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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1249, 15 February 1872, Page 2

At a meeting of the Napier Rifle Volunteers lipid last evening, Ensign Close was elected lieutenant in the room of Mr Torre, resigned ; and Vqlunteer Bal harry was elected ensign. Our Volunteers are not bad shot?, as shooting goes in the Colonies, but wh_at would they say to a score made by Mr G. T Kin near, a member of the Edinburgh Long Range Rifle Club, on the 10th October, with a Hnia.ll bore rille. The greatest possible score was 80—Mr Kinnear made 76. The distance was 1,000 yards, and 20 shots wore made. The score included 16 consecutive bull's A Middle Island paper informs its readers thai "a heavy-weight race, distance 100 yards, was run at Taupo. Napier, during the Christmas sports." Several rivers in Otago have disappeared, owing to the drought. The Kakanui can be stepped across, and there is no water in the Shag except at the fish-ponds. The Qbe.po.po and Waianakuri may be crossed dry-shod. The Big Kuri, Shag, and Koharo..have.long ceased to, run. A Marlborough paper publishes a letter from a gentleman who was on the neighboring hills when a destructive eras's fire was ragrncr in the. Awateri district, Marlborough. The writer says :—" I could almost imagine that I was looking down on the infernal regions. Over the whole country there hung a dense smoke, through the rifts of which I could see the fierce flames travelling onward with racehorse speed. Every now and then an immense mass of flame would leap ahead of the burning grass, and, seizing hold oi the dry, tinder-like tussocks, greedily lap them up with the voraciousness of a starving man. In advance of all these were to be seen with a glass whole flocks of affrighted endeavoring to escape the destruction that threatened them, while every now and then scores oi them might be seen to drop blinded and stupefied with the smoke, and in a vary lew minutes their doom would be sealed as the hungry flame?! passed over them and left them shrivelled corpses. When and where it is going to stop God only knows. The losses that will be sustained by sheep owners in the district are really terrible to contemplate."

In the United States about pnefonrth of the population are identified with Methodism. President Grant is a regular worshipper, and is likewise a trustee of tlie large church in Washington, which cost ,£46,000, and was re cently built in commemoration of the centenary of Methodism in the United States of America. The key stone of an immense arch in this building came from the ruins of Solomon's Temple, and the panels of the pulpit from wood crown in the garden of Gethsemane. An Australian journal, the Wagga Advertiser, thus describes the heat lately at that township : —" The heat wa« so me thine: to be remembered. The thermometer ranged from IQB to 110 degrees in the shade, and the heat was of that stifling, melting description which makes existence a burden and the thinnest silk coat a mqckery. To aggravate the sufferings of a people whose warm complaint is that they are being roasted before their time, and being overdone, many of the wells are beginning to fail, and a drop of cold water is as much in demand in some quarters as it ever could have been with Dives himself. How long this state of purgatory is to last nobody knows, but it is to be hoped for the sake of business, which we need hardly say is in the meantime entirely suspended, that it will not last much longer, or there will no alternative for our enterprising traders but to resolve themselves into a wholesale boilingdown company, or pack each other up as dr.ie.pl meat for the London market. Theie were some heavy thunderclouds hovering about yesterday, which gave some hope 0 f a change; but towards evening ' they silently stole away.'"

According to the Canterbury Press, the, potato crop generally is looked upon thiy season as likely to tarn out an almost complete failure in many districts qf tjhat Province. enthusiastic writer to the Sydney Morning Herald suggests that there should be a general holiday and day of rejoicing throughout the Australian colonies on the completion of the AngloAustralian telegraph, The. Bendigo Independent states on excellent authority that the dividends from var|ous claims in the Sandhurst district paid to one gentleman alone amounted last year to the sum of ■£50,000, and had one been paid just inside instead of outside of the old year his income from this source alone would have averaged <£looo per week. The yield of gold in Victoria in 1871 was 21,000 ozs in excess of that of the previous year The Pilgrim's Progress (says the Printoys' -Register), has been translated into tjie Chinese language, and printed with, illustrations by native artists. The figures are of course Chinese, and our friend Christian disports a pigtail. The State Board of Health in Massachusetts is desirous of investigating the effect produced on the health of women by the use of sewing machines, and has selected Dv Lucy Sew/all, of Boston, to prepare a report on the subject. This is said to be the first instance of the appointment of a female physician to draw up a medical report for the Government. Masons, and bricklayers in Chicago are making Ml a day. A singular incident which occurred on the Grey river a few days ago is thus related by the Grey mouth Star: —Adventurers are often described as being placed on the horns of a dilemma. but to be situated on the horns of a swimming bullock, a few hundred yards from the mouth of the Gfrey river, with a current running nearly six knots an hour is a dilemma not often witnessed, nor much to be relished. Thi* was the position of Mr Harry Bowman, who 'dropped off the steamer Charles Edward this afternoon, while a stray bullock was passing it, having been carried away from a mob attempting to cross the the upper ford. Fortunately Bowman was a good swimmer, and, more fortunately, there happened to be a coal barge within hail, whose occupant assisted him in quitting his precarious position. His companion for the time, the bullock, managed to gain landing ground a few yards inside the bar, where it kept up a melancholy bewail inent, which, conjoined with other manoeuvres, indicated an evident i-egrct on its part, that there was nothing or no one to rush or toss upon landing. A correspondent writes to the Pleasant Creek News (Victoria) to say that grasshoppers were so dense along the forest by Vectis a few weeks ago that a person could not see 200 yards ahead. There were such clouds above, that the shade was as thick as though perceived by a person riding under a very shady tree. The insects do not go much into the forest, but accumulate in dense masses on the borders.

Diptherid is committing terrible ravages at Ballarab and Ores wick, Victoria. The Bishop of Manchester, at a rail way employees tea party at Bolton, concluded a speech as follows ;—Might he venture to say in all seriousness one simple word to sweathearts. Let hiin ask them to make their sweethearting consistent with Christian purity here ; do let him say, in the second place, girls, don't you take up with any young fellow just because he has a sprightly tongue or a dashing manner. If you don't think he is likely to make you a good husband, don't have him. Before you £ake a mam see that he is woith taking to. He would say to the young men, don't be caught by the prettiest face or the s mar Lest dress. Look out for a lass who will make you happy at home and who, if she cannot make the calico to sew on to the buttons, will know how to make a shirt and stitch the buttons on, (Applause). Ten thousand miles of railway are expected to be laid down in. the United States this year.