FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 154, 14 June 1879, Page 2

FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

——■», lj ■; f The. 'New York Bureau' of Vital Statistics reports that there were 27,005 deaths in that .city in 1878, being 802 more than in 1877. The greatest number of deaths from JaMy one disease was 4477 from phthisis, and the next was 2964 from diarrhoea. There were only 2 deaths from small-pox, the smallest number reported for any year since i. 824, a result which is attributed to the activity of th e vaccinating corps for years past. There were 2416 deaths from diseases of the brain and nervoussystem, 1098 from heart diseases, 1155 from Bright's disease and nephritis. There were 445 deaths from apoplexy, 52 from the direct effects of the solar heat, 137 suicides. The deaths included 5 7090 under 1 year of age, 12,354 under 5, 1600 at ages above 7 years. Only-25,729 births are reported. There were 229'2 childi'en born dead. In the course af the year' 2Q mothers gave birth to their 14th child, lip to their 15th, 4 to their 16th; and 3 'to their 17th, child. Two mothers, at 15, gave 1 ' birth to their second child, and 442 smothers, over 50, bore children. £ Captain Paul Boynton, according to. American advices received to the 11th May, has arrived at Cincinnati, having completed 620 miles of the 2300 which he

had-undertaken to accomplish in swimming from Alleghany to the Gulf in his buoyant dress; During'his journey the water was extremely cold, and in many places he encountered much ice. On arrival at Cincinnati one of his hands was badly frozen, while his. face was bruised and disfigured. He travels day and night, and feels confident of success. His.'last stretch on the water was of 16 hours'duration. Near Ripley'he had a narrow escape. While avoiding an approaching steamer ahead, ho was almost run into by the steamer Telegraph inthe rear. He only stops at the principal cities, en route, where he delivers lectures.

People (says the ' Daily News') who have any experience of family quarrels about money must sympathise with the wives and offspr-ing ; of Mr Brigham Young. Mr Young had' about 28 wives, who bore hi non average of five children Say he had 140 infants, and that brings him near the 167 of Ramesses 11., which Mr Gladstone thinks too many, though it falls far below the total ! of August the Strong of Saxony. Many of these children in turn were very much'married, so that Young is quite a common.name in Utah. When Mr Young died he left most of his property—and how much that was nobody knows—to the church, aud only provided for a few of his elder offspring. The " rank and file" of his family are unprovided for, and his thousands of heirs are expected to contest the will. The case will be one of the most colossal on record. There is an original pre-Morinon Mrs Young still surviving. There are all manner of favorite wives, of beloved grandchildren, of descendants married, "in and out and -roundabout" in the most complicated way. The whole bar will be exhausted in providing counsel, and no mortal judge can expect to hear more than a small part of the case, which will increase in value:at the rate of compound interest, as the value of Young's investments and the number of his right heirs go on multiplying. America is likely to outvie with the greatest ease our petty Tichborne trial,; and. will be able to boast the largest lawsuit, as well as the biggest waterfall, in the universe. The religious complications of course will be numerous, and the contemplative mind is overwhelmed - as in the attempt to conceive of infinity—by ■ the prodigiousness of the affair.

Mr Philip Blakesley was fined 20s by the Paimerston Bench on Thursday last " for allowing music, and dancing in the room of his licensed house." We suppose (says the ' Oamaru. Mail') that Mr Blakesley was "driving dull care away" by twauking the "strings of his guitar, when Mr Sergeant Rooney—energetic officer that he is—arrived on the spot just in the nick of time to merit promotion. Poor Blakesley was revelling in a delicious pianissimo, whe'n Mr Rooney interposed h'mself to assert the law, and at the sight of so unmusical an intruder the player made an involuntary isforzato, which spoiled the effec 1 ;. But that is not the point. Does it not seem paradoxical that the sly grog-selling boarding-houses of Oamaru, the hotbeds of all the evils arising out of illicit drinking, should be allowed to go on in their evil courses, with ouly an occasional abortive attempt to bring them to justice, whilst music and dancing are disallowed in a duly licensed house ? Musiciand dancing ! These are nothing compared with the amusements of the sly grog-selling shanties of Oamaru.

The ' Jewish World' says that recently at Hull the Stipendiary magistrate had before him a case. A Jew was summoned under an Act passed in the time of Charles 11. for working on'Sunday. It appeared that his next-door neighbor had complained to the. police about the annoyance he suffered through the defendant, who is a tailor, using his sewing-machine on Sundays, and as the defendant'refused to discontinue working, lie was now summoned. Defendant maintained that under the Workshops Act he could work if he chose, if he kept his own Sabbath. The magistrate decided that defendant had broken the law, as his work was " not necessary for a charitable purpose." He ordered the defendant to pay the costs. A letter from St. Petersburg in the Cologne Gazette gives a description of the chief newspaper organ of the Russian revolutionary party, the 'ZemliaiSvabode' (Land and Freedom). This journal, the writer says, publishes the sentences of the secret revolutionary committees, designates thosa who are to be the victims, and describes the " executions" carried out by the Nihilist agents. Copies of the paper are to be found everywhere except where thew are sought for. They appear in the most unexpected manner in the Government offices, in factories, barracks, and restaurants ; the privy councillor finds them folded up with his Conservative journal, and the sergeant among his ; reports. The ' Zemlia i Svaboda' is published once or twice a month, and the yearly subscription to it. is six roubles. The subscription is stated on each paper to be payable at " the known places," where, it is added, various revolutionary pamphlets whose titles are given may also. be obtained. The shape of the paper resembles that of the 'Allgemeine Zeitung.' It is printed on coarse paper, in clear type, though the printing bears marks of haste. It is believed that each contributor has a set of types with which he " composes" for the press, so that the printing of the paper is completed within a few hours. On the day after the murder of General Mesentzoff an illustrated copy was published, the illustrarion representing The General lying in a coffin surrounded by lighted candles. Beneath is a poem relating how the Emperor came to see the remains and knelt bareheaded at the foot of the coffin. Suddenly soft music is heard, the lights go out, a thunderbolt falls, and a long procession of I murdered men in chains enters the room. These victimsof despotism dance round the Emperor and-the coffin, lift up their arms menacingly, and point to the wounds which General Mesontkoff had inflicted. They then sing in chorus : " It is not him we morn, but ourselves, the innocent victims: he only got what ho deserved." A considerable number of working men are in Ashburton at present looking vainly for employment. Some are harvest hands, who have got rid of their earnings, and others are labourers from the country districts. Many of them are without means, and the distress prevailing is more than is generally imagined. Strong able bodied men ..loitering about the street corners, indicate a rather serious state of

