LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 319, 18 November 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Teinuka portion of the ’Frisco mail is expected to iinive by the Express today. Sir W. Fox lias been appointed solo Iloyai Oommissiouor for • West Coast Native affairs

Sir F. D. Bell proceeds to Melbourne next mouth with the view of going hom6 by the Orient steamer Potosi.

Some of the French Communists have started a Democratic journal, called the Patriot, in Auckland. Sir A. Gordon, the new Governor of New Zealand, is expected to arrive at Auckland to-day.

At theTimarn District Court, in the case of Bryant v. Henry and another, judgment was given for plaintiff for £5 and costs.

There is great excitement in Auckland in consequence of payable gold being found in the prospectors claim at Te Arolia, Thames. Mr K. F. Gray will hold an important sale of sections of land situated in Wallingford, Arowhenna and Teinuka, at his rooms, to-morrow, at 1 o’clock sharp. An Auckland gentleman recently visited Parihaka and recognised nearly 50 Lower Waikato Natives, and says they are there amongst the most devoted followers of Te Whiti.

Mr Pyke, M. H. R., has addressed a strong letter of remonstrance to the Minister of Justice respecting the abolition of District Courts on the Central Gold fields.

Mr K. F. Gray held a large and important sale of horses, cattle, and sheep yesterday afternoon, at his new sale yards. There was a numerous attendance, and the prices realised were, on the whole, satisfactory { The Road Board men were busy all last week in clearing the side walks and drains of an overgrowth of grass, and depositing the same, with the rubbish from the drains, in heaps along the road. Wo would suggest that the rubbish be cleared away as soon as possible, otherwise an accident of a serious nature may happen through horses shying, which would render the Board liable for damages, A meeting of the Committee appointed to make arrangements for the successful carrying out of the sports to be held on Boxing Day, under the auspices of the Loyal Alexandiovna Lodge, 1.0.0. F., was held on Monday eveninglast, when a capital programme was drawn up. There will be seventeen events, over £SO being voted

for prizes. They have also added the novelty of a greasy pole and*a pig with (he greasy tail to the programme. The following officers were elected:—Stewards, J. Blythe, R Donn, H. "Hanford, and Joseph Whitehead. Hadicappers, B Iyd Thompson and John Patterson, Esqrs. Judge of Tilting, N. 0. Nicholas, Esq. Judge of Sports, J M. Ollivier, Esq. Hon Treasurer, K. F. Gray, Esq. Hon Secretary, Win. Rbt. Uprichard, Esq.

The Postmaster at Temuka asks us to draw attention of those whose letters are deposited in the private boxes, and others, that his instructions are not to deliver letters to any person than those to whom they are addressed, unless a written order accompanies the demand. To prevent 'trouble and disappointment it would be well for those who ask their friends to call for their letters to give them an order for the delivery, otherwise they cannot be given to them

An old man, named John Campbell, a farmer, living near the Ashburton racecourse, and well known in the town, shot himself through the left breast with a fowling-piece on Monday morning about six o’clock. Medical aid was procured, but all efforts to save his life proved fruitless. He died at 12.30 p.m. The Lyttelton Times says ‘‘Messrs George King and Co. sent Home at the clos i ot the last harvest a quanty of oats of the safe of which they are now in receipt of advice. Their correspondent assures them that the oats are probably the finest sample ever seen in the English market; and “so good as to be almost out of the ordinary trade' requirements.” The price realised equal 2s 2ld here.”

A niiitch fox’ £IOO aside between Loxxe Hand and Levant (three miles on fche flat) ‘•came off on the Racecourse, Christchurch, on Saturday afternoon. The attendance was small, and there was no betting’. Lone Hand earned 9st, ami was ridden by Derrelt, Levant, to whom the grey conceded a stone, being piloted by Endings. Mr Cullen officiated as judge, and Mr Piper starter. Levant was indulged with the lead for about a mile, when Lone Hand went to the front, and the issue was never in doubt, the gi’ey eventually winning by about a quarter of a mile.

Among other distinguished visitor's to our Exhibition and other places (writes “ Atticus ” in the Leader) is Lox-d Macdonald, commonly known i.x Scotland as “ The Lord of the Isles.” Here he pre fers to be known as plain Mr Johnson, of Toorak, but the full coat of arms, sup. porters and coronet emblazoned on his carriage panels have already dispelled his lordship's incognito. Lord Macdonald, as a baron of the United Kingdom, wears a coronet with four pearls above his shield —and so does Mr Johnson. Lord Macdonald’s .ancestral coat is exactly the coat of Mr Johnston, the cx-est is also common to both, and both have lionesses proper for supporters. But surely it is a great over, sight in his lordship—Mr Johnson I mean —xxot to have painted out the coronet and motto, and an equally lamentable one to have suffered them to be moulded in gold and used a« appointments for his new axxd magnificent carriage harness.

The latest curiosity from America is the mysterious disappearance of a railway train. It was on the Kansas Pacific railway, and between two and three thousand dollars have been spent in searching for it ; but it cannot be found. About 400 miles west of Kansas city the line runs through a place called Monotony, which was visited some time ago by a terrible storm and watei spout, over GOO feet of track having been washed away The adjacent neighbourhood, which consists of a huge rolling prairie, was eight feet under wafer, and it is conjectured that the locomotive and waggons (it luckily not being a passenger train) were carried away and buried under a landslip. This is the second time of such an occurrence.

A man in Birmingham, a catgut manufacturer. lias been found guilty of the practice of “ carrying dead whales about the streets.” and thereby, as the Judge vigorously expressed it, “ stinking out the whole neighborhood.

An Italian correspondent of the Lancet calls attention to an insidious and frightfully fatal disease called “ pellaga,” of which no less than 97,000’Italians are said to be dying at the present time, the number of victims representing 3.62 per 1000 of the whole population, and in the infected departments, especially Lombardy and Venice, a higher proportion than ever occurred during the worst cholera epidemic in France. The disease usually runs a slow course like consumption. Its cause is believed to be the exclusive consumption of maize in a detonated condition, and the unhealthy state of the hovels in which the rustic live.

The Academy states that Baron Chailes de Beautouch, who has already made extensive explorations in the Malay Peninsula, is about to undertake another journey in that region, where much still remains to be done for the cause of geography. Should circumstances admit of his so doiiig, he proposes afterwards to visit the interior of Independent Buimah, Siam, and other parts of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. On the occasion of his former journey he accumulated much useful carto graphical material, to which we hope lie may be able to add during his present expedition.