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Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 136, 16 May 1883, Page 2

While the elephant is the largest ,beast known to the world, its size has been greatly exaggerated, Teh feet is a goud height for one of th e brutes, and a twelve foot elephant is a big one. Jumbo, tho notorious, is about seventeen feet 'high, and •' still growing;". These quadrupeds : reach between seventy and eighty years ! of age before they die/; but there are ; instances of elephants living for over 200 ; years. "."... ' " " *'" ' i '' ; " ; A warder's life (says the Wanganui j Herald) is not always a happy ' one, and" inot an unmitigated pleasure. It is no joke to have some poor demented creature, who is, perhaps, for the time being strong with frenzy, attack one in an unguarded moment. Yet such, we learn, was the lot; of Warder Ferijusson this- . morning. A lunatic named Keys, brought in by the train from the South last evening, rushed at him, but he was soon over-powered. There is no tragedy nowadays which does not serve some enterprising insurance agent as a text from which, to draw amoral on the advantage of. life insurance. Con* oerning the recent Tasmanian murders, it; is said that within: a week befp.ro his death Wilson was adyised to sign a proposal for life assurance, but unfortunately for- lfefr family, decided to defer doing so^ , ' | At Maidon, England, Quarter Sessions recently, George Pudney pleaded guiity- v to a charge of maliciously killing a sheep* The animal had,evidently,been severed in the middle, the skin being first removed' while the sheep was still alive, A sentence of 12 months' imprisonment with hard labor was passed. .../, ...■< . . More loss to settlers says : the Hawera Star. One evening lately the train ran into a mob of horses, between Ngaire and Normanbv, killing three outright .and ao'. in] uring two others that they had ; . to be killed next morning. The following day a similar occurrence happened. : i The train ran into a lot of cattle nearEltham. One or two were killed, and three others^ lost legs or feet, and will have to be destroyed^ It is a gross injustice that the GSvern*~ ment so long delays fencing the line; • ; -' In accordance with British Admiralty 1 .instructions preparations are being made at Chatham Dockyard for the construction of another large armor-plated ship, to bft;named the Mersey. Sha wHI .be' 6Wr 300ft long and about 40ft 7 tvide. r ' Her engines will be very powerful; ■-: ;,mo.:j^ : A terrible accident has occarred'af the : Severn tunnel works. VAs a party of men iwere waiting at the bottom of the^ ; shaft •to be drawn up, the banksman, it appears, pushed a tram into the shatt. The tram fell. on the men at the bottom, okillingo killing four of them on the. spot and terribly mangling; several others, who are.not .ex- : pected to recover. A man has beeri ar» : rested on a charge of manslaughter in i connection with the calamity; ; i-• I No man in Great3ritain will, henceforward, by the mere fact of marriage withal ; woman,, acquire any proprietary rights of iany property which such woman owns at I the time of her marriage, " br •' which she I may subsequently acquire. This is the 'result of the Married Woman's Property Act passed by the British Parliament last session.