NEWS ITEMS.

Colonist, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8366, 30 September 1895, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

• (From oub Latest Exchan«eb.) An interesting phenomenon ii reported from the HuagTian village of Szakul, near Temeavar, Tha Vienna correspondent of the ' Daily Nows ' writes :— •" Oa Wednesday last, at nine in the eveaing, thunder was heard, and an enormous red-hot object fell from the sky. It conld not bs determined whether it hsd fallen fer or sear, but next morning two Bhepherds. who pass their nights in tha ieldi, went to Szakul to report that the meteor had fallen in a meadow near I where t^ey wiv, auu. ii_a &»«_« a large and d*ep hole, from which thick smoke and the smell of sulphur came. The whole Tillage ran ts t_e epet, and it was observed tbat a rumbling noise oame from the crater-like hole. The people are in fear of a volcano having , opened. Several learned men have left Budapest for the epofc. Details are to hand of the accident i that befel Baroa Yoa Holzhausen en Moet Blanc on the 12th August. He , and his party had all but crossed a glacier above the Grande Mulcts when ; tbey were startled by a terrible noise, '. and one of tbe guides called oot' "Ad j avalanche ! We are all lost !" An : immense mass of ice had beeeme i loosened in a ravine of the mountain, ; and deieeoded with frightful rapidity, ' carrying ell before it. There was no possibility of light, there was nothing i te be done but to threw themselves < fiat on the ground. Baron Holzhausen < was neareit the avalanche and he threw t

aimself down with his arms protecting ] ais bead. He saw the • valanobe strike i ibe glacier, while the pressure of the i iir cast bis companions 10 pacts back, < mdthen he lost his sen* 03. No Other i poiember cf the party was very seriouß-y '. icjored. Two of tlem foand shelter behind a rook, over whish the ava- i ianohe rushed, and oae of the guides protected Mdme. Meadon, of Brussels, with his body, his own head being (pounded by the ice blooks. Tht? Baron was buried np to his neck in ice aod scOw". A glass of whisky rerived him somewhat, afid he was carded down to the refuge of the Pierre Pointne and thence to Chamouuix, where he is progressing favorably. Moa bones have within the last 12 months been found in Jthe Pelorus Sounds district, both on Kenny's Isle (the property of Messrs Harris Bros) and on Dobserau (Mr Wynn- Williams' property at Olova Bay ; and although they were much injured by the bush fires whioh had laid them bare, yet tho bones-~at least thoae on Kenny's Isle — are of tne largest genus of that extinct huge bird. Several heaps of gizzard stones, mostly of quartz, which were also found within a small area of cleared bush on Dobserau, and quantities in other places, clearly show that many moas must at some period have lived and died on the lower slopes ofthe Mount Stokes range. The writer believes it is something new, or at least unusual, for numerous traces of the existence of dinornis to be found in a dense forest country, much of which is of a very rugged and precipitous nature. « Express.' The life of a missionary in the Santa Cruz Group is not a very happy one, judging from a report received by H.M.S. Orlando, whioh returned to Sydney recently. The Orlando cruised through the group and received a visit from one of the missionaries, who stated that his life was in danger, and asked the protection of the admiral from a hostile tribe. It appears that there Was an epidemic J of influenza upon the islands, and the missionary was singled out as the evil spirit who had brought the malady there The natives thereupon determined to kill him. According to his report it took him all Ms time dodging bullets and spears. On nine different occasions in a fortnight he had been made a target for Snider bullets and poisoned spears, and he owed his life to the fact that the hostile natives proved indifferent marksmen. An officer from the flagship went ashore and cautioned the natives as to their j future behaviour to the missionary. P 1 *' one of the fleet will be sent up nortly to hold a full investigation into the matter, lhe natives are said to be very dangerous and treacherous, Their arrows are pointed with splinters of human shin bones. The ' Scottish Review ' tells a good story of a gentleman who presented some fine grapes frem his vinery to the Queen when on a journey through Scotland she stopped at a station for lunch. In a day or two a letter came from her Majesty, thanking the donor for the grapes, and complimenting him on the fineness of the fruit. The gentleman read the letter to his head gardener, who would, he thought, be interested in the compliment, but the only comment the gardener made was, " She disna 3ay ony thing aboot sending back the basket." The Southland ' News ' says that Mr F. O'Shannassey, one of the disooverers of the Golden Site Reef, Wilson River, but now in West Australia, writes to a Waikaka friend : — "I was not here three weeks before I found a splendid reef, but I lost it through not pegging it out. It was nearly dark when I found it, and I left it until morning to peg off, but some fellow tracked me and saved me the trouble. I was nine miles away from the camp and I did not want to be out all night, for the darkness is bad in some places. But ' faint heart never won fair lady,' so I looked for something else and dropped on Mount Morgan. What you read in the papers is quite true, only it is not all gold as the papers say. However, itis very gool, and it is sold for £40,000. We get the money in about six weeks — £20,000 oash and £20,000 in fully paid-up shares. The plant is coming from England, so I think lam right. I have got five more reefs ; they look very well on the surface, but we want to sink on them. We are sinking at present, and by next letter I hope to be able to give you a good account of them. We were offered a good price for them, but we would not take it. Of course Mount Morgan is different. It is all gold-bearing for hundreds of feet. It is like Mount Morgan in Queensland. The same men bought ours that owned the Queensland mine. Quite an epidemic for bicycle seems to have come over the Northumberland pitmen. In a village of 9000 inhabitants it is impossible toget up a cricket club, so devoted are the pitmen to cycling. The pet vanities of men says Mrs Lynn Linton, in the ' Idler,' make a large order, and she asks, " Where do they end ?" •• Where one gives his soul to neckties, another puts his salvation in pipes ; where one plumes himself on his form at golf, another prides himself on his skill in saying bis partner's hand, and drawing out his opponent's trumps. Some men are vain of their power in managing women. Generally these are the men whose women manage them — twisting them round their little fingers as easily as the Indian hero twisted round his w-iab tue ' oue-edged sword that coils and bites.' " Some judges and magistrates profess ignorance of games of chance, but there is no suoh affectation in Justice Denniston. In the Reefton burglary case, the accused said he had been playing poker with three other men. Mr Park, the Orown Prosecutor, asked who was his partner. " You should know, Mr Park," interjected the judge, " that there are no partners in poker. Your hand is against everybody's and everyone's hand is against you." Mr Park suggested there might be partnership sub rosa, but the judge rather scouted the idea, and seemed to regard every poker player as an Ishmaelite. — * West Coast Times.' The Kshop of Mashonahnd had a roafh and trying journey to Baluwayo. "Oa Snnday afternoon," he sa)?, 11 after many honre travelling in chok-, ng daßt and heat, we res. cd for an'

