NEWS IN BRIEF

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1816, 29 July 1891, Page 5

NEWS IN BRIEF

The Rev. George Tufnell, the rector of Little Eiston, appears to hive been a man of independent mind, lc it* related that on one occasion when the Prince of Wales waa on a visit to Eiston Lodge it was intimated to Mr Tufnell that His Royal Highness would attend the service at the church on Sunday morning, and it waa suggested that the proceedings should bo somewhat shortened. Mr Tufnell declined to take the hint, saying that he had his orders from a heavenly prince, and that he saw no reason for Bhorteuing the worship of Gid because of the presence of an earthly prince. H's Royal Highness went to the cnurch, listened to a seivicd of the cut>tomary length, and was so p'eased with the rector that he txpressed » wish to be iutroduc-d r.o him. An old Aucklander, Mr H. E. Braboz >n, builder and contractor, nowre»iding in Melbourne, having seen republished in tbe Melbourne ' Age ' the remarks of Mr A Porter, chairman of the Auckland Chambei of C< mmerce. on the exodus of the population from New Zealand, writes to thai gentleman on the subject. He says :— '' Theie are to-day over 20,000 people here in Australia who a few years ago were living in New Zealand, and who then (ISS6 87 and succeeding years) were forced to leave and face a new couutry, or a worse fate, by remaining in a new country where a'l public works were stopped, and a huge tltfieit staring them in the near future. My three yean>' experience in Australia hbß proved to me tlut the New Zealand people j cm hold their own with the Australians; and to-day, in nearly all the outlying townc, are to be found New Zealand families eettltd and doing fairly well, and, 'although th< y often talk of going back, my bp<nion ia that the statement ia quite as sound as when we hear people wishing themselveß in Paradise. They always prefer to remain here a little longer, bo as to defer the evil d»y. The efficient manner ia whioh the New Zealand born are educated fi's them fur any other colony but that in which 'they are trained, and it will be bo until you have industrial centres throughout New Zealand to give work to the rising generation, and c 4onial manufactured gooda to those who require them." An order issued by the Duke of Cambridge aholißhing O ange Lodgts in battalions appliea to the army generally. A correspondent of the Wellington ' Press' writes to say that he has been observing the sun lately, and has never seen it »■> covered with spots as now. There are five large groups visible, each including many spot*. General Booth, head of the Salvation Army, is due in Auckland about October 2 ». General Harrison does not propose to contest; the Presidency again, Mr Deigbton, for seventeen years re idrnt magistrate and Government agent at the Chathaniß, is to be retired on pension. He has been in the G vernment service for about forty years. According to the • Argus, ' the deficit shown by the Victorian Budget will be fully a million. In connection with the railways there haa been an uiilooked for expenditure of L 2 71,450, the revenue returns are short by L 45.000, and there has been a loss in other ways of L 245 000. These items make up a sum of L 56 1,450, and, with L 600,000 which has to be provided tor "recoups," a total deficiency of L 1,161,450, 161,450 is shown. It ! would be a difficult matter indeed to save this sum by farther retrenchment, and, as there is already a btrong feeling among members of Pailiament against the stoppage ! of public works, a proposal for fresh taxatiou of some kind may be anticip ited. It ! is understood that up to the present Treasurer Munro haa looked only to retrench- j ment to accomplish hia object of makiiig revenue meet expenditure, but that he now feels compelled to consider some method of increasing tbe revenue. An amuaing instance of false economy is reported from Palmorßton North. A wealthy resident, who holds the middleman in particular abhorrence, sent to Wellington for 51b of dynamite. The price in Welling ton was 2t 31 per lb as against 2i 6d in Palmerston ; but, as there is a t-peuial tariff' for thia class of goods on the Wellington and Manawatu line, the freight amounted to 11s. To make matters worse, the Railway Commissioners will not carry dynamite on their trains at all, bo that the economical gentleman had to send a messenger to Longburn for his explosive*. The mortality of London last year exceeded that of any of the previous five years. Dißguised to a considerable extent under other names, there