General Intelligence.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 172, 26 October 1877, Page 7

General Intelligence.

The Melbourne Intermiriona'l Exhibi- , tion will cost about L'lOO 000. I The Licensed Victuallers of Oamaru' have combined to put a stop to sly grog* selling. .J Fifteen hundred Maoris attended the j funeral of the Thames chief Te Moana- j nui, which took place^on Oct. 8. A post-office cler^ named Green was : arrested at Reeffrm last week, charged with the larceny of a money-letter. The cultivation of prickly eomfrey, a fodder plant which has been highly praised, is being attempted in Poverty Bay. A Melbourne telegram says . — The captain of the Sacramento reports that he saw a sea serpent in the northern tropics. The salary of the Chairman of Yin- i cent County was reduced by the Council in his absence from L4OO to L 250 per annum. It is proposed in Wanganui to erect a monument by public subscription to those who were drowned in the Avalanche disaster. The Masterton City Council has resolved to treat theatrical companies visiting the town as pedlars, and license them accoi'dtngly. i Mrs Shanaghan, widow of the settler who Avas murdered last year in the Auckland district by Curtain, is said to be in great distress. It is reported that Sir 3 ames Fergusson, the late Governor of New Zealand, is to succeed Lord Duflferin as Gover-nor-General of Canada. A correspondent of a northern paper states that Mr Rees, M.H.R., expected to receive .by the last mail a copy of his new novel, " Sir Gilbert Leigh." In the Victorian Assembly a defence vote of'Lloo,ooo has been voted ; also a preliminary vote of L7OOO for the international Exhibition, which is to be j held in Melbourne in 1879. The Forest Tree Planting Encouragement Act Amendment Bill, introduced by Mr Harper, authorises the issue of grants, under the Acts of 187 1 and 1872 on the same subject, for unlimited areas of land. In the Waikato elopement case, the prisoner, who was charged with making a false declaration under the Marriage j Act, and was found guilty, was sentenced to imprisonment until the rising of the Court. It is said that a strong feeling against county institutions is gaining ground in the Waipawa, County, Hawkes Bay, and the people are beginning to wish that Provincial institutions had uever been abolished. The Attorney-General of New South Wales declines to lecommend the liberation of the lunatic supposed to be Arthur Orton. He says the sister of Orton has seen him, and is satisfied he is not her brother. The following announcement -speaks for itself : — Ci Darcy. — 'July 27, at Cross Guard, Wicklow Gap, Wexford, the wife of Mr Michael Darcy, of twins (son and daughter), being the fourth year in succession of having twins." Paul of Orakei, a well-known Maori chief lately paid a visit to Wellington, and the New Zealand Parliament. On returning, he expressed the opinion that the House of Representatives was no better than a lot of dogs bow-wow-ing at one another in the street. The Otago Pastoral and Agricul. ural Association have made arrangements in ! regard to their forthcoming Show. The Show is to be held at Forbury Park on the 28th and 29th of November, the two days before the Dunedin Jockey Club Spring Race Meeting. The Wellington Argus states that Judge Ward has been sent for "to Wellington, having been requested by the Government to explain certain statements made affecting his character by Mr Wilson, solicitor, Napier, when examined on the recent Waka Maori case. We (Daily Times) hear that the officers of the Public Works Department, Dunedin, have received instructions from Wellington to proceed at once with the survey of the line of railway to the interior via Strath Taieri. It is to be hoped no time will be lost in pushing the work forward. The Dunedin papers report that the work at the Deborah Bay Tuunel is now all bui finished. During the present week, it is probable that an engine will run right through from Dunedin to Blueskin, and in a very short time trains for the conveyance of goods and passengers will run regularly between the two places. Says the Mount Ida Chronicle *. — Such is the demand for land in the district that on the opening of the small block of 2500 acres on the Maniototo Plains a few weeks ago sevaral of the choice sections were applied for by two or three applicants. The District Land Officer appointed Tuesday last as the day on which balloting for the sections should take place. Tito Kowaru, the Maori murderer, for whose apprehension a large reward was offered, is thus gently referred to by the Taranaki News :~ This celebrated warrior and chief of the N«atiruanui is at present residing, in the neighbourhood, having had a little disagreement with his people respecting the distribution ol compensation for their lands."' v „ Another tragedy is reported from Bourke (says the Sydney correspondent r rif tbe .Melbourne Herald), - which place ; was the other day 'startled by ! the Shoot-

ing of two constables. In this instance a teamster named Leahy formed a diabolical plan to poison his daughter, but it failed, in consequence of the wariness of the girl, and Lea'hy then, in his chagrin at failing* in his inhuman purpose, deliberately poisoned himself, and died in great agony. The brotherhood' of the Wellington Press, the members of which have never ceased to hate and spitefully illuse one another, is fas . being disbanded. We (Daily Times) hear of still further' changes in ihe personnel of the literary staff. The " Intelligent Vagrant" (Mr Perrier) shortly retires from the editorial chair of the New Zealand Times, and gives place to E. M. Luekie, now of'the New Zealand Herald. Mr Perrier, it is said, goes over to the Wellington Argus, in the columns of which he has been very roughly handled from time to time, and which paper he has " blackguarded" day by day ever since it crowded into the ranks oi Wellington journalism. The New Zealand Gazette contains the regulations for brown trout fishing in Otaoo, from the Ist of October, 1877,. to the 31st March, 1878, in the Kakanui, Shag, Waikouaiti, Waitati, Taieri, Puerua, Kaihiku, Waiwera, and Kuriwao Rivers- Boat Harbour and Fulton's Creeks ; the Silver, Lee, and Deep Streams; and in the Water of Leith from the Ist of November, 1877, to the 31st of January, 1878. The license fee has been fixed at Ll, and no person will be allowed to make use ofa license excepting the person lo whom it has been issued. Ali trout which are taken of not more than &even inches in length are to' be immediately returned to the water under a penalty not exceeding* L2O.