PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 178, 6 July 1871, Page 7

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Pheasant shooting commenced in Auckland province on the Ist May, and nearly 300 licenses have been taken out, to the great benefit .of the Acclimatisation Society, who derive from this source an income of £500 a year. The estimated number of men in the colony who siijn the teetotal pledge and break it within the first year is 87 iv every 100. Mr. H. Smith, of the Kent road, Mau»orei, Taranaki, has a sow that has given birth to thirty-three pigs within eleven months. She had a litter of seventeen in April last year, and has had another of sixteen during the past month. For the first time London and Bombay were brought into direct telegraphic communication by the Indo-European line on Bth April last, a message being sent through without re-transmission and instantly acknowledged. The distance from Loudon to Bombay by the Indo-European line is 6,000 miles. T?he Taranaki steel sand is again under trial ; but this time under the auspices of the Colonial Government. Diphtheria seems to be prevalent just now iv all the colonies, but is especially malignant in Victoria. The London "Pall .Mall Gazette" says ; " For an enduring loyalty there is certainly no people in the world to equal the Scotch." Another newspaper is about to be' started at Levuka, Fiji ; the staff and plant was to start from Sydney a short time since. Following up the Permissive Bill, it is .now proposed in Auckland to attempt to obtain a law prohibiting persons uuder age from smoking. A singular coincidence has been noticed by the French papers. The war began on July 28, Strasburg capitulated on September 28, Metz on October 28, Paris on January 28 !

' Fusel oil, instead of brandy, is being , retailed by some of the publicans of Victoria. The report of the Peabodv Trustees states that the first trust now amounts jto £178,733. Five groups of buil.lin jh, accommodating 498 families, havo been erected. The second trust, amounting to £213,918, will be increased in 1873 uuder Mr. Peabody's will by £150,000, and under this trust there will be sixteen new blocks of buildings on the Magdalene Hospital estate, affording dwellings for 300 families. Tauranga telegrams state : — "Mr Mitchell, M.P.C., pleaded guilty to using abusive language to the Chief Taipara, and was bound over to keep the peace in two sureties of £50 each. He has also been convicted of selling grog without a license and was fined £10." The Superintendent of Telegraphs in Queensland has just published his annual report, from which it appears that by August next it will be possible to send messages to Carpentaria. A movement is on foot in England amongst a number of mechanics and others to emigrate to Tasmania, and on some portion of it, to found a "Mechanic Colony." It is proposed that the first contingent of emigrants from the old country shall consist of at least 1000 persons, so selected from various handicrafts as to at once form a working community. The buttons torn from the clothes of the two assassinated generals were sold in the streets of Paris at half a franc each. Fifty thousand ladies in Germanyhave taken the pledges of total abstinence from chignon, preferring to preserve the sheen on their natural hair. Ladies are to be permitted to take , employment as operators in the Victorian telegraph offices. James Glaisher, the English aeronaut, is seriously ill, never having recovered from the eft'ects of his balloon ascension at Wolverhatnpton last September, when he reached a height of , seven miles, the greatest ever attained, and when he is supposed to have burst , some blood-vessel. By the last mail from Melbourne, a : gentleman iv Dunedin received the prosi pectus of a scheme that has been pro- ; jected in Melboure, for establishing a i connection by canal between the northern and western portions of Victoria » It is to be called the Gran.l Victorian ; i Northwestern canal, and the" projectors say that they are ready to form . a company for carrying it out, if the ; Victorian Gevernment will ' promise . them a subsidy in land proportioned to the magnitude and importance of the i undertaking. The canal, with all i branches, would run through the dis- . tricts of Rodney, Bendigo, Gladstone, » Ka'-Kara, Boning and Kararook, and t its entire length would be 500 miles ; * it is projected to have a fall of 9 inches i per mile, to be 60 feet wide and 10 feet ; deep. [ A correspondent of a home paper ; says: — " The ex-Enpress of the French - has set about converting her jewels • into money. I saw an exquisite i locket, a few days ago that she has just : disposed of to a jeweller — a magnificent yellow diamond, of a singular hue, almost salmon colour, about an inch i and a half long by an inch broad, set . round with large diamonds of splendid . water, the smallest of them being the . size of a large pea. This superb affair - is now offered for sale at £5,500. ; A good story is told of the Chief ■ Justice of Victoria when on circuit i lately. Sir William Stawell finished the assize business at Beachworth, and walked into the bar of the Star Hotel to make arrangements for horses for his next stage. One of those drowsy persons who haunt tavern bars rolled up to his Honor, and patronisingly [ expressed his approval. " Ah," said , he, " you're oue of the right sort ! " [ wiuding up with the hospitable words. [ "What'll you take to drink?" Sir William firmly but courteously de- , clined the proffered refreshment ; but ' the man being so pertinacious and so generous offering " anything from sodawater to champagne," his Honor agreed to take some of the first men- ! tioned beverage. That quaffed, the ', judge's delighted friend added, " You don't know me ; my name's Cuddiford. You gave my old 'oman two years ! this morning, and, by George, you sarved her right."

