The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1884.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1484, 17 December 1884, Page 2

The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1884.

The members of the Heather Bell Lodge, are requested to meet at 'he Lodge Room, on Thursday at 3.30 p.m., for the purpose of attending the funeral of their deceased brother A. Stephenson. This evening Woodward's Japanese Troupe open in the Oddfellow's Hall, and judging from the ' opinions of the press they should not fail to draw a f <A\ house, as the performance is one that for s\ill cannot be equalled, the play-going public should therefore not miss the opportunity of seeing; them. The 'Timaru Herald' is responsible for the following : — The late session was unusually fruitful of good stories, in more than one of which Sir George Grey figures conspicuously." The best of all these, perhaps, is also the latest. On the day after the prorogation steamers we leaving both for North and for South with the members who had stayed for t^e finish, and Sir George Grey and Mr Pyke met on the wharf, on tlie eve of embarkation •* Good-bye. Sir George," said Mr Pyke. "We shall meet auain next session." "I don't know, Pyke," replied Sir George, cautiously. "Wo may ; but then what I mean to say is, we may not." " Well, if we don't meet at Wellington we shall meet in the next world." "I hope not, Pyke" --with an air of pity not unmingied with alarm " What T mean to say is, I hope not ! Well, good-by ; good-bye. And before Mr Pyke had time to recover himself sufficiently to think of a repartee the j veteran wason board the Northern steamer 'on his way to Auckland. Mr Pyke says he hopes they will meet again in this world, if only to give him a chance of his revenge. The chairman of the West Coast of America Telegraph Company reports an attack made by a larse whale on a tele graph cable. He voluntarily attacked the cable, and havinsrhad a free ficht with it. paid for his temerity with his life, for he was held prisoner for seven days, and then mangled unto death. The captain of the repairing steamer write 3 : — " Having picked up twenty-one knots of cable, and, while continuing picking up, an immense whale came to the bows entangled in the cable. It seemed to me to be about 70 feet in length. In its struggles to get free, the cable cut right | into the its sides, the whole of its entrails coming out, and great streams of blood. In its last dying struggle it parted the cable and floated to windward of the steamer. The cable was twisted up in the form of a wire rope for about two fathoms, and in six different parts it had the appearance of having been bitten through sufficiently to stop all communication. There is no doubt the whale had been the cause of interruption." A Home paper stages that Captain Dudley, of the Mignonette, was, prior to his disastrous voyage, a resident of Sutton, Surrey, where he carried on business as a greengrocer, in partnership with a man named Smich. His wife is mistress of the girl's department, Newton Board Schools, and although she had a telegram informing her of her husband's ( safety, she was not aware of the terrible sufferings he had undergone until she read the sad story in the newspapers. It is said that Captain Dudley hesitated considerably before he would accept the charge of the vessel, but that the terms offered — which were, it is understood, £100 down and another £100 on arrival at Sydney— finally tempted him to undertake the command. The experiments with the new rifle which it is proposed to put in the hands of the regular troops, in place of the Martini- Henry, are now completed, and though the new weapon is a little heavier (about six ounces) than the MartiniHenry, it is claimed for it that it possesses advantages over the rifles used by Continental armies ; its muzzle velocity being 1,570 feet ier second, while its penetrative power is shown in the fact that a bullet from it will pieroe a J-inch iron plate at 200 yards. Among other advantages of .the new rifle— the breach-action of which is the same in principle as the Martini-Henry — are these : — "To prevent the inconvenience experienced in holding the- rifle when the barrel ia Seated by

long-sustained or rapid firing, a handguard is fitted to it. The leaf of the back sight ia graduated and marked on the left aide in ranges from 600 to 1,600 yards. The long lines on the righf side divide these ranges into half-hundreds t and the short lines into quarters ; so that there \b a line for every V.b yards between the hundreds from the 500 yards and upwards. A wind-gauge is attached to the slide, and moves in either direction. A back-sight for long range is fixed to the whole of the experimental barrels, and a long-range for sight from 1,000 to 2.C00 yards is issued with each rifle, secured to the upper band by a spring. Two quickloaders, each holding six cartridges, are also issued with the rifle, which when required for use are hung on the side of the body of the action. This quick-loader is acted upon by a zigzag spring, which always presses one cartridge to the opening in a convenient position for the soldier to luad by the pressure of the spring forcing the bullet up the inclined plane." The present service weapon, the MartiniHeury, was adopted for the army in ISGO. -St. James' Budget. Sour stomach, bad breath, Indigestion, "and^ headache easily cured by Hop Bitters