MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 224, 20 June 1873, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

On-the-15th inst;, one-of those cases of cruelty to animals came under my notice. Two men were driving a quiet beast to a slaughter yard ; when near the yard the whip was freely used, confusing the poor beast, whieh broke away ; they then belabored the poor brute with sticks as big and round as your arm, knocking out one of its eyes. Finding this had no effect, they tied a rope to its horns, while one of them a man transformed, through his ungovernable passion, into a devil—procured a stick, twisting the animal's tail round the stick until a portion of the tail broke away. X have seen cruelty to animals before, but never witnessed such cruelty as this, and could not help saying, "God help the poor man who falls into the hands of this devil man !"—Mosgiel correspondent, to the ' Bruce Herald.' Mr. David Maitland opposes Mr. Clark for Matau. ' : Mr. H. Daniel was elected without opposition for River ton. The respective debts of the Provinces, in the order of their amounts, are : —Otago £1,832,425; Canterbury, £683,319 ; Auckland, £681,750; Wellington, £336,706; Westland, £207,343 J; Hawke's Bay, £133,343 ; Nelson, £81,372 ; Taranaki, £31,000; Marlborough, £13,527; total, £3,480,872. Counting three Natives as equal, in the average of tax-bearing powers, to one European, we may state the Provincial debts at per head of population, in round : —Otago, £18; Canterbury, £l4 ; Auckland, £9 10s; Wellington, £l2 10s ; Westland, £1310s; Hawke's Bay, £ls 10s; Nelson, £3 10s ; Taranaki, £6 ; Marlborough, £2 10s.— ' Star.' Sie David Monro.—We deeply regret to be in a position to state that Sir David Monro has resigned his seat as member for Waikouaiti in the General Assembly. Shortly after his_return home Sir David intimated to us tliat owing to Lady Monro's ill-health . such a step might be taken unless contingencies arose, and we had hoped that he - would have, been able to at least attend the forthcoming session.—'Waikouaiti Herald.' Mr. Beeves, formerly well known as a mining engineer at Hokitika, and subsequently of Dunedin, has perfected a method for saving all the gold now lost under the ordinary crushing system, by the use of oxydrogen gas combined with platinum by which the whole of the gold and other metals can be saved at a cost of a few shillings per ton. The {method sounds rather problematical, but capitalists seem to think well of it, for we read that, at a meeting held in G-reville's Booms, Sydney, it was resolved to place the invention before the public.—' Star.' During the last flood the Molyneux rose 30 feet in one night. The destrucion of mining property was enormous. The telegraphist at the Teviot had intimation at 4 o'clock the afternoon previous to the flood coming down, that there was a flood at Cromwell, but he did not impart this information to the miners. By not doing so the miners' suffered loss ofplant, at Boxburgh, to the extent of £Boo.—' Bruce Herald.' A correspondent furnishes to the' Southern Cross' the following recipe to waterproof any clothes : —" Dissolve 2 ozs of sugar of lead in a quart of water ; put the garment in to it, let it stay in two days, and then dry it well. Put alum into hard water until you can taste it to be a little spur, and put the garment in this for a few hours ; dry it, shake it, and beat it. Let there be a strainer to keep the clothes off the bottom ; it prevents the alum making them white." Vested Interest. — Money in the waistcoat pocket. " Do you try to talk a little common sense!" exclaimed a sarcastic young lady to a visitor.—"Oh !" was the reply, " but wouldn't that be taking an unfair advantage of you P" Fencing Wire.—The weights and lengths of fencing wire are as follows : No. 4,714 lbs. per mile 5,520 yards per ton. No. 5, 595 lbs. per mile ; 6,640 yards per ton. No. 6,4-95 lbs. per mile; 7,940 yards per ton. No. 7, 412 lbs. per mile; 9,580 yards per ton. No. 8,344. lbs. per mile ; 11,460 yards per ton. No. 9,290 lbs. per mile ; 13,600 yards —' Waikouaiti Herald.' Palmerston Mayorality.—lt is rumored that Mr. W. A. Young, the present occupant of the mayoral chair, has positively declined, to come forward for re-election, and'that Mr. J. Arkle "will be the only aspirant to the office for the ensuing year.— ■' Waikouaiti Herald.' The order paper of the late Provincial Council is a curiosity in its way. The crisis and the anticipation that a dissolution might follow alarmed some hon. members. As they had no opportunity to address the House, the paper is loaded with notices of motion and enquiries. Mr. Bradshaw has a round half-dozen of these. Mr. Shepherd two—one, advocating a committee to consider and report upon the extension of the Tuapeka Bailway to Cromwell ; Mr. Innes, two—-one in reference to the Kawarau Bridge; Mr, Mer-

