GENERAL NEWS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 178, 8 April 1873, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS.

,: P&OVItfCIAL AND COLONIAL. Tuap'eka is attempting a Rifle Corps. Hops have been successfully grown at tho Ueaumont. Chiarini's circus is drawing large houses in Melbourne. Lottie, the female gymnast, is the "sensation" at present in Dunedin. Mr John Anderson, of Kaihiku, (Clutha,) one of Otago's oldest settlers, is dead. It is said that Mr Hallenstein intends to resign his seat as M.H.R. for Wakatip. The amount subscribed towards the endowment of the Ballarat Bishopric is £6543. Chief-Justice Sir George Arney has been sworn in as Acting-Governor of New Zealand. Mr Stafford has purchased an estate in Canterbury, on which it is said he intends to settle. Champagne, the produce of the Bendigo district, is to be exhibited at the Autumn Show there. Five or six petroleum springs have been discovered recently in different places in the North Island. The offer of Messrs O'Neill and Thomas to lay down street tramways in Wellington has been accepted. The submarine boat, for dredging the Molyneux, is expected to arrive at Clyde in about.a fortnight. ■•-• In Dunedin, the other day, an individual was fined 10s. for " making facial distortions" at Inspector Ninion. Shilling nobblers are still maintained in one favoured spot in Otago, between Waipori and the West Taieri. In one of the Nelson streams the other day, liVorse put his foot upon and killed a magih'cent trout, weighing ten pounds. Mr Maxwell, manager of the Skull Creek vfcion, in Queensland, has been murdered y blacks; who afterwards robbed the store. A Westport telegram says a trial crushing <if unpicked stone from the new reef of the Haleione, at Mohikinui, went lOoz to the ton. The Dunedin Jockey Club have removed the disqualification'from M'Kay, who received it.for dropping weight at the last Canterbury race meeting. ! A tunnel-guard was killed in the Christchurch tunnel the other day. He had sat down and fell asleep, and was struck by the j iron step of the train. A rich gold-bearing district is reported to I have been found about seventeen miles from j Whangarei, .Auckland Province, but the, re- i port needs confirmation. An inmateof the Dunedin Benevolent Asy-1 lum claims to be 115 years old. He is a na-! live of someisland near Tahiti, and claims to j have been acquainted with Captain Cook. ' As showing tho remarkable fertility of the Island Bioak land, the Tan/ieki Timet men-1 'turns that 15) acre's-of it, laid down in wheat, ! will, it is calculated, yield 10,000 bushels. i ..A fire occurred in Grahamstown on; the j morning of 31st March, destroying the Shell•hack Hotel, and four other buildings. A man named Job Tyler is in custody on a charge of incendiarism. A man named George Williams died in the Wanganui Hospital the other day, from a very singular cause. He swallowed muriatic acid in January last, and this acid so destroyed his gullet that he was literally starved to death. The forty-five Chinamen who sailed by the Harriet Armitage from Dunedin to Hong Kong, took with them 27400z of gold, of the value of £IO,OOO, which, we believe, represents the result of little more than 3 years' hard work. Captain Fox, of the Forfarshire, which recently arrived at Wellington with immigrants, has been fined £l2 10s. each on four informations for breach of the Passengers' Act, in not giving the passengers sufficient < water during the voyage. Mr Christian Ogilvie, of Riverina, in Aus- j ■ .tralia, has sailed for England to take out a! patent for the easier and safer steering of ] ['vessel's. He professes to make one man to < be able to steer the largest vessel afloat, in 1 the strongest gales and heaviest seas. < Three sharks were caught recently in the i oam aru roadstead, measuring respectively ] Bft 6in, 9ft 2in, and 16ft 4in, the latter being i the largest ground-shark ever caught on the i coast. In the stomach of one of the smaller ' two was found a. brown tan-coloured dog, in i excellent preservation. A man named Humphreys died at Balclutha < the other day, while under the influence of < chloroform. A coroner's jury declared the i