i? reason to believe that influenai was actively at work in augment- j ing the London death rate, and the conclu- ] Bioii is arrived at tha' considerably more than 2,000 deaths were due to that malajy in the first four weeks of 1890. , In a recent address on the deftness of ' Australia, General Tulloch, commanding the Victorian force", aaid : " New Z-a'and I ; have not yet sten. lam informed, howover, the forts and War material are ample, but that there is really no organisation at all worth mentioning of the land forces. The matter seems to have been fully discussed in the debates on the Estimates, when it was seriously bUggesttd that it would be better and more economical to pay an indemnity to an ebefry than to fight him. It may be int-enstiog to know that in the intelligence department of every European nation the colonies and possessions of every Power are, so to say, under charge of certain sections of the department, whose duty it is to make a complete prids not only «f all the defenoe arrangements, but also of everything conneoted with each colony or State, ino'udirg schemes of attaok under var> ing conditions, All thia i* supplemented by reports from tpeoial fffijers detailed for the purpose, who quietly visit foreign countries Now, the ÜBual way of keeping tbete prtcis of information complete up to date is to examine the columns of the colenial newspapers, the principal journals •/ which are regularly placed in the hands oi the officers of the different sections, and extracts or cuttings made from them. Unquestionably, by this time, the condition ot everything relating to the New Zealand defenoes are well known in the Continental intelligence departments, and also a note made of the proposition to pay an indemnity instead of resisting." The result of the recent trial of brakes in Sydney is that the Commissioners have decided to fit goods trains with the Westinghouse brake, at a cost of LIOO,OOO. Passenger trains are already supplied,

rfJly * landslip- in Vancouver Island; the village of Nandieno was destroyed. Fortyone parsons were killed and miny others seriously hurt. A cable message to an Australian paper, dated London, 28th June, but which was not forwarded on to this colony, says that " the private trial of a new pneumatic gun, the invention of an English engineer, took place at Manchester yesterday, in the presence of a large assemblage of artillery officero, and proved completely successful, The gun, which is noiseless, and does not recoil, is fired with a compressed air cartridge. The invention is considered by exerts to surpass iff every way the Ztlinski tfUO." Speaking at the annnal meeting of the South Worcester Liberal Association' at Evesham, Lord Spencer said that according to present indications the Liberals would j not only be placed in power at the next general election, but Would also have an ample ma j >rity for carrying all the measures they desiieii. These included the disestablishment of the Cnuich in Wales and Scotland, electoral reform, the development of local government, including, the establishment of parish couueils, and the extension "f allotment and small holding systems. Foremoßf;, however, was the question of Home Rule. In his speech at the opening of Parliament the King of Tonga said :— " You all know that my Government was heavily indebted to foreign countries, and we should return thank 8 to God that we have discharged these debts. The Sydney • Morning Herald ' remarks in this connection that it " would he a phenomenon to find Australian statesmen 3 'ining in such ascriptions of praUe for the p»>tnent of our debts, or, for the matter of thai-, reoogßining that there is any room U'V the existence of a pious spirit in connection w ith our State obligations ac all. -In fact, the gratitude of colonial statesmen ia cv k»d rather by success in mm easing the public debt " In the Victorian Legislative Assembly a we« k or so ago quite a storm of indignation was vented on the management of the railways. "^Jever," declared Mr Bent, member for Biightnn, •* never have our railways been so badly managed, and not a man in the whole colony can truthfully say that a BiDg'e improvement has been introduced in the management of a single line," Another member demanded of the Minister ot Railways a promise that certain alterations of service he desired ahou'd be made at once. " I cannot lift my little finger to have even a bit of putty put on a carriage window," replied the Minister. Members demanded to know how long the Minister of Railways intended to allow Mich an unsatisfactory