j Yyn two ; a nd' Mr;Bastings/as"Gold-fields j Secretary, a host of them—one of "which, j a farming the desirability of establishing a Grammar School at Queenstown, and five 6thers relating to reserves of this town.— ' Mail.' The following was the late Provincial Government programme for dealing witl* the 30,000 acres : 2,500 acres near Tapanui . 2,500 ~ on the Waikaka 2,500 ~ near Switzers 2,500 ~ near Longford 2,500 ~ near Ettrick 2,500 „ near Koxburgh 2,500 ~ near Hawea 2,500 ~ on Spott's Creek 2,500 ~ at Ida Valley 2,500 „ at Macraes 5,000 ~ at.Tuapeka ' 30,000 Mr. John Alloo, the Chinese interpreter, has been very unfortunate- since his arrival here, with his family. One of his daughters had the pupil of her eye cut, whereby the. sight was lost. His son William, after recovering from a long illness was laid down a second time, an accidental slip causing the breaking of his leg ; and about a fortnight ago, another son, Thomas was thrown from a horse, dragged by itf and severely kicked. He ha s lain insensible since that period until lately, when a change for the better has taken place. Both Drs. Douglas and Scott have been unremitting in the attendance.—' Wakatip Mail.' ? An application for a tail-race was made at Westport recently, and opposed by one Wm. Watman, on the plea that it. would wash away his chimney. The applicant, said the chimney was abandoned. The objector said he had erected the chimney about two months ago, and intended as soon as he had time to build a house onjik The Warden told him that it was unwise to have loose chimneys knockingabout in the way of miners. Application granted. A writer in the ' Southern Cross' makes the. .following remarks respecting Mr. Stafford:—" Perhaps, once. for all, it might be useful to give the coup de grace to the miserable complaint and accusation of Mr* Stafford, and some of his erroneous friends, that the public works scheme Was stolen by Mr. Vogel from the famous but decidedly vague speech at Timaru.. The truth is that Mr. Vogel had been dreaming of this railway scheme long before he enunciated it. Some eight years ago, in a little town in the South, Mr. Yogel one day said to a friend that the true policy that would secure a good future for New Zealand, would be to estabI lish throughout the Colony a system of railways, which would promote wade and settlement, and destroy the Native War. ' Where is the money to come from ?' queried his interlocutor. . 'Borrow it,' was the prompt reply ; it is surely better to borrow for such purposes than to borrow for war.' That, substantially, is a correct narrative of what, to our knowledge, occurred at least eight years ago, and yet Mr. Stafford professes to have given the idea to the world? Not to adopt too fine a periphrasis, such an assumption is one of those imaginings which occasionally characterise the singularly inventive memory Mr. Stafford owns." The * Australasian ' ,says that Manuka, once the, champion of the New Zealand turf, and latterly one of the sires located at the Marybyrnong stud, will, in all probability, change his quarters before the commencement of next season—Mr Petty having had several offers from persons anxious to secure the horse, among them, one from the land of the horse's birth, New Zealand. Manuka is a splendidly bred horse, as a reference to his pedigree will show, his sire being the Peer (a son of Melbourne and Cinizelli, the dam of the Marquis, Marchioness, &c.) out of Waimea, by Sir Hercules (the sire of the Barb, Yattendon, <fcc.). With the Marquis, Fireworks, and Angler, Mr Petty,, finds his establishment amply represented, and for this reason alone has made up his mind to part with Manuka. Greatly to the amusement of a crowd of bystanders on the Westport wharf, Mac, the bellman, gave vent to his feell ings in characteristic fashion. The Kennedy was leaving with a larger number of passengers than usual, and among them some wandering star " professionals," who have lately essayed to beguile the Westport public, and were then, as is the. custom of their tribe, about to pay their bills with a flip of the foresail. Even Mac k little account had not been squared, and so sweet revenge he announced the facts m stentorian accents for the edification of the passengers And all, and sundry interested. It was nothing to Mac that printers, hotelkeepers, a'ud the confiding public generally should be fleeced, but to bilk the bellman was the most unfcindest - cut of all, and 1113 indignation boiled over. A faithfyl brother in a Connecticut church recently., prayed for the absent members "who were prostrated on beds of sickness and chairs of wellness,"