ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 741, 30 June 1876, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

A noble follow, named John Chiddy, foreman at a quarry between Keynsham and Bristol, close to the Great Western, Railway, has sacrificed his life in order to avert danger from others. He was superintending the stacking of atones by the side oftthe line, one of them had fallen on the metals, and Chiddy hearing the “ Flying Dutchman ” coming up, jumped down to remove the stone, but the express was upon him in an instant, and he was killed. He has left a large family, who certainly should not be allowed to want. Melbourne intends to establish an quarium similar to that at Brighton. The works of the late French artist, Pils, have been sold ot Paris for L 7,200. Offenbach starts on a tour in America this month. He will conduct fifteen concerts in New York, and a similar number in Philadelphia. A number of gigantic sunflowers, nearly five feet in circumference, are now growing in the Government Gardens at Monghyr in Bengal. The presents made to the Prince of Wales in India will be exhibited on hisjreturn. One portion will be placed in the new Indian Museum, South Kensington, and the remainder in the Bethnal Green Museum.

A trip to Smith’s Sound in search of news of the Arctic Expedition will shortly be made by the Pandora, under Mr Alan Young. The Pandora went last summer to the Polar regions to look for further memorials of Sir John Franklin. It is not certain that any despatches will be found, but Captain Nares intended, if possible, to send letters to Smith’s Sound this spring, Mr Sims Reeves was recently asked to act as referee at a musical bee, but replied that “he looked upon spelling bees as an amusement for idiots, and declined to have anything to do with either one or the other.”

Calcutta is to have a skating rink. The floor is to be of concrete covered with cement, as that material, though somewhat a hard falling ground, is the beat suited for the climate.

Spiritualism meets with scant favor in Russia. The Commission deputed by the Physical Society of the St. Petersberg University to investigate spiritualist phenomena has finished its labors, and issued a report declaring that “spiritualist phenomena are the result either of unconscious movements or wilful imposture, and Spirit, ualism, is a mere superstition.”