General News.

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 532, 26 September 1873, Page 7

General News.

A Hekifcika resident was recently fined L 5 for depriving a Chinaman of his pigtail. * It is reported that Purukutu is between "Wharep.apa and Kibikihi, and that the Natives are tired of them. Mrs Smith, wife of the captain of the English barque Anna Braginton, fell down dead in the streets of Nelson on Monday. There are 23 cases of fever at the ' Lyttelton quarantine station, amongst the passengers per Punjaub. Eight of the cases are considered dangerous. The Auckland cricketers have consented to accept the terms offered them by the Dunedin Cricket Club, to play a match on the grouuds of the latter this season — probably about the middle of November. Sheep-shearing, which has commenced in Biverina and the wanner parts of Victoria, is expected to show good results. At Moke Greek, the " Just in Time " Company have sold their claim to the Chinese. The price, we understand, is either L 350 or L4OO. Preparations are being made for a large export of timber from the Buller district to Melbourne. Trumpeters are selling in Canterbury at eighteenpence a pound. The exports of coal from Newcastle now exceed 20,000 tons weekly. In one week 26,000 tons were exported. The manufacture of oilcloth has recently been established in Melbourne, with favorable prospects of success. At Adelaide, a woman named Ann Ea yen has died of lockjaw, the result of a garden fork sticking into her foot. A quarryman was lately eating his dinner in a quarry at Coburg, when a stone rolled down upon him and broke his leg. A Victorian Ladies' Sericultural Association has been formed in Melbourne. Lady Bowen is the patroness of it. The altar memorial tomb to the late Bishop Patteson, in the chancel of Christ Church, Sydney, has been completed. Petitions have been presented to the South Australian Parliament against the exclusion of the Bible from schools. The Irish national books are to be used in schools, and gymnastics and singing to form part of the educational system. A ruffian named Strachan recently visited a farmhouse on the Murray, Victoria, commenced to use violence towards the wife, and when the husband appeared endeavored to burn down the place by setting fire to the eaves of the building. Mr Carson took up his gun, whereupon Strachan fled, but Carson fired, and lodged some of the shot in the wretch's back. He has been tried for this wounding, and adjudged a week's imprisonment. Bird, the English runner, endeavored to accomplish the feat of running 11 miles within the hour at Hobart Town the other day, but failed. The Ballarafc correspondent of the ' Argus ' writes : — " The Chinese residents of Ballarat have set their Christian fellow townsmen an example in the cause of charity that should surely lead us up to our much talked-of Hospital Sunday celebration, if ever we mean to have such a thing. The followers of Confucius have informed the Hospital collector^ that they intend to-morrow night to initiate a bazaar and lottery after their own fashion, ta raise a fund in aid of the Ballarat Hospital. The movement is to be entirely with themselves, and all articles sold or raffled for are to be entirely Chinese. The Bazaar is intended to last io?Hwelve months, but the collector has been ' requested to call monthly for the proceeds." " Atticu3 " writes in the * Leader ' as follows:— It would, perhaps, (surprise a good many to be informed that a numerous class of persons exist in Melbourne, who carry on a lucrative business by pretended witchcraft. There is no secret as to the nature of their profession. They court rather than avoid public notoriety. Young ladies, hopeful of the future, but desirous of anticipating- events; middle-aged maidens, whose hope 3 ot the one thing; needful are less pronouueed; married ladies, anxious respecting [he probabilities of a numerous offspring, or curious about the doings of their absent lords ; snd gay widows, still aspiring- for a place in the matrimonial market — all more or less contribute to tbe maintenance of the audacious swindle. The iosight into the futurity, and the knowledge of things occuriag- a thousand miles away, are regulated by the fee paid. The rate of remuneration may range from ix the ridiculously small sum of 2$ 6d up to L 5." , The Canterbury correspondent • of tue 'Daily Times' gives the following account of a biter being bit, the former a Canterbury, the latter an Ooago man, and both given, like the Uaclc-legcjecl lambs, to j fjamlol on the turf. One was in the habit j of taking bis winnings in coins of the - realm or bank notep, and paying- in cheques, which he took care were marked N.S.F. next morning. This was the Ofcagp man. The iso playel* one day, snd the Canter- J 'juryman won. But hearing- of bis opj&nent's prooiivi'ies, ha goes immediately into a back room, writes out a facsimile oi the cheque he had received, apd returns. The eubject was introduced, and the Joser boasted of the valueless nature of the cheque. "Ob," eeyg the Canterbury man, "if that's the case,' l might as well tear it up." He accordingly proceeds to tsar up tbe facsimile. Tbe loser, thinking everything was O.K.