Local and General.

The Equitable Investment Company of New Zealand have declared a dividend at the rate of 10 per cent, for the halfyear.

Mrs Bailey, of P.ixnell, wag accidentally poisoned on Tuesday by taking carbolic acL.l by mistake while under the iuflueuce of liquor. John Willett, a shoemaker at Masterton, attempted to committe Buicide by cutting his throat with a rsizor. Ho is now progressing favourably. A society for the puipose of providing clothing and other necessities for deserving poor or distressed persons, irrespective of religious belief, has been formed in Auckland.

The whaling barque Othello, of Dunedin, has put in at Auckland from a whaling cruise with 16 barrels of oil. She got ashore on a reef at Santa Cruz, and has put in for repairs. The Victorian police authorities have anonunced their determination to suppress cash betting on the racecourses within the Colony. The announcement has caused considerable comment in sporting circles.

A communication has been received by the secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club from a number of the principal English cricketers, in which the Melbourne Cricket Club is invited to send a team to England next year.

At the Waimea Plains ploughing match dinner, Mr Valentine, manager for the Agricultural Company, stated that he was endeavouring to establish a Dairy Factory" Association among the settlers on the Company's estate. He counselled farmers to take to mixed farming.

A smart shock of earthquake occurred in the Northern part of the Middle Island on Sunday evening. At Wellington there appear to have been two shocks. It was fslt at Blenheim, Christchurch, Ashburton, Hokitika, Reef ton, &c, causing considerable alarm, but no damage is reported.

A direct line of sailing vessels between Hamburg and Auckland has beex, established. The first vessel, the Levuka, of 636 tons, left Hamburg on July 15, with an assorted cargo of Austrian and German goods. The vessels, for the present, are to return home by way of the islands, loading with copra. The following tenders have been received for the Murray Creek formation and permanent way contract (LumsdenMararoa railway) : — Accepted : J. Concher(Riverton), L 2496. Declined: Jaggers (Inveccargill), L 259 9; J. Walker (do), L 2637 ; Macleod and Shaw (do), L 277 1; W. Birss (do), L 296 4; C. Hilgendorf (Dunedin), JL3391 ; Mathieson Bros, (do), L 4099.

A Melbourne telegram says thirteen members of the permanent artillery "force stationed at Queenscliffe have been arrested for acts of insubordination which occurred last . week. Six of the ringleaders were tried by court-martial on Tuesday, when the Court refused counBel, who declared that the Court was illegally constituted. The prisoners when called upon refused to plead. An analysis of the soup taken by an old mar. and woman named Scaramelli at Wellington, after which they showed signs of poisoning, shows that the soup contained large quantities of arsenic. Joseph Moore and Selina Moore, son-in-law and daughter-in-law of the Scaramellis, have been served with an information charging them with attempted murder. Family feuds have existed between the parties for some time past. It is not generally known (writes the Fiji correspondent of the Auckland Herald) that Fiji can beast of a Robinson Crusoe. But on the island of Vatu Vara, or sometimes called " Cocked Hat Island," which it much resembles in the distance, lives an American named Edward Thompson with his Marquesas Island wife. He was brought up in the shinglesplitting business in America, but emigrated to these islands, and purchased Vatu Vara for about L7O from a person named Osborne. Crown grant No. 1 was issued to the owner of this island. Thompson and his wife have no communication ■with the outside world, except when a small schooner named the Nautilus visits the island. They are afflicted with a religious mania partly of one form of religion and partly of another. They go about in nearly a nude state, the male allowing his hair to take its natural course. A mania having taken hold of them towards the Jewish persuasion, a Passover lamb had to be procured from Loma Loma, the island being within 30 miles of the Lav Group. On another occasion, the Nautilus having landed the few stores required by this couple, they allowed them to be all washed away, as it was a saint's day. The end of the world is also foretold by them, and some amusing stories are told by the owner of the Nautilus as to his reception at various times by this singular pair.