General News.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1021, 1 May 1869, Page 3

General News.

It is stated that there are more than 10,000 velocipedes now in use in Paris. Dalaware, a New York paper tells us, has three whipping posts and only one railroad. The Government have decided on not calling out the militia in Ireland for training this year ; the recruiting also continues suspended. A woman in New York' has given the authorities notice that she prefers, and intends to wear, male costume ; but the police keep arresting her, and she wants to know why. A duel took place the other day at Malmantile, in Italy, between two officers, with pistols. They fired five shots each, and then (neither being hurt) considered that honour was satisfied, and left the ground. It is reported that the Bishop of Oxford is to receive £IOOO for the papers he is now writing for Good Words, and the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol is said to have refused £SOO to write in the same periodical. The British Government, it is said, are going to recommend the reduction of the army by 20,000 men, and the withdrawnal of all troops from the colonies which the Colonial Governments are not ready to pay for. When Dr. Johnson courted Miss Porter, whom he afterwards married, he told her “ that he was of mean extraction ; that he had no money, and that he had an uncle hanged !” The lady, by way of reducing herself to an equality with the doctor, replied “ that she had no more money than himself, and that, though she had not a relation hanged, she had fifty who deserved hanging.” A brjtish soldier in Paris, who wore a Waterloo medal, was accosted by a French grenadier, wearing on his breast a badge of

the Legion of Honour, which is much superior to the former in point of intrinsic value. Looking at the Waterloo soldier, the Frenchman observed with a sneer, that the medal he wore did not cost his Government more than a few sous. “ But,” retorted the English hero, “It cost your ■country a Napoleon.” Henry Ward Beecher recently said in ■a lecture that one of the coming questions -of the day was in relation to the coming man, and how he was to come. He thought he was coming on a velocipede—(laughter)— a new machine that was bound to play a prominent part in the category of amusements —a toy to some, an instrument of pleasure and great use to others. He had purchased two for his own boys, and there was every probability of his riding on one himself. (Laughter.) He was not too old to learn, but he hoped it would not be said that the velocipede was his hobby. (Laughter.) His auditors were not too old to learn, and he would not at all be surprised to see in a short time hence a thousand velopedists wheeling their machines to Plymouth ■church. (Applause and laughter). The wild horse of Australia, says the Avocct Mail, will unquestionably, at no distant date, like the mustang of the South American pampas, occupy in vast numbers the almost boundless plains of the interior. On the South Australian border, in Victoria where, some years ago, wild horses were ■comparatively few in number large herds •are now to be found, During periods of continued drought these herds travel immense distances in search of pasture, and on some stations detract considerably from the value of the runs to the north-west. The neighbourhood of the mallee scrub at the present season appears to be a favourite resort for wild horses. Feeding on the plains in mobs of from fifteen ( to thirty mares with colts at foot, the sire, a stallion whose progeny are usually one colour, is most careful of his family, on the slightest alarm leading his charge at full speed, under shelter of the almost impenetrable scrub. Several successful mustering of these steeds of the plain have been made of late, we are informed, and some of the colts broken in and sent to market, but from the cheapness of horseflesh all over the colony the speculation has not paid. Many hundreds have been shot on the various stations, but apparently without reducing their numbers. Wild cattle, in the neighbourhood of the mallee scrub have also become a complete nuisance. On the sheep stations beef of excellent quality is supplied all the year round as rations to the men employed. The wild cattle are hunted like the buffalo of the North American plains, and are said to be gradually increasing in numbers and spreading towards the far north. The most astonishing circumstance attaching to these wild herds of cattle and horses is, that notwithstanding on the siations near their haunts sheep and other stock are dying very fast from the effects of the drought, these denizens of the plain appear in excellent health, and sleek as moles A most beautiful sight it is to see a large mob of wild horses startled on the plains, galloping at [full speed, their unkempt manes floating in the wind, the speed of which they seem to equal ; their tails sweping the ground—they present to the eye a perfect embodiment of beauty and freedom.