PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 190, 28 September 1871, Page 7

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

A Now England minister lately astonished his congregation by telling them that " some theologians write books that would knock Moses into pie." Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot has married the daughter of a Swiss farmer.

If appears from a late Oddfellows' Magazine that there died recently near Nevvton-le- Willows, John Abbot,, a member of ftie Triumphant Lodge, of the A'shton-in-Makerfield district. His ease.^it will be seen from tfie following, is one which should nj.ike every w&rking man become a member of a friendly society and of these none stand on a firmer footing than the Inde?)endent O«der of Oddfellows. — Deceased, who was by trade a joiner, was in his 72nd year, and was initiated a member of the Lodge on the 7th April, 1822, beinu; the Id'tli member admitted. , He was confined to his bed for the last 21 years, during; 10 of which he was blind, caused by rheumatic levee. For the last -M years he has been a constant recipient of the lodcfe Io the amount of £532 18s., and his friends received at his death £10; total- £512 18s. These particulars will not be read by the Order without n deep feeling for the sufferer, whilst at the same time they will afford thoughts of. pride as well as thankfulness that they were bound together by the bonds of OdJFdlowship.

A number of Polish ladies, princesses, countesses, and-other members of the highest nobility, propose to make up a purse of five million francs, and to present it to the ex-Empvess Eugenic, as an expression of their sympathy and respect for the fallen greatness of a dynasty which has so often pleaded for the causa of Poland. We find the following in the " San Francisco News - Letter : " — Two thousand five hundred women of the Commune, it is said, are to be sent lo New Caledonia. We rather doubt the truth of this intelligence, but should it be tru*e the better portion of them will find .their way 'to New Zealand.

It is proposed to elect the Queen of Denmark, the most economical of female sovereigns to the vacant throne of fashion from which Engenie has been deposed. There is one advantage- in ueing fat. One night a bulky lady in Bridgeport, Connecticut, alarmed by the approach of burgulars, leaped out of bed with auch {bi-ce'ikrti slie shook tK© house from garret to celler, wakening a male lodger who slept on the lower floor, aud frightening away the burglars before f.hey had time io secuue anything.

111 1 is expected says the " Morning "Post," that considerable sensation will bo caused in the case Tichborne v. Lushiu'gton, by the production of evidence, in support of the claimant's case, •of a very delicate nature,, with referance to a lusus natures alleged to have existed for gome years in the Tichborne family.

Samuerßuck died at Conneaut, Ohio, recently aged 84. Over 60 years ago he was jilted by a girl lie loverl, and retired to a house he built for himself and furnished in good style, where he dwelt alone until he died. Out of I doors he wore the garb of a man, and .permitted himself to be addressed as Mr. Buck. In the house he always wore his long hair parted in the middle, and put on v female attire, and in' this guise would Jonly appear as Miss Buck. Many fine dresses he, had worn were found -in his -'hermit home after he died. The San Francisco " News Letter " has the following: — •" John. B. G-ough, the High Ntiuse;ition of thft jump-up-and-come-down-hard school, has been lecturing to enchanted audiences upon 1 Orators aud eloquence.' Much he •knows -about either — the wearisome, water-whinning svvamp-shrieke ! We piously wish he might get such a dropsy that one might circumnavigate his stomach in* a birch canoe, and that he couldn't rest at night until he should insert a subcutaneous tube, and suck .himself- dry." *>

At Napier on tho lsb of this month a child was scalded to death by drinking out of a tea-pot.

Several lads for indulging in. the J musical pleasures of " tin kettling " have been each fined 10s at Christchurch, whilst otheva were dismissed \ with a caution. , ~ Everyone has heard of the human monstrosity, the double baby. Strange ;« the story was, the sequel is still stranger. A fortnight previous to July 19 one head .of the child exhibited signs o? illness, but afterwards re? covered. Then the other — or other half — was taken sick, and diod on July 18. The " Boston Post " of the next day " says : — The two portions of the body were so intimately connected that tlie cle-vtU of one rendered that of tlae ottar iuevitabie. The spectacle was equally novel, strange, and unparalleled. Upon one end of the body reposed the head of the dead infant, *uppn the .other thut of the live one with its eyesstill bright and curious, and its lungs in full breathing order. All that medical aid could accomplish was done, but it was unavailiHg. The child died in the presence of its parents. The. corpse presents the appearance of two 'infants asleep. Apparently they escaped, the ordinary suffering incident to death, for the countenances had the expression of repose.

