MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 27 February 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Wellington correspondent of the West Coast Times writes j— ln eonneo tion vrith journalism, one of the most singular appointments it has ever been my fortune to have cogn'zance of was made the other day, in the installation of Mr Charles Woolcock, lately M.H.R, for Grey Valley, and once upon a time Ibe Provincial Secretary in your then-pro-vince, as editor of the Eangitikei Ad» vocate. It is difficult which to admire most, whether the retiring modesty of the newly-created editor, in accfpting a position for which he is about as much fitted as he would be to the captaincy of an ironclad, or the blind confidence of the proprietors of .he journal in question. As nearly all in Westland know, Charles' literary experience is of the thinnest kind, he never was on a*»newspaper in his life, and all of his efforts at composition have been limited to prosy letters on dry political subjects. The Advocate is rumored to be partly the property of Sir William Fox, and whether this be the case or not, it is certain that that ex« statesman has great ir fluence in it, and it is the vehicle through which be publishes all his lucubrations. Through Lim and the Ministry, Mr Woolcock has had what must prove a most uncomfortable post conferred, the tenure of which must be necessarily very brief, unless some new, and as yet undiscovered, journalistic resources be developed in him. I hare no doubt that the surprise evoked from West Coasters here will be echoed by your readers when they bear of the ex* member's latest undertaking. The New York World states that on the 22nd October, a Chair for instruction in Chinese was established in Harvard University. At first sight, the need of the study of formless Chinese at classic Cambridge may not be apparent, but it must be remembered that the wealth of many of the Brahims of Beacon street was built up out of the ' China trade,' and that the pithy sayings and doctrines

of Kung futze, the most sagely' ancient teacher, have long been discussed and accepted in the radical parlours of Chestnut street. Tbuß, reasons bare existed for somg, time for the study of Chinese, and the es abliehznent of the Chair is not the result of novel agitation, For some years past Harvard graduates bare occasionally gone to China to engage in various official duties. E, P. Drew, of-' the class of '63, who wit Prances I. Knight has been mainly instrumental ; ,j founding this instructorship, has attained a high position in the Chinese Customs service, which has been filled with foreigners, principally English. Id 1874, Drew chose three young men of that year's class to enter this service, and their career has been so successful that the Chinese Government desire to procure more. The purpose of the Chair is to afford opportunities for students who desire to study Chinese literature and history, for those who desire to enter official life in Obina, for those who propose- to , snicr on businpss in certain porfa, and for those who propose becoming missionaries. The form of language to be studied m the Mandarin official dialect. This is toe ■ lingua "Romana of the Chinese. It is thf language of officials and educated men, and is also understood iv the north* eastern part of the empire, and particularly in the trading ports of Shanghai, Fang-Tze, Cheefoo, and Tifci-Tsin. To a majority of the Chinese people, however, the Mandarin diilecfc is about as Intel* ligible 83 that of a London lawyer to a Highland shepherd. The tomb of Benjamin Disraeii, the grandfather of the present Prime Minister, has recently been repaired, and the inscription, recufc and repainted. Ben* jamin Disraeli was buried in the Spanish and Portuguese Cemetery in the I Tileend road. He was the founder of the family in England, ani having realised a fortune ia business, retired to a life of luxurious and elegant ease at Grade m House, Bucks. It has not transpiu.. at who&e orders the tomb has been re» paired, the instructions coming through an influential member of the Sephardic congregation worshipping ia Bevis Marks, but considering that some amount of mystery has been maintained concerning the real source of the instructions, there can be little doubt that they originated with Lord Boaoonsfield. Curiously enough, however, the tombstone of the "Prime Minister's grandmother in the same cemetery ha 3 nofc been touched, although it is in a very