General News.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 20, 26 November 1874, Page 6

General News.

This is how an ingenious artist at the Thames entraps the public into reading his advertisement :'_ —" ' Thou lackest one thing yet,' sarfh Paul. And he is not the only one who 'has said it. The newly-married bride said it when *he was taken to her future home, and foiifld'the house neither painted nor papered. 'It shall- be done immediately,' replied her husband, ' but by whom ?' ' Oh, send for — — , who is a first-class painter, glazier, . and imitator of woods and marbles, and paperhanger.' " A curious police regulation for the punishment of intoxication exists in feussia. „ Persons found drunk and incapable in therpublic thoroughfares are taken into custody, and condemned to work for a day in sweeping the streets. This lesson is intended for individuals who have not lost all sense of shame. The following is an extract from a telegram sent by Dr. Featherstone to the Minister for Immigration, giving a list of the immigrant ships that sailed in October: — Dilkharrie with 370, Warwick: with -240, and Inverene with 200, for Auckland ; Berar with 360, and Humboldt with 390, for Wellington; Margaret Galbraith with 140, Nelson with 320, and Wild Deer with 300, for Otago; Acheron with 200, for Taranaki: Anglesey with 270, for Nelson ; Avalanche with 320, Lady Jocelyn with 530, and. Waimate with 370, for Canterbury : total, 4,010 souls. A return of the number of electors for each electoral district, according to the rolls of the year 1863-4, shews that the number of electors for the House of Representatives amounts to 51,823. The Thames electoral district has the largest number of names on the roll — 3,466; the city of Dunedin coming next, with 3,242. The smallest electoral district is Wallace, in Otago, which only contains 103 electors. Mr. Anderson, who was for several years teacher at Lake Waipori, and lately second master of the Kaikorai School, has been appointed to the newly •established school at Clinton. We learn from the ' Press ' that the first hops grown on an extensive scale in Canterbury are those planted by Mr. W. Wilson, seedsman, Christ- 1 church, at his nursery at Chainey's Corner on the north line. • Already the plants are 3ft. to 4ft. in height; and men are employed poling them. The poles used are from 18ft. to 20ft. in length, and about 4500 will be required to complete the work, which may give an idea of the extent to which the hops have been planted. Should the season prove propitious, the crop will be a fairly prolific one, this being the second year of the growth of the plan's. A quorum of members of any Licensing Court under the amendment Act of 1874 is fixed by a proclamation in the l Gazette,' whereby three members are declared sufficient to constitute a qu6rum. Our Dunstan contemporary says quite a number of kaka-**-, the native bird of the par* rot species, are now to be seen in the gardens in and round about Clyde. We are icformed they are playing great havoc amongst the fruit trees, the stone kinds especially. The petition presented to the Victorian Assembly, in favor of opening the museums and libraries on Sundays, was signed by 19,996 residents of Melbourne. •Butcher meat has now risen to such a price (says the ' Grey River Argus) as to be to all intents and purposes a luxury instead of a staple commodity, nor does it seem probable that this unprecedented state of matters is likely soon to cease. The New Zealand ' Times' announces that Mr. Bowen, formerly Resident Magistrate, has joined the Government. Commenting upon the appointment, the * Times' says : " We venture to say that no public man or newspaper outside Canterbury will be satisfied. We are not aware of any claim Mr. Bowen has for high political office. He is quite unknown outside Canterbury, and cannot possibly strengthen Government more, and especially as he must take a seat in the Upper House, where he need not hope to excel while that experienced political gladiator, Dr. Pollen, leads it. If a Ministerial recruit was wanted for the Legislative Council, surely there were men to choose from already in that House." But this is a " Government of surprise," and the Colony will certainly be surprised at the- selection made. There is nothing to recommend it; and, moreover, it can only weaken the Ministerial party. We have nothing to say against Mr. Bowen, but object in the most emphatic terms to a gentleman being taken from the rank and file of the civil servants, and pitchforked into the position of a Minister of the Crown. The outcry that was made in ihe case of Mr Gisborne's elevation and retirement is nothing to what ought to be made on account of this last Ministerial performance The country groans under the weight of civil servants ; it is made subject to tribute in a most literal and uninistake_^ble way* and if it submits to have its Ministers elevated, for reasons, from the ranks of Civil Service, and then, having served their purpose, retreating again ■within its lines, it may abandon all hope of economy or efficient good. We are friends of the Government, but can conceive of no action, rightly considered so calculated to bring the Government into contempt."

