LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 251, 1 May 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

K, F. Gray will hold an im mriant sale of furriture, etc., at his rooms at 2 o’clock to-day. See advertisement. We understand that (he:proceeds from the Gift Auction, held, by ,our -Wesleyan friends, last week, realised the handsome sum of L7O, leaving :about worth 1 of goods yet 4o be sold The than as - of the Circuit Stewards are cordially returned to the many kind friends,’ who so liberally contributed.to;this good cause at such short notice -; and to the-ladies- -w ho-took so much trouble, on the day of the auction, in attending to the sale of goods, and.for administra: ing to.t^hm.comforts of the various visitors. Nihilism has broken out in Melbourne. An elderly man was walkingiquietly along the other day last week when he saw upon tho ground a dark looking object which excited hia curiosity. He picked it up, and vyas about to examine it,- when it suddenly exploded. a | ortiori of, it passing right through his hand. He at once ran up tlie Melbourne Hospital, and was attended to. It was found that a bullet or some other substance had passed through his hand, fracturing the./ppfficaapal bone and lacerating the flesh in its transit. He dropped the'weapon when it exploded,and it was not subsequently found, so that the matter is at present inexplicable. The man gave his name as Alexander Robinson, and stated that lie had only been put to work at stone-breaking by the Government the day before. A part of the ib-fated train which went down in December last with the Tay Bridge has, it seems, turned up at Norway. While some fishermen were engaged in February last ih hauling in their nets, an extraordinary object met their eyes. The superstitious fears of seamonsters which have been written a great deal about lately held, : them back for sometime, but their curiosity made them approach tiie supposed-sea monster, and, to tbeir great surprise, they found that it was something like a building. As the sea was calm they immediately commenced to tow it to the shore, where it Was hauled up on the beach, and was then found to be a damaged railway wagon. The wheels were off, the windows smashed, and one door hanging on its hinges. By the name on 't, “Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway,” it was at once surmised that it must have been one of the waggons separated from the train which,mot tylth the disaster on Tay Bridge. In the carriage was found a portmanteau containing garments, some of th m marked “ P. 8.” The waggon was sent on to Hangesund, to bo forwarded thence to Bergen. Meesrs Maclean and Stewart will hold an important sale of draught burses at their yards, Timaru, to-day. In a recent lecture Mr Preece mentioned the fact that Professor. Bell and himself had carried on a conversation by means of the telephone-through a'coil representing a distance , of 10,000,-miles •of telegraph line, but without the defects incidental t,o an actual wire carried on posts across country. Experiments have been made recently in America with the ordinary telegraph lines, in- order to test the actual capabilities of the telephones. The distance was 410 miles, and although there were a few interruptions owing to the swinging of the wires in the wind, conversation was carried on with ease, the enunciation of the words being perfectly d •. tinct. The experiments were made at a time when few, if any, messages were passing on wires in close proximity, and they established the fact clearly that for all practical purposes the telephone will soon supersede the ordinary telegraph instruments on lines of moderate length, . and possibly altogether in cases where it is possible to isolate the wires throughout the whole circuit. 14 is Reported that Major Atkinson is,ill and is not going to the front with Mr Bryce as he requires rest. It is Stated that Sir George Grey is going to Christchurch next week. On Friday an accident happened to Charles Tedder, a workman at the graving dock, Auckland. He was on the top of one of the derrick cranes, when a peg Holding the guy-ropes-- -drew put of the groujitUderrick-ati.3'Ml, the unfortunate man falling with: great force some .25 feet on to the rocky ground beneath.. He sustained a compound dislocation of the largo bone of the leg at the,ancle, and a onminuted fracture of the small bone of tue leg. 0n Friday night last, Major Lean Inspected our local corp, there being a good attendance, bnt not what might have been evpocted. The Pope, in hia. latest Encyclical address’ has dealt with the marriage law condemning divorce as against law and morality, and exhorting the bishops to uphold the marriage tie. The compulsory clauses of the Education Act are now in force in the Dunedin district, and will be strictly enforced. The London Daily Telegraph gives currency to a rumor, apropos of racing prospects, that Sir Hercules Eobinso.i is in tieaty with Mathew Dawson for a boy who may don the Gubernatorial colors at Christchurch, and make the Now Zealand people fartiiliar with a sight of those “ Zetland spoto ” which were wont to arouse the enthusiasm of North-countrymen when borne to victory at Epsom and Doncaster by Voltigour, and Newmarket De Vedette.

] A C.ASE of attempted suicide occurred at | Morningtou, on Wednesday. The indi- | vidual was a painter named Fottcrell, a married man,'who had of work for some time, and had become depressed in snirits. His wife was awoke at an early hour in the morning by hearing a fall in the room, and she mads the discovery that her husband had cut Ids throat. Medical aid was secured, and the man was ere long placed out of danger. John Pound, who was arrested on board the mail steamer at Auckland, has been brought up there, charged 'with leaving his illegitimate child unprepared for at Timaru. Prisoner was remanded to Timaru. By the N. Z. Gazette we notice that within the Counties of Geraldine and Waimate, cock pheasants and Californian quail may be shot between the Ist and the 30th June, 1880, between the hours of sun-rise and sun-set. After a discussion on a letter received from the Hon Secretary to the Canterbury Coursing,Club, asking that the license fee for coursing should be reduced this season to ss, the Acclimatisation Council at yesterday’s meeting decided to charge a fee Of 10s for the first dog, and 5s for every other dog the bona fide property of one owner. \ i ' The London Daily Telegraph remarks : “ Strange stories reach ns from India of the feats performed by a native mesmeriser, named'.Bum,.whose magnetic power would appear to be found quite irristible by the lower animals, upon which he ex--1 cluaively exerts it. Ho gives seances, to which the public are invited to bring all mannner of ferocious and untamable wild beasts, and, like the Ancient Mariner, he ’ holds them with a, glittering, eye. |ln .a few ~ seconds they subside into a condition Of cataleptic stiffness, from which they can only be revived by certain passes, l - Which he solemnly executes with his right hand. An account of one of these seances state ; that‘a snake in a state of violent irritation j was brought to Bnni by a managrie pro--1; prietor, ;enclosedTn a wooden cage. When , put on the, stage it was very fierce, .hut Buni bent over the cage,and fixed hia eyes upon its occupant, gently waving his hand and in a. minute (he snake looked as ,if dead. A Letter from St Petersburg to the Temps, sajs that the news received from the interior of the Russian Empire is heartrending. Famine and idptheria . are decimating the population. The provinces of Saratof and Koif,which • annually export euormous quantity 'of grain, scarcely had any crop all last year The calamity in aggravated by the want of fodder for the cattle, the Peasants ' being force! to sell them at any price. ’ In .he Caucasus the famine is still geater Here the people are committing suicide selling their children, and taking other ■ extreme measures to stave of starvation. Wonders will never cease. The last idea is to record time by moans of atmospheric pressure, and a Pneumatic 1 Clock Company has been stated in Paris which promises to provide clocks and lay on the time with as much regularity as water or gas. GraTn. Traffic.-— The grain traffic , on the Canterbury section of railway,on Monday was Forwarded, 12,882 bags; on hand, 18.997 ;and on Tuesday—Forwarded, 11841: on hand, 19,234. It is understood that arrangements are being made by the Agent-General for : h supply of steam pinnaces for the : Wellington Torpedo Corps. .