LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 941, 22 April 1882, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wesleyan Church Services.— The list of services to bo hold in the various Wesleyan Churches in tins circuit will be found in our advertising columns. Insanity. —William Sandford who lias been for some time past in custody on a charge of insanity has been released, and is now at liberty again. Resident Magistrate’s Court, Tejiuka. At (lie above Court yesterday, before Julius Mendelson, Esq, Robert Annalccn was charged with having been drank ipjcf. disorderly, and lined ss.

Aurora Australis.— A very brilliant Aurora Australis was visible hero last Wednesday and Thursday nights. Telegrams state that it has been visible all over New Zealand. In Auckland the fire brigade thinking it was caused by a fire rang the flrcbell, and turned out in large numbers.

St Saviour’s Church. —The annual parish meeting of tho above church will be held next Monday evening. On the following evening a harvest thanksgiving will he held in the church, at which Archdeacon Harper is expected to be ■ present. The church will bo specially decorated by Mr A, Cox for He occasion.

Indecent Assault. —At Greytown last Wednesday, James William Ellis was committed for trial for a criminal and brutal assault on a young girl named O’Connor.

The Taeaeua Wbeck. —Tbe divers engaged in trying to recover tbe bullion from the wreck of the Tararua have ceased operations without achieving their object. They state that the debris is strewn over an acre of the sea’s bottom.

Plucky Rescue. —A man named Ogels > one of the firemen of the steamer Arawata, fell between the vessel and the wharf at Dunedin last Thursday. Mr David Logan’ of the Customs Department, at once jumped overboard and rescue d him none the worse for his immersion.

Bigamy. —P, P. Philips, late schoolmaster at South Makiriri, Eangitikei, was charged at the 11. M. Court, Marton, on Wednesday with bigamy. He had Jseduced one of his pupils, a girl of 15, and then married her, his first wife being still alive at Auckland. Prisoner was remanded for a week. Beotheb's Quaeebl, —Two brothers concerned in a civil case at the E.M. Courti Christchurch, last Thursday, fell to fisticuffs over it in open Court, intensity being added to the squabble by a woman who incited them vigorously to maul one another. The affray of course, resulted in both being locked up.

Scotland Yaed Cueios. —In Scotland Yard they have a horrible collection, the arms with which suicides have met their deaths, the pistols and poisons used by murderers, cords, cups, and poignards —quite a “creepy” lot of property. Always where there is a murder or a suicide the police capture the means of death, and what they take they keep. Libel Case, —The evidence taken in the libel case Quin v. Hitchcock, last Thursday, was of a most contradictory nature. The girl whom Quin was charged by Hitchcock with having committed rape upon denied that Quin had ever acted wrongly towards her whilst in the Benevolent Institution, and said that she had signed a paper produced admitting that she had been taken advantage of by him three years ago without knowing what was in the paper, and whilst in so excited a frame of mind that she did not know what she was doing. The defence was that whilst the accusations were now admitted to be untrue, Hitchcock at the time he made them firmly believed them to be true, and therefore did not make them maliciouslyThe case has been adjourned till to-morrow when his Honor will sum up. Spots on the Sun. —The Rev. Dr Eoseby writing in the Dunedin Herald says there is a close connection between the electrical disturbances and the sun’s spots, and adds : “We are just at the present at about the epoch (the penoh is a little more than eleven years) of maximum sun spots, and certainly the sun for the few last days has presented a strangely unusual appearance. Two groups of spots of enormous magnitude are now to be seen on its surface. They are so large as to be distinctly visible (the eye being of course duly protected) without any telescopic aid whatever. It is a matter of startling and quite unusual interest to know that a piece of smoked glass will just now enable any person with good eyes to see spots on the sun. They will only be visible, however, for the next few days.” Dunedin Wine. —A new industry is about being established in Dunedin. The Otago Times says:—By one of the last, steamers six tons of Adelaide grapes were imported by Mr J. D. Eeraud, to enable him to start the manufacture of pure wines from the juice of the grape iu Dunedin. We were shown the crushed grapes in the vats ready for manufacture, and, from some samples at hand, the grapes have all the appearance of being sound and healthy Mr Eeraud has had fitted up a complete of vats for his manufacture m the premises of Messrs Hargan and Co., Stafford street, and intends adding thereto as he extends his trade. From the excellence of the wines manufactured by him at Clyde from various fruits there will he little doubt of the thorough success of Mr Eeraud’s new venture;

What Chemistry is Doing.— Chemists (says the British Mail) are steadily revolutionising old processes and ruining old industries by their synthetic methods of making the counterfeits of natural products. The madder industry of France was the first to feel the power of modern chemistry, and now madder is a comparatively useless crop, The coloring which was so valuable to the dyer was analysed by the chemist and separated into its elements ; but the chemist went farther —ho found a comparatively waste substance, which by a little manipulation, would yield just the same elements as the madder root, and in just the same proportions. Consequently it must, except under special circumstances, be identical in construction with tbe natural product. The indigo planters of India are threatened with similar extinction, for the coloring matter known as indigo has been synthetically prepared in the chemists laboratory, and only awaits a cheaper raw material than the indigo plant to gradually bring about the decline of one of the most profitable crops of India Citric acid is another noticahle instance of the triumph of synthetic chemistry 5 and latterly a process of preparing ranila has been patented in London. Bye-ann-by, chemistry will make for us the most delicate perfumes and the most costly flavors out Of the waste substances of oth'U’ industries.