LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 31, 4 July 1885, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A balloon is to ascend this evening m the Square opposite the Beehive Store. The Kilwinmng Lodge will meet on Wednesday at .7.30 p.m. I The total number of Irish m the world is estimated at 30,500,000, 1,000,000 being m Australia. Nelson was at. the top of the list of boroughs for the month of May m the death rate, and Timaru was at the bottom of the list. It will be perceived by advertisement m another column that the .Manawatu Steam Shipping Company offer; specM inducements' for persons desirous of visiting the New Zealand' Industrial exhibition, which opens' at "Wellington next month. ■'■ In answer to a correspondent m last weeks O,tago ; Witness, .Mr T3overly supplies -the following information with rofereuce to the coming solar. eclipse :— Tbe solar eclipse next September will be of considerable magnitude all over New Zealand, but will be total m the v yiciuity of Cook Strait only. The central line passes near Seaford, Otaki, and Tainui. ; the northern limit near Wanganui, and Waipukurau, and the southern limit near Foxhill and Blenheim. Outside these limits the eclipse will be partial, and theiproportion of the sun's' disc, unobscured will depend on the remoteness of the place from the limits of the totality. The part of the disc uncovered by the moon vvjll be aboutone-twelflh at Auckland, one-fiftieth at Napiar, one-fifteenth at Chiistchurch.ono-fleverith at Danedin, and • jone-eighth at Queanstow.u. .At Qneenstown the eclipse begins.^atcßh 57m., and.enda at 8h. 48m., New Zealand time; At Dunediutha contacts are two minutes later. . ■ y . It is claimed by La Natnre that fnpr highest railroad viaduct m the -"wof ld; is \ that of the Garabit bridge,^ France. That remarkable structure is I,Booft. long, and near the middle of the great central arch the distance from the bed of the river to the rail is 413 ft. What is butter? Well, sometimes lard, sometimes " bosh," alias oleomargarine, but no one ever dreamt it ' was petroleum, m other words vaseline. Well live and learn. Our American friends : make very excellent champagne which never saw Ay, Verzonay, Bouzy,Eperuay or Rheims, but which owes its pareutago to the oil wells of Petroleum, Pen no J It "now seems that' the pastrycooks of Paris use vaseline m their cakes m lieu of butter, as it does not turn rancid.^ M.Riche has presented a report to the < Councir of Hygiene of. the Department of the Seine sayingthat "for alimentary purposes it was injurious to health." We should; rather, think "it was. The advance of chemical knowledge amongst; traders can hardly be as' an unmixed blessing. We remind the residents of Bunny r thorp* and adjacent districts of the meeting this evening at 6.30 p.m. m the school house to consider the question of road communication. if . ■ j ' During the hearing of 1 the case Turner v.. Pasooe and Kirkcaldie, direct tors of the Wellington Building Society, the plaintiff stated that he never cbntemplated bringing the action until .after Charles White, the : late- manager, had decamped. His Honor Judjje.Richtnond asked where White was now residing. Mr Edwards replied that it was rumoured he .was in/< Queensland. • >His Honor remarked that if "thferi was over such a thing as public justice, and half the things stated about White were trfle, he ought to be brought back and punnished. Mr. Edwards said there was, no lack.of evidence, but the Governtheut;, did not caro to goto the expense of briijgingj.back :f ugitives,.and^^'pjriyate persons could scercely be expected to expeud; .large. ■ sum's ■' ;in,;?;doing' /.so. His Honor said there, was some cases m whfch public justice ought to be vindicated, and that appeared to be one of ihem. '^ , . '.;, ,:..\?J^:-t-.v. v '; '..,'..' '" W fiat would you do when jfirst employed to. bring an action ?" asked au 'examiner'of a young candidate for J the legal; profession. "Ask for money on account," was the prompt reply; He passed. • ; Portland, Me:, March 18.— The death of Mrs Joseph MacCann ;in Saccarappa last Friday evening was marked by an? event of singular interest. Touched by the grief of her relatives and the tears of her little children, she said: As^ypn are feeling, very badly I will sing to you." The dying woman, who was the possea"sor of a remarkablj' fine voice, then satig at first a piece familiar to the children as " One of Mamma's songs." Then she sang a hymn for the. older onus, and finajly sang t>vo stanzas of "Asleep m Jesus." ,At'- the condusiqn of the singing she remarked, "Now I will go to sleep," and quickly fell into the sleep which knows no waking m this world; A watch ronhery has b'nan reported to the police at Bulls. A few weeks ago a jobbing Watchmaker living at Bulls; -decided to have a turn round tha conntry, and before he left placed some half a dozen watches (belonging to clients it is stated) m a strong box at his house, which he locked putting the