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Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 936, 7 May 1883, Page 2

The Fenstanton lias now 5,000 carcases of sheep on board. Mr Thomson, M.H.R. for Clutha, is lecturing his constituents on “ Poverty.”

Further cases of stack burning are reported from Southland, and incendiarism is suspected. The Auckland auctioneers, at the request of 300 farmers, have agreed to adopt the American system of selling stock at per lb live weight. A woman was arrested on Friday night who was found lying in a dirty ditch in South Dunedin, with an infant in her arms. Had she not been dis overed, the infant would no doubt have been smothered.

This curious story occurs in Lts Mondes of December 16 A man who was very close to a tree struck by lightning asserts that he was saved by crouching close to the ground and covering himself with a woollen umbrella. He was enfolded in flames and completely electrified, but received no hurt.

In the year 1784 eight bales of cotton grown in the United States were sent to England, where, upon arrival, they were seized and condemned by order of the Privy Council, on the ground that so large an amount of cotton could not possibly have been ra ; sed in America. This year the cotton crop of the United States will not be far from 7,000,000 bales. A story is told of how a Hawera tradesman was doubly ‘'sold” the other day. He was receiving goods out of a earner's wagon, when the carrier remarked, pointing to the mud, “ Did you drop that sovereign 1” Tradesman, sniffing a joke and anxious to show his sharpness — “ Yes, but you may have it.” The carrier took him at his word, and picked up a sovereign, much to the chagrin of the man of commerce.— Star.

At the inquest on the body of John Wyllie, found dead in a wool-shed on the Belmont station, Southland, the j ;ry returned a verdict that deceased committed suicide while temporarily insane A letter found showed that he intended to shoot himself, and he has lately been heard to complain that people had a down on him on account of the part he was supposed to have taken in the death of William Cairn, who was found dead under similar circumstances near the same place some months ago.

The body of the late Professor Walker was buried at Auckland on Saturday with Masonic honors. After service in the Masonic Hall, where the body had been lying since its recovery, the procession proceeded to the Anglican cemetery. The procession was half a mile in length. The chief mourners were Sir G. M. O’Rorke, Chairman of the University Council, and Rev. Thos. Buddie. Mr Pennefather represented His Excellency the Governor. The succeeding carriages contained members of the University Senate, the Board of Governors, and the masters of the Auckland College and Grammar Schools, etc. Professor Tucker had not sufficiently recovered to attend. Bishop Cowie conducted the burial service and delivered an address. At the inquest on the body of the deceased a verdict of “Accidental death ” was returned.

We (Inangahua Herald) have to chronicle the arrival of the Chinese resurrectionists, who have commenced their disgusting work of disinterring and re-coffin-ing the bodies of their congeners who have been buried in the Reefton cemetery. The number of the dead is five, and they were exhumed yesterday, being left in the cemetery pending the manufacture of fresh coffins. To judge from the number of arrivals in town the occasion is considered a most important one, and considerable preparations are made for a general feast. Two large-sized pigs were killed yesterday at the lower end of Broadway and these will no doubt be supplemented with other delicacies suited to Celestial taste. Several journds have alreadj taken up these highly objectionoble proc.odings, and we consider it is high time the Legislature put a atop to the nuisance.

A lady writing to the Argus makes the following suggestion about Church bazaars: —“ Why should not the churches enter into trade 1 Why not join, and form a large wholesale establishment, importing goods of all sorts, useful, ornamental, whimsical. In connection with the wholesale houses have shops or arcades—perhaps both—in Melbourne and the different suburbs. Let the selling of the articles in the different shops be effected by relays of young ladies, who, for love of their different churches, give their time and their energies to this part of the business. There might be attached to one of the arcades a theatre in which dramas, farces, etc., might be performed by an amateur company. I am sure there is plenty of histrionic talent lying dormant amongst the young ladies, and amongst the young clergymen too, which could be made of use both for amusement and profit (pecuniary, of course). The company might be called ‘ The Ecclesiastical Trading and Theatrical Union.' ”