An American paper states that Queen Victoria visits Prince Albert's tomb every day at Windsor, places a basket of fresh flowers near it, reads a chapter of the Bible, kneels down ard offers up a prayer that she may meet | him in the world to come, It has been ascertained that the Crimean war cost £340,000,000 ; the American civil war £1.300,000,000 ; the Italian war, £60,000,000; the Prusso-Austrian war, £66.000,000. The loss of life, it has been estimated, in all these wars together amounted to 1,700,000. The death of Omer Pacha, the well known general in the Turkish service, is announced from Constantinople. The San Francisco papers state that Madame Carandini and her daughters are giving concerts at the Pacific Hall. They are spoken dV by the ptess in the highest terms, and were likely to settle in San Francisco. The City of Auckland ia now an established Borough. A mayor lias been elected with a salary of £250 per annum, a treasurer with £520, and applications are being called for a town clerk, who is to be "a gentleman of legal training," at £300- j

The Boston " Statesman " sayß that " Mrs. Clara H. Nash, having completed her studies in the office of her husband, has been appointed a Justice of the Peace." Bein<r a J.p^ Clara can now hold a court in her own parlour, if she likes, and fine her husband if he doesn't behave himself. Or, it' he's a J.P. too, they can \v'ien they have a flare-up keep on fining one another till further orders. " I sentence you, my love," Mrs. Nash may say, "to pay a fine of ss, with 2s 6d. costs, for using language calculated to provoke a breach of the peace." "And I, my dear," Mr. Nash may answer, " order you to be confined for disorderly conduct without the option of a fine." This kind of game would be sure to lead to domestic happiness.

In the recent eclipse expedition, an excellent photograph was taken of the corona which is seen streaming forth all round the sun during totality. On a careful examination of this photograph the image of the planet Venus has been direovered among its rays. In this we have another example of the power of photography in representing objects which the eye has not seen, and could not see.

A correspondent of the Canterbury " Press " states that the common flaxstick pared down to a flat smooth surface, answers well as an impromptu razor strop.

The " Grey Eiver Argus " of the 24th ult. has the following : — A man named Bromley, of Bromley and M'Millan, has been missing from the Razorback for the last ten days. M'Millan was engaged for three days repairing the Government track to the Razorbaek, and returning on Saturday last to the house where he and Bromley lived, he found the place closed, and Bromley was missing. On the table was writing, partly in ink and partly in pencil, as follows :- — " I leave all I have in the world to my mate M'Millian ; I am pursued by a lot of devils. Good-bye, Geordie, I have been a disgrace to you. Write to my mother and tell her that I am dead. Don't tell her how I did it.* Tell her gently." Bromley's two dogs have been seen each day and all day long on a cliff towards the sea ; from which it is inferred t'sat the man must have drowned himself. His body has not yet been recovered

A very startling communication has been made to us (" Medical Press and Circular ") by a gentleman occupying a most important post in this country, of the existence of a most deadly poison, by the inhalation of which, simply through the medium of a letter sent by post in the ordinary way, the reader will suddenly drop down dead with all the appearance of asyhyxia. The position and acquirements of our informant should place his evidence beyond suspicion ; nevertheless, before giving entire credence to such a startling report, we are anxious to obtain confirmatory evidence from any of our readers in whose minds suspicions of foul play have arisen, when investigating cases of sudden death, and what such symptoms were. Certainly the following clipping from a Canadian paper relative to the recent death of a person of note, looks ugly: He received an anonymous letter, and while reading it he fell down insensible, and shortly afterwards expired. It is said the letter contained some poisonous substance.

The " Geelong Advertiser" states that during the continuance of a terrfic hurricane in Western Australia a short time ago, one of the rivers rose thirty feet in three minutes ! Schooners with their crews were swept away, and never afterwards heard of. John Blackett, Esq., C.E., is gazetted Marine Engineer for the Colony of New Zealand. According to the census return of its population, Canterbury will this year receive from the General Government £88,^21 18s under the Payment to Provinces Act. There are at present 35,502 males and 26,833 females in Auckland Province; grand total, 62,335. Auckland City has a population of 19,937: 6779 maies and 6158 females. We are informed, from a reliable source, that by the last mail to San Francisco, a telegram was sent by the Ministry to the hon. Julius Yogel, imperatively urging his immediate return to the Colony. He raay possibly return by the July steamer. — " Argus." While Chinese immigration to Otago is on the increase, it appeal's to be falling off in California. The San Francisco "Bulletine " says : — '.'The question of Chinese immigration, so far as California is concerned is apparently working out its own solution. One statistican, who has made this question his study for years, claims that the number of Chinese in this State has decreased twelve per cent, since January Ist. - In Wellington they are getting up a petition in favour of the Permissive Bill. The result is encouraging. At latest advices the document had attained a length of 30ft, and bore 1,700 signatures, those of many ministers of religion and Justices of the Peace, and sir or seven publicans \ A barbed nail is coming into use in America. Its advantages are obvious, for, once driven, it will keep its hold as long as the wood around it remains solid. Its actual cost is little more than that of the common nail, and. .as- it answers as well as a large nail otthe ordinary kind, it is said to be considerably cheaper to use.