LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIII, Issue 9456, 23 July 1881, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Hunt Club. — An important ineeting of the Committee of this Club -will be held this evening at the Victoria Hotel. Madame Lotti Wilmot. — Madame Wilrnot will lecture at the Princess Theatre to-morrow evening on " His Majesty the Devil." Quartz. — Some important discoveries of auriferous quartz are reported as having been made in the neighbourhood of Naseby, in Otago. Otago Central Railway. — The Otago people entertain some hopes that Messrs Brogden may be induced to go on with the construction of the Otago Central Eailway on certain terms offered by the Government. Occidental Hotel. — Mr T. W. Ferry has taken the premises adjoining the Occidental Hotel, and is altering them for the reception of a fine new billiard table, which he has just received from Wellington. Churton's College. — We learn that Mr H. Churton has determined to plant the grounds of the Maori college with trees and shrubs. The work is to be commenced at once, and no doubt the appearance of the grounds will be much improved in a year or so. Hunting. — The meet to-day will take place at 2.30 p.m., at Wangaehu. Next Tuesday the hounds will be taken out to Marton, and a run will take place over the estate of Mr Gower. In addition to the usual drag hunt, there will probably be a run after a hare. It is expected that lovers of the old sport will muster in full force, as this promises to be one of the best meets of the season. Rinking. — The attendance at .the rink last night was very good, all the skates being kept going merrily during the whole evening, and the seats being fully occupied by spectators. The fine Band of the City Rifle Volunteers went through a programme of lively music in a highly creditable manner, adding much to the enjoyment of the proceedings. A Good Pay. — Mr Josiah Boothby who, it will be remembered, was appointed Commissioner for South Australia at the Paris Exhibition, and who left the Government service through a misunderstanding in regard to his expenses while in France, has lately made a very successful speculation, and has sent his creditors notice that he will pay them 20s in the pound. The sort of man I am. — It may not be generally known that we have in our quiet little town an eminent professor of the fistic art at large, and, as the Americans say, "on his muscle." He gathered a little knot of admirers round him at Hallenstein's corner ilast night, and taking off his coat and hat informed them that he was "Billy, the butcher-boy who had fought a two hours' battle in Australia, and who would knock slops out of any six men in the town if they would give him a fanfield." He added that he was a " good all-round man, and could sing a song, dance a breakdown, or handle a cue with any man in the three Kingdoms." Such talent should not remain unrecognised. He would form a valuable addition to the next Variety Company that comes this way. Pantograph. — We have been shown a very ingenious contrivance, bearing this name, for which a large sale is now being obtained by a Wellington firm. The object of the machine is the enlargement of pictures, and its operation is something like that of the planimeter, a well-known surveyor's instrument. The pantograph is made of four strips of wood, jointed together like a hat-rack. The end of one side is fastened to the table, while a pencil is fixed in a hole at the end of the other cross-piece. The lines of the picture are traced over by a oint at the opposite end of the framework, and the pencil marks an enlarged copy on a sheet of white paper which is laid alongside the copy. This instrument only costs 2s 6d, and while it will prove of immense service to the professional man, it will also be an interesting and amusing addition to the playthings of juveniles. Lead-headed Nails.— Messrs Miller and Keesing have lately introduced a new industry to Wanganui, which has already proved a very remunerative one, and the demand for its product is daily increasing. It is the making of leadheaded nails for securing corrugated iron without using washers. A semispherical ball of lead is attached to the head of an ordinary 3-inch wire nail in such a manner that when the nail is driven the blows of the hammer flattens out the lead and fills up the jagged edges of the hole in the iron, rendering the roof perfectly watertight. The process of making these nails is a very ingenious yet simple one, and Messrs Miller and Keesing are able to turn out a large quantity in a few hours. Similar nails are made in Wellington, but we understand they are not so good, as the lead does not fit closely to the head of the wire-nail, and splits when driven. Messrs Miller and Keesing are now exporting a large quantity of these nails to Wellington and other New Zealand ports. Parihaka. — One of the curiosities of Parihaka, which is sure to attract the attention of visitors, is the operation of cutting up a lump of greenstone (pounamu) into suitable pieces for making meres, tikis, &c. The block is about 12 inches in diameter, and the cutting tool used is a number of whes set in a wooden frame like an American bucksaw. This saw is dragged backwards and forwards over the stone by one Native while another stands at the other side and throws sand into the grooves caused by the wires, and water also drops into them from a perforated kerosene tin which hangs overhead. The 'Maoris seem to think that the keeping of the saw in continual motion is a religious duty. There is always a knot of about 50 of them squatted round the workmen and when the man who is driving the saw tires he rings a small bell, which is kept handy, and another immediately relieves him. This work has been going on for about three months and is now nearly completed, as there is only about an inch more of the stone to be cut through. It is said that the articles to be formed out of these ponamu slices are to be an offering to Te Whiti. Remarkable Escape. — A most sensational and remarkable escape of a convict was made from the penitentiary of Goldsborough, N.C., on the morning of April 3. Kitchen Ginn and another convict were sick in the same cell, and on April 2 Ginn's companion died. The body, after being neatly shrouded, was placed in the coffin, and the undertaker went out to get dinner, leaving Ginn in the cell with the dead man. As soon as the door had been locked, Ginn got out of bed, took the dead man out of the coffin and placed him in the bed, carefully covering him, and then got, into^the coffin himself. In an hour afterwards the burial party came in, and placing the coffin in a wagon, drove off to the Potter's Field. Before they reached the place Ginn began rolling about in thr coffin and making noises, which so frightened the burial party that they ran away whereupon Ginn Uf ted the coffin lid and escaped.