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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 961, 8 March 1871, Page 2

In 1830 the United States had 41 miles of railroad ; in 1870 the United States has 50,000 miles. Ohio has nearly 4000 —more than any other State except Pennsylvania and Illinois. An explosion of nitro-glycerine occurred the other day in a factory in Rostoky, in Hungary, at which more than 40 persons lost their lives. The London Spectator, of December 3rd, says : —Perhaps the triumphant election in two districts of a "female lady," as a humble electress called her candidate, at the head of the poll, and the defeat of the third (very much less known for educational effort*) by a mere handful of votes, is the great feature of the election. Miss Garrett polled 47,858 "votes, while Professor Huxley, who followed her in the poll, received only 13,494. Allowing for a vast number of plumpers of seven, and many more of two, three, or four for Miss Garrett under the cumulative vote, is is quite clear that she got a great many more adhesions than the highest of the Members of Parliament for JVlarylebone at the last election. To a frugal mind there is something overpowering in so great a waste of plumpers. Buo nobody can deny it shows a great; enthusiasm for " the female lady " as a fit and proper person to serve on School Boards. It appears to be slowly dawning on the British mind (hat a woman has practical powers, and the discovery, now it is made, is enthusiastically welcomed. It is a humble discovery, but a very useful one ; for it will certainly result in making a good many girls more intelligent, and a good many women more useful and happy than before. Before many years are out, a third of the vacancies at least will be contested by women. A coirespondent of a London journal writes :—The armies investing «Paris are in the midst of a winter campaign. The air is so cold that we shiver at night in rooms where wood fires have been blazing all day. Rot one green spot is to be seen in this most fertile land, where the vine grows everywhere in luxuriant abundance. The leafless trees are like giant spectres—-every branch is stiff and hoary; a thick snow covers every field, and road, and housetop, and flakes are descending with a steady determination that discountenances all hope of milder weather,

The Westland County Council is to jj e asked by the Chairmm to authorize the borrowing of another loan of i'5,000 from the Bank of New Zealand, by mean** of deficiency bills. A movement is afloat to organize a prospecting party under the leadership pi an experienced miner, to explore the country up the course of the Ahaura River, on the West Coast, Southern Island.

A woman named Nicholas, residing in Westport, threw herself into the river while in a state of intoxication, on February 17. Two men who went to her assistance succeeded in rescuing her.

A correspondent, writing to the London Daily News, says :—" During my journey of ten days through the most thriving part of rural France, I did not see twenty laborers employed in the field."

At three o'clock, on Sunday morning, the 11th February, a man in a state of intoxication, was seen to jump off the wharf at Greymouth into the river. Constable MuHer, who fortunately happened to be near at the time, rushed to the spot, when he found the man holding on to the breastwork by a crack in the boards. Assistance was rendered, and with some difficulty the man was brought to dry land, and placed in the •vsatchhouse in safe cu>tody. The extraordinary effect in the duration of this war produced by the fortifications of Paris (says the Army and Navy Gazette) has drawn the attention of all thoughtful professional men to the subject of fortifying capitals, generally. It has also, we are happy to learn, drawn the attention of our own War Office, and it is understood that the fortification branch there, under Sir F. Chapman and Colonel Jervois, C. 8., Ims been directed to prepare a careful scheme for defending London That the gentlemen who live at ease in Lancashire may not be alarmed, it is well to state that Mr Card well >s not likely to propose any vote on this ac ■ count, or any-one else, to begin a series of Forts Valerien. All that, will be done will be to make such a careful study of the hills which enclo>e this great basin of the Thames in which we live, that we should have a ready-made plan whereby to turn our navvies on to the intrenching of a set of rough field works, should the Continental fleetM and Continental armies unite to imperil our metropolis. In such case we should have the labor and the guns, and should try to create a big Sebastopol. A Wanganui paper has the following :—Pedestrians near St John's Bush on Sunday afternoon last witnessed a curious spectacle. The whole of the road for about two chains was covered with caterpillars, all heading in one direction. They had come out of a field of oats on the left hand side of the road, and were on the way to " fresh fields and pastures new." The oats bore palpable evidence of their depredations, the whole of the green leaves being eaten off, and had not the oats been too ripe, still greater damage would have been done. A couple of ducks finding their way on to the road came in for a good meal, and fast and furious they gobbled away. Several curious individuals surrounded the ducks, and timed diem, the result being, that one duck ato fifty one caterpillars the first minute, and forty-seven the second, the other managing to pick up forty nine and forty-six. That was rather tall work, an I great was the re»reb that no more ducks or fowls could be found."

Dr. Russell, in His late-tf. letter from Versailles, narrates the following in.cidont:—One of the great military chiefs was going to his quarters the other evening, inside the princely precincts, when he was brought up at the point of a bayonet, and a demand for the password. The General had forgotten it. "I am General von ," he explained ; " I have forgotten the pass."' The sentry was a man of few word.*, but they were emphatic. In Polish German he merely observed, " I will shoob you," and looked so very much like it, that the General desisted from verbal controversy, and waited till a soldier i'rom the post bad returned with an officer to identify his Excellency and orders for his release."