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Colonist, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4136, 12 May 1885, Page 3

The Canterbury natives are bringing forward Tk'ra Tikao to oppose Mr. Pratt for"the Southern Maori seat.'4"' f

„ .Murder. of,a .Japanese Ambassador I '•AT'RoTtfEEfiAM-.V-The. Charge d' Affaires for''the Netherlands, Sakurada, has been assassinated at Rotterdam under-the' following .circumstaiices^—While' residing in Brussels, SaVura'da had.'made tlie'acquairitance "bfu ,young-;lsklgian- woman, Jeanne Marie Lofcette,: living' in - the' suburb 6f;Molehb6ek'St 'JeanI.'-' On his -removal ' to' ; the^HaguV, last "December sKe.ifollowed "him -thither., apparently in the expectation s,of .marriage. ; Her hopes in this direction were, however, •desiind'd^ to J, odisappqinlihlent, -as -she s ul.(fmately 'succeeded .in.ascertaining that Sakurada^alrea'dy.-'had a lawful wife in Japan, j Subsequently a quarrel ensuedi,'and;;Salatrada""went to Gouda. Thither'the^ following day the lady followed him, and ultimately they proceeded together to Rotterdam, alighting at the Hotel de Hollande. There a fresh quarrel took place,.'in course of which the *lady drew a "revolver from her pocket.and fired at her paramour. The- ball penetrated the right temple of Sakurada, who was at once conveyed to the Rotterdam Hospital, where he expired. Mdlle. Jeanne, after shooting Sakurada, attempted to commit suicide by cutting open the veins of her wrists, but the wounds she inflicted on herself were not dangerous. The murderess, who is only twenty-one years of age, was placed under arrest. Embarrassing.—Not only the house of the Mexicans, but whatever you admire it is yours^S If you express a sentiment of approbation for anything: theowher-at once says: -'Senor, it U yours,""but he simply intends to say something flattering, and you! are' therefore not expected to accept any-i thing that is offered you. An amusing story is; told of St. Spencerr StJ John, the English ambassador,;whieh illustrates how this national courtesy; often provokes embarrassment. Sir; Spencer,* who is a gallant old bachelor, was promenading with some ladies in the perk when he met a nurse girl with a bright-eyed baby. The ladies stopped to admire the little one,- arid Sir Spencer asked whose child it was. " Senor, it is your own," replied the nurse, with a courtesy. Sir Spencer has never enquired as to the parentage of pretty children since. ' El Mahdi was a boat-builder before he became a prophet The late Colonel " Fred " Burnaby was an especially great favorite in Birmingham, and several thousand dollars have already been subscribed! there by trie-people for a memorial to, him, although it has not yet been de-| cided what fornrit shall take. Outbreak of a Mud Spring Under; a House.—-The township of Rptorua; must be a lively place to reside in. in; the literal sense of the word.' A cor-; respondent of an Auckland ■ paper says :—The other morning one of our worthy inhabitants was suddenly awakened out of his peaceful slumbers' by a hissing, spluttering noise, proceeding apparently from under his bed. Considerably alarmed he sprang to the window,'~when to his utter; astonishment he discovered a mud: volcano in full active swing, belching* up mud and stones alongside, and partly under, his house, plastering it all over with a boiling, porridge-like; mixture.' "After exhausting itself for some minutes, it settled down to a regular mud fumarole, and has continued ever since to boil, bubble, and splutter in a manner that must be anything but pleasant to the occupant; jof "the dwelling. However, he appears; gettiug quite used to it, and apparently rather likes it. The house is situated' close to the beach, on the margin of Lake Rotorua, Nearly all the dwel-i lings in this locality will be liable to the same disturbance, as underneath the upper crust this state of ebullition; spreads over acres, and a new vent is liable to burst out anywhere and at any time. : They tell many stories in Vienna to' prove the fitness of Hans Makart's; title, "The silent man." On one occasion a.gentleman, after remaining two hours with him, was met outside the painter's house by afrieud of his, who asked him what they-had talked about. "Oh," replied he, "v/e were silent over pretty well everything the whole time!" At a dinner-party, at 1 which Hans Makart was one of the guests, he was seated at the side of a pretty and lively actress. The lady tried all her arts to bring out the painter in conversation, but did not obtain a word 'from him throughout the repast, to the amusement of the other guests, who watched her fruitless endeavors. At dessert, somewhat piqued by her. ill success, -she looked at Makartarid exclaimed aloud, " Suppose we talk of something else now. ?■' A London cablegram says the Gordon national memorial fund has already reached £2000. Messrs Rothschild and Baring have.each contributed £500. to the fund. .• ■ A local option demonstration, which was taken part in by over 3000 people, was held recently in Edinburgh, Mr Peter M'Lagan, M.P., . presided, and among the speakers;, were Mr Herbert Gladstone and Principal Cairns. All acknowledge the principle of the right of ratepayers; to control.the liqiioi traffic. Hard-headed and soft-hearted old; Professor Blackie thinks there is " far too much of everything "—except good j sense .in these days. " Yes ;. too ■ much eating, too much drinking, too; much preaching, too much writing, too! much speaking. Sermons would he! vastly improved if preached only once; a month. :'.' i .''V'! I care, little forpolitics," he adds: . "attention to' politics, as ordinarily understood, entails too great a waste of brains." Petroleum deposits underlie no less than 14,080 square miles in Russia.! The production of some wells is remarkable, one yielding at the rate of, 1,125,000 gallons per twenty'four' hours whenever opened. The microscope reveals that there. are more than 4000 muscles in ;i caterpillar, and that the eye of a drono contains 1000 mirrors. There are spiders'as small as a grain of sand, arid they spin a thread so fine that i would require 400 of them to equal i the size of arsingle hair. . > The Italian Colony of New York sent to King Humbert an "autograph 1 album of nearly^OO pages, containing nearly : -ip,OOP signatures. The.album was sentiri appreciation of the King*. conduc'/duringHhe cholera plague in Itaty; las b-y ear."--'''

