MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 12 March 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

♦ RegaHing the numerical strength of the Maoris, Cap'ain G. W. Wood, of the New Zealand Militia, writes as follows : — The correspondent of the New Zealand Herald on this coast is resr>onsible for a statement which may cause unnecessary anxipty and alarm. He sajs that o\6 sellers assure him that between Wanganui a>d the White Cliffs 3000 Natives, capable of bearing arms, could be raised at forty-eight honrs' notice. Twenty years ago, when the war broke out at Tarannki, a combined movement of the tribes on this coast was made against New Plymouth. Every man, ol<l and young (. nd raanv ot the women) mustered • to drive the patteha into the Taranaki roadstead' Well do I remember our anxious state of mind when our littlp tows, after erery outset tier had been driven inside the trenches, and with its handful of military and civilian force, had to hold its own against the beleaguers ing horde of blood thirsty savages, whn had commpneed their operations by cutting iiowo two helpless boys in cod blood on the outskirts of the town. The foal combined force of the Natives, including a contingent from the Waikato. did not exceed 1210 men. All who could carry a musket or wield a tomahawk came, and they were made up as follows : — Taranaki tribes, 430; Ngatiruanui and Ngnraurn (Waifotara), 580; Waikato contingent and tril>es north of Nevr Plymouth 200 After their losses in the war (and it is a well-known fact that the Natives on the Coast suffered terribly in various engagements) and from disease since 1860, T am outside the mark when I say that it would he an extremely difficult matter to bring 500 fitting men at the present moment into the field. I may venture to cay that even twenty years ago it was no easy matter to take 300 Maoris into action at any given spot. It is not of»en (ssys the Wanganui Chronicle) tradespeople are called upon t > make change for a hundred pound note and i* is quite as rare an occurrence for the necessity to arise. If might have been the rise in wool, or the floating of the five million loan, or a legacy from a deceased uncle, or something of that kind, which caused several shopkeepprs to be taken aback one day last week, by tt£ unusual cili upon their ' floating^u^^H in the shape of a £100 nnt^j^^^^^H them by a well-known Jj^^^^^^^^^H tee, who at last went JJl^^^^^^^^^^H the Fire Brigade's^^^^^^^^^^^H planked the big n J^^^^^^^^^^^^H dividend on an es^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H half-a-crown equal to the occ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H in his pocket u^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^| rousd nest change. A ph^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H face at this j'm^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H next year's Coj^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H whs settled at lasc^^^^^^^^^^^^^^f a cheque for the c <^^^^^^^^^^^^^| minus his hundred^p^^^^^^^^^^^H gone off when least exp^J^^^^^^B seen of this strange mone'ary phenWn^^P tvas in the hand* of one of our leading jewellers, who had possibly borrowed it for an hour two, much in the same way as 'Arrr borrows his friend's diamond ring when going out to give the ladies a treat! Udolpho Wolfe, the artful gin advertiser, states that one bottle out of e7ery hundred contains an order on the agents for £1 under the protection wrapper. Until recently this statement has been received with some eution, but a dis tinguished Portonian victualler actually found the order, presented it, and got the money. Since then all the bonifaces have taken to tearing off the Wolfe labels themselves, and I hope soon to record another find. Every pound is of assistance in these times, even to a boniface. A singular instance of good lurk lias (says the Tuapeka Times) been reported to us as having occurred to Mr Lyori. a boot and shoe maiter of Tapanui. That gentleman is said to have both last year and this drawn the highest przes in a Dunedin £1000 sweep. When the noble author of ' South Sea Bubbles' was in Auckland he bought a schooner, as she stood, for £5000 cash. The former owner Mr Hiram, wont and insurer!, the vessel in his own name, for £4000, applied for the siiua in of masti-r, got it, nnvign'ed the ship on to a coral te^f, wre-ke«t her, went t>.ck and got Ins £4000, and vmished. You cannot fepi annoyed with ill ram, or despise him.

You merely regret that his abilities were not lamed into proper channels.— ' Pass* ing Notes ' in Otago Witness. The Bank of England stock of paid notes for fire yeats number about £58, 000 COO, and their original value was over £2,200,003000, and their weight eighty tons. The notes fill 13,000 boxes, which. if placed side*by*side. would reach two and a«quarter miles, and were the notes placed in a pile they would reach to a height of five miles ; or if joined end to end would form a ribbon 11,000 miles I long ; while as regards their extent it is rather less than that of Hyde Park, At the end of October last, ia the city of New York, a sale of nearly a hundred trotting horses took place. So attractive was the sale that several thousand persons attended, breeders being present from nearly every state in the Union. The horses had been bred by a New York publisher (Mr Bonner.) This enthusiastic gentleman has a stud farm some miles from New York, where he breeds these kind of animals for pleasure, never, it would appear, allowing them to go on a race course. The stock offered were all first«class, but they did not bring the prices anticipated— the highest prico for a horse being 4000 dollars and the lowest 140 dollars. They were knocked down at prices ranging from 200 to 1500 dollars. Professor Saceardo, of Paiua, con« tinaes his interesting experiments of artificially coloring the corolla of fl»wers. There is nothing new in the plan, but the matters employed are original. He simply causes the plant to drink certain colored solutions — aniline ehi«fly, which penetrating the tissues, modify color — in fact, dye the nervelets and veins of the corol'a. Gardners are aware that by mixing iron filings with the soil around hortensios the latter received a blue tin. The roots of pansies and stocks dipped in a solution of green aniline become colored in th^ir fliwers in 15 minutes, but the plant di:s in the course cf a week. Watering the soil with a colored solution does no good, as the earth aba sorbs the coloring matter. A very interesting document was handed to a reporter of a Weltingtoa -^ paper the other dav. It was a bill that was made out in Wellington ia the year 1842. The wages for carting shingle, <&c. t per day, were 30s; turkeys were sold at 16s; geese brought 10s each; fowls 'Bs ' per pair; butters'* 9d per Ib. Io those days very long tick was given, as this is 'fated from January 1842, to December ** 25 h in the same year. It is computed that over a million sterling is annually made out of the mungo iind shoddy trade; and that as much cloth is made every year from old rags, with a proper admixture of low wools, as would supply the whole of the adult population of Great Britain with a new « sui', and all the women with a good sized - ) clcth jacket, and all the children with one suit or dress. — Wool Trade Review.