A REPORTER'S DEAM.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5305, 12 February 1879, Page 3

A REPORTER'S DEAM.

THE sad news conies from Paris of the death of W. Benton, the king of American reporters, who for" seven! or, eight years past — so Mi E. Deschattm.es says in Le Figaro — has been drawing a fantastic salary from one of the great American dailies. The lamented W. Benton scattered abroad the dollars of his journal with princely munificence, was on intimate terms with all the political and military celebrities of Europe, spoke eight different languages with perfect fluency, and assisted at all the wars of , the Oold World as a most conscientious spectator. He had gained admission to Prince Gortschakoff's presence as a tailor, to Bismarck as a dog merchant, to the Congress at Berlin as a photographer; he had gone to Royal banquets disguised as a waiter, and to Royal funerals as a coffin-bearer ; in 1867 ho made the acquaintance of Mdlle. Schneider' in the rote of a Brazilian diamond miner,/while during the FrancoPrussian war he ,. figured as a Turko (blacker than life)* a . Zouave or Uhlan, according as the exigencies of the situation demanded. The accomplished journalist Avas about three weeks ago in a great German city, whero the sensation of the time was a troupe of trained bears. There were six of them, and they 1 went through their drills and other performances with such startling regularity that it Was very generally suspected that they were not bears, but men disguised in bear-skins, W. Benton thought as much, and offered to wager with the manager that he would enter' the den, but the manager declined to sanction his enterprise. W. Benton thereupon invited all the journalists in the city to dinner, assured them that the bears were frauds, and invited them to be ' present at the afternoon performance next day, when he intended to unmask the humbug. Having bribed an employee of the menagerie, Bonton, disguised as a bear, entered the cage. "His five companions seemed furiously excited, but he . attributed this to their desire to fend off suspicion. The public applauded most enthusiastically. It was then that the unhappy being, desirous of carrying out his plan, turned towards the Press box, removed his bear's head, and bowed politely. A tremendous roar of laughter ensued, followed by an immense shriek of terror. The bears, on seeing this human face, precipitated themselves upon the unfortunate man. Before the tamer could take steps to save him, the reporter, frightfully mutilated, had breathed his last. Thus perished poor W. Benton, whose editor-in-chief seeks, vainly a man fit to replace him." — New lork World.

At the sale of the reclaimed land at Wellington a few days ago, while Mr Duncan was reading the conditions of sale, according to the Evening Post, a note w^as handed to him, and he stated that he had been requested to delay proceedings for a little while pending the arrival of Sir George Grey and Colonel Whitmore. Some of those present, however, seemed rather impatient to begin, and one man uhcermoniously called out, "Oh Sir George Grey." At 20 minutes past 12, Mr Duncan said that he would commence in the absence of the members of the Government, as gentlemen seemed in such a hurry. He then proceeded with the sale. At the luncheon, in responding to the toast of his health, Colonel Whitmore said that it was from no lack of courtesy that he was unavoidably some twenty minutes late at the commencement of the sale. It had been arranged that he should be there to guard the interests of the Government in the absence of his colleague, whose especial duty it is to look to those matters, but unfortunately the Executive Council sat at 12 o'clock on Tuesdays, and he had. to' be presentf He had a cab in waiting, and as soon as he was at Liberty came there as quickly as possible. He menr tioned this because remarks were made in the room when he came in of anything but a complimentary character. (A Voice : "It was only one man.") He could only have been present by doing serious injury to the colony, because many important measures were passed through the Executive Council. (Hear, hear, and applause.) At a meeting held in Melbourne recently for getting up subscriptions in aid of the sufferers through the failure of .the City of Glasgow Bank, Mr Michael Kidstone said he had received a letter from his brother in Glasgow, one of the secretaries for the fund in that city, in which the writer suggested that the residents of Victoria might be asked to assist the fund. The writer went on to state : — "In Glasgow there has already been subscribed £148,000; in Edinburgh, £60,000; in Paisley, £18,000, and sums of lesser amount had been subscribed in Aberdeen, Greenock, Perth, Dundee, &c. Operations are being taken in England, and it has been resolved to appeal to tho sympathies of our friends in the colonies. Perhaps you may be inclined to lend a helping hand." The editor of the Australasian says, in answer to a correspondent: — "It is generally desirable to obtain rye grass seed for laying down permanent pastures for paddocks that have been laid down for several years. Rye grass is by nature short-lived ; the so-called perennial charaoteristic has been developed by skilful culture and by saving seed only from plants which havo existed for several years. In these colonies there are many districts in which soil and climate are both hostile to longevity in rye grass ; in such, therefore, it is important to sow only seed possessing the perennial characteristic. But there are other districts in which rye grass is at home, and where seed, if saved ' the first year after sowing,' will answer as well as any seed; if your soil appears to suit rye grass you need fear nothing on tho score of climate."