GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7661, 20 June 1896, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

'&$§& .-ceiiflus shows Six Chinamen in Cook iftCbuntk.-:- .■=•-- ■"- " ||?J§|3Pali,istua's population is increasing by a^feaps 'and bounds. Three pairs of twins iSwere registered there last month. I^SjSLadies golf championship to be decided on August 2. 'jsj&v'.zPotaa'-. admirers in Australia sent a i£g!conteriary memorial wre.ith to Scotland. |||??;Every bed in' the Pulmerston hospital 0fa T occupied. Sickness ia very prevalent #J> This year New South Wal.s will props' duce 315,000 tons of sugar cane, yielding V? 46,000 tons of raw sugar, worth L 376.000. ?s■(■■. Renmack irrigation settlement (S.A.) ?s S\tired of prohibition, and the settlers are for a license on the Gothen- ;;:,■ burg system. -?j? The steamer Duke of Westminster was f.'V.waa aground off the pile light, Moreton KTBay, Queensland, last week, and had £\isome difficulty.in getting off. ?.: : :-. -Mr Bobbins, tha dairy expert, has gone fyto the United Statci to study fru : tf growing and fruit-drying, etc., and then ■;". returns to the colony to take up land in £. Central Otago. " r v The Victorian Treasurer expec' -• a i.[ deficiency this year of about Lioo,ooo, vf and proposes to make it up by an increi. ;e '■- in the income tax. : 5r ' Tnelarg: st hotel in the world is being &i erected in Boston at a «nt of 1^600,000. i-^lt wilt be eleven storeys high. jfV Nearly one-third (15,000 out of 50,000) i:J?of the men who want d to enter the vlsßritish army last year were reject d on tfacoopntof defective eyesight, bad teeth, or flat feet. . .;.'•" Drastic retrenchment ia the order of ■*>.-.tW day ia New South Wales, and the & i Public Service Board has knocked L 37,500 'f off the Public Instruction Department. ;■■ -The town councils of Edinburgh and '-'. GießDOok are backing up Lord Archibald ■ Campbell in his protest against the aboli- ; ;tion of grey charters in the Royal Sco i i/Greya. ; , -" A destructive fire, by which 150 houses Vv were burnt to the ground, occurred at _ ' Cripple Creek, Colorado. The outbreak /was caused by an angry woman hurling a '.';'. lamp at a .man ia the Central Theatre. : 1 The loss is estimated at over a million dollars. •-.lt is not often that a nonogenarian occupies the pulpit of a large church. Mr .-,"; George-. Muller, the fonnder of the ; ,'Crphanages at Bristol, who is over 90 years .of age, addressed a large congrega- - • tion at' Birmingham the other day. ?■::'. Argentina is rapidly growing a great r" livftl- to the colonies in the sheep and > cattle trade. In the years 1893 4-5 the cattle exports from that country were ■ '-201,646, 220,490, and 429,946 respec- : -lively; and of sheep 17,167, 122,218, aud .429,946. .V A Chinese firm of cabinetmakers in •V . Melbourne has gone bung. It was ••;, carried on as " Suey, Chtsong, Loong, '.'"and Co." which was said to be an equivalent of "marvellous great prosperity." ;-, An agreement appointed a manager, and '.. -.concluded, "If the business fails it is il the will of God, for which he is blameless."

"~ ■- Mr J. W.Kelly has given notice that v . he will ask the Premier if he will take the necessary steps to prosecute all parties connected with the issue of the false bond -."' warrant for L 30,000 on the firm of John and Co., of London.

1 ,-The Tageri, a New Guinean tribe * notorious for their head-hunting exploits,

"■'■ are reported to have received a terrible / thrashing afc the hands of Sir William '- .McGregor and party. Sereral of these undesirable gentry were killed and 50 . canoes destroyed. '. -In his speech in the House on Tuesday - night Mr Duthie went into the whole question of banking legislation at con- ■'.:■ eiderable length, and Me John Murray 'a