frtatn-of things to last, and this drew from Mr Shit- Is tne assurance that bis amending Bill would contain adtquate proposals for effecting a change. At a North Adelaide hot* I there is a rule ♦bat any person using bad language in the bar, and every person having a Sunday drink, should contribute a coin to the Children's Hospital box. The result is a gain to the hospital of about L 2 10a each month. Toe Chilian insurgent steamer Etata has been given bail. The amount was fixed at 160.000d0J. She leaves San Dirgo for San Francisco to effect repairs. A deliberate attempt ban been made ac Valparaiso to destroy the Government Beefc» but the perpetrators were discovered. President Kalmnceda ordered the immediate shotting of ten of their. Tne expult-ion of Jewish artisai s from St. Petersburg has been pnntponed, Frederick P< Hen was fined LlO and costs (L 6 odd) for crossing the railway line in front of a train at Auckland. At Napier, John D. Mickay potted three newspapers on which he put stamps already defaced. He added to that folly another aid signed hia name on the newspapers, which enabled him to be prosecuted. He was fined Ics and 42-) coats. The 'Alliance News' stare*, on the authority i.f its secretary (Rev. J. H. Bateson) that the Army Temperance Asbooiation in India now numbers 17,500 members, all tot»l' abstainers. The champion mean man has turned up in Adelaide, where he was recently mmmoned for L 4 16 i for the funeral expenses of bis wife. He actually pleaded that he only married the woman till death, and that as Boon as the breath was nut of her body she had no further claim on him ! Of course, the plea didn't avail. Earl Jerfey stated publicly at Sydney the other day that the Roman Catholic Church set a good example, as to a Urge extent she undertook 'he education of all the ohildren of that faith at her own txpenie. Some 30,000 children wtre now being educated in that way in New South Wa)es, and he congratulated ftemon the success of the movement. In France a tnrdtcil man cannot' be compelled to divulge, even in a law court, the nature of the disease for which he has ; treated a patient. 1 The Tonic Sol-fa' Jubilee will be celebrated on a big scale in the Old Country this month. At the Crystal Palace three choirs of 5,000 voices each are to sing — a juvenile choir ia the morning, choristers from the Provinces in the afternoon, and a London adult choir in the evening. There will also be a mass concert by 20,000 voices in tbe gronn.de during the day. A special jubilee Bervioe is to be held at St. Paul's Cathedral, and smaller demonstrations are to be made all over the country. According to the recent census, the popalation of tbe principal cities and towns of England is— London, 4 211,056; Liverpool, 518,000 ; Manchester, 505 300 ; Birmingham, 429,200 ; Leerfs. 367 500 ; Shtffield, 324,200; Bristol, 221 700 ; Bradford, 216 300 ; Nottingham. 212.000; Salford. 198,100; Newcastle. 188,300 { Hull, 183.800; Portsmouth, 159,200; Leicester, 142,100; Oldham, 131.500; Sunderiand, 130.900 ; Cardiff., 128 900 ; Blackburn, 120,100 ; Brighton, 115,400 ; Bolton, 115,000: Preston, 107,600; Norwich. 100 900; Birkenhead, 99,200; Hud-deri-field, 95.400; Derby, 94 100; Plymouth, 84 200; Halifax, 82,900; Wolverhampton, 82 600. Tbe Irish census returns bear out (sayß a, I oontemporary) the pathetic* comment of am lii*h writer, that "every ten years the Government put their finger on the dying pulse of tbe Irish nation to count the waning number of the heart throbs." The.population of Ireland '-«> years ago was 8,196,527 ; to-day it is 4 706,162. Dublin's population is 273,282, showing an increase of only 5.600) in ten yearn, whi'e in the same time Belfaafe added 51,455 to hers, whioh now stands at 221.600 In Cork and Limerick there has been w holefale depopulation. A remarkable service was. held on May 31 at Cambridge Uuiversity. Upon Clara Hall Pi«oe were » baud of undergraduate drawn from the various colleges in the Uuiveruty, ergtted in an evange>listij mission. They w«re in strict attire with, cap and gowo. This noteworthy gathering, said to he the first that has been held under similar circumstances, attracted a good many of the townspeople, who took part in the singing of the hymns with which tbe address were inter* pei>ed. The method adopted was evidently copied from trie Salvation Army. Tne men stood in a ring, and one after the other went into the centm and addressed those around them. There> were about fifty taking an active part ia this open-air service, and all of them finej, athletic, manly young fellowp.