LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 160, 4 June 1884, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wellington is rejoicing over the fact that there lias not been a single bankruptcy m Wellington since the Ist of May, and only 13 since the beginning of the year. The monthly meeting of the Southern Cross Tent, 1.0. R. will take place m their Hall on next Thursday evening. Signor Otto Hug, the Swiss medical clairvoyant, will visit Palmeraton shortly, and can be consulted at the Club Hotel. Mr T. Jordon advertises as a specialty — leggings, his ovva make ; also second haud saddles. A concert m aid of Mr Partridge, towards the purchase of another horse m lieu of that recently drowned is to take place on 17th June. A bumper house may be expected. Mr Seymour, contractor on the railway works is advertising for tenders for the splitting of totara posts. Further particulars will be found m his announcement. Mr J. K. Scott's professional notice appears m another column. From Mr Scott's long experience m the musicial profession we have no doubt he will have a large connection m this district. Mr Scott undertakes to teach the piano, organ, and singing, also the formation of string bands. Terms can be supplied by application to the Standard ofi&ce. By the breaking of a railway bridge near Cludrid Real on April 27th, a train of passenger cars was precipitated into the river. Tweuty-seven persons were killed and fifty-seven v missing. The latest reports are that l|ol persens are missing. The Government places the responsibility of this disaster on the Republican party. Messrs McDowell announce grazing foi quiet horses. Rumours are current m the city (says Monday 'B Post) to-day regarding alleged serious differences m the managment of one of our large manufacturing and industrial coinpauies, and it is said that resort to legal proceedings is likely to be the result. The Wellington Meat Export Company are taking advantage of the slack season to thorougly overhaul the 'machinery. Tlie company will resume operations m about four weeks' time, m order to freeze 5000 carcases of sheep for transhipment by the s.s. Ruapehu. During the trial at St. Petersburg of the Black Band Nihilists, Dubeizki and his daughter, the prisoners stabbed themselves — the father fatally and the daughter dangerously. During a heavy thunderstorm on the afternoon of May 5, a ball of fire fell m the street m the southern portion of London', terrifying the residents who witnessed it. The Pope is reported to be about to issue an encyclical letter against Freemasonry, alleging that Freemasons are blind instruments for obscure ends m the hands of their chiefs, and that when their interests require it they do not even shrink from crime. The damage caused m Colchester by the earthquake on April 22 is considerable, and is estimated at no less than £10,000. The spire of the Lion-walk Congregational Church, 150 ft high, waß brought to the ground, and there is scarcely a house that is not injured by falling chimneys. At Langenhoe, ten miles from Cu'c lester. every farmhouse is damaged. Tho church, an ancient structure of stone, is shattered. At a library sale m London, Bocce's " History of Scotland," containing an autograph of James V.' dated 1536, realised £800 ; and a prayer book, containing an autograph of Charier 1., brought £137. The shipowners m the North of England held a meeting on the 28th April to arrange for the withdrawal for four months of one-fourth of the vessels of each owner for the purpose of raising rates m the steamer freight market ; but it was found impossible to do this as proposed, as steamers are mostly employed m fixed lines. A sensation was caused m the Reichstag on April 26 by a statement made to the committee by Richterthat auarchists had placed 161bs of dynamite uuder the statue of Gennania at Neiderwald, shortly before the unveiling of the monument ; and a terrible catastrophe was only prevented by the fortunate circumstance that rain rendered the explosiou harmless for a time. The dynamite was discovered after the immense assemblage had dispersed, and the fact waß Kept a secret till this time. Since Friday last (says the Post) Wellington has been exposed tb a very serious danger. The Parnell and the Claribel have been discharging their cargoes of kerosene at the Queen's Wharf, and during the greater part of Friday and Saturday and all day yesterday somewhere between 700 and 1000 cases of highly inflammable oil were left piled on the wharf. The leakage from these m some places completely saturated the wharf flooring, arsd here and there formed pools of oil. Any careless smoker passing by and thoughtlessly throwing a match down might have caused a terrific explosion, and involved not only the wharf but all the shipping at it m destruction. The Bay of Plenty Times relates some marvellous cures of rheumatism aud skii: diseases which have been effected at the Rotorua baths. The same paper asserts that the Government have re--1 ceived notices of application from five 1 hundred persons who ure anxious to become patients at the hospital at Rotorua as soon as it is finished. When tho inland trunk railway is completed, the Taupo district will, no doubt, become one of the greatest resorts of afflicted humanity. On Friday last Mr F. Liardet of Wellington found a dead shag on the beach with an eel m its beak. The fiah, whicli was a very large one, had been partially swallowed, and the head being too large for the gullet had stuck m the shag's masv, through which it crawled. When found, the eel had formed a complete circle round the bird's beak. The war correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, m recounting the battle of Teb, says : — " In searching the bushes where the fight took place we have come upon a few hadly-Woimded Arabs, who have been cared for to the best of our power. They say that the bulk of their men were unaware that they had to fight Englishmen until they saw their faces m the battle ; only their chiefs knew, and had hidden the fact from them. They had no wish, they say, to fight the English. They had no quarrel with us, only with the Turks and and Egyptians, who have oppressed and trampled upon them."