LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 353, 1 February 1871, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

* Mr Dillon Bell and family have arrived in Melbourne. : Ainr per3on having occasion to communicate by post with the Horse Shoe Bend will please bear in mind that a letter or newspaper takes from three weeks to a month to; reach there from Tokomairiro. It would be obliging were the up countrj officials through whose hands they have to pas 5 ) to make a point not to detain the bags over a few days at most at each station. They might then be expected to arrive at their destination in something like reasonable time. At laafc meeting of Council Capt. M'Eenzio called the attention of the Government to the dangerous practice of laying down metal upon the main roads, upon both sides. The pro mise was then made that instructions would be given for the discontinufince of the practice. Tf these instructions were given they have not been attended to, as in the immediate vicinity of Milton, the same prevails. We trust the matter will now be put to rights as serious accidents may be occasioned at any time. We understand two very very fine short horned bulls, the one belonging to Mr D. Grant, and the other to Mr Nimmo, West Taieri, have been shipped for Auckland, where it appears the value of such stock is better appreciated than in Olago, and where there is every reason to believe they will realise high prices. The two bulls have both been awarded silver cups at our local shows. The Province can ill afford to export such valuable animals, and we trust this will be the last shipment we shall hear of the kind for some time to come. Much amusement was occasioned when at first it was known that Mr Yogel had attached to his person a private secretary. It is reported that during his trip to America and England, the staff' has been increased by the addition of an under secretary and clerk. Couldn't clerical assistance be found in England if necessary, instead of incurring the expense of passages chief cabin to and from, travelling charges, salary on the voyage, &c. , &c ? Verily the remark of a late speaker in Milton is true, " depend upon it if Yogel caii find the money he will spend it." A rare chance is about to be offered to cattle breeders of improving their stock by an admixture of pure Ayrshire blood. Mr P. C. Neill, who has carried all the honors before him at the T:\ieri and other shows at which he has exhibited his Ayrshires, is to dispose of thorn by auction, at his farm, j Anderson's Bay, on the 3rd inst. , his lease having terminated We shall be glad to hear, in due course, that some of our Southern farmers have secured a portion at least of Mr NeilPs prize cattle. The West Taieri district in general, and Outram township in particular, have just lost one of their most enterprising and respected residents in Mr Joseph Robertson, late storekeeper there, who ha^ this week removed t-> Kaihiku, where he has purchased the farm of Mr Robert Mackie. No doubt the West Taieri's Lo*s will be Kaihiku's gain, and we have pleasure in congratulating the Kaihiku district on its of another settler of the right stamp. One of the results o£ the Government assistance granted to the public schools of the Province, is the disadvantage at which pri. vate schools are thus placed which have to compete, as it were, against the Government j purse — the assistance granted to their schools enabling a low scale of school fee 3to be" charged, irrespective of their payable nature. We observe by advertisement in another column that although the High School for young ladies is about to be opened, Miss M. G. Wilson, of the High street Ladies' School, has not thereby been deterred from enlarg ing her sphere of operations, having secured for that purpose the large and commodious mansion known as Clifton House. Miss .Wilson came to Otago with high credentials from Canterbury and Scotland, and has already conducted a ladies' school in Dunedin for some time with considerable success We believe she ranked high among the competitors for the matronship of the High School, Dunedin. Materfamilias wishing a good training and respectable home for their daughters, cannot do better than entrust them to Miss» Wilson's care. A passenger from Tuapeka by Cobb's coach on the morning of Tuesday the 17th ultimo, informs us of a very narrow escape made j from all but certain destruction, through the presence of mind and ilerve of Tommy Pope on the trying occasion. The morning being wet and the roads slippery, in coming over the cutting at the Round Hill at a' dangerous j turn of the road, with a deep gully on one side, and a perpendicular cutting on the other, Tommy observed a waggon occupying the wrong side of the road, and pulling up, called out to the waggoner if there was room to pass, and was replied to in the affirmative, but upon reaching the spot he found that the waggon occupied the whole road, and being unable to stop his horses in time, Tommy had no choice but to navigate