TARANAKI.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 953, 25 February 1871, Page 3

TARANAKI.

Thursday, Feb. 23. The official inquiry into the cause of the wreck of the wreck of the s.s, Airedale has been postponed to Monday, 27th February.

It is not so generally known as it ought to be that powdered alum possesses the property of purifying water. A large table-spoonful of pulverised alum sprinkled into a hogshead of water, the water stinted round at the timei will, after the lapse of a few hours, by precipitating to the bottom the impure particles, so purify it that it will be found to possess nearly all the freshness and clearness of the purest spring water. A pailful, containing 4 gallons? may be purified by a single teaspoonful. From information received by the Inspector of Police, we (Independent) learn that a sou of Mr Walsh, of Opaki, met his death in a most distressing manner the other day. The lad was killed while running in some horses* He fell from his horse, and his foot catching in the stirrup leather, he was dragged some distance in that manner. When picked up, life was extinct.

Bee-keeping is becoming general among the settlers at Lake Wakatip, in Otago. Bees are said to thrive amazingly in the district. The Emperor of Russia gets £5,000 salary a day ; the Sultan, £3,600; the Xing of Prussia, £1,640 ; Victor Emmanuel, £1,468; Queen Victoria, £1,250; Leopold, of Belgium, £3GB j and President Grant, £l6. . An Auckland paper says that it is not generally known that lying near the Waipa river, we have an exceedingly fine hard grit kind of sandstone, very suitable for the manufacture of grindstones, &c. The same paper suggests that the Government should take steps for the establishment of the industry. The Cape Argus, of the 27th October, says ; —The Friend to hand by last night'a post, says : —Dr Livingstone.—-By the !Natal papers, just received, the above great African traveller* is once more reported to be alive, and to have arrived in safety at Mozambique. Curious enough, this intelligenc is said to have come from the same source, a Portuguese one, as the news last week published by us announcing the certain death of the same gentleman.