NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Times, Volume V, Issue 115, 9 February 1881, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

Cattle Sale. — We would remind our readers that Messrs. Stevens and Gorton's sale will be held at the Borough Sale Yards this day. There will be a considerable amount af cattle and sheep yarded, and if previous sales are any criterion, we predict a busy day. Land m the Square.— We hare heard lately of prices being offered by would-be purchasers of town property, that have almost reached fche fabulous ; this augurs well for the future prosperity of this town, and proves that the greatest confidence exists that there is a bright future before it. Foresters' Hall. — We are pleased to see that the Foresters' Hall ia gradually wearing a more respectable appearance than hitherto. The contractors are pushing ou with their work of addition at the rear of the Hall, while the front certainly looks all the better for its coats of white paint so long needed. "The Taniwha."— The Taniwha is the name of a new monthly publication of a humorous character, just started m Wanganui. Few people could take up the new claimant, without discovering at a glan"e its special line, but we question if there are many who have the elighest idea as to wh-it, the Taniwha is, or the object from wh wla the journal takes its name. What that mythical monster, the Bunyip is to Australia th« Taniwha is m New Zealand. The Wesleyan Concert.— We undarstand that the concert for the benefit of the Wesleyan Church, has been definitely fixed to come off on Tuesday evening next. We have not seen the programme, but from our knowledge of the fact that some of the best Palmerstcs vocalists hare expressed their willingness to assist, we have not the slightest doubt but that it will be a most enjoyable entertainment, and trust to see a crowded bouse. Since the abore was m type we have received the programme for insertion m our advertising columns, upon reference to which it will be evident ihat there is every probability ef our most brlliant. anticipations being realised. Stoney Creek School. -- Through the courtesy of Mr. Squire, chairman of the Stoney Creek School Committee, we are m formed that it has been decided by the said Committee to recommend that Mr. James Honore, at present living m Wanganui, be appointed schoolmaster for the Stonev Creek School. Mr. Honore, who, we believe, ha 3 had charge of a school for some rears is a married man, and m every way thoroughly fitted to fill the post, and m the event of him accepting the offer, we think that, the Committee will have reason to congratulate themselves upon having secured the services of a thoroughly competent schoolmaster. A Clock Madb o» Bread. — Milan has a curiosity m a clock which is made entirely of'Jbraad. The maker is a Native of India, and hits devoted three years of his time to the ' construction of this curiosity He was very poor, and being without means to purchase the necessary metal, deprived himself regularly of his daily bread which he devoted to the construction of this curiosity, eating tha crust and earing the soft part for doing his work. He made use of certain salt to solidify his material, and when the various pieces were dry they were perfectly hard and insoluble i« water. Thi? clock is of rsspectable size, and goes well. The case, which is also of hardened bread, displays great talent ia design and axecution. Thi SllYßit CIOTTD. — On Saturday morning the tackle was again fastened to the Silver Cloud's masts, and the purchase being stronger than on Friday, the vessel immediately began to right. The block attached to the foremast tackle broke, and the sudden strain on the mainmast unstepped it. The mizzen tackle, however, held on, and though the schooner heeled over a little, the mischief was soon repaired. She lies with a flight list to the channel. To-day the contractors will process to take out part of the cargo, and when lightened an attempt to pump her will be made, so that she may be laid alongside the breastwork. If practicable, she will be repaired ' m Napier. — Hawkes Bay Herald. " The Times" Ukdbe the Lash.