Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 241, 19 February 1869, Page 2

Local and General.

-«♦- : The Suez Mail. — It is necessary to bear in mind that all letters for England, the Continent, Sec, intended to go by the Omeo, must be specially addressed "per Omeo." Theatre Royal.— There was a crowded attendance at the theatre last evening, to! witness, the sensational drama "Under the GasligKt." The performance -will .be the same this evening. Volunteer Inspection. — The usual i monthly, inspection of volunteers will take place this evening at- the Drill-shed, under Colonel Packe. The Yeomanry are ordered to parade at half-past five, and the remainder at seven. ! New Zealand Flax. — We have received] the latest reports of ,the Auckland markets. There is a regular trade now doing in this article, and prices of well-dressed flax have reached a kind of fixed standard, say from £20 to £25 per ton, according to quality. Another Supposed , Case of Small-pox. — The Wanganui Evening Herald of Tuesday last says it was reported yesterday in town that the child of one of the men who attended on the small-pox patient has been infected, and was ill in small-pox. We have made inquiries upon the subject, and can find no foundation for the report. Ltttelton Borough Council. — The nomination of candidates as Assessors and Auditors took place yesterday at the Council Chamber, when the following gentlemen were nominated : — Assesors : Messrs J. T. Bouse, and E. S. Ellisdon. Auditors: Messrs Richard Bunker and Albert Cuff. The election will take place on March Ist. Akaroa Literart Institute. — Mr Ollivier gave an entertainment at the Town Hall, Akaroa, on Tuesday evening, the 16th inst.,in aid of the funds of the above institute. The attendance was good, and the entertainment, oral, pictorial, and musical, passed off pleasantly and delighted the audience. The proceeds will no doubt prove welcome to the finances of the institute, whose members have to thank Mr Ollivier for iiis services. L Curing Butter.— A correspondent, replying to the desire expressed in a paragraph we recently published — to discover some sure and effectual mode for preserving butter, whereby it may be fitted for a distant market — sends us the following, which he says is a " perfect cure" : — Take a quarter of a pound of saltpetre, a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar, and one pound of salt. Pound well together, and use at the rate of one ounce to ' the pound of butter when potting down. Butter so treated, says our correspondent, will keep sweet and fresh for twelve months. £- Presentation. — Last evening Mr Robert j Symington's employes presented him with a beautiful casket made from New Zealand woods, as a mark of the esteem in which they held him as their employer. In taking the casket (which is the workmanship of Mr Thomas Kent, Oxford Terrace), Mr Symington expressed the pleasure he felt at having won the goodwill and esteem of those in his employment. We understand that he will leave for England on the 2nd proximo. Butter. — The Wanganui Chronicle of the 16th inst. says: — Our farmers must have been glad to hear that the price of this article has risen. It was long at a discount, but the drought in England and Australia has told upon the supplies. Advertisements in some of the Wellington papers offer thirteen pence per pound for this article, and it is expected that it will be shortly increased. We notice that the price of it in Australia is quoted at Is lOd to 2s 4d per pound, a fact sufficient to account for the demand that at present exists.

