General News.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 245, 20 May 1876, Page 19

General News.

The number of paupers in receipt of relief in England and Wales on the Ist January, 1875, was 815,587 ; and of emigrants from the United Kingdom during 1874 was 241,014. During the past year 6865 horses, asses, or mules, were delivered for consumption in Paris, and yielded 1,249,190 kilogrammes (2,748,218 lb.), or over 4001 b. each of meat. The total populations, exclusive of army, navy, and merchant service, calculated to the middle of 1875, were—England and Wales, 29,944,459 ; Scotland, 3,495,214 ; Ireland, 5,297,732. Total, 32,737,405. A private belonging to the Army Hospital Corps at Aldershot has walked 82 miles in 20 hours, carrying 601bs. His object was to walk 100 miles in heavy marching order in 24 hours, but he was unable to complete his self-imposed task.

In the English House of Commons lately the Postmaster-General stated that it was the intention of the department, after the present year, to make arrangements for the conveyance of mails to America similar to those adopted by the United States, viz., to make no contract, but to send mails by vessels whose efficiency is proved, and to pay for them according to weight. The United Service Gazette regrets to learn that a condition of things anything but creditable to the discipline of the Royal Navy exists on board the Barracouta, but relies with confidence on Commodore Hoskins’ well-known judgment for effectual means being taken to remedy the cause. This is not without significance in view of certain recent occurrences in which the name of the Barracouta figured prominently. A small bribery scandal is stirring up the New Jersey Legislature, the story being that a ring of three or four senators recently received bribes to defeat a Bill making a reduction of 25 per cent, on all sheriffs’ fees. The Bill was amended so as not to affect any sheriff now in office, and who holds office fox - three years, and it is in evidence that money was raised for bribery purposes, but the connecting link tracing it into the hands of senators is wanting as yet.

The New York Times, inferring to the expressed solicitude of the English papers over the moral condition of America, remai-ks: “ The era when the counti-y was in real danger from the low tone of public morals was when open and shameless plunder was being carried on, with but few voices raised on the side of honesty. For instance, no state of public feeling could be more fraught with pei-il to free institutions than the hopeless apathy with which the people of New York accepted the corrupt dictatorship of the Tweed Ring. The Times was laughed at when it began the task of overthrowing that oligarchy of thieves, and not one man in a thousand believed that it would come out of the struggle save with its property confiscated and its influence ruined. The success of that effort marked the beginning of the era of political reform through which we are still passing. Public conscience has

l’eached a higher stage of development during the last five years, and there is little danger now-a-days that official malversation will be passed over as one of the inevitable penalties of our system of government. Exposui'e pays in a political as well as in a pei’sonal sense, in these times, and the chief danger to be apprehended from the rage for inquiry is that it should be used by unworthy agents for base ends.”

The latest novelty is a lottery, in which the prizes ai'e roomy and neatly-constructed vaults. I met a friend in the Strand the other day who had won one, with accommodation for six. coffins. He was as mournfully happy as the man who had di'awn the ticket fox* the elephant in the raffle.

I wonder who that hox’seman was of whom the story is told that he tumbled into a ditch while out with the Ward Union staghounds near Dublin, when the following colloquy passed between two men in pink : —“ Who s that in the mire?” “’Tis only H - , studying the land question.” “So I pei'ceive, but he doesn’t seem to be able to get beyond fixity of tenure /” We have all heard, and heard rather much, of the “ Protestant Boys” of Ulster, but we did not know that there were Protestant babies in that riotously religious comxnunity. An advertisement in a Belfast paper, however, informs us that a situation as nurse is wanted “ by a respectable young woman, aged tweiityfour, whose infant is five weeks okl, and is a member of the Irish Church /

Apropos of patricians oxx the stage, a coi’i’espondent writes to l'emind me that the present Viscount Hinton was sometime engaged as a clown at the Sui’rey Theatre under the name of Cosman, and manned Miss Lydia Ann Shippy, a ballet-dancer. I would not. recall this fact here were it not mentioned in the “Peerage,” a proof of each biographicalsketch of an adult in which is “ submitted for personal correction.” I congratulate Viscount Hinton on his manliness in avowing that he once wore motley.

Edward Payson Weston, the Amei'ican pedesti'ian, is claimed by an Irish newspaper as a son of the soil. However this may be, the gentleman himself says he comes from the State where the wooden nutmegs grow, old Connecticut. With a delicacy that none born on this side of the Atlantic is adequate to appreciate, he x’efuses to walk for a wager, but does not disdain to pocket gate-money. Dexter, the owner of the fast-trotting teams in New York, had the same objection to running his horses for a bet, but compromised with Satan by offering a liberal prize to any sinner who could bring out an animal to beat his, on condition that the animal afterwards became his property. Mr. Weston is a regular reporter of the JSfcw TorTc Sun and a sti'ict teetotaler; but his teetotalism did not prevent him from absorbing a couple of bottles of Irish whisky in his last match. The liquor, it should be added, was rubbed into his legs to harden the muscles.

