Local Intelligence.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 328, 7 February 1874, Page 2

Local Intelligence.

A OOMStnTEE meeting of the Tuapeka Jockey Club was held i\t the Oom,meroial Hotel on Thursday evening.. Present— Mr. B. Williams (President,) and Messrs. Farrer, Armstrong, Quin, Hills, Clarke, and Hayes (Secretary). The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. On the motion of Mr. Hills, it was decided that the qualification to bid for the booths be £5 55., anl for the refreshment boaths £$ 2s. The number of licensed booths decided upon was three, including the Grand Stand, and three refieshment booths. Mr. M. Hay was appointed to sell the right to the above on Thursday, the 12th inst, at 2- p.m.. in the Commercial Assembly Rooms. Messrs. Sheath, Farrer, and Hills were elected as a sub-committee to superintend the construction of the Stand. The Committee decided upon having the time of starting eacb race printed on the cards,, ard that the time be strictly adhered to. The President informed the meeting that the course was being put in good order. This concluded the business of the meeting.

Thb following additional applications to depasture stock in the Tuapeka district have been granted :— Cattle : George Murray, 22 ; Samuel Hunter, 5;. Ben jtimin Hart, 14. : Hugh M'Kee. 40 ; Edward "Malone, 25 ; Alexander M'lntyre, 15 -, Jamea O'Brien, 8 ; Thomas Kell, 4, and 3 horses ; William Sell. 2.

A Havelock correspondent says s —The people of tliis rising township fire awakening from their slumbers, and showing a little more energy than foimerly, Tenders are called for a splendid Presbyterian ohuich, and I see that some energetic person has posted notices calling a public meeting sit Mr. Coghill's Assembly Roonia on Friday. 6th mat., to try and form a Progress Committee. I have no doubt but they will suoceed. The somnolence of the Atherueuui Committee Is too well-known form»r m» to. say anything about it. I had some hopes the earthquake we had would have had some impression upon them* bat some greater catastrophe is needed.

A 00BBE8F0NDENT writing from Blacks informs us that the harvest there is good ; excellent crops being the rule.

A NUGG&E of: gold, weighing 17dwts., was found in the stamper boxes of the Gabriels Gully Quartz Company. There have been many nuggeta found in these boxes, but this is the' largest which has yet made its appearance.

Captain Hutton, accompanied by Mr. Jamison and Mr. Squires, visited WaipoH on Friday. Their return journey was unfortunately*ttended by an accident. On descending the »teep hill towards Wetherstones, the horses got into one of the de«p ruts so commdn on that part of the road, whin one of -the " borses commenced plunging "violently, which resulted in the breaking of' the pola. Mr. Jamison, who was driving, wfis dragged from the Buggy and sustained a fracture of his collar bone. Mr. Squires and CaptAin Hutton were 'more fortunate, escaping with a few bruises. They had to walk to Lawrence, where Mr. Jamison procured surgical attendance. We are happy to say he is doing well. The buggy, the property of Mr. M'lnnes, is not much damaged. Good gold is being got by the patty using the water'from. thfe vV"aikaka race. Sluicing operations are carried on by six men, who are working two faces. We are informed that they have come across the bed of an old creek, from which splendid results are being obtained. A ookrespondent asks us if tte Committee of the Clarks Flat School have let the schoolmaster's residence as a grog shanty and boarding house. We confess that we are unable to answer our correspondent, but we should imagine that the Committee would not do such a thing. Me. Lennies' property, situated on Waikaia Flat, was sold by order of the- mortgagee on Monday last, Mr. W. H. Davidson was the purchaser. The " Arrow Observer" is informed that Mr John Mackay, of Waitahuna, late Inspector of the Tuapeka Depasturing district, has reoeived the tempornry appointment of acting Receiver of Revenue and Clerk to the Bench at Arrowtown. A VERT distinct shock of earthquake was felt in Cromwell on Sunday evening last. It lasted (says the " Argus '') from about eight to ten seconds, although the trembling and vibration which followed did not ce:ise for fully half a minute. The direction of the shock was. as near as we could judge, from north-west to south east. The time wheu it occurred was 637 p.m. Mb. Alex. Humphrey, \vs are informed, is the successful tenderer for Mr. Sheath's new premises in Ross Place at £413 15s. Blight is very prevalent in a large number of gardens in the district, and the damage coniimfctfcd to vegetables — turnips and cabbages especially —is excessive. We were shown an excellent bed of turnips the other day, which was completely destroyed from the effects of ' this pest.

