LOCAL & GENERAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2397, 8 February 1900, Page 48

LOCAL & GENERAL.

It will be seen by the report of the meeting of the Patriotic Fund Committee in another page that it has been decided to form an Otago and Southland Contingent for service in South Africa. It now remains for suitable men to send in their names. For the three vacancies on the Otago Edu-' cation Board seven candidates have been nominated— viz., the Rev. P. B. Fraser, Messrs John MacGregov, Thomas Mackenzie, Edward Melland, James Mitchell, William Snow, and William Souter. The school committees are recjuested to send to the secretary of the Education Board the names of the three candidates selected by them not later than the 28th inst. Adjutant Tyler and his wife, the Salvation Army officers who have been in charge of the Dunedin Corps for the last 12 months, having been transferred to Christchurch, have been succeeded here by Adjutant and Mrs Hatcher, late of the Auckland Corps. The new officers have had a long experience of work in Australia, having spent five years in Tasmania, seven years in Victoria, and three yeai's in South Australia. During the year ending December 31, 1899, 2520 plaints of civil cases were entered at the Magistrate's Court, Dunedin, and 1492 cases were tried. The aggregate amount sued for was £28,141 10s 7d, and the aggregate amount recovered £15,453 18& lOd. The Southland Times mentions that among the carriages in the Ministerial progress in Invercargill was the one presented to Mrs Ward by the London firms who had unexpectedly received from the Hon. Mr Ward payment of money due by the Ward Farmers' Association for which Mr Ward was in no way liable. It is what is known as a "Victoria," and a very handsome vehicle it is. The carriage was horsed by Messrs Jopp. They had in it a pair of as beautiful creams as one could wish to see, pure creams, with silver points, and perfectly matched. The harness, which formed part of the gift to Mrs Ward, is of splendid make and mount, and the horses admirably. Altogether the

I equipage — the whole turnout — • was the ! " sweetest," we think, that has yet been ( seen on the streets of the town. The police at Parkes, New South Wales, were informed on the 24-th ult. that a young man named Alfred Aladdin Sclmavel, of I Bunberry, had shot his wife, Elizabeth Ellen Schnavel, dead. The young couple, who had been married only seven months, had been continually quarrelling. Three weeks before Schnavel, it is said, beat his wife severely, and then left home. He returned, and a quarrel ensued, and Schnavel, it is alleged, picked up a loaded gun, and discharged the contents at his wife. At the inquest the evidence was to the effect that on the previous day j deceased, who was 22 years of age, had some words with her husband. In the afternoon, when he went to the house with a gun, deceased locked the door, and Schnavel tried ! for a quarter of an hour to effect an entrance. ! He at laht broke the bedroom window, and j shol his wife through the heart. The deceased's mother and sisters were witnesses of the deed. A verdict of wilful murder was returned against Schnavel, who was committed for trial. ' We have received a circular announcing that the Bell's Asbestos Company have sold 1 their business to Messrs John Chambers and Son (Limited), the well-known engineers and importers, of Auckland. Mr John Chambers took over Bell's agency on the Ist inst., and it is their intention to carry on business in Cumberland street, and at the same time extend all departments of their business, chief of which is the agency of Messrs Tangyes (Limited), engineers, of Birmingham. A staff of men have already arrived from, Auckland, and yesterday their chief electrician, Mr E. J. Form, A.J.E., arrived hy the Flora, and immediately started work superintending several electrical lighting contracts, chief of I which is the lighting of the Milburn Cement Company's works and the Perseverance dredge, A-lpxandra. The lighting of the latter will be watched with interest, as the electricity will be generated by a dynamo coupled direct to a high-speed Chandler engine, which for the past month has been exhibited in the showrooms of Messrs li. B. Douiiitilou and Co. A

