MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 19 May 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

■ _ __ — ■«. The Sydney Exhibition was open oly 185 days. On the opening day 19,853 persons vere present ; on the Prince of Wales's Birthday, 26.569; on Boxing Day, 24,127 ; on Few Year's Day, 13,260; and nn Anniversary Day (Jar* nary 26th), 27,500 (of whom 5534 were children). The total admission to the Exhibition was 1,045,898. At the last meeting of the Liverpool Engineering Society, a paper was read touching the probable exhaustion of coal, in which the author advocated the substi* tntion of the tides as a producer of motion which would outrival all other sources of mechanical power. A eorres» pondent of the Builder, too, is of the same opinion. A compressed air chamber filled by the tide at Brighton, for instance, would, he is confident, run an atmospheric railway, such as Brunei inrented, from that place to London. If the tides could be thus utilised, all our railways and factories— in fact, all the work now done by the steam engine, could be performed by them, There would, moreover, be no jerk, no steam, no smoke, no noise. Ap«rt from the fact that the present generator of steam will in tithe cost more to produce than it is worth, coal has so many disadvantages hat no one will regret to see the time when it will be supplanted by another agent. When is this to be, is the que* lion of the future. The London correspondent of the Auckland Star writes : — Sir Julius Yogel, in his election address, re f rred to his success in the Parliament of New J2ea« land, having led that Parliament for a long period, and only retired from the Government of the co'ony after seven years of office, on account of ill»health. , He accounts for his preference for the Conservatives by charging the Liberals , wftttldisintegrating the colonies, which he considered against the interests of the nation. The following • squibs ' were circulated during the election :— ' 1. Are you one of three or four land speculators who stand to make by the sale of ft large rabbit warren to Englishmen through the agency of the New Zealand Agricultural Company? 2 Have you: not received absolute instructions from the New Zealand Government to clear out of that company forthwith P 0. Are you not aware that your election move of substituting Falmouth for Plymouth as the port of call of outward bound cmi- ■ grant ship 9 is universally laughed at in New Zealand ? 4. What guarantee do-.you giye us that, even if we swallow the bait, any real advantage will accrue to us after you have secured your end — a seat in the English Parliament P 5. Is it not a fact that yonr candidature is strongly condemned by the New Zea* land Government ? 6. Is it not consequently a tolerable certainty that if we are foolish enough to sell your our vote 9 for seme imaginary advantage, which in reality you are without the power to give, we shall find ourselves at once both bought and sold? 7. Under all the circumstances would not a constituency itself by sending a brother speculator, ' Baron * Grant, to Parliament be a more suitable one for your particular genius to operate .; -upon ? Men of Faimoutb, beware of this astute Hebrew.' The following advertisements appears in the Christchurch papers s — ' I hereby challenge the Ministers' Association of Chrißtchurch, collectively and severally and especially the Beys. Messrs Elmsi, Reid, Macfarlane, Smalley and Crews, to a public discussion of the dogma of ' Eternal Suffering,' including the fiction of man's necessary immortality. And I undertake to prove said dogma to be un» reasonable, diabolical and blasphemous, and the most prolific source of infidelity. The question of Sunday lecturing has recently attained some prominence in New South Walps, through the persecution of Madame Wilmot, the welkknorru lecturess on certain special social topics. The prosecution arose out of a lecture slie delivered at Newcastle on ' Forbidden Fruit, 1 admission being by ticket, vvhich were sold to the public. The indictment was framed under the Act of Charles the 11, and it Wua claimed that as the lecture [ was not delivered in the interests of religious charity, or mercy, bufc for gain, that she had brought herself within the operation of the law. In her defence she pleaded that Dr- Somerville, Pastor ' (Jhiuiquy, and Fathes* Henneberry ' got their Hying' by the Sunday services in j