In our advertising columns will be seen a notioe that Yeend and Pope's line of coaches will commence running between Lawrence, Tokomahiro, and Dunedin at reduced rates. The prices named in the advertisement will be strictly adhered to. and will not in any case be raised or lowered. The Pope of the firm, we »o«d.Rcai;ot;ly inform onr readers, is the traveller's friend Tommy Popp, so lony- R »d --«moUknown as driver for Cohb and Co., and who has earned for himself the 'good wishes of one and all who have travelled with him ; while Mr, Yeend's coaches are well known and appreciated on the Molyneux and Dunedin road. The new firm have, we are informed, made most complete airangemeuts for efficiently horsing their coaches, which are comfortable and thoroughly suited for the road , and as the increasing traffic during the lust few months has filled the old company's and the late opposition coaches, we presume there will he su'fioient trade to carry on the two lines. At any rate, Hie people's favorite. Tommy Pope, will be sure of fiitt cargoes.

Mil. Clypcott informs us thai this will he his bist day ia Lawrence. Re will lecture at Roxburgh on Thursday next, but in the! 'meantime will be glad to supply any information 011 the subject of his commission.

The' " Herald " considers that the artistic misspelling invented by the late W. M. Thackeray and Artemus Ward has been outdone by the following, written by an indignant Victorian agriculturist : — " Mr. tak notas thet if yo donat came and harrow in my seed that I will summans you to thefuts Gray Poulase Coute for the loss of my seed if it is not harrad in i ta day thae will be now seed left but will be eaten by the fauls fouls. I remain most raspasfully- — ."

The London correspondent of the " Manchester Guardian" saya that the regret which has been called forth by the sudden death of the Bishop of Winchester will be mitigated in some degree when it is known that the late prelate was ' suffering from a painful disease which threatened to end his life before very long. A r concur was formiag at the root of the tongue, which coull never have been excised, and must sooner or later have proved fatal. We shall not be thought to exaggerate, says the " Builder," if we say that we arc witnessing a general reduction of the normal working day in England from 10£ to 9 hours. That is a reduction in the producing power of the country to the amount of one-sixth — a loss to England of a day in every week. Do not let us be met with the reply that more hands may be employed. One great object of the movement has been to compel" the employment of more hands ; but that is a consideration entirely beside the mark.. Our workmen are limited in number — whether employed or unemployed. Our time is bound by yet more rigid lines to be used or to be wasted. Our productive, power consists of our full amount of labor of man, and beast, and machine, employed for our full amount of time. That is our power, employed or not; and the reduction of either element — by the emigration of our workmen, or by the nonemploymenb of our daylight — is a reduction, to that extent, of our productive power. A Cologne journahstates that 235 young men of that town have just been condemned to n^es of 50 thalers each for having emigrated'to America* contrary to the military law. ' A revibw of the herring fishing at Fraserburgh during the season which closed recently, shows that from the fleet of "771* boats in the district, the total catch was 160,000 crans, a larger quantity than in any year on record. The money value of the take is about a quarter of a million sterling. In a dwelling-house in Lambeth, London, in a room of which st man named Fenwick secretly carried on the manufacture of fireworks, a dreadful explosion occurred recently, and the unfortunate man was killed on the spot. The whole house was speedily enveloped in flameß, and three women and four childrett, being unable to escape, suffered a dreadful death.

EjtgliAnd is said tobe the only civilised country in the world which did riot send homegrown tobacco to the Tienna Exhibition. Varieties were shown from Norway and Sweden, as well as from the tropics, and from all intermediate territories. It is remarked that the value varies throughout very much according to the distance from the- equator, and thus while the unmanufactured leaf from Havanna is valued at almost 2dol. 50c. gold a pound, that from Holland is priced at no more than about 25d01. a cwt.

It is not generally known that a sheet- of ordinary white blotting-paper, which will tear by its own weight' when wetted, is converted into a material having all the properties of a touch parchment, by merely dipping it for a few seconds in sulphuric acicl, after having first soaked it in a solution of alum water and followed it to dry. The Germans are using this artificial parchment for sausage skins. It need hardly be said that it is highly mdi J gestible.

A gigantic undertaking, the building of a bridge over the Niagara where it flows out of Lake Erie, has just been completed, and the Canadian and American railway systems have thus been connected at Buffalo.

