Local and General.

Western Star, Issue 346, 24 April 1880, Page 6

Local and General.

You must go to Tankeeland for a notion. There they have taken to combining the business of an auctioneer and undertaker, as the following extraordinary announcement from a recent issue of the Tuckville paper shows : —“ On Sunday, January 4, Maria Patience Higgins, beloved wife of Samuel Enoch Higgins, of Tuckville. The funeral will cake place to-morrow, at 4 p.m. Sympathising friends invited. The deceased’s personal clothing and effects will be sold in lo.ts on Saturday next. Taey consist of dresses, petticoats, improvers, lace stockings, shoes, new and half-worn paletots, clo.aks, wraps, chemisettes, night robes, stays, and petticoat bodies; also a set of false teeth, gold m muted, nearly now, having bpen but six; months in use. by the lamented; deceased; together with a fine lot of false hair, tooth brushes, nail rubbers, pomades, perfumes, powders, and a variety of toilette requisites too numerous, to mention. The. Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be, the name of the Lord. Amen. Note. —The late Mrs Higgins was well known, not o,uly as. an amiable and benevolent lady, but as one. of the best-dressed women, in, th,e S.tate. Ladies, will do well to attend h.er, sale, of effects, for. whi.h, alas! she has, no longer any use.”

The ponversiqn into a company of the \yell-known brewery business carried op at Burton-on-Trent under the style of Bass and Co., and Bass, Ratcliff, and Gretton, is announced. It was registered on the 31st January, with a capital of £3,200,000, divided into 32,000 shares of £IOO each. An agreement of 2-Itb ultimo regulates the purchase, which in? eludes freehold land, houses, breweries, plant, stock-in-trade, trade marks, goodwill, and other effects of the said business. The consideration for sale and transfer is £2,720,000, payable by the allotment of 82,000 shares, each of which is to be credited in the company’s books as paid up to the extent of £BS. The subscribers are the present partners~M. T. Bags, Richard Ratcliff, John Gretton, J. Spender Clay, M, A. Bass, Frederick Gretton, Robert Ratcliff, Charles J. Clay—who have subscribed the memorandum of association for one share each. The remaining shares will be allotted to them in the proportions of their existing capital. The capital and holdings of the present partners, who are the only directors, will be the same as before, and no change will be made in the management,

An inquest was lately held at the Sportman’s Inn, Tuustall, Yorkshire, on view of the bodies of Hannah Whitely, about 71 years of age, and Betty Whit T ley, about 79 years of age. The deceased, with three brothers, lived a retired life iq, the village of Tunstall. They held nq intercourse with the inhabitants of the place, and such were their habits that it was not known how they obtained a living. The male occupants of the house are of great age, and so infirm that they are unable tq do any heavy work. About two o’clock on the rqorniqg of the 2nd inst., the deceased Hannah, her sister Betty, and two of the brothers, were attending tq JBVancis, who was ill, Hanqah wq,s in the act of giving hirq some broth. She was standing on the hearth with her back to the fire, when her dress caught fire, the flames rising far above her fyead, Ifer sister B e t fc y and Willie took hold of her and endeavored to extinguish the flames. In doing so Betty caught fire and also her brother, whq succeeded in subdipug the flames, but not before they had beeu most seriously burnt. Hannah died qn the 3rd instant, and Betty qn the following day. The jury returned a verdict of “ Accidental burning.”

The “ Tirparu Herald” of yesterday says: —“During the p:\st few days the Waimate branch train has been accom-, plishing immense feats. It is a posiiive fact that qp Saturday morning last the jqprpey from Waimate Juuctiop to Wain mate, which is a little under five miles, was accomplished in forty-one minutes! I'his rate of speed so completely convulsed with fear two lady passengers that they got out near the High' street crossing and walked into town. What a contrast between that and a train in which a Yankee once travelled, which * flew past the telegraph posts along the line in such quick successiou that they looked like a tooth comb.’ Later on in the same day the same journey was performed just iii ap hour and twelve minutes, the iron, horse having to stop several times to, breathe.”

The churchwarden at a church at Napier, the other day, according t.o a contemporary, after making a collection, returned with two matches ip the plate as the result, of the “ tree-will offerings ”of the people. This, according to the “ Nelson Mail,” cap be “ matched ” by a case which occurredin Bishop S.ntor’s diocese the other, day* when the churchwarclen returned from his tour of the church with a bone sixpence.

A man of eccentric habits, named; Lyne (says the Bolton “Evening Q-aar-diau ”), recently died at Peeling sometime ago, that his dissolution was not fa,r distant he walked info, an undertaker’s shop and had himself measured for his. wooden suit. The coffin was prepared and embellished according to ; his own instructions, and paid for down on the nail, Lyne declining to be hurled on credit by the parish authp,rides. This piece of furniture having been constructed according to the directions of its yet living tenant, Lyne. wrote out his funeral cards, intimating the.day and date of his demise, and requesting the. attendance of his, friends. Everything being in readiness, for his death, the man quietly laid himself down and died. How he managed to die. if is difficult to sav, although, it is certain, th,e. man laid no violent hands, on himself.

In forty-seven Roman convenes, which have been, suppressed by the Piedmontese. Government, there have been, found no, less than Gp6,016. volumes, and in the religious houses which, are. under the protection of foreign, powers there are at, least 20,0Qp, more. And; these have been collected, by a people, whom we are. asked* to believe, are steeped in ignorance.—■_ “.Tablet.”' • • - .