— whatever that may mean —in a fit of genero&ity tendered the other man half of the velue of the destroyed cheque, as be imagined. The Canterbury man thus pocketed half the value q\ the cheque in cash tbe same day, and drew the wliole amount from the bank the next day. Tfce transaction is instructive,

A somewhat novel application of the skill of 3. diver has recently been shown in "Westland. Something went wrong at a depth of 100 feefc with the pumping shaft of Mr Cassius' claim at Boss, and in order to repair damages, it was found necessary to send to Christchurch for Mr Watson, a well known diver, who came, donned his dress, descended, and after some trouble, performed his task. • Among the list of " late publications " in London, mention is made of a work entitled "The Education of man ; a Suggestive Dissertation on the Soul — what it is, and how trained ; with an appendix— Have Savages Souls?" A contemporary has reason to believe that the author is Mr Henry Smythies, whose case «has taken up so much of the attention of Parliament for several years past. Having failed to induce _ the Assembly to restore him to to the position of a practising member of the legal fraternity, although succeed in. getting some compensation, Mr Smythies is now devoting himself to the task of proving that human bodies are created for the purpose of embodying the spirits of fallen angels. The moral contamination resulting from the Chinese element in Victoria, has recently, excited much attention there, and the public have been horrified by the most dreadful disclosures as to the extent to which the debauching of young girls is carried on by the sons of the Flowery Land. It has been shown that opium is one of the most powerful agents used for this purpose The use of this drug is more pernicious in effect than the use ot alcohol, and it both demoralises the Chinese themselves and assists them to make an easy prey of hundreds of youuy; girls. The revenue derived from the duty on opium is said to be very large, but ;i strong feeling ia now growing up that it would bo better to part with this than suffer the consequences resulting from the consumption of the drug. It is thereioro suggested that the importation of opium should be altogether forbidden, or that a prohibitive duty should be placed on it. The special correspondent; of tire Auckland 'Evening Star' writes of Wellington thus: — That the Creator intended the site of Wellington for human habitation I have no doubt, or we should not find Mr Fitzherbert and others there, aud that it was intended by a beneficent Creator as the seat of Government I have no doubt either, for it is not of the character of the great Being to place any people anywhere to starve, aud it is beyond a question that wLhout some su«h special means of sustenance aa that provided by the expenditure of public money no community, gifted with the ordiuary interests of humanity, could, in such a locality, continue to exist. If wild, cold, and barren heights, accompanied by views of land and water and snowy hills as picturesque as the poetical imagination could conceive — if stormy winds and pelting rains could give nutriment to the human family, then a community could live in this secluded, walled-in, stormlashed spot. But this not being so, it would be the removal of the only staft" of life, and leave one section of the New Zealand family utterly destitute and desolate should it ever be resolved to remove the centre of barnacledom from Wellington. Commercially and industrially Tasmania is getting on much better. Its local and intercolonial trade is increasing, and enlarged Customs returns, irrespective of recently-added duties, are the one solitary bright spot in the firmament of the Co'.o nial Treasurer. Iron and slate are daily receiving more attention in the North, and tin is decidedly looking up. Ironworks have been commenced on the banks of the river, between the wharves and Battery Point, a Hobart Town Woollen Manufactory, though increased, has been taken up, and a telegram sent to England to send out the machinery. Another small company is being got up for a similar enterprise at Bothwell, on tho banks of the Clyde, so that altogether the main line of