OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9609, 30 December 1891, Page 5

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

ANGLO-NEW ZEALAND ITEMS. LONDON, Nov. IS. THE EEV T. FLAVELL.

The Rev Thomas Flavell is now in disseminating information remrauitf the Colony through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Be Is. pr£> ceeding very much on the lines of Me Watson. Mr Flavell is In communication with the office of the Agent-OaUeril, trhd is supplying leaflets, &0., and lending *2 needful aid. Mr Flavell, too, is writing articles for various provincial nanetfc di the Colony. ADVEBTISING NEW ZEALAND. Some time ago mention was made of the fact that the New Zealand Agency was moviiig, in conjunction with the School Boards, in diffusing a knowledge of the Britain of the South by supplying books and leaflets relative to the geography, history and products of New Zealand. movement is evidently doing much gdod. More especially is this the case |tt the country Board schools, where the idee ha# been taken np. with much ardour. Th# children take these publications. hotte to their parents, and in this way an ever* expansive and far-reaching channel is being opened for the diffusion throoghottb the United Kingdom of sound information on the state and general characteristics Of New Zealand. . BANKRUPTCY Mr Charles William Miles, the welL-kUOfIK and popular New Zealand Colonist, pats®# his examination the other day before Mr Registrar Brougham. He attributed liiS bankruptcy chiefly to hia connection with a Club in Leicester square. He appears to have been inveigled into the concern by interested persons, who represented it to be a paying enterprise, and his bankruptcy has elicited great sympathy among ills wide circle of friends on this side. A QUESTION FOB EXPEEtfS. : . Some fish have just reached l|r t Kennaway. the Acting Agent-General IoY New Zealand, under circumstances which would have been of overpowering intCrsSt to the late Mr Frank Bnoklsnd. The*#; *■; fish have come in the refrigerator, And if seems that all have died under mysterious; conditions in a certain river in the North Island. The peculiarity is that for a Spec# of about two miles only all the fish haV6 died, but both above and below the fatal stretch they flourish, and the question lias naturally arisen, what is the cause Of th® singular mortality? Mr Kennaway Will endeavour to ascertain, by the Aid of experts, the zeal cause of the death of thi fish. THE FBOZBN MEAT TBADE. The new refrigerating stores being erected at Blackfriars for Nelson Brother# (Limited) are now nearing completion. Already one and three-quarter million bricks and .820,000 worth of timber hftVe been used, and the stores, when ready for use, will have a capacity of 820,000 cubic feet, capable of storing 235,000 sheep carcases. The building is on the bank of the Thames, to which it has a frontage m 180 feet, and it is fitted with three powerful Lancashire boilers, two DelavergU# ammonia - compressor engines, and one large Haslam cold-air engine, an electrical installation of 1600 lights, and a hydraulic installation to work 20 cranes. The Cdta ' air can be driven through conduits at the cate of 180,000 cubic feet an honr. TAKING A COLLECTION. An amusing incident occurred the other night at a service in the Synod HaU, Castle Terrace, Edinbnrgb, where the Rev Dr M'Qregor was lecturing on "The Volcanic Regions of New Zealand.” The reverend doctor had lectured for two hours, and at the Close was so carried away by his own eloquence that he forgot all about that indispensable part of a religions service, the collection. At the end of the lecture there was not even time for the usual anthem. The reverend doctor raised his bands to heaven and: pronounced the benediction. The people rose to go, some of them possibly congratulating themselves that they were getting . off without having to disburse the usual bawbee; but the doctor was one too many for them. The recollection of the enormity of his offence came updn him like a flood, and he shouted to the people in his most impressive tones, " Sit down, sit down. The collection will now be taken, and I hope that no one, no not one, . will go away without subscribing a mite.” The great congregation, vastly amused at the incident, resumed their seats and subscribed their “ mites " when the collecting bags were handed round. The volcanic regions of New Zealand form too good a subject to be lectured about for nothing. EBMINISCENCES OF THE MAOBZ WAB. ' Sic John Gorst’s Antipodean friends will be pleased to haac of his promotion in th« Government. It is a long time now since Sir John left New Zealand, where he acted for s couple of years as Civil Commissioner in the Waikato. While in the Waikato he started the once famous Maori newspaper, Tt HoJcioi, which be edited for a time mi whar6 beyond Ngaruawahia, in the troublous days which preceded the final strnggla between the Waikato Maoris and the invading pakehas. Those who were in New, Zealand during the wars of the Sixtietwill remember that at the battle of Rangiriri the Maoris, having plenty of powder bat no ball for the few fourteen-pounders they possessed, loaded their guns with shopweights looted from the pakeha storekeepers along the Waikato. In the early part of the fight at Rangiriri they did con* aiderable damage with these missiles on the droghers in which the troops were conveyed up the river. At a subsequent battle, further on in the Waipa direction, the shop weights having been all used np, the Maoris seized upon the fixtures of the EoMoi office, and the guns were charged with type. And it came to pass, according to local tradition, that Sir John Gorst, who was among the British troops (on safety on the occasion of the battle in question, was nearly shot with one of hit own " spring poems,” the column of type with which the gnn was charged having smashed into a wall a few inches away from the fntuce statesman's devoted head. A FREAK OF NATURE. Freaks of nature, as they are called, may he deeply interesting to scientific men, bat they often entail for the victims of them a wretched existence. At the present momeni we learn Mr Laloo, a native of Hindostan, is in New York, with the object of consulting the most eminent surgeons on his singularly hard case. He is described as a handsome, well-proportioned young mas, whose life is a burden to him owing to the following circumstancesHe was bora a twin, bat unfortunately hia twin sister had grown from his breast bone—or, as the freak is described, " she had attached her* self to that part of his anatomy, ao£ seemed to have plunged head first into her brother's body, for dangling from his body was only a baby girl's body and four limbs.” The "isthmus of neck" ia described as "poking right into brother’s' frame,” and there evidently ended the headless sister, whose arms war#, tightly clasped round her brother's neck,: For twenty years Mr Laloo has lived with his decapitated sister, also a living hamui body nearly half his size, fed by his mouth, living upon his tissues, and still capable of. “swinging her arms np and patting them round bis neck as of old.” He is angina* —deeply anxious, it is said—to get ridel

this incubus, and.hu gonfe toNew Torkin the hope oi finding a skilful surgeon to help him in hia object. Before anything it attempted, a consensus of opinion on the fusibility of such an operation will be taken.

v THE CHICAGO ANARCHISTS. • A crowded Anarchist meeting was held ill Chicago on Nov. 11 to commemorate the execution of the Anarchists hanged in 1887. The. demonstration was the most deffisiveof the kind since the great Haymaiket riot in 1886, when a large number of policemen were murdered. Over a thousand persona were present, and the proceedings were of a moat turbulent character. The excitement continued very high, and matters reached a climax during an incendiary speech by Henry Weissmann, editor of the New York Eandelsseitung. Mr Hubbard, Inspector of Police, accompanied by a lieutenant and a squad... of troops, and a of police in plain clothes, quietly approached the platform and ordered the American flag to be placed among the crimson banners. The whole hall was in■tUUtly in A'state of the wildest commotion. “ The police were hissed and jeered, and Luoy Parsons, widow of the Anarchist, shrieked, '‘Hang the murderers of my husband!” A,veritable pandemonium ensued. . Hundreds of persons pushed forward as if to attack the officers, but the inspector remained unmoved and ordered the suspension of the meeting until bis commands were obeyed. Meanwhile the pplice.had their hands on.their revolvers. Ultimately. the flag was hoisted over the platform and order was restored..