j where it was inspected by many engineers ' associated with dredges,. all of whom expressed I themselves as being satisfied that this class j of plant is most suitable for work of this kind. j Mr Andrew Thompson, at present a cadet in the Magistrate's Coiirt, Clyde, has passed the solicitor's general knowledge examination and first section law professional examination in contracts and torts. Signor Palizzolo, who ha 3 been deputy for ' Palermo for the last five Parliaments, was recently arrested in connection with the murder of Signor Notarbartolo, who was killed six years ago in the most cruel manner while travelling by rail, returning from Palermo to his farm. His body was thrown by murj derers into the road. He had been an administrator of Palermo and Governor of the Bank of Sicily. The son of Signor Notarbartolo, a young naval officer, charged Signor Palizzolo, who is closely connected with the Mafia Secret Society, with giving the order for his father's murder. The Mafia, like the Camorra, are the curses of Sicilian life. Some time ago a trial was held at Milan Assizes, which, distant from Palermo, was thought to be beyond the influence of the Mafia. Such proved not to be the case, and a -powerful and mysterious hand exercised an evil influence on the witnesses, and even an - inspector of police -was induced to conceal - everything he knew. The extent and power of the Mafia Society and its veno- i mous' influence upon the external life of 'the , country- were laid bare. Now it has been determined to reproceed with the trial of ', Palizzolo, and the Italian Chamber at Rome -' has granted authority for the prosecution. To prevent his going abroad, he was at once ; arrested at Palermo, and awaits his trial. ' It is announced that Parliament has determined that justice shall be done. The Mafia is to be rendered powerless, and the trial will be proceeded with forthwith in a manner certain to obtain justice. Fontana, a noted member of the Mafia, and supposed to have been the actual assassin of Notarbartolo, has surrendered at Palermo. The gold export from Dunedin for last month was 12,7890z, of the value of £51,710. In the corresponding month of last year 16,0060z of gold, of the value of £64-,308, was exported. Some interesting facts are given in an article in the " Young Man " regarding " The Romance of Commerce." Glance through the Peerage, and cross out the peerages founded by trade, and how many would be I left? The earldom of Essex was founded by ' a draper ; that of Warwick — now a commercial enterprise in itself — by a woolstapler; that of Northumberland, the "Prond Percys," by an apothecary; that of Lansdowne, by a pedlar, who was so poor that he lived three weeks on walnuts. Lord Tenterden, the Chief Justice, btopping with his son outside Canterbury Cathedral, pointed to a shed opposite, and said : " Charles, in that shed your grandfather used to shave for a ' penny ; it is the proudest reflection of my ' . life -" It would seem from the following Pretoria telegram in a Cape paper that the Boers have a newspaper at the front: — " Last night the Railway Volksstem car left the station for General Joubert's laager. It consisted of a large well-fitted-up goods van, arranged as a printing office, with' special arrangements for type setting and printing, as well as plenty of space for paper, and a desk for the editor, fixed up with a type-writer." The Hon. the Premier and the Hon. Mr I M'Kenzie, after a very pleasant tour in the south, returned to Dunedin by the Invercargill express on Friday. The Hon. Mr Ward left the train at Gore, and the Hon. -Mr and Mrs Walker went to Queenstown to spend a ' j few days. Shortly after his arrival in Dunedin the Premier received a deputation and met a number of friends, among whom were the Hon. H. Gourley, M.L.C., and Mr J. ' Robin. The lion, gentleman afterwards attended the patriotic meeting at Port Chalmers, and returned to town before midnight. J On Saturday the Premier went north, and j reached Wellington on Sunday. The Hon.. ' j Mr M'Kenzie proceeded to bib home on Satur- , i day, and remains there for a week or so. The Hon. Mr Ward and the Hon. Mr Walker are expected in Wellington towards the end of next week. We understand that Mr J. A. Hanan, member for Invercargill, will move the Address- ! in-Reply when Parliament meets. Mr , Hanan, who is the youngest member of the 1 new House — Mr Wiltovd, perhaps, excepted — is in every respect qualified to sustain the distinguished honour. Our Auckland correspondent telegraphs: — At a meeting of the Legal Committee of the ' Auckland (Jity Council, the following six names were selected from the forty-five applications for the office of town clei'k, the ■ final selection to be made by the council : — ! T. M. Gillies, Deniliquin, New South Wales (a son of the late Judge Gillies) ; H. E. Law- ■ I son, Warrnambool, Victoria; H. R. Smith, ' Christchurch ; D. T. Veness, Bathurst, New South Wales: H. W. Wilson: Dunedin ; and , J. Leeder, Sydney. Mr Gillies is strongly . 