MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue IV, 26 October 1877, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

! A movement was commenced 01 WedI nesday last at Napier, to collect a fund i to erect a monument to the late Donald McLean. The affair has been well ! commenced. It was inaugurated by a meeting of Highlandmen at Kaikora. Aliotit twenty-five were present, and over £500 was collected in the room. i The Greymouth Star says :— There is a ! probability of some new ground being fjuud in the Greenstone district. A correspondent sends us the following :-A rush has set in at the Three-Mile which promises to turn out well. A good number of miners are on the ground. Two tunnels are well in, as also two shafts, and about ten days hence the results will be better known. The prospects at present are from two to sis grains, and the sinking about sixty feet. A fine nnrble monument has been unveiled in St Paul's Cathedral in memory of the gallant officers and m<m of the 5/th Regiment who fell during the bloody and protracted New Zealand war. It is good as a work of art and has given general satisfaction. The soldiers who died in New Zealand are thus commemorated side by side with the victors of the Peninsula and Waterloo. Prom the Melbourne Argus we iind that the telegram which reached us in the following form, "General Todlebcn is planning a winter campaign. Matchin, Hirchova, Sistova, Nicopolis, and Bosnia are all in a state of siege,'' should have read, "General Todleben, the Russian commandant of engineers, is planning winter camps at Matohin, Hirchova, Sis* tova, and Nicopolis. The Turkish province of Bosnia has been placed in a state of siege." The telegram about Port Nicholas (which was captured by Sulieman Pasha on September 16) having been abandoned from motives of strategy, now turns out to relate to the evacuation of Nicopolis on the Danube. Exchange. The Ross Guardian says :— " Mr Edward Dermott has taken umbrage at the remarks which appeared in our last issue relative to his brother having held a ten* acre leaso 011 Guardian Flat without attempling to work the same, aud consequently has expressed his determination to stnrt a second paper in Ross under the unique title of the Exterminator, flavins

had an expedience of years of the difficulty ef running; a paper in a failing district wo do not think that Ross is in such a flourishing condition at present os to support two newspapers. Therefore, rather than rtsk the powerful opposition threatened to be organised by Mr E. Dorniott, «c are willing; to cry peccnvi and soil out. to that geutletnm on the . most advantageous terras. Tue advantages to be derived l>y such, an arragement aro obvious, as he would thus hare control of the press' of the district. Hecould then hold the whole country side,, and stifl-j public opinion or inquisitive inquiries." The Queen Bee Wreck Recovery Company, wliieh consists of twenty shareholders, must be making a pretty good thing out of their speculation. A second diri« dend of £1000, equal to £30 per share was paid last Weduesday mi I there appears every prospect of another diviiend of a similar amount in a few weeks hence. A statement of receipts and expenditure of the Westland County Council, for the half-year ended 30th September last, is published. At that date the sum of £6200 0s lOd stood at the credit of the County account in tiie Union Bank, and deducting £73 Ss, cheques not pre.seuted, left a balance of £612(> 18< lOd at the commencement of the present half-year. The total receipts under general account tor the terms specified amounted to £11, 339 3s 3rd, and under imprest account £2U3 4s 7d. A further baiancu of £lb'<l 111 2d stood tj the credit of impresi. account. We [Grey Argus] regret to learn by our report of the proceedings in the Borough Council last evening, that scarlatina has manifested itself amongst the children of Wallsend and Bruunerton districts. If tlte statemeut be correct, the strongest measures should at once be adopted. The terrible domestic misery caused at Hokitika may possibly visit . other localities, and certainly no steps should be loft uutaken that can possibly avert a great calamity from our thresh* olds. The war correspondent of the National Zeitung, describing the battle of Plevna, gives particulars of the horrible cruelties practised by the Turks. When the 17tu Russian itegiinent was driven back, the wounded were killed and mutilated before the eyes of their .etreatiug comrades. The coin naador of the regimsnt Colonel Rosenbaum, was first wounded, then shot aoad, and his body was raised in triumph on the bayonets of the Turk-*. Many such atrocities are reported, and they were committed not by Jiashi- Jiazouks or other irregulars, but by Turkish iutantry of the line. A wounded soldier, who on falling pretended to be dead, and afterwards rejoined his regiment, reports seeiag one of bis owu officers, who fell near him, mutilated, and his ears, nose, aud tougue cut off. A retreating regiment endured the horror of seeing its owu colonel, who had fallen in the retreat, cut to pieces before the regiment had got out of jsight. It is believed that uoue ot the Russians who fell at Plevna were allowed to survive. The | Russians lost about 20(X) men there. | "Iv August, 181G," tho Sydney Morning Herald relates, '• a party of gentlemen fitted out au expedition for the purpose of discovering a practical road between Trinity Buy (to the north of Port Oenison) and tne newly-discovered Hodgkidsou goldfields which are about 60 niik-s from tne coasu From the very rugged character of tuo country the party experienced great difficulties. It was sis months before a properly equipped party j could make sucli a road as Would enable teams to pass Iroin Cairns, tlie present seaport at Trinity iky, to tue goUfields. The explorers were frequently exposed to danger from hostile uiacks. The fauna and vegetation were of great interest. * The dwellings of Hie natives were far superior to the gunyahs of ordinary Australian aborigiues. Many of them were from 70; t toSO.t in circumference, with a height of from 10ft to 12-lt. They were semispherical. The framework wha of wood ; and these dwellings were thickly thatched with grass. Iv the vicinity of one or the camps there wus fouid the perfectly preserved body of a male aboriginal, who had prooably in his time beeu a leading chief. It was covered with a red ochreous pigment, and was doubled up much after the form of a trussed fowl, l'bo limbs being held together by somekiud of fiures. How the remains were preserved cannot l>o determine! ; but they are, iv their drte.t state evidently capaole o( re.-ustuis; th<; ravages ol time lor a lengthened period. This they have already doubtless done. Ihe adventurous explorers, by their sac* riligious appropriation of the mummy, incurred the auger of the natives, and were hotly pursued. The mummy, wheu found, was carefully covered with teatree bark and branches of sheoak, The driedup specimen of what had been human has been brought to Sydney by Mr L. F. Sachs, who was oue of thd exploring expedition, and has been inspected with, iuterest by leading medical aud seientilio men. It did noc tiul its way to the Australian museum, the mummy, with Mr Sach's permission, may yet repose m some similar institution: