News Items.

Colonist, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7762, 16 October 1893, Page 4

News Items.

(From our latest Exchanges.) A man, it is alleged, t laced his foot in front of a bicycle at Nantwich for a lark. The rider was tbrowa and killed, and the man stands charged with manslaughter. There are hermits in China who tear oal their eyes in order, they say, that by closing the two gates of love they may open the ihousand gates of wisdom. An Englishman married his granddanghter in America. The reighbor* were so indignant t; at the man had notice to leave the town, which he did, taking the girl with him. A singular eight was witnessed in the Central Hall of the House of CommoLS. Owiug, presumably, to the effect of the sun's rays through the windows upon the ornamental tiles, the teeselated floor burst into pieces, and in others the floor lose in ridges, as if forced upwards by an earthquake. A masher is something like a sheet of fly paper-. A silly tbing gets stuck on it and soon wishes it were not so, Mrs Dr Brackenbury has left the residue of her estate to the Auckland Ladie3' Benevolent l ocisty. This is the second legaoy to the sooiety, Captain Rough having left it £100 which is yielding £5 a year interest.

The Londorl r ßo:>kman ' affirms that ib has good authority for saying that four-fifths of the jokes accepted by ♦ Punch ' from outside contributors are sent by Scotchmen. The total amount paid as dividend dnty by Qneensl^nd mines sinoe the passing of the Act to the 31st August amounts to £102,643. Twelve thousand passengers travelled during the first three days of the running of the Hobart electric trams. A Pennsylvania woman keeps spiders as pets. The Cardinal Manning Memorial Fund in London has reached a total of £6000. The money will be given to tbe homeless poor rf tbat city. OADBUBY'S OOCOA 11 The moat perfect."— 7 he Analyst A hive of 5,000 bees should produce 50lbs of honey evfry year, and multiply tenfold in five years. There is a crack oydiat in America who has only one leg. A mebino four-year old sheep, bred by Mr Douglas McLean, wag recently killed at Napier and hungup for inir "spection. It weighed, when dressed, 881 b. It is said that in some parts of England the farmers have prohibited the free gathering of mushrooms, and are taking the crops for themselves. An astute woman cleared . last year £100 on the sale of mushrooms purchased from the neighboring poor. A local humorist, Invercargill way (says 'Truth') took to the theatre I with him a large artificial spider and some string. He lowered the spider from above and dangled it in the faces |of the pit. The magistrates next ! morning were so delighted with the 'success of tiia screaming joke that they | fined the humorist £1 and costs. ! A beautiful woman with three eyes is the latest Parisian sensat-cn. An ex-Broken Hill chimney sweep, working- on tribute at the White Oliffs (New South Wales) opal fields, recently struck a pocket of gems which panned out £86iP0p..: The finder's share amounted to £18,Q0O, >

[ The Romans had saucepans, gridirons, colanders, dripping-pans, and: I toasting forks. : ] t is said that in 80 . f the 855 towns in Massachusetts thete is no resided physician. BY SPECIAL APPOINTMENT, Pbabb* Soap, Makers to heir Majesty the Quee The Melbourne correspondent of the Otagp « Daily Times ' :— " What will probably be the final chapter in | the history of theniace i sb'mysteriously stolen from the Victorian Parliament is the report of the , Mace Enquiry Board laid before the flouao the other day. The finding of the Board is as follows : " That there never was the faintest ground for the paragraphs which appeared in the Ballarat 'Con rier' aua 'Table Talk,' d or for the rumors current to the same effect (that the mace bad been removed to a house of ill-fame), anl that in the opinion of the Board they were only promulgated by idle talkers, assisted by the desire ol a certain seotiou of the Press to serve up to the public sensational paragraphs. Ibat in the opinion of the Board the mace was stolen cm the 9th of October 1891, for the purpose of bsiog melted down for its value, aud that, notwithstanding the continued efforts of tbe detective police for 15 months no trace of it has been fouud since tbe beforementioned date. That owing to the conflicting nature of the evidence the Boa'd is unable to fix the guilt of the theft upon any p> rson 6? persons.' "