The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1881. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 381, 30 April 1881, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1881. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Incoming ’Frisco Mail, —The City of Now York with the Loudon mails of the 24th March, will be due at Auckland next Monday. Tub Property Tax. —The Property Tax instalments due by Insurance Companies nre to be paid on May 12th and 14th next. Found, Dead.— A Chinaman, name unknown, was found dead in the Timaru Park, yesterday. The. authorities are making. enquiries with a view to discover where the deceased hailed from.

Not Paying. —The balance-sheet of Messrs Guthrie and Larnach’s Timber and Wood ware Factories Company has been published,. In addition to £10,0,00 carried to profit and loss, it shows a loss of £28,000, Gold Dirt. — Mr R. H. Hill, superintendent of the optative department of the Royal Mint, Sydney, states that tire purchase of dirt adhering to gold costs no less than £3ll per 1,000,000 sovereigns, and £334 per 2,000,000 half-sovereigns. Going Ahead,— South Australia seems to be going ahead. Its exports last year exceeded in value those of the previous year by over half a million sterling. The increase on the previous year over its predecessor was £BOO,OOO the two years therefore show an increase of £1,300,000. Our Mineral Wealth. —We (Mutaura Ensign) were shown the other day, a specimen of copper ore from Preservation Inlet, which to us appeared remarkably rich. The sample was on its way to experts for analytical examination, and should the report be as favorable as we anticipate the result will be an important addition to our mining industries. A Monster Hotel. —They never do things by halves in America. The latest big item is the opening of an hotel that makes up three thousand beds, which has been built at San Francisco. There are arcades lined with shops on the ground floor, two or three restaurants, a theatre, and other places of amusement within its outer walls.

Who’d Have Thought It. —At Napier, yesterdajv a plumber tried to find an escape of gas in a store by the aid of a candle. He found the leak, the result being that be was hurled to the other side of the building, the boards, etc., coming after him. Ho was more soared than hurt, however, while the damage done to the building was alight.

Gambing v. Ruination. —The vice of gambling has assumed terrible proportions in Melbourne (says a contemporary). The night after the Australian Cup was run, one prominent Victorian landowner rose from the table at daylight, having lost something like £40,000 between that and midnight. The sum was punctually paid without questions or demur. The games played were 100 and Napoleon.

Stabbing His Sweetheart. Yesterday, at Riverton, Auckland, a tailor stabbed a girl, with whom he was keeping company, through jealousy. She is about 19 years of age, and of prepossessing appearance. On being arrested he quietly submitted. He stated, “ I stalked the girl through love ; Ross (his rival) induced me to do it.” The young lonian is stabbed in two places, and suffers greatly. Her position is considered very serious.

A Monster Marine Hotel. —One of the latest projects for adding to the pleasures of New Yorkers next summer is a n grand floating palace,” to be perma,nently moored oft' the Battery. It is to be five hundred feet long, eighty feet wide, with three decks, and bathing conveniences below. The charges of admission will be guided to suit the 'finances of all classes, and there will be music afternoons and evenings, with eatables and drinkables. The whole will be gorgeously illuminated at night by hundreds of gas jets a'hd a number of electric lights.

Who would be a Chairman?—At a sparrow club meeting held recently in a township not one hundred miles from Temiika, a certain “ cockatoo ” proposed that all the poison supplied to the club should go “throfigh’’ their chairman. Eeport dees not say whether the proposal was either seconded; or carried, but if such were the case we sympathise with the chairman, for whom wo have every respect. Should the proposal again “crop’ up we would suggest that the chairman vacate hispoaition, and the “cockatoo* take the same in order that the experiment be practically put to the test.

Russian Grasshoppers. —Vast efforts were made by the Russian Government last summer to destroy the grasshoppers. The work was carried on for about three months, and occupied in one district, Gori, no fewer than 20,000 people per day- These colossal efforts resulted in cutting down the ratio of crops, destroyed to two per cent. While many million roubles worth of hay and corn were saved, ihe enterprise cost the Government 200,000 roubles. Many thousand of fields arid gardens were, neglected by their owners because the extra work offered in the grasshopper districts was m,ore remunerative.

An Encumbrance got rid or. — Wives are won in many ways (writes the Narracoorte Herald, South Australia,) but it was left for Narracoorte to dispose of a wife by putting her up to auction with a tent and cooking in one lot. This was done a few days ago about two miles from Narracoorte. A man who had been working here for some time was going away, and not to be encumbered with any unnecessary hindrances, the most cumbersome of which was his wife, he offered his effects, consisting of tent, cooking things, and wife, for auction’ The highest bidder was a blacksmith, who paid £5. and took over the chattels as a job lot, without any objections from the live stock. After the first |feeling of strangeness had worn off the only wonder at this transaction, is that in, the present depressor! state of business: so. much as £5 should have been,obtained at such a clear-ing-out sale.

Land Tax Receivers.— The appointment of all Land Tax Receivers have been cancelled. The Minister for Justice.—The Hon. T. Dick has accepted the portfolio of Minister of Justice. Rumored Split. —lt is rumored that another split has taken place between the Governor and his Ministry. Comets. —A writer in the Times of Ipdia predicts that two magnificent comets will shortly appear within the year. Sir Grey. —The ex-Premier has commenced his stumping tour- prior to the next assembling of Parliament. Native Coal. —The Manager of the Wellington railway has given an order for 60 tons of Picton coal for the purpose of testing it on the Maaterton line of railway. The Cathedral Spire. —The spire of Christchurch Cathedral is now nearly completed. The height from the ground to the top will be 2.02 feet, exactly the height of the Monument, London. Novelty Consultation. Full particulars in regard to Mr J. L. Fleming’s Novelty Consultation No. 2, on the New Zealand Grand National Steeplechases, to be run in Tiraaru, on Tuesday, May 24tb, next will be found in our advertising columns. A .Sheepish Appetite, A valuable mare, owned by Mr Archibald M‘Lean, of Auckland, died on Sunday under extra ordinary circumstances. She was opened, and the upper part of a sheep’s skull, four and a-half inches by four, was found in her stomach. A Strong Hint. —A telegram in the Australasian states that letters have been forwarded to the two racing clubs in Adelaide signed by owners of horses and bookmakers in. Melbourne, stating that they will not run their horses or bet on the Adelaide racemeetings where the totalisator is used. Advance New Zealand.— The government have accepted two tenders for the Supply of cement of New Zealand manufacture. Each is for 100 tons. One sample is from Auckland, and made of Mahauranga lime ; the other is from Otago, and made from lime discovered in the neighborhood of Waihola. T. M. I. A... —As will be seen by advertismcnt a special meeting of the members of the Temuka Mutual Improvement Association is convened at the Good Templars’ Hall, on Monday evening, May 2nd at 7.30 to coosider the advisability of changing the time and place of meeting. At 8 o'clock the usual meeting will take place, when the adjourned debate on Free Trade v. Protection will be resumed.