GENERAL NEWS

Otago Witness, Issue 956, 16 May 1889, Page 16

GENERAL NEWS

t • au «™™m»oi tneytago. Central railway E?^,*« c SSan.t ™ n . stream at 3? miles 1 10 chains, to [ Middlemareb, at 40 milest (from 'the Wwgafcui Junction, is ia progress, some 60 of'the "unem- 1 ployed" h^ng engaged at this work, At 'this parb of foe .line the formation" I* practically finished tip to 35| miles from the junction with the ny Am line, and the men are now to be disJpHltgd between the point mentioned and «w:ddlemarch township. The. earthworks uncompleted in this section are particularly Hght, and if the men now there continue ajb the, work they should be finished during the coming winter. There are, however, four or 'five small bridges to finish, and if this work is pat in hand "mthoat delay, as it probably will be,' then on the completion of the present bridge, superstructure contracts, there will be nothing in the way pfuaniediately laying the rails and opening I the linS to Middlemarch. W ' A meeting of volunteer* waa held on Tuesday to consider, the question, of holding an inter-colonial,priae-firing competition during, the exhibition season. . &am« ttorrespondence on the matter had taken - plate between a preliminary committee and. the chairman of the New-Zealand Rule Association, and this was laid before the Meeting, it The ' question was substantially whether the exhibition rifle competitions should be held, with the assistance of the New Zealand ■Association or be the association^ meetings the association being assisted by a local committee, •after a short discussion the meeting resolved— "Thafr the sole conduct of the rifle meeting be in the. hands of the New Zealand Rifle Association," and formed a< committee to assist in the undertaking. The counoil of the Otago Rifle Association met subsequently, and also resolved to render all possible assistance to make the proposed meeting a success. A Sydney telegram in the Helbourne Argus says :— " For some time past the South British Insurance Company have beeD offering a reward for any information <te to the whereabouts pf the barque Wandering Minstrel, which has been missing for Upwardß of a ye»r. News was received by the R.fILS. Zealandia that the ship had been lost while shark fishing in the South Seas» and that the master and orew were castaway on Midway Island. There they u-e S? awards of six months, and then the chief officer and a Chinese boy and sailor started in a, boat for the, Sandwich Islands, and they are fltnl missing. Another dreary eight months passed before assistance reached the castaways, who were taken off 14 months from the date of landing by the schooner Norma and conveyed to Honolulu. The captain's wife and four children were with the castaways, who lost four of their number by death during jftheir stay on the Esland." , t An interesting and instructive lecture on " Other worlds than ours " was delivered in the Walton School by Mr P. A. Joseph on the evening of theBth. Mr W.Martin, J.P., occupied the chair, and the attendance, notwithstanding the weather, was a very good and appreciative one. lhe choir, under the guidance of Mr M'Neill, discoursed several pleasing melodies during the evening. On the motion of Mr Loudon a vote 01 thanks was passed to, Mr Joseph.

Mr George Young (of the firm of Messrs G. and T. Young, Dunedin) has some property at Novell's Flat upon which boring operations for coal have been prosecuted for some time past. The ojiher day (says the, Bruce Herald), a depth of 400 ft was reached, and a magnificent seam of coal struck. The boring rods did not reach the bottom of the seam at 20ft below the depth mentioned. The quality of the coal and the depth of the seam have so satisfied the prospectors that they a have been enabled to organise a syndicate in Dunedin to operate the concern. We understand that arrangements have been completed for the purchase of the necessary land for the construction of a railway to the main line at Lovell's Flat.

The death of the Duke of Buckingham extinguishes the title, and we are one duke 'the less. The peer just deceased (says the correspondent of the Argus) was a pattern man. His grandfather and father had been distinguished for their recklessness and extravagance, and when he succeeded to his patrimony it was almost submerged by embarrassments of all sorts. (The duke, then a young man, set himself to work not only to put things straight, but to payoff his father's debts. He lived in Spartan simplicity, became ohairman of the London and NorthWestern railway, and worked like. a professional man to master his business. In the end he did it completely, and in the course of time he was able to clear off all the engagements he had undertaken. Meantime his severity of life became » habit with him, and he kept it to the last. As Governor of Madras he might have saved money, but he was extremely sensitive to' public comment on his private affairs, and he regularly spent all his income in the Presidency. When he came home again he followed Lord Redesdale as chairman of committees in the House of Lords, and with a salary of £2500 a .year he was able to marry agaia and to end his days in a comfort which previously he could hardly have known.

