General News.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4035, 3 December 1881, Page 3

General News.

Major Brown, in his election address at Taranaki, said amongst other things that he had no love for the Native Office ; there was too much mystery about fts administration. The officers of the department were like Te Whiti—they had so much mystery about them. He thought the time had arrived when it should be a sine qua non that the Native Minister should not speak Maori. They did not want a Minister who had a Maori twist in his mind. The time had come when they should be teaohing the Maoris English, and do away with the use of interpreters. v A strange demonstration was made the other day at Basingtoke on the occasion of the release from Winchester gaol of twelve men who had undergone a fortnight's imprisonment in default of finding sureties for their good behaviour, for having wilfully obstructed the Salvation Army at Basingstoke. A banquet was'given to the lawbreakets at the Corn Exchange under the auspices of the Town Council. Barrels of beer were broached in the stret, and the =whole plan was abandoned to intemperance and tumult. oircumstance.occurred many yean ago, when a testator in England left £2000 to a friend, but with this condition tha^one half sum should be buried with

him in his coffin. The legatee took advice on this matter. "Where is the money how ? " asked his friend. "In the bank," was the reply. "All right," said the adtiser, "write a cheque for £1000, and put it in the old gentleman's coffin, payable to his order." , The reported abduction of girls from England, which has lately excited much public attention, has undergone a thorough examination by the officers of the Criminal Investigation Department. Their inquiries hare been much impeded in several instances by the relatives of the so-called "kidnapped" girls, who in many instances are fouud to have been consenting parties. A lecturer once prefaced his discourse upon rhinoceros with, "I must beg you to give me your undivided attention. Indeed, it is absolutely impossible that you can form a true idea of the hideous animal of which we are about to speak unless you keep your eyes fixed on me !" A Canada farmer discovered a pit containing five hundred skulls, and the learned ■ naturalist of the neighborhood iioame to the conculusion that the place >;was the : site of an ancient theatre, as , it contained so many dead heads in the