GENERAL ITEMS.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 149, 28 May 1879, Page 3

GENERAL ITEMS.

When the Garonne nearly overwhelmed Toulouse, England amply helped the sufferers ; and now the Austrian Ambassador appeals also to the inexhaustible coffers of the Mansion House subscription-boxes for help to the refugees of Szegedin, and the Lord Mayor’s appeal h is brought the money in merrily, until nearly £IO,OOO already figures on his list. I wonder if anybody will tell me when any foreign country subscribed a sou or a kreutzer for Englishmen in distress. When thousands of Hindoos were dying of famine in Madras, all English-speaking countries, and the Australasian Colonies by no means least, came to the rescue : but what did we receive from Europe 1 Not a farthing, although tens of thousands of our bounty-money has gone to it. Charity of course is charity, whichever way you put it, but there seems to be a want of reciprocity about this, if not about trade. O’Donovan Bossa, formerly a Fenian convict, and now in New York, commenced recently a series of letters in the Irishman, simultaneously with the reappearance of James Stephens in the same city as a reorganiser of the Irish Bepublican Brotherhood. He says that much more money must be collected in Ireland, England, and Scotland than the former Fenian movements, if ’the cause is again to prosper. Stephens was received enthusiastically by the New York Fenians on his arrival from Paris, and an address read to him issued by a number of Irish and English Fenians, whose names and places of residence are attached. He said it was his purpose to re-establish the organisation in New York, and reunite its various fragments, so that Irishmen of all shades might fall into line Vand work for the liberation of their country. An English paper tells the following little story :—A widow woman occupied, under a large proprietor, two or three acres and a small house. Her rent fell in arrear, and the landlord waited on the woman himself. She explained to him that it was utterly impossible for her to paj" her rent; and the landlord said ; “I am very sorry, but I think 1 can help you out of your difficulty. You must get up a subscription, and we will purchase you a cow.” The landlord, of course, headed the list himself; the money was subscribed, the cow was bought, the milk was enjoyed by the widow for two or three weeks, and then at the end of that time the cow was sold by the landlord to pay the rent. A wooden stable with an iron roof, and containing eight horses, the property of James Curie, farmer, was destroyed by fire at Anderson’s Bay (Dunedin) about nine o’clock on Wednesday night. The building was insured in the "Union for £4O. Mr Guile also loses about ninety bushels of cats, five tons of hay, and a quantity of harness, which were insured in the Standard Office for £OO. He estimates his loss nt £SO over and above the insurance. The fire originated in a loft in the stable. Mr Curie and his servant went to Dunedin about G p.m., and on returning home discovered the place to be on fire. The following is the official estimate of the value of property in the colony, taxable under the Land Tax Act, 1878 : Auckland, L 3,235.000 ; Hawke’s Bay, L 3,899,079 ; Wellington, L 7,983,361 ; Nelson, L 300,000 ;Canterbury, LI 5.790.000; Otago, L 16,800,000 : total, £50,707,440. This, at one halfpenny in the £, will yield L 105,625 per year. The Wellington district includes Wellington and Taranaki provincial districts. The Nelson district includes Nelson, Marlborough, and Westland districts. The Hawke’s Bay district includes Hawke’s Bay provincial district and Cook County. in these times of depression it is pleasant to see a genuine joke—not one of the deprecated American irrevevend kind, but one of a serious and sober nature. Our morning contemporary mentioned yesterday the death of Michael Brennan at the advanced age of 73, who served in the 95th through the Peninsula campaigns, and at Waterloo on the staff of his regiment. Waterloo was fought G 4 years ago, when he must have been nine years old, and the Peninsula battles three or four years before. To be a staff-sergeant at six, fighting the battles of his country, is a severe strain on credulity. We ( f Oamaru Mail ’) have heard of a captain in the nursery, and a colonel in arms, but such prizes were the heritage of nobility and royalty of a past time. ---AdfW'm inquest held at Westport on Wednesday last on the body of Mrs Crawford, her husband said that she got up to come to Mr Sheehan’s bouse for him at half-past three o’clock in the morning. They went heme together, and had no words. She was unusually sober. She afterwards went out of the back door. The medical testimony went to show that her death was not caused hy drowning. The deceased’s shawl was tied round her neck and covered her head. A verdict of “Death from suffocation” was returned. The jury said that there was no

