NEWS ITEMS.

Colonist, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8327, 15 August 1895, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

(From our Latest Exchanges.)

At a meeting of an English life assurance society the other day, it was stated that they had paid £52,700 for deatbs cauatd directly by infkunza, which had cost them two and a-half limes more loss in two years tban cho'era had done in 43 years. Jay Gould once told a story about an Irishman. It was when there were packet-boats on the Erie Canal. The Irishman offered to work his passage to Buffalo, and they set him leading the horse that towed the boat. He worked, faithfully for two days, doing a great deal of thinking. On the third day, he thought it out. "By the powers," he said, " I moight as well walk as work me passage. And walk he did, without even thanking his employers.

A writer in ths Cbristohurch • Prpss ' tarma the conduct of tbe young mea who r.cect y played the part of ihe spy to obain conviction* agaiuEt Christohurch hotelkeepers, " evangelical larrikinism."

A company is about to be formed in Wellington to manufacture bicycles fiftcd with tbe two speed gear invented by Mr H. Collier, of Wanganui. The invention is a most ingenious o<je, and is regarded witb great favor by many of the leading cyclist? in Grout Britain aud New Zealand. Its application to a machine enables the rider to alter the gearing of his bicycle in an instant without leaving the saddle, the change being effected by merely touching a small line close to the handle bar. He can then ride up any ordinary hill or travel against a heavy wind with infinitely less labour than if he were on one of the ordinary safety bicycles. The mechanism is simple, does not clog, and can be easily manufactured in the colony. A bicycle with the new gear only weighs 311bs. The capital of the new company has been fixed at £7500, in £1 Bhares.

An extraordinary case was heard at Manchester lately. A man named John Cox was charged with begging Apparently he was bleeding profusely from the mouth, and this alarming symptom aroused the sympathy of the public to a very profitable extent. The frequent emission of blood aroused the suspicion of the police, and they set a watch. On the appearance of the police the artful beggar darted up a side street, wiped the blood from his mouth, and calmly began to smoke a pipe. But when the policeman had passed out of sight the bleeding and the begging began again. On being searched he was found to have concealed a bottle of blood from a slaughterhouse. Out of this he filled his mouth and so produced the gory effects described. He was sentenced to a month with hard.

A man who out-Deemings Deeming has been discovered, or rather lost, at Chicago. He is held accountable for the disappearance of 18 women — three of whose bodies have been found in quick-lime in a cellar. The man, whose name is Holmes, has also himself disappeared.

There died in Milan a few days ago a woman with a remarkable bit of history. Her name was Signora Caterina Pastudotti, and she took part in the revolutions of 1831, 1853, and 1864. Her house in France was the rendezvous for all revolutionists. She is reported to have had a " great " influence over Mazzini, and was complimented by Garibaldi by being named '• The Spartan."

A Minister stated in the House the other day that a Maori medicine man \ had been pretending to cure diseases amongst his countrymen at Awanui, j by practising according to his native methods, and by uttering ancient incantations, and that the Government were considering whether they should not prosecute him. But amongst our. selves (says Auckland ' Herald ') we have men who profess to cure diseases by methods not one whit more rational than those adopted by Maori medicine men, and yet nothing is done, and they are believed in by men and < women of good education. Says Birmingham « Post ' : — lt is obvious either that Turkey cannot control the assassins and pillagers who have perpetrated the outrages in Armenia or that she will not. In either case the blame ,_is the same, and the same measures of reform must be insisted^ upon. England herself has a terrible responsibility in this matter. Twice by British intervention, as the Duke of Argyll pointed out in his last important speech, Turkey has been saved from extinction. It is we who have enabled her to maintain her power, and it is we who are in a sense answerable for her good behaviour' If she offend, the blame is reflected upon us, and it is we who must take a hand in the punishment and in the remedy."

A tbagic affair took plaice at Bhinga India, the other day. It appears that the son of the Rajah of that place having lost his wife, the father insisted that he should remarry. A suitable day was fixed, but the young man was firmly resolved that there should be no ceremony. On the day appointed for the marriage he took some wood on to the roof of his house, Well saturated with kerosene oil, lighted it, possessed himself of a revolver, shot himself on £ha left armpit, and then fell on the burning pyre, and before there could be any assistance from below the revolver shot and smoke having created alarm, the unfortunate young fellow was not only dead, but partially cremated. The Rajah ascr.bes the tragedy to his persistence in practically compelling his son to remarry, and his remorse took the direction of becoming a recluse at Benares.

