Items.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XX, Issue 6298, 4 July 1895, Page 3

Items.

The Administration of Forests inPrance estimates that nine-tenths of the wild boars and two-thirds of the roebucks perished during the severe winter in February last. Foxes have also suffered, and so have partridges. Oaly hares seem to have been uninjured among the wild denizens of the woods. The story of a soldier's remarkable escape from death during the progress of the Chitral campaign has been told by Captain Macfarlane, of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, who has just returned to Pindi. The gallant officer, who is in the hospital, suffering from bad gunshot wounds in his arms, received during the stormkis of the Malakand Pass, relates that while the Borderers were forcing their way up under a storm of shot, a man near him was hit in the chest and fell to the ground. He ran to his assistance, and on opening his belts, which were half cut away by the shot, discovered the bullet buried in a Bible, which the soldier had carried in his bosom, and thus saved his life. The man had Jb.en ill in the hospital at Pindi some time before, and one of the nursing sisters bad given him fihe Bible. The dangers of Spiritualistic seances to weakminded people have been shown by a sad occurrence at Gubbio, in Italy. A lady named Manolava, the wife of a professor in a public school in the town, was persuaded that she could by attending a seance, communicate with the spirit of her deceased son. The " medium " made certain preparation?, and when the moment came for the spirit to appear flames and sulphurous fumes were 6een issuing from a black cabinet. The lady felt so persuaded that her son was suffering for his sins in the lower regions that she became stark staring mad, and it is thought she will not recover. The medium is to he prosecuted. A Bill to authorise borough councils to undertake fire insurance is proposed by Mr W. Hutchison. The Duntdin Star states that the Government do not intend to abolish the grand jury system. Mr George Green, the Mayor of Leicester, is determined to do all in his power to put down the rowdyism that sometimes takes place at athletic meetings in the Midlands. In answer to an invitation to attend a local gathering of the kind, he has sent a letter as follows to the secretary of a certain club :—"Town Hall, Leicester. —Dear Sir,—l do not feel disposed to attend any football sports until the managers of such things can purge by enforcing strict regulations, the players and even the circles of the use of oaths and foul words. Nor would I think of the Mayoress being degraded by hearing such language as is too often heard at he sport.—Yours faithfully, George Green."