medical attendant (Dr Smith) to be free from 1 fill blame. The deceased was the son of the ; late Alderman Humphreys, who nine years ] ago was Lord Mayor of London. " j ] John Goggins, a bill-sticker in Melbourne, i was summoned the other day for sticking | s bills on a Sunday, contrary to a statute passed i 1 m England in 1670. The magistrates dis- j t missed the case, on the ground that the < printers who worked on Sundays might as' 1 well be prosecuted as bill-stickers. ° j i A son of Mr Duthie, boatbuilder, Grahams-I1 town, five years of age, fell off tho Enterprise 11 at the Shortland wharf lately. His brother j t Alexander, a lad twelve years of age, seeing i what had occurred, like a young hero as he 1 was, instantly jumped overboard, swam to t W sinking child, seized him, and saved him c "sU a watery grave. Tho lad was loudly s Peered for his courageous behaviour. 1 A few days ago a letter from a Sydney 1 1 Jjarebrokcr was shown to the editor of the : r Melbourne Argus, in Which was the follow- \ ">g :—" There has been a great fall in Kroh-, \ manns. Only half a ton of gold got this i TZ ** L Thi? i 3 not foolin g> but s »ber i i earnest. The gold got represents £50,000, \ 1 fL 5t m . odcßt shareholders expected a!r "00,000 yield ! However, the proprietors 1 1

shouldn't bo too •much down on their luck. Half a ton of gold hasn't a bad sound. The'Ballarat Cmr'iet writes :—" A remarkable, though riot a very novel coincidence, has been brought under our notice, for the accuracy of which we can vouch. A few months a<,'6 a gentleman, travelling in the Portland district, drove his buggy by accident into a broad and deep waterhole. The result was that he and the horse, together with a lad riding with him, were drowned. Three months afterwards, a letter was received by the widow from the gentleman's mother iii England, describing the whole scene with complete accuracy in every detail. The poor old lady said she had seen the whole occurrence in a dream, and therefore sent the widow her condolence, feeling assured the dream would prove correct. Upon comparing dates, the widow found that the fatal accident must have occurred just at the time when the mother saw the vision in her sleep." EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN. Sir James Fergusson has been married in London to Miss Richmann of Adelaide. Mr Trollope's new novel, " Lady Anna," has been purchased for publication in Australia. Hickey and O'Baldwin have had a prizefight in Pennsylvania. The latter was badly beaten. The strike in the Welsh collieries has ter- ! minated. The men are to have their wages j increased. i A New Zealand Land and Coal Company is I projected in London, with a capital of I j £IOO,OOO. Mr Lowe was to present his budget on 3rd April. The revenue is estimated at £76,000, the expenditure at £71,000. The Municipality of Paris has refused a] bequest of 61,000 dollars, made by a wealthy ! German, to be devoted to the benefit of the j German poor in Paris. They have, however, I accepted 10,000 dollars for a Protestant Consistory, left by same testator. Prance and Germany have signed an agreement stipulating for the payment of the in-! demnity money by instalments, terminating | in September next, the Germans evacuating the whole of the French territory in July, except Verdun and the surrounding districts, ! which they will occupy until September. The Corona, an Australian clipper, lay at anchor within 300 yards of the Northfleet when the disaster occurred to the latter vessel. Neither the terrible shock, nor cries, ! nor rockets continually fired from the deck j of the sinking ship could arouse the Corona's: watch. Had the watch been aroused, the whole of the Northfleet's passengers could have been saved. Late telegrams, it will be remembered, contained news that Mr Gladstone's Ministry had been defeated, by a narrow majority, on tho Irish University Bill, and had consequently resigned. The Queen sent for Mr Disraeli, who, alter a day or two, declared his inability to form a Government without a new Parliament. Mr Gladstone again placed his services at the Queen's disposal. It is believed that lu3 previous Cabinet will be reinstated.