GENERAL NEWS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 165, 7 January 1873, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL. Dr Carr, the mesmerist, is now in Nelson. It is proposed to form a Commercial Tra- ' vellors' Association in Dunedin. Thirty-eight entries have boon made for the Chrislohurch Derby of 1874. A large area of land in South Australia' has been leased for the puiposo of cxtractiiu' j petroleum. Madame Carandini and her three rs, j with one or two male singers, arc in New Zealand shortly. Harvest prospects in Canterbury are ro-' ported to be ratiier gloomy, in cuiiscfpicnue j of the prolonged drought. The .Lev. Mr P ebles, the Spiritual mis-j sionnry, now in Melb< urno, is expected to visit Dunedin this month. The Hon. T. 11. Fellows, the newly-ap-pointed Victorian Judge, is ah present on a visit to the Wakatip district. At Nokoinai, in the programme of Christmas sports were included a billiard-matjh, a : eucliro match, and a cribbagc match. On tlie eve of the iiev. Mr Coffey's depar-1 ture from Queenstown, he was presented with j an address and ;i purse of sovereigns. A stone wall lent, high is being built round Mount Eden stockade, Auckland, so as to render mure difficult the escape of prisoners. |

Treeby'a Hotel, near tho Lower Shotover Bridge, waa burned to the ground on Sunday, the 28th nit. Tlie loss is estimated at £2OO. A bush tire occurred at InchClutha on the 24th inst., by which property belongbig to Mr Anderson was destroyed of tho value of £4OO.

A family at Greytown, in tho Wellington province, have had a very narrow escape from poisoning from eating rhubarb preserved in a tiu.

Many children hare been taken to the Gasworks in Dunedin, to be treated for whooping cough, by inhaling the vapours of tho purifying room. The Government of New South Wale;-; have offered to pay half the expense of laying a telegraphic cable to connect New Zealand m ith Australia.

The Government of Now South Wales have circulated a Uill for tho conversion of the Legislative Council from a nominated to an elective Chamber.

The Arrow Ohm rear says that after paying all incidental, expenses the Sports Committee there arc enabled to hand over £ioo to the Wakatip Hospital. The Supreme Court was to open yesterday. Four persons are for trial.—For the ensuing session of the like Court in Auckland, 22 persons are held for trial. A pension of £750 a year, under the Government Pension Act, has been granted to Colonel Sir Thomas Gore Browne in consideration of his Colonial services.

A high warm wind raged throughout Southland on Tuesday, the 24th ult. Many bush fires occurred, occasioning considerable damage ; and the crops have suffered greatly. Mr D. L. Simpson, C.E., recently reported to the Town Council of Clyde upon the most desirable site for a bridge and the probable cost of such a work. His estimate is close upon £SOOO.

The first crushing of the Gabriel's Gully Quartz Mining Company resulted in a yield of 122 ozs. from 50J tons of stone. The Company calculate they can work the reef at 3 dwts. to the ton.

The Switzers escort has been abolished. I Henceforth the banks will have to provide for the carriage of their gold to Lawrence, the Government furnishing a policeman for proteeti ve purposes. The General Government have remitted to the Provincial Executive the carrying out of the Sludge Channel projected at Naseby, and it is stated that the work will be immediately proceeded with. The Auckland Races on Jan. 1 were a great success, and were attended by 0000 people. . Mr Walter's hordes carried on' four out of the five prizes on that day. On the second • day, he took two out of the four prizes. The experiment in sericulture made in Nelson has, the Examiner states, proved a success. Several hundred mulberry trees . were planted last year, and it is probable that ' as many more will be planted during the en- ' suing year. In describing the uproarious greetings to ! the New Year in Dunedin, tin.! Daily Times says it seemed as if all the larrik ns in Dunedin had seized the opportunity to yell their i "level best," knowing that they had a sort ' of license to do so. The special correspondent of the WoMbip ' Maily/ho accompanied the Government ex- ' pedition to Martin's Bay, is our authority ' for the statement that Jamestown is the onlv Government township in New Zealand where ' grog is not to behad lor Live or money. \\ In a mile foot-race in Southland the other V day, Austin, the Sydney pedestrian, gave ! Harry Hodgson, well-known in this district, 100 yards start ; and the race resulted in a dead heat. Austin also gave Hodgson eight I' yards in a hundred, the latter winninr'bv two feet. :< It will ho remembered that the Chinese \ leper in Lawrence was cured by Dr Stewart, of : the Hospital there. The Government have marked their sense of Dr Stewart's treatment; of Ah Cow, by sending him a letter c-..ngratu- j : biting him on his success, and also thanking ' him tor the cure and attention he bestowed." i A thiol was very nearly taking place at thoj 1 Thames recently,—seconds having been;' chosen, and time and the ground arranged. I' The dispute arose out of rivaiship forVtiol' hand of a young lady in a " galop" at a bail! a short time previously. The timely interfo- \, renoe of some sensible friends, who heard of! the r.ppro aching foolery, prevented the impending mischief. Some of the fruit-growers in Pie'ton, having suffered fioin garden-robbers?; have hit upon : the [dan of making a small incision in the!'' fruit, and placing therein a small portion of j' some subtle drug, usually croton oil.. Thoj quantity used is so small as to prevent any danger of serious consequences, but is quite f snliiemnt to cause the depredators to wonder what "tiie dickens" possesses them. The Toviot correspondent of the Dunedin ; S'ar, iu a recent letter, says:—"] reopen ' this letter to make two of ;\, really startling inc.dent—love, jealousy, and attempted mm- '■ dor! The perpetrator is aGciman named p Book, an elderly man, ble-j, ; ,od or cursed with J: a young wife. Jealousy was tins natural con- hj sequence, and Beck imagined Ids worst sus-ji picions confirmed when ho discovered his spouse in a delicate position with a grimy!: son of Vulcan. He went for them with aji tomahawk, and inflicted some shrewd cuts hj and bruises Lei'.re he could be disarmed.! He was taken into custody, and remains still! in durance vile." Later intelligence states . that it was the wife who was wounded, and :< thai beck lias been committed lor trial. The following amusing description of a • three-legged race at the Nelson College sports, ' on the i Ith inst., is from the Mail) ,< the lard, and, as is usually the ; ease,' the moot successful of the day. In'