— When by a sudden reverse of fortune (says the Pall Mall Budget) the executioner m "Barnaby Rudge" found that his own turn had come, his cries were louder and more piercing than those of anybody else. The Times, like other newspapers, had been accustomed to do execution freely on public men of all sort« for a good many je&r§ ; and now, when Mr Kinglake ventures to apply the cat of bis satire to it, the Times flies into great heats about "impertinence," " vulgar charges," " deserved contempt," "lapse of gentlemanly feeling," " gossipping proclivities," '• feeble and childish burlesque," " creeping historian," and so on. When we turn to the two notes which provoke this terrible wrath, it is rather surprising that they should have stirred tantas iras m celestial minds. One describes how Mr Delane earned his living when he was a boy ; the other is a lively and harmless caricature of tie applications by whicli the editor of the Times is begged. It is surely good that those who are obliged to belabour other people should cultivate a certain comfortable thickness m their own skin, under penalty of making their friends smile at a sensitiveness which they do not much regard m others. Boiling Water m a Sheet of Papeb. — Nature is publishing a series of attractive articles on "Physics with .Apparatus." In the latest number are given experiments for boiling water and melting lead on a piece of paper. Take a piece of p per and fold it up as schoolboys do into a square box without. a lid. Hang this up to a walking stick upon a hook or other convenient prop. Then a Inmp or taper must be placea under this dainty cauldron. In a few minutes the water will boifc The only fear is lest the threads should catch fire and lot the water spill into the lamp and over the table. The flame must therefore not be too large. The pa,v3r does not burn, becwe it is wet ; and evenjf it resis'rad the wet, it still would not burn through, because tiie bent, imparted to it on one side by the flame, would be very rapidly conducted away by the wa',rnn the other. Another experiment of a similar nature, but perhaps oven more striking, is as follows : Twist up the erlges of a common playing card or other bit of corboard, so as to fashion it into a light tray. On this tray place a layer of small short or bits of lead. A Tramp Printeb. — A Scotch printer without a penny m his pocket arrived m Detroit one day last T^ek, after a few years' journey around the world. He sailed from

San Francisco as steward on a ship bound to Tokio, but m consequence of a quarrel with the officer was compelled to go on shore at the'Snndwich Wands. After setting type m the office of the Honolulu Gazette he was engaged as hostler to help take care of a stable of thirty hones that were being shipped to Melbourne. His stay m Australia lasted nearly a year, during which he walkpd through the various provinces and visited the bush, until m the fall of 1876 he shipped on a coasting ves«el at Hoburt, and for several months was knocked about; the West Indies. Shipwrecked, he was picked up by a merchantman, and was taken to the Suez canal. From Egypt he travelled as servant to English travellers, and, at a vagabond, through fche Holy Land, and as last brought up at Constantinople. In this way he went up the Danube, and during the summer of 1878 was a sailor before the mast on the Baltic sea. In the fall he travelled on foot to Geneva and Rome, whence he sailed to G-enoa, made his way to Madrid, and at last arrived m Paris m March, 1879. After working as a printer m job office several weeks he earned enough mon«y to pay his passage to London, and m July nailed from Liverpool to Havana and Charleston, South Carolina, where ha arrived about a year ago. Since that time he has tramped through most of the Eastern States, and it now on his way to San Francisco. As Elopement.— The Mount Ida Chronicle tfills of a remarkable elopement from an important township m the north-west part of that country. The most peculiar thing about, snys onr contemporary, is that the giddy pair are both married people; neither can be much shbrf of fifty ; and further, neither could ever possibly be seWl.erl by any artist however mad, a<» & modpl for a painting of Venus or of Appollo. The God of love seems to have awakened a fiery and unhallowed flame m them at a very advanced period of their lives, for it must have been no ordinary attachment that induced an elderly man to desert his wife, and a grandmother to leave l>er husband and her children m such a manner as this. It; is believed that the lady went via Blacks and Lawrence to Dtinedin, while Adonis journeyed via Pigront — taking with him, as a mark of esteem aud gratitude, a horse belonging to a gentleman »ho had befriended him for years, which he left at Palmerston. The guilty pair met m Dunedin, and the last that was heard of them was that they had left for the South, presumably with the intention of catching the steamer for Victoria which was then about to sail from the Bluff Vert Smaib People. — All London (says the Some News) is talking of the la9t wonder which has come to it — two morsels of humanity of the veritable LiliipuMnn type, which are now on show at Piccadilly. One weighs