General Intelligence.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 123, 17 November 1876, Page 6

General Intelligence.

The English cricketers have .reached Adelaide all well. They play the first match there next week. The Evening 1 Argus says scarlet fever is slowly, but surely, taking' the proportions of an epidemic in Wellington. It is rumored that a cable is to be laid between Galle and Australia direct, or via Java. The Ceylon Government is ready to give every facility. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of JNew Zealand is summoned to meet at St. Andrew's Church, Auckland, on the sth December. A telegram from Auckland says : — The staff of Provincial officers throughout the Province will be reduced at the en.i of the present month to the merest skeleton. The Dunedin City Council at their meeting on Friday resolved that new Corporation offices should be erected on the Octagon site at a cost not exceeding L7OOO. The Daily Southern Cross, purchased in Auckland by a public company at the instigation of Sir .Julius Yogel, has passed into the hands of Mr liorton, of tue Thames Advertiser. The Victorian National Agricultural Show Avas one of the largest and finest that has ever taken place here. The show of implements was the most numerous ever seen in Melbourne. Mrs Scott-Siddons, the well-known actress, is said to be a crack shot with the Martini-Henry rifle, and being an honorary member of the Kifie Association of Victoria, she is expected to fire in the Members' Match. Steps are being taken in Canterbury to present Mr Rolleston with a testimonial as a mark of appreciation of his services as a public man. Subscriptions are limited to L 5 each. It is expected over LIOOO will be raised. The excess of warning's of the Canterbury railways over expenditure for the past six months is L 20,000. The excess for the same period in 1875 was LI 7,000. The. working expenses for the past six months were 70 per cent of the income. The JNapier Daily Telegraph sa} r s : — Some men are now going about Napier begging from house to Liouse for food. They urge want of work, illness, or any other excuse for mendicancy, but it is observable that most of these have means to get intoxicated. At a place called Tutae Kuru, a Maori recently met with a fearful death. Be was felling a tree, when a decayed limb became detached, and its forked end struck the Maori, who was disembowelle/1. After lingering for two days death terminated his sufferings. Some, relics of the Strathmore have found their way to the Museum at Dundee They comprise a couple of large spoons which were usmi to measure out the food, a rude knife, a hat worn by one of the crew, some of the coarse grass used as thread, &c. An extraordinary case at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, where a pair of bulldog forceps and a sponge were sewn up in the body of a woman after an operation, has b°en inquired into by the coroner's jury, who aqnitted the operating surgeon of blame ; bur. the matter has been much talked about and commented on. A mar named Albert Fairfax Dendney committed suicide by taking strychnine in the Auld Scotland Motel, Sruartstreet, Duned.in, on Monday evening. Mr Dendney was a married man in the prime of life, and was well known in Dunedin. He was lately in the erap'oy of Messrs Bing, Harris, and Co., and previously with Messrs Sargood and Co., of Dunedin. Mr Hugh M'Dermid has given the Port Chalmers Town Council a month's n> ticu of action in the Supreme Court, to recover the sum of LIO,OOO, estimated damage done to hi^ property at Sawyer's Kay by the construction of the waterworks reservoir, and for not carrying out the terms of the contract made between him and the Corporation relative to the purchase of his water rights on the said land. The Melbourne Age says:— "ln Victoria stockowners are becoming aware of the fact that although the prohibition of cattle*, sheep, and pig importation has only existed about three years, our stock are beginning* to languish for want of fresh blood, and the subject is therefore one that requires bringing under the notice of the Government, so that the proposed amended Act may deal with the matter effectual! v." Messrs Heid and Grey obtained the prize at the Timaru Show for a furzecutting machine. Mr Brydone, Inspector for the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, is the inventor of the machine, which is the third of its kind. One is used at the New Zealand Company's station in Southland, where it cuts hedges at from a halfpenny to three half-pence per chain, which previously cost hy hand labour thirteen pence. The Wellington correspondent of a contemporary, speaking of Capt Campbell Walker, the unapproachable Conservator of State Forests, says : — " In due time he came to Wellington, b"inging with him a superb phaetou, with a couple of fine ponies, and a boy in buttons. The gallant Captain's demeanour •—by the bye, no person can speak positively as to wby he is styled Captain — it would appear, is not calculated

to render him popular. There are snobs onough in New Zealand, goodness knows !"