railway, that so many said would prove so far in advance of tbe requirements of the Colony, is likely to find i' fully prepared to give it a fair amount of patronage. The 'Independent' says ;--" Wo have, had a curious illustration during the week of the idea that is entertained of a joke in the Legislative Council. A bill called the Ruapuke Island Annexation Bill, the object of which was, presumably, to an- ! ne'x the Euapuke Island, was passed through the IJouse and sent up tq the Council. It came down again with amendments, and thereupon Ministers asked for its discharge from the order paper. Members asked why ? Mr Yogel explained that the fact was that the Upper House, at the suggestion of some funny member, had pissed the Bill, inserting a provision exempting the Euopuke Island from its operation I Infanticide must have been carried on to a fearful extent in Sydney. A meeting has been held there for the purpose of establishing a Foundling Hospital. At this meeting a lady stated that she knew of fifteen or sixteen cases, in which young womeij had come to Sydney for the birth of their child rau, and had lodged with a certain woman who nursed +hem, and dosed their children with laudanum till they died. Thig murderess gotaway to California before her crime was discovered by any who were prepared to have her punished.. A peculiar action at law in regard to the forfeiture of mining shares ie about to be tpi>d. The directors of the Bird-in-Hand Gold Mining Company are to be sued for the recovery of certain shares which they forfeited for nonpayment^ of calif, on the grounds that at the liaie such forefeiture was made the directors had not themselves paid their calls, and were consequently disqualified from actJug jn that capacity.

An Auckland newspaper ruuner makes from 10s to 20s a week by accommodating storekeepers and publicans with change for which he charges a commission. That youth will be Colonial Treasurer some of these days. An enterprising speculator h-is hired the Muson State penitentiary. He gives the G-overnment $1000 a year, finds the prisoners in everything, and of course he exnects to profit from their labor. The State Government of Vermont cause a list of the dogs in the State to be made annually. There is a society, the members of which reside in the Valley of the Grey, rejoicing in the designation of " The Red Jack's Friendly Society." Throwing stoves about promiscuously is said to be a popular pastime among the Auckland larrikins. Some individual has been gratifying his barbarous propensities by poisoning dogs wholesale at Temuka. The Napier Daily Telegraph says that whenever either the Superintendent of Hawkes' Bay or the Hon Henry Russell travels by steamer there ia always a storm, and wonders if the latter is ever thrown overboard by the passengers whether a hapuka would afford him shelter similar to that which the whale gave to Jonah. The amount of sickness which has prevailed in the Naseby district during the past winter is said to have been unprecedented, erysipelas especially taking the form of an epidemic. Good Templarism is making rapid progress at the Thames', where a third lodge bus just been opened. The Collector of Customs aad the Postmaster, as well as an ex-publican and M.P.C — Mr Charles Fe^herstone Mitchell — are all members. The ' Gcelong Advertiser ' has been informed that within the past two years a largo uud rapidly increasing export trade has sprung up between Victoria nnd India. Only butter of the finest quality is procured, and this, made up in lib, 2 lbs, aud 41bs, meets with a ready sale and highly satisfactory prices in the Indian market. Something like lG,OoOlbs have in this way been forwarded of late by the mail steamer from Melbourne, and there is every prospect of the demand becoming much more extensive. The Wellington correspondent of a northern contemporary says : — " Mr Maeandrew, of Otago, as Superintendent of a go-ahead province, flourishes his Falstaflian proportions in a suit of Mosgiel tweeds, wears boots of Otago leather, a hat manufactured in Princes street, Dunedin, and boasts that from, top to toe he is clad in habiliments of native worth. We (' Auckland Herald ') are told upon excellent authority, that " the Rotorua natives arc petitioning the Queen through the Governor for a steamer to take them to Eugland, so that they may lay their grievances before the Privy Council. They complain of want of harmony between them aud the Government, especially in stopping the leasing of Rotorua lands. They want laws allowing them to deal with the lands under proper restriction, the Government to make surveys secured by lien on the land." " His Majesty the Maori King " or some of his satellites