LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3177, 19 April 1871, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

« The Mall News — Owing to the lato hour at which tho Phoebe arrived last night, and notwithstanding that the full staff of the Post Office used the utmost despatch in sorting the letters and papers, wo could not get our American files soon enough to present our readers with much fuller news than has already appeared in our telegraphic columns. The most, important commercial intelligence, however, we had telegraphed from Nelson at an early hour last night, which will bo found elsewhere. Me Bhannigan, wo understand, was a passenger by the Pho.be last night. Captain Kennedy. — It was rumored on the Beach last night that Captain Kennedy had beon ofFerod the captaincy of the s.s. Wellington. The General Assembly has been described as " rotten to the core." This remark, if applied to some supporting pillars bared by the alterations now going on, ia strictly true. We saw some timber yesterday, which crumbled into powder at the slightest pressure. Apropos of this decay, a member of the Upper i House, a donizeu of Wellington, well-known for his sarcastic wit, mado a very good conundrum, which may not be generally known. — " Why is Hansard like the House of Assembly ? Because it is full of dry rot." Land Transfer Act.— The anxiety of tho Christchurch people to have brokers appointed under the Land Transfer Act, may be inferred from (he fact that no fewer than fifteen, gentlemen having found the necessary securities and paid tho fees, have beon licensed as brokers In Timaru, we under-tan d, Mr Moorhouse has admitted six ; and at Oamaru, and Dunedin, whither ho goes next, numerous applications await him. Gymnasium.— Wo mentioned in a recent issue that the managing committee who have taken in hand to re-establish the (Wellington Gymnasium were going about their work in such a manner as to leave little doubt of their speedy success. We are glad to learn we only did them the credit which they deserve. Judging from the success they met with on th ir first day's canvassing, the building will soon be in process of erection. Shares representing £120 were taken up yesterday, so that there can be little difficulty in obtaining shareholders to take up the remaining £180 — the whole cost not being estimated at moro than £300. Mr Halcombo, Mr Pearce, and other members of the Provinchl Council, have promised their assistance to obtain tho grant of a site on the Reclaimed Land ; and \ery few members, we should imagine, will bo found to oppose such a trilling donation for so useful an object. Iho Government, however, will not be asked for tho land until the £300 necessary for tho erection and appointment of the building has been raißed. Though tho actual cost of the erection will not probably exceed £270, the other £30 will bo required to lay on gas and water. From tho fact that the various volunteer corps ot the city have promised to contribute an annual sum for the use of the gymnasium as a drill shod, and tho certain income sure to arise in tbe ordinary way, tho committee calculate upon being ablo to pay four-filths of the receipts as dividends to shareholders. Messrs Bannatyne and Pearce have kindly I consented to act as trustees for the ground As an inducement to tako shares a bonus of ! 12$- per cent will be ullowod, bo that by a person becoming both a subscriber am 3 shareholder he will effect the saving of his subscription money. Anotiikk Accident.— The " Chronicle" of the 15th says : — Two men commenced a wrestling bout yesterday evening in Mr Rapley'o yard. They aye males, and there was net a particle of bad humor in the encounter, bufc it fnrecl budly with one of t.hem, who fell, nnd wo are sorry to say, bioko his leg. Ho w_9 conveyed to the Hospital, where he now lies. Tiie Suez Mail Sehvick.— Tho entire cost for 1869 to the Australian colonies of tho Suez mail, waa £94,438 10s. Tkaction Engines. — In Victoria the proposal has been mooted to form a steam-cariuge company, with a capital of £25,000 in £1 shares, for carrying goods between the seaboard and the termini of tho railways by means of traction engines. Tuon in South Australia. — The "Adelaide Obßervor" says : — Ahout six miles from Port Victor, in tho direction of Mount Jagged, on Crown lands, there are thousands of tons of ironstone, immense blocks cropping out of the ground. A Bample, estimated at 65 to 70 per cent, has been left at tho "Observer" oflice by Mr Born, junr.

