GENERAL NEWS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 168, 28 January 1873, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL. Figs are being very successfully grown at the Thames. A lai'ge waterspout was seen off Hokitika the other day. The Lawrence Fire Brigade and Cricket Clubs have become defunct. The thermometer at Wanganui lately registered 145 degrees in the sun. The General Assembly has been further prorogued to the 15th April. The Herald urges the formation of a "nonshouting society" in Auckland. Whooping-cough has been very prevalent lately at Naseby and Tuapeka. The price of butter at Christchurch is quoted at from 4|d. to sd. per lb. In Auckland, the butchers' assistants are agitating for a decrease in the hours of labour. Professor M'Gregor, of the Dunedin University, is at present on a pedestrian tour to the Lakes. While at Blenheim, a few days ago, Dr Carr became a member of the Order of Rechabites. Arrangements are said to be in progress to enable Judge Gray to hear criminal cases on the gold-fields. Late gales have done considerable damage both to the grain and fruit crops in the Clutha district. Joy prevailed among the natives at Mokau, Taranaki, recently, on a cask of brandy being washed ashore. Seventy-five tons of stone from the Little Wonder claim at Reefton recently yielded 800 ounces of gold. The _ pneumatic dredge (M'Lennan's) at Clyde is to commence operations as soon as the river is low enough. At the funeral of a young lady, which took place at Reefton recently, the coffin was borne by four young maidens. In Wellington, recently, a man named Frank Dillon, while suffering from delirium tremens, cut his throat with a chisel. A Melbourne telegram says a marriage is projected between a son of Cakobau, the king of Fiji, and a young lady of Ballarat. Wool is beginning to figure among the exports of Westland. £I3OO worth was shipped the other clay from Hokitika for Melbourne, j A movement has been started in Wellington to give Sir George Bowen a farewell de- j jeuner, and to present some souvenir to his lady. In a paddock on Moa Flat, the crop of wheat is pronounced by experienced judges to be the best crop ever grown south ' of the Line. The Marlborough Express comes to the conclusion that Marlborough is "not so overtaxed as over-civilised," in having so large a staff of officials. In consequence of an article in the Daily Times recently upon the Citizen.*' Ball, Mr Fish, it is rumoured, has served a writ upon that newspaper. In Melbourne, a man named Marshall has 64 charges pending against him of decoying children of tender years. One charge has been fully established. An Auckland telegram says it is reported that over 100 men are out prospecting on the land recently purchased from the natives on Ooromandel peninsula. Sir George Bowen has published the notes of his overland journey from Wellington to Auckland in April last in the form of a pam- j pblet, issued in London. The Wellington I»d prudent urges that the Legislative Council should be made " more popular," and with this view says " it is high time" it were made elective. The Rev. J. ¥. Peebles, and Dr Dunn, the spiritualists, and Madame Coia de Lamond, the female magician, are on their way to Dunedin from Melbourne. The live Maori political prisoners in Dun din gaol Lave been liberated. Only one Maori now remains in the gaol, on a sentence of penal servitude for life for murder. From the accounts presented to the Town Council, it appears that the Corporation of Lawrence demonstrated on the occasion of the Governor's visit to the extent of £l7 Gs. A meeting is to be held at Lawrence shortly for the purpose of devising means to prospect for quartz reefs the hill between Gabriel's Gully and Wetherstones. Government aid is to be asked. It is proposed to hold an artisans' Industrial Exhibition in Christchurch shortly. One of the main objects is to have exhibited models manufactured by artisans, machanics, ttc., in their spare moments. There is some probability of Melbourne being honored by a visit from a no less distinguished personage than Lord Carnarvon, who, being an ex-Secretary of State is anxious to be well up in the Colonial question. Among the performers in Chiarini's Circus, now performing at the Thames, is a child only three years old. The Herald calls her a "perfect prodigy." This infant rides two ponies at the same time, and performs other equestrian feats. Several men had a narrow escape a few | days ago from being suffocated by gas in j the Golden Crown "mine at the Thames. | They saved their lives by punching holes in ; the air-pipe, by which means they were en- | abled to breathe till they Avere drawn up. An effort will shortly be made to raise I sufficient capital to work the quicksilver deI posits in the Bay of Islands district, A simij lar venture in San Luis, California, has recently been deemed a sufficient object for the | floating of a company with a capital of | £OOO,OOO. The Wellington Independent suggests that Mr JG'aldev, M.H.R. for Invercargill, should be I called upon to resign his scat, he having taken