AcsSfeN!>, — A serious accident occurred in Cashel street yesterday, but fortunately without fatal results. A girl named Eva Chudley, aged ten years, was , running across the roadway from her father's shop, when she was knocked down and run over by a horse and spring cart, driven by Mr Hill, butcher. The horse was only trotting at an ordinary pace, but the girl was so rapid in her movements that Mr Hill could not restrain the animal until the cart had passed over her body and caused serious injury. Dr. Frankish was at once called. The girl, we are informed, was looking in the opposite direction to the cart when the accident occurred, and not the slightest blame can be imputed to Mr Hill. Disinfectants. — Thieves' vinegar (vinaigre des quatre voleurs) contains the volatile oils of wormwood, rosemary, sage, spear-mint, rue, lavender, calamus aromaticus, cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, and also that of garlic, extracted from these substances by macerating them in strong vinegar. After the fluid is filtered, camphor, dissolved in spirits of wine, is added to it. '1 he repute of this vinegar as a disinfectant is founded upon a story, that four thieves, who plundered the dead bodies during the plague at Marseilles with perfect security, on being questioned respecting the cause of this impunity, confessed on the condition of their lives being spared, that they attributed it solely to the use of the above aromatic vinegar. On Pastiles.— Pastiles, as disinfecting agents, are utterly useless ; they are relics of an ancient custom of burning frankincense and other oderous substances in vitiated air, to overcome the factor which is more or less present. They disguise unpleasant odours ; but they accomplish nothing more. The infection remains not only unaltered by the diffusion of the most powerful aromatic vapours, but its deleterious properties are sometimes augmented by them. The same remarks will apply equally to tobacco and camphor. New Metal for RAiLS.-^An Improved metal for the manufacture of rails has been proposed, consisting, observes the Mining Journal, of iron, with an admixture of chrome ore. It has long been known that an alloy of about 40 per cent of iron and 60 per cent of chromium scratches glass almost as deeply as the diamond ; an.! Fremy has stated that an alloy of iron and chromium may be formed by heating in the blast-furnace oxide of chromium and metallic iron. It resembles cast-iron, and scratches the hardest bodies, even hardened steel. Experiments are now being made at four of the largest rail mills in the United States, in order to test the value of an alloy of chroma ore and manganese, with the iron in the puddlingfurnace, for hardening rail heads, and with every prospect of a successful result. Other experiments are being made to test the value of the process for the purpose of hardening plough castings, railroad car wheels, and other articles of iron fabrication, where there is great wear from friction, and requiring to be made very hard. As there has long been much difficulty in obtaining a market for much of the chrome ore raised in Great Britain and her colonies, the proposition is regarded with great interest. New Tell-talb. — An ingenious and useful indicator for registering the revolutions of wheels, the number of strokes made by steamengines, &c, has been invented by Mr Bathias, and in use gives very satisfactory results. The instrument consists, remarks the Mining Journal, of a simple system of cog-wheels enclosed in a case, measuring 6 in. x 4 in., and 3 in. deep. These wheels are put in motion by the movement of a handle or bar, and from their freedom from springs and simplicity of action cannot get out of order. The indicator can easily bs adapted to all kinds of machinery, but their principal sale has hitherto been found amongst the railway companies, who have commenced to appreciate their value for ascertaining the distance travelled over by their rolling stock, and determining the quantity of fuel required for their locomotves, wear and tear, &c. As the indicators are made to register 999,999,999 revolutions, it will be easy to calculate the distance travelled by a vehicle, if the number indicated before and after making a journey and the circumference of the wheel be known. For mining and colliery operations it can be usefully employed for many purposes, not the least important perhaps in connection with collieries being the registration of the amount of work done with the winding gear, ropes, &c, so as to enable those in charge to judge when they require a thorough examination, whilst its price is not too high to permit of its very general use. WONDEBFDL NATURAL PROVISION. — In the struggle for life which is going on perpetually throughout the whole of the animal creation, it is interesting to observe the wonderful provisions which Nature makes for the preservation of the weaker and more helpless animals. In many cases the colour of the creature is adopted in a wonderful way to its mode of living and place or' concealment, and contributes very materially to its safety. We, says the World of Wonders, know how difficult it is to distinguish the grasshopper from the leaf or blade where he is resting till he betrays himself by moving. The birds that- sing in the heigerows have feathers on their backs which harmonize with the colour of the leaves about which they flit, while the feathers on their breasts borrow their white hue of the clouds above them. The partridge can hardly be distinguished from the stubble where it makes its nest, while in the northern countries, the winter dress of the hare and ptarmigan iB white, like the snow among which they are seen. The same is the case with the inhabitants of the water. The frogs which live in the pools and muddy ditches are known to vary their colour according to the nature of the eand or mud among which they live. The tree-frog, on the other hand, is green, and thus is with difficulty distinguished from the trees to which it adheres. Fish, especially those which inhabit fresh water, are so like in colour to the weeds and stones among which they lie, that it is often very difficult to detect their presence.

