LOCAL & GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2244, 22 August 1891, Page 2

LOCAL & GENERAL.

Fatal Accident. —Yesterday morning a lai named Edward Downing, aged 14, wag kill at Sydenham, Christchurch, by a stack of timber, blown over by a. heavy southwest gust falling on him. The boy never spoke and djed g few minutes after the accident. Tilfi Agent-General.— The appointment of Agent-General is giving great trouble t? our Tory contemporaries. One day they have appointed Mr Buckley, another Mr Ballance, another Sir Julius Vogel, and another Mr Percevdl, but all that is known is that nobody knows who the Agent-General will be yet. The Late Entertainment at Winchester. —A meeting of the committee was held at the Wolseley Hotel on Thursday evening last. Present—Messrs J. A. Young (chairman), A. Baillie, W. Deßenzie, W. Harrison, H. E. Smith, and L. P. Pepperell. The secretary read the balance-sheet, which showed the following amounts were realised: —Gift auction, .C2G 11 s 4d; dance, £4 2s (id; lists, ;C2B 17s Gd; total, £SO 11s 4d. It was unanimously decided to place in the Post Office Savings Bank this amount in trust for Mr Nisbett’s benefit, r Mr Pepperell being' elected the trustee.

Wesleyan Church, Temuka.— T^ e services for to-morrow will be found 111 our advertising columns. 1.0.G.T, —The Welcome Retreat Lodge, Geraldine, hold an open Lodge meeting on Monday evening next. An advertisement appears elsewhere. Salvation Army, Geraldine.—Farewell meetings in honor of the departure of Lieutenant Purdue, of the Salvation Army, Geraldine, will be held to-morrow. The Weather.—The steady fall of rain which commenced on Thursday evening, and which has every sign of continuing, has been very kindly received by farmers and others throughout the whole district. Fined.—At Palmerston North jester, day W. H. Pascoe, brewer, was fined £SO for fraudulently neglecting to enter two brews alleged to have been made, and fines of £1 on each of five charges of neglecting to enter beer sold from day to day, with costs £5 12s. Woodbury Telephone.— On Thursday morning last the first posts were let into the ground for carrying a telephone wire from Geraldine to Woodbury, and it will not be long now before Geraldine people will be able to speak to their friends in Woodbury, and vice versa, without travelling to see them.

Contents of a Shark. —A large shark, 13ft 6in long, was caught in the waters of Morton Bay, Queensland, some few weeks ago by Mr J. Crouch, On the animal being opened the following miscellaneous collection was discovered: —Tw mty-one sea mullet, a native bear, an opossum, a turtle’s fin, an iguana, a wallaby, a carpet snake 3ft 6in in length, and several minor articles of commerce.

Buffalo Bill. —Mr W. T. Turner, tobacconist, Geraldine, has on view in his window, a splendid piece of mechanism in the shape of a figure representing Buffalo Bill. The figure is a striking likeness of that famous American cowboy, and represents him in the act of loaning on his rifle, and smoking a cigarette. In the right-hand is held a lighted cigarette; the hand approaches the month, the mouth opens to take the draw, and the eyes and eyelids move with an expression quite life-like. The smoke is drawn in and emitted from the mouth with all the grace of an accomplished smoker.

Found Dead. —John Aitken Connell, aged 51, formerly a resident of Dunedin, was found dead from a gunshot wound yesterday morning in a room at Deacon’s Hotel Riverhead, Aucklaud. He went up the, night previously in charge of a Government survey party. He ordered breakfast halfan hour earlier, but as he did not comedown his men went to his bedroom and saw deceased lying on the bed and a pool of blood on the carpet. Close at hand was a small revolver recently discharged. Mr Connell opposed Mr Mitchelson at the election before last, when he described himself as “The Tactician.” A year ago he delivered lectures in Wellington on the labour difficulty. It is a strange coincidence that Mr Mitohelson’s opponents at the two last elections both met violent deaths recently.

The Maxim Flying Machine. With reference to the cable message about Mr Maxim’s flying machine, the London Globe has the following;— '* Mr Maxim’s experimental flying, machine is really a steam kite, 13ft long by 4ft wide, and propelled through the air by a light screw making 2500 revolutions a minute. When properly inclined and the screw going at a certain speed the kite moves horizontally through the atmosphere. With a higher speed it ascends, and with a lower it descends. The inventor is now engaged in building a much larger kite for practical purposes. It will be 110 ft by 40ft wide, and be driven by a petroleum condensing engine weighing 18001 b, and capable of raising 40,0001 b of load along with the kite. The estimated weight of the flying machine complete with two engineers on board is 11,8001 b ; Mr Maxim therefore calculates on being able to -carry ten or twelve tons of freight or passengers through the air. A Maevellous Clock. —Another marvellous piece of mechanism has, says the “ Jeweller and Metalworker,” recently been exhibitei in Paris. It is an eight-day clock, which chimes the quarters, plays sixteen times, playing three every hour or at any interval required by simply touching a spring. The hands go as follows: —One once a minute, one once an hour, one once a week, one once a month, one once a year. It shows the moon’s age, rising and setting of the sun, the time of high and low tide, besides showing half ebb and half flood. A curious device represents the water, showing the ships at high-water tide as if they were in motion ; and as it recedes; leaves them high and dry on the sands. The clock shows the hour of the day, the day of the week, the day of the month, and the month of the year, The mechanism is So arranged as to make its own provisions for long and short months. It also shows the signs of the zodiac, and the difference between sun and railway time for every I day of the year. ! SYNOPSIS OF ADVERTISEMENTS. J. Lawson—Notice re impounded cattle. Tbmuka Leader, Office—Notice re lost key. A. B. Cox—Sell sheep, etc., at Temuka J stock sale. , Wm. Arthur Nalder—lnvites tenders for ploughing. 1 Mrs Roileston, Rangitata—Wants good general servant. Wesleyan Church, Temuka—Services for to-morrow. I. Geraldine —Open lodge-meeting on Monday evening. Salvation Army, Geraldine—Farewell of Lieutenant Purdue to-morrow. J. Tangney, Bootmaker, Temuka—Clearing sale for 21 days ; quotes prices. Temuka Caledonian Society—Notice re grand fancy ball in Temuka Drillahed on Thursday next. If. B. Webster & Go. —Sell fat and store, sheep, and cattle, at Temuka, op. Tuesday; alsp 1600 bpshels oats. St. Saviour’s Sunday School —Foundation stone of school will be laid on Thursday afternoon next. J. MuftdeU & Go—Advertise extensive entries of sheep, cattle, and for Temuka stock sale on Tuesday.

Bismarck has 103 different orders of knighthood, and as many uniforms as would set up a apmU army ! 1 “ Oulda" has written twenty-seven novels, and they have paid her more than any history published within the last quarter of a century, A fat woman was charged with starving a skinny horse at the ■St Kilda Court Melbourne. In lining the woman ss, the Mayor advised her to share some of her porridge with the poor beast. An English doctor who lately died in Glasgow bequeathed his entire estate, valued at £IBO, to his two sisters, and then added the following clause in his will :—“ To my wife, as recompense for deserting and leaving me in peace, I expect the said sister Elizabeth to make her a gift of 10s sterling to buy a handkerchief to weep after my decease.