MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 14 May 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

* _ The fortieth body recovered from the ruins of the Tay Bridge was (says the Pal Mall Budget) brooght ashore at Dundee on Thursday afternoon, March 11th. It is identified by the clothing as that of George Taylor, a raason, 20 years of age. The Dundee Free Presbytery on Wednesday, by 15 votes to 13, adopted an overture to the General Assembly, acknowledging the hand of God in the Tay Bridge disaster, and asking the Assembly to devise means for removing temptations to Sunday travelling and traffic. In the course of a lively discussion, one speaker said he regarded the disaster as a judgment of God upon mers cnntjle trickery in building a bad bridge. At ja meeting of the North British Railway Company, held in Edinburgh last week, Mr Stirling, the Chairman, said 'that, whatever might come out in the shape, of evidence, he could assure the meeting that the Directors were perfectly ignorant of any defect in the Tay Bridge. They believed the work was done well, and they paid the money for it without stint. A Norwegian paper states that some fishermen, on the 12th of February, found off the coast of an island on the western coast of Norway a damaged railway waggon, with the words c Edin bargh and Glasgow Railway ' painted on it. It is supposed to be one of the waggons separated from the train which met with the disaster on the Tay Bridge. In the carriage was a portmanteau' containing clothing, some of which was marked 'P.B. Lord Derhy. in a speech delivered before the Huddersfield Chamber of Com* merce recently, uttered the following re* markuble sentences : — *' Do you think that emperors, and grand-dukes, and areh»dakes, fieldsmarshals, and tremend* ous personages of that sort, really want the manufacturing industries of their empires to be deyeloped ? Do you suppose that it would suit them to have to do with an intelligent, keen-wftted, active, well to do population, such as our northern towns in England contain ? They ! are not such fools. They know fheir business better. What they want is something quite different— a peasantry ! hungry enough at home to find the ordi*nary, life of a private soldier rather agreeable than otherwise, and submissive enongh to shoot their own brothers, if ordered without asking why. '' Large crops of potatoes Would seem to be prevalent in all parts of the Waikato district. We haye heard of as many as 19 tons to the acre having been obta ; ne I in one instance up country ; but even jn parts of the district which have not the reputation enjoyed by the land of Pukes etmu and Te Awamutu the crops are excellent. Half-way between Hamilton and Ngafuawabia land is comparatively cheap and les3 thought of than in many parts' of Waikato, yet . at Pukete Mr Hall: has a seven or eight acre paddock in potatoes, which will plough in no part less than 13, and in most parts of it 35, tons of potatoes to the acre. — Waikato Times. The revenue received this year fromd sale of pews in H. W. Beeeher's P^H mouth Church, New York, atnount^^B forty thousand two hundred and eh^^M nine dollars. Even then the aisle were not' sold. Burns' birthday was celebrated^H London on January 24th by an orchaH tral and vocal concert in St. James' ha)O The vast hall was crowded, and popular songs and ballads of Scotland were given amidst considerable enthusiasm. The Scottish Choral Society supplied the chorus. Several remarkable seas — including inland seas, some of them connected and some not connected by straits with still larger seas — are now definable in the southern faetnispliere of the planet Mars, in which, as in the case also with the Earth, water seems to be much more widely spread than in the northern hemisphere. There is for example, a southern sea exceedingly like the Baltic in shape; and there is another and still more remarkable sea, now defined by the observation of many astronomers — one neap the equator, a long straggling arm, twisting almost in the shape of a Salaid on its back, from east to west, at least 8000 miles in length, and 1000 miles in breadth. During his speech, in proposing Mr Halcombe's health at a late banquet, Mr M'Donald informed those present that he had just heard that the Prince and Princess of Wales took a great interest in the success of the Feilding settlement, and had sent a number of articles, accompanied by their autograpLs for sale at the gift auction to be held on behalf of the Anglican Church at Feilding^ — Manawatu Herald. A proud parson and his man, riding over a common, saw a shepherd tending his flock in a new coat. The parson asked, in a haughty toue, vrlio gare him the coat ? ' The same people,' said the

h 'pherd, ' that clothe you— the parish/ Ttie parson, nettled a little, rode on murmuring a considerable way, and sent his man back to ask the shepherd if be would come and live with him tor he wanted a fool, The man went to the shepherd accordingly, and delivered his master's message, concluding that his master really wanted a fool. * Are yea gi'v g away, then ?' said the shepr herd. * No,' answered the other. * Then you may tell your master,' replie i the shepherd, * his liring wou'fc maintain, three of .as.' A conple of years ago (says the N.Z. Times) it would have beeQ impossibility for the Government to have obtained piek*and»shovel men for four shilling a day as they are doing now— in fact, from the evidence given the other day in the Supreme Court, they could oot be had six. A witness was asked if he did not recollect the date of a certain engage' ment, when he replied that he did not ; "it was not such an important engage* ment that he would take any special notice of it — only some sis or seven bob a day !' But in evidence he stated that; be afterwards received eight shillings and , eight and six a day. In those days there were few or no unemployed, and had the Government then offered four shillings, they would have had few, iir'ttay, : applications. The following are the acceptances for < the Adelaide Gap to be ran on the Queen's Birthday, May 24th ;— B : eh« mond, 9st 21b ; Glenormistaa, Sat 51b ; Filibuster, Bst I Viceroy, 7st 101 b j Belladrum, 7st 81b ; Etvalry. 7st 71b } Mountainer, 7st 71b ; Pawnbroker, 7sfc 41b ; First Water, 7ife2&; Bott Carlos, 7st 21b ; Electricity, 7st ; Buccaneer, 6st 21b ; High Jinks, sst 101 b. At the Lancaster Cjurt Petty Sessions, Selna Simpson, wife of Thomas Simpson, of Lancaster, was charged with bringing into Lancaster Castle a quantity of tobacco, contrary to the prison regulations. It appeared that the man was committed to the Castle as a debtor. Under certain conditions debtors are allowed to have their food sent to them by their friends, and Simson's wife bad avail herself of that pririlege from the time of his admission. On the 13th bis dinner was brought as usual. It consisted of s potatoe pie, and was handed in by a boy. Owing to some suspicion which had been aroused been, Warder Baynes lifted the crust off the pie in ■ the debtor's presence, and. upon probing to the bottom of the dish with a fork, drew forth a carefully made- a p package contaming about 2s, twist tobacco, Mr Parr, the governor, said he did dot wish to press the ease undnjy against the woman, but had brought it forward as a caution to the public who were ' not .perhaps aware that offence was such a serious one in the eye of the lav. The; Chairman said the punishment wrs not exceeding six month's imprisonment pr a fine not above £20, or both. AI? though the. supposition was that the woman had sent the pie there was no evidence of it, and the ease would be dismissed. If the hoy had been charged withe the offence the Court would cere tainly have conYtcted._