CLIPPINGS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Issue 277, 21 July 1882, Page 4

CLIPPINGS.

Tho luvercargill tramway directors bare decided to discontinue running cars on Sundays. Tho Auckland Stud Company are importing three American mares, nearly related to Foxhall and Iroquois. Four thousand three hundred and eight ounces of gold was shipped by the Hero from Hokitika for Sydney per the Bank of New Zealand. : Truth in stranger than fiction. A t LQndpn paper says : — " If Mr. Jos. Simnders, a writer of plays, on whom on inquest has .just been, held, could •l^ve conceived many situations as , dramatic as his own death, ho would probably have made a mark in his profession. He was, it seems, found dead in a miserable room in Stepney, which- he lutd occupied for the last r *frVe^ years.' With part of his body lying under the bedstead, in his left hana he held his pipe, his pen being close to his right hand. The room contained an old table and a bedstead; ao mattress,- no bodclothing was to be Been. There was no food—^^d. was au the money in his possession. An

unfinished drama on 'Drink' was open on the table. He had died of starvation." At the present time Victoria has a total of 1247 miles of railway open, of which 178 are double lines. The cost of construction has varied very much— from £75,000 per mile for the subHrban railways, purchased from the Hobson's Bay Company, and £39,000 per mile for those State Hues milt in the early days when labor was at a premium, to £5600 per mile for the light lines which during the past ten years have been extended throughout the country. The average cost is set down at £14,800 per mile. The railways represent an expenditure of capital of about eighteen millions and a-half, which, with the exception of under three millions, has bqen borrowed, entailing an annual charge £or interest of £918,218. The cost of working is 54£ per cent, on the revenue, and the net annual profit amounts to £751,636, leaving £166,628 to be paid out of the consolidated revenue to meet the balance of the interest. The railways return 4 per cent, on the total cost, and when the conversion of the debentures beariug the higher rates of interest is carried out, the profits will be more than snfficient to meet the interest. There have been 46 miles of railway opened this year, and there are now in process of construction 408 miles, making a total of 1701 miles. It is said that hoggets are dying fast on some farms in this district, most of which are suffering from lung worm. In respect to this disease, the Eangitikei Advocate aays : — We regret to learn that a good many Hoggets have died recently in the Fordell district from the lung worm. We have been informed that Mr. J. McLennan, of tne Oroua Downs, and Mr. Larkworthy, of Carnarvon, have found the following recipe an effectual cure for the disease :— A tableppoonf ul of turpentine mixed with a small quantity of castor oil aud administered to' the diaowsed animal. _ — -- In the covitse of a debate on the rabbit nuisance, Mr. Dodson remarked f.bat in the northern part of the Middle Island there were hundreds of thousands of ferrets, which had been introduced by the runholders about nine years ago, and the effect had been to clear the country wholly of rabbits. Nothing, he added, would now induce the runholders in that district to give up the use of the ft-rret. In the Legislative Council it has been resolved, on the motion of Mr. Nurse, " That the guards on the Government railways be invested with the power of constables to arrest any person or persons travelling on those railways, who, being intoxicated, render themselves obnoxious to other fiassengers, or endanger their own ives." " Nobody,* 1 says " Civis " in the Otago Witness, "that I can meet with pretends to understand the causes of this row in Egypt. The whole business is appropriately shrouded in Egyptian darkness. The BritiahIsrael Society probably knows all about it, but they have not yet enlightened the public at large." In a notice of Darwin, the Saturday Review says : " When the great opportunity of his life fell in his way, and he was allowed to join the Beagle expedition, the ardour with which he volunteered to fill the post of travelling naturalist was not chilled by the thought that he might be ruining his prospects in life. During the five years which the expedition occupied, Mr. Darwin suffered from almost constant sea-sickness, and his constitution was so shaken by his sufferings that during tho rest of his long life he could only preserve a delicate health by unremitting care. But the quiet and seclusion to which he was condemned not only fell in with his tastes, but permitted him to pursue his special studies without a pause and without distraction."