.Charles Prior, an Indian officer dur ing the Mutiny, was found drowned atat George's Bay, Auckland, last week. A West Coast paper says men down south are certainly scarce. The contractors are offering 13s 6d per day of nine hours, and yet they are shorthanded.

It is currently reported that an old and respected settler inHawke's Bay, Mr Charles Nairn, of -P^urerere, purposes endowing the Church of England institutions of that Province with a gift of LIO,OOO. ,

Our Mount Benger friends have decided to hold their annual races during the Christmas week, and to give L3OO in stakes. The Tapanui meeting, at which L 350 is to'be given, takes place on the 30th, and 31st of January next. In 1873 there were registered in New Zealand 84 cases of twins, 2 of triplets, and 159 illegitimate births. The top scores in the latter particular were — Otago, 45 ; Canterbury, 40 ; and Auckland only 25. The highest price for Queensland wool last season is stated by the Rockhampton Argus to have been 3s 5d per lb, realised by the clip from the " Havilah" station.

A pearl-fishing expedition was lately organised in Auckland. A ketch was purchased and despatched to the oyster grounds. The first trip resulted in a gross return' of L 1676 7s 6d. It enabled the manager to pay all the expenses, but as there was no surplus for a dividend the enterprise was abandoned. ' f

George Dawson, a well-connected bushman at Adelaide, made a bet that he would be dead in twenty-four hours, ahd he died in twelve hours from bronchitis.

Professor Schott — a well-known teacher of music — has left Melbourne for England suddenly, leaving behind him a wife and nine children unprovided for.

At the return ball to the Mayor of Melbourne there was no set supper. The supper-room was thrown open at half-past ten o'clock, and people sat down when they liked, and when their engagements permitted. The trustee of the Church of England Cemetery in Melbourne refuses to allow the letters R.I.P. to be placed on any gravestone or monument. He says he objects to the words requiescat in pace, and the Cemetery Board, of which he is chairman, has confirmed his decision.

A telegram has been received by the Provincial Government from London, stating that Messrs Patrick Henderson and Company have offered to take a shipment of salmon ova from the Clyde to the Bluff for LSOO. We under stand that this offer will be accepted, and that the vessel will leave in December or early in January. The 'Age' records the following freak of fortune to one of the suburban agents of that Journal named Percival, who has received the welcome news that a sum £10,000 has fallen to him, and that it is probable he will be before long the Earl of Egmont. For several years Percival was in New Zealand, where his career was not very successful, and recently he came over to Victoria and established a news agency in North Collingwood.

A gentleman who has just returned to Wellington from England gives the ' Tribune' an amusing account of the way in which work is done in the Agent-General's office at Westminster. There is a magnificent suite of rooms. Dr Featherston himself occupies some chamber upstairs ; our informant was at the office half-a-dozen times, but was never fortunate enough to see him. Dr Buller, while secretary, was accessible, obliging, and full of information about the Colony to all who met him. But the clerks — -half-a-dozen or more of them — down stairs are the amusing part of the business. They are affable, exceedingly jolly, and ready to do anything they know; but unfortunately they know nothing—at least nothing about New Zealand. An immigrant wishes to ship for Wellington; they complacently put him down for Otago. Then came the cream of the joke. With a merry twinkle of the eye, one of these clerks asked this New Zealander how long this "little swindle"— this "do," would last 1 How long, did he think, they should hold their billets ? Their billets were very nice — easy work and fair pay ; they hoped the thing might continue for a year or two, although it seemed too good to last so long. There appears to be a most fascinating bank clerk at Waipawa, Hawke's Bay Province. In the notice of a concert lately given at that place, the gushing reporter says : — " Mr Hollister, of the Bank of Australasia, was rapturously applauded, the words " Stay with me, my darling, stay," in "Love's Request," being so feelingly expressed, that the bright blushes of the listening maidens present betrayed the entrancing power of the vacalist's delineations of the tender passion. Early on Sunday morning last the head of a family; residing a little distance out of town, had his slumbers disturbed by the noise of some one moving about the rooms. Getting up to ascertain the cause he found the front and back doors wide open, and a stranger coolly seated at' some refreshment in the* parlor. On being ordered off the premises, the intruder' quietly left, and, not missing anything, the other sought his couch to wonder how the uninvited guest could mistake other people's edibles for their own. — Southland News.