The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1360, 9 February 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1881.

At the Resident Magistrate’s Court this morning, before H A. Stratford, Esq., R.M., there were two cases of assaultdealt with, but both were dismissed, as it was evidently a matter of neighbourly unfriendliness and provocation. In a third case of a similar nature between the two parties the defendant was bound over to keep the peace for six months. Mary Ann Glynn was charged with using obscene language in a public place, but through the information being faulty, the case was dismissed. There was no other business.

We are glad to observe that Mr John Bevan, of Hokitika, has kindly consented to deliver his popular lecture on “The Life and Works of Charles Dickens,” in aid of the funds of the Kumara Literary Institute. As a large number of persons were unable to attend :on the occasion of this gifted lecturer’s appearance here, a capital opportunity will shortly again be offered of hearing one of his intellectual treats.

“Was she in earnest, or in a joke V' said the learned counsel this morning to a witness in the Police Court. “No, sirwas the answer to the inquiry, “ she was in her own house !” and this was uttered without the least relaxation of -countenance.

“Silver Pen” writes to the Auckland Herald from San Francisco :—“ On the return of the whaling fleet this present season, a captain of one of the vessels reported a singular discovery which he had made while on shore at Alaska, north of this country. Trading with the natives

he with his riiate and one or two seamen, weht by the invitation of . the chief sdme distailftfe inland, where he noticed a peculiar looking mountain, which they ascended, and being struck with the metallic appearance of the boulder, took an axe and chopped a portioft off the mountain. After picking up several l66ae stones they returned. When these Specimens were shown to an assayer in this city, he pronounced them silver, assaying GOOOdols. to the ton. A party is now forming to proceed hence early in spring. Considerable excitement is felt over the result of hewing down the Silver Mountain,” Shocks of earthquake continue to be felt at Agram, but they are comparatively slight and harmless. The shocks are said to be accompanied by a noise resembling the roll of distant artillery. The distress of the population continues undiminished, and 600 families have taken refuge in the city of Laibach, the capital of Carinthia, where this sudden accession to the population has sent up house rents and raised the prices of food. Sir F. Roberts is “an exceptionally fortunate man,” as he may, before he is forty-eight, without Help either from birth oif interest, have obtained, by fighting, a full general’s commission, a baronetcy, and and an appointment—the Madras command—worth £IO,OOO a year, with, of course, the possible reversion of a still richer post, the., supreme command in India. But instead of describing him as an exceptionally fortunate man, we (Home News) should style him an exceptionally great general.

The Toronto Globe has the following paragraph : —The sawdust of a mill at Victoria Harbor is burned in a kiln eighty feet high, made of boiler iron. Carriers, on an endless chain, convey the refuse to a door forty feet from the ground, and dump it into the fire within. An employe named Payne, who looks after the carriages, got oh one of them to go to his place at the door above. Everything went all right until he got close to the doors, when he found that his feet were caught, and he was unable to extricate himself, and that he was gradually going to meet a sure and horrible death. He managed to attract the attention of some of his companions, who stopped the machinery just as he was was entering the fiery furnace. He was severely scorched before he was rescued from his perilous position. The Russian Government is accused of countenancing, and even encouraging, the Kurdish rebellion in Persia, with a , view to extorting by this means from the reluctant Court at .Teheran permission to procure provisions for its troops operating in Turkestan from Persia. Such permission has been repeatedly asked for, but has been hitherto refused.

The anniversary of the capture of Plevna by the Russian and Roumanian troops was celebrated at Bucharest on December 10 with great enthusiasm. After being present at a Te Deum in the Cathedral, Prince Charles held a review, at which he presented colours to the newly-formed Roumanian regiments. His Highness afterwards held a of the officers, who presented to the Princess a marble statue representing Her Highness tending a wounded soldier. The Pall Mall Gazette gives the following particulars respecting the nationality of the troops stationed in Ireland, which will be of interest at the present moment —“ Nothing strikes one so much as the strange difference between the position of the various battalions according as they fall under the heads of English, Scotch, or Irish localised regiments. Of the English battalions, there are forty-six at home and sixty-three on foreign service ; of the Scotch battalions, three at home, and thirteen on foreign service ; and of the Irish battalions, seven at home, and nine on foreign service. At first the student strange to English customs might be inclined to compliment the Irish battalions on their good luck in having more than half their' number at home, and ‘ localised.’ But a further analysis of the figures would rather surprise him. Out of the forty-six English battalions on home service no fewer than eighteen are in Ireland, while the Irish battalions have in their own country only one solitary example—namely, the 104th at Dublin. And if he turns to the 104th Regiment, in another part of the Army List, he will find that it is in reality the Bengal Fusiliers. Not one of the regiments specially known as Irish and localised in Ireland is present in its own country, much less its own district. The Scotch regiments on the other hand, have only three battalions at home, but two of them are quartered in Scotland, the third being in camp at Aldershot. There is no English or Irish

battalion in Scotland, which is therefore entirely garrisoned by its own people; while there is no purely Irish battalion in Ireland, nor any Scotch, the whole force there being English. ” ,