Snakes now abound in faeland, notably- in the County of Dublin and the Queen's County.

The only French prisoners now remaining in Germany are four oflicers and 800 privates in the hospital, 'and ten officers and seventy privates imprisoned for vai'ious offences.

Marshals Bazaine and Canroberfc and General Wimpfeh are summoned to testify before the Committee of the Assembly to investigate the conduct of the late war. Colonel C. Chesney has been sent by *he Clovenimenf on a special mission to the Continent, with instructions to draw up a report, on the late war.

The death is announced- of Mr. John David "Walker, proprietor'of the " Gloucester' Journal," aged 80. He is said to have been, at the time of his death, the oldest newspaper proprietor in Eng land.

The .RegiesteivG-eneral of England states that the population of the UnitedKingdom is increasing at the rate of 1L73 a day. But; immigration takes away 4<GB of, the number, leaving 705 a day to svyell the population at home.

The " Standard " publishes details of a scries of severe earthquake shocks, which have recently occurred in the PHllipine Islands. More than two hundred persons were swallowed up by the earthquake and every one of them almost instantly killed. Sixty* bodies of the dead will be recovered, and tho v^st of the inlnvi3ifcnnts have fled tho Island, which has been utterly depopulated.

Tho " Melbourne News " says thai the sentence of Gr. ll.' Supple has been committed to imprisonment ibr life.

The gold-headed staff used constantly by President Lincoln at the "White House has been bequeathed to Mr. John Bright, M.P., in terms of the lato President's will,' "as a token of esteem which tho late President felt for him because of his unwearied zeal aivl defence of the United' Slates in suppressing the "civil rebellion of theUnited States."

Jt is said that Thiers u-ges on the Military Committee of the Assembly the necessity of having large armaments and & normal effective force of five hundred thousand men in the army.

An assault of an extraordinary character is related in the Melbourne papers as having been penetrated at the Colling wood branch of tho Commercial Bank. At 3' o'clock in afternoon a man went into the bank, and, after having some few wdi'ds with the manager about a cheque, flung a piece of lead weighing 21bs at s him, breaking one of the manager's ribs. The man then took out another piece oM«ad, tied up at the end of a handkerchief, and ran round the counter to continue his murderous assault, when assistance arriving, he ran away, but was captured and given into custody. It is doubted whether the man was insano or was wanting to rob * the bank.

''A discovery has been made by several farmers on the Loddon River," says the "Bendigo Independent," " that kangaroo rats are good thistle e indicators. It has been found that these animals dig down under tho thistles, and eat the roots of tbe plants, which thus "necessarily die. One farmer has issued orders that no kangaroo rats are to be killed on his laucl, i" consequence of their having been of much service to him in destroying the abnoxious thistle." Newspaper editors in the United States occasionally behave very liberally towards their contributors. A young widow lady, who has^for some time past, furnished a column called the'" Home Corner "to the Poraeroy Democrat, under the signature "Elm Orion, £ was promoted aud rewarded on the 16th of May last by the editor of that journal. He married her, "After *tho performance of tha ceremony,'' says the " New York Sun," " Judge •Reymart stepped forward, and, in the name of her husband, presented the bride with a dowry of £ L 5,000, besides a splendid set of diamond.*." Our informant omits to add whether there are any more eligible editors of this kiud knocking about New York. — " Australian." •

Bismarck had to kiss sixty pretty young ladies at a recent reception. ' The Cfnsus shows that half the Mormons in Utah Territory come from England.

A- Charleston despatch says : —A body of 500 masked horsemen surrpunded the gaol of Union Gounty on Saturday night, tied the gaoler and took" out ten negro prisoners confined on charge of murder and 'arson. Six of these were shot, two hanged and two are. missing. The pretext for the crime was ♦that the prisoners were about" to .be removed to Columbia on & writ of habeas corpus. Much indignation at the lynching prevailed among the masaea of the people without regard to party.

A man in Indiana laughed hunjself to death on reading a " funny tale." It was one of Greeley's leaders on salt.

A gang of boys stoned to death an | inoffensive Chinaman in San Francisco, June Ist. Dozens of people witnessed the assault, but did not interfere iiutiL the murder was complete. Mr. Henry Jtinrsley; having retired from' the 'editorship of the "Edinburgh Daily Eeview," ' has, been succeeded by a j&r. Gillies..