a contract for supplying railway sleepers. ]> says that in the House Mr Calder stated that sleepers could be got at from 2s. to 2s. ij<] each, at the outside, but his contract price jj 3s. each. Sir William Manning mentioned that there was 2250 public houses in New South Wales and also 250 wine shops. This, with a popn! lation of half a million, gives one drinking house to every 200 of the people. The amount spent therein is 2,000,000 sterling, or at the rate of £BOO for each house. The Rev. Gideon Smales, an old Auckland resident, returned from England by the Da. kota. During his stay in England Mr Smales delivered lectures advocating the claims of New Zealand as a field for emigration, and in one of these lectures he is reported to have said that " there was a greater proportion of educated Maoris in New Zealand than educated Englishmen in England." For some time past, says the Tuapeka Times a project to pierce a tunnel through the ridge between Gabriel's Gully and Evans' Flat, for the purpose of carrying off the Blue Spur tailings, has been freely discussed in the district. This tunnel would also be the means of determining the existence or otherwise of quartz reefs on the ridge—a question which is exciting much interest just now. In recording the fact that it had entered upon the fourth year of its existence, the Auckland Evening Star says :—•" We can confidently state this journal has been threatened with more lawsuits than any other journal in New Zealand. But it is a signifi. cant fact that though we have never yet dipped our colours to any legal braggadocio and hurled back defiance to every threat not one has ever yet brought his complaint before a jury." EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN. The Tichborne claimant's trial is fixed for the 23rd April. When Thiers arrived in Paris, just 47 years ago, he was worth ouly 40 francs. A marriage is on the tapis between Prince Alfred and a daughter of the Czar. The machinery department in the Vienna Exhibition will be a mile in length. Mrs Moore, a New York widow, worth £60,000, has married her coachman. Marshal M'Mahon assures M. Thiers of the loyalty of the French army to the Republic. The total length of the railways in France is 11,141 miles ; that of the United States is 00,000 miles. The Pail Mall Gazette suggests that garotters should be punished by tremendous shocks of a galvanic battery. An eccentric gent'eman in New Turk lies had his house painted black as a token of grief for the loss of his wi e. There were tors of coal raisid last year in England—the largest quantity ever yet raised in one year. It has transpired that France, after declaring war against Prussia, sought an alliance with Austria, but was refused. King Amadeus, of Spain, is the only monarch in Europe who drinks neither wine nor anything that can intoxicate. The largest brewery in the world is that of Perkins and Co., London. They use annually 18,000 bales of hops, and make over t,000,000 barrels of ale and porter. Their place covers twelve acres in the heart of London, for which they recently refused the sum of £4,000,000. They have seven casks called the "seven sisters," which hold 3000 barrels each. They are 500 feet high and 30 feet in diameter. Their draught horses are the marvel of all London. DEATH OF LOUIS XAT'OLEON. A telegram dated London, Januarv 9, conta r ns the announcement of the death of the ex-Emperor of the French on that day, at Chiselhurst, in Kent. Other teiegrans say : The ex-Emperor of the French, in his last moments, made an affecting appeal to the French nation on behalf of his son, the Piince Imperial. He also directed that application be made to allow his remains to be interred in French soil. This, however, has not been clone, for he was buried at Chiselhurst. Admiral Genouilly, and Marshals Canrobert, Palikao, and Froissard attended the funeral of the ex-Einperor Napoleon. Italy was represented by four generals. The procession was headed by a deputation from the workmen of Paris, immediately following them being the personal attendants and friends of the deceased. There were fifty thousand spectators. A strong body of the London police was present, in order to prevent a threatened demonstration by the Communists. The English Court went into mourning for ten days ; and the Court at Vienna for | twelve.