GENERAL NEWS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1022, 8 March 1884, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

The " Herald's" correspondent at Hokianga reports that one of his dogs had hydrophobia, and on making the discovery he killed it. The symptoms were unnatural protrusion of the eyes and foaming at the mouth.

Explorations recently begun and still in active prosecution indicate that the little frequented district of Holder ness in Yorkshire, England, may yet become celebrated for its exhumed lake dwellings and their relic*. The district was undoubtedly once characterised by numerous lakes, but the sole water space now remaining is Ronsea Mere, a broad sheet more than a mile in length. Relics of lake dwellings have hitherto been sought without marked success in England, and the present discoveries are regarded with great interest by archaeologists.

The " Auckland Herald" suggests that the entire King country should be proclaimed as a territory for ever excluded from the operation of the Licensing Act. It draws a picture of the result in future ages:— "The sanctity of that territory would be inviolable for ever. It would be a very city of refuge to many thousands of men and women, who, however, debased and brutalised, could become worthy and prosperous members of society if freed from the temptation of drink. It would be a terrestrial paradise. Is it not worth an effort to have one great area of fertile and promising territory, capable of supporting a large and thriving population, made sacred to many homes for ever V

"Figaro" says : — I heard of a curious instance of rustic ignorance the other day. A young yokel had been engaged to make himself generally useful in a country house, and the day after his arrival his mistress took him into the green-house, pointed out to him a hanging-lamp, and desired him to take it down and clean it. " But I can't reach 'un mum !" he exclaimed, after vain attempts to reach up to it. "Of course you can't, John," replied his mistress, " you want a kitchen chair !" and with the same she went away and left him. Ten minutes later, returning to the green house, she found John still under the lamp and staring at it sleepily " Well !" she exclaimed, " whatever have you been doing 1 Didn't I say you wanted a kitchen chair V " Yes mum," replied the boy in perfect good faith, " and I've been a waitin' year whilst you fetched 'un !"

He was telling the story in the billiardroom of aDenven hotel. Said he : There were three of us you see, and Nevada was a cold climate for us. We were dead broke, half starved, and clean discouraged, when along c.ime a New Yorker. He wouldn't play cards, wouldn't be robbed, and we couldn't stick htm with forged laud patents or bogus pre-emptions. One day we trailed out and dug a hole into a hill and salted it a bit, and it' shed back and offered the New Yorker the big discovery for 3000 d< >llars cash down . "And he bit t" " Took right hold like a pair of pincers. Why, he never even stopped to beat us down. We got a cool thousand apiece, and made for 'Frisco." " Purty cool was that." "Well I dunno. If there was anything cool in that transaction it was the way that New Yorker hunted up a pard, set miners to work, bought maohinery, and took over 750,000 dollars out of that 'ar hole inside of eight months ! Maybe we got over feeling flat, but I guess not."

A few years ago, " Punch," alluding to the cosmopolitan nature of the sons of the Emerald Isle, stated that an Irishman would be found sitting on the top of the South Pole- enjoying himself in smoking 1 out of his favorite dhudeen. The able correspondent of the London " Standard " with Baker Pacha's army in Souakim, December 26th, writes thus :—ln: — In Afghanistan, the Indian sowars could hardly contain their delight as our troops entered the town. The advent at Souakim of the numerous British men-of-war is producing on those here a similar effect. Amongst the crowd were not many soldiers, for these were all on parade, awaiting the inspection of Sartorious Pacha. Meeting, however, a somewhat fine-look-ing Turkish mounted officer, clad in iez, Stambouli tuuic. and boots, I instructed my interpreter to ask him in Arabic some directions as to our road. The answer was given with a gracious smile in good Tipperary- English, and we at once found that we had met one of the English noncommissioned officers, whom Baker Pasha has enrolled, in the gendarmerie, in Oriental gqjs,e. This gallant Tipperary Irishman not allow us to part without having a glass of real old Dublin whisky, and drinking to the toast of " God save |re« }md." Why is a kiss like a rumour ? Beoauae , it passes, from, mou.th to mouth.