LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 945, 2 May 1882, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tea and Concert. —The anniversary tea and concert in connection with the Wesleyan Church takes place this evening in the Volunteer Hall.

Cheap Excursion: —A notification appears elsewhere to the effect that an excur* sion train will leave Timaru for Christchurch at 6.40 a.m. on Saturday, May the 6th. Geraldine. —At a public meeting held in the above town last Friday it was decided not to divide the district into wards, and also not to proclaim the district under The Rabbit Nuisance Act.

Ixquest.—An inquest was held at Geraldine last Friday on the body of a child named Henry Ford. It appeared that the child capsized a basin of hot water over himself, and died from the effects thereof. A verdict of accidental death was returned.

Painful Accident, —A young son of Captain Mills, harbormaster, of Timaxm, was very seriously injured last Saturday. The child climbed up the wheel of a buggy, and the driver not noticing him drove off till he was stopped by a bystander. The child’s thighs were broken. Sacked Concert.—A sacred concert in aid of the funds of the Presbyterian Church Choir comes off next Thursday night in the Volunteer Hall. The first part consists of solos, duets, etc, and the second part will be filled with the Service of Song, entitled TH^HEAQlß^lUß^^ui^nrs^neec^of

the season was held at Milford, last Saturday. The rendezvous was the Milford School, where about SO horsemen assembled at 10 a.m., and there were a large number of spectators on horseback and carriages besides, amongst whom was a large sprinkling of ladies. The first have was started in one of Mr Wareing’s paddocks, and after an excellent run through Mr Cox’s land it was killed near Mr B Martin’s house. The second hare was started on Mr White’s land, and a capital run ensued, resulting in a kill within a few feet of Mularkey’s house. A third hare was started, but,being hunted into Mr Parke’s land it was lost. Mr P Wareing supplied a most liberal lunch, which was done full justice to, after which all returned to their respective homes, highly elated with the day’s amusement. There were a few spills, but no one was hurt, and everything passed off most pleasantly, The next meet will take place on Mr Postlethwaite’s estate next Wednesday.

Athletic. —The mile race for the championship of New Zealand and £SO a side, between J. W, Burke, of Dunedin, and Fagan, of Christchurch, came off at Dunedin on Saturday on the Caledonian ground, in the presence of nearly two thousand people. Burke, being a local man, was the popular favorite ; but among knowing people Fagan was fancied, and as much as two to one was laid, in his favor. The result was a complete surprise, for at anyrate a close contest was expected, Burke took the lead at a good pace, and held it for the first lap, of which there were five to the mile, when Fagan deprived him of it. Not more than another lap had been done, however, when lagan began to labor, but he kept his lead by a couple of yards or less till three laps were over, when Burke got level with him. Entering the last lap, and just as the race was expected to become exciting, Burke put on a spurt, and Fagan answered for ten or twenty yards, but immediately got into difficulties, and Burke left him easily. Not another thirty yards had been got over when the Christchurch man, already ten or fifteen yards behind, stopped altogether, and Burke did the lust 300 yards alone. There was great enthusiasm at Burke’s victory. He is of unquestioned honesty, and has an almost unbeaten record, locally, during many years for long-distance events. O’Brien, however, the Australian champion, was able to run clean away from him, and although he was altogether out of training at that time, this had a good deal to do with Fagan’s being the favorite on the present occasion. The time was 4mm 36 2-sth secs. The race was run on a cinder track, which with the recent veins, was a little heavy. J

Fatal Accident.—A few days ago John Whauchop, mat e of the schooner Aurora, was •iriously injured at Motueke. When the Teasel was being laden some bags of produce slipped from the slings and fell on to Whanchop, who was taken to the hospital, where ho died from the result of his injuries, Whauchop is said to belong to CantErbury, and is unmarried.

Juvenile Criminals. —A boy ten years of age was, in Ashburton last Friday, committed to the Industrial school for three yeai’S for breaking into a tent and sleah'ng therefrom. He was shown to be a neglected ch id by the police. Another boy, 13 years old, who had broken into a house and stolen some money from a workbox, and who had also stolen a cheque from a baker’s till, was sentenced to a birching and four years in the Industrial School.