Our Cricket Ground.— The cricket season being over, our cricketers, wo hear, are about to apply their energies towards having tho new ground completed and made worthy of the city. We wish them all success. Everybody admits that our own local clubs deserve a much better ground than the present miserable makeshift. A moderate sum judiciously expended would make a groat difference for next seaßon. Why don't they endeavor to get a pavilion erected? "Coming events cast their Bhadows before," and wo are much mistaken if we do not see some important matches played in Wollington next year. A Western Hotel Stoby.-- Juafc as a traveller was writing his name on the register of a Leavenworth Hotel, a bedbug appearedand took its way across the page. The man paused and and remarked : " I've been bled by St. Joe fleas, bitten by Kansas City spiders, and interviewed by Fort Scott grcybacka, but I'll be blowed if I was ever in a place beforo^ where tbe bedbugs looked over the hotel register to find out whore your room was !" The Cooper's Creek Whitefei,_ow. — Tho Warrego correspondent of the " Pastoral Times" writes :— " With regard to tho white man said to be living with the blacks beyond Cooper's Creek, I havo nofc seen Mr SubInspector Gilmour personally since he camo in from his first expedition in search of tbis man, but I have heard that Mr Gilmour is quito convincod of tbo truth of the report, and tho Queensland Government havo forwarded six months' supplies fco one of fche stations furthest out in that direction and have enjoined Mr Gilmour to prosecute the search whilo he sees tho slightest probability of success. He lef. the police station on the Bullo some time ago with a party of tho native police under his command." Progress or the Fiji.— Tho exports for 1870 from the Islands amounted to £92,000 sterling, and the increase of population was 716. SnakeAntidote.— ln theMolbourno " Telegraph," referring to the possibility of an antidote being found in the snake itself, some ono says : — " Over thirty years sinco, in conversing with a South Australian aboriginal, and asking him what be would do if bitten by a snake, ho gavo me to understand -hut ho would eat the snake to cure the effects of tho bite. I havo also heard of the samo remedy at various times amongst tho blacks, and it may be worth remembering." Short Hours.— A monument costing £300 has been erected by the Trades Association in tho Melbourno Cemetry to the memory of Mr Galloway, tho originator of tho eight hours movement. About two thousand attendod a recent eight hours demonstration iv Hydo Park, Sydney. Beet Sugar Manufacture. — Ontheauthority of M. G-ramont, tho Secrotary of tho Sacramento Beet Sugar Company, tho " Alta California" has the following in referonco to the beets grown in that country, viz :— " That tbeir highest sugar value is in August, before the annual rise of the springs. He reiterates this fact. Tested in August, the Sacramento beefs gavo 12 por cent of BUgar on low land, and 14 per cent on upland. Afc this time (October) they have lost fully one-half tbo sugar they had in August, and it is his opinion fchat this loss will nofc be regained. The company funis it. unprofitable to mill thorn at this timo ; but faith is expressed that in Decomber the beets may regain their lost sugar according fco tho theory we ventured to enunciate. It should be observed fchat the Sacramento boots had very scant cultivation ; and thafc they havo outgrown the medium size that is best for sugar. Tho large beets we like to boast of must be checked of their redundancy, proba bly by close planting Possibly the big boet has as much sugar, but ifc is distributed through moro bulk, and therefore tho per centage is less- in proportion to the weight of raw beet. M. Gramont's idea is that, in California, beets for sugar should be gathered in August. But Messrs Bonesfcal and Otto, of Alvarado, aver that their beets show no such loss of sugar as these of Sacramento. So that wo may await further experience to prove if this be a local or a general peculiarity. M. Gramont is, meantime, set right with his company, and whichever theory is correct the fact is clear fchat California is destined to bo a sugai country. [European experience confirms that of M. Gramont.] Meat Preserving and Life Assurance — An English journal bus fche following amusing speculations on combining the interests of meat- preserving and life assurance : — "The 'Lancet' says fchafc Dr Stein, of Dresden, whilo lecturing latoly on the preservation of food, opened a tin canister of meat preserved by what is known as Apert's method, and prepared by him in 1851. The meat, on examination, it is stated, was found to be as fre-.i and of as good a flavor as when placed in the canister 19 years previously. It is well worth consideration whether Apert's method might nofc be mado use of by the cautious as a substitute for the ordinary mode of lifo insurance. A man with only a life income, instead of paying £100 a year to an insurance office which may perhaps find itßelf unable to meet ifcs engagements, might expend that sum annually in preserving meat by A peri's method, and on his death bequeath to each of his children and to his wifo tins of mutton sufficient to socuro fchem afc least against starvation for many years to cime ; indeed, a prosperous man who had the good luck to live to an old age might havo tho satisfaction before he died of feeling that he had stored away in tins flocks and herds enough not only to provide for his own children, bufc also for his descendants to the third or fourth generation." Jockeying the Publicans — An Australian Jockey Club, that of Wanguratta, passed tho following resolution, a copy of which his been forwarded to nil owners of horses about, to run at the ensuing meeting: — That each racehorse owner be informed hy the secretary in writing that their horses will bo disqualified if they put up afc the premises of a publican who does Dot. subscribe £2 2s per annum to ihe club ; also, if their horses are shod afc any blacksmith's shop whose own r docs not sub scribe £1 Is per annum to t.ho funds of the club, they will be disqualified.