the coach and horses in a dexterious manner over the side :of the. deep gully,- and bringing his leaders ; up in time to save the coach from going over the chasms. Our informant says that too ■much praise cannot be accorded for the feat performed by the favorite Jehu. The waggoner's name is reported to be Ferguson, who would seem to be gaining for himself an unamicable notoriety on the road, as another .informant reports that his conduct on the previous day in refusing room fora buggy; to pass his waggon; was such as, to warraivt the matter being looked to. by the police, as' it: is well-known, that a very serious accident was recently sustained on one of the best portions ; iOf this road-from the same cause.; After the ; coaching exploit narrated, Ferguson very : cooly: said that had ihe known it was Tommy i he'd ahave Linade room ; the cruelcy being i exercised by hi m 011 :his harmless ; horses: at L ithe raonient^ was of itself sufficient to have him convicted of cruelty to animals, andit is - but little: cpnaolatiwrnfor-the-tra veiling public to know shat his-ovm: waggp^eapsized at the ]'„ ,sa^^o>;asvT(^my'a adventure oceurcedJ

A gooseberry show took place a Wellington.a few days ago. The biggest-gooseberry weighed 10|dwts.. ' ■■; . . •. The girl Glenn, who was stabbed m Cnristchurch by the man Gedeno, is progressing very favorably towards recovery. Attacks of English cholera are, according : to the" Gipps Land Times" very prevalent in the neighborhood of Sale. We learn from the < Timaru Herald ' that operations have been commenced at the Washdyke meat preserving establishment. Mr E.B. Cargill, in compliance with the terms of a numerously signed requisition, is a candidate for the representation; of Dunedin in the Provincial Council. . Both members returned to the Assembly, for Christchurch, are opposed to the Financial Scheme,, and' also to the Fox and tfogel Ministry. William Kilner, a wood -splitter, was tried on Thursday, at Hokitika, for attempting to kill his wife on the 25th Oct. last. He was acquitted < According to an Auckland contemporary, pauperism has more than doubled in that city from the- month of December, 1869, to the end of September, 1870. In consequence of the long-continued drought, say 3 the ' Grey River Argus.' the members of the Fire. Brigade very kindly turned out last evening, and had a practice for the purpose of filling as many water-tanks as possible, and it is to be regretted thai the residents who were to be benefitted were so backward in coining to work the pumps. A Hobart TownHelegram, published in a Melbourne paper, says<: — The largest smolt caught in the Derwent, in December, 1869, and sent to England in May last, has been pronoanced by Dr Gunther to be the true sahnon. A large smoit, said to be a salmon, was caught near the Plenty, in a net, on Sunday night last, with three brown trout. A miner named Robert Lyndon, was accidentally killed at the Ballarat claim, Jones's Flat, on Friday last. Deceased was working in one of the faces, when two sets of timber together with a large body ol earth gave way, completely burying deceased. Deceased was a native of Sweden. Mr Guff, the City Surveyor, has prepared a map of the artesian wells of Christchurch. from which it appears that there are now in the city somewhere about 500 of these wells, over iiinety of which have been bored during the present year. The Fiji correspondent to the ' Sydney Morning Herald,' states that news has been received of the seizure of a boat belonging to Mr Ofcway (formerly a resident in Christchurch) at Ban. by twenty-five Racoastmen, who were shipwrecked shortly afterwards and drowned, with only two exceptions. A Sydney telegram in the ' Argus ' says : — Proposals have been made to the Government t,o run a steamer from Java to Normantown, where the Queensland telegraph Hues now extend, and this would give the English news by telegraph about twelve days old. The ' Sydney Morning Herald' publishes the following telegram, re ative to the triple murder at Orange : — " Bathurst, January 5— News has been received here of three murdei'3 having been committed at Kane's Paddock, Forest Reefs. A man named Patrick Martin went to the Orange police station yesterday, and reported that on .his arriving at his place at Fore-t Reefs on the previou.3 night, he found his wife and her father and mother had been murdered, and that his niece, a girl of six years old had bjen seriously wounded. A constable, accompanied by Dr Warren and the man Martin, at once went to the scene of the murders, and found the bodies of tiic threo persons, who had been killed by gunshot wounds ; the litfcle girl had been shot through the ear, but was not in a dangerous state. Upon bein^quostion3d, she said Martin had done it, but afterwards could not be induced to repeat the statement or give any farther information. Martin was at once arrested on suspicion. An old settler in Otago, and who has not any reason to remember with gratitude, one of the candidates now soliciting