are making anxious inquiries for a man learned in the manufacture of whiskey. Perfect safety is guaranteed to him who will invade the territory of his Maori Majesty with a worm as his sole protector. It is nearly true, as a native remarked at the meeting in Ngaruawahia, that our Governor only exercises his functions over half the island. Gisborne, says the ' Wellington Post,' rejoices in the possession of a postmaster named Stubbs. This unfortunate being has in some manner excited the hostility of the editor of the ' Poverty Bay Standard, 1 and the name of Stubbs is never absent from the columns of that journal. He must be a fiend in human form, if the ' Standard's ' opinion is worth anything. The last notice of Stubbs, which we can find, is in these terms: — " True to the instincts of his porcine nature, Mr Stubbs has now descended to a lower ebb of contemptuous malversation than we thought possible even for him." As the unhappy man's offence Jay iv the fact that on Sunday, 20th July, when the Rangatira arrived in the bay, Mr Stubbs, instead of spending the day in acts of piety aud devotion, delivered the mail to al] comers except to the proprietor and "editor, as he delights to call himself, of the ' Standard,' it is just possible that Stubbs may not be so very bad after all. At a private conference of the Church Association held a few weeks ago in London, Dr Blakeney is reported to have said, " The more I think of the [Bennett] judgment, the more lam -persuaded ihat it r/ives no ground for alarm I And it is remarkable, that such is the opinion of men who have spent a lifetime in the study of the Romish Controversy, such aa the Dean of Ripon and Dr dimming. " One is utterly at a loss to know what to think of such an utterance. Either it is the outcome of that suspicious kind of courage which, with pale face and chattering teeth, uses big language, and says fiercely to all challengers, Who's afraid? Or ifc ia the fruit of an amount of ignorance of the character of the times which is *more than enough to make us despair of deliverance ever coming from the English Evangelicals. It is a fact undeniable, i that under the shadow of the Bennett judgment there is being fearlessly carried on in the Church of England a system of Romish propagandise. Ifc is a3 much a fact that there is no chance [whatever of that judgment being either formally or virtually reyeraed. And for a, man like Di 1 13iakeney to say, under these circumstances, that there is no ground for alarm, is simply to proclaim his own incompe tency to give an opinion on the subject. — ' Presbyterian,' '

There is a fine opening for an aspiring genius in~Westportjustnow. Applications are invited by the Borough Council from persons willing to fulfil the duties of " interim " Town Clerk, for the sum of L 2 weekly ! In reporting a recent football match at Patea, the ' Wanganui Chronicle ' says : — " There were no broken limbs — though the Doctor was on the ground ; but several singlets were seen flyiug about, some few ounces of blood were sprinkled on the ground, and some of the players were limping about testifying to the strength of their opponents and the quality of their leather." Under the head of "Kite Flying Extraordinary," the ' Coromandel Mail ' has the following :— " The Ministry have carried the second reading of the Provincial Loans Bill. Provinces may now go into any but the English money-market for what loans they want. If our credit be good we shall be able to ruin .ourselves as provinces, and although the Colony may not be responsible for our bad debts, we shall ruin its credit. This is a highly satisfactory state of things, and will make bankruptcy quite respectable, if, indeed, it does not become the rage. In the expectation, therefore, of the probable early bankruptcy of the Colony, Auckland will, we trust, go in hot and strong for the million loan. Well-developed goldfields, good roads, improved harbors, and a readymoney expenditure of a million spread over the next two or three years, will be cheaply purchased at the rate ot 2s Gd in the £. We can even afford to let our debentures go at a heavy discount to secure such a windfall." In the Legislative Council the Hon Col. AVhitmore has given noiice of the follow- , ing motion: — 'That with reference to the resolution of the Hon. MrSewell, this Council desires to record its opinion that it is the duty of the Government to introduce with the least possible delay a Bill to provide for the great and increasing liability of the Colony by means of a general system of taxation, the incidence of which should be equal on all classes of the community, or proportionate to the means and profits of the several classes and industries of