Local and General.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1038, 15 June 1894, Page 6

Local and General.

One of the latest usps of electricity is tree-felling. A platinum wire is stretched between two polos and niado incandescent. It burns throuph the trunk in about nn eighth of the time usually taken to saw through it. The son of a rector was riding on the Welsh coast when the horse got into a quicksand, and began to sink, carrying the rider with it. The animal's head alone was above the sand when men came upon the scene and rescued both hoise i and rider. The King of the Belgians met with a bicycle accident in the grounds of Lapkan Palace recently. His Majesty was riding down rather a sharp decline at a rapid rate, and was shot off the machine into a rhododendren bush about five yards distant. This broke the force of his fall, and he escaped with nothing more than a slight shaking. The Te Anau correspondent of the Southland times says : — " Tt says a wood deal for the mildness of our climate that one of our gardens here supplied green peas last week. Other vegetables do almost equally well, and the various flowers delight us almost throughout the year. Gardens are now under overhaul for seed-sowing, etc., for next season's general crop of vegetables." An English paper says : — " Now an elector who sells his vote for a pound comes within the reach of the law. But what of him who purchases power by lavish rentributions of the taxpayer's money V That there is a difficulty in giving an opposite term to the condition of the person partially inebriated is shown by the fact that at a recent meeting of a licensing committee a. witnpss said a certain person was " half tight." This expression was taken exception to by a member of the committee, who requested the witness to use less vulgar terms to describe a condition such as that of the person referred to. The witness at once acknowledged the reproof by saying that the man was " three sheets in the wind." The committeeman collapsed, and the witness was allowed to use his own forms of expression.

Sir Robert Stout was announced to deliver a lecture at the Bluff last night. Mr J, P. Maxwell, ex-railway commissioner, has been appointed consulting engineer to the Westport Coal Company. An autograph letter from Oliver Cromwell sold in London recently for L54 10s, ; one from Nelson, written on board the i Victory, fetching 15 guineas. Two miners, who have returned to Perth from the scene of the new find to the eastward of CoolgarnMe. are stated to have brought back 10,000oz with their. A correspondent, writing to the Foxton Herald says : — " Spiritualistic ? eances are constantly held in Foxton, and many of the women presenfc go into hysterics." Mr M'Gowan, Deputy-commissioner of Taxes, has been appointed to succeed the late Mr C. M. Crombie as Commissioner of Taxes. Mr Justice Richmond has made an order in Chambers (says the Press) for the return of the L2OO deposit, to MiEd wards as solicitor for the petitioners in the Stout election petition case. There will soon be navigation on the Dead Sea, under the anspices of the Turkish Sultan, who has put some sailing vessels in those waters as a commercial investment. On Monday a woman named Spence, residing at Maryborough (Queensland) poisoned herself and five children with carbolic acid. All died with the exception of the infant. The Southland Times states that Mr ■ John Milne will apply to the Supreme Court, for a viandam'ns to compel the Mataura Licensing Committee to grant a renewal of his license for the Wyndham ■ Hotel. The present Ministry have beaten the • records of all previous Governments in regard to stumping the country. They are constantly at it, and the real business of the colony has suffered a good deal in con- - sequence. — Timaru Herald. The Melbourne sTramway Company has carried out its intended reduction of 1 5 per cent, in wages all round. The > several reductions made during the last 1 two years, including the present, have lowered the larger salaries by 45 per cent. , the medium by 35 per cent., and the wages of the men by 25 per cent. A Schoolmaster's residence at Martinborough, Wellington, was burned ihe other morning. The furniture was insured for L3OO in the London and Liverpool and Globe. The loss amounts to Ll5O. It is believer' tn be another case of incencbarism. Several suspicious fires have occured in the district during the last few days. The London correspondent of the Daily Times says : — * The directors of the New Zealand Midland Railway Company have succeeded in financing their scheme aud obtaining the needful money, so that the railway is now believed to he safe. A few minor interpretations of the contract will be sought from the Government." By the way, some time ago the Government pipers were accusing the farmers and pastoralists of trying to create an unemployed difficulty by not engaging hands. Should we now accuse the Government of trying, to do so because they are discharging men from Public works all over tho colony, and working ths railway workshops only five days a week 1 If not, why not ?— Waipawa Mail. Dr Withers, who is at presenfc on a trip to the Home Country has written to the Tuapeka Hospital Board tendering his resignation as hospital surgeon, staling that urgent, family affairs necessitated his remaining in England much longer than he antictpnted. It was resolved to accept the resignation with regret, and Dr Newell was appointed resident surgeon to the hospital. The American ship Habitant, 1619 tons, has been almost totally destroyed by fire at Melbourne. She had discharged her inward cargo, and was about, to aail for Newcastle. Captain Potter, with his wife and child, had a narrow escape getting out of the cabin just as the flames burst up through the mizzen hatch. The vessel had to be filled with water before the flames were extinguished. Incendiarism is suspected as there are indications that the cabin bad been robbed. Tlie report of the two delegates sent to India by the Victorian Governmont to investigate trade prospects there is somewhat, discouraging. It would be nseles.**, so Ihey report, to attempt to introduce frozen meat into India unless proper provision is made for cool storage. The demand for tho best quality of meat is small tho principal business being done with a medium article. With regard to supplying the Indian army, the delegates found that fresh meat can bo obtained at much less cost locally than the frozen article. Mr Valentine, the dairy expert, has left for England, where he is to take up the position of resident dairy expert. He will be expected to open up new markets in order to develop trade, and to watch over the colony's dairy interests there. His reports will be laid before Parliament. Tn connection with Mr Valentine's departture the Government havo decided to appoint several competent experts for the coming dairy season, and a more extensive system of practical instruction will be given to factories and dairies throughout the colony. On Mr Valentine's arrival in London he succeeds Mr Lowe, the present expert, whose agreement expires. A singular fatal accident, happened at Rockdale, in New South Wales. A man named John Graham set some tar on a fire to boil, and while he was outside attending to another fire the tar became ignited. He caught hold of the iron pot containing it and thew the burning mass outside the door. Just at thafc moment his only child James, a boy of five, happened to come up to the door, and the whole of the flaming tar was thrown oyer him* He was frightfully burned, and died in a short time. His father also sustained severe injuries. The Post (Wellington) says :— * c Ifc is confidently asserted that a reconstruction of the Ministry is imminent, which will lead to the withdrawl of the Colonial ' Seeretary and to the departure for England of the Minister for Labour as Agent- ' general, with a possibility in the "near 1 future of the Premier as Chief Commis- i sinner of "Railways, and the promise held 1 before the Colonial Treasurer of the , Premiership with a view to securing that gentleman's adhesion to the contemplated programme." Ministers deny that there is * any foundation for the statement as to the * probable reorganisation ofthe Ministry. i