connection with it, and gave it as his 'opinion that' the banking conspiracy was .the most dastardly thing that had ever ■ occurred in the colony. T~ .. A daring thefb of money from the ' counter of the Bank of New South Wales, Melbourne, occurred last week. A clerk \ from a shipping oißce was about to pay in L 45, which he held in a bag on the counter, when feeling a bump he tamed ■ his head to see who it was. The money .. waa anatohed and the thief was gone before he could be reoognised. The damage to the Grey-Brunner and . Midland railways by the recent wet weather and floods is more extensive than was at first supposed. On the former line, quite half a mile is on the hillside that is gradually sinking into the river, : and both railway and ro^d are in a very bad condition. On the Midland line ' large quantities of ballasting and creek approaches that will take a good round Bam to make good have been swept away. Will "chunk" for the future be clat-sical . English 1 Lord Rosebery, speaking at Huddersfield, said that *' ten years is & great chunk out of a man's life." Lord ftosebery ia the first responsible politician in England to use the word in formal prose. A Melbourne lady named Eyton, who . waß deserted by her husband 12 years ago, - flaw a man in the street whom she alleged ■■' was her husband. The lady had him arreßted. The gentleman, however, satisfactorily proved his identity. The lady is Still husbandlesa.

The Kingston Government, on 3 une 9, broke the record of long-lived South Australian Ministers. It was born on June 16th, 1893, and, subject to changes in its personnel, has continued to hold the reins of office a week short cf three years, thua exceeding the existence of the Bray .Administration, previously the longcsr.

Viscount Canterbury has, perhaps, the only specimen of the curious dwarf cattle of Ceylon in England. It is but 22 inches high, and weighs 109 pounds, though it is fully 10 years old. A paintul sensation has been caused at Ixelles, a fashionable suburb of Brussels, by $he brutal murder of Baroness Hurry, an old lady of eighty, who was found by her maid strangled and mutilated in bed. Bobbery was evidently the motive of the murder, aa the room had been ransacked and all valuables abstracted.

A singular fatality is reported from Liverpool, when a man waa worritd to death by a donkey, which, rushing at him, knocked' him down, kicked at him, and worried him about the head as a. dog would do until he died from his in-

janes. A Canadian paper, referring to a recent scene in the Canadian Parliament, suy» : " Sir Oharles Tupper quoted a precedent in New Zealand where, after 23 motions had been made that tao committee rise, the chairman left the chaiv and reported v member to the Speaker for wilful oL;tructioD, and the member had been adjudged guilty of contempt. It seemed curious to hear the Reader of the Canadian House of Commons quote the action of a petty little Assembly i^j, the Pacific to the Parliament of Canada."

fears were expressed that it would go v ' hard with certain royalties when Baron Hirsoh died and hia executors came to , wind up'his eßtate. So fur as one august personage ia concerned, however, the .deceased nobleman regarded the affair not -as a loan but as a gift, and as a con- : -. sequence his estate will bu half a million :-.'- poorer : when it is proved. Yet without this spin the executors hope to realise 25 millions.

■ ; Recent advices from Home tend to ; -,Bhow that Me A. H. Gee, who a shorb :, "we ago was a very favorite baritone m Jf JSew Zealand, is bringing himaelf into ; -. .prommeuce among the fav-jrite singers of /'the Old Country. He has taken part in ,a gteat m»oy p»blio and important musical ■■;;.■:■■. performances, and he has given unanimous „: aatißfftotion to; tlie leading critios. A ISStS i 8 pr6dioted for the

A lady correspondent of the Melbourne Age is the author of a novel and daring proposal for getting rid of the deficit which is causing such trouble to the Treasurer and anxiety to reoipient.3 of incomes over Ll5O. She suggest-, a t-x or'Hh each on every bicycle and machine of that sort, e.veiy buggy, gig, coach, and phreton, sixpence on every room in all houses, and two shilllings on every piano, by which she calculates to obtain L 400.000. To show she is patriotic, and not merely taxing the other fellow, she signed herself " Victorian Native " and " One who owns a buggy and five-roomed house."

With the development of the West Australian go.'dfielda the export of slock from South Australia to that colony hrs grown to large dimenisons. Tho heavy shipping freights, however, have up to the present proved a serious drawback. With tt viow to overcoming the difficulty, the South Australian Government equipped a party to discover an overland stock route.' After a perilous purney, during which their camels were thirteen days without water, the party reached Menses, and reported that there was no pr .ct'cable route. The Government has ordered tho party to return by a more southerly route, if possible.