ihe same building, equally as much as she did ; and that her lectares on certain srcial topics were delivered in the interest of religion, and notably of morality. Ryideuce was adduced to show that tie admission tickets were presented gra. tuitously to applicants, and that the money paid w as me Hy a voluntary donation towards expenses. On the otb r hand a sergeant of police deposed that the language used by her on certain subjects not usually discussed in public wa« so plain that he was completely pnzzled • and another gentleman who was an andifor, while expressing bis satisfaction at the lecture was also equally pleased thai the female members of his family were not present, and that only two women were in the hall. The bench of magis. trates were equally divided as to Ihr merits or demerits of Midanio Wilmot's lecture, and dismissed the ease. The Home Ntw* s:i y8 that « people d>. , not appear to be very enthusiastic abou* recent imported Australian' frozen meat. That our English public is fa!! of pre. judices and slow to adopt new ways, is one explanation. Another is, that in all J probability the butchers have intervened and snapped up the larger part of h cargo to be sold as prime English matt on and beef. The meat might well be mistaken for a borne fed product. Every body who has ea&ee it, knowingly declares it to be as good as any in tbe English markets. One proof of its cxi eellence is that it bas been accepted iv the servants' ball, when pampered English servants do not tnra up their Doses at an article of consumption, it may be passed at once as good. The beef was especially excellent, tender, full o f flavour, ard rendering an unusual amount of gravey . One difficulty which was anticipated \m also disappeared. It was fgared that when Ibe carcases were thawed the meat would soon deteriorate. This has not proved to be the ease, as after the interva' of seven, or eight days which elapsed before the joints were sold by the retai traders, they still were quite sweet an<3 fresh. What now remains to be done is to keep the supply going. It is essential too. that the price should be kept down. Although only 2d .per pound in lia, the meat had risen to be 7d and 8d ; in some cases even lOd per pound, before it reached the buyers. No Jdoa&t there will be a strong effort made, amongst the wholesale dealers and the middle men, to rig the market and k°ep up the price ; but this must be resisted and, overcome, if the system is to be worked satisfactorily. The case is one in which -co-operation might do much to protect the buyer.* Writing of the story about tbe yonng princes, tbe author of * Town Talk * in the Argus says:— lt would; have been very: much harder if the heir apparent of Germany, for instance, with only one seaportj should have been thus idefeora ted. The anchor in that case wou^d hayejbpen beld'tobave bad a near relation to "Kiel than it bas at present, Sonjejpeoplg sag „ gest, I see, that it would only be a right and proper feeling in aIF the young 1 eour'--tiers to tatoo their noses also , with . an anchor, just as ladies wore hoops,''because a certain. Queen had a particular : reason for so doin?. But what 1 would suggest is that the distinction should be confined to reigning families. There is sometimes a difficulty iv knowing what profession , a young prince belongs to, even after be has entered iti He does not always distinguish himself in it very much. How a mark of this kind would show what he was intended for ever so much more than the crosses and ribands with wßich he is now becfeefceo*', an! the wearing of which is to tbe general eye unintelligible. A couple of sworJsl crossed at the bridge of the nose would 4 for example, at once indicate that he was meant to be a field^omrsbal. 1 The Melbrurne Age makes the following statement: — 'Some interest .has recently been escited in the movements of a new company formed in this city, having for its olject the development and extension of a new process for tbe manu facture of" a chemical gas intended tc supersede the eas of coal as well as electric light.. The promoters of this newscheme have refused to divulge the prin«» ciple of the invention unti 1 they have had the opportunity of taking out letters patent for their protectioa in all parts of the world. Indeed, so precious and valuable do they consider the discovery that the experiments and demonstration have been preserved as great secrets open only to a few shareholders of trust worthy character. The new gas \a said fo be the invention of Mr John Dixon, a Victorian mechanic, and it is stated that it can be supplied at one half the cost of the gas now delivered by the Melbourne companies ; that in consumption a great saving is effected, as onesfifth less per hour than the present yellow coal extract is consumed ; that with a syphon burnpr '.'■■.•■' 'i^ht capable of being given is equal to 34 candle*, as agiinst the light of two candles supplied by a. similar burner through tlie main of the Metropolitan Gas Company. Until patents have been taken out practical operations wiil not be commenced, but already a strong com-p;-ny has been formed and registered under the name of the Dixon Patent Gas Company. An agent was despatched to England a few days ago for the pur* pose of taking out letters patent there.' A Sao Francisco paper, referring tc the position of affairs in Ireland, gays : -

" Irish landowners are talcing precautionary measures againgE the adoption of the land, policy advocated by Darnell* and league. They are getting intdftJebfc to the Government as fast as possible, the; loans being secured upon their land. la one week, the applications foEnew loans, numbered 200, representing an aggregate of 5 550,00010t. Since November the applications for loans by Irish landowners aggregated 18 830,00)1 01. If they get their bands into the national wallet in i hi* way for a few months longer, the British Government, in selfprotection, will be compelled to sustain landlordism at the point of,the bayonet."