We (N.Z. Times) have just received the following .description of the process employed in manufacturing iron from iron sand at Onehunga, and it is of interest, not only as being entirely different from the process heretofore tried, but also as being a new departure in iroomaking :—The magnetic black sand found in such quantities on ourjeoast is a black oxide of iron, and once freed from ita'dxygen is a pure metallic iron, which can be worked in the same manner as scrap iron or iron filings. As worked at Onehunga, the sand is first cleaned by means of<a magnetic separator of all the sea-beach sand and other impurities. It is then mixed with a certain proportion of carbon and put into retorts, where it is subjected to heat for 24 hours. The heat causes the oxygen in the iron to be expelled and it unites with the carbon, leaving the iron sand in a pure, rough, metallic state. When the sand has been brought to this condition it is let into an an ordinary puddling furnace by opening a valve, and there worked a? ordinary scrap into a ball, which is hammered and rolled into bars. - The process possesses the great advantage of being a very cheap one, as the heat used for deoxidising the ore is the waste heat from the puddling furnace, and is therefore no expense. In short, bar iron can be made from the iron sand at no greater expense for labor and fuel than from pig or scrap iron, leaving the difference between the cost of such pig or scrap iron and iron sand as a profit. The supply of iron sand on our coast is practically inexhaustible, and, with so cheap a process of working it, New Zealand should become a large iron manufacturing country.

Mr Christie has sold Katerfelto, the hurdle racer, to Mr Muir, who trained the horse last season.

It is proposed to form a society in Christchurch for employing no servants not having written references. It is stated that Captain Hume, with visiilng Justices, has been conducting an enquiry in Lyttelton gaol, into serious charges against an official. The enquiry was held with closed doors.

The Secretary to the Lyttelton Harbor Board has received advices from the Agent-General that the opening of the dock will be illustrated in the Illustrated London News. We notice that Mr Davison has in the window of his fruiterer’s shop a bunch of grapes of phenomenal size. It weighs over 51bs, and is from f he vinery of Mr Taylor, of Christchurch. At the Police Court ihia morning, before his Worship the Mayor, Thomas Mullaney,!William Freeman, John Alexander, and John M'Gregor, were each fined ss, with the alternative of 12 hours’ imprisonment. In the case of Mullaney, the prisoner was further condemned to pay 2s for cab hire. The Wanganui Chronicle understands that whilst the wretched woman, Phoebe Veitch, was awaiting her trial in the gaol she was visited by several benevolent ladies, and that she appeared to greatly appreciate their ministrations. Hardened and unnatural as the woman seems, there is much about her conduct which presents an interesting field for thought and study, and it is certain that, throughout the case, there was suggested no motive for her conduct which would hold water for a moment. It is beyond question that she fed and clothed the child well, and that she was neither desitute nor unable to obtain work. It may be, of course, that her various tales regarding a lady who was going to adopt the child were part of a scheme for hiding a premeditated crime, and the letter written to Mrs Worafold on the day after the child was drowned, and signed “from your poor silly Phoebe Veitch,” no doubt lent weight to the theory of the prosecution. But on the other hand it was in evidence that at least throe weeks before she came to Wanganui she spoke t of sending the little girl away to a lady at Wellington or some other distant place. If this be so, it shows that the crime was premeditated far longer than even the prosecution gave the woman credit for. That she drowned the child seems beyond doubt, and a rumor which circulated yesterday, to the effect that she had confessed her crime, and even described the difficulty she had in unclasping the child’s hands from her own and getting it overboard, was readily believed, and wore an air of probability. There has just died in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum a man who, in 1836, attacked the Queen, and has been

confined in a lunatic {asylum ever since. His name was John Goode, and he formerly held a captain’s commission in the 10th Royal Hussars. Ho was taken into custody on Her Majesty’s birthday, May 24, 1837, for creating a disturbance in, and forcably entering the .enclosure at, Kensington Palace. On a Saturday afternoon in the middle of November the same

