INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1232, 27 November 1874, Page 4

INTER-PROVINCIAL NEWS.

The poor lost Eliza Battersea, the victim of the murderer Dyer, declared with her last dying breath that he was innocent of foul intent, and that the tragedy hurrying her to eternity was but an accident. Dyer's subsequent confession revealed the fact that the poor sinful woman over whom he had tryannised for so long, died with a " noble" lie upon her lips to save her murderer is possible from the consequences of his act. Bishop Cowie. who attended the prisoner up to the hour of his execution, in a sermon preached at Auckland, referred to this act of constancy, most unworthily betowed, in the following terms : " When we think of the nobility of nature that still remained, in spite of such antecedents, in the wretched woman, whose devotion to her tormentor none can fail to admire, the thought arises, what might she not have been had she received a tithe of the Christian teaching and advantages which our own daughters enjoy ? If it is possible to learn a lesson of patriotism from the treacherous woman who 'put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmau's hammer ;' if Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, who smote off' the head of Sisera, deserved in any sense to be called ' btessed among women' by Deborah and Barak, we may well take to ourselves a lesson of forgiveness from the conduct of her who was the victim of the murderer's vengeance. To save the man who had done her the utmost wrong, from the punishment which he justly deserved, this woman, amid her agony, with such strength as yet remained in her charred and dying body, declared that by an accidont on her own part, and not by the act of him whom she had been brought up to address as ' father,' her terrible suffering and reproaching end had been occasioned. To this bitter end of the seventy times seven did she carry her forgiveness. ' Father,' she said, ' I know you did not mean to do it.' In any case she forgave, as she hoped to be forgiven. Oh, dear friends, what are our sentences of absolution, conventionally called forgiveness, compared with an act like this? Professions of forgiveness where nothingisforgiven but resentment is cherished in the heart." The lambing season has been generally favorable throughout Otago and Canterbury, and when the shearing season is over a fall in present excessive rates for meat is anticipated. The Wellington Building Society is issuing debentures for £lO and upwards at 7 per cent., debentures to be surrendered at any time on holder giving three months' notice. Sheep-shearing is progressing favorably in Wellington province. The weather is splendid and the grass growing rapidly. Dr Redwood, the New Roman Catholic Bishop of Wellington, left England for New Zealand in September, and may therefore be expected to arrive in Wellington in a few days A large section of land on the Fielding and Manchester Block, Manawatu, is to be sold on the 22nd proximo. The Fielding settlement is an experiment, which is watched with interest and hopefulness by all those who are anxious to see a yeoman population rooting themselves in the country, and this sale of land, contiguous to the settled locality, should help to strengthen the existing settlement, while purchasers will find the labor thus existing at their very door most useful to them. The Stephenson and Burford troupe are playing a dramatised version of Ouidas " Under two Flags," at Wellington. The branch of the Bank of New Zealand, opened at Masterton, Wellington province, is under the charge of Mr 11. J. Nation, lately of Nelson. The Good Templars of Wellington province are about to memorialise the Ii.W.G.L. of America for a charter for a Grand Lodge lor central New Zealand. Annual second-class railway tickets at a reduced tariff are issued to school children, on the IS'ew Zealand' railways. Wellington fishermen object to the agency of middlemen, and notify their intention to sell fish of every kind at one shilling per bundle. The supply of coal in Wellington is at present considerably in excess of the demand. It generally is during the summer months. In the recent libel action brought by Captain Eraser, Warden of the Thames, against the Auckland Evening Star, in which a verdict was returned for defendants, Mr Rees appeared for Messrs .Keed and Brett. In the course of his

remarks on the case this gentleman said: " I will ask you whether it would not be the duty of jurors to see that no additional weight shall be cast upon the energies of the Press—that unless it be most clearly proved that any article which attacks a person in authority—that any article which attacks him in the administration of his public duties, is evidently prompted by mean and sordid motives, the jury will interpose the asgis of their protection, and say — ' No, we shall see that the Press, which is battling for the liberty and welfare of the people, shall be protected; that unless you can show that the criticism was uncalled for, thai; a premeditated attack was made upon you (an attack for which in a criminal court the defendants should be branded as criminals), the defendants have done what they considered to be their duty to the people at large.' " The yield of gold in the North Island during the past quarter was " £60,000 worth less than in the corresponding quarter of 1873. This, and the departure of two hundred miners from the Thames during October, depresses business. Mr Wm. Pyle, of St. Bathans, who has of late been purchasing gold at an advance of Gd per oz on bank prices, for transmission to Melbourne, has published the result of his speculation. After deducting mint charges, the gold sent realised £4 Is 3d per oz, less shipping expenses and insurance. A small parcel of amalgam, weighing 0 - -14oz, and yielding G-6-45 standard gold, realised as nett value £25 9s 2d. The well known hotel, the Sawyers Arms, at Papanui, Canterbury, has been totally destroyed by fire, which broke out during the night, and in half an hour reduced the whole place to ashes. The landlord and landlady made their exit through a window and barely saved their lives. True to the sporting customs of the district, the Cromwell people wound up the celebration of the laying of the foundation stone of their new district Hospital by sports and foot races. The prize money being afterwards given to the building iund.