NEWS ITEMS.

Colonist, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8367, 1 October 1895, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

(From our Latest Exchanges.) The Greymouth « Star ' is the authority for a statement that the Grey Valley Company has disposed of its mines and plant, and will on and after Oct. 1 cease to exist as an active corporation. The purohaser is the Greymouth and Point Elizabeth Railway and Coal Company, which will in future carry on the business in conneotion with its own mine, which will now be opened with all possible speed. It is also stated that the Westpor Colliery Company's interest has been absorbed, while the Union Company and Mr M. Kennedy will continue to hold a share in the new concern ; further, that Mr M'Dougall will be managing director whilst Mr Kennedy will hold a seat on the Board of Control. The opening of the largest single graving dock in the world marks another epoch in the history of the pleasant old town and famous port of Southampton. Nature has done almost everything to give Southampton a commanding position, not the least advantage being that Southampton Water presents the phenomenon of a double high tide, giving it high water for four hours at a time, and a short time ago it was made the terminus of the celedrated Inman line of Atlantic steamers instead of Liverpool. From Southampton depart the steamers of the Eoyal Mail Steam Packet Company to the West Indes, of the Union Steamship Company to South Africa, and of the Inman line to New York, and it is the port of call in England of the North German Lloyd, of the Hamburg-American line, and of other services. The tonnage entered inwards in 1898 comprised 10,549 vessels of 2,046,164 tons. The new graving dock is 750 ft long on the floor, width 87ft Gin at Jle b.Ltoui, and 91ft cope level, with depth of water of 29ft over the keel blacks at high-water neap tides, Its capacity is 73,000 tons, and the pumping engines are so powerful that it can be emptied in 2hours 15minutes. Mr J. Henniker Heaton tells an interesting sequel to the most famous Australian ghost story which came to his knowledge as one of the proprietors of the " Town and Country Journal." One of the moßt famous murder cases in Australia was discovered by the ghost of the murdered man sitting on the rail of a dam (Australian for horsepond) into whicn his body had been thrown. Numberless people saw it, and the charge was duly brought home. Years after, a dying man making his confession said that he invented the ghost. He witnessed the crime, but was threatened with death if he divulged it as he wished to, and the only way he saw

out of the f impasse ' was to affect to see the ghost where the hody would be found. As soon as he started the story, such is the power of nervousness, that numerous » ther people began to see it until its fame reached such dimensions that a search was made and the body found, and the murderers brought to justice. A painful, accident has occurred to Miss Kennedy, of Martinborough. She was standing on a box in the dairy, when she stepped backwards and fell, knocking the back of her head against the door, which was open. She was found some time after in an unconscious state. The doctor found that the small fibres of the spine were injured, and it will be some time before she will be able to leave her bed. The N.Z. Dairy Farmers' Union is supplying the factory at Palmerston with two new churns, made in the shape of boxes, and capable of producing 12001bs of butter at each churning. These huge churns are sft 4in by 4ft and known by the name of " Concussion Churns." There is nothing whatever inside, but as the churn rapidly revolves the butter is produced by the violent concussion of the cream on the sides. We (' Wairoa Guardian ') hear that there is to be a fashionable wedding at Takapau next month, when Mr Watson, sheep-farmer Qisborne, will be united to Miss Johnston, eldest daughter of Mr Sydney Johnston, Oruwharo. A grand ball will be held in the woolshed to celebrate the happy event. The London • World * tells this story. When an Irish patriot returned to his native shores, not long ago, with a bride whose strong point was not her beauty, a crowd assembled to meet the happy pair on the pier at Kingstown. It was a bright sunny morning when the packet cinie alongside, and the disappointment of the bystanders were vividly expressed in the heartfelt protest of one of their numbers. " Why didn't ye bring her over in the dark ?" Of all queer forms of language perhaps that used by the natives of the Cameroons is the queerest. It is what may be called the drum language. For this purpose a peculiarly-shaped drum is used. The surface of the head is divided into two unequal parts. In this way the instrument is made to yield two distinot notes. By varying the intervals between the notes a complete code of signals for every syllable in the language is produced, All the natives understand the code, and by means of it messages can be sent quickly from one village to another. The drummer in one village sends on to the next the signals which he hears and so on till the message is delivered. An interesting story about a violin comes from Berlin. A Herr Vansell, son of the well-known engraver of that city, saw a violin in an old curiosity shop, took a fancy to it, and bought it for £ 4. He did not care to name the price to his friends for fear of being laughed at, as he considered it somewhat excessive. One day he took it to a violin maker for repair. How great was his astonishment when he was told that it was a genuine Amati, worth several hundred pounds. Some few days after the violin was sold to a member of the opera house orchestra for £800, and the purchaser of the same was, the same day, offered £500 for the instrument, which is said to be a magnificent specimen of the maker. There haß recently died at Merriwa in New South Wales, a man whose name is intimately associated with the early days of Australian discovery. This was John Roper, who enjoyed the distinction of being the last survivor of the companions of the ill-fated Leiohardt. He was with his leader on the famous expedition from the Queensland coast to the north-west of Australia, and one of the largest rivers flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria perpetuates his name. The death of John Roper naturally recalls the story of the adventurous traveller whose fate constitutes one of the greatest of the mysteries of the island continent. It is now forty-eight years since Leichardt started on the expedition from which he never returned. SPECIAL APPOINTMENT. Pk*B3 Soap, Makers to her Magisty he Qneen Mr Joseph Thomson, the African explorer, who died the other day, was the first white man to penetrate among the Masai people, one of the most intelligent and warlike of African races, to visit Mount Kenic, and to traverse what is now known as British East Africa. The book, " Through MasaiLand," in which he recounts his experiences on this journey, is a marvellous production for a young man, and ranks as one of the most interesting and graphically written books of travel in the language. Among Thomson's other travels was an expedition up the Niger river, when he managed to arrange trade treaties with the native chiefs, which have been of great service to the Niger Company. He did some exploration work, merely as a matter of recreation in Southern Morocco and the Atlas Mountains, and later on Mr Cecil Bhodes, who can appreciate a good man, got him to explore country lying near the Zambesi, and conclude treaties with the chiefs. •• Matthew Furth " has been added to Messrs Longman's Colonial Library Miss Lemon's story is that of a London docker, who, loving one woman, loses her awhile through Luviiig ---^-.1 a rival suitor in a fight (the verdict was manslaughter, the result acquittal), and marries a quaint little creature who has long worshipped the big labourer in secret. How Matthew Furth takes to drink and finally strikes his wife, how he deserts her, and is brought back to her by a comical comrade who is a 'professional beggar and petty thief, how he finds her dead, leaving him her infant, through love of whom he is rescued from drink, is told by Miss Lemon in a simply pathetic way. The general gloom of the story is lightened a little by humorous descriptions of some of Furth's neighbors, and as a picture of life in the East End it possesses, we will .admit, no small merit. On the field of Waterloo a topaz seal set in gold was recently found, bearing the anus and motto of Viscount Barrington. It belonged to Ensign Harrington, who was killed at Quatre

Bras, 16th June, 1815 and had laid undiscovered for 80 years.