year, Her Majesty was passing in her open carriage through Birdcage-walk, St. James’s, on her way to Buckingham Palace, when Captain Goode suddenly sprang to the aide of her carriage and made use of threatening gestures and language. The Queen heard the threats distinctly, and on alighting from her carriage directed her equerry to cause the man to be taken into custody. The police apprehended Captain Goode at Regent Circus, Oxford street. Brought before the authorities, he declared that he was the son of George IY, and Queen Caroline, was born in Montague Place, Blackheath, and was entitled to the throne of England. Upon every other subject unconnected with the Royal Family he spoke in a most rational manner, but wheti the Queen's-name was mentioned he became exceedingly violent. In default of finding two sureties in LSOO each, he was committed to prison, and on entering the coach engaged to convey him to prison, he smashed the windows with his elbows, and screamed out to the sentinels, “ Guards of England, do your duty, and rescue your Sovereign.” He was tried at the Queen's Bench for using seditious language to the Queen, and was sent to Bethlehem as insane. He was admitted to Broadmoor in March, 1864, where ho died from natural decay, though animated by his delusions up to the last. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Daily Chronicle telegraphs that the fact is now established beyond doubt that the discovery has been made of a plot to assassinate the Czar, and the following are the details connected with the affair : At the beginning of February a student of fine arts attempted to commit sucide in a bath, but was discovered before he had time to accomplish his purpose. On being questioned as to his motive for the act, he confessed that it was owing to his connection with the Nihilists. He had been commanded by that body to assassinate the Czar, and had taken measures to do so, but at the critical moment his courage failed him, and with the ktiow-

ledge as to what would be his fate at the hands of the Nihilists for not having obeyed their injunctions, he resolved to commit suicide. The attempt on the Czar’s life was to have been made at the time when the regimental fete of the Finland Regiment was celebrated, the Czar having been present at the banquet which took place on that occasion. The student managed by some means to be present at the dinner in the guise of a waiter and was armed with a pocket revolver. He had intended to wait his opportunity, and when he found himself immediately facing the Czar, to fire. This opportunity duly arrived, but by this time his courage had evaporated, and, at a critical juncture, he states that he became confused, and hurried out of the room and ran straight to the bath, where he made the attempt on his own. life. It is obvious from his depositions that he was merely a tool in the hands of Nihilists, as he appears to know very little of the workings of that body. The information which the police have obtained from] him, however, has enabled them to make several arrests in connection with the affair. This latest discovery is said to have produced a profound impression on the Czar. M. Tolstoi requested the Czar to exercise greater precautions, and to expose himself as little as possible, to which His Majesty replied, “It is all the same to me, and lam now prepared for anything. I have escaped by the merest chance, and you and myself were alike ignorant of the danger I was in.” A deputation of heads of families and others waited on Mr 0. R. Church after the sale last Saturday, and asked him to reconsider his determination to leave Ashburton, explaining that if he left prices would rise 50 per cent, at once. In deference to their wishes he concludes to atop a week or two longer and have another auction sale next Saturday. Mr Church went to Christchurch this mooting to send up ten cases of new goods, his direct importations, to be sacrificed at sale prices this week. —[Advt.]

Holloway’s Ointment and Pills combign both sanitive and sanative powers in a high degree—by the former term is understood their ability to preserve health, by the latter their capability to restore health. With these remedies at hand no invalid need be at fault to guide himself or herself safely through the many trials to which everyone is subjected during our long and ofttimes inclement winters. Coughs, colds, ulcerated throats, diptheria, whooping cough, can be successfully treated by well rubbing this Ointment upon the chest, and by taking the Pills. During damp foggy weatherasthmaticalsufterers will experience the utmost possible relief from the inunction of the ointment on all_ tenderchested persons will save endless misery by adopting this treatment.—[Advt.]