order to determine who should be coupled together, numbers in duplicate were placed in a hat and those who drew corresponding onea wereto run in pairs. The consequence was, as might have been expected, that the coupleg were assortod in the most fantastic manner without regard cither to their size, power, oxspeed. Two of these, however, happened to comprise four of the biggest competitors, and they naturally went to the front, but when within a few yards of the winning post they jostled and fell, and formed a foundation for a heap of others who tumbled on the top of them, the consequence being, that one panto whom the race seemed hopeless, came in the winners. The hat that contained the numbers was on this occasion guilty of it strange freak that gave rise to no little amusement. On the numbers being called it waa found that Stafford and Luekie—not tho Stafford and Luekie of the political arena, but offshoots from the parents tree—were to run together. The coalition did not prove ;i success. The boys strained every nerve, did their best to win, but it was no use, Stafford and Luekie could not be made to run in double harness, and the want of confidence that was felt from the start in their ability to win, when thus tied together by the leg, was fully justified by tho result. EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN. Prince Bismarck's health is failing. Mr Spurgeon is ill in the south of France. The Boston Musical Jubilee deficit was 210,000 dol. A Cerman fleet of five ships is about to visit Australia. Biondin is about to sail to Australia in a ship for Adelaide. The neutralisation of the Suez Canal is seriously proposed. Tke_ Egyptian Government are reported to have designs on Abyssinia. Numbers of women in America have been charged with illegally voting. 2000 mill girls at Paisley gave Mr Stanley an enthusiastic demonstration. Ample funds are forthcoming for the defence of the Tick borne Claimant. A Roman Catholic priest has been indicted for smuggling cigars and tobacco. Heavy floods have occurred in Lancashire, carrying oil" lnmdreds of sheep and cattle. Throe hundred Russian women claim admission to the medical schools as students. Dr Livingstone, in a letter to his daughter, intimates his intention to return home speedily. An Episcopalian curate and an agricultural labourer have been charged at Banbury with pugilism. The Fenians are rousing up again, and taking for- their text an amnesty for the Fenian prisoners. _Mr Stanley delivered his first lecture on Ins African experiences to an immense audience in New ifork. Ellen Kit tell, who was charged with poisoning a woman in order to marry her husband, has been acquitted. The existing French Assembly is regarded as more pliable than any that M. Thiers is likely to get in the future. By the death of the divorced wife of one of the Gurneys, half a million sterling goes to the creditors of Overend, Gurney, and Company. A shocking case of habitual poisoning has occurred at Bishop-Auckland. A woman poisoned her four husbands and a large number of children. The New York Herald proposes that the Press should establish an endowment for Horace Greeley's children, and offers 1000 dels, as its subscription. The exact amount of indemnity money reeeived by Germany from France up to November Ist was two hundred milliards of francs, equal to £20,000,000. I Th e Chv ais ab< mt to sail for Sydney. She .c.irrios a complement of 12 officers and TOO [men, and is to be employed in the supprcsIsion of the Polynesian slave trade. lhe jticssrs Brogden promise emigrants ithat when they have finished their navvy I work they shall get farms on easy terms. A |hv-'ge emigration of farm labourers to New [Zealand is going on. For the hist eighteen months, says the Dacoiah, which arrived in Anokjland the other day, lias been the only San Francisco steamer which has performed the journey within contract time. Ihirton, tiie cashier of the National Bank at Middleton, N.Y., is a defaulter to the | amount of 300,000 dols., which he squanjdorod in gambling on tho Stock Exchange, [lie lias been admitted to bail. On the ease of Tweed, the " Boss" of tho jTiimmany Ring, being terminated in New l"ork, lii.s counsel read an affidavit, showing that tho indictments were improperly framed, and made a long argument in favour of quashing them. Berlin papers say that the storm that took place in the North of Europe on November 4 was of unprecedented violence. Indeed the anna.; ; of the Baltic contains no record of so | furious and destructive a tempest having taken place during the past 200 years. Tho lines of railway are covered with debrix, business is at a standstill, and the sea-walls are smashed to atoms. A. railway train was [swallowed up by the wafer. Tho accounts jtii.miTral.mnd, Kiel, Gricfswald, and Swincmunde, read like the description of a, second deluge. On Wednesday, the greater part of jGriefswahl was under water, the water being i live Tee!; deep in the streets. At Stralsmid, over 8:; i) craft foundered. All the fishing I boats went to the bottom, and 80 people wen: .drowned. All along the coast the inhabitant are suffering from want of Water, the sea 1 having flooded the wells.