dilapidated state. The inscription on Benjimin Disraeli's tomb, which is as follows, can now be distinctly read :— " Sacred to the memory of Berjamin Disraeli. Born 22nd September, 1750 ; died 28 h November, 1816. He was an affectionate husband, father., friend,' Mr H. Barbley publishes in the Times some intelligence from Bulgaria which might make a third-rate English squire's mouth water. He has recently been offered 3COO acres of de*.p alluvial soil, able to grow anything, and within two miles cf a port on the Danube, for £60 0. " As a further inducement to purchasers, a farm-house, extensive farm buildings, two s'eana thrashing-machines, a steammill, 1200 sheep, 100 oxen and cow 3, and a drove of horses, are thrown in. Large oak woods cover a part of the land, which, I am informed, might be cat and sold, to cover the entire cost of the estate.' There are man? suoh estates in the market, an 1 labour is cheap and good, while deer, wild boar, part ridges, black game, and all kinds of waterfowl, abound. There U a prospect for a young squire, with £10,000, good health, plenty of energy, and no hope of I doinc? anything in this overstocked country ! He will, however, we imagine, go to New Zealand, and leave Bulgaria to : the painstaking German, who will enter it, as be does Poland, civilise it, nnd become as bated as the Englishman in India or West Ireland. A gentleman in Auckland, not ex» tremely given to piety, was dismayed by being asked to say grace »t a strange table. To refuse and explain would be embarrassing ; to comply would be equally so. He chose the Jattor aud started off brisk enough wiih "Oh Lord bless this table"— Juat here, being unused to the business, he near! broke down, but, by a gigantic effort, palled through with ' World without end. Yours respectfully amec." Among several unpublished anecdotes of the Emperor, Nicholas, related by a Eussian contemporary, is the following ; One day the Emperor, who was one of the strictest and most inflexible ofdiseipii* narians, met, in a street in St. Petersburg a drunkea dragoon, who was riding in a droschky, and angrily asked the soi.Mer what he was doing. The imminju .( his danger partially sobered the laucr. He rose in his carriage drew his sword, and saluting the Caar, said s " I'm taking a drunken soldier to the guard -room.^pur Majesty.' The Emperor Nicholas somed gave the soldier a five-rouble pieoe, and told the coachman to drive him, not to the guard room, but hom<\ Tbe schooner Energy brings Levuka papers to the 4th insr. The brig Tiolet reached Fiji in distress in leaky condition. After consultation, the several shipmasters on the island deemed it advisable to haul her up on the beach to. ascertain what re» pairs were necessary. After taking her off the beach she was worse than ever, being broken amidships. After this the shipmasters condemned her, and she was sold by auction to Messrs Herns and Co.

for 900 dollars, who hauled her on to the beach and broke her op. A rich childless me-cl^nt io Russia, has bfqueathed hi; w'-o's fur ans, amounting to 600.00 C -rc'^hx, co the girl Vera Zassn'i'r'i, well &ao*n for "ier Rttack on Go-"-*-*' Trepoff. In the conn;? if remarlrs in b»3 lecture Hi Chris^cburc ■, Mj Mosiey said : — ' Genera ! lv s^/cuLiaer. tbe conversion of s. .'-rfis fi'tn tie Cjq eh of Poree soon becomes noiojiou^, but stiv.nff? o say Pastor Chiniqay's uumeious ccnve'sions were unheard of. The lecturer tS eu „.d some amusiu£[ extracts from an Aaseiicae paper, which went to show that the Bey. Father Chiniquy Iml expended a large j amount of money collected by him od | bis own farm, and also that ? commitfee of townspeople in a certain coiintj had resented the Pastor's anneal for distress in that particular eouniy. which bap pened to be remarkably weli off. The conversions of Father Cbimqay. he pro eeeded to say, were most imaginary, and he then »aye some disclosures made in pampiiiet- publisbed in Canada, which iffflecipd ujon the character of the Pastor, not oaly indicating that a great many » of bis assertions were absolutely uutrue. but tbat he had associated with him in his mission men of highly immoral and notoriously bad character. After giving a few more anecdotes, which were rather amusing in character, Mr Mosley concluded by hoping that he had proved to the satisfaction of the andience al l as had promised, and said he should be satisfied if he had succeeded in calling forth kind" Her feelings towards the country from which he hailed.' V