A little girl 11 years of age is reported to have kept at bay in a plucky manner an Indian who broke into her, mother's house at. EJempsey, Sydney. r The Indian, who is' a 1 hawker, .wepi, to the house a Mrs Duhbar and' asked )ii:';,he might stay all'night. He was toldWcbuTd not, ad her husband was ■ away.- The hawker went away, but returned at midnight and , burst open the bedroom door. Mrs Dunbar, her two children, and a baby were in bed. The Indian caught hold of the woman, and she and the children screamed. The Indian said, "You make noise I kill you." Mrs Dunbar's little girl, 11 years of age, meanwhile slipped out of bed and got a gun, and coming back presented it at the Indian, He let go of the woman, and she ran oat with the children while the girl kept pointing ,the gan at the man. They then went to an empty shed and stayed there till daylight, when 'they went and aroused their nearest neighbours. The Indian was : arrested 12 miles from the house. '■

After the body of Archduke Rudolph had been deposited in the crypt of the chapel of the Convent of the' Capuchins in Vienna, the public were freely admitted to visit the place ; but it has been discovered that the crowd of spectators included a large contingent of adroit thieves, who managed to appropriate the fringe of gold and silver bullion, the costly ornaments, the crowns, the bouquets, and every object of value placed upon the funeral pall.

Major Kemp, the Maori' chief of Putiki, is very ill from inflammation of the lungs. Fears are entertained of his not recovering.

Three hundred miles an hour is (remarks Frank Lfislie's Illustrated Newspaper, published in New York) the proposed speed for the electric postal ( railroad of the future. An experimental line has been erected, at Laurel, 20 miles from Baltimore, Md. ' A compromise between the pneumatic tube and the ordinary railroad carries a miniature train of two cars solely for mails and light parcels, without any attendance. The road has three rails — one above the car for carrying the current and two, below which carry the oars. The cars aro built of sheet iron, and are 2ft square end 21ffc long. Speed will be

related ana potto* ( 6r brake's ap'p'Wby ele# "Mbiy 'solely! ti tne e&etifatiffi aFteel* 'succeeds; !f' is Stated " s thiit 7 similar 1 * Wads \sr be laM'between'Baltimore and Wasnington'Srid-!! elsewhere, , , ' • < Mr Hubert, jGastella, the. well known rAustralian;vjgneron,,and one of the Victorian Execo> tive Commissionera to the, Paris exhibition, j writes :—:" I. had seenjkhe Eiffel Tower last year,' and from a distance only-— entrance in the gardens being impossible— had, found it every ugly affair. . How, different now ! .Who has not. seen it cannot /.conceive, it. No engraving, ,n,o description can convey an adequate idea; and it .is only when you see it in the middle of immense Paris, standing, ,on low ground .close to the river, and still surging: like a cloud of, iron,, aigigantie filigree, ,npto the -white clouds in. the blue sky, that you, get, the stupendftus impression it produces, , surrounded jas . it is, by the hundred domes, and roofs of, all sizes, all. colours, and all heights— the most> varied harmony o£ ; exquißjt;e buildings you can imagine, pigmies of .decoration alongside ..the four huge, eprekd-out legs of. the immense totter. ' Again; I have no time, for description mow, but it will come by»and-bye. ■ All I can say-is that this exhibition will be the greatest success of the age. The ; whole, of j these, building of glass of all colours, i with walls of „ terra' cotta moulded ■ -into immense and aesthetic ornaments, recalls to your, memory all previous exhibitions— to crush them.. White painted Sydenham Palace, compares to this like the force bed of a market gardener to the flower, palace of a duke., It is the flower, palace of the,mad, French Republic, which succeeded to transform -that which at first, seemed to be only absurd into a monument undreamed of till now. More about it by-and-bye. Am I not to be 1 envied to have the chance, in my did. age, after my very varied life, to be thus, one of , that great gathering, and, I may proudly add, | to, represent, the first of the i Australian group, so universally esteemed nowadays ?"

The Rev. J. S. Hill is getting a bad time of it from Mr J. M. Shera, one of the candidates' for Auckland at the last general election, for bis Sunday land nationalisation lectures.' He says : " I fonder what the Rev. J. S. Hill and his young Christian friends would 1 say if Sir R. Stout gave a•■ lecture' on" 'a Sunday' evening at the Opera House' under the auspices of the Agnostics of Auckland, on,' say, • The land drifting f rbm us.' Wouldn't Mr Hill and his associates'sayy « What a godless lot ! what monstrous Sunday desecration ! ' I can't see that the offence is palliated by the discussion being held in the hall of a religious association,' or by the fact of the principal speaker being a rev. gentleman of deservedly high reputation, and an earnest evangelist." '

Captain Oliver, of the Mawhera, which arrived at Rußsell on Tuesday, from Fiji, reports the total loss of the four-masted ship Altmore, at Vuva, one of the western islands of the Fiji group. The chief officer was drowned. A boat with a number of passengers and crew was missing when the Mawhera left Levuka. ,