General News.

Thames Star, Volume xv, Issue 4776, 30 April 1884, Page 2

General News.

The wealth of gold in Venezuela seems likely to rival that of the Transvaal. The success of the El Callao mine's—whose shares, of the.nominal value of £423, are now wanted at £44,G00 each, and whose dividend for the month of September alone was £800 per £420 share, equal to over £9COO per annum per share—has led to the formation in London of a company with a capital of £300,003 in £1 shares, to work at Cartago gold mines, which are situated only six miles distant from the El Callao property. The prospectus states that the Cartago will, it is considered, prove to be one of the richest miaes ever I discovered in Venezuela since the dis- ' c.overy of the wonderful El Callao. The Gothic nations were famous of old, in Europe, for the quantities of food and drink which they consumed. The ancient Germans, and their Saxon descendants in England, were remarkable for their hearty meals. Gluttony and drunkenness were so very common that those vices were not thought disgraceful; and Tacitus represents the former as capable of being as easily overcome by strong drink as by arms. Intemperance was so general and habitual that no one was thought to be fit for serious business after dinner; and under this persuasion it was enacted in the laws that judges should hear and determire causes fasting, and not after dinner. An Italian author, in his "Antiquities," plainly affirms that this regulation was framed for the purpose of avoiding the unsound decrees consequent upon intoxication ; and Dr Gilbert Stuart very patiently and ingeniously observes in his " Historical Disseration concerning the Antiquity of the British Constitution," p. 238, that from this propensity of the older Britons to indulge excessively in eating and drinking has proceeded the restriction upon jurors and jurymen, to refrain from meat and drink, and to be even held in custody until they had agreed upon their verdict. • The captain of the missionary schooner John Williams has stated that schooner was forbidden to trade, and he could, after 28 years' as mate and master, state that not a sixpence had been made in this way. Probate of the will of the late Thomas Holloway, of Pills and Ointment renown, of No, 78 New Oxford street, London, has been lodged by Messrs J. and W. A. McLaren, W.S., in the Edinburgh Commissary Court on behalf of his representatives, and sealed by that Court. The personal property left by the deceased amounts to £559,061 8s 2d, and the duty paid thereon was £16,503. The scientific surveys connected with the proposed Palestine Canal scheme, promoted by the syndicate headed by the Duke of Sutherland, have been completed, and a preliminary report has been made to the directors. The canal is regarded as a practical undertaking, and an estimate of the probable cost, made by General Eundall, places it at £55,460,000. On the return of the Duke of Sutherland to England a meeting of shareholders will be called to consider whether steps shall be taken for the practical realisation of the scheme. It is stated that in the five great Victorian counties of Gunbower, Gladstone, Tatchera, Kara Kara, and Borung, there is uot a farmer on the plains who has kept steadily to wheat growing only who is not a poor man. Unfortunately, too, the land they have cultivated is in many instances exhausted, and is now covered with useless and often destructive weeds, whilst the nutritious grasses for which the plains and lightly-timbered country were once famous have disappeared, aiid are not likely to return. The English Druggist hts discovered that the devastations of French vineyards by the phylloxera do not affect the French wine industry in the least; the French, it remarks, are great chemists, t and what their vineyards do not produce or the phylloxera destroy, they make up by the manutacture of artificial wine from glucose, potatoes, rotten apples, dried prunes dates, figs, raisins, currants, and even red beets. It has lately been discovered that the flowers of the bassia-tree, which grows in India, and which will .yield in good sea sons six or seven hundred pounds of dried flowers, form, in connexion with water and sugar, an excellent base Tor the manufacture of artificial wine. During the last two months over two hundred and fifty thousand bales of bassia blossoms have been imported into Paris. /The Wilcannia district, affording to latest accounts, rauet indeed be suffering from an unparalleled drought—even kangaroos and rabbits are dying from want of feed and water. On nearly every sandhill are scores of dead sheep and cattle, and the stench in many spots along the main road is simply unbearable ; so that it is suggested that the department do not take any action in the matter of boring for water until rain falls. Between Wil» cania, Menindie, and Silvertdn is nothing but a vast, scorching, sandy desert. The rabbits aie actually eating the roots of the salt and cotton bushes. Beef cannot be bought, and what cattle are alive are walking skeletons, and sheep are dying in thousauds. Mail coach horses are kept alive with chaff, carried along the line from Wileannia or Terowie. Chaff is sold at present at 27s a bag, weighing oneewt, and water, for drinking purposes, is carried in water bags by every traveller. — Australasian.