AMOUNG OUR EXCHANGES.

Northern Advocate, 21 January 1888, Page 2

AMOUNG OUR EXCHANGES.

Photography haa never reproduced natural colours. Scientists explain this fact by the statement that colour has no objective existence. It is simply the brain's interpretation of the rapidity with which the waves of a ray of light beat against the retina. Beats more rapid produce the sensation of the mind known as violet ; ' beats less rapid that known as red. Violet and red are nothing but vibrations of the ether until they reach the optic nerve and communicate to that the 'ribrations, which the brain translates. To photograph colour is therefore as impossible as to photograph sound.

Careful experiments on the s.ense of smell in dogs have been made by George J. Romanes, who has communicated the results to the Linneau Society of London. He finds that not only the feet but the' whole body of a man exhales a peculiar or individual od our which a dog can recognise as that of his master amid a crowd of other persons ; that tb/e individual quality of this odour can be Kiognised at a great distance to windward, or ]\n calm weather at a great distance in any direction; and that even powerful perfumes may not overcome this odour. Yet a single sheet of brown, paper, when stepped upon instead; of the ground and aiterwards removed, was siifljcient to prevent Mr Eomanes' dog from following his trail. ■

A little gill, the daughter of Mr George Gaskin, residing at Tatarabi West, near Wellington, met with her death by. falling on the point of a sheep-shear, severing the jugular vein.

The offence for which Judge Vjgneau, who heard the charges against M. Wilson, was dismissed from office, was for inviting witnessess for the prosecution to dine with him.

New Zealand Frozen Meat is selling at from '3 to /4 per lb. in London.

Eight hundred and sixt3 r men are at present engaged gathering rubies over a large area in the Alice Springs, Adelaide district, while many others are working on a good goldfield.

The electric lighting experiments concluded on Saturday night, and have been so far most satisfactory. It will now remain for the City Council to consider the report of their own officers, and the question, of. cost. Mr Josiah Martin made some experiments the other evening, with a view of contrasting the electric light with gas light. He found that the light from an electric light lamp was equnl at a distance of 187 yards to gas light six yards distant from the lamp ; in other words, that the electric light projected its rays thirty times further than the gas light. This is all very well, but the electric light, as at present produced ifl so much more costly than gas that it cannot supersede it.

Typhoid fever has broken out in the army in Poland. Forty men have been frozen to death, owing to the intense cold prevailing.

The Bey. Mr Spurgeon declines to bo reconciled to the Baptist Union.

The monkey house at the Zoological Gardens, Sydney, was burned down. Some monkeys, rare birds, and snakes were destroyed. The collection was a valuable one.

The swamp fires near the railwaj s continue to burn on both sides of Hamilton. On Saturday it was reported to Mr Perm, Inspector of the Permanent Ways, that one of these had burnt its way into the station yard at Bukuhia. A party of railway men was got together, and on arriving at Bukuhia it was found that the fire hod actually worked its way into the cattle yards on the Bukuhia Boad. With some difficulty it wob got under, and further damage prevented.

In Napier there have been during the past week several cases of severe sunstroke, and from one a girl was delirious for two days. Messrs Macnamara and Wright, runholdera of Terawhiti, have made a report to the police in reference to their lost sheep. It appears that upwards of 2006 are missing from their 1 runs.

The woman Dazell, who drowned her son inßakaia on December 29, recovered consciousness after being in a cataleptic state for '17 days.

All «Ter the colony the volunteer* seen* to have taken a dead-set against the BemingtonLee rites.

SHBfmr Mror.— "WelU' Heatta Benewer" rertorea health and- vigour, cores Dyspepsia, Impotence, Secular Debility. At chemists and druggists. Kempthorae, Froaaer and Co., Agents, Auckland.

