General News.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 213, 9 October 1875, Page 5

General News.

The Hongkong Times tells the following remarkable story “ We have been told of a most extraordinary domestic episode as having occurred quite recently in a Ningpo family re° siding in our midst. It seems that a married Chinaman was in the habit of giving his wife much cause for jealousy, which, from the circumstances recounted to us, appears to have been only too well founded. The lady bore it for a long time, but at last, wearied out by the infidelities of her spouse, attempted to commit suicide with opium, during his absence. Word was brought to him one evening that his wife was in a dying condition, and on hastening back, he found the unfortunate woman only too unmistakeably in a very precarious state. Repentant, but too late, lie cast about for some means of saving her life ; when the bystanders volunteered the valuable information that the blood of a live eel would, if poured or dropped upon the tongue of the dying woman, infallibly work a cure. Whether this marvellous result would have followed or not, we cannot say ; but in the excess of his zeal the husband held the wringing slippery creature so near to his poor wife’s open mouth that it actually fell in, and . slipped down into her stomach ! This horrible occurrence naturally created the utmost agony among the surrounding friends, but the case was hopeless. I he frantic contortions of the eel in its new sphere caused the unfortunate woman the most heartrending torture, and it was a quarter of an hour before death mercifully put an end to her sufferings.” Had the writer of that domestic sketch “ Enoch Arden,” so full of touching sentiment and pathos, been present at the Geelong Police Court one Monday lately, he might have witnessed the other side of the picture he so delicately painted. During the prosecution of one Iliomas Toole for perjury, it became necessary for the purpose of identification to have Mrs. Toole confronted by a long-lost husband. The latter, according to his story, had not seen his wife for upwards of twenty years. At the request of the police magistrate, says the Geelong Advertiser, Mrs. Toole was brought into the court, and as she moved forward past the witness-box, veiled beyond recognition, the crowded court awaited the denouement in breathless and silent expectation. The wit-ness-box in which stood her former husband was but a few feet behind her, and she was desired to raise her veil. “ Take off your veil, and, if necessary, your hat, Mrs. Silk,” said Sergeant Morton with a polite smile. “ Mrs. Toole, if you please,” was the prompt retort,’ as the person addressed made an imperious and somewhat disdainful bow to the little sergeant. ‘ ! lsow, said the Bench, “turn

round and look at the witness.” The old lady complied, but instead of wincing under the withering glance of her old love, she gazed in his face in mute defiance. There was not even the slightest symptom of emotional feeling ; the pale features of Mrs. Toole—the former Mrs. Silk—were unmoved ; the furrows never relaxed, and as the long-severed husband emphatically exclaimed “Yes ! that’s her ! that’s my missis,” not even the shadow of a blush overspread her countenance. In a word, no vegetable marrow could have preserved its color under the trying circumstances better than did the stolid old lady ; and as for the long-lost husband, he seemed just about as indifferent. Evidently both were satisfied with their altered circumstances, and if their severance had ever occasioned any heartachiiigs they must have been long repaired. The Melbourne Leader says :—“ Really, if things go on at their present rate, there wil be none of the good old-fashioned beliefs left. It is something, however, that the law is on their side. It appears that a Mr. Jenkins, who. is a parishioner of the Rev. Mr. Cook, of Christ Church, Clifton, has had the hardihood to deny the personality of the devil, which has so horrified the pious mind of the vicar that, he at once refused to allow the infidel to receive commuuion at his church, although he had been in the habit of doing so regularly every month, besides attending divine service every Sunday. Mr. Jenkins appealed to the bishop of the diocese, affirming that he was not a ‘ notorious evil liver,’ and that he had not denied any article of the creed, and asking liis lordship’s protection against the outrage. A . correspondence ensued, in the course of which Mr. Jenkins writes : ‘ The reason Mr. Cook, refused me the sacrament is very intelligible. In speaking to my wife he said, Let him tell me that he believes in the devil I will give him the sacrament. In his opinion, therefore, this is the passport, to that ordinance. As he could get no satisfaction from the bishop, Mr, Jenkins brought the matter before the Ecclesiastical Courts, and the Dean of Arches in an elaborate judgment has decided that a belief in the personality of the devil is a necessary part of Christian teaching, and that an avowed and persistent