General News.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4882, 2 September 1884, Page 2

General News.

Jas. G. Blitne. Republican candidate for the United States Presidency, says oa the land question :—"The strength of the republic is increased by the multiplication of landholders. Our lairs should look to the judicious encouragement of actual setlers on the public domain, while it should henceforth be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of those seeking homes. The ten* dency to consolidate lar^e tracts of land in the ownership of individuals or corporations should, with proper regard to vested rights, be discouraged. * One hundred thousand acres of iland in the hands of one man is far less profitable to the nation, in every way, than when its ownership is divided among' 1000 men. The evil of pern#tting large'tracts of the national domain to be consolidated and controlled by the few against ithe many is enhanced when the persons controlling it are aliens. It is but fair that the public lands should be disposed of only to actual settlers, and to those who are citizens of the republic, or willing to become so;-"

A Sydney paper thus describes the weapon known as the pike :—"Jt means a weapon of war formely much in voeue in Ireland. (Vide FatherKavanagh's Hi*tcry of the Irish Rebellion in 1798.) It also did work in ancient Rome, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Holland; It consisted of a wooden shaft from 10 to 14 feet long, with a flat, pointed steel head called the spear, a hook for pulling horseman down and a hatchet for cutting traces, &c. It is the most terrible weapon at close quarters, where the sabre and ibhe bayonet are useless against it." The Lancet energetically demands a legislative enactment "for the suppression of barking and howling dogs, who not only make night hideous with their bayings at the moon and other complainings, but, according to our contemporary, not unfrequently hurry nervous patients into premature graves. There is a wellknown superstition that the howling of a dog is a fore-runner of death. The authority of the Lancet evidently (states the Globe) shows the reason why. In all sariousness it may well happen that the issue of a grave crisis may be, and no doubt often has been, determined aversely .by this form of canine irritation; while in these days of insomnia, any needlers worrying of the nerves ought to be considered a public nuisance, aiod treated accordingly.