A. man named Charles Wegal died from sunstroke sustained on Thursday last.

The dead body of a female child about seven days old has been found in a sugar bag washed up on the beach at Evan's Bay, Wellington. From the appearance of the body it seems to have been in the water for 24 hours, and that the child had first been strangled. At present there is no clue to the perpetrator.

Robert Baxter, aged nine^ was killed on Saturday, near Waipawa. The boy, while assisting to draft horses-, was holding a rail at the stockyard gate-, when one of the horses in rushing past (struck tke rail, knocking the boy down, who died from the effects of the blow. The deceased was a son of Mr Baiter, chemist, Christchurch, and was on a visit to this district.

Trade is reviving in Adelaide, aad the prospect is saitl to be most encouraging.

A Cambridge correspondent says: "The fruit market opened badly on Saturday. Messrs Buckland and Co. sold plums at l|d aiid apples, and even peaches, at Id per lb 4 The apples were affected with the codlin moth, but the peaches were a fine sample.

In the Lower Avon, a few days ago, an angler captured a fine trout of lolbs, and next day he killed a most beautifully-shaped fish of I3lbs. It is asserted that the last fish is a veritable Calif ornian salmon.

The valuation of rateable property in Wellington for the year 1888-89 has just been completed. The total amounts to £290,834, as against £275,851 last year, being an increase of £14,983. The number of buildings in the city is 5442. J At New Plymouth on Tuesday, William Skeats, aged seventeen, "whilst bathing in the Heuni- river was drowned. He dived, and is supposed to have struck a stump of a tree in the river, and was 6tunned : as he never rose again. The deceased and. three brothers younger than himself were ail bathing together. The family of Skeats were from Hamilton, Waikato, about a year ago.

The Sydney City Corporation ivave determined to carry oiit large retrenchments, and 250 men have received notice that their services will be dispensed with. An aiuiual saving of £35,000 will thus be effected. It is oxpected that further reductions will follow.

The police have dissovered a plot to destroy the public buildings of Cork by means of ilynamite.

The Rev. Mordaunt Lowtlier (coi;sia of the Earl of Lonsdale) was recently Bummou^l for criminal assult, but did not appear when called on. He was subsequently di.-covered in his bedroom, with. his brains blown out.

The daily Chronicle states that tho Pope ' condemns the revolutionism manifesting itself ' in Ireland, but fearing a schism, cuuuot <iisavowthe agitation

Constable Haddock, of Warkworth, report* a - case of singularly deliberate and determined' suicide by a gumdigger named George Brownj on Friday. It appears that Brown had in: some time past been working on a yumiield it Omaha Flats, and was living alone in a wharo On the day previous to his death Brown hat collected a quantity of combustible materials including portions of a decayed garden fence and piled them up in his whare. His hu i was somewhat isolated, but a little while after daybreak bis nearest neighbour, who resides about half a mile away, had his attention drawn to the direction of Brown's whare by l a loud report, as an explosion of dynamite. Looking towards the place, he saw that the house was in flames, and with several others i who had heard the neise, promptly started/i for the scene. The first to arrive were two gum>flr diggers named Savage and Llayd, who wer M horrified to see Brown's mutilated body lyii ia the burning hut. They quickly aragflJO out the lifeless trunk, which was thent^^B covered to be minus legs, arms, and the grer^^l part of the skull. The latter was, how&^^H found subsequently some distance from^^H spot from which the body was rescued, ifl^p had apparently been blown off by some exiM^F sion. An inquest was held by Mr AngcSA coroner, and a jury of six, of whom Mr M^H| thews was chosen foreman. At the enqirMM a note was produced which had been fo^HH outside the hut placed in a cleft stick, aHB addressed to the coroner. It read thus : am tired of this life, and am bidding good-bjHB to the green earth.— Geobgb Bkown." TneM jury brought in a verdict that deceased hadfl destroyed himself while of unsound mindgH Brown was a single man of about 30 years ol age, and is believed to bo a native of LondonH but has been in the colony for over 20 years. fl|