PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 213, 29 February 1872, Page 6

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

At the opening of the 'first Maori Bchool in Hawke's Bay at Pakowhai, the Hon. Colonel "Russell — recently appointed Inspector of six native schools at a salary of £600 per annum —^addressed the meeting through an interpreter. Colonel Eusaell's ideas of his duties are vague. "As Inspector," he says, "I shall not interfere with the management of the schools." During the recent floods on the West Coast, one family took refuge in a vat in a brewery. Other persons took refuge on logs and trees, and a few succeeded in getting boats. At Moonlight Creek an immense landslip took place. An eyewitness, describing its fall, says it was "something terrible to behold. The whole mountain appeared to be mdving, and when the lower edge of the slip entered the gulch formed by the creek, instead of crumbling away or breaking up, the enormous mass bent like a wave and ascended the opposite side of the ravine to a considerable height before it lost its form." The " Grey River Argus " .of the 10th inst. writes as follows : — ", A number of the recently arrived ', first cousins to the moon ' visited No Town on luesday ; but they were dr? ven away at the point of the sluice-fork. As soon as the Chinese made their appearance, a mob collected, and among other acts of violence, stoned the unfortunate Celestials. They were camped to the number of twelve or thirteen, on Wednesday evening, just below the Twelve Mile Landing, and if they did not shift their quarters* before the flood came down on Thursday night, there is much reason for fear as to their safety." We take the following from the j " Inangahua Herald," published at Reefton :— " The large sum of £1300 has been collected by Mr. Cooper, the receiver of revenue in Eeefton, since last Court day, on January Bth. During the above short, period no less than 200 applications have, been received .for new quartz claims, and about 400 applications for "special and business sites, races, daa»s, &c., &c. The demand for business licenses and m>^ers' rights has exceeded the supply, and Mr. Cooper has, in consequence, beety unable to issue them for some dayiS.-^*There has been quite an influx". of legal gentlemen into Reefton within the past few days. There are now no less than $bree in our midst.—Upwards of thirty gold mining leases have been applied for during the last month. — Some idea of the increase in the value of property 4a Reefton may be formed when we mention that two business sections were sold on Tuesday last for £280. The same sections could have been bought a couple of months ago for lesa $* an a quarter of the amount."

"At a funeral which took place lately/ says the- Pleasant Creek " News," " near a town not far from this, a deceased husband was being buried, and great sympathy was expressed for the afflicted widow, who from the time of her bereavement to the burial exhibited very creditable symptoms of sorrow at the demise of her spouse. She accompanied the remains to the grave, of couree, as chief mourner, being supported on the occasion by the consolation of her friends When the coffin was lowered, however, the indices of disconsolateness disappeared, und she drew an old boot from beneath her* shawl, flinging it upon the coffin with an ominous bang. ' Many's the time/ she said, having performed this peculiar ceremony, ' that ye gey me a taste of that : an now, begorra, o'ill return the compliment; we're quits at last.' This over, the interesting widow relapsed into lamentations, which had reference chiefly to the lonely and unprotected position of herself and children.

The * Chicago Tribune " says : — The extent to which the labor-saving implements have been introduced in agriculture we saw illustrated a day or two Ago in "Wisconsin. A farmer was seated on a reaper with gloves on his hands, and with an umbrella over him, and, with as much comfort as driving a buggy, he was cutting oats, the reaper throwing them into regular and convenient sheaves for binding and stacking. "We remember the time when, 20 years ago, we cut oats without an umbrella or gloves, and .let grain lie where it fell from the scythe. Yet here was a man with a pair of horses, in comparative comfort, doing more in one day than 25 men could have done by hand 20 years a?o. The Bendigo " Independent " deems one hundred and seventy-one in the, sun a* novelty, but says a new apparatus registered the figures, and Mr. Joseph guarantees them. The heat as registered on tho 15th ult. was 171 ° , but it seems a peculiar state of atmosphere. Away towards Carpentaria, in the Paroo, kangaroo dogs * have been known to lie down and die through the beat, and there is an authenticated story of the late Mr. M'lntyre and some of his friends cooking fritters, in a pan placed upon the sand, but the glass there only reached 145 ° . Without discussing the 171 ° point (remarks a Melbourne paper),' it has to be admitted "that Monday' was a terrible day, the heat being almost beyond endure ance. , The labors of a colonial Governor are recorded in the statistical summary of theßegistrar-Genqral of New South Wales, for the year ending 31st Inarch jiwf. faring %£ cericd, $c

Governor has written 582 despatches to the Secretary of State, 407 messages or . speeches to the. .- legislative Council, and 13,600 letters, noWa, or memoranda on a host of topics, private or public ; delivered 49 addnaases on various subjecta—religioua, ofcarit* able, scientific, : ot literary; and held 170 interviews With as many different people. %

A brick-making match is reported by the Melbourne papers to have re* cently taken place near that city, Two men, named Gaennell and Lawrence, competed for five hours for a prise of £5, when the former was declared tre winner, having moulded, .harrowed, and set out on the -hacks, 3025 well* made bricks, Lawrence made 2932 in\ the time. Neither of the men seemed much fatigued after the father extraordinary handiwork.