affairs. There be little cause for" concern if the u»einployed belonged, 'to the ranks of the habitually- idle and dissolute, but we are informed that not a few of the men seeking employment are sober, industrious, and in some cases, have families depending on them. We learn th>tt a meeting of the unemployed in Ashburton, will be held to-day fos'the purpose of calling od the local bodies of the district to disburse some of their locked up funds, in carrying out works, and thereby alleviating the &io*cess of the breadwinner. Prince Bismarck celebrated his 64th birthday on April Ist, the Chancellor having been born a few weeks before the Battle of Waterloo. All day countless telegrams, letters of congratulation, and gifts from far and, near poured into the Radziwill Palace?, - ( At early morn the Prince was serenaded!by the band of the Kaiser Alexander Grenadiers, aud at midday that of the 2nd Foot Guards took up and continued the complimentary strain. The Emperor was foremost with his good -wishes, while the diplomatists, ministers, generals, deputies, and high officials all crowded to offer their congratulations to the great statesman. At Cologne, moreover, amid speechifying and civic display, a statue of the Princo was unveiled and handed over to the city-

The proposal that an exhibition should be held annuallydn London, to show the public what wo&eil are capable of in the matter of artistic work of every kind, has met with much fa|our in aristocratic circles. Such an exhibition would embrace original paintings in oil and water-colours, etchings and drawings, statuary bronzes, photographs, glass-painting architectural drawings and models, designs for furniture screens, upholstery, and wall papers embroidery, lace, and every kind of needlework. An exhibition of this sort would be the means of encouraging recognised talent, and would call out powers hitherto A unknown. There is no doubt that it would be largely patronised, and many women who have now much spare time on their hands would gain both credit and profit if such an exhibition were successfully launched. With regard \o the movements of the Kelly gang, a correspondent of the ' Argus/ writing from Mansfield on the 2nd inst., says:—" It is generally believed here that the police have recently been on the tracks of Ned Kelly. A short time ago, Mrs Skillion, a relative of Mrs Kelly went to Melbourne to bring away Mrs Kelly's child from Pentridge. Mrs Skillion and the child arrived at Mrs Kelly's late residence, Greta, a few day's ago, and immediately after, Ned Kelly came there for the purpose of seeing the child and his sister. I believe the police got word of the affair, and set out from Benalla last week, but the bird had flown, and as has been reported, the police returned without any success. A large party are again on the move. It is currently reported that the footprints said to Monk's, ashort distance from the CTglrSe, where the jJblice state Monk must have dismounted, can xis>\v be proved to belong to another person, jvho was in company with two others, this individual havivg dismounted at the on the 26th Ar*il, and riding along that road." Says " Atlas" in the world:—"Everybody has heard of the Shenandoah, the notorious privateer of the Southea)j.3rs in the American Civil War, but T%\o not suppose that many know what was the ultimate fate of the ship when the war ended. Of all places in the world, she now lies ' fathoms deap' off the island of Socotra, .in the Arabian Gulf. Her story is a strange one. She was busy burning Behring Straits, when Waddell, her. coinmander, the 'mildestmannered man \vho ever scuttled a ship or cut a throat,' lieard of the collapse of the South. His occupation being gone, and being without home and harbour to which he durst with safety return, he ran the Shenandoah to Liverpool, and immediately "surrendered her to H.M.S Donegal in the Mersey. She was handed over to the American consul, and afterwards bought'at auction by Nicol Fleming and Co.—a firm that has earned a notoriety in connection with the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank—for the Sultan of Zanzibar.; After remaining idly at Zanzibar for some years, she was sent to Bombay for repairs, but foundered off Socotra, all hands being lost except one Englishman and a few Lascars." When Dr Ingram, of Unst, in the Shetland Isles, recently died, his extreme age (103 years) led to the publication of the names and ages of other venerable ministers in Great Britain. These reports show that in the church of England the oldest clergy man is the Rev. Canon Beadon, residing a Wells, who was born 6th, 1777 and is therefore in his 102nd year. His health is still good, he reads without using spectacles, and has never, it is said worn a greatcoat. His father before him. enjoyed the living of Stoneham, near Southampton, and when he died, in 1810, the son succeeded to it, and has held it until the present time. Canon Beadon's son, no tv 75 years old, has been for a long time his curate. In the case of Dr Ingram it will be remembered that a son of his is also a Free Church minister, and that four generations of the fam.i|y hart lived in the same house. 4