General News.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4753, 1 April 1884, Page 2

General News.

The annual meeting of the Auckland Agricultural and Mercantile Company was held yesterday. No dividend was declared, the credit bolan'e being carried to profit and losa, new account.

The Association Internationale has had built for Mr Stanley a small^steamer of most inganious construction for the navigation of the Congo. The craft consists of six galvanised steel square»shaped pontoons, 18ft. long by B|ft. wide and 4ft. deep. These sections, each of which is watertight, and therefore floatable, can be really united and disunited, and in the latter condition can be attached to wheels and drawn overland. The work of taking the ship to pieces or putting it together only occupies 24 hours at the most. The paddle-wheel is behind —an arrangement which has been found very convenient on narrow rivers.

A short distance to the east of the recently discovered pyramid in Mexico is a small mountain of about the same height. In the rock of this mountain are hollowed out hundreds of small chambers, from sft. to 15ft. wide, 10ft. to 15ft. long, and about Bffc. high. They bare only a single entrance, and no windows. The walls are covered with hieroglyphics and fantastic figures, with human hands and feet. Here and there were scattered stone implements. It is thought that the pyramid and these cellular dwellings are the work of the ancestors of fie Mayos, an Indian tribe which still exists ij» the south of Sooora, and which posseWes a system of writing and a knowledge, of mathematics and astronomy. A journey which would seem to be im-

possible as the expeditions of Jules Verne's imagination has been entered upon by a young English bicyclist at San* Francisco, who proposes to mount his " Ariel " and to set off eastwards apon a trip around the globe. His proposed route will lead him from San Francisco to l Sacramento, and thence across the Sierra Nevada range Eocky Mountains to Ogden and through Omaha city and. Chicago to New York. Considerable cariosity is expressed a3 to how he will cross the mountains.

Considerable discussion is still being excited by the statement of an English scientist that the atmospheric waves caused by the explosions at the recent eruptions in the Straits of Sundatrarellcd round the earth several times. It appears that on the 27ih and 28th of August remarkable atmospheric wares were shown by self registering barometers in England, France, Germany, St. Petersburg, and America, and it was considered that they gave evidence or proof that enormous wares had originated at Erakatoa, spreadiog out over the earth at a rate of .about 700 miles per hour, and that the wave traveled round the earth ia 36 hours 57 minutes.

The recent meteorological disturbances form the subject of a very elaborate article in the Edinburgh Scotsman, in which, commenting on Great Britain's experience of them, it remarks:—"lf the recent mafjnifleent sunsets have no direct connexion with the terrific windstorm that'; had swept our islands from the British Channel to the Orkneys, they immediately precede d if. In popular memory, at least, they will be closely associated as parts of the most remarkable series of atmos~» pheric phenomena witnessed for many a year. The gorgeous and threatening procession of clouds was the prelude to a tempes'uous play. The heavens seemed to forbode disasters, and disasters have come thick and fast. As in the vision of Apocalypse, the sun became as sackcloth, and the moon as blood, and then followed the mighty rushing wind. Most probably it will be found that there is a very intimate connexion between the unusual appearance of the heavens and the extrasordinary meteorological disturbance through which we are passing. The atmosphere having lost' tone, nature is making violent efforts to restore the dis- • turbed balance." ■

There was a severe frost in the United States about the beginning of the year. The Btitish barque Mohawk left New York for Calcutta, with a crew of 1& hands, and in charge of a pilot, but the frost was so intense that the meneould not work the vessel, and the pilot, owing to a dense fog, could not ascertain his position, and the vessel had to put back, eventually ait-ived at Newhaven. Prior to this nine men were got together to go aloffc'and work the sails, and they had to use their teeth in some instances, as their hands had become numbed with cold. At one part of tha rigging no progress could be made, and the mate on going to find the cause saw one either asleep or dead, but before he could be .reached he dropped off, and fell on the deck, injuring himself so severely that be died a few hours afterwards. On the ship reaching Newhaven the captain tried to man his boat to go ashore, but could not, as all the crew were suffering from frost bites. Eventually a tug came off, and took nine of the men to hospital. The relations between the church, and the staga appear to bo becoming more cordial at home. As an instance of changing feelings, the London correspondent of the Liverpool Mercury says:—•" The other night I was present at a discussion on the drama where several clergyman Rpoke. They all 'said the same thing. They began their life wilh a prejudice against the drama. They had been obliged to champion a clergyman who had worked very much among the lowest classes of London as chaplain of the metropolitan asylums, he declared that be found the theatre implanting fche first ideas of a higher life in the hearts of men. who never attendedchuicb, and one costermonger came to him because he had beea convinced by a play that a course of reekles3 vice led to misery. There is do longer any need for a church and stage guild. In fact, I know a very earnest London parson who rewards the best scholars in Jjis Sunday school by taking them occasionally to the pit of a theatre to see a good plsy."

