Provincial and General.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 24, 27 April 1870, Page 3

Provincial and General.

Tho Oamaru Times states that a man-id-wurtzel root has boon exhibited in unaru measuring four feet in circumfe;iico, and weighing forty seven pounds. Tho Wellington correspondent of the dnaru Times gives it as an on dit that JFjixherbert’s real motive for visiting inland is to obtain a colonial governorip, and that he believes that he has such aims on tho Imperial Government as to istify the hope that he will succeed. Much satisfaction is expressed in Canteriiry at the rapid increase of tho pheasants. . great many of the birds have, however, sea destroyed. Tho Lyttelton Times says : As an insect destroyer, the pheasant ill valuable auxiliary, and one of the best seeks against the spread of tho locust.” The new township of Carlyle (in the ’atea district) is in a rather unsettled state j yet. The Taranaki Herald's corresponsat says : —“ Iron buildings in the district ;ein imbued with life, as they are moving bout in various directions. Even the !ourt House has taken a second jump of bout half-a mile, while smaller buildings are jumped four or five times.” The following advertisement appears in Hawke’s Bay paper:—“ The wife of ’rederick CTlph, not having heard any idings of him for nearly four years, and aving been informed that his friends do ot know where he is, jntends, if she does lot hear from him at the expiration of to months from this date, to get married gain.— Mary Axn Ulpu.” An immense flight of mutton-birds was ibserved in the offing on Wednesday last. Chey came streaming from the northward, impact and dense as a column of troops, ind thousands upon thousands of them rero observed during the day wheeling ud circling over the sea as if attracted by omething (probably by shoals of small isli), and as they were continually alighting jiul arising, the water was kept in a state jf constant commotion. —Oamaru Times, By advertisement in the Provincial Ga-

:ette, the Otago Education Board invite ipplicationsfor the following appointments: -Ist. A Lady Principal for the Otago Provincial School, for the higher education if girls; salary, for the present, £250 per iimura, with free residence and accoramolation for boarders. 2nd. A Governess for lie same institution ; salary, £l5O per mnum. 3rd. A Commercial Master for

lie Otago High School; salary, £3OO per mnum,

We find the following in the European Hall: —-The Colonial Question, involving lie proper relations of the colonies and lie mother-country, has of late become if paramount interest both at home and ibroad; and the proprietors of the Europan Mall have determined to offer a prize for the boat essay upon the subject. Hue notice will be given as to particulars, and ample time will be afforded to our colonial correspondents, so that they may have an opportunity of joining in the discussion.

Singular statements sometimes appear in the Victorian country journals. The following, from the M'lvor Times is one of them : —“ A. few days since, a very valuable discovery was made in a remarkable manuei at Rodcastle. Two miners who kil been residing in an old hut for years, during the early part of the summer were much annoyed with bugs, but the hot weather of February made the disgusting insects so numerous and so lively that the men (Charley Dunkley and Jack Reid) vere fairly driven out of the hut. Charley suid he would have no more of it, and be fin to sink a hole for a corner-post of a new residence. A few inches below the surface he found a gold-bearing reef. A trial crushing of seven tons was taken out anti crushed at Collins’s machine, and it turned out 170z5.” At a recent agricultural dinner at Frebbleton, Canterbury, the Hon. John Hall, in replying to the toast of the General Assembly, alluded in humorous terras to his loss of oilice. He said—“ If he were to shirk altogether any allusion to the political action of that Assembly, it might occur to some gentlemen that it was because he was ashamed to do so. Not at all. He stood there, as Mr Weld would say, ‘a beaten cock.’ But if a beaten cock took time to put his feathers to rights, he might again bo brought up to the scratch, and if s beaten cock took his beating tolerably well, he was generally found to be a tolerable bird.” We are told that the allusion to the time-honored but now forbidden sport elicited much laughter and applause. Mr J. T. Thomson, of Dunedin, has announced his intention to combine the private practice of his profession as Civil Engineer with the performance of his official duties as Chief Surveyor and Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands, having obtained the consent of both the General and Provincial Governments. We understand that there is some differenceof opinion between the two Governments with respect to the Chief Oommissionership, the point at issuo being whether the Commissioner should be directly responsible to the General Government or not. By an act passed last year it is provided that the salaries ! fi( t Crown Lands Commissioners should be % )?oprkted by the Assembly, and paid out of the Lands Funds of their respective provinces. Mr Thomson’s salary as Chief Surveyor and Ohiof Oomraiadouer is £6OO.

One of tlio Maori prisoners, named Iraiu Tunmhuki, who was onco the principal chief of tho Ngatiruanui hapu, and who was sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude, died in the Dunedin Hospital at six o’clock on the morning of the Gfch instant, of general debility.

The Southern Cross of tho 4th instant says : —Wo understand that tho plant has been ordered for the proposed woollen mill in Auckland, and that it may be expected to arrive within six months hence if the arrangements now being made are successfully carried out. Wo understand that it is intended to import plant that will afford employment to about fifty hands to commence with, and capable of producing 150.000 pairs of blankets, 150,000 to 200.000 yards of tweed, and 200,000 to 300.000 yards of flannel per annum. It is the intention of the projectors to run mainly on this class of goods. It is expected that the mill will be in operation before the end of the year. Old colonists (says th e Melbourne Herald) will remember the time when the term “ colonial ale” meant a vile compound, deleterious and distasteful. That time is gone. Ale brewed in the colonies will hold its own for excellence against the English production, and has driven the latter out of the market. But still there are brewed here some of the vilest decoctions that ever have been sold for drink. Whether the brewer or tho publican must bear the blame we cannot tell, but adulteration takes place to an alarming extent. The old materials used by concoctors of intoxicating drinks, such as molasses, honey, liquorice, vitriol, quassia, and cocculus Indians, seem to be still in use, if not worse, in some of the viler compounds. It is said that antimony and arsenic are used in the preparation of drinks sold at some retailers’ places. If so, there is at once a clue given to the insanity, paralysis, and other diseases that drunkards are found suffering from. The poor unfortunates booze away in the drinking dens, or obtain a cheap supply for home consumption. The result is that a fearful, deterioration of their physique takes place, and death by poisoning ensues. Is there no way of arriving at such an inspection of liquor sold as will at once put a stop to the retailing of these pernicious compounds'! Health officers in the suburbs ought especially to scrutinise the traffic in drink, and if possible, put a stop to the sale of such injurious stuff as is often foisted on the public by the name of “ Colonial Ale.”