I evidence as to how such suffocation was caused. 1 The master of the schooner Stanley, which recently arrived at Levuka, has i reported to the ‘ -Fiji Times an unpio- ■ voiced attack made on the vessel by the I natives of Savo. The Stanley had weighed I anchor, and as there was no wind, she ! was being towed by the boats. The j account proceeds; —“When about 300 yards from the shore the natives com- | mencetl firing. They are well supplied with guns, many having Sniders. _ At first we took no notice, thinking it a little playful amusement. We were soon undeceived. The halls began to whistle past our heads, one passing unpleasantly close to the mate’s ear ,■ others struck the ship, and one broke a parallel ruler on the table in the captain’s cabin. There was no cause given for this attack. The Savo natives are the great warriors of these parts ; they are a terror to all the sur rounding islands, I presume that their successes have made them so self-confi dent that they thought they would try what they could do with the white man. There is a large number of Queensland returns among them, and many can speak English fluently.” The Cape newspapers contain accounts of the success of the Rev Charles Clarke, who, both in the wertern and eastern provinces, had attracted large audiences. Amongst other professional people at the Cape when the Cuzco left were Mrs Mendelssohn and Signor Orlandini, Mr Chas. Lascelles and a panorama, and a company of Christy Minstrels, which included Mr Charles Sutton, who was in Melbourne with the Emerson Troupe some years ago. I hope (says “ Atlas ” in the ‘ World ’) that no international objections will be raised against the interesting experiment which Menotti Garibaldi, with three thousand of bis countrymen, is about to try on the south coast of New Guinea. He wants to start there an Italian colony, or rather a British colony of Italian emigrants, under the name of Italia. Thirty million lire have already been subscribed towards the scheme ; four steamers are to be chartered ; enthusiastic adhesions are pouriug in from all quarters of the Peninsula. Nobody but skilled artisans are to be admitted, whilst the most improved machinery of every kind will be provided. I have little doubt that the venture will prove, at least industrially, a complete success. Italians, as a rule, are excellent settlers, and I have never seen one, either in Egypt, Australia, South or North America, Asia, and I may add, Great Britain, who was not a thriving or useful member of the community. A writer in an English paper says : “ Long residence in India does not always destroy the sense of humour. Here is an illustration from the English graveyard at Peshawur. On a slab is the inscription, ‘ Sacred to the memory of the Rev Blank Blank, A.M., who spent 17 years as a missionary among the Afghans, and translated the Holy Writ in their language. He was shot by his choukewar. Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’ ” The ‘ Sydney Mornijig Herald,’ in an article on the Sydney Exhibition, says : “ Attention is called to the fact that rock drilling apparatus is already made hero equal in qualify, and at a cheaper cost than that imported ; and it is hoped that samples of these implements will find a place in the New South Wales court. The committee further saj r that no country excels this in the manufacture of crushing, grinding, and other machinery under class 505, and that evidence should be furnished of the fact. In view of the importance to the comfort and health of the people of a cheap process for producing artificial cold, as also in view of the pressing necessity which exists for some practicable method of enabling the surplus animal products of Australasia to he conveyed by means of a low artificial temperature to those countries where the supply is deficient, the Commission will decree, irrespective of country, the following special awards :—l. For the machine capable or; land of producing artificial col d at the least cost —Gold medal and certificate. 2. For the machine best adapted for maintaining a low artificial temperature on board ship at sea, and best suited to the economical preservation of a cargo of fresh meat during a voyage to Europe, together with least liability to derangement of machinery —A gold medal and certificate. Should any refrigerating machine combine both series of merits, it will receive the double award; and stamped as it will be by the report of competent judges, the inventor, whilst conferring on the world great benefits, will secure for himself high renown and much profit. The better to enable the inventive faculties of the world to compete for these two prizes, the Commission have determined to extend the time for entering and erecting the competing refrigerating apparatus on the Ist of February, 1880.” According to correspondents who, in American phraseology, hate “been there,” Zululand is one of the most frightful countries that ever white man set foot in. Not only are the Zulus themselves yet more terrible fellows than our fancy has already pictured them, possessing every physical and mental qualification necessary to the formation of a perfect light infantry, but they, naked savages as they are, seem to rush unhurt and unimpeded through scrub of the most terrible description. Four out of every five bushes bear thorns ■which a European can only hope to face when clad in “thebest moleskin.” The name of these thorns, we are assured by a competent authority, is “ legion,” and they are as formideble to white men as they are apparently harmless to the Zulus. But if Zululand is an ugly place or men, it is far worse for horses ; what between “ tsetsefly, snakes, horse-sick-ness, poison-root, and change of diet” above ground, to say nothing of “antbears and ratels ” below it, not 10 per cent, of those animals will be alive two months after their arrival. Next year, as our readers are aware, is leap-year (says the ‘ European Mail’), and the marriageable girls of England will once more have it all their own way. If they do not receive prompt proposals from their swains they have the liberty to “ pop the question” themselves, and if accepted the contract must be kept, or the young men concerned must look out for an action for breach of promise. A proposal has been made that all disengaged girls should wear a red skirt, as a sign that they are open to an offer, and it is said that this plan will be very generally adopted. A white rose in the lady’s dress will further signify that the wearer is \ possessed of capital.