FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 144, 10 May 1879, Page 2

FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

A servant girl in the Tokomairiro district had been carefully saving the cheques with which her employer had been paying her monthly for the past year. Shortly before her wedding, .which was to have taken place the other day, she presented the cheques in question to the bank, and they were all dishonored. Wc notice that the construction of the Oamaru waterworks is being pushed rapidly forward. The townspeople look to an onicient water supply to confer great benefits upon the place. Already the various engineering firms in. Oamaru are soliciting orders for water engines,

hydraulic lifto, and ma--binary. Fore- I most amongst them we notice tlie firm of Messrs "Win. Fraser and Co., which has issued an illustrated circular giving particulars of the various water motors available. Thei s is no clue to the origin of the fire at the Belfast in -at Preserving Company. Tho main building was destroyed, and with it 40.000 tins of meat", a large quantity of tallow, soap, and material used for preserving purposes. The engine and boiler were comparatively uninjured ; the wool-shed, with contents, was saved. JXhe insurance on building, stock, and plant were distributed as follows-"':— Transatlantic, LIOOO ; New Zealand, L 2900 ; Victoria, LIOOO ; South British, L 200 0; Standard, LIOOO ; Imperial, LIOOO j and National, LG7O. The Colonial Office declined to re-insure. Mr Berry started for Melbourne on the 2nd May, Mr Pearson remaining in England. Mr Berry is the bearer of despatches from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in which Sir Michael Hicks-Beach expresses his regret at the unaccommodating spirit displayed on both sides. He rejects Mr Berry's proposal to amend the Constitution by Imperial legislation, since only one extreme emergency has arisen which would justify such a measure. He suggests that the readiest means to harmonise the two Chambers would be to make both Council and Assembly dissoluble. The Chambers should act like the Britisli Parliament, and the Council should yield to public opinion in order to avoid a conflict. Bills of supply should be limited to provisions analogous to English Bills, and the Council should claim no other rights in dealing with them than the House of Lords possesses. The ' Daily News ' publishes a paragraph stating that the Prince of Wales will visit the Melbourne Exhibition. A sad accident occurred on Sunday to a young man, 18 years of age, named Charles Geer. He had been for some time rabbiting on Messrs Strode and Earnscleugh Station, Otago, and on the above day he and his mate were in the tent, and the lad Geer was drawing his gun towards him for the purpose of cleaning it, when from some unexplained cause it went off, and the charge entered his left side. His companion went into Clyde for medical assistance' and Dr Leahy started immediately, but on arrival it was clear he would be unable to be of any service. The doctor remained with the young man till next morning, when he expired about nine o'clock. His mother is a widow, and lives at Bannockburn. Lord Chelmsford is universally allowed to be one of the finest players at the scientific game of Krieg-spiel in the whole British army. Moreover, lie is a firstrate tactician on paper, and devised a system of manoeuvres in an enemy's country which was so highly approved of at head-quarters that it was at one time seriously under consideration to embody it in the Queen's Regulations to form part of an officer's drill. The recent disaster in Zululand has confirmed the officers of the old pro-scientific school in their prej judice against the high-pressui'e requireI ments of military education, which make j examinations in science aud languages the sole test of an officer's efficiency for serI vice. They, say triumphantly, "Your great strategist marches into the enemy's , country without . ration:* for his men, leaving his camp unfortified and insufficiently protected. When the danger is t discovered his forces were eo scattered that he could not collect them in time to pave Kls camp ; and the army would have literally been starved if the Zulus had not been repulsed at Rorke's Drift, and the provisions saved there. The position could never have been maintained against overwhelming numbers if the Zulus had possessed a gun to batter down the feeble wall ; but the only two guns in the place were spiked before their eyes by Lieu- , tenants Bromhead and Chard, to whose pluck and presence of mind the salvation of the army is due. It is a ludicrous proof of the absurdity of the examination system that this very Bromhead, whose brilliant services in the field have just been rewarded by a brevet majority, was plucked the other day by the board of examiners, who did not consider him qualified by his scientific attainments for promotion to the rank of captain." The ' Chronicle' foreshadows the Government'.policy for the next session to be —First, a reform in the Legislature, with which, it says, that no great Liberal measure has any chance of being carried, and which is sure to be effected if the Parliament is judicious and determined. It pronounces a dissolution io be the head and front of the Parliamentary campaign of 1879, and that any attempt to stave it off must be found out of Court. There will be a Registration Bill and representation on the basis of population with a self-acting principle for the future, the model of which is to be found in Mr Whitaker's Bill of last session. The simplification of the Electoral Bill of last session, by confining the qualifications to residential and ratepaying, the consolidation of the statues, the continuation of financial reform by making the wealthy landowners and absentees pay a fair proportion towards the public revenue, and an increase in the laud tax on large estates, and, generally speaking, an enlargement of the Liberal policy, are mentioned. The want of a lt steady job" during winter was probably the inducement for the large number of applications sent in on Wednesday morning to the Invercargill Road "Board for a billet which gives five months employment as surfacemen on the roads, and the same cause doubtless also led to the low rates of wages asked in some cases. The demands were as follows : —2 at Gs per day ; 5 at 7s per day ; 1 at 8s ; 1 for the five months for L 35, or about 25s per week ; 1 at £4O for the term ; 1 at £2 Is per week ; and.l at £2 12s per week ; one man did not name his price. The Board (says the 'Southland News ') selected two men at 7s, on the principle of " A fair day's wage for a fair day's work." Our farming friends will be pleased to hear (says the ' Otago Daily Times ') that Messrs Reid and Gray, the well-known agricultural implement makers, have succeeded in manufacturing a broadcast seedsower, in every way better suited to their requirements than any that have been heretofore imported. The great fault with those ordinarily used has been that Avhen sowing turnip seeds they had to. carry large seed boxes. The new machine is suitable for sowing grain, grass, and turnips, but when used for the latter, light canuisters are substituted for heavy grain-boxes. The seat, which is adjus-

