LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 112, 30 August 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Judge Weston was "at sea *' recently, though for the time .sitting on the judicial bench at Hokitika. He took occasion to express siti-prisc that the Commissioner of Police hail not the requisite number of force to keep guard over a prisoner in the dock. Sow; the W'cM Coo-4 Tiiiu-t has been given t<> understand, by those whose experience .should be taken as some authority on the point, that by the police regulations of every province in the Colony, the police are in no way to be considered responsible for committed prisoners while in the dock. The responsibility rests with the gaoler, in whose custody the prisoner is until discharged by the Court. The gaoler, no doubt knowing this al.-o, tonk the hint to himself, as one additional warder was present in the Court on the following day. The '" Intelligent Vagrant'' writes : —"My landlady has got a new lodger. Coming home the other night I became aware of sounds of monotonous talking in -what newspaper reporters would call ' the direction of the kitchen.' Having asked my landlady what it meant, she said it was ' a gentleman as hrfd just taken rooms,' and that he was • >:n» of ' them pussons as make speeches in an 'misc. 7 Coing to the kitchen I found, as I am a living sinner, the honorable member tor Xomatterwhere repeating his speech of the previous evening on the Separation resolutions, for the benefit of a. German housemaid and an Irish cook. He had been near somewhere where they sold spirits, and carried the aroma about with him. Half his audience did not understand a single word he said, and the other half had gone fast ssle-p, but he droned on as contentedly a.* if th:* Speaker and a quorum of twenty were present.

'• Atticu.s" tells the following story in a recent issue of the Leader: —'"Two young Indies who imagine that they are the only persons in the Colony who have mastered the intricacies of the French language, were pi- sengcr.-i Ky the Gcelling train the other day. They had the carnage to themselves till at oae of the stations an elderly woman, who looked like a farmer's wife, got in. The young ladies amused themselves by keeping up an animated discussion on the old woman's dttßs and appearance, and as they spoke in

French they were at no pains to lower their voices. By-and-bye the old woman took her lunch out of a basket, and proceeded calmly to enjoy it, apparently in ignorance that she was an object of interest to her fellow-pas-sengers. ' I wonder what the old dame has in that flask V said one of the sisters. ' Brandy-and-water, my dear, replied the old lady in the most natural tone ; ' would you like a drop ?' During the remainder of the journey there was silence in the carriage. > From the first number of'the Whitehall Review we take the following extract : "Members of no less than fifty different tribes of North American Indians will be represented at the Philadelphian Exhibition. Six of them are said to be remarkable athletes. One can climb up a rope two hundred feet high. One can stand on his head for eleven hours consecutively; Two can throw a spear a hundred and twenty yards or thereabouts. One can dive under water a hundred and ten yards in seventy seconds. And the last has accomplished the feat of jumping with the pole six feet six inches high, and twenty-one feet two inches long. One representative of a tribe will be a woman, mother of twelve children ! who is said to be the best boxer of the whole fi.ty, and can give any one of them a ' tarnation thrashing '" One Choctow Indian is said to speak French like a Parisian, and will keep a cafe witli Id on park Francois inscribed over it. A gigantic ' Westerner' will also exhibit himself. He stands about seven feet live inches high. Altogether, the exhibition promises large things. If it be true that, in the concerts, cannon are to supplant big drums, the exhibition may prove rather noisy, and be occasionally enveloped in smoke." A few clays ago our Melbourne telegrams alluded to an assault made by a woman on Lady Boweu. The Melbourne correspondent of the Star writes, concerning the occurrence, as follows : —" It is very rarely that personal violence is offered in our streets to respectable peopl", but a case of the sort did occur last week. The University Athletic Club gave an entertainment in the Athenseum, to which Sir George and Lady Bowen were invited. The Governor spent the day at Mr. I Clarke's, at a shooting match, and his train | did not arrive in town till an hour in the evening coo late to permit his presence at the Athcnamm. Lady Bowen and her daughters, however, went. Mcr ladyship had just been handed from her carriage by Major Pitt, and was crossing the footpath to enter the building, while the Major handed out the younger ladies, when a woman darted from the crowd, seized Lady Bowen's hair, j>nlled it from its fastening, and letting it stream upon her shoulders, screamed out some abusive nonsense. The assailant was, of course, arI rested at once, and Lady Bowen returned home without witnessing the entertainment, though without suffering any serious hurt. The woman, on being brought before the Police Court, insisted that she was a lady, was zio ' actress,' and would not tolerate being insulted by Lady Bowen. It appeared that she had repeatedly applied for charity at Government House, but having been relieved was refused on a second application. She was remanded for medical examination, found to be insane, and sent to the Kew Asylum." The correspondent of the Brisbane Telegraph, writing from the Hodgkinson River, describes an attack by natives as follows : "A party of five prospectors were visited while in camp a few days since by some blacks, who notified their approach by a shower of spears. The whites scattered and made for trees. One of them, while snapping a revolver which would not explode, was speared through the leg, and fell. A blackfellow ran up to him, and as he stood over the prostrate white, nulla uplifted, was shot by one of the man's mates, and fell dead alongside of his intended victim. Four more went over to the majority before they beat a retreat. After the conclusion of the affray it Mas found necessary to cut off a portion of the spear before withdrawing it, on account of the barbs at the point. On the following morning four whites left camp on a mission of vengeance, armed with a gun, a rifle, and a half-axe. After following the tracks of the blacks for several miles, they came upon them busily occupied in putting barbs on spears, apparently preparing for a fresh attack. The owner of the revolver made a circuit, and, getting to the other side of the blacks, commenced the attack. In their surprise they lied in the direction of his mates, who received them warmly, and events occurred in the conflict which proved that a half-axe in the hands of a determined man is a very useful weapon in an emergency." It is notified that there will be no practice of the Philharmonic Society this evening.