Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 1065, 11 July 1871, Page 2

We learn that it is probable the Great World Circus will (shortly pay a visit to Napier. This troupe is at present in Auckland, performing nightly to crowded houses. The weather during the past day or two has been decidedly wintry so far as the temperature is concerned. The prevailing winds have been S. and S.W. Very little rain has, however, fallen. We have received the July number of the Illustrated New Zealand Herald. The illustrations are excellent. In the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, Mr M'Murray, of the Shamrock Hotel, was charged by a native with having assaulted him with a riding whip. The complainant appeared in Court with his head bound up. The services of the interpreter not being available at the time, the case was adjourned to 12 o'clock, and again to 2 o'clock p;m, The Evening Post, of July 7, says : —We have seen to-day some splendid specimens from the Baker's Hill and Morning Star claims, far richer than anything that has yet been shewii us from that locality. Those working the former claim have repeatedly said that the further they drive the richer is the quartz they see, and if what we have seen to-day may be accepted as a fair sample of the. stuff last found, the future yield of the claim will undoubtedly be satisfactory,

In a leading article the Timarii Herald thus refers to the Otago TJni* versity :—" The new Institution has our cordial wishes; nor can we doubt but that, especially with such men of mark as the University Council has succeeded in obtaining as Professors, it will be largely patronised. There are the many promising youths of our various High Schools existing in Dunedin, Chiktchurch, and Auckland—and we are confident that not a few oi these will find their way to the College. In the absence of the home Normal Schools, no doubt many of those who have in view the profession of teaching will avail themselves of the training of the University, and aspire to its degree. Hitherto, not a few young men have gone to Britain, or to the Australian Universities, for such an education as they could not obtain here; now, no doubt, the benches of the Dunedin University will 'be largely replenished by these youthful aspirants, after learning, whose destinies otherwise were England, Scotland, or Australia. There again will be those who may have in view the office of the ministry in the various communities. Their secular education, at least, they may obtain at the University while other arrange? ments for their theological training may the more easily be devised by the several bodies to which they belong. Economy will have something to say in sending the students to Dunedin in preference to sending them further away. The advantage of having an Institute within the Island—involving no long and perilous voyage— will have some influence, and altogether we imagine the Otago University will not fail of ample patronage." They know how to punish men at home for damaging the telegraph wires, At the Dublin Commission Court a man named John Power was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude for. cutting down and removing a portion of the telegraph wire on the railway near Milltown. The Melbourne Argus of the 17th June says :—A strange case of misconduct on the part of an employee of the Argus has been heard at the Melbourne District Police Court. The defendant was a young man named Ernest Wernicke, who was employed as one of the "feeders" of the machines on which the Argus and the Australasian newspapers are printed. About six or seven months ago, an unusual number of blots, or, as they are technically called, " picks," were found from time to time on the Argus and Australasian sheets, these picks being blotches of ink which were caused by the presence of some small foreign object between the inked type and the sheet. During the process of printing off., the sheets these blotches were observed, and the machine had io.be stopped for from five to ten minutes while a search was made on the surface of the type for any foreign substance, which, being discovered, was at once taken out with a pin or needle, and the machine set going again. These picks became so frequent that sometimes from thirty to fifty-three minutes were wasted in one night, and this delay caused considerable expense. Nobody could tell the cause of the frequency of these picks, until recently, when a discovery was made implicating the defendant, .who was summarily dismissed. The picks, it was found, were caused by little pellets of soap, which Wernicke was in the habit of dropping into the machine, his object being to obtain, now and then, a rest from his work. No other reason, at least, could be assigned for the young man's extraordinary conduct. The case was fully proved, and Wernicke was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment, besides being ordered to pay costs to the amount of £lO 10s. An appeal was lodged against the decision, but was afterwards withdrawn. The Southern Railway, which runs from London to Dover, was last year an honorable exception to the other English roads as regards passengersmashing; having carried 9,500,000 persons without a single accident. A person being asked what was meant by the " realities of life," answered, "-Peal estate, real money, and a real good dinner, none of which could be realised without real hard work."