In the Italian section of the "Vienna Exhibition, Dr, Marini exhibits, among an assortment of human feat, hands, arms, and" basts of shrivelled proportions and deep-brown color, a large round plateau, evidently of ha*d' and polished material, which has beenlikened to stale geletine or potted boar'a-head. - It is a conglomerate of specimens illustrative of an art invented by him — the petrifaction and mumifaction of human corpses. It was this very Dr. Marini, says the "Lancet," who petrified Mazzini, and executed his work so well that the admirers of the arch-conspirator proposed to set tip the corpse on the Capitol and save economical Italy the expense of statue. The doctor's preparations are weather-proof, and will not only stand wear, but take on a high degree of polish. His mumified specimens, by a process 'know to him only, can be restored- to their original size and elasticity ; while the petrified ones are as hard, and possibly as durible as granite.' The top slab of the table is composed of muscles, fat, sinewes, and glandular substance, all petrified together into a block, the surface of which has been planed and polished till its face resembles marble. Certificates from Nejaton and other distinguished, surgeons are attached to the specimen limbs, setting forth that the limbs in question had, for the satisfaction of the cer-. tifiers, been restored to their pristine softness and pliancy by Dr. Marini.

Thb " New York Herald " contains the statement of a captain of a whaler,- who alleges that he discovered relics of the Franldin expedition in the Polar regions. His name is Potter, and he is commander of the whaling ship Glacier. He had been in the immediate vicinity of the spot where Franklin and his party abandoned their vessels. At Repulse Bay a party of the Esquimaux came to trade with him. In return for cooking utensils they offered him silver spoons and forks, which they stated belonged to Franklin's party. One of the large spoons, and one of the large forks had indistinct outlines of Sir John Franklin's coat of "arms. The natives stated that after leaving their vessels Sir John and his companions broke up into two parties, one going in the direction of the .Red River, and the other towards the

ttndson's Bay Company's territory. They asserted that Sir John and his party died of natural causes, and Captain Potter believed the statements.

An inquest has been held on the body of a Government Clerk who, according to the medical evidence, must have died from syncope, induced by excessive smoking while the stomach was empty. We have never underrated the danger to which immodera'e smokers are liable. When taken in excess, the ordinary and pleasant effects of the herb, due probably to the c.irbonic acid and ammonia inhaled, are succeeded by the severer action induced by the presence of a large quantity of nicotine and empyreumatic oil in the blood, thinning this important .. Jduidt and_oausing a .wesak_action of JJae heart. Fortunately, these poisons find a ready exit from the system, But, it is when imbibed during a period of fasting that their directly injurious effects on the cardiac organ are to be apprehended. A post mortem examination of a person who died from excessive smoking would not probably reveal much beyond an extremely flaccid heart, and slightly congested brain. — "Lancet." The Duuedin correspondent of the " Cromwell Argus", of the 3rd inst. writes: — The Surat speculation seems likely to prove a loss instead of the fortune to the purchasers which, it was confidently anticipated if; wotild turn out. All hopes of getting her off were abandoned a week since, and the salvage recovered and likely to be recovered will not cover the cost of the pxirchase and the heavy expenditure which, has since been incurred. It is of course a source of great wonderment now, that two or three steamers were not sent

down immediately after the purchase of the wreck, a, pumping engine placed on board ' without a dsy*s delay, and a determined effort made to tow her off. People always do see things that could have been done after it is too late to suggest them. 1 ". Printing a book in China is done somewhat as follows : — Two pages are written by a person trained to the business, on a'sheet of thin paper, divided into columns by black lines, and in the space between' the two pages are written the title of the work and- thenumber of the chapter aad. page ; when the sheet has been printed it is folded down through this space, so as to bring the title, &c., partly on each page. The sheet, when ready for printing is pasted face downward on a smooth block of wood, made usually from the pear or plum tree. As soon as it is dry, the paper is rubbed off with great care, leaving behind an inverted impression of the characters. Another workman now cuts away the blank spaces by means of a sharp graver, aud the block, with the characters in high relief, passes to the printer, who performs his work by hand^ The two points that he has to be most careful about are — to ink the characters equally with his brush, and to- avoid tearing the paper when taking the impression. From a good wooden blo.-k some 15,000 copies may be printed, and. when the characters have been sharpened up a little, it is possible to obtain 8,000 or 10,000 more impressions. The Hawiek Burgh School Beard, by 5 votes to 4, have refused, in obedience to memorials from ratepayers and parents to reverse their decision excluding the Shorter Catechism from the schools under their charge. The writer of Athletic Notes in "Land and Water " says :- — " Those two mighty men, Donald Dinnie and James Fleming, have been astonishing the weak minds of the inhabitants of Leeds by their feats of strength and activity. The former put a 161 b shot 45ft Bin, and threw a hammer of similar weight 122 ft 6in. These, although not by any means the champion's best performances, would a few years ago have struck the boldest

