GENERAL NEWS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 129, 30 April 1872, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS.

European. The small-pox epidemic in Edinburgh is beginning to decline. The Prince of Wales is described as much thinner and balder since his illness. The Pullman palace-cars are to be introduced on the principal English railways. An extensive emigration of Cornish miners ; o America and Australia is about to begin. The Grand Vizier of Turkey was lately

,vaited on by a deputation two thousand strong. Some New Zealand sugar-cured hams have )een tested and favourably noticed in Lon-

gdon. S Madame Thiers and four other leading la■dies in France have declared open War upon Bthe chignon. : I There are now 1456 newspapers, and 639 Bmagazines and reviews published in the ■United Kingdom. H Mr Mundella is going to introduce a Bill ■rendering the adoption of the nine hours ■system compulsory. ■ The Bill legalising marriage with a degeeased wife’s sister passed the second reading gin the House of Commons by 186 to 138. I The price paid by Britain for the Dutch BColonies on the Gold Coast is £24,000, for ■which Queen Victoria obtains 120,000 new ■subjects. I A Select Committee of the House of Comimons has been appointed to consider the best ■plan for the control and management of haibituai drunkards. I ,The Grand Jury at the Middlesex sessions ■returned a true bill against the publisher of mDay’s Doings. The action is brought by the ■Society for the Suppression of Vice. U Australian, I Fresh mining companies are announced almost daily in Sydney. The number of journals published in VicI toria is a little over 100. The fitting out of another New Guinea expedition is talked of at Rockhampton. I The Melbourne Meat Preserving Company ■exports 100,000 tins of meat per month. Hop-growing is extending in Victoria, being found to bo a profitable enterprise. March is regarded as the “suicidal month” ! ire Victoria, as November is in England. Ballarat is to have an Anglican Bishop soon. Sim lately got a Roman Catholic one. Of the four cheese factories started in Victoria, only one (that at Stratford) has proved a success. Packs of wild dogs chase travellers in the Western District of Victoria, after the manner of wolves. Gold is being constantly found by the men j employed in the construction of the overland I telegraph line. Subscriptions are coming in briskly in | Melbourne for the proposed retreat for the I cure ,of inebriates. j A marriage is reported as about to take | place at Ballarat between a bridegroom aged 14 and a bride aged 13. In some districts of Now South Wales, the pastures are so poor that the horses, from I sheer starvation, can hardly walk, i At Ballarat Judge Rogers has ruled that it lis not slander to say a man is not honest, j though it is slander to say he is a thief, j The Government of Queensland oiler a rej ward of £IOOO for the discovery of a diamond j field or drift, the existence of which, it is considered, there are reasons for believing. I A few days since, at Benalla, a cat had the j almost incredible number of thirty kittens at a birth. Some were no larger than a mouse, but all were perfectly formed, and they were vf all imaginable colours, i A woman at Dunolly was run over and | killed while the horses were taking their preI bminary canters. The coroner’s jury found that not sufficient care was exercised by the stewards in clearing the course. Mr R. P. Whitworth’s “ Under the Dray,” a series of short stories, published in Melbourne lately, went through three editions in a week. The whole of the second edition C» bought up for sale in South Australia. ] A is stated that in Echuca a company is about to be formed for the purpose of searching by means of bores for the ancient beds of the rivers Murray, Gonlburn, and which, it is supposed, would be highly auriferous.

Two men were working the other day on the 400 ft. level in the Sultan claim, Blackwood, Victoria. As one of them was using a S a d, the rock split in two, and in the centre was a large hole containing a live frog. The men took it to the surface, when it died in about two hours. The accommodating conscience of the ‘Heathen Chinee” was exemplified recently m a case of assault tried before Mr Grant at the Backhand. There was a great difficulty ns to the best mode of swearing the Chinese, and plates, cocks, matches, and the Testament, were all provided beforehand. One witness in the case was, however, extremely accommodating, for, when asked how he would be sworn, he replied, with great willingness and apparent earnestness, “Me break him plate, blow him match, kill him cock, or smell him book,”

. of the greatest feats ever accomplished in acclimatising has just been performed by a young Norwegian, named Graff, who has succeeded in bringing two couples of live |ronse to Melbourne. He started from Hamburg with five young birds, and during a passage of 158 days, he lost only one of them, ffe intends to bring them to Otago, having been induced to undertake the venture upon ®e request of his brother, who has resided mrefor some time, and who represents the mountainous parts of this Province as being extremely well fitted for grouse.