boar at a wiyside eh an.y of poles and mud. Prospectors were lounging abont, and one man had pat on a olean shirt • bnt every * m was hearty, and the Bishop was warmly we'eomed. Damper was ready, and there wai tinned batter and biltnr g (buck o* beef meat dried iv the Ban.) I expect I was the only Bishop in the world oo tbat particular Snnday sitting astride a plank, outting sices of biltnng wilh my pooketknife »nd washing ihem down with digger tea oat of a billy, a sort of tin pot or mug which p roßpec* tors carry abont. I apologised for being anable to give them a servioe, but the ooaob was inexorable, and sway we went through the afternoon arid night and all next day, till we drove into Buluwayo, as I remembered dritiog into the Diamond Fields nearly twenty years ago, smothered and choked with dust, aud sticky witb heat." A whiter in the * New Zealand Herald ' says :— " Woat is one man's self denial is generally another man's loss. Ii was pat to tbe tat a year or so ago in a sister Colony, when tbe whole people were invited to pass » week of eelfrdenial f r the benefit of tbe oharitiea. One man had been accustomed to spend a shilling or two in ihe day on cab hire, and now he made bis shankß do the eervice. Ifc was probably good for his body as it was for the alms houses, bat cabby silently cursed him for his pains ; for the Z9al of bim atd hu fellows left in many a case tbe children of the cabman, who had bad a toagh straggle i witb life at the best, to morn over aa empty dieh. Anothei' had been used to pamper hio body with oranges and grapes, and he swore off fur a time, and the unfortunate fruiterers swore too ; and when this fellow was multiplied, as he was by the thousand, tbere were anxious hearts for a week in many fruitsellets' homes. _ nother had beea used to get a casual to do up his bit of garden. Now, ender the im-.pitiog influence of zeal for the poor he did the gardening himself, putting the halforown in tbe poor box ; andhisoasnal was left to meditate on an empty Btomach and the oomplexitiea of haman life. Another one bad got big boots every morning polished at tbe corner, but now he blackened hia boots for himself, or left tbem grimey for the week, and gave the two pennies to tbe hospital ; while bis bootblack pioked up a oasual Bobsistenoe in the meanwhile in the dust boxes on the eidewalk. Aodeo it was throughout the whole range. It is v.ry certain that in ordinary life a twinge of ft spirit of voluntary self-denial, amounts io little or nothing more than the oompnleory self-denial of the o'her fellow." A London correspondent states that W. Franks lately walked fifty two miies in nine hours seven minutes and seven seconds. Frank* is a little man, and is aged 45. He s ands under il^ft, and weighs but 9**g. His feat was a great one for a man on the sba3y side of forty, and wiil take some beating. An exploring party io the vicinity of Norsewood recently discovered a ourio in a kind cf flax wbirh posseeeed elastic qualities. The ' Bulletin ' tells this story :— A candidate and his trusted henchman awoke one morning at the principal hotel of Heifer Flat, N.S.W," and called for whiskey and milk, ffhey were told there was plenty of whiskey but no milk, and there were no cowl on the Fiat. «« No cows l" said the henchman, " then tell the inhabitants that if Mr X gets in he will haye a sum of money at once placed on tiie estimates for the purohase of a pnblic cow for Heifer Flat." He got avery vote there except one, that of a man who wanted a sum also placed on the estimate for publio whiskey. NOTHING LIES BOAi*. Pare gr.yp, good soap, honest soap Pbabi' so? p.

*