Local & General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5134, 16 October 1884, Page 3

Local & General.

In the case of alleged larceny of £200 from Mr Bradley, of the Orari Hotel, heard yesterday at the Geraldine Resident Magistrate's Court, Inspector Broham said he had not sufficient evidence to sustain a primG. facie case against the prisoner, and the magistrate, Mr H. C. S. Baddeley, discharged him.

Government have refused to divide the annual grant for prizes at the meeting of the New Zealand Rifle Association, between the two Islands. A requisition is being largely signed in Sydenham, asking Mr W. White, junr., to come forward as a candidate for the office of Mayor of the Borough. During the fortnight ending Oct. 11, 14 patients were admitted into the Hospital, and 20 discharged, leaving 56 patients in the Institution. During the same period there were two deaths. For the corresponding period of last year the number of patients in the Hospital was 74. His Honor Mr Justice Johnston yesterday heard the evidence in the case Edwards, Bennett and Co. v. Piischel and another. At the close of the evidence, the argument on the law points was postponed till a motion i 3 made for judgment. At 5 o'clock the Court adjourned till half-past 10 to-day. The programme of sports to be held by the City Guards on Nov. 8 comprises bayonet drill, company drill, tug of war, boxing, fencing, flat and hurdle races and a number of other events. In the evening a dramatic entertainment will be given under the management of Mr R. F. Houlihan, who has secured the services of some of our well - known amateurs. The half-yearly meeting of the St Stephen's (Ashburton) parishioners was held on Tuesday evening last. Owing to the very bad weather there was but a poor attendance. The financial report showed a slight difference on the wrong side, but subscriptions yet to come in were expected to about square matters. Messrs Windsor and Venables were elected vestrymen. The pastor signified his intention of endeavouring, when at Synod, to obtain a grant in aid of the school at Trevorton. j Our Malvern correspondent writes : — ' On Monday and Tuesday the weather experienced in the Malvern district was of a very wintry character. Rain began to fall j early on Monday, and snow and hail con- I tinued until late on Tuesday night. The '. sheep of the district have suffered rather ; severely ; many ewes and lambs died during j the storm. — A meeting of the members of ; the newly-formed East Malvern Brass j Band was held in the schoolroom, Wad- : dington, on Tuesday evening. There was ; a good attendance, and after adopting the j rules drawn up by the Committee, the : , meeting decided to canvass the district for j subscriptions. A blue-eyed girl with fair hair may be seen ■ frequently cantering on a blood-horse near j Louisville. She is dressed in a gray habit, j with big brass buttons, and manages her steed boldly, with grace and the skill of a > supple wrist. As she careers by, gentle ! and simple salute her with an affectionate j interest. No wonder. They are southern • people ; and that is Julia, the only child of the once famous Southern leader, " Stonewall Jackson." Mrs Jackson is still living, and is demure and petite, with soft voice and courtly manners. Two men, who sold a painted sparrow on the pretence that it was a canary, have been sent to prison by the Lord Mayor of London for three months' hard labour. Two women, who were given the charge of three children and were proved to have starved and ill treated them, beaten them and reduced them to a frightful state of emaciation, have been sentenced, at the Middlesex Sessions, to one week s imprisonment and three months' hard labour, respectively. " It ia evident," says Mr Labouchere, "that in the eyes of the law it is more wicked to paint a sparrow and sell it as a canary than to half kill three children/ We wonder what they would have got if the men had painted a pig. The well-known greyhound Bonnie Belle, by Champagne Charley — Semaphore, i shortly after being let out of her h«nnel i last night, received severe injuries cvi- i dently from a very sharp instrument, as \ *the bone of the leg was cut right through, [ and just hanging by the skin. The services of a veterinary surgeon were called ! in, but they were of no avail, and he j ordered the animal to be destroyed, which j was immediately done. She was a very j handsome and well-bred slut, and will be i a loss to her owner. She was full sister to j Bohemian Girl, the winner of the Oaks, j in which stake Bonnie Belle won several j courses. j A public meeting, held at the re- J quest of the Mayor, took place in j the Lyttelton Colonists' Hall oh Tues- 1 day evening last, to arrange preliminaries in connection with the proposed Lyttelton Trades' Picnic. The following | were re-elected officers: — Messrs Milsom, j President; Holland, Hon Treasurer; and Brice, Hon Secretary. A number of names j were also added to the Committee. It was j decided that the picnic should be held on Feb. 12, but the question of locality was ' held over for discussion at the next meet- ! ing. The following were elected a sub- j Committee, to make the necessary pre- j liminary arrangements and report : — ; Messrs S. R. Webb, J. B. Milsom, W. ' Hatherly, T. Holland, J. H. Schmidt and : G. Ayers. A vote of thanks was passed to the Mayor, and the meeting adjourned. j The Ashburton '• dog fiend" has taken ! another of his periodical "outings," \ and the result is that vast numbers . of dogs are departing for the happy j hunting grounds. Dogs are dying from ; poison administered to them by some means ' or other while the animals were actually on the chain at their own kennels, and. yesterday and the day previous dying dogs were to be encountered all over the town. The Inspector of Nuisances for the Borough had no less than eighteen carcases of poisoned dogs buried yesterday. So long as the slaughter is confined to mongrels, useful only for devouring food, keeping neighbours awake on moonlight nights, and occasionally making a tilting snap at a passing horse's heels, there was no great harm done, but the majority of the animals destroyed unfortunately were valuable sheep dogs, and their destruction means a considerable loss to the shepherds and cattlemen who owned them. The usual weekly session of the Parliamentary Association was held last evening in the Provincial Government Chambers. There was a fair attendance of members and a considerable number of visitors present. One new member was elected ; and several names of gentlemen who had been elected to seats in the House, but who had failed to sign the roll, were ordered to be struck off the record of the House. A question, having reference to what in effect amounted to a charge of bribery and corruption on the part of the Postmaster-General, was put without notice by the member for Waitotara, and most indignantly denied by the member referred to. A Committee was appointed to revise the constitution of the House, and report before the end of the session. The second reading of the Female Franchise Bill was moved by the member for Auckland East (Mr Donnelly). In an eloquent and earnest speech, the hon member urged the claims of women to be enrolled as electors of this Colony, and was loudly applauded on resuming his seat. In the debate that followed, the subject was discussed from almost every conceivable standpoint, some capital speeches being delivered on both sides of the House. On a division being taken, the number who voted for the Bill was 25, and against 24, being a majority in favour of the second reading of one. The announcement of the result was received with cheers. The House then adjourned. Two gigantic engineering schemes (says a London paper) force themselves upon public attention. One is the proposal to pierce a railway tunnel through the Pyrenees, the convention for which has just been signed by the French and Spanish International Railway Commission. The other scheme is for the formation of a Company to construct an international railway connecting Europe with Persia, India, Burma-, and China. i The Colonial possessions of the Nether- ' lands rank next those of England ; in fact, ' Holland is the only State that resembles England, in the fact that her subjects ! abroad are more numerous than her citizens ' at Home. Neither the Colonial possessions ; of France nor Spain contain 10,000,000, whereas the King of the Netherlands rules over 20,000,000 subjects in the East. \ The Queen of England has received an elephant as a token of friendship from King John of Abyssinia.

