PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 187, 7 September 1871, Page 7

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

A lucus naturce, in the shape of a lamb with its hea I growing out of the abdomen lately came to light at Winton, but was destroyed by the shepherd who acted as accoucheur to the dam.

Mr. Heller has been engaged by Mr. John Smith to exhibit his conjuring tricks in the Indian Archipelago for £6,000.

The success of the experiment made by the present Government of introducing into the Colony immigrants from Scandinavia and settling them upon" waste lands is now established beyond all question. The Swedes have proved to be more industrious, more hardy, more easily contented than the most sanguine advocate of the scheme could have anticipated. As was stated in an interesting account of the Swedish settlementgiveninthe"WanganuiHerald" some time ago, "Men, women, and children work from morning till night, with the industry and application of bees. Already, we believe, their Norwegian houses, situated in the middle of clearings and plantations, are beginning to assume a look of comfort and civilisation, and have changed completely the aspect of the landscape."

A monster law suit is now in progress iv the United States. It has reference to some land in San Francisco, and, according to the United States "Jurist," defendants exceed 1000 in number, anil 270 lawyers are engaged in it.

The following curious passage from the letter of an " officer of rank, who commanded one of the forts before Paris," is published in the "Cologne Gazette :"--" On the Ist and 2nd of March, the fate of Paris hung by a silken thread. If the attiude of the population had been a little more nnbecoming than it was, Paris would have been reduced to ashes. The artillery of all the forts round Paris were already in position ; we were only waiting for the first touch of the telegraph to convert, with our 800 guns, this haunt of arrogance, vice, and madness, into a sea of ruins. lustuctions were given, in case the bombardment was ordered, which clearly showed a resolution to cany out tlie deserved punishment ruthlessly and to its extreme consequence."

Many of Dickens characters were drawn from life. Mrs. Bai'dell was a Mrs. Ann Ellis, who kept an eatinghouse near Doctors' Commons ; Sergeant Bompass was the original -of Sergeant .Buzfuz ; Mr. Fang, the truculent Bow-street magistrate in " Oliver Twist," was a faithful portrait of Mr. Lang, a London police magistrate. " Oliver Twist " caused his removal. Traddles is said to have been Sir Thomas Noon Ttlfourd ; Esther Summerson was Miss Sophia Iselin, sister-in-law of Edward Moxon, the publisher; Detective Bucket was Inspector Field, with whom Dickens was on pleasant terms. In "Dombey and Son" several characters are said to have been drawn from life. Mr. Dombey is supposed to represent Mr. Thomas Chapman, ship-owner, whose, offices were opposite the Wooden Midshipman. As if to make Mr, Chapman undoubtedly identical with Dombey, we have, as messenger of the commercial house of "Dombey and Son," one Perch, actually taken from a funny old chap named Stephen Hale, who was part clerk, part messenger, in Mr. Chapman's office. Old Sol Gills was intended for a little fellow named Norie, who kept a small shop in Leadenha.ll street, exactly opposite the office of John Chapman and Co. Captain Cuttle was one David Mainland, master of a merchantman. — " Australian Journal."

The Hobart Town "Mercury" says : — Qa a recent afternoon, while a Mrs. Roberts' nursemaid was airing two babies in a perambulator uuder the shady wattles of Cornelian Bay, and while she, native like, stared about gum gathering, one of the children playfully turned the axle of the little vehicle, and away down the hill sped the tiny carriage at railway pace. Just before it reached the steep bank which keeps back the sea, the breathless babies threw up their arms. No cry was heard, as over went the fairhaired pair into the deep. It providentially happened that Miss Morrisby, of Clarence Plains, was passing at the time, and looking over the brink for an instant, threw off her hat aud and mantle, and dropped down over the rocks to the rescue. In an instant the elder child was carried up the slope, but it was not till the screaming of the nurse girl told of a second lost one that the baby was discovered lying doep under the water, and apparently lifeless. Down again darted our heroine, and both were saved.

Dr. Griffin, when President of Williams College, convened the students at his room one evening, aud told them fiat he had observed that they were all rrpowintr thiu and dyspeptical from the neglect of the duty of laughtar, and he insisted upon it that they should go through a company drill in it then and there. The Doctor was au immense man— over six feet in height, with great amplitude of chest, and most magisterial manner?. " Here," siid h3 to the first, "you must practise ; now hexr me !" aad bursting out in a sonorous laugh, he fairly obliged his pinils, one by one, to join, till the whole ware almost convulsed. '" That will do for once," said the doctor, "and now mind you keep in practice,"

A public company, with a capital of £50,000, is being formed at Sydney, to fit out 20 whalers.

The erection of an extensive stone building intended as a residence for th« Aglican Bishop of Dunedin has just been commenced. The site is situate in the Kaikorai district, and on the road opposite to the township of Nevada. The edifice is designed in the Tudor style of architecture as prevaling about the reign of Henry VII., a style in keeping with buildings of this class. The building is to contain 22 rooms. The length of the main front of the building, facing the north-east, is to be 100 ft., of the south-west front 110 ft., anil of the novth-west front 68ft. The building will be completed in about a year from this' date. The contractor is Mr. David Hunter, and the architects Messrs. Mason and Wales.

Victoria, it would appear, is not alone in the possession of a Messiah at the present day. The " New York Tribunal " says :— " Philadelphia is honoured by the presence of a prophet. His secular name is Konigmacher, but he calls himself for some recondite reason, 'The Jesus of Isolation.' He parades the streets upon an old horse, his red hair streaming ; and he carries a banner with a strange device, lie is not alone in his mystical mission ; for there is also in" this favoured city a brace of prophets with. uncommonly long beards, who walk up and clown the thoroughfares, exclaiming, " How are you, men and brethren?' It might not be exactly the tiling to stone these seers, according to the ancient practice ; but it clearly does no harm to lock them up. Many persons who had their complaint badly have tbus been cured."

A AV^sst Coast contemporary says : — " A painful illustration of "the reverses of fortune which may attend a man in business in tliese Colonies, came under our notice this week. A gentleman of extensive commercial reputation, a few years back, was seen this week to be touched on the shoulder by the Court bailiff, and marched to durance vile on a Magistrate's warrant for a debt of a few pounds. The same person, six years a-ro, had, in another part of the Colony, seldom less than £20,000 under discount at his bankers, where his credit was then so undoubted that the manager's instructions were, ' pay without reference to ledger or him,' and where, as an index to the value pl.iced upon his account, three immeuse cheque books, with the customer's name, were specially printed at the expense of the bank, two of which, we believe, to this d,iy may be l'ound in the book-safe of the branch. Another six years' turn at the wheel of fortune may reinstate him in his former position, but we fear the West Coast is not the most likely place at present to contemplate such luck."