1 supported. | The output of coal from the mines of the 1 Westport Coal Company (Limited) for the > month of January was 21,816 tons llcwt. j A female old-age pensioner was charged be- j fore Mr J. Mill, J.P., at Port Chalmers, on j Friday with drunkenness. After hearing the evidence, his Worship convicted and discharged the accused. j The usual monthly meeting of the convales- 1 cent fund was held in the Town Hall on Friday, and attended by Mesdames Borrows (in the chair), Morris, Adam, Callan, Israel, Johnston-Brown, Colquhoun, and Theomin. Seven cases were dealt with during the month. One patient, on her return from the country, called to stale how very muoh sUe had benefited bj[ tk© shange, and i^i

express her grateful thanks. The following subscriptions are acknowledged with thanks by the hon. treasurer: — Mesdames A. W. Morris and J. T. Mackerras £1 Is each, Mrs W. H. Reynolds £1, Mrs Israel 10s 6d, Miesdames Borrows and Mason 5s each, Miss C. 2s 6"d. A wonderful triumph in surgery, achieved by Dr Hermann yon Schrotter, of Vienna, is reported by the London Daily Chronicle's correspondent in that city. A boy, aged 12, had swallowed a piece of lead of the size of I half a sovereign, which, passing through the trachea, descended into a bronchus of the second order. Dr Schrotter extracted this ' piece of lead without tracheotomy, and even without using anaesthetics ; the operation was 1 nevertheless quite painless. First by means of the Rontgen rays the piece of lead was discovered located at the height of the fourth rib ; then Kilian's (Berlin) bronchoscope was in the ordinary way introduced into the trachea and electrically lighted up, and the piece of lead was at last extracted by a pincette expressly constructed for the purpose. | Captain Coghlan is authority for an in- i teresting story of the taking of Manila. ■ " Dewey," he says, " sailed into Manila Har- ' bo'ur, fought his battle, and then cut the cable. The English Admiral wanted to help, but remembered the neutrality proclamation. He thought, however, that Dewey might take a hint. So he sailed' over to Dewey, and said, ' Ah, I see you have cut the cable.' ' Yes,' onswered Dewey. 'Which one?' asked the innocent English admiral. And then Dewey, ! knowing for the first time that there were two cables, hurried back, grappled for the second cable, and cut it." j The Kumara Times reports that a scene of unparalleled brutality was enacted at the ; morgue last week. The brother of a man who died in the hospital, being present, was asked if he would like to take a last look at hi.s brother before the coffin was screwed down, walked up to the head of the coffin and struck the a blow on the face, exclaiming, "There, you , take that; now I forgive you." Another scene is' reported to have occurred at the grave. Our contemporary thinks the police should look into the case, as such a man is unfit to remain at large. The four Ministers of the Crown who were together in Otago for several days last week are now pretty wexl scattered over the country. After his address at the patriotic meeting at Gore on Friday the Hon. J. G. Ward (the Colonial Secretary) returned to Inver- j cargill. , The Hon. W. C. Walker (the Minis- ( ter of Education) left Invercargill on Friday , to spend a few days at Wakatipu, and by the northern express on Saturday the Premier, j the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, left to catch the boat at Lyttelton for Wellington, and the Hon. J. M'Kenzie and the Hon. T. Thompson left by the same train for Shag Point, and are ' to spend a few days at Heathfield, the home of the Minister of Lands. The movement in connection with the Otago and Southland contingent has been taken up with an enthusiasm which promises to exceed,if that is possible, the patriotic fund effort. In another column will be found a synopsis of the work of the committee. There is no doubt as to the ultimate success of the movement if time were available, but when it is remembered that within the next two weeks some 180 horses and 100 tested men are required, it will be seen that there is not an \\owx to lose, especially in country dis- , tricts. , - j In a well-known Dunedin church recently , the pastor, whose attitude towards the Transvaal war had hitherto left no doubt in the minds of his congregation as to his Imperialistic bona fides, electrified his hearers by stating