The Marlborough Express states that a dire disease has assailed the sheep about Ta Marina, and along the Picton road. A gentleman who has occasion to travel that way occasionally states that vast numbers of the sheep and lambs are affected with foot-rot, and he has observed lambs not over three months old stumping about on their knees to i'eed, in consequence of the disease having weakened them to so great an extent.

The attendance at the Melbourne races on the Derby Day numbered about 25,000, and on the Cup day over three times that number. All passed off pleasantly and we'll. Nine started for the Derby, which was won by Briseis easily, the favorite (Newminster) and Tocal being nowhere, in fact running nearly last. Briseis won the Cup in 3min. 36|sec., beating a field of 30, and beating all the cracks. The race was won by about a length. The bookmakers won heavily. All the first three horses in the Cup are by the winner's sire, Tim WhifHer. Writing upon the reform of the Legislative Council, the Southland News says : — " It is early yet to speculate as to what will be ' the question' of next session, but we are much mistaken if a prominent, one is not that of reform of the Legislative Council. Sooner or later a struggle must take place, for the people of this country can never consent to continue to be governed as they now are, by a nominated liouse impertinently setting* aside the decisions of the elected branch of rue Legislature, and reducing it absolutely to a sham representative institution." The Wellington Argus says :— * c A brother of Mr H. O. Clayton, of this city, has just invented a new kind of augur at Nydd, England, which is co constructed as to bore no fewer than ten different sized holes. He is about patenting- it, and will forward some to this colony. Another brother of Mr Clayton, residing in Ripley, Leeds, has, within the last month or two, invented and patented a new apparatus for sweeping* and rolling lawns, which is said to be of great utility and is sold at a remarkably low figure. We have no doubt the apparatus will sell to advantage in this colony." On Captain W. R, Russell's return to the colony, we (Mercury) hear that it is intended to present "him with a memorial :isking Lii m to resign his seat for Napier in the House of hepresentatives. The memorial, should the public feeling remain as it now is, will be very numerously signed, probably by three-fourths of the electors. That which makes Captain Russell's desertion from bis post all the more irritating and insulting to his constituency is, that when he visited iNnpier in" the middle of the session, he was then making preparations to le,nve for England, aad yet kept his intentions secret.

In the struggle at present agoing on between the flock musters of the Province and the shearers, the former (says the Daily Times of Wednesday), have obtained the advantage by the arrival of between 70 and 80 hands from Victoria in the steamer Arawata- About, one-half of them landed at the Bluff, and the remainder here yesterday. We hear that another contingent may be expected by the s. s. Ringarooma, due next Monday or Tuesday — she Was to leave Melbourne to-day — and also that two are three influential squatters have sent across to Sydney by the Kasby for a further supply of shearing- labor/ This i& what' the Wairarapa Standard says of the condition of the labour market in that district :— •" For several days in succession we have met firstclass working-men (judging- from their appearance) seeking employment and finding- none. This is a somewhat remarkable circumstance at this season of the year. One man told us that though last year he had earned 7s a day, he would be glad to accept 5s per day now. A young- Warwickshire farm laborer, a superior man of his class, told us he would be glad to accept 15s a week if he could ensure regular employment. These facts speak for themselves, and indicate a very great change in the state of the labour market compared with the corresponding period of last year."

The Daily Times thus concludes an article on the present condition of the Empire City : — " The plain truth of the matter is that Wellington stinks. We speak plainly. It stinks morally, and offends even the most corrupt of members by the utter demoralisation of rone tha* pervades it. 1 1 stinks in a material sense, if we may apply that epithet to so impalpable a nuisance. None of our readers will be surprised to learn that, having the truth firmly impressed on them and proved by the testimony of many meu, with many various organizations, the Government of the ""day voted en masse for retaining the seat of Government there ; aud carried it by a majority of six that not even for one session wouU they consent to the removal of the Parliament from a place which, whatever else might be said of if, suited them."

