He came to the Arrow at tho beginning of the present year. His Worship the Mayor is, at last, the " King of the Cannibal Islands"— that is, so far as the two little islands in Lake Wakatip, vested by the Crown in the Corporation of Queenstown as an endowment for that body, is concerned. These islands have lately been a oope'tpbuble to His Civic Majesty of the Lake City. What with having obtained a lease of them from the Town Council before he was made Mayor, and consequently refusing to pay rent because said Council could not legally I execute such lease, was the cause of no end of bitter remarks whenever His Worship sat in his place at the head of the table, when meet ing his Councillors in solemn conclave assem bled. Happily, the difficulty is about to be removed, the Town Clerk having received in telljgonce frora Wellington that a Crown Grant for tho islands has been issued in favour of the Corporation. The Mayor —Mr Betts^-will doubtless now pay his rent, and the Corpora tion revenue to the tune of LBO per annum re ceive a most welcome addition. It is to be hoped that we shall hear no more quarrelling about the islands. His Honour Judge Harvey will find a good deal of business cut out for him this coming sitting of the District Court, which commences on Monday next. One of the cases is a cJaiiu for L2OO damages by a client against a solici tor for alleged neglect in attending to, or rather abandoning a case. The hearing will, doubt less, prove exceedingly interesting. The abolition of Provinces question 'm slightly i

agitating th,e pubUc.mind.,, The chief causa of anxiety is that the Bill might be successfully ppsed/ The'majority of peopleiii the!Waliatip district: are sick of Provincialism, the miners especially,, arid they will be well pleased when the fiat has. gone' forth that Provincialism is no more. No district in Otago, producing such a large revenue, has ever been, so .neglected, especially the Upper SKotover portion, to the inhabitants of which such modem'conveniences as roads < are a mere matter of history,.only to be read about in. newspapers*. 