i Adaptive Miiiicay m Plants. — The Cdurier des Holiest el Marches, a , paper which jis not very well known beyond the precincts jof the markets, informs us {Land and Water) that "an extremely curious Chinese plant called the Hias-taa-tom-chom exists in the Flowery Empire. The name of this singular plant means that during summer it is a vegetable, but that in winter it becomes a worm. If it is observed closely at the latter end of [September nothing simulates better to the jeye a yellow worm about four inches in length. The apparent transformation takes place gradually, and one can see head, eyes, body, &c, in course of formation. Tins plant is extremely rare ; it is to be met with in Thibet, and in the Emperor's gardens at | Pekin, where it is reserved for medicinal purposes. To believe the Chinese savans it iB a capital strengthening medicine. Attempts are being made to acclimatize it in Africa. The "Black Hole." — A site of some interest in Anglo-Indian history is said to have been lately discovered by Dr Norman Chevers, a well-known writer on sanitary matters. Hitherto no one has been able to ascertain precisely -where the famous Black Hole of Calcutta stood, although its -whereabouts has often been suspected. "Of me calls it a dungeon," writes Mr Marshmun, " but the room immediately adjoining it was used as the settlement church for twentyeight years after the recovery of the town." The place, whatever it may have been, was less than twenty feet square, and within it on the night of June 21-22, 1756, 146 of our fellow-countrymen were confined. Only twenty-three came out alive 1 on the following morning. It now appears that the southern curtain of the old fort of Calcutta is being pulled down, and in one part of it Dr Chevers has come upon a room or space " which is the exact counterpart of the Black Hole." It is not improbable that some traces of the tragedy may still be found, although the natives took no notice of it at the time, and the English we're too busy in dealing with Serajah Dowlah to mark it in any way. Gas-stoves. — The patent of Mr H. Podge, dated Jan. 23, 1868, claims, says the Builder, first, so fitting or constructing gas-stoves in which air is employed to convey the heat, that the products of combustion and heated air therewith are prevented from mixing with the air in the apartment or place to be heated when the air to support combustion and to be heated is wholly or nearly altogether supplied from the open air, or from some source outside the said apartment or place to be heated or warmed. Secondly, so fitting or constructing gas-stoves in which water or other liquid, or both water or other liquid and air, is or are the agent or agents to convey the heat that the products of combustion and heated air therewith are prevented from mixing with the air in the apartment or place to be heated, when the air to support combustion and to be heated is wholly or nearly altogether supplied from the open air, or from some source outside the said apartment or place to be heated or warmed. Thirdly, the particular constructions aud arrangements of parts of the two several gas-stoves' for heating purposes, all as described and illustrated in the drawings. Meteobs. — When we are told, remarks the Express, that seven and a half millions of meteorites, large enough to be visible at night, fall into our atmospherj in every twenty-four hours, and that ninety-nine out of every hundred of these never pass away again beyond its confines, the question naturally suggests itself — " How far are we safe from the effects of so tremendous a bombardment?" Granted that the major part of these missiles weigh but a few pounds, yet even so, we seem at first sight to be but inefficiently protected. Four-pounder guns, for example, have ere this worked serious mischief in battles and sieges. Nor will astronomers even allow us the comfort of supposing that but few of the heavier missiles from outer space are hurled against our planet. On the contrary, we arc told— and there is no reason for disputing the announcement — that many hundreds of the larger sort of aerolites fall in a single day into our atmosphere. The heaviest missiles made use of on board our ironclads or in our most powerfully-armed forts are mere feathers compared to some few of the aerolites which are thus hurled at I us. There is now in the British Museum the fragment of one of these aerolites, and this fragment weighs nearly six tons. The Effects or Kowing on the Circulation. — During the summer of the present year, Dr Fraser, F.R.S.E., of the University of Edinburgh, undertook a number of accurate observations on the effects of rowing on the circulation upon the crew of one of the University boats. The sphygmoraph was used automatically to record the pulse-move-ments ; and, apart from any intrinsic importance, his observations may prove, in the opinion of the British Medical Journal, of j some interest in relation to recent discussions on the probably injurious effects of rowing exercise. The observations were prolonged throughout the greater part of the period of training. The changes that were produced were of an extremely uniform character, not only on the different occasions, but also with the different members of the crew. He presents, in Humphry's Journal of Physiology, woodcuts of the pulse-tracings of the stroke- J oar. The tracings obtained all show that an extremely large quantity of Wood is being circulated with great rapidity. It is obvious that, in the great majority of functional and organic diseases of the vascular system, such a position could not possibly be maintained. The author concludes that the subjects of these diseases are, therefore, completely incapacitated for violent rowing exercise, and cannot be in a position to be injured by it. It is possible that the presence of incipient forms of disease of the vascular system might altogether prevent such exercise from being undertaken ; but he believes that all such diseases may be detected by the use of the spyhgmograph in time to prevent further mischief ; the examination being made immediately before the boat is entered, and a few minutes aher a moderate pull has been indulged ie.