From the lately issued report of the Board of Education in Victoria, we gather that the per centage of children attending schools in that Colony is, as regards population, one out of 5*30, so that the Colony in question certainly stands in a very favorable position. In Switzerland the proportion is 1 in 6*2 ; in Prussia, 1 in 6*lß ; in Holland, 1 in ,8, in France, 1 in 8 62. Comparing New Zealand with Victoria, we cannot obtain any later statistics than those of 1867, which show that at that time the proportion of children attending school to population were, in Otago, 1 in 8 ; in Canterbury, 1 in B*6; in Nelson, 1 in 11 '3 ; in Hawke's Bay, 1 in 11 8; in Auckland, 1 in 18 ; in Wellington, 1 in 18; in Taranaki, 1 in 24; and in Southland, 1 in 3.8. New Zealand may bare made some progress in providing the means of education since 1867, but we fear it is still very far behind Victoria.

In Melbourne it is proposed to celebrate the centenary of Sir Walter Scott's birth on the 17th August next, by a fancy dress ball, the costumes of which will* be rigorously limited to those characters in the great novelist's work of fiction. Mr Cyrus Davie, Chief Surveyor of Canterbury province, died suddenly on the 20th ult. AH anxiety on the part of Mi Davie's friends for his recovery had ceased, and he spent the greater part of the previous day with his family. On retiring for the night, a shottness of breathing came on, and he expired within five minutes. The Nelson Evening Mail, June 24, gays ; —A man whose name is unknown, was found dead in his but in Lightband's Gully on Tuesday last by a <]\crctev named Snowden, who was working near the spot. When found he was lying with his head near the fireplace, stripped to the waist, and with a basin of water on a box beside him, as if he had been in the act of washing when he fell down dead. Death is supposed to have occurred instantaneously, and to have been eaused by disease of the heart. He was last seen alive by Snowden a week previously, and from the appearance of the body ib ib believed that he must have been dead very nearly that time. Deceased was a Russian by birth, and was quite a stranger in the place. He had been living by himself and was known to have been, unwell for some time previous to his death. When fame is regarded as the end, and merit as only the means, men aro apt to dispense with the latter, if the former can be had without it.

What is apoplexy ? From the suddenness of the attack and the apparent causelessness of it, the Greeks connected it in their mind with an idea of a stroke of lightuing as coming from the Almighty Hand —it literally means " a stroke from above." As instantaneous as the hurling of a thunderbolt in a clear sky, there comes a loss of sense, and feeling, and thought, and motion ; the heart beats, the lungs play, but that is all, and soon thev cease for ever. The Romaus considered the person to be " thunder-struck" or " planet-struck," as if it were of un earthly origin, The essential nature of apoplexy is au unnatural amount of blood in the brain; whatever sends too much blood to the brain may cause apoplexy that is the kind of apoplexy which seems to come without any apparent cause. Tying a cord tight rouud the neck, or holding the head downwards too long, can bring on an attack of apoplexy, by damming up the blood iti the brain, and keeping it from returning to the body. A sudden mental emotion can send too much blood to the brain, or too great mental excitement can do the same thing. It is the essential nature of all wines and spirits to send an increased amount of blood to the brain, hence alcohol is said to stimulate the brain. The first tffect of taking a glass of wine or stronger form of alcohol, is to send the blood there faster than common ; : hence it quickens the circulation that gives the red face. It increases the activity of the brain, and it works faster, and so does the tongue. But as the blood goes to the brain faster than common, it returns faster, and no special permanent harm results. But suppose a man keeps on drinking, the blood is sent to the brain much faster, in such large quantities that, in order fo make room fa it, the arteries have to

enlarge themselves; they increase in size, and in so doing press against the yielding flaccid veins which carry the blood out of the brain, and thus diminish the size of their bores, the result being that the blood is not only carried to the arteries of the brain faster than is natural or healthful, but is prevented from leaving it as fast as usual; hence a double set of causes of death are in operation. Hence a man may drink euough brandy or other spirits in a few hours or even minutes, to bring on a fatal attack of apoplexy. This is literally being dead drunk.—Dr. Hall.