MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 1 April 1881, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

— :. . + The Evening Post says that * . well'koown squatter from the Nort Island, who recently paid a visit 1 Dunedin, inserted an advertisement i a local paper for a wife, stating tbi he had an income of £6000 a year ft life. In answer he Lad 81 applici tions, many of whom enclosed photo The gentleman in question had copie the carte de visite of a welNkncw Wellington lady-killer, and enclose one to each applicant, at the same tin making an appointment to meet hii at the Botanical Gardens, Dunedin, I an hour named. The squatter, i company with a few friends, turned i at the appointed time, and their wei present forty«five of the damse averaging from 19 to 40 years of ag After meandering about for an hoi gazing at each other, much to Ui amußment of the gentlemen, they c^tt

to the conclusion they were the victims of a sell. 1 Onr contemporary •cannot say that the joke reflects much credit on the oerpetrators.' "We don't see that U rt fleets any credit on him. No revelations of the misery endured by emigrants by English vessels equal the tale told by thepewengers cf the Swiizeflond, from An'wefp to New York, on November 25. She bad 430 steerage passengers on board, mtwtly G-ermans and Swedei, and she was eighteen days in crowing the A ttontic. There was no separat ?o;i between the sexes, there were only three lights in the steerage nt wialit ; and in the semi-darkness the mixed multitude gave way to such brutal immorality that in tbe words of one of the passenger*, • the ship was nothing bat a floating bell.' Tbe people were crowded together like bogs in a pen. The steerage wh never cleaned, but remained foul and filtbv throughout Ibe ravage, tbe accumulated abominations admitting an t ffl ivium ' beyond be ! ief. f Two gallons of water were served out for the 480 passenger* to watb with, and pure drinking was unntt>iiiiab!e. Most of tbe crew were shipped drunk, One of tbem was 80 netttly mtirdered by the boalswain that bis life was despaired of. Two Italian stowaways were strippei caked, and exposed to ibe biting winds for hours on deck. The sailors were more than once on tbe tvt'&of mutiny. These horrors of the Atlantic steerage recall memories of the Middle Pasrtge. Upwards of 3000 working men of Plymouth contributed to present tbe late Conservative member (Sir Edward Bates) with a whole length lifcsiza portrait of himself, to mark their appreciation of bis kindly interest in the poor ot the constituency. In tbe twelve months ending with August. 1880 the total number of party processions in Ireland was 289 , of which 211 were in Ulster resulting in three homicides, thirty-five injuries to life, and 129 ditto to property, all in Ulster, The total cost of police and military Specially drafted to the scenes of the processions amounted to £9280. In future all magazines, pamphlets, &., received at the Bear Letter Office of the United States, instead of being sold as waste : paper, are to be distributed vrnong charitable -and reform* utory institutions in and around Washington In polite society, ecpeciaily iv fhat cosmopolitain circle which makes Paris its home during the winter, there ie c vague impression that the French Eepublic will not last; much longer, that its battle with the Church will prove disastrous to It ; aud Uiafc some kind of a revolution i# at band. A great many Americans are constantly repeating this prophecy, AVhatevei they may be at home, they are ceN tainly indifferent Republicans abroad. Tbey are especially cynical and unsympathetic with regard to the French Republic. Of course tnere are notable exceptions, bulb they are. not so many ,«b they ought to be. American cotton feeitfag is now, it appears, obtaining more appreciation in England. Mr Kirkaldy, the well known expert, faw made some tests recently, -and has found that a 3£in -cotton belt broke under a load of 4287 1b while an English leather belt 4in wide was broken at 20001 b. An Australian paper sws that at Adelongtbe .other day a valuable greyhound dog^ jumped of Hodgson • balcony clean over (he rail to (the ground, a height of aboiit 22ft. The animal taroed two somersault while falling, but, although it received a very severe shaking, broke no bones.