Sir W. J. Clarke has formed a battery for the Victorian Government at Sunbury at his own expense.Three Nordenfeldt guns are to be placed in the battery; , The 'Tirriaru Herald' says:—".Let no one say. that this is not a democratic Colony, or that there is no opening for ability and perseverance to force their way upward. Among the list of those who have recently passed as solicitors of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, we notice the name of one candidate who has for years occupied the position of .messenger at the Supreme Court, Wellington. Some of the old established lawyers, it is said, are not particularly enthusiastic in welcoming their ' learned brother' to a seat within the bar, but we hope this' is not. true. For ourselves we heartily commend the perseverance and energy which have just met with such a reward, and we wish the new legal luminary every success in his profession." Major R. S. Macgregor; late of the 50th Regiment; has just died at Ports- . mouth. He served in the New Zealand war of 1864 66. He had a medal with a.clasp for his services in the A'shantee war of 1873. Wellington-Is a city of big things. It glories in having the biggest woodea house in the world—the Civil Service warren. It can boast of the steepest incline on its Rimutaka railway. ..The Belmont viaduct on the Manawatu line caps the Rimutaka works for bigness. It is to have the highest wooden viaduct in the world. It is constructed entirely of kauri timber, is 125 yards long, and nearly half the height of St. Paul's Cathedral in London above the level of the water. The The quantity of. timber used is 212,000 feet. This enormous scantling is placed on fourteen piers of concrete. This aerial affair partakes of the nature of the origin of the funds of the railway company, which have been , chiefly raised by kite-flying in England. Two movements are reported concerning this line. ; The Government, it is said, ,have been secretly buying ;up the Manawatu railway bonds in Loudon, and the other is that the Wellington directors have resolved to double the capital of the company., We fear much that, amongst the other big things, this concern will prove to ; be > the biggest job in the Colony.—' Dunedin Herald.' . : ' j' Kaiser Wilhelm's " Iron Chancellor" will on ; Wednesday next, April 1, celebrate his seventieth birthday anniversary, p Popular observance of the day will y'marked:t by especial pomp andgrarideiir. -There willrbe a vast torchlight procession, each torch being a powerful electric lamp, and the Prince will receive a popular testimonial fund o*f something like £50,000.—English paper. The house at Halle in which Handel was, born 200 years ago still stands in a narrow street called the Grosser SchlarririK It is a two-story building, with high roof, and bears the name and effigy of the yellow stag. In connection with the recent celebration its front has been completely renovated. A fine colossal bust of Handel is placed in a niche over the door, and the names of his great oratorios and other works are fixed in golden _ letters along the front of the building, as also a marble . tablet recording his birth there. Kerosene poured on a rusty nut has been found to penetrate the threads in the course of a few hours, so that it could be easily unscrewed. The Usworth colliery, at Sunderland, in which an explosion from firedamp occurred on March 3, imprisoning 150 men, thirty-six of whom were subsequently taken out dead, is now afire, and further search is stopped. Shootisg at a Swiss Judge.—Berne, March 6.—An attempt to kill M. Dutnur, presiding judge of the police tribunal of Lausanne, the capital of the Canton of Valid. Switzerland, ; was made to day. M.Dumur was presiding over a civil trial in the police tribunal. The defenrait in the action, M. Chavan, while the case was in progress, drew a revolver and pointing it at the chief judge, fired. He had no sooner done so than Geardon, the clerk of the tribunal, and Blanehard, the usher, sprang upon him and attempted to disarm him. He succeeded in emptying his revolver in the attack he made upon Geardon and Blanchard before he was overpowered and.disarmed. President Dumur was not hit by the bullet fired at him, but the clerk and the usher were'badly wounded. After being placed 'under arrest, Chavan said that he was not sorry for what he had done, and declared that he had gone into the tribunal with the intention of killing the president and all the other judges. The agitation in favor of the moi-e direct parliamentary representation of the feelings and interests of working men (says the ' Pall Mall Gazette ') is gathering force in. all parts of the country. Too much attention, however, is being" directed at" present to the demand for payment of members 'by the State. When ever the principle of payment is recognised it will have to be generalin Its application and it is satisfactory to note that influential meu among -the trades" leaders in Glasgow resent the central feature in the Bill prop'bsed to be introduced by Mr Sheridan-,' that on s working men members declaring'themselves paupers they shall be en'itled to the receipt of salaries-'from.,the State. But payment of members by the State, in any form, is still a long, way off. The energy of the agitation -ought rather to be'directed against .theriaw' which casts all the official costs of the election upon.the'cahdidate. The business of retutning-a man, like Mr„Arch, whose case has been' recently discussed, would-be comparatively-easy''were it not for "the necessity, of making, a- deposit of £500^ in view of official' expanses. 1 Poor Lady Stewart has-never lifted up her head since the news -of-her husband's "death "wasfcoramli n icated to her. She had only been married eight years, and was devoted to him. They have two little boys. t The arrest of Sheehan in New Zealand for the Castletown- murders has had a melancholy result, his father-in-law having committed suicide. A monument executed by Mr Bruce Joy has been placed in Kensal Green over the grave of Sir William Siemens; It bears an excellent' medallion portrait, ._.:; L ..,