A school-boy ramarks that when his teacher undertakes to " show him what if> what " he only finds out which isswitch.

An ingenious-method *of putting his savings beyond his own rrach Las been . ,Tadopted by a German writer, who found frorq',dire experience that all his prciiLs meitcß^ll^ay almost as soon as earned. Hiring tasdea. substantial f uin by a for>■;lnnate literary speculation, be placed ibe whole of the money in <he Tmpetial Deposit Bank at Berlin, and on receiving the receipt from the cashier, deliberately tore it up. The cashier thought lie was crazy, and told him angrily that it would take fully three years before he could expec to obtain a duplicate receipt. "That is ■just why I hare torn up the original," calmly remarked the depositor ; "and now the money is safe for the time." The total emigration from the United Kingdom for the twelve months ending Dec. 31st, 1883. was 397,927, as compared with 413 288 in the previous year. Of the total number of emieranls for the year just closed, 183 775 were English, 31,901 Scctc!), 105,708 Irish, making the total British emigration 320,584. Of the remainder, 73,501 were returned as foreigners, and there were 3842 whose nationality was not distinguished. Of the total emigrants from the United Kingdom in 1883,192,040 went to the United States. 44,lifi to British Norib America, 71,329 to Jftretralia, and 13,085 to other places. Of the foreigners, '60,092 went, to the United States, 9399 to British America. 1,738 to Australia, aad 2,272 to other places. - The eighth ordinary general meeting of the proprietors of the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand was held in London on February 6. Mr Henry Eiversdale Grenfell presided. He referred to the shipment of mutton from New Zealand, and to the hopes which were felt as to this new industry. With regard to the great success attending the floating of New Zealand securities in the the London market, the true cause of this was that the money so obtained was spent on reproductive objects. Passing to the accounts he'noticeeF'the changes which had taken place in the principle items, and observed that the gross profit for the year, after making provision for bad and doubtful debts, had been £68,000, against £62.508, and the net profit had been £12,780, as compared with £10,660. The satisfaction felt by the directors was not so much in connection with the par- j ticnlar figures be mentioned as in the belief that all anxiety had disappeared as to the Three Springs Estate, and in the . fact that a very large proportion of the increase in the debenture money was now in hand, and, so, far, had borne no reßult. Their gross charges had been regarded as liigh in some quarters, but T.ey bore very favorable comparison with those of another company doing precisely similar business. The report was adopted and resolutions were next passed declaring a dividend of 5 per cent, (making 10 per cent, for the year), and rcelecling tb.9 retiring directors and auditors. ' About a month ago a steamer arrived ■ "in..a. neighboring colony with a load of [Norwegian timber and wooden matches, jj\rin lop of which was stowed a consignment r .'of fresh eggs, from King George's Sound, ■ jjumbering over 300 cases, containing about 30 dozen in each case. Somehow, just before entering port, the matches caught fire, and in extinguishing the conflagration the steam and hot water combined boiled the eggs as hard as rocks. On , ' arrival in port they were put up to auction, and sold for £20, to a speculator, who intended to retail them: to hotels and res^,. Jjmrants. But,- alas! his hopes were „ blighted. On inspection it was found that the odour of brimstone, from the

matches, bad so impregnated the eggs as to Bender them unsaleable, and not only , werb they thrown on his hands, but he was threatened with a prosecution by the Board of Health for keeping damaged provisions. And now he has to engage lorries to remove the 1 sulphurous ben-fruit to some depot far from the haunts of men. But the greatest puzzle to the speculator is the fact that the sample eggs, which he tasted prior to investing, were perfectly sweet, fresh, and sound, equal, if cot superior to new laid.