(From the Dunedin Dailies.)

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 367, 24 June 1874, Page 2

(From the Dunedin Dailies. )

. Tatjbanga, June 20th. A man has just been found who had been lost in the bush three weeks. He lived dnring that time on toi-toi roots and leaves. When found, • though big before, he was a mere skeleton, weighing no more than a chtld four or live weeks old. His name is Gill, formally a soldier in the Royal Irish. He is recovering fast. ' Wellington, June 22nd. The " Tribune " circulates a rumour that the Government has sold the Luna to a Sydney firm for £12,000 ; that a large new vessel is to replace her, and that she is now on her way from England. Auckland, June 22nd. Another attempt at incendiarism was discovered on Saturday night. A quantity of burning rags, saturated with kerosene, was found under the Catholic Institute Hall, in Wellington-street. A soldier's coat among the material, which was not burning, prevented the success of the attempt. The building is in the centre of a wooden block. If the fire had once caught, the loss must 1 have been extensive. Lyttelton, June 22nd. Among the Northampton immigrants two cases of scarlet fever broke out ou Saturday a nurse and a boy. Invekcabgill, June 22nd. The girl Mary H all has recovered full possession of her faculties. Another deposition was taken to-day. She identified Brennan. She saw him take the adze from behind the door in the kitchen. The day before the assault Brennan said there would be death in M 'Carthy's house before he left it. On one occasion he had attempted to take liberties with her.

Hospital Sunday in Melboornb. — The first annual meeting of the committee of the Hospital Sunday movement in Melbourne was held lately. The report read showed that the amount realised from all sources to the date of audit was £4,218 14s. 5d., since which further sums have been received, making a total of £4,325, 2s. 4d. Of this there has been distributed to the Melbourne Hospital £1.927 10s. 5d.; the Alfred Hospital, £537 16s. i the Benevolent Asylum, the Lying-in Hospital, £379 os. 34.; the Hospital for Sick Children, £223 6s. Bd. ; the Eye and tfar Institution, £157 Lss.: total, £3,940 193. 9d. The cost of printing and other nacessary expenditure up to the same date was £142 6^ 4d., to which muat be added a subsequent payment of £14 6s. Gel., making a total of £157 2s. 10d., thus leaving a balance, inclusive of supplementary amounts, of £253 19s. od. to meet expenditure fur the ensuing year.

An Editorial Present.— Some ladies in Texas were desirous«of d<.ing honour to the editor of the local journal, s-> they presented their hero with an embroidered shirt, which contained a splendid history of Texas, and also pictures of the fruits and cereals of the state, worked all over in red worsted. Now this particular editor had never worn a shut, and supposed the brilliant specimen to be a banner for an approaching procession . In his speech of thanks he puzzled the lady donors by declaring that he would "fling it out for ever to the breezes of heaven, that they might kiss its folds, and till his hand palsied it should neverbetrailedinthe dust." The ladies blushed, and regretted having made it too long. Being informed of the purpose of the gift^ the editor wore it over his coat, to the edification of the boys of the town, who followed him in regiments, studying the history of Texas " behind his back." — American Paper.

Hard and Soft Water. — Hard water has sometimes been thought unhealthy, and people have taken great pains to build cisterns in their houses, where r.iin water purified might be had for the table. But nature rarely makos mistakes, and spring water is almost uniformly hard. It is fmmd, on extensive and careful enquiry, that hard water is more healthful ihan soft. The body needs some of the salts held in solution in hard water, and suffers if they, are not supplied in some way. In England, the xjou-nties where hard water abounds are more healthy than those where soft water is used. The same fact appears in cities, where the mortality is least in the sections supplied with hard water. Contrary to the general impression, soft water acts on leaden pipes more powerfully than hard, and induces danger. Those "who have built rain-water cisterns/ thinking them more healthy than wells, will need-to study the wiser methods of nature.

A friend of the family thus relates how Abraham Lincoln's father courted his second wife. The second wife of Thomas Lincoln, father of President Lincoln, was a widow named Johnson. Thomas Lincoln moved with his family tn Indiana. I do not know the time of his removal, but before 1819 he lost his first wife, and on the first day of December; of that year, he returned to his place, and inquired for the residence of the widow Johnson. She lived near the clerk's office. I was clerk, and informed how to find her. Re was not slow to present hiirself before her, when the following courtship occurred. He said to Mrs. Johuson — " I am a lone man, and you are a lone woman. I have knowed you from a girl, and you've knowed me from a boy, and I have come all the way from Indiana to ask if you- will marry me right off, as I have no time to lose." To which she replied, " Tommy Lincoln, I have no objection to marrying you, but T eannot-do i f , ri^ht off, for T ovr© several little debts, which must fb-st be paid," The gallant old gru Heman ororaptly said, ' Give me a list of the debts.'* The list was furnished and the debts paid the same evening. The next morning 2nd December, 1819, I issued the license and the same day they were, bundled up, and started for home, where the new wife added much to the comfort of the establishment, and took great interest in the training and education of her step-aon Abraham,.