MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 2 August 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The list of unemployed in Wellington as shown in a list furnished at the re« quest of the Government, shows — 71 l.ibnrrrs. 27 carpenters, 9 engineers and fitters, 5 founders. 3 plasterers, 4 bricks layers. 2 blacksmiths, 3 gardeners 8 painters, 1 coachman and 29 whose oecntions nre uodescribed, making a total of 162 person* Bnd whose fami'ies agsre* s:a'e 300. These figures renresent (th~ Times says) the liumber wUlingr to take any work the Govei'nroent will offer, but it fs slated that there are very many out of employment or only casually employed whose necessities are not so des< pprate as to induce them to send in their name«. Galileo's discovery of the pendulum was suggested to \va observant eye by. a lamp swinging from the reiling of Pisa Cathedral. A spider's nefc suspended across the path of Fir Samuel Brown, he walked one dewy morning in his garden, was the prompter fbar gave to him the idea of his siißrension bridge across the Tweed. So frfl : ng a mater as the sight of seaweed floating past his ship enabled Columbus to quell the i mutiny which arose among his sailors at not discovering land, and to assure them that the eagerly songht new world was nnt far off. G^lvnni observed that a frog's lesr twitched when placed in contact with different metals, and it was tlnis apparent insignificant, fact that led to the invention of the electric telegraph. While a bad observer may ' go through a forest and see no firewood, a true seer •earns from the smal'cst things and apparently the most insignificant people.' 1 Sir,' said Dr Johnston to n fine gentleman just returned from Italy, ' some men will learn more in the Hnmpstead sage than others in the tour of Europe.' Wellington's achievements were mainly due to the fact that he personally at* •ended- to such »uinut ; se as soldiers' shoes, camp kettles, biscuit, horse fodder; and it was because Nelson attended to detail in respect of time thai he was so vie« torious. ' I owe,' he said, ' all my success in life to h>7i'ng been always a quarter of an hoar before my time." • The Ashburton Mail of the 29th alt., says : — The passengers by the early train from the South on Saturday were astonished by the spectacle of an unusually fine mirage. The phenomenon was first observed shortly after the train quitted Temuka, When the Peninsula Hills, with the houses upon them, vrere distinctly re» fleeted in the sky. The illusion was so complete that a stranger to the district mL'ht have been easily deceived by it. The memorial provided by a nntionel sixpenny subscription in memory of those who perished in the wrpek of the Princess AliVe in September. 18781 has just been erected in Woolwich Cemetery, at (he summit o f the hillock where the bodies of the unclaimed dead lie buried. The memorial consists of a handsome cross pedestal and is inscribed as follows : — "The saloon steamer Princess Alice, re turnirjg from a pleasure excursion, was wrecked off Tripeoek Point by collision with the" steam collier By well Ca«He. on the night of September 3rd, 1873. It was nomnufed that. 700 men. women and children were on board ; of these abut 550 were drowned, and 120 were buried near this place. To the memory of those who perished this cross was erected by a national 6i subscription, to wbic'i more than 28,000 persons contributed. 'In the midst of life we are in death.' ' ,Te<=u Mercy." At all the graves have bern placed small bend stones, bearing the names of snch of the dead as were identified. The overseers of tl-e poor of the pnri«h of Woolwich, who undertook, the responsibility p' burvins thedea', and thereby incurred ! >n expense of about £1200, have not yet succeeded in obtaining repayment, but are still waiting the process of law in an action against th« country. At noon on May 6th the completion of the enormous docks created at North Woolwich for the better reception of the water-borne supplies to the metropolis, was marked by the formal act of opening

the sluices which connect them with tlie River Thames, and, although the cere* monial inauguration will take place some weeks later, tbe proceedings were foil of interest. Afc noon tbe chairman and deputy chairman simultaneously opened two sluice gates, through which the water poured rapidly into the entrance of the lock. As, however, this area, of the docks is ninety acres in extent, and the inlets are, by comparison, insignificant, the pro* cess of flooding is relatively slow, for it will occupy about a fortnight. Not until the dock is quite full will the piles of the coffer dam be drawn out of the river bed, md the clay in which it is embedded will then be dredged out, and the water-gates opened for the docking of the Brst ship. A party of United States engineers has recently taken soundings of the Niagara river below the falls. It was a work of grea 1 ; difficulty to approach tie falls in a small boat. Sreat j«ts of water were thrown out from the fills far into •he stream, and the mar wa« so terrible that no other sound could bp heard. The leadsman cast the line, which e*ve 83 feet. This was near the shore. Further flown stream a second cast of the lead ♦old of 100 feet, deepening to 192 feet at the inclined railway. The average depth of the Swift Drift, where the river suddenly becomes narrow wiih a velocity too great to be measured, was 153 feet. Immediately under the lower bridge the whirlpool rapids set in. Here the depth w»<» computed fo be 210 feet. The Chronicle — the Opposition organ — wns very rou :h on Mr Sbeehan recently. It sars, "He possesses undouhte i ahili'y and has had magnificent opportunities. He nve fo what almost might be considered greatness with extra* ordinary rapidity. Unfortunately, how* ever, the young New Z"»lander went op like the proverbial rocket and came down like the proverb ; al stick. He seems to have bppn incipablp of rising *o the dignity of a Minister of the Crown, and conducted hims If wh'le in office in the same l>ntrpv-go«lnckv in the i tyle that bclongpd to him as a privatp individual. His administrafion of native affairs did more to damage tlte Grey Government in the eyes of all honorable men than all ihr other charges combined which have be^n levelled at them. A fitfine de« ncunempnt to the whole business is that he entered into partnership with the Whitaker crowd, whom he had so often denounced in mo«t scathing terms.* It concludes by saying, " Nero fiddled while T?orne l-nfnen\ and we presume the es-Native Minister would rather en* joy the sight of a M-'Ori haka than help to save the. country that has done to much for him and that used to be so proud of him." Tlie Police Magistrate a* Hobart Town, in ordering the fines to he paid by some defaulting publicans, made some r<*« marks which may be taken to heart with odpant°ge by the trade here as well as in Tasmania. He pointed out tiiat they were as publicans perfectly aware of the sfatp of Hip law and were bound to obey it. They had entered into the business with their eyes open, knowing the restrictions in respect of the hours of sale. Those rpstrictions, therefore, they were bound to keeD to comply with, and if tbey had failed to do so, they could not complain that the law was put into opera* tion against them. As it was, there could be no doubt that Sunday trading was carried on throughout the length and breadth of the town, and publicans in« stead of gladly accepting tbe 'rest of Sunday, were unable to resist the taking of a shilling or two, whether in doing so they were within or withont the boundaries ot ihe law This was no doubt the consequence of the undue competition in tbe trade, but they must understand clearly that unless they complied with the law they would be liable to the sns« pension of their licenses, with a very strong probability of being deprived of them altogether. A wr'ter in tKe Timara Herald referring to the Kelly gang says. — "I hardly like to venture on a calculation of the number of people who feel a touch of sympathy with these des* peradoes. They have not been guilty of foul and revolting murder, and are quite outside the category of Messrs Burgess. Kelly. Levy, and the amiable Sullivan "Robbing a bank is an enterprise that has a touch of heroism about it outside tbe felonious intent ; and if only you and I my miidle«aged reader, took notice of it we might safely discuss it.*' "We should like to know what the writer would call foul and revolting murder, if the cold "blooded slaughter of three police constables at MansSeld and the unfortunate maa Sberrett does not come under that bead.