less than five pounds, aad the other barely nine, and both are a couple of feet high. The smallest., a lady, is a Native of Mexico. Bnd talks Spanish or English indifferently well ; the other, a gentleman hails from New York. It is difficult to imagine anything funnier than the appearance of th«se mites, walking tip and down their tiny stage, like animated dolls. Lucia, the lady, is about eighteen year 3 full of life and spirits. Tha least thing sends her off into a fit of merry laughter, and she is always ready to flirt and coquette with the spectators. Her face is distinctly Mexican m feature ; she has a very long and rather peaky nose, with a retreating chin and full lips. Her complexion is decidedly tawny ; tha little Yankee, although two I year 3 younger, is of graver aspect, as beI comes his gex, but he is ready to exchange je«ts with the public, and can hold his own well. Not tha least amusing part of the show is the dejection of Mr Commodore Nutt, the well-known Lilliputian, who is ut.terlv out-dwarfed, if we may coin the wori, by these almost in'Jnitesimal pigmies. His air is one of dejection, as though, m dwarfing, the line ought to be drawn at thr ; e feet and a half —his own height. These curious specimens of enthnological absurdity are making the tour of the world, and may be expected at the Antipodes m due cornea. Think, and let Think. — Since Henry Ward Beecher preached the funeral sermon of Theodore Parker he has not scandalised the orthodox of America so terribly as he did the other day when he eulogised Colonel Robert Inger3oll, the American, Mr Bradlaugh, and publicly shook hands with him, during the Presidential campaign, as tha Brooklyn Academy of Music. So much hubbub was occasioned by the incident that a New York Herald reporter was sent off first to ask Mr Beecher what he thought of Colonel In»ersoll. It is edifying to note the cordiality which exists hetween the leading representatives of theistic and anhiiheistic thought across the Atlantic. Of Mr Beecher, Colonel tngersoll said : " 1 regard him as the greatest man m :inv pulpit of the world. He has liberalised the English speaking world. He is a great thinker a marvellous orator, and m mv judgment, greater and grander than any creed or any church. Benirles all this, he treated me like a king. Manhood is his greatest forte, and I expect to live and die his friend." Mr Beecher was almost, as warm m his eulogy of Colonel IngarsoU. Ho regards him "as ono of the greatest men of the aga." While reijrptting that he i 3 no baliever m revealed religion, Mr Beecher maintained tha v . " on the broad platform of human liberty and progress, I was bound to give him the right hand of fellowship. I would do it a thousand times over. Colo> nel Ingersoll has the same right to free thought and free speech that I have. I am not that kind of a coward who has to kick a man before he shakes hands with him. I will not pitch into any man's religion as an excuse for giving him my hand. I admire Ingersoll because he is not afraid to speak what he honestly thinks, and I am only sorry that he doe? not think as I do." The Gtrey Mabb The Betteb Horse -Referring to the novel question which for a time troubled the Masonic fraternity at Waiknto, who, having arranged that His Excellency the Governor should take part, m the Masonic ceremonial of laying the foundation stone of the Cambridge Church, found after all arrangements were made that His Excellency was not a Mason the New Zealaud Herald «ays : — ''A celebrated case of this kind is on record. Some thirty years ago Prince Alberi was to lay the foundation-stone of the New National Galleries at Edinburgh. Her Majesty was m Edinburgh at the time, and the ceremonial was to be a very grand one. But then, as now, it transpired at almost the lust moment that the chief personage was not a brother of the mystic craft. Great was the consternation. The Masonic body is Btrong m Scotland, and to cut them out would maim the rites, and seriously interfere with the display. But they would not yield so as to take part m a ceremonial where the stono would be bid by one, however eminent, who was not a Mason. They offered to put Prince Albert through all the Hdessary* degrees on the very morning when the stone was to he laid. But he would not submit to the ordeal, and it was said that he was prevented by his wife, Her Majesty, who would not allow him to become privy to a'tiy secrets whi<-h he could not divulge to her. The difficulty was found to be insuperable, and the thing had to be done without the Masons. The nffiiir created a great deal of stir at the time, but Prince Albert had not the boldness, as Mr Candle had to became a Masou."