the Colonial population." Mr W. Montgomery, late chairman of the Board of Education, has been elected, without opposition, member of the Canterbury Provincial Council, in. the room of Mr A. Duncan, resigned. A meeting of the Daliarn Tower's consignees waa held in Dunediu, when Mr Tewsley (of Messrs Sargood and Co.), who has just arrived from Melbourne, stated that he had seen the most of the goods, which appeared to be in very good order, and he thought the consignees would have no difficulty in having them transhipped here. The first "pile of the new Railway Wharf at Port Chalmers, was driven on Saturday. The wharf is to be 1220 feet Ion? by 2G feet in width, will have three lines of rails, and is expected to be completed in fifteen months. A large area in connection with wharf is to be reclaimed, which will afford increased accomodation for wool and grain stores. The United States Congress is not altogether indifferent to the health, welfare, and recreation of posterity. It has just distinguished itself by an act which de= serves to be imitated elsewhere. Recent explorations of a tract of country in the north-west, which was previously unknown, have disclosed the existence of a magnificent valley, about sixty miles in length and fifty in width, at an elevation of upwards of 7,000 feet above the sea level, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Besides containing a lake as large, as one of the smaller English counties, and abounding in scenery of Alpine grandeur and beauty, this sequestered vailey includes (t hundreds of hot springs of endless variety of temperature, mineral composition, and mechanical force, which rise on all the slopes." Eventually, therefore, it may become the sanatorium of North America. Bearing this in mind, Congress ha?, with a wise forethought, reserved the whole valley in perpetuity as a national park. The novelty and sagacity of this proceeding have attracted attention in the mother country, and have led to the publication of some correspondence iv the *' Pall Mall Gazette ' with reference to the geyser region in the north island of New^Zealand. One gentleman, who was cured of rheumatism by bathing ia the hot springs of that solfatara, states that he and his companion " were ro struck with the magnificent future that awaits Rotumahana, that we offered the Natives LG,OOO for- the lake and a narrow belt round its shore— the extent of the whele of which we guessed at 500 acres only." Happily, the offer was refused ; and it is to be hoped that other private speculators may be equally unsucessful in their, efforts to monopolise these gifts of nature, and that if the Maories should ever be induced to cede this portiou of the northern island to the Europeans, the General zVssembly of New Zealand will do as Congress has done, and reserve it for national use and enjoyment. No one who Js familiar, either by observation or report, with the beauties and wonders of RoLoinahana— of which some idea may be formed from Mr Moodie's collection of photographs— will hesitate to endorse the opiniolii of the correspondent of the ' Pall Mall Gazette ' concerning the geyser district. He says:— "l believe that Rotomahana will one day be the health resort of half the world, and its natural beauties and wonders alone will well repay the troublo and expense of a journey to New Zealand." It would be a thousand pities if the hot springs should be allowed to pass into the hands oi" some mercenary speculator^ half showman and half charlatan — who would exploiter them like Barnum and puff them like Professor Holloway— -' Argus,'

The price of nobblers has been reduced to sixpence in the Valley of the Grey, to the »reat joy of the thirsty. Mr li'innis, formerly .Lord Mayor of London, has offered, as a donation to the Melbourne Museum, a Nineveh curiosity. The skeleton of. a Chiaamen has been found, tied by the arms to a sapling 1 , near Grenfell, N. S. W. He is supposed to been five months dead The following Ballsrat telegram is published by the ' Argus ' : — A woman named Mary Molone}', the w : fe of James Moloney, a laborer at Cherry-tree Flat, v. ; ho was reported to be ruuning about wild, was brought into Ballarat one evening by the police, together with four of her children, two boys and two girls, tha -youngest about 13 months old. The woman presented a shocking appearance from dirt and exposure tooths weather. Shs is supposed to be silly, but seems in good health. The children seem to ha also strong and healthy. These wretched beings occupied a bark hut, that let in the rain. There was no furniture and no bedding, except fern leaves and branches, and a few old rao-p, all wet. The poor creatures are said to" have lived lately on