GENERAL NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 108, 5 March 1870, Page 5

GENERAL NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

The veteran African missionary, the Eev. Mr. Moffat, is expected very shortly to return to this country. He is now 76 years of age. Sir Titus Salt Bart., and Mr. Isaac Holden have promised to contribute £1000 each to the funds of the National Educational League. Lately the cotton operative spinners throughout the West of Scotland received intimation that after the first pay in January last their wages would be reduced 10 per cent. The Eev. Dr. Brock, the well-known Baptist minister of Bloomsbury Chapel, has been presented by his congregation and friends with a beautifully carved casket containing a bank receipt for £1000. Fifteen hundred South West Lancashire colliers met near Bolton to thank their employers for an advance of wages, to promote the eight hours' movement, and to petition Parliament in favour of passing a satisfactory Mines Eegulation Bill. At the Manchester Assizes lately, £1000 was awarded against the " Huddersfield Chronicle," and £100 against the " Observer," for alleging familiarities between a poor law guardian and a workhouse nurse. A criminal prosecution against the " Free Lance Manchester Satirical Journal" for libel was withdrawn on apology. Owing to the breaking of a wheel forming part of the winding engine of a colliery belonging to the Earl of

Dudley, at Prince's End, near Dudley, - 120 men and boys were imprisoned in ; a mine for many hours. His Lord- ; ship's agents at once sent to another ] colliery for a duplicate wheel which i had been cast in anticipation of such i an accident, and whilst this was being , fitted provisions and drink were sent ; down to the men. Shortly after midnight the order was given to let down the skips, and the prisoners were . drawn up rather cold and dispirited, but very little the worse for being down the pit 24 hours instead of 12. A collier, named John Hancock, living at Haydock, was brought before the county magistrates sitting at Wiggan, on a charge of having, while employed in the main delf mine at Messrs E. Evan & Co.'s Legh Pit, violated the ninth special rule, by firing a shot in workings where safety lamps are exclusive used, without the sanction of the fireman. The mine in which the offence was committed has been the scene of two explosions, resulting in the loss of about seventy lives, within the last twelve months. The fireman had refused to fire the shot in consequence of the "holing" having been improperly done, and as soon as he left the place Hancock himself lighted the fuse. The magistrates said that fines appeared to do no good, and committed the prisoner to jail for two months, without the option of a penalty. A fire broke out on November 7, in Paris, at the residence of M. Schneider, in the part inhabited by Madame Asselin, mother-in-law of that gentleman's son. That lady, being on the point of leaving for Creusot, had put up in a small casket jewels worth 300.000fr., and, in addition, had left in the drawer of her toilette-table bank notes to the value of 200,000fr. All that property was destroyed, besides a quantity of valuable furniture. Strange to say, not one of the diamonds and other precious stones was found in tho ruins after the conflagration had been extinguished. A St. Petersburg paper tells tin following singular story: — A short time ago the chief magistrate in one of the' principal towns in Southern Eussia was robbed of a silver dinner service. A few days after he was invited to supper at the house of the Director of Police, and saw, much to his amusement, the missing plate on his host's table. Next day he reported the circumstance to the Crown Prosecutor, who in his turn communicated it to the governor of the town. The latter then simply requested the director of police in a polite letter to return the stolen plate. This was done and nothing more was said about the matter. Water really must be very scarce in Edinburgh, 'judging by the following dialogue which took place at the last meeting of the governors of Heriot's Hospital: — In reference to one of the item;i, Mr. Hope said : " I see there is 'fcible-beer as usual' What does this mean?" The Lord Provost: "It just means that it is as strong as it was last year." Mr. Hope : " I understand it was proposed to discontinue it in the committee, and that is the cause of its being; put in 'as usual.'" The Lord Provost: " There is a great scarcity of water." Mr. Hope : " When we get a new supply of water we will stop the beer.'' An immense body of men passed through Cork, headed by a band, playing the "Dead March in Saul." The large assemblage, which was estimated to be about 4000 in number, marched in funeral military step, four deep. The object was to commemorate the deaths of Larkin, Allen, and O'Brien, who were hanged in Manchester for the murder of Constable Brett. Another Australian beef dinner has been eaten in London, and once more the working classes have declared that the beef is excellent. But what guarantee have intending consumers that it will be better than the Monte Videan beef that was brought to this country in such large quantities some years ago ? Cooked at a hotel it was good enough — for in a hotel leather aprons can be made into a palatable state for some people— but tried at home the beef, after being subjected to the usual process of cooking, had the appearance and consistency of good strong hearthrug. — " Sportsman." The " Pall Mall Gazette " informs us that, at a recent meeting of the St. Pancras Vestry, Mr. Tolland, a representative of Ward No. 8, asked a question as to the manner in which some contract was given. The chairman of the committee of works commenced his answer with, " Mr. Yolland might have seen by the papers " when he was interrupted by Mr. Yolland, saying, " I don't read the papers." A vestryman remarked, " What ' a happy man you must be, Yolland !" Mr. Yolland and his accomplished colleague appear to be about six and half-a-dozen. — " Sportsman." "Chillicothe Row" is a new American dish, whereof the ingredients are one prairie chicken boiled toast, two dozen fried oysters, seventeen gizzards, and as many livers stewed with tomatoes, two pounds of beefstakes, and a quart of coffee, stirred up 'and moistened with a hot apple toddy. No wonder our cousins have such a prononce yellow colour. The oyster failure, according to the French papers, is about to be remedied in an unexpected way. A new mollusc,

