LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 269, 1 July 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At n general mooting of the Geraldine Racing Club on Saturday, the annual balance sheet, which showed a credit balance of L43459d, was adopted, and Messrs Cliarnberlain, D> noon, Duncan, and Pearpoint were elected members of committee.

A gentleman, who for sundry reasons desires to be nameless (says the R'mgiiikei Advocate), but upon whoso veracity iin pHcit reliance may be placed, invested in a packet of melon seeds some six or eight months back, and planted them, in the usual course, in his garden. Owing to a slight disappointment to his horticultural aspirations, caused by their maturity into pumpkins, for which he held no particular liking, he allowed them to remain in the obscurity of the weeds with which a bounteous season in the fullness of time enveloped them with a garland. A few days ago, when clearing the garden and turning up the earth in anticipation of the coming season, he was surprised to gee the objectionable gourds grown to a gigant c size, and perfectly hollow, with a small aperture at the bottom of two of them, from which members of rival swarms of bees was issuing, apparently in search of blossoming plants. A closer investigation disclosed the existence of a small quantity of honey in the comb, but, probably owing to the odour given off by the decaying vegetable, it was unfit for use.

There has hitherto been (says the Daily Telegraph) but little of a humorous character to record in the proceedings of the Russian Revolutionary Committees or Nihilistic organisations. The deeds have been dire, dark, and desperate, marked by cold-blooded ferocity and dismally forlorn of any lighter side, i. . t length, however, in agreeable contrast to their truculent feats with dagger, pistol, and dynamite, a somewhat funny achievement performed by them upon the Chief of the Police at Kiev is reported. A few nights ago that exalted official, upon emerging from a private house, in which he had been passing the evening with some friends, was deftly seize 1, gagged, blindfolded, lifted into a droshky, and driven off at a great pace to a remote suburb, where he was carried into a house, and his 1 eyes being urbaodagod, found himself surrounded by a number of fclosely-masked ' persons, dressed from head to foot in black. By four ofjthese mysterious masqueraders he was partially undressed and held down upon the table while oth ra ministered to him a hearty and protracted castigation. When he had received what hia tormentors considered to be a sufficient punishment for his offences against the Kiev Revolutionary Committee, ho was politely requested to write out and sign an official receipt for tne exact number of stripes inflicted on him. With the demand he deemed it necessary to comply, the alternative held out to him being instant death As soon as his receipt was ready ho was again gagged, blindfolded, and conveyed to a street corner near the chief policeoffice, where his masked escort deposited him on the ground wished him good night and vanished into the darkness.

Ooa Gapes’ Valley correspondent says : —A lire broke out l ist Tuesday, at ihe bouse of Mr W Patrick, Gapm Valle/, burning the greatest part of the roof, and, hut for the gi eat'st exertion on the part of tlie family, the-house would have been totally destroyed Mr Patrick and son wore away ploiurhing, and Mrs Patrick was ill in bed Mr Patrick has a family of eleven children

The father of the young boy who was sentence 1 at Dunedin the other day by I-N. Watt, R.M, to three mouths’ imprisonment for sleeping in a brewery has petitioned His Excellency for a remission of the sentence.

Mrs Grant, of Laggan, records the following incident on the authority of the minister who relaied it to lien He was accustomed, she informs us, to go forth and meditate at eve |; and this solitary walk he always directed to ihe churchyard which was situated in a shaded spot, on the hanks of the river. There, in a dusky October evening, he took his wonted path and lingered, leaning on the churchyard wall, till it became twilight, when he saw two small lights rise from a spot widiin where there was no stone nor memorial of any kind. He observed the course these lights took, and saw them cross the river and stop at an opposite hamlet. Presently (hev reamed accompanied by a larger light, winch moved on between till they arrived at tho place from which ihe first two set out, when all three seem to sink into the earth together. The good man wont into the churchy aid and three a few stones on the spot where the lights disappeared. Next morning he walked out early, called for tho sexton, and showed him the place, asking him if he remembered who was buried their. The man said that, many years ago, ho remembered burying in that spot two young children, belonging to a blacksmith on the opposite side of the river, who was now a very old man. The pastor returned, and was scarce sat down to breakfast, when a message came to hurry him to come over to pray with the smith, who had been suddenly taken ill, and died next day.— The Leisure Hour

Tub special correspondent at Wellington to the Southland Daily News telegraphs ns follows, under date of 25ih instant ; When Mr Ormond finished at a quarter past twelve last night, the House felt that the speech of the session had been made, and that the doom of the financial policy of the Government was settled. There will he no division on Sir Goerge Grey’s amendment. At present it is understood that members are speculating as to what course Ministers will adopt. They have been wounded in the House by their friends. A combination has been formed among the following men : —Ormond, Richardson, Stevens, Reader, Wood, Saunders, (Jolbeck, Swanson, Hurst, Wakefield, and four others.

Swimming shoes are the greatest novelty chronicled from Berlin Details of tlicir manufacture at present obtainab’o are scanty, but it appears thatmovable ribs on which canvas is stretched, are attatched to the sole of the shoe. The ribs are fusioned on a revolving axis, so t hat by striking out the legs the canvas is opened, the action of drawing in the legs rlo-'ing it, and thus offering no refist-mce to the water. The slices m y he retained on land as on standing upright the ribs fad back on the s.fie The invention is due to H>cr Gustav Sprotto, of Berlin, and is patented. The other day, says a Northern cmr.v;pondent of a contemporary, I heard of a novel method of ( raising the wind,’ which is not, very honest, but eenaiuly original. A man took a leas aof a eoltage for six months, and entered into possession. A few days aficr the owner o! the cottage was passing, ami discovered that some pailings of the front fence wore missing. He could noi slop then to speak to his t-nant about the matter, hut went next morning to do so. When ho got near* tire house ho discovered that more pailings had disappeared. When the man appeared, ho told him that he noticed that some of the pailings had been taken away from the fence. ‘1 know that,’ said the tenant, ‘ 1 look them off and burnt them.’ The landlord said to him he had no right to destroy his property, bub the tenant replied he had a perfect right to do what he pleased with both cottage and grounds, provided he paid the rent and delivered up the property in good order at the expiration of the lease. The landlord was afraid that there would be nothing left to deliver np at the end of six months, so he asked the tenant if he would surrender his lease. He said he would do so for a considoiadon, and after a good deal of bargaining, he agreed to accept LlO, and leave the cottage. Moral —“ An empty house is better than a bad tenant.

A correspondent of the Napier Daily Telegraph writes as follows ; —“ All who have been in the habit of perusing the daily papers may perhaps remember that about a year ago u certain Maori named Hiroki was charged at Napier with having placed an obstruction on the railway lino somewhere near Takapau, and on being tried for the offence he was acquitted on the ground of his ignorance, with a gentle reminder that if repeated he would be severely punished A European for the same crime has been sentenced to fifteen years’ penal servitude ”