Visit of a Chinese Man-Of-War. — An official commumcarion has been received from the Legation of Yeddo that the Japanese man-of-war Izukuba is about to visit the colonies. The message states that the voyage of the Izukuba is with the object of practising her crew in navigation. She gees by way of Java, thence to Melbourne and Tasmania, and subsequently to Auckland and Wellington. The Legation also aA that any reasonable assistance may be given to the vessel on her arrival in these wafers. No dateri mentioned as to when she may be expected. A Church Bequest.—The will o£ the late Dr Brewster, better known as Dr Old. ham, was proved in Nelson last Friday. The executors were the Nelson Diocesan Trustees, and the estate is said to be worth £15,000, After providing for two or three small bequests, the will directs the balance to be invested and the interest, after payment of a small life annuity, to be paid to the Revs Bowden and Moore, of Wakefield and Spring Grove, and to their successors in the incumbencies of St John’s Wakefield, and St Paul’s Spring Grove. American Wheat, —Mr L. Price has lef at our (Waimate T : nes) office a small sample bag contairmg about a pint of American red wheat, being the best quality on hand at the depot of the U.S. Warehouse Company, Brooklyn N. Y. It is not a bit better than the screenings o* New Zealand wheal sold as fowl feed. We are not on -selves in the least surprised at this, as we remember that some three or fon • years ago the Hon. M. Holmes, after a trip to the States, exhibited at the (North Otago Agricultural Society’s Show some twenty sample* of first-class American wheat from Chicago and elsewhere, not one of which was equal to New Zealand seconds. Me Gladstone.— The friends and admirers of Mr Gladstone were invited to meet at the Theatre Royal, Invercargill, last Sri* day, to adopt an address to the right lion gentleman on the fiftieth anniversary of his entry into public life, as a member of the British Parliament. A charge for admission was made, and only 25 persons attended. Though small the meeting was enthusiastic, and passed a lengthy address, eulogising Mr Gladstones services in the past and expressing a hope that he might long continue to guide the course of affairs with wisdom and moderation that had hitherto marked his administration. The adoption of the add-ess was moved by Mr Peter Dalyrimple and seconded by Mr Daniel, M.H.R for Wallace. Escape of a Criminal.—The police intend laying an information against Captain Irr, of the English barque Peru, which from Wellington for London a day or two ago, charging him with tak-'ng a prisoner from the custody of a detective. The circumstances connected with the case are of a peculair nature. Detective Chrystal proceeded on board the barque just as she was about to sail for London, armed with a warrant for the arrest of the cook, who it was a 'eged had stolen a sum of money and certain clothes, The detective went in search of his man, and was successful in finding him and the article® said to have been stolen. On gaining the deck, however he was surprised to find that the Peru was under weigh and steering for the Heads and that the boat in which he had gone off to the barque was nowhere to be seen. After the ship had cleared the Heads, Chrystal remonstrated w.th the captain, who replied that he intended takmg him to England. To this the detective objected and intimated that unless the captain put h :n ashore, he would jump overboard and attempt to swim to land. Seeing that he was in eai-n. est Captain Irr agreed to put him ashore, but would not allow him to take the cook with him. The detective landed shout six miles from town. This action of the captian has led to an information being laid, and it wdl be served on him should he again visit the colohy. The autho? ities intend to bring the mutter under the notice of the owners of the barque Peru. Me Denton Exposed.—Mr Denton is is thus tersely summed up by the Cantorbui-y Times: —“Another example of the pretensions of scientific people has been furnished by Mr Denton. Mr Denton has made the kind of failure which might be expected from an infant. With one hand ho demolishes Christianity and revealed religion as imposing too much on human faith. With the other he builds up a creed of Spiritualism on a foundation of faith which is absolutely infantile. There cannot be a resurrection, he informs us, because it is absurd to think that people will carry broken legs and physical deformities into the next ivovld. In the same breath he tells us that he has taken plaster casts of the hands and races of inhabitants of the spirit world, who as he recognised the likenesses, evidently carried their physical peculiai’ities with them. He asks us to reject the doctrine of the resurrection as absurd, and to accept as the true the doctrine that a man’s body can be in two places at once, and in two conditions—mouldering in the grave, and nice and fresh in the studio of the woi-kej. in plaster. Anybody who, after that, takes Mr Denton for an authority in anything outside of elementry geology and claptrap, [ must be of weak intellect. (

Gun Accident. —A Nelson telegram statss that Thomas Dobson, junior, landlord of the Black Horse, Wakapuaka, had his lower jaw blown off by a gun on Sunday afternoon. It is said that he saw a hare on the hillside near his house, and ran to fetch his gun, which which by some means went off and inflicted the injuries mentioned.

Practical Joking.—Another victim of practical joking has paid for his credulity with his life. Last month, as the French barque Felix was approaching the port of Marseilles under easy sail, a negro belonging to the crew suddenly clambered up ihe bulwarks and plunged into the sea. Although the vessel was promptly hove-to and a boat put out in search of the unfortunate man, who was known to be a powerful swimmer, all the efforts made to rescue him from a watery grave proved fruitless. Inquiry among the crew respecting the probable motives of his suicide resulted in the following painful revelation He had shipped in the Felix at Mozambique as an able seaman, and his shipmates, learning from his own mouth that he had never before made a voyage to Franco, agreed to persuade him that human flesh, of the negro variety, is so highly relished as a dietic luxury by wealthy freshmen of the present day that he could not fail, upon arrival at Marseilles, to be roasted and eaten. The plot proved too successful. Th* conviction that he was destined to figure as a comestible at some fashionable Marseilles restaurant undermined his spirits and preyed upon his mind to such an extent that he at last resolved to die by his own hand rather than encounter the dismal fate awaiting him in port. This determination, it appears, he made known to the authors of the hoax, but these inveterate humorists, nevertheless, kept up their jest until the Felix sighted Marseilles, when the wretched negro believing himself irrevocably doomed to suffer death by the butcher’s knife within a few hours, drowned himself in the manner above related. It is satisfactory to know that his tonnentors are in prison and likely to pay dearly for their barbarous joke.