GENERAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1021, 12 November 1872, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

The challenge given out by fifteen volunteers on the Thames, born in the colony, to fire an equal number of any other nation on the face of the globe was accepted by a team of Scotchmen, and the match fired on Saturday the 12th. The result gave a majority of 11 in favor of the Colonials. Vivat Zealandia. Mr Vogel has recently semiofficially expressed regret at having in his place in Parliament used words calculated to injure in timid minds the status of the Australian, Mutual Provident Society. Mr H. B. Roberts of Wanganui states that he has some gold fish inliis possession 24 feet long. Perhaps Mr Roberts would inform the public what he feeds them on. A young whale was thrown up on the beach near Gillespie's a few days since. It measured about thirty feet, and has evidently drifted for a considerable distance, as the blubber had been stripped from it, and the marketable " bone" removed. The appearance of the fish at Gillespie's, under such circumstances, affords another proof of the strong northerly set of the current along the coast, as it was in all probability harpooned as far south as Invercargill. " JEgles," in the " Australasian," is responsible for the following :—"Eager was the curiosity to ascertain what had been deposited nnder the foundation stone of the old Scots Church in Collins street, now demolished. Had the early colonists been of frugal mind, or had they placed in the cavity the customary coins ? I hear that the inevitable bottle was there, and the usual newspapers, a list of the coins—but never a bawbee." Information has been received at Maryborough (Queensland) that Mr Dalrymple has discovered a cave in the ranges near Cardwell, covered with extraordinary pictures of both known and unknown birds and beasts, some apparently monkeys. The ground work is deep red, and the figures are in white and blue. Some of tho figures appear to be very aucient, while others are comparatively modern. The cave is away from the coast, up in the ranges. Mr Brogden is a passenger from Wellington in the Albion en route for England.

The erection of a Wellington College has been decided upon. The Auckland Agricultural and Local Industry Show promises to be a great success.

James Smith, managing engineer of the Kuranui Battery, died from injuries accidentally received from the machinery. The Dunedin escort for the month was 15,8760z5.

The shipping interests in Dunedin complain of the insufficiency of wharfage, owing to the increase of the coastal trade. The Executive purposes reclaiming the whole of the land between the Rattray and Jetty street wharves. A section of the population of Brooklyn is, according to the " New York Sun," in a peculiar difficulty at the present moment. It is stated that a few days ago a vessel arrived in the port from Cuba, bringing among her cargo eight large casks. Each of the casks, it is added, contained a dead body, and the spirit in which they had been preserved was sold to a wholesale dealer, and by him distributed all over the city. The worst of the affair is that no one in Brooklyn can find out what was the particular spirit which the eight casks contained in addition to the dead bodies. The result is put with much pathos by an inhabitant whom the reporter of the 'Sun' had asked to have "asling." " If they would tell us whether it was rum or gin," said the forlorn man in declining the proffered refreshment, " we could shirk the particular drink until we knew the stuff was all consumed ; but as we don't know anything about it, why Ve have got to sheer clear of everything until we are worn out." An amusing correspondent of the Christchurch ' Press ' whose contributions are headed " The Loafer in the Street," relates the following :—•' Did you ever keep an hotel ? Landlords are occasionally let in like evorybody else, as the following true story will show. A certain Boniface, residing not many miles from the centre of the city, was, the other day, ' had' beautifully. A gentleman whom the said Boniface had known in Australia, in

affluent circumstances, came down and took up his abode at the hotel in question. Slopkaddle was his name. For several weeks Slopkaddle lived on the fat of the land. He ate and drank, and drank and ate with the greatest punctuality, but paid not. His bill at last amounted to something like what sporting men would call half a century. One must draw a line somewhere, and Mrs Boniface thonght she would draw it at tlm particular juncture. Accordingly, in spite of the remonstrances of her husband, who was of a more enduring disposition, she did her level best to dun Slopkaddle out of the house. She went even the length of locking him out of his bedroom. Annoyed at the persecutions his guest was suffering at the hands of his wife, Boniface arrived at the following grand solution of the difficulty. Boniface was to lend Slopkaddle £lO, which amount he was to present to Mrs B. in part payment. Slopkaddle accepted the £lO. The following day Mrs Boniface observed to her better-half that she had been mistaken in her estimate of Slopkaddle, that he, in fact, was not the unprincipled loafer she had taken him to be, for he had paid that day a sum of money on account. ' Ob, indeed !■' said her husband, ' how much ?' ' Five pounds, says Mrs B. Boniface's feelings may be more easily imagined than described."