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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1260, 28 February 1872, Page 2

There were no cases at the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning. The usual Government annual inspection of Volunteers in Napier took place in Clive Square to-day, when the Napier Rifle Volunteers, the Artillery Volunteers, the Yeomanry Cavalry, and the Rifle Cadets paraded before Lieut - Oojqne} Harington, the inspecting officer. There seemed to be a fair muster pf the various corps, and the different evolutions were gone thiough in a creditable manner. The Bands of the Rifles, the Artillery, and the Cadets were present, and enlivened the proceedings with popular airs. At the conclusion of the inspection of each company, Lieut.-Col. Harington ad dressed a few remarks to the men, pointing out their shortcomings, and giving praise where such was due. He congratulated the Rifle Volunteers on being able to ?end one of their number to the Prize Firing at Christchurch. There was a moderate attendance of spectators throughout the day. An amusing instance of confusion of ideas as to colonial localities has been brought under the notice of the Warrnamboool Advertiser, which says :—"A letter from the office of a well-known legal firm in Edinburgh was addressed ' Warrnambool, New Zealand.' From New Zealand it was sent to Sydney, with the marking 'Try New South Wales,' and from the sister colony ithas at length, after a, 11 its wanderings, found its way to its cjestination here." H is now said that the overland telegraph line will not be finished till June, owing to unlooked for delays. At Kyneton the thistles are so thick in places that a man on horseback cannot r\(\e through iJiem.

The following extract from a letter sent by a gentleman at one of the South Sea Islands to a Mend at Sydney, and dated 25t]i December, 1871, i.s pub lished by the Sydney Morning Herald : —.*'' Doha '-—that island has. a bad name, They will chase a vessel, if it is calm, and tight her. In fact, all the islands, are getting bad, for the tieatment inflicted by labor vessels is truly frightful. One man told me himself that he had landed and tried to burn down a village; it would not burn (it was after rain), so he went on board, got some kerosine, then burnt and plundered it! He brought here some kind of idol with human heads upon it. Another captain, of a vessel told me he also assisted to burn the village. Every ship can tell tales of braggart villany, which, if true, ought to hang some one. Canoes are run down, and the people taken from them. A cutter of 15 or 18 tons, now here, with bulwarks only 10in. high, has 42 natives on board, 35 of them for sale—children, boys and girls, six years, eight or nine years old, up to grown men and women ! It is horrible, and should be stopped. I hope a man-of-war will soon be here to see about it." The "Wairarapa correspondent of the Wellington Independent, under date February 16th, says: —"The body of George Lawson, the poor fellow who was accidentally drowned, in the Waiohine last week has not been found, and it is supposed it has been buried in the sand. He was a member af the Odd: Fellows' Lodge, and that Order had a special meeting to consider what steps should be taken with regard to the recovery of the body, and assisting the widow in her bereavement." The Ballarat Courier says that during a lecture at Ballarat on " The Irish Church," the Very Reverend Dean Macartney said that " he had often tried to master the Irish language, but never succeeded; had he done, so he would have found a wide missionary field for himself in his native land. He related an amusing anecdote, how he hand once (whilst he was studying Irish) tried to minister consolation to a »ick man by reading to him in the mother tongue, and how the poor fellow afterwards acknowledged that he had almost died of laughing, and the tears had rolled down Biddy's cheeks, whilst the Dean was spluttering through and making a lamentable failure in his selfimposed task." The Sydney Evening News gives the following account of the terrible death of a man who. fell over the cliffs at Bondi:—" Mr F. Cornelius, lessee of the Haymarket, was fishing under the cliff's, about half a mile north of the North Head of Bondi, in the afternoon, between 4 and 5 o'clock, when he heard a noise overhead as if of stones falling, which caused him to look up and rush from his position. He saw only a couple of small stones come from the top, which was a honey-combed shelf. After listening for a short time, and seeing nothing more, he turned round, and saw in the water about 20 yards from where he had been iishing, a man

struggling with the waves and apparently drowning. This was. the first intimation that he had that any other person than himself was in the vicinity.. It was fioocl tide, and although the weather was calm, the waves were rolling in heavily, and the struggling man was kept afloat, although he did not appear able to swim. Mr Cornelius called out to him to keep his courage up until he went for his fishing line. At this moment the drowning man seemed quite sensible, and although he never spoke he showed by his looks that he was quite aware Mr Cornelius wag endeavoring to save him. His movements gave the idea that he was disabled in the legs. 3fr Cornelius, after two or three ineffectual attempts to throw the line close enough, succeeded in throwing it round the drowning man, who unfortunately was too far gone then to grasp it, having the moment before vomited, as if in a last effort of nature. When Mr Cornelius commenced to haul on the line;, a tremendous wave coming in washed it fromits hold on the man's body, and. the back water dragged the poor fellow to seaward. The tide was young flood, and ijic poor fellow, wbo during all this time never sank, was seen by our, informant for full half-an-hour rising and falling with the waves, and: being carried towards the North Head. On ascending to the top of the cliff, which; is nearly perpendicular and at least two hundred feet high, Mr C6rnelius found nothing but a piece of old bagging lying near the spot from, which he supposed the man to have fallen. There was no hat, clothing;, or anything, to indicate who he was. It appeared as if he had fallen from the extreme top on to-a projecting and then bounded over into the sea. He wasi appaiently between fifty and sixty years of age;.; and. wore a black cloth, coat and twill shirt,. He had dark ej~es, high forehead, grey hair, and was bald on. the top of the head, The circumstances attending this mysterious and. melancholy affair were, as related by Mr Coxnelius, of a most intensely distressing; kind. In his attempts to rescue thedrowning man they were more than; once within a lew feet, of each other; and although the poor fellow could not», or at least did not, attempt to. speak>, his mute but agonised appeals, by his looks, for help were of. the most distressing kind." The Patea correspondent of the Wanganui Herald wiites as follows, under date 14th February:—" The Public Works Depart mem appears to be a mysterious atiair. Its ramifications extend all over the coumry, embracing * all sorts and conditions of men,' from the highest down to, the unfortunate and. underpaid individual who has perforce to don the red shirt, and wheel a barrow on the public roads under the surveillance of an armed They are all in the Public Works Department, the only difference being that while one section has to do much work for no pav, the other has to get much, pay for no work, and they appear tolike it (1 mean the latter section). —One or two deputations waited, upon the Hon. the Defence Minister, and atao upon Mr Ormond. They were promised all they asked." A terrible calamity has ocurred oil the mouth of the Mersey. On the night of Thursday, the 26th November, cries of distress were heard by the captain of a passing steamer, but they gradually became fainter, and died away, and the steamer, after waiting neat the spot for an hour and a half, went on to Liverpool. Next day two sunken ships were discovered, and from information, which has since been received there seems to be no doubt that these vessels were the Majy Baker, of Boston. United States, and the Arrow, brigantine, homeward hound from Sierra Leone. One of rite Mary Baker's boats and part of her gear have been picked up, and a dead seaman who was found in the rigging of that ship lias been identified as 011& of the crew of the hrigantine when sh& left Liverpool on her outward voyage, He had evidently clambered into the rigging of the shin while hi" own vessel was sinking after the collision, and diect there from exposure. Operations have been recommenced at the Melbourne glas< works after l#' ing suspended for two yc.irs.