votes for the Superintendency, has had an office offered to one of his sons. Apparently Mr Yogel wa3 suddenly struck with the desirability of conferring this boon, and before his departure for England, wrote to a gentleman who " understands him," offering this gift. Well we must progress ; and if such efforts can push us ahead, why should we grumble ? — ' Echo ' Mr Drivel' was asked at the Drill She 3, Kaikorai, whether he had ever said that he had bought the Waikari electors for 600 nobblers ;he replied in the negative. But, will that gentleman deny that he received and paid an 'account of £30 for nobblers supplied on the polling day to the electors of that district 1 He can not do this ; and as 600 nobblers, at 6d each, comes to exactly that sum, there is a color of truth given to the rumor circulating in the district, which prompted the question referred to — ' Echo.' The ship City of Auckland took fire on Tuesday last, while lying alongside the jet k ;y at Auckland. As it could not be extinguished by the crew 3of five vessels, she was moved off and scuttled at 11. The cause of the fire is unknown. Her cargo consisted of gum, flax,, guano, oil, tallow, and wool, and was valued at L 20.000. Everything was destroyed. Nearly all the cargo was insured, through the Banks, in English offices. The New Zealand Insurance Company will lose about L6OOO, and the "Victorian Insurance Company L 550. L6OOO worth of goods, shipped by Messrs Must and Co., was insured the day bfeore. The policy of insurance on the vessel had expired, and the captain had sent home to renew it last mail,. . but it is feared that he will be anticipated by telegrams regarding the fire via San Francisco. The vesse} is submerged to her bulwarks at high tide. The ' Independent Beige ' publishes the following : — An officer who escaped from the capitulation of Metz brings *us a number of the 'Independent de la Moselle/ a journal published in Metz at 1 the '. time of the entry of the Germans. The circumstances which preceded the surrender are there narrated in a detailed and precise manner. From this account it is clear that the . besieged army has been unworthily deceived by. its chiefs, who, in order to quiet. the soldiers when they demanded to ;be hurled. upon the'enemy to cut a way through at any price, promised that the army would soon be able' to go out intact with the honors of -war. The leaders declared all- France to be a prey, to' anarchy ; that Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Toulouse were in open civil war; that Rouen yand'Havre demanded help from Prussians ; and all fthis down to the day when they were about to ; declare that everything wbs gone, and'thatit was: impossible to obtain anything else than a capitulation on. the same terms as V that of Sedan." The 'Independent ' adda- :— '* There, .is no longer any doubt that Gambetta. had a reason for making the, accusation of. treason. ■> The popular tion of Metz, under, whose eyes 1 this odious comedy wasplayed, took ashnilar; view when they greeted Bazaine with sftbuts of indignation and angei^" ■■■'■'_ ']'■.: >.'.. ? .;v !

L The City of Auckland-has been raised at Auckland and brought toithe jetty. • j The " Land Transfer Act " will be pttt in operation in the first w«ek in February. Splendid brandy, rum, old torn, geneva, and spirits of wine are now being manufactured at the Auckland distillery. An Auckland paper affirms that the arrowy root grown and prepared at Norfolk Island; by the Melanesia^ Mission goes twice as far as the arrowroot ordinarily sold. The cricket match between 16 of the Timaru. and 9 of the Ofcago team took place at Timani on Saturday, and was won by the latter by one run. The poll for the Wakatipu Assembly election took place on Wednesday. Mr Haugh* ton was the successful candidate by a majority of 70 over Mr Shepherd. ' A stag, supposed to have wandered from the estate of Mr Rhodes in Bangitikei, is now running between the No. 1 and ]$o. 2 lines. He herds with the cattle, and seems acclimatised in all his solitariness.— 1 Wanganui Chronicle.' Colds, coughs, croup, and other bronchial affections are just now very prevalent in Wanganui. no doubt, owing to atmospheric disturbances of a more or less unhealthy character. The * Canterbury Press ' says it is rumored that a bed of rock salt of considerable extent has been discovered to the north of the province. We have been unabie to obtain any particulars of the alleged discovery, but give the rumor for what it is worth. A case of suspected incendiarism occurred at Auckland the other evening, when the only kerosene store there was destroyed, together with its contents, consisting of 1200 cases of kerosene. The loss is estimated at L 3 700, and is not covered by insurance. Ohinemuri news states that a meeting of natives, including Te Kooti, is to be held at Ohineroa, and that if; is pi*oposed to revive the old Maori customs, and forbid European intercourse. A meeting called by Mere Kuril, is also to be held at Awiti. She wishes to stop