tible, is behind the boxes, so that the dnver has full control over the levers, and can see that the work is properly done. The seed distributes are also adjustibje. All the important points of lightness of draught, simplicity, durability, and efficiency have been considered, and we are assured that the price is extremely moderate. Messrs Reid and Gray are also manufacturing combined Cambridge rollers and seed-sowers. The firm now employs 125 hands in the Dunedin establishment, 2G in Oamaru, 22 in Tlmaru, and three in Invercargill. They have been employed of late in making double and treble furrow ploughs, harrows, ehaffcutters, and horse-powei-s, and have had large orders for fence standards. A boiler explosion occurred on Monday last, at Wanganui. It was felt over half the town, and many thought it was an earthquake. One man was killed, one dangerously injured, and a number more or less injured. Half of the boiler was thrown fifty yards up towards the railway station. An inquest will possibly be held to-morrow on the body of John Rixfon, the engine-driver, who was killed. Deceased leaves a wife and three little children. His life is insured in the Government office for £2OO. He had just paid the quarter's premium in the dinner hour, a few minutes before the accident occurred. A Native from up the river was badly injured. Mr Murray a settler, and Mr Calders, chief telegraphist, who was engaged in some Government Insurance business, are injured but not seriously, though each sustained a severe shock. All the workmen escaped. Five minutes before the accident about ten of them were congregated near the boiler, taking their midday meal. Nothing is known as to the cause of the accident. The boiler was old and worn, and •w'as to have been replaced by a new one, already made, and to have been fixed this week. The:proprietors hold a certificate for the old boiler as being good till October n£xt from the inspecting officer, Mr McGregor, of Wellington.. About £2OO will cover the damage to the building, which, owing to the cause of the accident, the insurance office is not liable for. At the Melbourne City Police Court, on 18th April, a woman of shameful notoriety, named Anne Britten, was brought up charged with assaulting and robbing a horsedealor, a late arrival from New Zealand. The prosecutor, who appeared to be suffering from the effect of intoxication, stated that he was drinking in a parlour of the North British Hotel, Bourke street, on the night of Monday, 18th April, when the prisoner, he alleges, who was accompanied by a male companion, knocked him down, and deliberatly robbed him of £l7O, in notes issued by bank in New Zealand, together with a bank draft for £IOOO. Mr Inspector Montfort applied for a further remand for a week, in order to obtain the attendance of Mr Mulcahy, the landlord of the above-mentioned hostelry, who, Doyle stated, could throw so.me light upon the matter. The prosecutor subsequently conducted himself in j such an extraordinary manner in the Court as to warrant his committal to the cells on the charge of drunkenness. |lt may be mentioned that the name of the prisoner came through the cable of New Zealand as "Dr Bryan Doyle," upon which one of our contemporaries (says the Post) rather hastily j assumed that it was Dr. Bernard Doyle, a ! gentleman well known in Wellington, who [ was referred to, and forthwith rushed into 1 some highly libellous remarks with re- ■ ference to the case. Tho following extraordinary story is told by tho Tanuiaki Herald :—" A 'cool thing was enacted by a certain man in business in this town, who has smce distinguished himself by another act which is becoming too common here. He was at a loss for a candlestick, and as a substitute placed the lighted taper in' the folds of some bank notes. .As might fairly be expected, the notes wore burned —charred to a cinder, so that even a trace of their numbers was not left ; and this wily noodle had the presumption to go to the bank manager and ask that the value of the notes (the numbers of which he could not tell) might be redeemed to him. Of course, adds our contemporary, he got it !" Might I, without offence, quote Thomas Carlyle's description of the stump orator (says "iEgles," in the 'Australasian.') ,For me I do not presume to apply it to anyone in particular, and yet I firmly believe that there are prominent politicians who in their inmost souls will discover iu it an apt description of themselves—or, say, of some of their dearest friends:—"Tho palpable liar with his tongue does at least know that he is lying, and has, or might have, some faint vestige of remorse, and chance of amendment; but the impalpable liar, whose tongue articulates mere accepted commonplace, cants, and babblements, which mean only ' Admire me, call me an excellent stump orator !'—of him what hope is there 1 His thought, what thought he had, lies dormant, inspired only to invest vocables and plausibilities ; while the tongue goes so glib, the thought is absent, gone a wool gathering, getting itself drugged with the applausive ' Hear hear' —what will become of such a man ? His idle thought has run all the seed, and grown false and tho giver of falsities ; the inner light of his mind has gone out ; all his light is mere putridity and phosphorescence henceforth. Whosoever is in quest of ruin, let him with assurance follow that man ; he or no one is on the right road to it." Holloavay's Pills.—No other medicine combines the same purifying, alterative, and tonic properties, Avhich have raised these Pills so highly in the estimation of the public. In diseases arising from unhealthy situations, close apartments, and sedentary occupations, no means so potent for cooling, cleansing, and regulating the human body can be found. Holloway's Pills wonderfully improve a weak digestion by augmenting the gastric secretion and moderately rousing the functions of the liver, hence their well-knoAvn power of removing tainted breath, and removing every other dyspeptic unpleasantness. They entirely overcome the lethargic symptoms attending bad digestion, and have for years been esteemed the best and safest family aperient. They are particularly suitable for young females and children.