GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4887, 20 November 1876, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

The Admiralty have decided to adopt Mr. Bramwell’s suggestion to place sentinel valves on all boilers. Orders have been issued to the steam factories to prepare a number immediately. .. A mercantile house in the silk trade in London is said to have cleared £200,000 by judicious purchases of silk in anticipation of the rise in price. The Thames is to be tunneled again. This time the subway is to be between North and South Woolwich.

Mrs. Elizabeth Abbot, who in early life was the friend and companion of the celebrated Margaret Catchpole, has just died at Ipswich, aged 105 years. Her family, two sons and three daughters, are all alive, the eldest aged 79. She possessed all her faculties up to a year ago. The Mahometans in India are'believed to be making efforts to raise money for the Sultan of Turkey. Birmingham, Connecticut, has a professor of whistling, with two classes of pupils under.his instruction.

A tramp, charged at Doncaster with stealing a fowl, said that when out at night under a hedge the fowl jumped on his shoulder, and he was afraid it would “ kill him,” and so he screwed its neck in self-defence.

Large numbers of skilled mechanics are returning to the British Isles in every steamer ■ that leaves New York. It is stated that a majority of the steerage passengers are of this class. A" majority of the returning emigrants go to Scotland, The British and Foreign Bible Society has made arrangements with the Kev. R. Van Bek, formerly of the Utrecht Missionary Society, to translate the Gospel of St. Mark, into the lan- . gnage spoken by the natives of Bali, an island of 800,000 inhabitants in the Indian Archipelago. If he succeeds, it will lead to the translation of the whole New Testament. Professor Ahlquist, of Helsingfors, is also about preparing a translation of one of the gospels in the language of theWogulians, a tribe in Wes-; tern Siberia, who have hitherto been unsupplied with any portion of the Scriptures in their own dialect.

In Philadelphia there are, according to the estimate of the Press', 20,000 men unemployed. In real estate the fall within three years has been 20 per cent, on an average, and during June 800 houses were sold under the hammer. Over 10,000 houses are vacant in Philadelphia, and rows andblocks,builtby speculators, stand untenanted. One man put up a saloon on a plot he rented for six months at 7500d015., which the whole structure failed to realise. Considering that Philadelphia is the city of the Centennial Exhibition, it is evident that even one so fortunately placed cannot escape the universal depression. The colony of Punta Arenas, or Sandy Point, in the Straits of Magellan, is noticed in this year’s report from Mr. Horace Kumbold, British Minister at Santiago de Chile, as being ■ the moat southern civilised community bn the globe. The population, which was but 195 in 1860, is given in the census of 1875 as 1144, without including the natives of the surrounding country. There is a great want of hands to work the mines and of agricultural laborers. The few immigrants, mostly French, who have recently come on to the colony from the River Plate are described as having turned out worse than useless; but some Swiss colonists have done well. Mr. Rumbold says it is beyond doubt a promising settlement. The station is described on authority as peculiarly healthy. The mean temperature of the year is stated at 44-8 deg., or about 2 deg. below that of Scotland. There is some severe weather, with a considerable snowfaE in winter; but the climn.t'.f! is not so rigorous as to impede the cultivation of the hardier cereals. Vegetables are grown in abundance, and there is excellent pasture for sheep and cattle. At Southwark Police Court, a singular-look-ing young man, of respectable appearance, entered the witness-box, and elbows on the railings, said:—Your Worship, I want yon to help me to get rid of some persons who are troubling me. I can’t move about. They won’t let me sleep. They are always after me. Mr. Benson ; What do you mean ? Applicant: They have bewitched me. The medicine I take is bewitched. Mr. Benson : Do you believe in witchcraft then ? Applicant ; I do; there are plenty of witches about. My father and mother are now suffering. Mr. Benson : You appear to bo under some delusion. Had you not better bring your father or mother with you another time ? Applicant : Oh, that will be no use; I don’t have anything to do with them. All I want is your help to find out and expel the. witches, I come to you without their knowledge. Mr. Benson ; Well, I have nothing to do with ■witches or witchcraft. It is not under my jurisdiction. Who do you complain of 1 Applicant : I can’t tell you at present. There are several persons, and my life is in danger from them, therefore I want your help. Mr. Benson ; I can’t help you unless you toll me who has been annoying you. I think you had better go and consult your friends, and come here again. Applicant; I’ll come again, as I .must have protection. Mr. Benson here directed one of the warrant officers of the Court to look after the young man and see his friends, as, he was no doubt under some extraordinary delusion.— The Times.