THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, JULY 11, 1881.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 11 July 1881, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, JULY 11, 1881.

Some of onr North Island contempnr* arles Bre making very merry over the farcical *• Counties Conference," lately sitting in Wellington. This is what a Wellington paper says on tlie subject : — " Some little merriment has been caused by the vagaries of the great local bodies convention, which passed a ' resolution in favor of a subsidy of pound 'for pound for new works, the Solons evidently forgetting thntth9 Coldnial Treasurer last session offered tbem £3 for £U The modesty or the ignorance of these gentlemen is astonishing. Tbey began their deliberations by proposing to restore the tea and sugar duties, and ended by tbe above futile p-dposnl," Tbe Rangitikei Advocate' lets the light thoroughly into the constitution of this imposing conference. It says :— The Manawatu Conn- i cil sent circulars to sixty- three County Councils, sixty-five borough councils, two hundred and ninety-three highway boards, and twenty«one local boards — that is to say, 442 in all ; 63 declined to send delegates, 1 and 22 agreed to send delegates,' no answer whatever being received from the remaining 357. Thus it will be seen that 442 circulars were; sent oat, 85 replies were received, wdjttjy 22 of ttifeke were fayorjihle* We hfive all heard of fne three taflmfi of Tooley-stseet who gravely said ' We, the 1 people of England," • Well, the action of Mr Macarthur's < conference ' is not a whit less ludicrous tban that of the immortal tailors. Even supposing that the whole 22 delegates' who promised to attend, actually did pot in an appearance, would tbey bate the impudence to pretend that in any representations made to Parliament they expressed the opinions of tbe four hundred and forty«two local bodies of New Zealand ? There bave been conferences in the Colony before, but Mr Macarthur's ' conference ' is the sorriest farce that has ever yet been perpetrated iti tbe s name of the local bodies of New Zealand A A>Ve have no doubt that those (non represented)' bddies, generally, will resent the whole proceedings as being calculated to bring our local institutions into contempt in the eyes of all men of common sense."

It is proposed to inaugurate a series of penny-reading entertainments, under the auspices of the local Fire Brigade. The idea was borached at the brigade meeting on last Friday evening, and will be further dealt with at the next meeting. It was also decided to give a brigade ball at an early date. The local share market continues to show signs of vitality, and during the past week there has been considerable demand for Golden Treasures, Keep«it*Darks. and other leading stocks. The letter of " Veritas " reache3 us too late for insertion to-day, but will appear, though in an abridged form, in our Wednespay's paper. Mr Moore, baker, elsewhere announces that he will supply tbe public with tbe four pound loaf for nine-pence, cash. Mr T. Moor, carter, came near losing a valuable draught horse yesterday. The animal fell into one of the gravel-pits in Ranftistreet,and but for timely assistance would assuredly have been killed. But with tbe help of a number of willing hsnds the horse was hauled oat without serious injury. The statement that so many inches of rain haye fallen in a given time, convejs a very faint idea of the forces which have really been at work. Reduced to 'tons and gallons we get abetter idea bf what has happened. An inch of rain means that on every acre over which the fall extends a little more than 100 tons of water have been deposited, and on every square mile 64,000 tons'. The 2 4 inches that fell during the' recent storm, thereforerepresent 240 ton* per acre and 153,600 per square mile. The amount in gallons would be 53,760 per acre, and 34,406,400 per mile. Remembering that the storm extended over many thousands of square miles, the total rainfall in gallons would assume the proportions of an astronomical calculation. The following fabulous story in connection with ' the 'jipas tree'is told '—Some 90 years ago, t)r Foerscb, a Dutch (Holland) surgeon, living in Sava, discribed the tree as growing in a desert with no other thing growing near it for a dozen miles, because the exhalation it emitted,' co coutamiriatfd the atmosphere that neither plant nor animal could approach nearer to the upas without suC'ering the

