Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 445, 10 January 1867, Page 3

Me Eyre is writing a history of the Jamaica insurrection. Longfellow s new volume of Poems, “The Fiower-de-Luce,” will bs published this autumn, a? well as bis translation of Dante. St. Patrick's Roman Catholic cathedral in New York has been destroyed by Sre, the lass beins estimated at $200,000.

EXTS AOEDINABT WHEAT.-W 0 Were shown yesterday a single plant of ripened wheat, the ordinary white variety, grown on the farm of Mr J. B. Wootton, of Matakana. which had no less than between 70 and 80 perfect ears 'upon it. The plant had been taken from a field of wheat, one of the 1-wf 1 tav livigUliOiiiyoy. auu the chief cause of its productiveness was a dressing ot bone-dust applied to the land. This is indeed working old stuff into sew. The bones were ground

at Mr Soppett’s mill, in Freeman’s Bay, and probably will be ere many mouths, re-ground in the shape of wheat upon the same premises, and appear again as bread upon the same tables from which the bones were sent not six months ago. We have been strenuous advocates for the use of bone-dust as a manure more especially in the north. Bone-dust is not only immediately productive but it is lasting in its effects, and probably Mr Wootlon’suext crop, whatever it may be, will be even superior to the present one. Bone-dust is fast changing the appearance of the north, and will be found to be the best and cheapest friend of the settler. An application of six or seven hundredweight is not costly. Its effects will be directly seen for years. Indirectly also it should place a careful farmer in a position to keep up and mantain the fertility once imparted to the soil. —New Zealand Herald. Irish Statistics. —The Home News says;—“ The statistical report of the Registrar-General for Ireland, for the present year, shows that the produce and population of the island is still on the decline. There is a further net decrease of 128,725 acres in area of crops, but, as a set off, the area under “grass” is increased by 210,425 acres, and the bog and unoccupied lands decreased by 86,064 acres. Oats and potatoes are the most extensively grown crops, the former occupying 1,697,648 acres, and the latter I, acres. There is less wheat, oats, barley, here and rye, beans and peas, turnips, and mangold and beetroot cultivated in Ireland now thah in 1862. Potatoes, cabbages, and some green crops are more extensively cultivated than in that year; and the flax crop has largely increased, although the produce is less this year than in 1864. Cattle, pigs, and sheep have increased in number, but the number of horses has decreased. Fixing the value of each animal at a certain sum, the Registrar-General thinks that the result is satisfactory; and expresses the hope that the value of live stock iu Ireland will soon be equal to what it was in 1859. In the first seven months of the present year 74,195 persons emigrated from Ireland, being 11, more than in the same period of 1869.”

Tremendous Explosion of Guncotton.——From the Home News we learn that just previous to the departure of the Australian mails, one evening about dusk, much excitemeut prevailed in the town of Woolwich in consequence of the loud report of an explosion, which appeared to proceed from the Royal Arsenal Marsh. It appears that a few months since a magazine of immense strength was built near the canal, and bordering on the Plumstead Marshes, for the sole purpose of storing that extremely powerful agent of modern warfare known as gun-cotton. The walls of this building were of very thick brickwork, having a vaulted roof, and it was considerably detached from any other structure. Immediately on the report being heard, several officers and a number of the arsenal police hastened to the spot, and it was then found that the gun-cotton magazine had been blown up, completely destroyed, and the debris scattered in all directions. A few minutes before the explosion a police-constable was close to the building. The cause of the explosion is as yet unknown. Quack Medicines. —The folly and danger of giving quack medicinea to children Wa hp.cn shown by a case which came before the Middlesex coroner. A man, who said he had been cured of cholera by a “ celebrated red mixture.” gave his little girl, five years ox age, six spoooiuls of the stuff. She died. An examination proved that the child had swallowed enough opium to kill two children of her aueThe proprietor of the medicine entered on a defence ox it, referring the death to an overdose. The jury returned a verdict of “ Accidental Death,”

Death or William Thompson.— The Daily Southern Gross, Ist Jan., imorius us ihat. “ reached town yesterday that William Thompson, tbs renowned Maori leader, uien on tno way vamhndge and Matamata. He expired on the 28th December, while being conveyed across the Maungakawu ranges. We believe that Thompson wrote to Mr stating mar nc wonln me on the 28th; and accordingly at half-past four o’clock on that day he expired. Up to the hour of his death Thompson usad his influence in favor of the peaceiiu settlement oi the country by leasing land to Europeans.” Murder and Suicide. —The Home News says :—Considerable excitement prevailed the other night at Walsingham, in the Wear Valley, on the report of a murder having been committed. It appeared that a yofcg man named Bowman had for some time past been paying his addresses to a servant girl, and that she had lately rejected him. He became jealous of some one, and on a recent evening laid wait for her at her master’s back door, and as she was coming out for some coals, seized hold of her, and with a pocket-knife cut her throat from ear to ear. She died instantly. Bowman made off, and it was not until the following morning that he was found to have committed suicide, Hia footsteps were traced from the scene of the murder over the churchyard and towards the edge of the Waskerley Burn, and after a brief search his body was brought to the surface. It presented a shocking spectacle. His throat also was cut from ear to ear, and in his pocket was found a large pocket knife covered with blood.

Fatal Accident. —A shocking and fatal accident has occurred at New-ton-with-Scales to a gentleman farmer named Richardson, living on his own estate. It appeared that Mr Richardson went into his garden with a loaded double-barrelled gun, for the purpose of shooting. Unfortunately, however, he stopped to pick up some fruit, when the butt end of the gun, wnicn ue uau over his left shoulder, beeame entangled in one of the trees, and one of the barrels exploded. The contents entered his left thigh, and tore off the flesh for five or six inches. He then fell, and his clothes having been ignited when the gun was discharged, he was burned in a shocking manner, from the lower part of the body to the throat. Some shot that he had in a bag with him was melted. He survived but a short time.

In St. Petersburg tipsy people are lodged for the night at the police stations, and iu the morning obliged to do penance as scavengers.