According to Mr. Ronayne the pacification of Ireland has at last been completed. In a speech reported in The Times of the 11th inst. the following startling passage occurs : —“ The existence of higher wages (in Ireland) was owing to the fact that there were fewer hands, half the people having gone into the grave and half to America. Of course if two people in a shop earned 10s. a week between them and you killed one the other would be comfortably off.” Possibly ; but when, to adopt Mr. Ronayne’s characteristic way of putting it, “ you ” have killed both of them, it appears to be taking a somewhat too hopeful view of the case to assume that both should be comfortably off, especially if they have as much to answer for in the way of retarding the growth of their country’s peace and prosperity as some people have. It is a libel on Scotland to say that thex-e is not a man in North Britain xvho can make a joke or understand one. Here are two. One of them is a judge, and the other day he had before him an application on behalf of some body of some foi-m of Scotch Christianity, who announced themselves as Seceders. “ Seceders from what?” asked his lordship. “Is it from the Established Church?” “No, my lord.” “Then are you seceders from the TJ.P.’s ?” (United Presbyterians.) “No, my lord, we split off long ago from the U.P.’s.” “ O, then,” said his lordship, “ you are split peas ! Now I understand ; go on.” The other* Scotch humorist saw the fun of this within three minutes of its being repeated to him. The London Times, of the 29tli March, has an editorial on the subject of the adventures of the survivox’s of the emigrant ship Strathmore, which concludes thus : —“ The vessel whicli at length ari'ived to rescue her was a United States’ whaler on her course to the South Sea Fisheries. Her captain, we are told, gave up the chance of the season’s profits for the sake of the poor creatures he found at the Crozets, and who needed an amount of care they could not have received if he had not taken them with him. We are sux*e the English nation will judge as it deserves of the sacrifice to which Captain Gifford submitted, and will not fail to do honor to the deed and to the man.”

The following annoxmeements, which appear in the advertisement columns of a provincial daily newspaper, cannot fail to be highly satisfactory to evei’ybody concei-ned : —“ Captain G. Kir wan (late 25th K.0.8.’5), Secretary to Army Scripture-Reading Society, finds it necessai'yto state that he is in no way connected with or identified with a Captain Kir wan, a Home Ruler.” “ Captain M. W. Kirwan (foi’merly Lieutenant H.M.’s 44th R.G.R,, late Captain commanding the Irish company in the service of France during the FrancoGerman war), General Secretary of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain, finds it necessary to state that he is in no way connected with or identified with a Captain Kirwan a Scripture Reader.” This joint statement appears to leave little to be desired. Molly Brierley’s lover fell into much confusion as to who he was, his “ shadow on the wall,”

amongst other circumstances, having succeeded in flooding his mind with doubt as to his own identity. It is now evideixt that Captain G. Kirwan is not Captain M. W. Kirwan, and it is ixot less clear that Captaiix M. W. Kirwan is not Captain G. Ivirwau. Taking the two assertions together, and impartially regarding the two captains, thei*e now only remains to be settled the question —who is he ? A stranger presented at a bank in Dallas, Tex., a cheque for 10,000d01., and also letters pui*porting to indorse him as a wealthy New Yoi-kei*. The bank officei's hesitated about paying it, and he said, “ Telegraph to your bankers in New Yoi*k, and I will stand the expense. I came here to buy cotton, and I must have the money.” A message was sent, and soon an answer came back, saying that the cheque and the man were good. The cash was thereupon paid. Yet the operation was a clever swindle. Two telegraphers had taken possession of a shanty a few miles from Dallas, on the line of the wires, attached a battei’y, taken off the message intended for New York, and answered it.

In inti’oducing into Paidiament one of the innumei’able Bills on the subject of bankruptcy and insolvency which the world has seen, Sir Richard Bethell (Lord West bury) is reported to have said: —“ In principle, nothing ought to be more simple than a law of bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is nothing in the world more than taking the whole of the debtor’s property by one universal execution, or by one universal surrender for the benefit of his ci’editoi’s ; and all that would be required would be a tribunal simply for the pui’pose of ascertaining the extent of the rights of those who ax*e interested in the disti'ibution, and some simple machinei*y for realising the property and dividing it among the pai’ties entitled.” They make lai’ge silver finds in America. Mr. Munson recently found in the Globe mining district, Ai'izona, a solid mass of metallic silver oi*e lying on the surface of the ground and weighing 2200 pounds. He had it packed to Florence, where a careful and low assay placed its value at over $20,000. It is alxnost a solid mass of pure silver. A valuable claim has also been discovered and located near to Cerro Colorado, where, instead of having to dig shafts in the ground to a great depth, the ore crops out in an immense ledge as high as a house, and this for a distance of four miles. There is wood and water a half mile distant, and attempts are being made to sell the whole or a portion of the ledge to San Fx*ancisco capitalists, as the discoverei's are without means to work it.

It appears (says the lav: Times) that strenuous endeavors are being made to procure an amendment of the law of bankruptcy, and that a petition will shortly be presented to the House of Lords, setting forth in detail the complaints of the petitioners against the working of the Act of 1869. Dividends in baxikruptcy, it is alleged, have become smaller and smaller since that Act was passed; the management of a bankrupt’s affairs are far too much in his own hands ; and the distribution of very small amounts among numerous creditors is carried on so badly that the creditors do not cai*e to apply for payment, and lax*ge amounts are left to the uncontrolled disposition of trustees and liquidators. With, respect to “ unclaimed dividends,” it is worth while to remind our readers of the important provisions in the Judicature Act of 1875 for the facilitation of their payment. It is enacted by section 32 of that Act that “ any court having jurisdiction in the matter of any bankruptcy or insolvency, upon being satisfied that any person claiming is entitled to any dividend out of moneys vested in the Crown in pursuance of the 19th section of the Bankruptcy Repeal Act, 1869, or of the 116th section of the Bankruptcy Act, 1869” — which enactments transfer to the Crown all dividends remaining unclaimed for five years, with power to the Lord Chancellor only to direct payment after that pei’iod—“ may order payment” of the unclaimed dividends “in like manner as it might have done-if the same had not by reason of the expiration of five yeai*s become vested in the Crown in pursuance of the sa ; d sections.”