"iEgles," in the Australasian of the 3rd February, says : —" There is a curious story afloat, which, if true, seriously compromises a well-known Melbourne solicitor. It is almost too sensational for belief in -these prosaic matter-of-fact days, but the surrounding incidents are so circumstantially narrated that they give it substance and coherence. An old lady, with large possessions, and few, if any, relatives in this country, fell amongst, or (perhaps I had better say) into the hands of a clever attorney. An English female relative who, in the event of the old lady's decease would be beneficially interested, had her suspicions aroused in some manner, and came out to Melbourne for the express purpose of investigation. Upon her arrival here she made enquiries, but the old lady was nowhere to be found. She had utterly disappeared, and no one could tell her whereabouls. Her former haunts knew her not. With professional assistance a clue was obtained, and a faint track was followed np to Sydney, thence for a hundred miles or so across the Blue Mountains, and finally in a remote island township the object of the search was found. But in what condition 1 A desire for stimulants bad been encouraged, and the old lady was being permitted to poison herself with alcohol, her suicidal allowance being a bottle ol brandy per diem. With considerable difficulty, she was rescued from the surveillance of her interesting New South Wales friends. She was brought back to Melbourne and confronted with her late legal adviser. He had obtained such control of her property, and had otherwise so planned matter?, that in the event of the old lady's death, he would himself become possessed of all, or nearly all. Her unexpected reappearance, however, stunned him. He at once restored a large sum in cash, and gave security for further indebtedness. And so the matter stands. 3f people want to know more, let them inquire in Chancery-lane, in Temple-court., or in any other haunt of the brotherhood of lawyers, for exact particulars. The Marlborough Express says :—A very serious accident occurred last week at Mr Green's station, CJpcot, Awatere, whereby eleven person* narrowly escaped a painful death. ft appears that some time ago a small quan tity of arsenic was left in a bag at the shearing reserve; no label or distinguishing mark being attached to it. A young man who was packing the stores from thence to the station mistook the arsenic for flour, and turned part of a large sack into it, for convenience of packing. Shortly after his arrival, the cook used some of the poisoned flour to thicken some gravy of which all hands partook. The consternation and sufferings of the party may be surmised when shortly after dinner they were all seized with the pains peculiar to the action of this deadly poison. There was no aid within several miles, and not one of them was able to go for help had it been nearer to hand. They are now all under medical treatment, and one man is still veiy ill from the effects of the poison. We know of no practice more reprehensible than that of leaving poisonous substances in the way of children, or persons who are not acquainted with their nature. They should at all times be carefully marked in large letters. The consequences in this case have barely escaped proving fatal, Mr Saunders, late Superintendent of Nelson, in his reminiscences of a visit, to England, said :—I was crossing the Channel to Dublin, and in the steamer was Mr Bright, with whom 1 had some pleasant con-~er c ation. A s we were approaching the land, Mr Bright pointed to a small island, and said, " That is called the 'Eye of Ireland.' Several years ago a doctor took his wife out there in a boat, and returned without her, saying she fell into the water. Ho was accused of having drowned her, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hung: A number of people who did not think the evidence proved hi« guilt, endeavored to get his .sentence commuted. I did what I could to help them, not that I agreed as to his innocence, for I had no doubt he was guilty, but 1 am opposed to capital punishment, and therefore I objected to his being executed, and desired that he should be transported for life I am feaopy to say," (continued Mr Bright)

" that we were successful; his sentence was commuted, and he was transported for life." Singularly enough, (said Mr Saunders), I had learned the history of this convict doctor, and T asked Mr Bright if he knew what became of that man. " No," was his reply. " Then," said I, "I will tell yon. He was sent out to Australia, and from his knowledge of medicine was appointed to dispense drugs; in the convict establishment of which he was an inmate. He was accused of murdering—poisoning—one of his fellow prisoners against whom he had a grudge; and it was believed he had poisoned more in the same way. He was condemned and executed for this murder, and this was one result of the commutation of the original sentence of this murderer." When I was finished, Mr Bright suddenly turned on his heel, and we had no more conversation on that subject.