General News.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3838, 18 April 1881, Page 2

General News.

Writing about that curious subject the precesiion of the eqninoxes, Oivis in " Passing Notes " i ays :—The effect of that beautifully intricate scd incomprehensible cosmic awangemont c;lled the precession of the equinoxes is to give each hemisphere in tuiu a sucr>ssion of alternating hot and cold spells. These spells are 10.500 years long, and the northeid hemisphere is about 80C0 years advanced int) one of its hot spells. We in the south are having our cold spell now. The ice from the south pole extends to a latitude corresponding to that of Edinburgh, and if the same condition of things obtained in the north, England, the half of Europe, and three parti of the United States would be uninhabitable. By-and-by, that is in 7500 years, this will actually happen. Meanwhile England is enjoying its warm tpell—merit the irony of the information with fhe thermometer for weeks together belovv freezing point! If such things are done in the green tree what will be done in the dry tree? For the present, the South is left out in the cold, but our warm spell will come m. 7500 years, and will bs a rdal warm spjjl. Otago will become a great grape country ; cott ,n pad tobacco will cover the vale*of the Taieri; wheat will retreat above the present snow-liae, Kannakas will do all the hard work and the "old identities will be carried about in palanquins, and be fanned by punkahs. This information, which is quite authentic, ought to have an immediate effect in sending up the price of real estate throughout the province. We have—let me see, 7500+10,500= 18,000~say eighteen thossand years of good weather'ahead of us, with excellent prospects even beyond that, whilst all the northern world will be frozen hard withm 7500 years. How thankful we ought to be to a merciful providence for planting our lot in the sunny south! We are getting through our glacial period _now, and yet find it so tolerable lhat Otago has the climate of Italy. In Europe they are having their tiarm period, literally frozen to death in the midst of iti— Exchange.

The death of an aged couple is thus alluded-to by the Taranaki News : — " There died recently in the Turakina Valley, within 11 weeks of each other, an aged couple who had been united in wedlock for the long period of 77 years. The man came to thfcs Colony at the age of 60, and after 42 years active colonial life succumbed to death at the age of 102. Eleven weeks afterwards his aged partner died in harness at her household washing at the age of 96. The old lady had rinsed her clothes, had carried them to a fence, and hung them out to dry, and then sank down by the side of the fence, and yielded up her life." At the Magdala mine, Pleasant Creek, Victoria, the Diamond Drill has reached a depth of 2410 feet—about ten yards | short of half a mile. Boring is being ; continued. This is the deepest mine in Australia.