the overland communication with. Tauranga. The scarcity of wives for young men which prevails in the province of Hawke's Bay having been brought under the notice of Government, arrangements are reported to be making for the arrival quarterly at. Napier of a small number, of female immigrants. The polling for the election of a member of the Genenl Assembly for Gaversham, took place on Wednesdas^. The voting was for Mr Cantrell, 165 ; M'ladoo, 107 ; majority 23. Mr Cantrell is opposed to the General Government Financial Scheme, and would vote for the repeal of the Hundreds Act. Mr iM 'lndue was in favor cf the Scheme, seconded the Hundreds Amendment Act in the Assembly, and was Mr Macandrew's proposer at lastelectkm for the superintendency Another fire took place at Auckland the other evening, by which the Choral Society's Music Hall was totally destroyed. The building was insured in the New Zealand Insurance Society for LI4OO. The musical instrumenf 3 were also insured. A school soiree was held in the building up till 31 o'clock, and the fire broke out at 3 o'clock. With respect to Df Featherston's appointment as Agent, General in England for the c 'lony, tho Wellington correspondent of the ' Oamaru Times' says :— Mr Yogel made strenuous exer.ions to get it for himself* There was a cabin ur, Council on the question and the only o ie in the Council who opposed it was the Doctor. He opposed till Mr Vr.^el cold him that, as it was evident ho had n..t the eonfi l.mcc of the Miuisiry, he had be i cer rt-si ;n. Dr Fi?ath-u\si.on requested a few minutes' private conversation, with him, and they retired. On h'u return, Mr VogeVa claim for the- appointment w:is withdrawn*, and he was a3 meek as a lamb. All Dp Feathersfcon says on the subject is that Mr Vo<jel is as well known m Eaglanl a3 here. The telegraph clerks in Canada have found out how fast an oar; hq Tike travels, and they put the paco at about 200 miles a minure. At Mimonski, when the late earthquake came upon them they sent at once to Quebec., a distance <>f 200 mile?, to ask, •' How do you feel ?" While the operator there was at his work, the shock arrived. He sib once sent to Montreal, about 200 miles further c.i, to ask if they had f rile it. They had jnsb time to say " No," b-Fore the ear Uquaks cams up. We snopose this is ifche first instance on re* cord of men talking acro3S the edge of an advancing earthquake-. Dr Hector announces that an exhibition will be held here d.iring next session of the flax prepared in the colony. Manufacturers are, therefore, invited to forward to the Flax Commissioners, through the Superintendent of their Province, samples of material prepared by them from New Zealand flax The samples should not be less than 2 / >lb. weight, and ten or fifteen fathoms of each rope will be sufficient, together with the particulars and cost of preparation — ' Wellington Independent.' An elderly man of the name of John* son, who works in the bush at Rangifcikei, cut his thro it the other day. The wound was not fatal, and the unfortunate man then rushed into the river to drown himself. Here, however, the instinctive love of life returned, and he struggled to the bank. Dr Hooper was sent for, and dressed the wound. Johnson is now doing well. He had been drinking for several days, and this occurrence took place while he was laboring • tinder the depressing after effects of his debauch. As Mr Connor, owner of the Dunedin express was the other day trying a young horse in Mr Goodall's bread cart, the animal at first refused to start. Shortiy afterwards he unexpectedly made a darfc off at a great pace, pulling the reins out of Connor's hands as he ran a'ongside the cart. He 'then.: leapt upon the* back of the cart, and worked his way to the front as the animal rushed through the township. Not. Until it readied 'Walhola, Gorge, we believe, did he succeedin securing the reins, and drawing up the animal. The adventure required ho small amount of. nerve and ; determination, asi the= many : heaps, of metal on the lvad liherendered his position an exceedingly dangerous one, and Connor's bravery was admired by many residents, who keenly watched the progress of events as far as the eye could reach. • Mr : Crosasan's bread van, we are also informed, . got considerably^ smashed on the same day from the hor3e bolting in the Main South "Road . A parliamentary return shows the "deatb.3 by .drowning in- the- New Zealand rivers from 1 3t" January. , 1 840, to the present time. It is a long roll. ' The names of persons whohave been drowned inharbora, wells, water-holes, swamps,, and' the "sea . have been excluded from the'rreport ?: The following I are the figures fortthelvarious provinces .-.:— Auckland, 227; Taranaki, 17 ; Hawke's Bay, 40 ; ; .Wellington, 165j; Nelson, 102 ; Marlbflroncrh, 48 ; Canterbury, 135 ', Otago, 170 ; Southland, 37 ; Westland, 174 ;a 'total^of 1115 persons of ,all age* andjboth .sexes who have been d^o^jieji during>tne laat thirty yeara in the nvers of J<h© colony. • > ; : „