denial of such personality did, according to the law of the Church, constitute Mr. Jenkins ‘ an evil liver,’ and ‘a depraver of the Book of Common Prayer,’ in such a manner as to warrant Mr. Cook in refusing to administer the Holy Communion to him until he disavowed this heretical opinion. This, it must be allowed, is.rather rough upon Mr. Jenkins, seeing that in the celebrated ‘ Essays and Reviews ’ case it was decided that there was no hindrance to a clergyman of the Church of England holding somewhat similar opinions. Are we to understand that in that Church there are two standards of faith —one for the clergy, and the other for the laity ; that for the latter being by far the stricter of the two? It would almost seem as if the clergy of the State Church in England, feeling their power over the laity slipping from their hands, were trying, by the application of greater stringency to the doctrines of the Church, to retain the shadow at least of what they are losing.” The Etheridge correspondent of the Brisbane Courier says that a case was brought before the Police Magistrate at Normanton, which, if it did not create any particular amount of excitement, caused considerable amusement in court. The case was this : —Charles Murphy, the licensee of the Royal Hotel, purchased a hogshead of x’um “ as per sample.” The hogshead was delivered in due course, but the landlord, after tasting the spirit in bulk, pronounced it to be adulterated, and laid an information for adulteration accordingly. On the case being heard, it was considered necessary that the spirit should be analysed, and to save the time required in communicating with the Government Analytical Chemist, a local gentleman, well up in physic, was called as a witness, when the following colloquy took place. The police sergeant to medico : “ What are you ?” ‘ An analytical chemist.” “Can you analyse rum ? “I should tink so” (the doctor was a German), “ I’ve been a chemist all my life, and a publican for twelve months.” “ Do you call that good rum ?” asked the sergeant, pouring out a tumblerful (about a pint and a half) of the disputed spirit, about thirty-five overproof, and handing it to the witness. The doctor swallowed the draught without winking, and after a time replied, “ That’s good rum.” Then the Police Magistrate asked of the witness, “ What quantity will you require to make an analysis, and how long will you require to make it ?” To which the analyst replied—again after mature consideration—“ Your Worship, I couldn’t analyse less than five gallons, and it would take me three weeks to do it ?” The Police Magistrate dispensed with the analysis under the circumstances. During our tour collecting information for compiling the Exhibition number of this journal (Border Post) we made the acquaintance of the oldest inhabitant of the federal city, if not in the Australian colonies. Michael Millott, who resides in David-street, Albury, is now entering upon the 108th year of his age. He was born in Ballinrobe, county Mayo, Ireland, in 1767, and reached Sydney in 1828, during the governorship of Sir Ralph Darling. He was therefore fortyseven years in the colony, twenty-five of which he resided in Albury. During his remarkably long life, four sovereigns of the House of Hanover successively occupied the tin-one of England. New South Wales was founded when he was twenty-one years of age, under Governor Phillip; he lias lived the days of the vice-royalty of twenty-four other Governors of that colony ; but in the course of nature, it is highly problematical whether ho will survive to see the Governorship of Sir Hercules Robinson brought to a close in New South Wales, as he is in a most enfeebled state. During the past eighteen months he has been confined to his bed, and although in the full enjoyment of his mental faculties, it is with difficulty he can be understood, in consequence of the loss of his teeth. His dwelling Ls but a miserable wooden

hovel, propped to keep it up from tumbling over his head, and the interior, though clean, is exposed to the wind and weather through its dilapidated condition. The floor is in its primeval state of nature, without any hoards, and the whole dwelling is in such a state as to render it unfit for human habitation. According to recent experiments by Captain Noble and Mr. Abel, the temperature of the explosion of gunpowder, by means of platinum wire or tinfoil is about 2200°C. The products of explosion consist of about fifty-seven parts, by weight of solids, to forty-three of permanent gas. When the powder fills the space in which it was fired, the pressure is about 6400 atmospheres, or 42 tons per square inch. The products of explosion generally are the same in a gun and in a completely closed vessel, while the work on the projectile is duo to the elastic pressure of the permanent gases. The trial of the Ame ican tyre-setter in Melbourne, exhibited by Duncan and Fraser, makers, of Adelaide, excites, says the Telegraph, great interest in the minds of coachmakers, machinists, and others. By the ordinary