, and could not resist the temptation of going into one of the billiard rooms and playing a game. When he had finished, he found, to his chagrin, that the pills had disappeared from the place in which he had put them. It would never do to go back and get another box, as that would necessitate a confession of the delay, so he hit upon a plan that turned out to the satisfaction of all parties concern d He went to his mother, got some bre.id,

and rolled it into pills, giving these another roll in flour. He then took them to his master's patient, pleased to have got out of the difficulty for the time. When the doctor next visited his patient he asked whether the pills had done any good, and was at once assured that she had never taken any medicine that had done her so much good, and that she now felt " ever so much better." We have not learnt what were the thoughts of the young manufacturer of the pills, but it will not be difficult to guess them. The appeal of the Hokitika and Greymouth Tramway shareholders against the decision of his Honor Mr Justice Richmoud will come on for hearing about the 9th instant. The West Coast Times says: —Should that prove unfavorable, some of the sanguine ones propose to bring the matter before the last and highest tribunal in the British Empire, the Priyy Council, when they feel confident of gaining in equity what they may be refused in law. Should this step be taken, somebody will lose considerably, as costs follow the ultimate verdict, and the costs of the eventual appeal would be gigantic in proportion to the colonial costs of a few hundreds, more or less. If Westland is rich in nothing else it is evidently well endowed with a law-suit of considerable size, the dimensions which indeed, at the present time, it is hardly possible to guess. As at present arranged (writes the Brisbane correspondent of the Otago Daily Times) the Marquis of Normanby will leave Brisbane, to proceed to his new government, on or about the 12th of November. This will enable him to bring his commission in his pocket, as it is on its way, and should reach him here by the mail arriving during the first week of the month. It appears that he cannot go direct to Wellington except via Melbourne, which would involve two shipments, and he therefore purposes proceeding to Sydney, and thence to Auckland, which will probably have to regard that visit as the Vice-regal bow which would sooner or later be made. The staff will consist of Captain Maling (35th Regt.), Private Secretary ; and Lord Hervey Phipps, a son of the Marquis, as A.D.C. The former gentlemen came to this town as Private Secretary; but the latter, although he has been here all the time, has not held office before. The fact is that the present A.D.C, Mr Charles Ridley Smith, has fallen a victim to the charms of a Brisbane lady, and is going to settle among us.