GENERAL NEWS.

Bay of Plenty Times, Issue XX, 15 June 1892, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

la almost every school of Japan it is the custom one day in the autumn to take the pupils out rabbit hunting.

The police refuse to return the plant of the Anarchist paper ' Commonwealth ' because the manager refuses 10 disclose the names of the owners. Herrings are a puzzling fish. Twentyfive years ago they suddenly and entirely disappeared from the Joeieren, one of the richest of Norwegian fishing grounds, and did not appear again till last month, when enormous shoals of them turned up at the same spots there as in former years. The sinking of artesian* wells in desert places near tie coast of Tunis has produced a marvellous effect in a short period of six months. The land becomes fruitful as aoon as it is watered, and produces abundant and valuable crops. Three wells in one district suffice to irrigate 7,500 acres of land. An experiment some time since made to ascertand the extreme thinness which it was possible to obtain in rolled iron showed, as the result, a sheet of about the substance of writing-paper — in fact, 150 sheets would be required to constitute one inch of substance.

A dispute has arisen in Melbourne between | the master printers and men over the pro- j possd reduction of wages. The latter have informed the masters that they are prepared to work at a minimum rate of £2 16s per week, and failing acceptance of these terms the matter will be placed in the hinds of ' the Australasian Typographical Association . Sir Richard Temple advises the British to establish a protectorate over the South Sea Islands, whence Kanaka labour is to be recruited by the Queenslun I Government. This, Sir Richaid says, could only then be done if France agreed to their islands bein^ j used for the recruiting of black labour. ! In many parts of Cheshire, particularly in the district of Delamere Forest, the rat pest is again being experienced. Oq many farms they swarm in large numbers, one farm especially b=ing so infested that no one dare venture to enter one portion of the building. Last year a similar plague prevailed throughout Cheshire, when thousands were destroyed and the reappearance of the plague is anything but welcome to the farmers, who are busily engaged in their destruction. A rare gold coin has just been found at Bergerao, in France. It is a stated, or tetradraohma, of Philip IE. of Macedonia, It weighs 7J grammes. This coin must, it is said have been struck by the G-auh two or three centuries before the Christian era. According to M, Leaoruunt, there is only one other coin of this description m existence.

It is not generally known that the invasion of Australia by foreign nations has bsen premeditated no fewer than four times within the last thirty-five years. (1) In 185 C, when Russia sought to fit out naval expeditions in America to destroy Australian commerce and land at Melbourne (2) When France, in 1859, threatened war re tha Oraiui affair, and actually formulated a schemo to land an army of 10,000 men on Australian shores. (3) When Germany, before annexing a part of New Guinea, demanded a province of Northern Australia ; and (4), in 1885, when the Home Government cabled to the Governors and Premiers of Australia that Russia contemplated the conquest of New Zealand.

Some peculiar evidence was given during an inquest before the Liverpool Coroner touching the death of Martha Roberts. Six or seven weeks previously the deceased cut her hand, and to stop the bleoding she adopted the housewife's plan of using a cobweb. Blood poisoning set in— presumably because there was dirt on the cobweb, and the woman died. The Doctor states that death was due to blood poisoning arising from the wound on the hand, and the jurjr returned a verdict in accordance with this evidence.

A remarkable story is reported from Fayette, Mississippi. Coleraan Blackburn, a negro, was hanged for wife murder on the 20th instant, and after being suspended for 36 minutes, was pronounced dead by three doctors. The body was then given to the roan's relatives and conveyed to the cemetery. On the way thither a noise was heard inside the ooffin, and when the lid was removed the supposed corpse was found to be breathing. A physician attended to the man at once, and soon declared him to be out of danger. He is said to be now able to walk and converse. The man was hanged on a new system, by which he was jerked upwards fully six feet, and then allowed to drop three feet.

The exports from Halifax (Nova Scotia) to Britain during October and November show an increase of $210,000 as compared with the corresponding perido of last year. The export of oats from Prince Edward Island to Great Britain this season has been unequalled during the past ten years. The apple trade, to whioh great attention has been paid in Canada during recent years, has assumed great proportions. The imports in Liverpool for the season were 369,880 barrels, as against 96,628 barrels during the corresponding period of last year. This week's reoeipts are the largest ever known — 89,570 barrels, The principal poition of these supplies have been Canadian, the prices of which range from 15 to 20 per cent, more than for those of the United States. The fruit is described as of exceptionally fine quality, well packed, and the supply, great as it is, by no means estdeds the demand. The Canadian Government is making great efforts to encourage the making of fine qualities of butter for the British market. Contiacfcs have been made for the delivery in Liverpool on December 15 of some 300 or 400 tons of choice Canadian turkeys, to be despatched thence to tho several markets. The past season has also seen an expansion of the trade in Canadian carriage horses. The last of the.se averaged nearly 100 guineas each when sold by auction in London.