roots and any vegetables they could find. Mrs Moloney ; says that her husband had left her some time ago. Her stepfather is said to have sent potatoes to her occasionally. There aro th rep. other children — the eldest lb — whom tb- vepfuher had taken charge of. The motbi ? and her Jour children were all but naked when found, and the poKce sent blankets out to cover them on their way to town. Two loaves which were given to them were devoured ravenously. The children seem half wild. The secession of Mr Capel Molyneux from the Church of England has now been completed, and he has begun to preach to large congregations in St. James' Hall, London. His example^ has been foiiowed by the Rev. Richard Gardner, Vicar of Christ's Church, Winl Chester. Many of the parishioners of this last namod clergyman made a solemn appeal to him to consider well whether he would be justified in quitting the sphere of usefulness which he had been occupying, when a marked blesbiug had attended onhis ministry, and in answer to this appeal he has published a pamphlet, setting forth at length the grounds of his secession. One point in ado by Mr Gardner is worth quoting. It will be remembered, that Mr Bennett was let off by the Committee of the Privy Council, n^t because t'nay themselvesapproved of Sacerdotalism, but" simply because it was not clear to their lordships that he had so used the word "sacrificed" as to contradict the largunge of the Articles. That their lordships must have been difficult to enlighten, however, on the subject is proved by the following extract which Mr Gardner gives from the Blue Book of the Eitual Commission : — " Archbishop of Armagh : Do you consider yourself a sacrificing priest?— Mr Bennett: Yes, <c Archbishop of Armagh : Tn fact, sacenlos, a sacrificing priest ?— Mr Bennett : Distinctly so. " Archbishop of Armagh : Then you tlinik you offer a propitiatory sacrifice ?— Mr Bennett : Yes ; I think I do offer a propitiatory sacri fice. "— ' Presbyterian. ' Steam communicat ; on happily for mankind, is rapidly equalising prices f\>r all transportable articles over the world. The prices of our cereals will, for the future, command a much higher minimum than formerly 5 for this miuimum will be fixed, not by our colonial demand, but by the margin of profit; on the markets of Europe and "so will these distant markets, in a very short time rule the value of our live stock, horses, c^ttl", and sheep. Now the farmer and "o-razier can unite their occupations with B pr°H fc and confidence, and produce grain and anirml food that will meet with a profitable and certain market", which a few years ago was unapproachable, and even nnrireamt of. • We f-el assured that the whole managempnt pf our pastoral pursuits will meet with a radical change, and that farming will be di?covere.l to be the most profitable investment, of time, capital, and energy, ol any of the colonial occupations. There is no theory in this. South Australia has practically proved, to the best advantage, the truth of the cereal portion, and we are proving, nnd shall soon have proved, the practicability of (he other. We give the London market price^for Monday, the 26 ' b of May hist, which we extract from that valuable and authentic paper, the ' G r diners' Chronicle and Agriculture! G'-z-xtc' which will better convince our friends of the probability and. value of our prognostications than all our as c ertions, however truthful they may be. — f N.S. Wales Agriculturist and Grazier.' Mr Trollope's visit to Maketu was marked by an incident which h9 describes with a great He'l ol good humor. lie SH ys ; — «'*"At M«.ketn I walked up among th"pir set'lemfints, and shook hands with men and women and smiled at them, anu was smiled upon. At the inn they came and sat alongside of me, — so near that, the connguity sometimes almost amounted to an embrace. Tho children were noisy, jovial, and familiar. As far as one could judge, they all seemed to be very happy. There was a European Schoolmaster thf-re devoted to the Maori children, — who spoke to me ranch of their secular learningbut had fears as to their r^ligous condition. He was most anxious that I should see them in school before I depaited on the next morning 1 , and I promised that 1 would do ?o. Though I was much hunied, I could not refuse such, a rrquest to a man po urgent in so good a cause. But in the morning-, when I was preparing- to be a? good as my word, i was (old that the .schoolmaster had got very drunk after T had gone to bed, had smashed the landlord's windows, and had been carried away to his house by h;g scholars. After this little affair, it was not expedient that I should trouble him at an early hour on the Jollowipg; morning."