COHPKESSEt>, AIR FdR PrOI'ELLINO Vehicles.—;We (Builder) have often suggested the desirability of applying compressed air, or some'such power, to the propulsion of street vehicles, whether coaches, omnibuses, cabs, or velocipedes. If what we now learn from America be correct, this desideratum has at length been realized. Mr Waylis, of New Orleans, has recently invented a locomotive car which is said to have proved a complete success. In the car station there is an ordinary st .amengine, of about sixty-six horse power, for compressing air into reservoirs, and two of these reservoirs are placed on the top of each car. On the car there is a small engine, operated by the air supplied from the reservoir in the same manner as by steam, and i giving the exact amount of power that was I required to compress the air. The engine is not difficult to run, and ihe cars can be stopped much more readily than when hones are used. Each car will have 300 pouuds of compressed air to start with, which will be sufficient to run it nine or ten miles. An Ecclesiastical Mountain. — The Times alludes to the rectory of Doddington, the value of which is estimated from j£B,ooo to £10,000 a year. Doddington, The Times belidveg, will riot altogether escape the levelling process of niodem days. ( It is really a combination of two or three livings' — Doddington, March, and Benwick ; and at the present vacancy it is to be divided. But, even after division, its fragments will be, in point of emolument, of almost antediluvian bulk ; and their incumbents, with the duties of commonplace parishes, will still be better off than most bishops. This wealth is, we believe, of quite natural growth. Doddiugton lies in one of those districts where the cultivation of the fen a has turned what in the last century was mere waste into rich land. After an incumbency of nearly sixty years it has fallen vacant, and if a vacant archbishopric raises a flutter among the more ambitious of the hierarchy, such a nest of incumbencies might well excite a gentle longing among those who appreciate the more substantial and quiet rewards of ecclesiastical life. But the expectations raised in this instance will be ' felt within a very limited circle. The gift of the richest preferment in England was placed in the hands of Sir A. W. Peyton", a relative, of course, of the clergyman just deceased. Dod.lington is worth £8000 a year by nature, and by nature Sir A. Peyton presents to it, and as a simple product of nature the whole thing is to be admired and enjoyed. To mould it into a ft new and living organism would be almost to undertake a fresh creation. Tub Cbadlb of a Nation.— A writer in the Cornhill Magazine Bays*— Latterly I hare found myself the bystander of a wellhead of nationality, in a region where the process of production and formation is rapidly going on, where the elements assume fresh combinations, ferment, and in fermenting increase; promising at no distant period to crystallize' into a new nationality, with a type and destiny of its own, differing from : any, that have as yet gone before it. The scene of these vital energies is the great Asiatic highland placed south-east of the Black Sea and south-west of the, Caspian. I The direction of this anti- Caucasus, this i Asiatic Switzerland, lies from north-west to south-east; that is, from the Anatolian coast behind Trebizoned to the lofty peak . of . Demavend and the neighbourhood of Tebreiz . or Tauris. It comprises the whole east of ' Anatolia, with northern Kurdistan, both parts of the Ottoman dominion, besides the Russian provinces of Erivan and Kara-bagh, with the Persian province of Azerbeyjan; its central point is an old, almost a pre-historic, starting-point in the history of our kiud, the double cone of Ararat, and its' never-melting snows. No part of the world is, it would seem, better fitted to become what men call the cradle of a nation. The