MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 28 July 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

♦ Archbishop Vanghan, the Ifoman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, laid the foundation stone of St. Benedict's Presbytery, Sydney, on the 30th May, and conrluclpd his address to the people assembled as follows : — " It mattered not what their professions of faith might be as long as Oipy were good colonists and paid the ; r bills — (chpers) —as long as they were hnnest mpn, as long as they were men who could not on'y in public, but also in private, stand bpfore the world, and allow the world to look Ihrouuh them &% if they were glass without seeing a fla.v in their hearts, 1 " (Cheers,) The Age sirs:— 'The exciloraTit in connection with the sale of the illu^'rited newspapers containing engravings of the Kelly businres still continues unal-afpd. The Il'ustrafed Australian News which is evidently the favmrite, notwithstanding it being double the ordinary price, has bad more than three times its usual sale, and it is with difficulty the deman 1 has been met. As indicating <he height to which the Kelly fever rose, we may state that no less than eighteen tons weight of paper was printed on in this office during the week. In the Court of Appeal at Wrs*"miVster judgment has been given in the case of Tullock v. Bowerman. The plaintiff, in answer to an advertisement, had invested £4000 in a business started by a company, of which the defendant was the solicitor, for making coffee from acorn 9 and beechmast, but the Fxcise stopped the undertaking and the plaintiff lost his money. He thereupon brought an action on the ground of fraudulent misrepresen tation, ani obtained a verdict for £3000 damages. The defendent appliej for a new trial, which was re used, and against this refusal he now appealed. In deliver" ing jndgment, Lord Justice Brett said the Court "were of opinion that there should be a new trial. The chief point in dispute was whether the defendant was aware whether the Excise would inter* fere. He denied that he was ; but the judge said that the question was open to grave suspicion. Moreover, the case affected the professional status of the defendant. Lord Coleridge, before whom the case was tried, had made no msstakp in law, but the jury should have been cautioned that a mere case of suspicion was not enough to entitle them to 6nd a verdict for plaintiff. On the principle on which a certain painter acted when he wrote under the portrait of an animal which he had drawn the guiding and determining announcement • this is a bear,' we respectfully in* form our readers that the following passage descriptive of Eubinstein's pianoforte playing was intended to be humorous. We quote from the American Music Trade Review : —' He stopt a minute or two to fetch breath. Then he got mad. He run his fingers through his hair. He shoved up his sleeve. He opened his coat tails a leetle further, he drug up his stool, he leaned over, and, sir, he just went for that old planner; he slapped her face, he hosed her j.iws, he pulled her nose, he pinched her ears, and he scratched her cheeks till she fairly yelled. He knocked her down, and he stamped on her shameful. She bellowed like a bull, she bleated like a calf, she howled like a hound, «be Fquealed like a pig, she thrieked like a yat. and then he would not let her up. He run a quarter stretch down the low grounds of the has--, till he got clean into the hovels of the earth, and you iieard thunder galloping after thunder, through the caves and hoN lows of perdition ; and then he foxchased his right hand with his left till he got away out of the treble into the clouds, whar the notes was finer than th# pints of cambric needles, and you couldn't hear nothin' but the shadders of 'em. And then he wouldn't let the old pianner go." There is much more of the s;inie sort of stus in the article from which we have-quoted, but our readers have probably had enough of this clumsy

attempt at humour on the part of our * American cousins. Mr Audrevr Aimers, supposed to be the oldest compositor in the kingdom, died ia Edinburgh on April 29. His indenture is dated 1807, and he only retired from work in the Messrs Constables' establishment two year* Hgo, after hiving been a compositor f<»r 72 years. He wnS Ion? in the employment of Mr Bnllantyne. tho friend of £ir Walter Scotf, and assisted in settiug up the Wjverley novels, fie vitis one of those who kept the secret of the authorship so carefully, He was 86 years of age . of late years. He says in a letfer to the London Live Stock Journal, that for the last three years he has been cultivating seed wbich cnme direct from Mexico, with the resu t, that while ten other sorfs planted in the si me field; tended with like care— in short, rse eris parilms— have all been more or less disened. his Mexian " papas " show not a <*pot of blight. Xor : s this all in their favor, whilst the best of the other kinds have yielded less than five tons to the acre, they have produced over ten, in common drills done by the pi- ugh. Hundreds of specimens were above one pound in weight, some even a a pound aid a half. After being stored in ordinary field pits through tha winter - the Mexican pofatoes come out perfectly soun-.1, and seem to improve in quality as the spring advances. As an article for the table he thinks they are superior ; and he proposes that his Government take in hand the importation of Mexican and Peruvian seed as a cure for the potato I light. An interesting discovery has been nnde afc Edge lane quarry, Oldham* The quarry men, in the Coarse of their ex« cavations, have come upon what has been described as a fossil foresi\ The trees number about twelve, and some of them are about two feet in diameter. They are in good preservation. The roofs can be seen interlacing the rock, and fronds of the f ms are to be fonnd imp'inted on every stone. The discovery has escited much interest in the geological circles roun ! Manchester, and the " forest " has been visited by a large number of person*. The t ees belong to the middle coal measure period, although it has been re* garrfed as somewhat remarkable that do oil has been (jiscofered near. Ihe ooal is found ahru' 2so yar.ls beneath. Professor Boyd-Dawkins, of Owens College, has visited the qmirry, and declares there is not snch a sight in Europe. Th.sVen. Archdeacon Stock has given notice that ho will move at the next meetirjjof the Wellington Education Board —" Thit the Government be urged to so alter the Education Act that all school committees be required to insist that in all the schools connected with each com* mittee each day shall commence with the reading of selected porhon of the Bible and with prayer ; such service to be conducted by the headsmaster or hpan\misfre?s of the school in the presence of all the teachers and children »"' standinc; that such portions of the Rible which shall be used sbajl be . "elected by ajcommittee to be named by the Board ; and that the prayers to be used shall also be prepared by such com* nvttee — provided that any child may be absent from such service on the request in writing to the head-master or mistress \o that effect and also no child be entered on the day's roll who, without such permm sion, has been sb.ent from sne-h service." Fmm Okarito there is official news to •he effect that the Maponrika digging are showing well. Cunningham and party (three) obtained 10J onnces of gold in 14 d*ys, and Graham and party expect at least 24 ouners for a month's worki These claims are close to Znla's ground, bnt are worked at a somewhat higher level. A shire in one of the claims wa3 rpcently sold by Mr Patrick for £50; There are over fi f fy men on the ground.