amateur with wondor and astonishment. Since

that time, however, great strides have been in this department of sport by gentlemen, and the Royal Engineers could send out a man .who would be no contemptible antag.onist with the stone, while Oxford University posses an operator with the hammer wh«, would make-even Donald Dinnie exert himself. Tossing the caber has never been introduced into the southern counties, nor is it likely ever to be popular, as these feats of strength do not afford the excitement which is required to amuse an ordinary crowd of spectators, who usually vote everything, except racing, slow, and hardly even now submit with patience to the infliction of a protracted contest at weightputting or long-jumping." The Judge who^-Joves his joke, and 'the Magistrate who loves his joke, are both types we venerate and cherish. Who has not taken - \ip his journal and dwelt with emotion on the report of the trial where the Ju-lge has kept his hearers in fits during a whole summer's day by a succession of irresistible pleasantries? And the Magistrate- who loves his joke ! Is there anything comparable to the scene in a police court when the cheerful stipendiary has got out of bed the right side and comes down. brisk and fresh to his day'a work? There 13 in attendance a man who has been bitten by his neighbor's dog, and wants to see "this quadruped dealt with according to law. It is a real treat then to" watch the face of the Magistrate as he throws out the well-relished joke, " And what can Ido for you ? Do you want me to bite the dog ?" At thiß the Clerk ■ of the Court becomes epileptic and holds Bis sides, the public shake, with mirth, the policemen scream and have to cling to each other to keep themselveß from falling. - The, only person who does not show himself becomingly delighted ia the man who ha9"been ? bitten. * •

"Land awd Watsb" makes the'following remarks about a dog fight at New York : — "Judging from the publicity giveiitbaik exhibition of .this description lately Tieid »t New York, it would appear that corteiii of our Transatlantic cousins are cultivating a taste for this bfutalising pastime. It seem* that two well-known dogs, called respectively Scalper and Brandy, were matched to fight for IQOO dollarsi and such Wds the interest excited that other bets, .amounting to 3000 or 4000 dollars^ were depending on the result* Long prices .were -paid fot jreats, and th« " New York Herald " evidently considered the matter of considerable public importance^ as one of its comma was devoted to a detailed description of the fight, in which we are told Scalper, after minutes' hard struggling, managed with his sharp teeth, 'to grind the life out of the old veteran. 1 The sufferings erf the beaten animal are facetiously de3crioed, and its ' weak and plaintive cries ' seemed to have whetted the appetites of the spectators for a further exhibition of cruelty, to satisfy which the victorious dog wa3 separated from the other in order that he might the better make the onslaught on his' exhausted and mutilated victim, whose life only would satisfy the s crowd. Hundreds witnessed this disgraceful spectacle, but were not oncg molested, as we are told the police " were not aroused.' "

It is not often • (says the " Argus ") that the deaths registered during a week in Mel* bourne and the. suburbs out-number tho Mrths, but such is the ominous character or the record for the week ending the 18th ulti For the period in question 117 births wart registered, while the deaths numbered no lew than 124. In a note accompanying the re* turns as published in the " Gasette," thd Registrar-General remarks that the mortality of infants has been greatly increased in const* quence of the recent hot weather.

The Government are suddenly forming » military laborers 1 corps, armed with the Enfield, and to be employed in the WaikatOj in railway extension and roai-making. The men have 6s a day and a uniform, and it ii intended to enroll 200 for the present. They are also, ib is said, to be encamped until A re loubt is built at Eangiora, and will be em* ployed at once in pushing oa the railway from Mercer to Ngarnawahia. There is a good deal of speculation over this movement. It - comes quite unexpectedly, and no one can understand it. At the same time it gives great satisfaction, for everyone acquainted with the natives knows that they are in a very restless and unsatisfactory state. Rangiririj as it now stands, is a weak point in our posi« tion, and if suddenly occupied by the Maoris, would cut off the Upper Waikato settler* from communication with Auckland. Thef^jjl presence of a body of armed men is therefor* prudent under any circumstances. Tho recruits are being drilled in Auckland, and the officers are appointed. They will have military titles, and the organisation will be military instead of the Armed Constabulary. Possibly, it may be intended to substitute this system of armed laborers for the Constabulary, but no one knows the object or the number to be enrolled, beyond the fact that 200 are to bd enlisted at once, and that they are being carefully^drilled before being sent from Auckland^