The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1880. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 263, 3 June 1880, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1880. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wb understand that a requisition is being largely signed, requesting the Chairman of th Tetnuta R"ad Board to call a public meeting fco petition the Government fc 0 repeal the Property Tax. Due notice of the day of meeting will likely appear in our next issue, of day of meeting.

The Customs duties collected at the port of .Oomaru during the month of May amounted to L 1456 13s Bd.

No intelligence hue yet been received of H.M. Traing Ship Atalanta, ’ which has 'been missing since February last and is supposed to have foundered with all hands off the Arozes ; the Lords of tie" Admiralty have offered a reward for any information which may throw light on the fate of the ship or the whereabouts of any of the crew, who possibly have escaped to some uninhabited island.

Madame Carandini 1 as received advice that her son a colonial ycuth, educated in Tasmania, and now in Afghanistan, has been appointed adjutant of the Bth Hussars. He originally enlisted as a private in the Lancers, and on promotion he was transferred to the Hussars.

An agreement has been come to between the signatviries to the Treaty of Berlin, that in order to arrange for giving effect to the unfulfilled provisions thereof another European Congress shall assemble at Berlin shortly.

The Bradlaugh oath question w-s the subject of a warm deha'e in tin- IL use of Commons. A strong expression of opinion was elicited from many in oppo.-iti'>n to the finding of the Commit le, that the member should not be exempted from taking the oath. Mr Gladstone proposed that the question be referred hack to the Committee. Sir Stafford Nortlu-ote dedared that it would be a farce to insist upon an oath being administered if exemption were to be allowed on any pretext raised.

A youngster named Fred Erh has defeated Captain Bogardus in a match for LSO and 5o par cent gate money, recently decided in the States. The conditions were 100 pigeons each, 21 yards rise ; When each had shot at 50 birds the scores stood— Erh, 46 ; .Bogardus, 43. When 100 shots had been fired, Erb had killed 93 and -Bogardus. 83 birds. Smarting under his defeat, the captain has challenged the victor to shoot a match at St Louis 100 birds a side, 30 yards rise ; Erb, who has defeated many of ihe best marksmen besides Bogardus, and is reputed to have sufficient nerve and quickness of sight to shoot any distance for any amount of money, will probably accept the offer In ihe match with Bogardus the boy killed 13 birds before missing.

It is not often, says the Wellington “ Times,” that we hear of a man having a piece of wood two inches long extracted from one of his eyes, yet such an operation has lately been performed at the general hospital here, with the best possible results. A m-.n named Byrane was blasting logs wiih dynamite near Napier, about eight months ago, when he received a blow on the eye from one of the splinters, and as the part was very sore he had to seek medical aid There was a wound under the eye-ball, which soon healed up under treatment, the only result of the accident being that the eye was turned slightly to one side About a raont’h ago, as we are iuforned, the wound broke out again, and the man, being in Wellington, consulted Dr Gillon upon the subject. That gentleman noticed something sticking out of the wound, and upon examination found it was the end of a splinter The foreign substance was extracted, and proved to be, as stated, above two inches in length, its breadth being half a - : inch It had penetrated belowjthe eye-ball without in any way injuring the latter, and had taken a course towards the ear, slanting slightly downwards. Not on y is the patient getting on well, but his eye has now recovered its proper position Dr Gillon has the splinter preserved at the hospital

Earl Beaconsfield, in the House of Lords, denounced in emphatic terms Mr Gladstone's letter to Count Karolji, Austrian Ambassador in London, in which he explained away his statement regarding the aggressive policy of Austria, Lord Salisbury declared that the position taken up by Mr Gladstone was unworthy of a British statesman.

A short time ago, a Whitby contributor to an English paper, saw two sparrows —a male and a female —which evidently had some dispute to settle, as thev twittered about each other for some time, then commenced in downright earnestness to fight. Being unmole ted in thisMemoralising game they continued in close c-mbat for several minutes, neither giving in to the other, and toall appearances they had made Up their minds to fight until “ there was nothing left but the tails.” Haying no particular call upon his time, the writer thought he would see the end of the fray if end there was to he, so he watehed the pugnacious bipeds until it was a mutual “ give in,” they having fought until they cou’d neither walk nor fly. He then -"quietly walked up and d. 1 I erately picked the combatants up, just in the same way as he would have picked up anything lifelers, so powerless were they to get out of his rea h.