Some News.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1523, 7 November 1873, Page 6

Some News.

Planning a Collision. M Henry Cunningham, master of tliejß smack Ant, who was charged with bav-jM ring arranged a collision between hisfl vessel and the smack Gnat, the scheme™ being that the Ant after !he collisionM yras to be abandoned derelict, so thatjH she could be picked up by the crew of IB a Dutch vessel, who were to pay them IB for the opportunity of earning™ sahage —has been committed to tiikel his. trial at Norwich assizes. The! master of the Gnat, who gave evidence 1 against Cumraings, showed thai they 1 received £4O and a quantity of spirits I from the crew of the M ary Ann, of J Harlingen. for effecting the collision. The Police. Several little boys, accused of angling J in the ornamental water of St James's sj park, without first having obtained I consent of the Chief Commissioner of I Police, were brought up on the 21st 1 August at Bow-street. Oue fish, not 1 quite three inches in length, had been I caught among them. The "lads were 1 discharged. The late Duke of Brunswick; Charles Duke of Brunswick, long I resident in Geneva, died on August 18, I from an attack of apoplexy. The duke dicects by will that his body shall be 1 examined by five medical men in order I that they may ascertain whether his | death has been due to poison or not. I] The body will be embalmed or petrified. | All the duke's landed and personal I property, including his jewels, and the 1 property retained at Brunswick since I 1830;, are bequeathed to the city of I Geneva. Mr Smith, an Englishmen, is 1 nominated administrator-general, and I receives a bequest of £40,000. M. | Ferdinand Cherbuliez, advocate at I Geneva, is a*-istant administrator. will is dated Geneva, March 5, 1871, 1 and is written as well as signed by the duke, and wat entrusted to the care of M. Binet, notary, on March 6. The ] value of the real property left by the ! duke is estimated at £1,000,000. Part J of the property is situated in Geneva. 1 It is slated that some years ago this : eccentric prince made the Priuce Imperial his sole legatee, thus leaving his millions to the heir of a civil list of a million a year. He informed the | Emperor of this intention, and for- i warded to him a schedule of his many I investments. It was this schedule, | fovmd at the Tuileries amongst the Em- I I leror's private papers by the insurgents I of the 4th of September, that gave rise i to the fable of the hoarded wealth which I Napoleon was said to have placed in 1 English, Dutch, and other securities. 1 Since the Emperor's death it has been 1 i proved how poor a man he died. Not 1 , the least, singular part of the story is, 1 that immediately on the fall of the 1 ; Empire the Duke of Brunswick re- : 1 voiced the disposition of his vast fortune | > —which would now, indeed, have been j , invaluable to one who has little more 1 i than a great name for inheritance - jS cast about for some other object, si/'jl ficiently and securely wealthy to justify the demise of further riches. He was ~ residingat theflourishing city of Geneva, and it seems to have struck him that ," the ancient Swiss Republic was possessed , of a vigorous and stable existence, and Geneva of abundant resources. Accord* ■ ingly, on. March 5, 1871, carefully ex- . chiding all his relatives, lie devised the whole of his real and ''personal"estate to that city, subject only to the charge of a, princely funeral and th* Erection of a magnificent mausoleum iu which his embalmed or petrified leiuains are to be entombed amidst statues of bronze and

marble. A Centenarian Reaper. Very recently an old woman, named Betuy Lcatherton, attracted a large number of persons to witness her reaping wheat in a field at Tring, in Buckinghamshire. She formerly belonged to a tribe of gipsies, hut for the last few years she had been living at Tring. She was born at Chinnor, and attained her 110th year on the 24th of April last. When in the harvest field she seemed to work very feebly, but the way in which she handled the reapinghook surprised many of the lookers-on, among whom were several gentleman"" of Tring and the neighborhood. The old woman enjoys pretty good health, and is in possession of all her faculties. Her baptismal certificate may be seen at Mr Tompkins's, ironmonger, at Tring. Narrow Escape of Two of the Tiohborne Jurymen. On August 28, during the time the Court; of Queen's Bench had adjourned for luncheon, the wind, which had been blowing very bard all the morning, became a stiff gale, and a sudden gust snapped off, at about 10 feet from the ground, a large and lofty tree which .stood near the entrance of ihe Middlesex Session House. It fell ou to the fooc pavement in the direction of the Buxton drinking fountain in Great Gqorgestreel. Two of the jurors empannelled on the Tich borne trial, and another gentleman, who were just returning to court from a. neighboring restaurant, had .seas-civ desired the spot, having passed under the tree, before the heavy trunk and ponderous branches of the old elm fell crashing to the ground. Thus the Tichborne trial narrowly escaj>ed being brought to a sudden and most unfortunate termination. Another gentleman passing the tree to windward and a .-Jioe-black who was kneeling near it plying his vocation also experienced a narrow escape; A large crowd speedily collected, and it was discovered that the tree was " rotten to the core." Petroleum Champagne. • The acute commercial element of the Americans—that part which, we, may suppose sent over the wooden, nutmegs —•has discovered that by'the aid of flavoring it is possible to dispose of mineral oil as champagne; and we are assured, on the testimony of those who may bo supposed to > know;,-4 viz., American mineral, oil a and brokera—thafc they sell large quantities