Viscount Woleeley presided at a meeting of the Trinity College Historical Society, at which the subject of debate was compulsory military service. In reply to a vote of thanks Lord Wolseley said it might be regarded as an old-fashioned idea, but still he thought an invasion of England was an impossible operation. If such a thing should ever take place, he believed it would be attempted by a comparatively small army, for a great army could never be conveyed across the Channel. He estimated the greatest force that could attempt to invade England at from 150,000 to 200,000 men, and even they could not all come together. The principal concern of all Englishmen was to render their country proof against invasion. For that purpose ne believed they only required a small army, and if he were asked to estimate what that army should be, remembering that they had a large body of Militia, Volunteers and Yeomanry, he would say it should consist in round nhinbers of 120,000 men, with a first class army reserve of 80,000 or 90,000. It was only by means of the short service system that they were able to secure an Army Reserve. It was at present nearly 70,0(HFmen, and by the end of" the year would consist of 80,000. He had no hesitation in saying that these men would bear compari • son with the soldiers of any nation in the world. If they introduced compulsory s *rvice, requiring the same proportion of men relative to the population as they did in Erance and Germany, they would get from •London and its subm bs alone the whole army necessary for defensive purposes, [Cheers.)

The London Post Office officials recently ha 4 charge of four young alligators— found in the parcel po»t from Egypt. The l»rge proportion of Australian \ t sovereigns and half- sovereigns in circulation in England is explained hy the activity of the Australian Mints. The Mint in Melbourne alone has, since its establishment, barely twenty-two years ago, turned out more than f>rty-five milUon3 of sovereigns and considerably more than half a million of half-sovereign*. Newfoundland exhibits much originality in its stamp designs. It has on various issues a seal, a codfish, a Newfoundland dog's head, her Msjesry in a widow's cap,the Prince of Wales in uniform, and a whaler in full sail. Some weeks ago two Chinese firemen belonging to the French steamer Loire Inferieure deserted at Newcastle, New South Wales, rendering the captain liable to £200 poll tax. The captain went to Sydney, having heard that the fugitives had gone there, and next day he reappeared and told the police he had recaptured the runaways, producing two Chinese, and stating they ; were the deserters. The water police boaided the vessel before her departure, and the two Chinese answered to the names of i the missing firemen ; but s'nee then the Chinese interpreter has received a letter from Thursday Island, where the steamer put- iv, to the effect that the two Chinese interviewed the Chinese Commissioner there, demanding to be returned to Sydney, having been kidnapped by force and made to take the place of the misung firomen.

A most singular affair has occurred = at Mudame Tussaud's Waxwork? Exhibition, LoudoD, in connection with the notorious murderer Deeming, says an exchange. As it is well-known the landlady of Dinham Villa, the place where Deeming used to reside at Rainhill, ha** had the house pulled down and turned the site into a potato garden. The materials of this house the famous waxworks proprietors have purchased, and the whole have been removed from Rainhill to London, where the kitchen stones and cement have been put in the Chamber of Horrors. Strangely onough, in the cement there is the print of a hand, which is believed to be that of Deeming. The other day a workman was sent into the Chamber to arrange the materials, and not returning he was sent for. The messenger found the man dead on the very stones he was sent to prepare for exhibition this Easter. Ofoxirse no one at present can tell the cause of the death, but the affair adds an extra horror to the whole scene. The Chamber of Horrors was at once closed, placed uuder police charge, and the investigation is now proceeding. It is suggested by some that the feelings of the workman had been so worked upon by reading of the terrible crimes at Raiahill and Windsor that when onoe shut in the Cham' ber of Horrors alone with the gruesome relic 3of the attooity, he lost his nerve, became terrified^ and, in fact, wa« actually frightened to death. Of this, however, we shall know more when the inquest is over.

Every person in this district should send a copy of the New Zealand Cdokery Book to thdir friends* A more useful present could not be found. — Advt.