emphatically that he was a peace-at-any-price man. The dropping of the proverbial pin could have been distinctly heard as the congregation paused in suspense to . grasp the heresy, and a long sigh of relief followed when the minister concluded his sentence " even at the price of war." The hospital returns for the past week read as follows : — Numbers remaining over from ( previous week, 106 ; admitted during the week, 17 ; discharged, 20 ; deaths (Job Ockwell, Mary Ann Ciaven, and Ann Martin), 1 3; number remaining in the institution, 100. The University Museum has recently been | presented with a particularly fine specimen of the interesting Queensland mud-fish (Ceratodus), which lives only in the Mary and Burnett Rivers. The specimen was obtained by Mr H. Sargeant, a former student of the Otago School of Mines, who took considerable pains to capture and to properly preserve the fish, which exceeds in size the ..specimen at present in the Museum. The fish thus generously presented to the collection is not yet on view, b\it will in due course be suitably mounted for exhibition. In the returns that have come to hand of the Kensington art examinations, two of the three pupils presented by Miss Miller, of Braemar House School passed — viz., Miss Ida Mac George, in freehand (elementary), second class; model drawing (elementary), second class; light and shade (elementary), second class; light and shade (advanced), second class. Mi&s Sabina Magnus, freehand (elementary), second class. These young ladies i have been pupils of Miss Miller three and two years respectively. A four-roomed house at Springvale, near Alexandra, was destroyed by fire on Saturday' afternoon. It was occupied by James Cunningham, dredge manager, and owned by the Bank of New Zealand. The fire was caused through a defective chimney. A onerooined house adjoining, used as a school, with maps, desks, and books (valued at £30) was also destrpyed. j Mr Kirkwood H. Garvey, an inspector of factories in the cotton mills district of the North of England, is at present on a visit to New Zealand. .\Yb.en in Dunedin recently

he visited several of the woollen and othep factories in company with Mr Maxwell, in* spector for the Dunedin district, and, among many complimentary things he had to say of the factories and their occupants, he remarked on the healthy and happy appearance of the girls and the cleanliness and comfort of the work rooms, as compared with what' one finds at Home. While going the rounda of one factory, he said: "If a manufacturer in the North of England had a group of girls like those I see before me now he would photograph them and advertise them." Mr G. Hutchison, M.H.R. for Patea, in. tends to pay a visit to South Africa before the meeting of Parliament. He leaves Wellington in a few days for Sydney, where h© will join the Aberdeen liner Australasian. We regret to have to announce the death, of the Hon. Thomas Dick, an old and respected colonist, who took an active and honourable part as superintendent and a member of the Executive Council in political! life in Otago in the early days, and later on iis a Minister of the Crown. He passed away, quietly at his residence, Queen street, on Monday, after being in indifferent health for some years past. He was 77 years of age. On Monday ' evening a Chinaman entered a store'at Lawrence, and after making a purchase tendered a, supposed half sovereign to the young lad in charge, demanding 9s 6d change. The lightness of the "half sovereign " raised a suspicion in the lad's mind, and in rubbing his finger over the surface, of it the golden gilt disappeared and revealed a sixpenny bit. Needless to say, John lost no time in making tracks. One of the oldest residents of Gore, Mrs Bath, died on Thursday at the advanced age of 83 years. The deceased lady had been, bed-ridden for several years, and her end was expected. Mrs Walls, of Gore, and Mrs Howells, of Invercargill, were daughters of Mrs Bath. For years, up till the time of Mrs Bath's death, there were four generations of the family. Air John C. Mitchell wore a badge at^the patriotic sports at Balclutha on Wednesday that was unique in its way. It was presented by Cecil Rhodes, o£ South Afrioa, to Mr Frank Ferrer, formerly of Balclutha, along with a number of others, at a banquet given, to celebrate Rhodes' s election to the Cape Parliament, some lime ago. Mr Ferrar was one of Cecil Rhodes' s secretaries in the election. The badge is in the form of a rosette, and is of the orthodox colours, red, white, and blue. _________________