The plague of rata reported by telegraph from Nelson has been experienced also at Picton, where a late visitor (says a Wanganui paper) stated he had killed nearly 100 whilst out for an afternoon stroll, attended by three fox terriers. The rats are quite a distinct breed from those infesting this and other waterside towns, being a much smaller animal, with almost black skins. They seem to be identical with the indigenous animal which has long since been supposed to bo extinct in many parts of the Colony, owing, it is said, to the hostility of the Norwegian invader, whose depredations in this town and district are at times most annoying. The rats at Picton seem to come down from the hills, and are said to do so only when very severe weather is experienced, being probablj starved out by their ordinary food supplies getting covered up by snow. They do not affect the houses of the settlers, but content themselves in the fields, where they do a lot of damage to young crops, the succulent tops of which they seem very partial to. j The Duke of Manchester, who has been visitingthe Northern Territory of Australia, j had to submit to the inevitable banquet on i his departure, and took advantage of the occasion to thus deliver himself r — He had j come from England especially to see the j Northern Territory. Its fame had first j reached his ears when in Queensland in 1881. Its geographical position, natural | advantages, and facilities for trade with j Asia and the East across smooth seas, had j convinced him that Port Darwin would ultimately be an important port of communication with England and Europe. When he heard that South Australia intended to commence a transcontinental railway to Port Darwin, he was confirmed in the opinion that that port would shortly become a port for the arrival and departure of Colonial mails and passengers. The railway would enormously advance their interests, increase the population, give facilities . for trade, and assist the development of the mineral and pastoral districts. Before his visit he thought Queensland the best portion of Australia. He now considered, judging from the country he had visited, that the Northern Territory was superior to Queensland. The vegetation was richer, the grass was thicker and of a mor« permanent character, and the country was better watered. He considered the Northern Territory the best watered country he had ever seen — better even than Huntingdonshire in summer, which was one of the wettest Counties in England. He had seen immense lagoons which, after being four months without rain, were still full, evidencing, perennial supplies, evidently springs. There was one waterhole on the slope of a hill above the level of the plain, proving that it was not drainage. It was clear and beautiful as an Irish holy well. He had a very vague idea of the mineral wealth of the territory, and was surprised at the extent of the mineral country, which was rich in minerals. The Territorians had every reason to be proud of their adopted home. An English doctor has tried to count the number of hairs on the human head. Taking a fairly hirsute head he found the numbe'.' of hairs on a square inch of surface to be 1066. This he estimated would give 127,920 for the whole head, while more thickly clad heads might have 150,000 hairs. At a fire which broke out recently in a house in Water street, New York, two of the inmates vvere burnt to death, and five others were badly injured, the police and firemen with difficulty rescuing them from the roof. There recently came to Melbourne, as one of a very large excursion party, a farmer who had had an uninterrupted 30 years' residence in the wilds of Wimmera. Thirty long years had passed away since the old man gazed upon the sea. Since the time he left the ship, which " landed in Melbourne," he had never seen the bowsprit of a vessel. Hia children had grown up to man's estate, and his oldest son was thinking about getting married, but up to now had never been outside his bush circle. The national debt of the United States now amounts to 1,446,05G,946d015, the decrease in July having been 3,993,289d015. The severe cyclones which recently raged in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kansas, caused great damage, 12 persons being killed and 16 others injured by lightning and falling buildings. I A boy, 11 years of age, found a shell on the sands at Calais, and on taking it up to unscrew it the projectile burst, shattering both the child's legs. He shortly after- | wards succumbed to his injuries.