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Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1633, 1 December 1874, Page 446

The danger of knocking boys' heads together has received sad illustration at Waikiwi. Otago. A pupil attending the district school there, complained when he came home one day, of a pain in his head. He said that Mr Macdonald, the teacher, had taken him and another boy, named M'llwrick, and knocked their heads together, for misbehaviour at school that day. He continued to complain of his head, and, notwithstanding the attention and skill of two medical men the boy died after nearly three weeks' illness.

The Otago Guardiu says:—A funny story is told of a gentleman of geological tendencies, and who is firmly imbued with the belief of his own infallibility. It is said that when he was in the Carrick District he visited, amongst others, the claim known as the "Try Again," and looking at a piece of quartz he had picked up from the heap, said: " This is the wrong sort of stone to get gold in ; it is barren quartz." He was not a little surprised when told that the same kind of stone went 17dwt. per ton ; but judge his astonishment when, turning over the same piece of quartz, he found a piece of gold sticking to it!

A girl named Margaret Ayre, a nursemaid in tlie family of the Rev. R. Hayward, accidentally fell into the St. Paul's River, Avoca, near its junction with the ►South Esk ; and but for the presence of mind shown by the eldest of her little charges, a little girl of six years of age, must have added another to the already long list of those who have lost their lives by drowning in the same place. The child, first sending a younger sister home to the parsonage for help, went a little lower dowu than the scene of the accident, and climbing out into the tea-tree, pushed out a branch to her nurse as she drifted down and which she managed to catch. Finding this insufficient to save the girl, she then let herself down into the river, grasping a bough firmly with one hand, while with the united aid of the other and tho teatree she helped the girl into a place of comparative safety. Meanwhile the help summoned from the parsonage arrived, and the nurse and her brave little preserver were safely landed on the bank and conveyed home, much exhausted from their immersion and efforts. This little narrative shows how much may be accomplished by those valuable qualities—presence of mind and self-control. It may perhaps be of additional interest to note that the little girl is grandneice of one who possessed them in an eminent degree —the gallant Sir John Franklin. The following particulars of a Carlist massacre are given by the Spanish frontier correspondent of the London Times, under date 31st August:--You have, doubtless, by this time received all the particulars of the horrid massacre of Valfogona. There was not even the pretence of a court-martial. The captive Carbineers were taken from the original place of confinement by two Carlist chiefs, Bosch and Bru, acting under the orders of Saballs, tied with ropes in couples, and conveyed on foot. One of them, who was lame, and could not bear the fatigue of the march, was dispatched with bayonets on the road, and left for burial in the hands of some woodmen. Upon their arrival at Llayers the others were shut up in the parish church, where presently Federico Bru intimated to them that they were to prepare for instant execution, for " they were all rascals of Carabineros, and Saballs was determined that not one of them should live." He allowed the assistance of three priests, and only one hour's respite. They were mostly married men, and tried , to save their lives by clubbing the little money they had and tendering it as their ransom ; but Bru observed with a sneer, that ho had already their money safe at his discretion. They then snatched from each other's hands such pencils and small slips of paper as they could lay their hands on, and wrote hasty farewells to their wives and families. At 11 o'clock Bru re-appeared, and they vainly implored him for the delay of another hour. But their heur had struck. Bosch drew up a shooting party in the churchyard, and a first couple was led out and made to stand with their backs against the walls of the church. The word was given, a volley was heard, and all was over with them. Tho report of the rifles allowed their comrades within the church no doubt as to the fate which awaited them. Pinioned as they were, they tried to embrace each other, and nerved up their courage by mutual exhortations and loving leave-takings. So affecting was the scene inside the church that one of the priests fainted, and had to be conveyed to the parsonage. One unhappy pair was thus led out after another, first those who were most downcast and resigned, then those who struggled and clung to tho walls, to the posts, and even to the dead bodies on the ground of those of their comradee who had gone before them. In the rear of the shooting party was the little Carlist party, whose duty it was to dispatch with the bayonet those men on whom the rifleballs had no immediate fatal effect. At half-past twelve all was over. Eightyfour perished. Only one, by name A volas, a native of Llayers and fellow-townsman of Bosch, was allowed to go free,