GENERAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 886, 11 November 1871, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

Under the headiug * Extraordinary Revelation,, the "Sydney Mail" and a number of New Zealand papers published an article whieh created some little sensation. The article purported to be the confessions of a man upon whom had devolved the task of exterminating the possessor of a dangerous secret, which enabled him at will to decompose the component parts of water and set fire to the liberated gases. The latter threatened to involve the universe in ruin, unless a large sum of money were subscribed and paid over. Unable to comply with the extravagant demand, which when satisfied would leave his victims no feeling of security, it was decided expedient to assassinate him. The arguments which led to the adoption of this proposal and the mode in which it was carried out are fully detailed in the article in question. It would now appear from the Queensland press that there was no foundation for the statements contained in the article, it being one of those clever, sensational fictions that so frequently emanate from American authors. The " Brisbane Courier" says that the article in question comes from the pen of a Mr William Rhodes, and appeared first in the " Golden City," a San Francisco newspaper —and that names of persons and places were only inserted to give colour to the tale. Mr Rhodes was at one time editor of the " True Californian," and is now engaged in practice as a solicitor. His brother. Mr R. H. Bhodes, has lately arrived at Brisbane from California, and vouches for the truth of the above statement.

A London paper reports a novel service in Westminster Abbey a sermon preached by Dean Stanley to about one thousand telegraph message boys. The youngsters appeared in their companies, and under the command of their drill instructors. Dean Stanley's sermon is described as manly, vigorous, and to the point. He selected such verses from the Book of Samuel as would best illustrate the prophet's career, and drew a charming picture of the boy Samuel as the temple messenger. Upon this history the preacher reminded his hearers of the importance of their duties, of the trust imposed upon them, of the paramount necessity of speed and attention until their message was delivered. He reminded them that the office of messenger was sacred, that angels held it, and that the feet of those who brought glad tidings had been pronounced beautiful. " And perhaps," concluded the Dean, " perhaps this service may stamp some memories upon your minds which will come back to you in after years when you have become fathers of happy bo ys like yourselves, and have been placed in some high and responsible position." The success which attended the earlier efforts to find an outlet for Australian preserved meats has given place to great depression in this commodity. Prices have greatly receded, and at the reduced figure it is found impossible to move off the present supply. In Victoria, out of a large number of factories, one only is now working, and in New South Wales operations are also being suspended. Large stocks have accumulated in London, and a firm largely interested in the sale of provisions in London state that a line of 8,000 cases of guaranteed quality was offered them at 4d per lb. The New Zealand Meat Pre-: serving Company are opening retail shops in various large towns in order to effect sales, and to establish the article permanently. Our American cousins have not taken much by an attempt to work a wool ring. The trans-Pacific buyers had come to an understanding among themselves about wool purchases. They felt it would be folly to oppose each other and to raise the price against themselves. So it was agreed that one only should buy, and that the others shonld stand in for their shares. This didn't suit the Melbourne wool-brokers, who had not been engaged by the new buyers, and who seemed likely to be left out in the cold. So one or two of the youngest of the local wool-dealing brotherhood bought nearly every bale of wool suitable for the American market, to the astonishment of the new men, who stood aghast. A few days later they found themselves constrained to take over at a handsome advance, the clips which had slipped through their fingers at; the public sale. In this first conflict of business between America and Victoria the colony has not come eff second best.

Judging from the following paragraph in the " Southern Cross " the Supreme Court building there must be a peculiar one. It says:—lt is sometimes very amusing to hear the

trange conjectures made by strangers o Auckland, when passing this buildup, as to what purpose it is devoted. Many take it for a college, others for a grammar school, a few for a convent, and some for a gaol. It has also been set down as a commissariat store, an arsenal, a powder magazine, a missionary building for the conversion of Maoris, a private boarding-house, a lunatic asylum, a museum, acclimatisation society's building, a brewery, a hydropathic sanatorium, and other establishments in dignity and importance considerably belowanything here mentioned. It is never, by any mistake, taken for a temple of justice, or a forum where law is dispensed by the highest authority, and where criminals, by a legal fiction, enter its portals innocent, and come out, without any fiction, guilty. The order of architecture is also the subject of many differences of opinion. It has been styled Gothic, ecclesiastic, mediaeval, antique, Doric, modern composite, Norman, and even Etruscan. None appear to know for certain, and much interest is concentrated in the building. The enterprise which Lothair contemplated, that of building a glorious cathedral as a central temple to the Bomish religion in England, but which he abandoned at the time of his Pagan proclivities, has fallen into the hands of the young Duke of Norfolk, who thus memorably celebrating his arrival at years of discretion by spending £IOO,OOO on the erection of a magnificent cathedral at Arundel. The cathedral is now in course of erection. The length of the nave will be 122 ft, and the building is to be characterised rather by grace and richness than by grandeur. j

It Las been ascertained that out of 1500 salmon eggs, in the ordinary course of nature only one produces a mature salmon. If all the eggs laid were to produce salmon, the ocean, in half a century, would be a moving mass of salmon.