soil, everywhere fertile, is, up to a height of 6000 feet and more above sea-level, rich to super-abundance in all kinds of cereals— corn, rye, barley, oats, and the like; higher up are summer pasturelands, or " yailas," to give them their local name, of vast extant, clothed with excellent grass; in the valleys below ripen all the products of our own South-Europeau climate — vines, fruit-trees, maize, rice, tobacco, and varied cultivation, alternating with I forests unexceptionally the noblest that ■ it has ever been my chance to I see: ash, walnut, box-wood, elm, beech, oak, H fir, and pine. If to its above-ground riches ■ we add the metallic products of the land, prin- ■ cipally iron and copper, with not unfrequent ■ silver and lead, and also, I am informed, but ■ must speak with hesitation on a subject H where so much technical knowledge is re- I quired, coal; add also a pure and healthy ■ climate, averaging in temperature that of B Southern Germany; add perennial snows on fl the heights and abundant rains in the valleys, H whence flow down those great rivers, Chorook, ■ Araxes, Tigris, and Euphrates, with all their B countless tributaries and other watercourses ■ of less historic note, but of scarce lesß ferti- ■ lizing importance, some to seek the Black ■ Sea and the Caspian, some the Mediterranean ■ and the Persian Gulf ; all this, and we may ■ reasonably conclude that few portions of the BJ earth's surface are, natural resources con- flj sidered, better adapted for the habitation, in- ■ crease, and improvement of man. . . . .BJ Russian pressure on the north-east is fast ■ driving the Turkoman tribes, once settled in B further lands, into the space just described ; ■ the same pressure, of which we in Europe B can scarcely form an adequate idea, has B lately added a numerous, energetic, and in- B creasing population in the myriads of Cif- B casgians and their kin, expelled from their B native mountains to find here, across theß Turkish frontier, the toleration and existence ■ which jiussia persistently denies to her ownH non-Russian subjects. Persian anarchy, forHJ it is no better, supplies also its yearly quota BJ of emigrants, chiefly Turkoman ; while theß somewhat lax hospitality of Turkey receive«B| all these new forms of life within the boundsH of the empire, and allows them to combine^ and develop as much ap they choose. _ Andßj they are, in fact, now fast coalescing andßJ organizing themselves into a new nation. ' H

Electoral.— -Hie Honor the Superintendent has issued a writ for the return of a qualified person to serve as a member of the Provincial Council for the town of Lyttelton, in the room of Mr D. Davis. Dt Donald notifies that the nomination of candidates •will take place at the Resident Magistrate's Court, at noon, on Wednesday, the 3rd proximo. Volunteer General Committee. — A special meeting was to have been held at the Criterion Hotel last night for the transaction of important business, but the attendance being very small, the meeting was adjourned to Thursday next. The members present were : — Captain Lean (Chairman), Captain Hawkes, Lieutenant Papprill, Private Hebden, and Mr Tippetts (Hon. Sec). Latb Tbains.-— The following requisition to the Secretary of the Canterbury Railways is being extensively signed in Lyttelton: — " We the undersigned, inhabitants of Lyttelton, respectfully draw your attention to the great desirability of there being a late train from Christchurch to Lyttelton, at least twice every week. The inhabitants, under the present arrangements, are prevented from feeing present at public meetings, entertainments, and important matters of business, when transacted in the evening, by the great inconvenience entailed on them by having to stay in Christchurch all night. We feel assured that if arrangements were made for late trains it would meet the convenience and requirements of the inhabitants of the Port."