INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1231, 24 November 1874, Page 2

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

A proof of the adage, " There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip" was lately exemplified (says the Herald) on board a vessel moored alongside the wharf (Auckland). The hands were engaged in discharging coal, and the day proving warm, and themselves very dry, they sent for a can of beer. Amongst their number was a man named Mackerall, who has been a Good t Templar for some months. The sight ' of the cau of frothing ale was, it is supposed, too much for him, and he could not withstand the temptation offered. In compliance with his request the beer was passed up to him on the stage, where he was standing. Just as he raised the can to his lips, he unfortunately, or perhaps rather fortunately for his Good Templar principles, overbalanced himself, and fell backwards into the vessel's hold on to the coals, the beer giving him a complete showerbath, much to his own astonishment and the amusement of his shipmates. The lesson was sufficient for him, and he did not essay a second time to break his oath, probably feeling thankful that he had broken no bones. Is this to be considered a case of " providential interference ?" A boy named Grant, aged nine years, died at Waikaioa, Southland, the other day, and it was reported that his death had been accelerated by the district schoolmaster knocking his head against that of another boy. The evidence at the inquest exonerated the teacher, and a verdict of " died from natural causes," was returned. Accommodation for visitors is so scarce at present in Picton that (according to the Press,) a respectable female, with an infant in arms, who arrived there from Nelson the other day, could not obtain accommodation, and would have had to pass the night without shelter, had not a resident kindly taken her under his roof, Three hundred and fifty persons, principally women and children, are at present maintained at the Benevolent Institution in Dunedin. The Times fears that unless the public freely subscribe to the Institution, a poor-house and rates will have to be substituted for it. Those of our readers, says the Otago Daily Times, who read Dr Coughtrey's report on dirty little Cromwell, last „ summer, will be astonished to hear that, now that we aie entering upon another fever season, little or nothing has been done to deodorize the offensive filth that created the that caused the death of so many citizens there last year. We believe, indeed, that a good deal of talk has taken .place, and that something has been done in the way of surveys ; hue the majority of the inhabitants still drink the nauseous mess miscalled water, and the banks of the river are still crowded with the offal and garbage of many years. The town itself is still a cloaca maxima, The Southern Cross understands that the Provincial Government of Auckland intends to have views photographed of all the principal seaport towns and centres of population in the Province, which, together with statements having reference to the capabilities of the country for S3ttleinent, are to bo published and disseminated throughout the whole country. It is expected, by this means, intending emigrants to the Colonies will thus lie induced to choose Auckland as their future home. The Dunedin Harbor Board has appointed Mr D. L. Simpson as engineer to the Board at a salary of £IOOO per annum, subject to any alteration of the agreement that may be found necessary and advisable, on three months' notice being given alter the termination of the first year. It may (says a contemporary) bo mentioned that the office Mr Simpson is vacating, that of Provincial Engineer, to accept the Bpp&intmeut uf engineer

to the Harbor Board, is a permanent officp, to which there is a salary of £6OO per annum attached. The Canterbury Press illustrates the working of Provincialism in the North Island thus :—" The inhabitants of the cities and suburbs, from their superior numbers, the greater activity and energy which are characteristic of town life, as well as from the facilities for combination and the pressure they were able to put on a Government aiways resident in their midst, drew to themselves all political power, which they used with exclusive regard to their own interests. The towns and suburban districts were fostered; the country districts were left out in the cold. The former monopolised all public expenditure; the latter were neglected and starved. We may quote as a notable instance the expenditure of an Auckland provincial loan of £500,000, raised professedly for public works necessary for the development of the province. Out of the total half million no less than £407,500 was spent in Auckland itself, or in its immediate neighborhood; while to the country districts was allotted only the infinitesimal pittance of £SOO. On the Henley estate Otakia, Otago, a forest tree nursery is being established for the purpose of rearing all varieties of gums pines, and deciduous trees. These are to be transplanted to the flat on the opposite side of the Taieri and set in boundary rows, shelter clumps, forest plantations, &c. Two men, charged with the wilful destruction of their OAvn premises at Auckland by fire, and of six other places and property, have been arrested at Auckland. A section of the clerical body at Auckland have been working up a sensation in the pulpit, " improving the occasion," by advertising sermons on the life, death, and hope of Dyer the murderer. A child two years old has been run over by an engine and trucks on the railway line, near Auckland. A leg and arm were nearly severed from the body, and the child has since died. Mr William Jackson Barry, formerly Mayor of Cromwell, and a " character " in his way, has been lecturing at Queenstown on " Sights of scenes and scenes of sights," coming under his cognizance during forty-six years' sojourn in the colonies. The yarns he spins are tough ones. The Mail, while complaining of the " comicalness of the language used," admits that the lecture was lull of much sound information. Nearly GOOO persons attended the United Friendly Societies Fete at Duuedin on the Prince of Wales's birthday.