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Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1608, 4 September 1874, Page 345

A drunkard named George Sullivan was lately sent to jail in Wanganui as a vagrant. As he was found to be suffering from inflammation of the lungs and dropsy he was sent to the hospital, where he showed sighs of aberration of intellect, and by the disturbance he made endangered the lives of other patients. Three men were set to guard him ; nevertheless he escaped from the hospital and remained exposed through a whole night, which so aggravated his complaint as to cause his speedy death. An inquest was held, and a verdict of " death from natural causes " returned. In this and many other instances, it would appear as though a coroner's jury thought their duty was to conceal the truth, instead of giving a verdict " according to the evidence." A correspondent of the Otago Guardian, who appears to be an authority, writes of the comet thus :—The comet, which for a few mornings has been visible in the eastern sky, is difficult to be identified with any of those whose periods have been calculated. There are 13 comets whose perihelion passages have been ascertained to take place at intervals ranging from 3£ years to 16 years, and calculating from the last apparition of any of those to that of the present one, an entire correspondence cannot be established. The nearest approach to a coincidence of time exists in those known as Pons's and Pigott's respectively, the former having a period of 5£ years, and the latter of 10 years. The return of most of those comets of short periods, however, is not distinguished by anything like tho decided brilliancy of our present visitor, and besides, to effect a reconcilement between its advent and the period of either of those two that most agree with it, requires an allowance for perturbing influences of which no certain proof exists. Besides those comets of what are called short periods, there are six others whose recurring perihelion passages occur at intervals of 67 years (Westphal's) to that of Halley's 76 years, but none of those will be again visible for some years to come—in the case of the most proximate, eight years at least. With regard to the comets of longer periods, comprehending intervals from 190 to 3,,00QJ years, so much uncertainty exists as to the true elements of their orbits that no definite agreement can be established between their last apparition and that of our present visitor without straining probabilities to an altogether unwarrantable extent. Under these circumstances, and in the absence of sufficient micrometrical aid to determine the character of its orbit, it is impossible to say whether it forms a recognized member of the solar cometic family, or whether it be one of those erratic wanderers that, while yielding a temporary and local obedience to solar attraction, yet, in consequence of their hyperbolic path, visit our system but on'ce, never to return. Our present visitant, were it not for the strong moonlight which has prevailed during tho time it has hitherto been visible, would bo a very conspicuous object of its kind. It is distinguished by expansive coma, and a stellar-like nucleus exists in the region of greatest condensation.' If

its increased distance do not lessen its brilliancy to a material extent after the moon has begun to set, and while it is still in the field of view, the tail will assume greater proportions than at present. As might be expected from the recency of its perihelion passage, its motion is very rapid, and within the last 24 hours it has traversed at least 10 deg. of the celestial arc. As some discrepancy exists in the accounts that have appeared as to the direction in which it is moving, it may be here stated, in general and popular terms, that its motion is in a line with and towards its tail. During a recent mad dog panic in London, a case occurred which led to a display of courage very seldom equalled. A large mastiff was seen in Fleet Street in a most dangerous condition of undoubted canine madness, making attempts on several persons; when a policeman heroically attacked the animal with his bludgeon ; and although, failing to kill or even disable him at the first blow, he drew the fury of the brute on himself ; he continued his stand-up fight until he had succeeded in stunning the enemy, when he was assisted in giving him the finish. More than once during the battle the dog seized his assailant, but did not succeed in doing more than damaging his clothes. Some time ago, in the very beginning of the panic, a dog which had bitten several children, was followed and killed, and in one of the main throughfares of the Borough, by a policeman, but the animal was a small mongrel terrier. It certainly requires no ordinary pluck to attack singlehanded a large mastiff, whether mad or not mad. Old residents (says the Otago Guardian) will remember the name of John M'Laren, who in by-gone days was always to the fore at open air meetings in the Octagon, or any other place where abuse of the province and denudations of all and sundry in office formed the staple subject of discourse. Well, Mr M'Laren, at last left Otago in disgust. There was a world elsewhere, and he would thither go. He went. He traversed the United States, and we believe Canada also; he wended his way to his native heath, and breathed once more the fi'ee air of Scotland; but, nowhere found he any place ,for his foot. He enjoys the repute of being a first-class artisan, but his skill brought ,him no sufficient profit in those countries. So, a jew months since he returned to Dunedin, and, in a letter which appears in another column, he makes full recantation of his past errors, avowing that he " never found a better place than Otago;" and telling how he landed here without sufficient funds to pay for a bed, and that now he has " plenty to keep him, and a little to . spare." We commend his letter to the perusal of all the discontented and the desponding souls now amongst us. The Melbourne Argus says:—One of the most extraordinary instances of a sudden change in social position has just occurred to a young seaman on board the whale ship Asia, and who was brought up at the Police Court yesterday morning on a charge of desertion from that vessel. The alteration in the circumstances of the youth, who has been following the sea for the last five years, is of the most extreme character. On one clay a blubber hunter, and on the next a baronet, with £20,000 at his command, aud large estates in England and in Wales for his patrimony. Mr Hawthorne, the shipping master, received an announcement from England to the effect that Theophilus Davis, who was supposed to be on a whaling cruise out of the port of Hobart Town, was entitled to a large fortune. An order for £IOO for present expenses accompanied the information, and when the Asia came into the river the youth was apprised of his good fortune. Without another thought of the delightful associations and responsibility of a foremast hand, he hailed a Chinaman's boat that was passing, jumped into it, and proceeded to the boarding-house of Mr Hanlin, who went with him to Mr Hawthorne, who advanced him £lO for a respectable rig-out, which was obtained before proceeding to the residence of Captain Bayloy. On arriving at the house of the skipper, whom the young man expected to surprise, he was, instead of being congratulated on his good fortune, given into tho hands of a constable, and consigned to. durance, almost as vile as that of a whaler's forecastle, for the night. Next morning he was brought up before Mr Tarleton, P.M., and in spite of the efforts of MiGraves, who was retained for the deserter) and in opposition to the suggestion from the« Bench that the charge should be withdrawn, the prosecutor insisted on the case proceeding, It failed for want of legal evidence. We have been courteously put in possession of the facts of the case, but refrain from mentioning the name of the baronet, who was uncle to the youth who now succeeds him in title and estate. We, however, may say, that he was the head of an ancient- Welsh family, and owned estates upon which there are valuable mines and slate quarries. Two sisters, whom the present baronet left at home when he started on his cruise, are also well provided for by a legacy of £20,000 each. As the subject of the present remarks stood before his accusers and made the necessary replies to the questions put to him, it was evident from his appearance and manner that he, at some time, had had different experiences from his recent ones, in the whaler.