MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 12 May 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

A well-known citizen of Brooklyn, United States, alike renowned for his wealth and eccentricity, died a few weeks ago, and bit last will and testament waa found by his sorrowing relatives, with whom he bad bees at odds daring bis life, to contain Übe following curious b quest : ♦•I own seventy-one pairs of trousers. It ft my desire that they be sold by public auction after my death, and tnaHhe pro* dad of their sale !>e distributed among the deserring poorof my parisb. Tbey mast, however, be disposed of severally to different bidders, no single individual being permitted to purchase more than one pair.** These directions were duly earned ont by the heimat-law. The terenty*one pairs of trovers were sue* eestivelr knocked down to seventy-one purchasers, and their price was banded over to the parochial authorities. A fewdays after the sale one of th« hovers took it into bis head to make a careful examination of bit newly-acquired property, and found a small canvas bag neatly sewn up in the waitt-ban-l* Upon open* in* this bag an agreeable surprise met hi* ga**, m the shape of ten one hundred dollar notes. The tidings of this amazing discovery spread like wildfire throughout Brooklyn and New York, and each fortunate possessor of a pair of these precious pantaloons was rejoiced to find bis investigations rewarded by the acquisition of a stun equivalent to two hundred poanda sterling. It appears that the eccentric testator's heirs have instituted proceeding* to recover the amounts secreted by him m the linings of hia tronters from Ate present proprietors of tbose garments, oil the ground that be was obviously oat of his mind when he made such an insensate will. Messrs Williams, Overbury* and Co. have just published a decennial return of the number of bales of wool im« ported into Great Britain from each and all of the colonies of Australasia ; and while this shows that from 1870 to 1879 the total number has increased by one-third, ™> from A19.402 biles m 1870 to 827jflM^^^R79. the increase of J^gfl^^^^^^HQ'ieeosland wool aV^^^^^^^H? 352 to 183.707 one fourth, Bach and shows do these two. from Tie* to 30&.814 eofoaies, dor* have 17.346 to 68 545 to 6298 balea amHPsJl^^r Zealand, 106,90Qt0> 184.877 bales. 9n ftr as the figures for New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria are concerned, they can htrdly be taken as representing the prodacftto* of the wool of these colonies. A Urge quantity of New South Wales and some Queensland wool, which goes to Melbourne and is shipped thence to Lon=« din, is represented as the produce of Victoria.! And thus it is that the small territory of the Southern colony ia credited with a production of wool more than one»third m excess of that vast I area of gracing land m this colon?, and 1 Queensland. Then has probably been a larger increase m the production of 1 wool m these two colonies than m Vie toria ; but the latter; colony/, with her railway extensions, has secured a still greater share of it than formerly fe* the trade of Melbourne. But, putting the figures of the three eastero eonaiea of Australia m eomparaoa with thoae of the other colooiw, they do not show an invreaae proportionately as great. New Jfcahjnd, m 1873, was credited with a production of wool within 4000 bales ac Urge as that of New South Walsa and Queensland united.* ;