penalty of immediate death. He also speaks j of criminals condemned to die, being given the alternative of being executed or of going to the upas free to collect some poison, when if they returned alive, they were pardoned. Through provided with every precaution, only an aver'ge of ono in ten returned. On account of civil dissentions some 1600 pco* pie were compelled to reside within fourteen miles of the upas tree, and in less than two months only 200 remained alive. ' There are no fish in the waters, nor lias any rat, mouse, or any other vermin been seen there ; and when any birds fly so near this tree that the effluvia reaches them they fall a sacrifice to the effect of the poison.' These and many other ridiculous stories, as false as they are novel, have deen circulated at the expense of the upas tree. In the face of all these absurd stories not only is the poison sought after and used, but even the fibre of the bark of the tree is made into cloth br tbe nntives. And it is asserted that the flesh of animals killed by upas poison may be eaten with perfect safety. JThe Census of 1881 reveals the fact that a decrease in the population of rural parishes in the w.£st of Eng'and is going on with a rapidity that threatens almost depopulation. A large fortune has been left to the Duchess of Edinburgh by her .Jgjber, the Ctjar Alef-nder ' IL^^^wie^hf karbeeb proved/ The personality consists of 48,000,000 roubles, lying to the ciedit of the CzaHritta some London bankers. Forty-«ght millions is a large sura, especially in pounds sterling. The amount may be put roundly at -£4.800,000. His late Majesty paid perhaps an unconscious compliment to the stability of the English order of things when he selected London bankers for taking care of his immense wealth. About three miles from Clear Lake, Napa county, California, and near the borax lake, is a sulphur bank. 20 to 30 acres in extent and 40 feet deep. This is sufficiently pure for use in the San Francinoo mint. Nottinghampshire possesses a parish which must be nearly, if not quite untoue. It contains only one house, inhabited by one family (four brothers), who seem to comply with the forms required for parochial' law. They appointed one of their number overseer, another parish constable, &o , and then made their own rate. Unluckily, they quarrelled lately, and fought with farming utensils, and the magistrates of Bingham have, in consequence, sent the parish of Lodge-oa«the-wolds to prison for two months. A sale of a ranch and stock in Mexico for £80.000 is characterise in the American papers as the largest stock sale ' that has ever taken place in the world.' What, asks an Australian contemporary, would our American cousins say to the quarter of a million paid by Sir Samuel Wilson some years ago for Ercildoun, the smallest of hit Australian pastoral properties. Horrible incidents (says a Home paper) have n grim knack of repeating themselves in Russia. The painful details of Jeliaboff's execution at St Petersburg can hardly fail to call to mind tbe ghastly tragedy which was enacted m that city shortly after the. accession of Czar Nicholas to lhe*Bassian throne. Four leaders of the abortive insurrection which broke out Upon that occasion, and was mainly quelled by the Emperor's heroic conduct, were subsequently hanged. One of them, strange to say, was the grandfather of Procureur Muravieff, who conducted the State prosecution against the Nihilists implicated in the assassination of Alexander 11. As in the case of Jelioboff the other day, the rope to which Muravieff was suspended broke when the executioner oast him from the ladder, and the unfortunate man fell heavily to the ground, breaking his leg. As he was being lifted towards the gallows, to which a fresh rope had been hastily fitted and noosed for his second suspension, Relejeff, another of the doomed insurrectionists, there awaiting his turn to be strangled, exclaimed in a loud voice, heard by many of the horrified spectators, * What can be expected of a state in which even the hangman does not know his business ?' These bitter and ominous words were his last. A few seconds later his lifeless corpse was swinging by. tbat of the wretched Muravieff, whose dreadful death scene has so recently been reproduced, with Jeliabofi for its tortured hero, by merciless and bungling functionaries of Russian Justice. Mr Joseph Ivess has commenced business in Ashburton as auctioneer and commission agent. We extract the following passage from a letter received from Wellington :— ' Mr Chap* pell, engineer of the 5.9 Hawea, gives a good report of Mr Pell's coul. He thinks it is best he ever burned in New Zealand. Ho can keep up a good head of steam with it, and use one hundred weight per hour less than any other coal he ever used, and there is no dirt, or anything to say against it. Altogether he says it is much better than Newcastle, and he seems very pleased with it. The people here are very anxious to know when the coalfield is going to be opened up to the public, and all about it.' The extraordinary degree of heat found in the depths of the great Comstock mine. Nevada, has drawn a good deal of attention to the causes of internal heat in mines and springs. The particular case is one which it is not possible to explain on any general theory of increase of temperature in proportion to depth, M to it is local conditions. The explanation offered is, that the hea i« produced by the decomposition of the deposits of ion pyrites found fn the mine. A writer in the newspaper (Virginia Enterprise), published in the capital of Nevadi, affirms that over the whole area of country which is underlain by the iron pyrites deposits a process of slow combustion is in operation, and can be traced by the appearance of the hot springs which make their way to the surface. He also asserts that there are indications that in parts of the country thecoma bust ion has burned' out. As it spreads, according to this writer, its advanco isj shown by (be breaking out' of new 'springs bf hot water and' steam, and the burning out is proved by the cessation of this activity, and the disappearance of the springs. The foi*

owing on this subject is wo-th quoting :— • At Steamboat Springs we probably see a big rainerul vein (like tbe Comstock) in procees of formation. Ages ago there was probably a line of hot sprincs along the course of the Comstock The mines of Europe and Mexico, which are comparatively cold at great depths, arc undoubtedly ages and ages older than the Comstock. The Comstock is probably the youngest mine in any part of the world that is now known or being worked. Here, down in our lower levels, we aro following close upon the heels of nature— getting well down mi to her workshop. As to the hcaNgenerating power of sulphur and iron, those who desire to do so may satisfy themselves. . Take a few pounds of iron filings, borings, and drillings from a machine shop, wet them, and mix in a pound or two of sulphur, then tamp the mixture firmly into a hole in the ground — like a post hole — covering it with two or three inches of dirt, and in a short time there will be seen a miniature volcano, the batch of iron and sulphur taking fire spontaneously,' A return issued to an order of the House of Commons shows tbat the total quantity of coals, cinders, and patent \ fuel exported from the United Kingdom iuV the year 1880 was 18,719,971 tons of -the f declared value of £8372 933. In England and Woks the largest export. 6.lß^o39Hons.^jaf i^ f J___f^ <<jf £2 447,746 from Oiirdifr Newcastle came next highest, exporting 4.496,379 tons, of tbe value of £1,863,173. The only other ports which shipped upwards of. a million tons were Sunderland and Newport. In Scotland, Kirkcaldy had the largest export— sl3 235 tons, of the value of £185,527. Bo'ness exported 287,141, value £102,656; Glaseow 253,629 tons, value £116,184; and Leitb 198,098 tons, value £112,315. The total export from Ireland was only 783 tons. The largest foreign consumers were France, which took 3,715,762 tons ; Germany, which imported 2,242,064 tons ; and Italy, which received 1,534,765 tons.