process of tyring wheels the tyre is first welded a little smaller than the wheel ; it is then expanded by heat, put on the wheel, and cooled out with water, which shrinks it to its original size, leaving it tight on the wheel. By this process and machine the tyre is welded so much larger than the wheel that it is easily put on cold, then the wheel with the tyre on it is put into the machine (which consists of an elastic band, a screw, and a powerful lover), and compressed until the tyre is sufficiently tight. It has been tried in the presence of coachmakers and others during this week, shrinking both steel and iron tyres with the most satisfactory results. This sort of machine will tighten the lightest buggy or the heaviest dray wheel. Messrs. Duncan and Fraser have used it in Adelaide nearly twelve months, and are so satisfied with it that they have purchased the patent right for all the Australian colonies. The Japanese Government has “ amended ” its Press laws. The native Press of Japan is thoroughly gagged and completely fettered. It is almost impossible to render into English the tone of those regulations. They are surprisingly despotic and contemptuous, and evidently show that the Government has some fear of, as well as a thorough dislike for, an engine whose power is, when once exerted, irrepressible. The Japanese Press will come out of its troubles ; but it has evidently something to go through beforehand. The operation of this law for three months will be a purgatorial trial to all concerned in literary work, from proprietors, authors, editors, down to the very devils themselves. The first article is enough to deter any but the most heroic or devoted man from going into the literary profession ; for it provides that anyone proposing to publish a newspaper or book must first obtain permission from the Government, and to obtain this must present a petition to the Home Department through the Fu or Ken under whose jurisdiction he may be living. Failing this, he is liable to interdiction and to be fined—proprietor, editor, or planter, or all of them—loo yen. Should any person falsely pretend to possess the regular permit, he will be liable to a fine of from 100 to 200 yen and the confiscation of his printing plant and machinery ; and we shall probably all admit that it would be hard to define the power which this provision for the punishment of “ falsely pretending” will put into the hands of the officials. So on right through these amended regulations,, which teem with ingeni-nously-contrived methods of moral torture for the unfortunate printer and his staff.— Japan Gazette.' A correspondent again calls the attention of a Victorian paper to the subject of “ Geographical ignorance,” and suggests the superior usefulness of “ geographical bees ” over the orthographical, now so popular in America and Australia. He says :—“ A few days ago I sent you a paragraph which demonstrated plainly enough that if well-educated Englishmen are occasionally very foggy with respect to the geographical divisions and characteristics of the colonies, many “ educated Australians,” who ought to know better, are in much the same fix. But talk of “ Mudgee being close to the Gilbert,” as my Ballarat friend hath it ! this is out-lleroded entirely by the information lately given to an intending emigrant, by the Queensland emigration agent at a certain English manufacturing town. The story was communicated to me lately by the woman who interviewed the agent just prior to leaving the old country. “So you’ve a sister and brother-in-law in Adelaide,” says the agent, stroking his chin complacently. “Well, that is fortunate. Look here now,” said he, calling my attention to a splendid lithographic picture of a magnificent bridge, on which hundreds of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen were promenading, carriages of various descriptions were being driven, and horses were curvetting and cantering to and fro. “ Look hear, now. This is the Brisbane bridge. Here’s Brisbane on this side, and here’s Adelaide on the other. Now, when I was there,” lie said, impressively, “we had to pay fid. apiece to go over to Adelaide ; while now you can cross over to Adelaide for a penny. So you won’t take long to go across there and see your sister,” said this accredited emigration agent, “when once you get to Brisbane.” (These are the exact words, mind you. His wife, a ladylike woman, had been present up to this time, but now left the room smiling. My informant says she knew what that smile meant afterwards.) “ That’s the country to bring up children in,” he continued ; “ as many as you like ; the more the better.” When I spoke of taking a couple of feather beds—- “ Not a bit of it,” he advised; “give them to somebody here. They won’t be required in Queensland, and they won’t let them be landed. If you don’t like to see them pitched into the river when you get there, give them away.” The woman was landed in Brisbane, and found the bridge was not even then finished, and that Adelaide was something like 3000 miles away.