which the French call a pallourdc, has - suddenly made its appearance in the French markets, and is reported to have achieved a great success among oyster eaters in that city. It is described m a bivalve smaller than the oyster, and of a more eliptical form, having a delicious flavour which qualifies it thoroughly to take the place of that ruinous delicacy. At present this novel shell fish, which is eaten precisely in the same way as the oyster, is said to be sold at a rate which places it within the reach of the humblest purse. Dr. Elizabeth Black well has commenced the practice of medicine in London. She is the daughter of a Bristol sugar refiner who emigrated to the United States in 1832. Signor Mario has received a number of sympathetic condolences on the death of his wife. Tho Duchess of Somerset has taken Grisi's daughters from Berlin, and inteuds to adopt them. There was a report that Mario had committed suicide, which turned out to be utterly unfounded. All Eome is laughing at an adventure of two representatives of the London demi-monde, who, on their way to Eome, fastened themselves on an innocent prelate, and were presented by him to Cardinal Antonelli as English ladies of fashion. In the course of the hearing of an action in the Bail Court the other day, it transpired that Sir Horatio Henry Wraxall, Bart., has been keeping a public-house in Manchester, and is now gaining an honest living as a collector. A brisk export trade takes place at this season of tlio year in the West Midland districts, and railway trucks full of mistletoe, bound for the Liverpool, London, and Manchester markets, may be seen at the principal stations. From Hereford and its neighbourhood more than 100 tons were despatched last year, the average price being about 4s. per cwt. The London correspondent of a provincial journal says: — "I understand that the accouchment of the Princess of Wales was quite unexpected. At eleven on the night in question, the Prince came home and retired to rest, and so did the Princess ; but by halfpast twelve o'clock the young Priucess was in the arms of her nurse. On December 11, the punishment of the lash was carried out upon eight garrottors who had been sentenced by Mr. Justice Lush at the Leeds Assizes. From what occurred, it is obvious that the convicts dread the lash to a degree which illustrates the wisdom of the Legislature in giving judges the power of ordering its infliction. The following affectionate advertisement appeared in the " Times " on December 14:— "Geo. E , Paddington. Your own Tooty will meet you in the saloon of the new Greenwich Theatre on December 16, or else at the old bootmaker's at jChapel-streot. You must be a silly old dear to think Tooty had forgotten her pretty linnet. No, George, never. Sally is in Wales." The funeral of Mr. W. H. Barbor, who was compensated by Parliament for his unjust conviction in connection with the Fletcher will forgeries, took place on December 21, at Kerisal Green Cemetery. He died on December 17 of heart disease, in his 61st year. The ca^e of Mr. Barbor was remarkable as the first example of an innocent man obtaining compensation from the nation for a wrongful conviction by a criminal court ; £5,000 having been voted to him by Parliament in 1859. A modern illusti'ation of the moral of the old comedy, " She Stoops to Conquer," is jusfc now to be witnessed. A lady of noble birth has take a the saloons of the neAV Greenwich Theatre for the purpose of giving the profits to the unemployed in Deptford Dockyard. This benevolent and distinguished person " enters so heartily into her work that she is to be seen nightly, attended by her two pages, dispensing soda and brandies, &c, with a grace and fascination that draw her numerous customers. In the second week of December there were 150,402 paupers in the metropolis, or an increase of 7,398 upon the number in the corresponding period of last year. Of these, 36,690 were in the workhouses, and 113,712 were in the receipt of out-door relief. The increase is almost entirely accounted for by the augmenting number of out-door poor, for there were only 49 more in the workhouses than at this time in 1868. Compared with the second week of December, 1866, there are now nearly 40,000 more paupers in the London unions, and of these, 3,200 are indoor-poor. It is said by the " New York Sun " that a hidden treasure of 10,000,000 dollars, buried by pirates on the Cocos Island, long searched for, has been found at last. A. M.S. Nymph, which left Bombay in January last, has arrived at Bombay from the east coast of Africa. Daring her cruise the Nymph captured nineteen slave dhows, and liberated upwards of 600 negroes. Mr. James Murphy, M.P. for Cork, has been served with a threatening note, calling on him to resign the representation, in order to make room for the election of Mackay, one of the Fenian prisoners convicted at Cork. In November last, while three men, engaged as sinkers in No. 14 pit, Cadder Moss, were standing on a platform which had been erected in the shaft, one of them, named John Bankier, residing in Cadder, was struck by the