Theee is still some fun to be found in Irish law courts. We (' Tablet ') may take as a specimen a case which occurred the other day in the Petty Sessions Court at Skibbereen, where a somewhdt likely dame was charged by the sergeant of police with drunkenness. The lady attempted to silence her accuser by a claim she made to have been formerly the wife of a sergeant major—" when he was over in Malta in the red- coats — what talk you have." " I have a grand bench before me to-day, thank God," she added. " though I thought first I was goin' to be thried be court-martial when I saw all the captains and majors and colonels on the bench, but now, thank God, I see my own Home Rulers on the bench to.day (laughter). 'Taint like old times now, begorra Ireland for the Irish and Ballyvourney for the Ballyvourney people (great laughter)." Her tune, however, was changed by a sentence of 40s, or a month. " Defendendant (leaving court) — « Bad luck to ye, above, but ye're the hungry magistrates (more laughter)." At the Cosmos Club, in Washington, some two or three months ago, a discussion took place among the members — men of science or of personal experience — as to whether men could i die of fright. Several curious cases J were cited by military officers present of soldiers who Lad been temporarily disabled or killed outright by fear. Alter the battle of Gettysburg, for example, it was stated that a number of men were found lying dead without the sign of a wound on any of them. What a tongue the G. O. M. of Australia has, to be sure. Addressing the electors of Sydney the other evening, he said if Premier Reid had done as much as he (Sir Henry Parkes) had done it would be impossible for his small brain to be accompanied by such a huge belly. The Premier's wretched speeches contained not one principle. Not one intelligent purpose was put forth. Was it any wonder that he should decline to stand idly by and leave that destroying man to put his hands upon institutions founded by men whose boots he was not worthy to clean.

The President of the French Republic has a salary of £24,000 a.year and an equal amount for his expenses.

An arithmetician who has been investigating the indemnity to be paid by China, says that that country will have to pay to Japan money at the average rate of more than £13 a minute, night and day, during the next five years.

Mr J. C. Martin, S.M., will be President of the North Island flailway Board of Appeal, and District Judge Ward of ihe South Island Board.

The Chinese burglar takes an ingredient of his own, burns it, and blows the smoke through the keyhole of the bedroom where the master of the house is asleep. The fumes dull the senses of the victim just enough to make him helpless, while at the same time permitting him to hear and see everything that goes on in the

room.

The ques'ion of whether a stepfather, whose wife has deserted him is compelled to support children of her former husband (from whom she was divorced, and who is still living) wag decided on Wednesday by the Wellington Stipendiary Magistrate in the affirmative.

A young lady can stand up straight and yet be bent on marriage.

11 . ' ,1 ==g •'Yes, brethren," says the clergyman who is preacbing the funeral sermon, "our deceased brother was cut down in a single night — torn from the arms of his loving wife, who is thus left a disconsolate widow at the early age of twenty-four years." "Twenty-two, if you please," sob 9 the widow in the front pew, emerging from h«r handkerchief for an instant. In several of tbe ttew South Wales rivers the fish are dying in large numbers from soma unknown disease. The Fisheris Commission are enquiring into the matter. On the invitation of tbe Honorable Sydney Smith, several Sydney gentlemen examined a box of apples which had been packed in sawdust three months egj by tbe corporation garlener at Ralhurst, and wbioh were specimens of a shipment whioh the Minister w«s sending fo England. The fruit wa? found to be in a perfeot state of preservaton. A French engineer, M. Edouard Grass, has conceived the interesting idea of reproducing tha historic house of Loogwood, in wbich Napoleon lived at St Helena, as an attraction during the exhibition of 1900. The bouse, which, according to his scheme, will be an exact copy of tbe original, will be surrounded by panotamio canvases repres anting tbe natural surroundings.

A late sensation has been a raoa from Paris to Bordeaux (says • Tablet ') of horseless carriages The motive powers were steam, petroleum, and electricity. The tesult of the trial ha? been conclusive for petroleum for vehicles of a light kind. For heavy work, however, steam still holds tbe field. Elect? ieity chiefly fails in negotiating hilL-.

NOTHING LIES SOAf. Pure goap, good ao.tp, honest soap* Phaws* soap.

1695