PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 224, 16 May 1872, Page 9

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

It appears that the " New York Herald, " not content with sending out a special expedition to find Dr Livingstone, has fitted out a similar one to follow the track of Sir Samuel Baker. A telegram has reached it announcing that the expedition had reached Karasko on 10th January, and was to push forward through the desert at once. An Advertisementlnsurance Agency has been established in England for' the purpose of protecting newspaper proprietors against the trickd of swindling advertisers. There is a likelihood of the commodious railway cars in use on the American lines beinir adopted in England. They will be fitted up with sleeping apartments and other conveniences, and the estimated cost of each car is about £3000.

The anchors of ships moored in the vicinity of the Chincha Islands frequently bring up guano from the bottom of the ocean, which is rather contrary to the doctrine that theso mirvellous deposits are the excreta of birds. The recent researches of Dr. Habel go far to # corroborate Professor Edward's views that guano is really a stratified deposit. A very melancholy truth is told in a very funny way by an American newspaper. In referring to the " usual fate of a discoverer," the Virgnia City "Enterprise" tells how an Italian organ-grinder was scalpt d, killed, and eaten by a tribe of Indians. They kept his organ, and the chief had it kept continually grinding in front of his hut. It played nothing but " Yankee Doodle " week in and week

out, without any variation. At latt an Indian of an inquiring disposition was appointed to turn it, and he tried the effect of shifting the stop without having the remotest idea of the result. To the consternation of the whole tribe the organ set off with the tune of " Pop goes the weasel." The old chief listened for a moment, seized his tomahawk, and with a fierce yell brained the discoverer of the new tune on the spot. In this ease the tune first played represents conservatism in scientific belief, and the second tune the theory of an innovator. Like the poor Indian, Galileo touched the stop, and his music of the sphere was pronounced execrable. Like Galileo, Darwin is interfering with the stops, and abuse, the modern instrument of persecution, is plentifully showered upon him. The new tune is not always so good as the old, but it should not bo condomned unheard or unconsidered. The " Thames Guardian " says :—: — " The one million two hundred thousand pounds which was to have done so much for us has all been expended, and where are the railways, and where are the immigrants that were to have arrived? In the province of Auckland there is not a mile of Ctovernmental railway open for traffic, and the few immigrants that have been imported do not appear of the class likely to benefit themselves or the colony. It is even said that it is in contemplation to import Chinese lnbour for the cheap construction of the contemplated works. That this movement will be a most unpopular one, there can be no doubt whatever, and action has already been taken to oppose the movement. We feel sure that, whether the immigrants be Chinese, Scandinavian, or British, or American, who are induced to come here under the inducements held out by the agent in London, that when the present loans are exhausted they will find no attraction to stay here, but will tako themselves off to fresh fields and pastures new, where taxation is less and land more accessible. . . . From a careful perusal of the returns before us, we can come to no other conclusion than that if the civil service is not very soon considerably curtailed, and expenditure reduced, this fine colony will soon drift into hopeless bankruptcy, and bo deserted by a majority of its already very sccnty population." A Baltimore preacher says he converted 17,000 little children last year. An irreverent exchange asks, " To what did you convert them ? In their natural condition wo are told, " Of such is the kingdom of heaven."