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Temuka Leader, Issue 165, 26 July 1879, Page 3

At the Derby Polite Court William Smith, an old man, one of the overseers of the parish of Hosforth, near Leeds, was charged with fraudulently obtaining the sum of L 143 11s 4d from the Midland Railway Company. From the evidence it appeared that in Nov., 1871, June, 1876, and February,- 1878, the Company received demands from the prisoner for poor rates to the amount named in respect of property which they owned in Hosforth. These amounts wore duly paid. On examining the books of the prisoner, in consequence of certain suspicions having been aroused, it was ascertained that no rates were allowed on those dates by the parish authorities, and it was alleged by the prosecution that the names of the magistrates who appeared to have signed the demand nub's were forged. The prisoner was committed for trial. • Prince Bismarck has submitted to the Federal Council a proposal of the Prussian Government for the appointment of a committee to prepare the draft of a Bill for the regulation of the railway system of th.e .Empire. It, is proposed that the committee shall consist of nine members, two being nominated by the German and Prussian Governments respectively, and one each by the Governments of Bavaria, W.urtemberg, Saxony, Hesse, and Baden. ■ The members will be authorised to consult experts, and to obtain material for their deliberations, from their own Governments. The Imperial Chancellor will appoint the president of the committee. • Another mysterious crime has just come to light in Paris. The decomposed body of a young woman with a rope tied round' her neck was found in the Seine. • At first it was thought to bo a case of suicide, but investigation proved it to be one of murder. The body turned out to be that of a servant named Elsie Rouck, who came from Belgium a couple of months ago to seek a place in- Paris. She disappeared shortly after her arrival. The rope round her neck, on being examined, was found to be broken/ Divers were sent down into the river,, and they succeeded in finding a large stone, which was attached the remainder of the rope. The" body, thus weighted, must have kept at the bottom of the Seine till the constant action of the water broke the rope. A portion- of ; her clothes still remained intact, and in a pocket were- discovered some jewellery and money. ..This fact would lead to the inference tliat robbery was not the motive of the crime. The “ Shen Pad” (Shanghi) in a recent issue publishes a letter from a mandarin in Shansi, North China, relating to the famine stricken districts. In the Taiyun Fn, the capital- of the, province, and its suburbs, the Government Burial Board buried no less than 12,000 corpses of persons who died of typhus, whose relations were too poor to provide for their funerals. The number of mandarins, wdio died of fever was about 300. In the four Southern departments, Piuyany -Fu, Chiang Chow, and Chiai Chow, only about three-tenths of the population remain, the rest being dead or gone elsewhere. In the two districts of Yuancbu and Hocbingin Chiang Chow only one-tentli is left. Cannibalism has become too common to be taken any notice of. People who have money left are afraid to have public funerals wdien members of their families ' die, lest -they' should attract attention, and the bodies-be eaten. The Three public soup kitchens at-Taiyuan Fa use a hundred piculs of ripe every day. Rice still costs one tael five mace per bushel (of about twelve catties).