Ifc is stated thafc a'solicitor in practice in Wellington has been instructed by Ministers to draft a new Native Land Court Bill to consolidate and amend fche existing legislation on the subject. With some of fche modern guns a 1001b projectile, whieh will carry four milfls, can he fired with such rapidity that four of them may be in the air at the same time. Afc the Dunedin Police Court on Monday a man named William Wright was fined 10s and costs for selling a bottle of whisky to a child under 13. Defendant, who is a well-known grocer, pleaded ignorance of the alteration in the act, which makes the offence applicable to wholesale licensees as well as publicans. The Bench accepted the explanation. Last week Mrs Kitchen, aged 37, living afc Thames, met with a distressing accident. She was ahout to stroke her son's St. Bernard dog, which was on the chain, when the brute flew at her face,* badly tearing the skin from the forehead, also •bruised and bit her arm, ancl knocked her down, fracturing her thigh. The dog was destroyed, and the patient, at latest report, was doing well. * Mr H. Graham, formerly in the Railway department, Lyttelton, and now a shunter afc Brunner, has been awarded a gold medal and certificate of special mention by the Greymouth Exhibition Committee for turnery. The medal is a very handsome one, weighing loz. Mr Graham makes a hobby of turning, and has evidently done so to some purpose. A desperate attempt was recently made to steal the Duchess of Manchester's jewels as she was travelling in Spain. The thief, as the train was proceeding, made his way into the car, and actually possessed himself of the jewel case. In endeavoring to escape, however, he fell under the wheels, both his legs being crushed. The train was stopped and the jewels recovered. A conference was held in Dunedin on Monday between members of the Legislature and the Otago Central Railway League with a view of arriving at au understanding regarding the line and what the Government should be urged to do for it during the present year. The Acclimatisation Society has received an offer from Blackwood to send from Victoria several hinds and stags to be liberated with the herd of deer on the Morven Hills to introduce new blood. The offer was accepted. The Union Company will bring over the deer free of eharge. A prominent politician, who is understood to be in the confidence of Sir G. Diobs, has unfolded the latter's scheme for the unification of the colonies. It seems that Sir Georye has drafted a bill of 10 clauses which provides thafc New South Wales and Victoria should enter into partnership, the indebtedness of each to bo a general debt ; the tariffs to be assimilated ; the lauds and other assets to be combined, and a federal government to be established, with Sydney as the place of meeting. Local Parliaments are to be retained iu tho form of huge municipal councils to look after local affairs. A Sydney commercial traveller named Sullivan was imprisoned for one minute the other day for having given a creatine named Doloniue a grievous thrashing for making improper overtures to his daughter aged 14. Judge Coffey commended Sullivan for his action. We believe it will be found that Ministers, in pursuance of the "self-reliant" policy to which they are plcdsed, will propose the issue of debentures for the purpose of developing their policy of land settlement and relieving the congested labour market. An issue of L250,000 worth of debentures for the North Island, and a similar issue for the South, to be employed in the purchase of lands, and clearing, roading, and preparing them for settlement, would be calculated to prove eminently suecessful as a means of investment for the surplus capital of the people which is now accumulating in the banks, and would give a stimulus to industry and production that would produce a change, both rapid and wonderful, in the general trade of the Colony.. — Lyttelton Times. There was trouble in a Scotch Free Kirk lately. The session, no doubt inbued with the prevailing zeal for temperance, substituted for the port wine, which has been used for communion purposes what was designated " unfermented wine. This change was made sub rosa and gave great, offence to a large section of the congregation on that account alone. But judge of their indignation when analyses of the old and the new wine proved that the session themselves had been befooled, for while the port wine contained 20 per cent of alcohol the non-intoxicating article substituted for it was fortified to the extent of 28 per cent of spirit '? So thafc the earnest people who thought they were putting nn evil thing away from them were actually putting a stronger " enemy in their mouths."