descending cage, and being knocked off the platform, he fell to the bottom of the pit, a depth of thirty fathoms. There were eleven feet of water at the bottom of the pit. His two companions immediately descended, but of course they found life quite extinct. The Secretary for War has invited tenders for the purchase of 8000 Whitworth rifles, now lying at the Tower. The arms are identical with those used in the second stage of the Queen's Prize at "Wimbledon, and are described as " new and slightly used." It is stated in well-informed circles that the Duke of Marlborough will in all probability succeed to the leadership of the Conservative party in the House of Lords. We have very nearly heard the last of the Sutherland gold diggings ; the few diggers who remain contemplate speedy departure from the locality, and it is not expected that any will return in the spring, as tho speculation is not now a remunerative one. The discoverer has already left Helmsdale to return to Australia. Very little is known as yet of the new find at Abernethy in Strathspey; the weather is so bad that searchers cannot operate. A weaver, named Clark, residing in Langlands-strect, Kilmarnock, attempted to commit suicide by cutting his throat with a razor. A girl, whose affections it appears he had tried vainly to win, had just parted with him, after some conversation had passed between them, when she heard a cry, and on looking round she saw Clark lying on the ground with a deep gash in his throat, from which the blood flowed profusely. A razor stained with blood was lying beside him. Ho was conveyed to the infirmary, where the wound was dressed byDrs. Borland andMunro. Oneof the principal arteries having been cut, the loss of blood was excessive ; but it is expected that the patient will recover. The "Freeman's Journal" states that the Protestant Bishop of Cashel (Dr. Daly) has determined to present to every curate in his diocese a Christmas box of £50. Mr. D. O. Hill, long and favourably known as the Secretary of the Eoyal Scottish Academy, has resigned "his post, and Mr. William Douglas, also an Academician has been appointed in his stead. Mr. Melly, M.P., in recently enforcing the necessity for protection of the earnings of married women, mentioned the fact that there are eight hundred thousand married women in England who are in receipt of wa^es or salai'ies. Following the example of an elder brother, a son of the Duke of Argyll is about to enter commercial life. The young nobleman in question is joining a Liverpool firm of cotton brokers. Lately a fishing smack belonging to Portsmouth towed into Langston Harbour a huge whale, which was captured by the crew when cruising about twenty miles from the French coast. The monster was no less than from 70 to 75 feet in length, and is computed to be of the weight of 100 tons. It had evidently been dead for some days, having been speared in the side. Large numbers of miners, mostly of the better class, continue to leave Cornwall for abroad, on account of the low rate of wages, Brazil and Peru are about to have nearly fifty superior workmen sent out to them from one district alone, and two or three of the American and Australian agents' lists are again filled. Nothing seems to be done to check this serious drain of the most intelligent miners in Cornwall. Experiments have recently been made at Usworth Pit, near Newcastle, with Mr. S. P. Bidder's coal cutting machine. The result was eminently satisfactory. Twenty-five tons of coal were set free in the remarkably short space of 35 minutes. Unlike the ordinary hewing, the coal was left in very large pieces, and by the prevention of waste in this way alone the saving in certain collieries to coal owners mu3t be immense. A girl named Janet Hermisfon, aged fourteen, an orphan, and residing iv Douglas Street, Galashiels, with a married sister, drowned herself in the Tweed. It appears that the girl had been wanting some jelly to eat with a piece of bread, and her sister refused to give it her. The girl left the house, saying her sister would never see her again. Four days afterwards the body was found in a pool called " Glass Wheel," about half a mile below the junction of Gala and Tweed. A correspondent, writing to the " Daily News " on the subject of Dr. Featherston's and Mr. Bell's visit to England, says:— "l am glad to see that Dr. Featherston is on his way to plead the cause of the colony in person. If any one man knows more about the necessities and the resources of New Zealand than another, it is he. I am not sanguine enough to hope that his mission will produce any effect, but the fact of its failure will leave the Colonial Office and its selfsatisfied supporters without excuse, and will remove all blame in the eyes of thinking men from the colonists, if they should transfer their allegiance from a mother, who will do nothing for them, to a cousin, who will do all. Bitterly grieved as I should be at such an end of New Zealand as a British colony, I should not be surprised to see it, and I for one should consider the Colonial Government fully justified in taking steps to bring about this result."