At a meoting' of the Presbytery of Dunedin, h«ld on Wednesday, Hey, J. H. M'Naughron resigned the pastoral charge of the congregation of Anderson's Bay. The Presbytery agreed to accept of the resignation, and granted a certificate to Mr Al'Naughton in the

following- terms: "That Mr M'Nangh ton was 14 years minister of Anderson's Bay Presbyterian Church, Dunedin, New Zealand, and resigned his charge in failing* health, to return to his native country. Mr M'Naughton carries with him the sympathy of the Presbytery, on account of his many and severe afflictions, and their earnest wish for his welfare and success in any sphere of labour which may be opened up to hi.m." At the same meeting Mr David Borne, having completed all his theological studies, and having* undergone examination to the unanimous satisSaction of the Presbytery, was licensed to preach the Gospel. The Lyttelton Times says that the annual shearing of the Angora goats has now been finished ; the clip scarcely averaged four pound a goat, as a large proportion are very young. The great rise in the price of silk will no doubt enhance the value of Angora hair, which has been selling- in London from 2s to 5s a pound, and when manufactured into the material called mohair, has a beautiful glossy appearance resembling silk. The "skins of these goats are extensively used in the manufacture of Morocco leather j they also command a hi»-h price for mats and saddle cloths, bein^ very durable fvnd elastic. The climate of Canterbury appears admirably suited to these g-oats, and they are now thoroug-hly aceliniatised. The swampy and shelterlpss plac9 at Opawa, where they have been located for many months, is nut, however, suited to their requirements, the proprietor, Mr Johnson, having been unabled to secure land suited for both fi:h culture and goat breeding. In an article upon the anniversary of the Province of Hawkes Bay, the Mercury (Napier) says : — " As loug as provincialism lasted, the people had local government in the fullest sense of the term. Whatever may have been the faults of provincialism, it cannot be denied that it assisted the people to found the prosperity upon which that credit has been built up which enabled the Colonial Government to prosecute the public works policy. The so-called local government that is to replace provincialism can prove nothing but a sham and a delusion ; while it will take from localites the power to legislate, it confers nothing hut the right — always possessed — to impose taxation for the maintenance of local loads. In the dull uniformity that will be brought about, the peculiar features of districts, nnd the special wants of localities, will he lost sig-ht of, the close attention to whioh paid by provincial governments raised the Colony to its present height of prosperity."

Darwinians may rejoice ; that mysterious " missing- link " appears to have been found. The Auckland Herald publishes a letter from th<3 Key. George Brown, the pionper missionary to the Duke oi York Island, and adjacent inlands, in connection wi'-h the' New Guinea mission. The following- is an extract: — " I have explored a long- line of coast, on New Britain, from a point about twelve miles beyond Cape Palliser; the other parts we have often visited There is a large population on all that coast, and they seem quite friendly. By the way, the natives here are most positive in their assertions that there is a race of men- with tails at a place called Kalili, quite close to where we were. They say that they are dwarfs, and that the tail, which they represent as being hard and stiff, is an extension of the spinal bone, and that if the people wish to sit down they must first dig a hole to receive this caudal appendage. They quite scout the assertion that they must be monkeys. They ask, 'Do monkeys talk 1 or make taro plantations ? or fight with spears as these men do ?' 1 telftLe tale as it is tola to me. I shall be most happy to be introduced to one of them, and have promised no end of aood things to anyone who will do me that honor."

The following- adventure with a shark is related by our Palmerston contemporary : — Mr A. Sutherland, of Gcodwood, and two others, went to sea in a large fishing- boat with the object of taking- from their native element some of the plump and nicely flavoured specimens of the briny deep. The weather being fine, favoured the sport sought, and for a long- time the equilibrium of the sportsmen remained undisturbed by disaster of a.nv kind. Ultimately, however, one of them discovered that something- was tugging violently at the line, "and in a few moments the trio were hornfind at the unexpected appearance near the bout, and attached to the line, of a shark about seven feet lon«\ An effort was made to deprive it of at least a portion of its tail, but thfe painful operation to which it was submitted caused it to plunge here and there in a manner that frequently threatened the safety of the party. In its fury the monster soon lashed the water into foam, and, to the discomfiture of the occupants, bounded into the boat amongst them. The danger, of course, was now " of a two-fold character, the difficulty being; not only how to keep a safe distance from the horrifying- jaws of the voracious fish, but how to prevent the boat v setting. Their situa tion, as remarked afterwards, was of a most appalling 1 character. All, however, clung tenaciously to the sides of the boat, and ultimately, taking* advantage of a favourable oppprturit}', one of the party plunged a knife into the animal and gave him his quietus. i