A terrible accident hus occurred to the Bombay mail train at a point to the south of Ghi ziabsvd. A box of fireworks exploded in a third-da., '. carriage, blowing out tho sides and floor rud hurlips iho pu'.sengers upon tho line. The cmapo and a postal van were burnid. The passengers were closely packed, and a horrible scene was witnessed, the natives jumping out with their clothes ablaze while the train was travelling at a rapid rate. Three were killed and 11 dangerously injured. Several are Buppo.ied to have been burned to death in the carriage, as charred bones were found. The train was not stoppeel until it had run two miles, as the connecting cord with the driver was damaged by tho explosion. According to Max U'Rell, tho belief of the Americans that they are a free nation is a delusion of the first magnitude. They are bullied and snubbed from morning till night by their own servants, and nothing but their own wonderful good temper enables them to exist under buclx an intolerable form of tyranny. " The Euglish," he says, "are the only people who are served by their own servants." In France and in the United States the officials are the masters of the people who pay them ; aud this remark equally applies to the railway service, tram conductors, hotel waiters, and shopkeepers. They repudiate politeness for fear it should be mistaken for Bervility. "It is not equality," he remarks ; "it is tyranny, tho worst form of tyranny, tyranny from below."

A gentleman, while walking on the Marne towing-path, near St. Maur, in France, observed a cord, one end of which was tied to a tree, the other being in the water. Attached to the cord was a card bearing tho words " Pull the rope." He did so, and brought to the surface the bodies of a young man and woman bound together. The woman hud a bullet wound in tho temple and another in the neck, but ihe man bore no marks of violence. It is supposed that ho shot his companion, and then, tying himself to her corpse, threw himself into the river. In' a purse in his pocket was a card bearing the words " We are Leon Curelly and Louise Bournichel. We desire to be buried together in Paris."

An Armenian who was sentenced to death at Ct:ro for the murder of a Turkish soldier laßt summer was hanged in the Citadel square at the end of April. Ten thousand persons were present. Perfect order prevailed. A petition, signed by 2000 Christiana, had been presented to the Premier for the Khedive's perusal, praying for a reprieve. The petition stated that the Armenians were actuated by a desire to avenge the death of their relatives murdered in Turkey. This statement, however, does not receive general credence, and it is declared that the only reason for the murder, which was promeditated and of a brutal character, was race hatred. Another Armenian concerned in the crime was sentenced to penal servitude for life.

The precautionary measures adopted by the Queensland Government to check the tick plague have been attended with good results, although its ravages are still severe, a large number of catte succumbing in some districts. In preference to allowing them to die, stock owners are sending affected herds to the meat woiks and canning factories. Many have beeu lost in travelling. Owing to the combined ravages of the tick and tho wholesale slaughter, the probabilities are there will be a scarcity next year. The Government regard the matter so seriously that they are sending Dr Hunt, who has been investigating the disease, to America to consult specialists experienced in the Texan disease, which it is alleged is identical with the tick.

A novel show is promised for London sightseers during the coming summer. The "notion is to give a spectacle in which a very high-class smash is the salient feature. A syndicate now formed proposes to lay down some three or four miles of rails whereon locomotives arc to start, one from either extremity of the line of rails, and to meet in full tilt at a .speed something over 100 miles an hour, midway. There are to be carriages filled with dummy passengers, and a staff of officials and others, with medical assistance, are to be on hand after the smash has taken place. Grandstands are to be erected, and the promoters of this newest spectacle hope to realise considerable profit by the venture, although they do not anticipate any very great demand on the pnvt of the public for seats in the competing trains. It is said some L 12,000 is invested in the scheme.

An amusing account of Mine. Melba's first bicyclo leseon is reported from Chicago. "It is said Bhe chose to achieve the accomplishment in Michigan-avenue, and in the very teeth cf Calve and Nordics, and the de Reszkes and other members of the grand opera company.

Melb.v's costume was an up-to-date affair. ' ' They were nob bloomers. They were not skirt , bub sort of half and half. The material of the waist, etc., was dark brown, with large figur; s. She wore a c,\p, leggiues, or what appeared to be leggiims, and tan shoes." The student of the whuel provided plenty of fun for the spectators watching from the windows, and the laughter, loud aud long, was joined in by the crowd gathered on the avenue. There wero many tumblrs. VVilli Sohutz says Madame fell off 40 times, the instructor says six times, and the singer says twice, while Mmrs. Calve and Nordica say they counted 01 timrs. It fs a fact, however, that the bicycle was conquered, and from Twelfth to Jackson streets Mme. Melb.. rode the b ; cycle without a fall, much (o tho discomfort of Mmrs. Calve and Nord'ca. Just after one hour and 50 mmutrs.Mme. Melba return d to her room covered with mud and cindert., but still she wore a look of confidence, and now Mm •?. Calve and Nordica s,.y they will make a tiy, and that they are sure they will not have so many falls.