ENGLISH ITEMS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 375, 10 May 1866, Page 5

ENGLISH ITEMS.

A paragraph has appeared in the English papers about a gigantic bird with a great head, found “in Australia,” and the world has wondered. Professor Owen says, with his bland smile, that we do hear such odd things, and that when ws get details they are inferences previously drawn, but nevertheless Australis is the land of great birds, though they generally have smaU heads. But if anyone will send him over one vertebra and one feather, he wiU tell us aU about it. Friends at a distance wiU please to accept this intimation. No Scotchman, says the Registrar-General of the country, will begin any kind of work on a Saturday if he can possibly avoid it; he fears he should not live to finish it. A Scotchman will not marry on a Saturday; he apprehends that one or other of the parties would not live out the year, or that the marriage would be unfruitful. Except when the last day of the year falls on a Saturday it is the favorite marrying day in Scotland, but the Saturday superstition prevails over the luck of the end of the year. The detailed report for 1862, just issued from the Scottish Registrar-General’s office, shows that full a twentieth of all the marriages of the year in Scotland are celebrated on the Slat of December, but if that be Saturday, they take place on the 30th. The arrests “suspects” under the new Act have been exceedingly numerous, and it appears from a letter of Lord Wodehouse read by Sir George Grey that 500 will be seized. Some three hundred persons would seem to be in custody, among them a number of soldiers, and the search after the leaders is getting very sharp. It is supposed that an attack made on the police in Tipperary by Fenians engaged in drilling was dictated by fear for the safety of Stephens, the Head Centre, but this is unconfirmed. One man arrested has shot his captor dead, but usually there has been little opportunity for resistance. Troops, including the Coldstreams and a large force of Artillery, have been pouring into Ireland all the week, Liverpool is closely watched, the police in Glasgow are on the alert, and we are inclined to believe that vigilance is not spared even in London. The slightest imeute in the Irish colonies in Great Britain might be very serious, as the workman would take the opportunity to pay off grudges of very ancient standing.—The Spectator.

The Jeddo, which as just been wrecked near Bombay, is the fourteenth steamer which the Penisular and Oriental Company have lost. The Eoyal Mail Company eight, the West Coast of Africa Company six. Inman’s Company four the Cape of Good Hope and West India and Pacific Companies three each, Canard’s Company two, and the Hamburg, Cowes, and American Company, one. The total number of steamers lost by the above-named companies is 15. A blacksmith, named Coles, of Ilminster, has performed a feat which rivals that ascribed to William Tell. A child aged seven years, named Burridge, whilst playing with his brother, aged twelve months, placed over his head a iron band similar to that used for the nuts of cart-wheels. The Child’s neck began to swell, and when the parents discovered it they were horrified to find that it was impossible to remove the band, and suffocation was imminent. Coles was called in, and suggested the desperate idea of hammering off the iron with a sledge, and he successfully completed his dangerous task. Whilst one person held the legs and another the head of the little one, Coles fearlessly smashed at the ring and evered it. A false blow of half an inch, and instantaneous death must have resulted. It would be impossible describe the joy of the parents at the success of the bold blacksmith.—European Times.

A Cool Walk bt a Somnambulist. —About two o’clock on Tuesday morning, as a young man was going home past the new Congregational Church, Pudaey, he was startled by the appearance of a ghostly figure in white, as if it had come out of the adjoining grave yard. Ho mustered courage to approach the dreadful object, which ho discovered to be a young woman fast asleep. She had on only a night-dress, and on being awoke, screamed on finding herself in the street. She had walked more than half a mile in her sleep, had got out of bed in a dream, unlocked the door, and started upon her nocturnal journey without having been discovered by any of tho family.—Leeds Mercury.