V n tb champaghimakers. > ! Tne "stuff| is said to be;sweetened with as eugar does not aerated> by a soda-water machine, and sold for ballroom consumption. It produces terrible headache, and often severe diairhcea and other evil effect*. Let us hope it is not; tine that a consignment of this "stuff" has reached England, via a French port Iron in Bales of Cotton, A laige spiuning firm in Manchester recently discovered some pieces of iron , in a. bale of cotton, which were uearly fed-hot through the friction caused by the heaters-r-the machineiy used in process of opening the bales. The pieces of iron appear to have been pui in for the purpose of making weight. Fortunately the iron was got out before the cotton whs ignited. It is a wonder that there are not more fires in cotton mills, seeing that such tilings are put in the bales of cotton. Birds' Nests in Clocks. A very curious incident happened the other day at Hanipsfcead, where the clock of the handsome new church of St. Stephen's was taken suddenly with an inexplicable tit of stopping. The clock-makers by whom it was supplied were called in, and the works in the upper part of the church-tower were . carefully inspected. At last, after several fruitless searches into the hidden cause, it was discovered that the motionwheels which drove the hands of the dial on the north face were fixed in consequence of a starling having built its nest in the small hole bored through the stone for the spindle, at the end of which (he outside hands were screwed on, lo pass through. The spindle in its revolution had dragged round the nest, which was disordered andquite flattened, and in it was found a little starling, apparently four or five days old, but dead. Portions of the nest were so firmly twisted round the spindle that the greatest difficulty was experienced in disentangling them. The wonder is however the ne*t could have been constructed on a spindle which performs a revolution once in wety hour both day and night.

One Hundred-Mile Bicycle Race. A bicycle 1 ace from London to Brighton and back, between >ix gentlemen selected from the Middlesex, and *ix from the Surrey Bicycle Clubs, came off on the 16th August. The start was made at six a.m. On the way, two of the Middlesex men gave *up, while another turned over and smashed his bicycle. Out of the twelve men who started, five arrived at the Oval, viz, four of the Surrey Club, and one of the Middlesex—victory being thus gained by the Smrey. The first arrival was that of Mr Wood, of the Middlesex Club, who reached the goal, Kenning-ton-oval, on the return journey, at eight minutes past five, being followed fifteen minutes after by Mr Causton, of the Surrey Club. Tidings from Sir Samuel Baker. Sir H. Rawlinson has received a ~ letter from Sir Samuel Baker, giving a most graphic account of the hostilities with Kabrpga and the slave dealer*, which led to those sinister stories regarding the fate of the Baker expedition that were circulated in Alexandria a few months ago. Sir Henry says the information furnished to Sir S. Baker by native merchant*, as to ihe junction of Luke Tanganyika with the Albert Nyanza, so as to form one body of water, cannot hold its ground against the positive evidence to the contrary 9i nee acquired by Dr. Livingstone and Mr Stanley; in fact, Sir S. Baker, on learning of Dr. Livingstone's visit to the north end of Tanganyika without discovejing an outlet, seems rather inclined to mistrust the native statements. Sir Samuel Baker expresses a hope that he will reach England in September. Miscellaneous. The new Suspension Bridge at Chelsea was opened on August 28 for traffic, without any ceremony, though a few flags were displayed from the houses adjoining. This bridge crosses the river from the end of Oakley-street, Chelsea, to the west side of Battersea Park, and will be a most welcome thoroughfare from Kensington and Bronipton to Battersea and Clapham. " COMATOSE " M.P.'s. In the Imperial House of Parliament, especially from the following sxtract fpwardß the small hours of the morning, flirapgfl scenes may sometimes be witnessed, judging from the following extract from the London correspondence of the Western Morning News : Among the M.P.'s who remained in the House of Commons till broad daylight at a recent belated sitting, was Sir Wilfrid Lawoon, and he had an opportunity of noting down a very cogent illustration for his next temperance speech. Somewhere flbout half-past two in the morning there into the House an M.P. who had dined—not wisely, but two well. It was, of course, the salmon which had disagreed with him, aud which caused him to topple over in the gangway, and nearly roll down the steps thereof ; and it was the entrees which so overpowered him that he had to recline at full length upon the first bench sdiich hP could reach; and it was the overdose of soup wjiich he bad taken that compelled him to call out for a stick because there was something the matter with his legs. The electors of the tiny constituency which he represents should urge him to take more care of himself, especially, as in this world of backbiters and teetotalers, unsteadiness of gait ia generally attributed to another cause. There is another of our legislators. Bitting for a borough somewhat larger than the above, yet of very scanty proportions, who suffers from coma of a character than must appear somewhat suspicious to the Carlisle baronet aforesaid. The-M.P. Jn question will sometimes roll in like a pbip in a stiff breeze, and having anchored himself securely to some seat, he will fall asleep. As he sleeps he dreams. Ho is haunted by. visions of divisions, and every now and then an orator in the full flow of his periods will be astonished to hear murmurs of " 'Vide, 'vide!" from the slumbering senator. The speaker calls out "Order," and the slumberer answer's »'Vide." The effect is highly comic, and Englishmen may well be proud; of the » first legislative' assembly in the world."