key -m his pocket. On returning to Bulla a day or two ago, he found that the box had been .broken open and the watches. abstracted. At "the., adjonrned meeting of the. Edncation' Board on/ Wednesday, the board went into committee to considerthe inspector's rpport on the schools throughout the district. On resuming:, a resolution wns reported and conftnned, to the effect that certain teachers be written to and informed that unless more attention is paid by them m future to the observance of the Order-in-Coun-oil nnd the regulations of the board, they will render themselves /iable to dismissal. A resolution was also passed to call the attention of a number of school committees to matters requiring to be dealt by them. An. application from the. Rev Mr Ross, on behalf of th« Tn>*altina pommittee, for the old school 1 building of that place was agreed to. The inspbctor was instructed to prepare for next meeting a list of schools where there is no competent instructor m sewing. „ .., Captain Boyton, well known on both sides of theAtlantic for his aquatic feats,, recnntlj- offered for a wager to place an empty torpedo alongside Her Majesty's ship Garnet.' Tjiis he succeeded m doing, bht before he could 'get away ha' was" disco ver«d by the watch, and fired upon. He only escaped death by diseasing his praciticalgoke. - • .;.■■. .>•■ ' A terrible explosion is .repprted r froin . America. . A .hog, as they prefer to call ' f the beast •'• Rcroßß the Atlantic, «btained access tq a quantity of dynamite near ' tbetowh of 'Larinbnre:. After making ; a hearty meal, the animal made its way into a -fiftld containing a number of. !nuleß. ■''%<>■ of the latter appnarß**to have kicked the intruder, and the .hog instantly blew up with a terrible; explo--sion, killing twenty mules on the spot; I It is estimated that there are 30,000 i writers employed on the 1,500 daily newspapers published m tho United

Arizona has a usury law -which provides that any one loaning money at a greater rate of interest than five per cent, a month becomes liable for : three times tne amount loaned. . . Hong Kong, the Malta and Gibraltar of the China seas, fory years ago, was a barren rock inhabited by a few squalid fisher folk. To-day it has a population of 100,000 arid a revenue of £250,000 a year. A remedy for, scours m calves consists m giving each affected animal a tablespoonful of powdered burnt bones, put into the milk at feeding time. On© or two doses are generally sufficient. In very bad cases it can be given two or three times m a day till dured. ■ ; : ' ' ' The most powerful king on earth, is " "Vyor-king ;',' the laziest " Shir4nrig ." a very popular one is •' Smo-king ;" the most jolly " Jo-king ;" the leanest " Thinking;" and the most destructive is "Drinking." „.') : . The'resuUr'df the'inquiry into th« conduct of Bowes the, driver, arid FletchW the guard oh the train which was repontfylait standing on the Wangaehu Hill,us that 1 'thrjr' both' have 'been reduced,' though reinstated m their fbrrner posi-' tions. .They commenced working again yesteriiay morning.— " Wanganui Herald. For the four weeks ending 23rd' May, the revenue from the North Island railways was ,i>25,533, v as against £23,595 last year. For the South Island the returns are J62.686, as against £72,253 last year. ' ' - ' A correspondent writes: — There wa 8 a race meeting outside Suakitn the othe r day, and it is gratifying to have to ire" ■oord a signal victory for Australia m the Steeplechase, the only race m; which Australian horses/could run. ..The event was won easily by Lieutenant ,H. P. '. Airey, N.S.W. Artillery, on one of the gun horses, which was hard held all the way. General Graham complimented the winner by remarking, "If you Australians can fight as well as you can ride, you will be able to give a good account of yourselves." The Australian horses could run down nearly anything m the camp." . ; Says Merciitio m the N. Z. Herald, the seusation of theweek has : un-ioubt-odly been the new tariff. When 1 bpinod; my paper- on >laßt morning, I was astonished to find that my property tax was doiibledj that i'my ' toa'h ad been taxed 2d a pouryl more, and^that everything that I -could eat or treaVliaa' beeu swooped down upon; for 20 per cent, for the State. .As for what I could drink of s.iiuke, I aiu simply treated aa a criminal. It is not a tax that ißiinpdsea;it is a penalty, that is inflicted. lam had up and fined every time I put a glass of spirits to my*- lips. lujniigvation, indeed! Why,if this sort of thing continues, vre will have to packup aud go back to England. .., :.. i Tiie coal famine at St. Pererßbcirg;and the demand for coal for the Russian Navy are leading to inquiries and large purchases m England. In replj to an application to Messrs. EUis, Lever and Co., of Manchester, for 20,000 tons of, Bt'earu coal for immediate delivery at Russian ports; Mr Lever says, " I decline to sell a ton of coal for 'Russia at ', the greseus time at any price." ; > * '