The Paris " Figaro M says ;—'< Deck dedly the world is mad — alette world, you understand. In one of the numerous demonstrations of which Dublin is the scene, an 'lrishman/ named Kelly, yielding to the impressible genius of his nation, assassinates a con. stable named Talbot, who dies of hia wounds, in, the hospital. M Star " tells us that a.Ju.ry^was sufomoned, and Kelly* appeared hefore them. ' Talbot,' argued, the- counsel for the defence, ' died from the effects of the - operation which was performed upon him. Prosecute the surgeons, and not my client, whose part in this business was confined to sending a bullet into Talbot's body.' This luminous defence enlightened the, conscience of the jury, who acquitted Kelly. This argument has a novel effect/ although it is borrowed from a French lawyer, M. Chaix d'Est Ange, who in a case where an old man had been murdered* put this case : — ' Suppose that the unfortunate victim had been struck with apoplexy between the moment when his assailant lifted his axe and that at which the axe fell upon him, in such a case you will have condemned an in* nocent man,' "

Lord Derby, in a recent speech at Manchester on the subject of education, quoted an amusing instance of the ups and downs in Australia. A | squatter there, innocent of the " three Rs," fyas four shepherds upon his run — three of them were graduates of ,Oxford, Cambridge, and Heidelberg i respectively ; the fourth had been aft officer during the Crimean campaign. Here is an illustration of the eternal fact that knowledge of. books, and knowledge of the way to live and thrive, are very different things. The three learned sheep-minders and the gallant commander knew more of Virgil's eclogues, perhaps, than their master ; but he was the best man getting on, and the consequence Waa that he was " boss."

Twelve different persons vk &evalU have initiated a papjer currency ox\ their own acconnt. The notes are fop VeTy" STtrait amounts, and » writer iq — the " Fiji Timers " states that he lately negotiated about four pounds weight of paper money in exchange for % sovereign.

It is estimated by competent author rities (says a London paper) that the ateam fleet now building in Great Britain will, on a moderate calculation, cost £11,000,000 sterling, and supply steam vessels aggregating nearly half a million tons.

It is notified in the General ' Govern-. ment " Gazette " that in coeatp^ance*. with a recommendation contained ixx the report of the Joint Committee on Colonial Industries, 1871, ;g2500 will be paid for the first 100 tons of printing paper manufactured by machinery in. the colony.

A Fiji paper says : — " A few of Cote-, man's fancy"mustard labels have been paid to the native taxgatherer for dol-.-lar notes. The -white man who paid. these things to the natives as money/deserves to have a mustard plaster applied to him by the Government Moral Health Officer."

Mr. George Vandenhoff, whose death* had been reported by the American papers, writes as follows to the " New, York Herald " :—": — " I perceive by the newspapers generally that I am dead* and have been buried in New York with, masonic honours. ' I never, as a rule, contradict anything that the news-, papers say of me ; but in this case it will not be considered presumptuous or egotistical to say that lam nqt a ware of such a thing having happened to me, and that I am as well as can be ex- . pected under the circumstances."

Methodist churches were built in America last year $% th,e rate of four.

per, cuem. , _ _.._—--= T?he preparations for the production of an illustrated . work on "The Pishes of Our B§as, M by the v officers of the Colonial Museum, are progressing' favorably/ The "Wellington Post* says that the lithographs of. the fish, executed by Mr. Buchanan; are clear. 1 and faithful outlines that will be most useful to a beginner in the study of ichthyology, and will enable him fa discover the names of- a.nj specimena that may come before him. There will be twelve plates, giving outline* of fifty fish, a|l o£ wbjoh, wHh one or two exceptions, are aya^abiia as, food, '*-'' • .

Under, the heading X Eashio^able Intelligence," the Wangaquj V.fl-eraW n reports i— " The Hon. Mp. Jfcps anjd tha editor of the' 1 Chronicled rqdftyesterday pqorning i$ eqmpaaj, TJiein highnesses^ enjoyed the fresh ajgt ama?iflgjy t gnd. ?$Wi!4 M^^