MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 29 April 1881, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Sir Herny James, the AttorneyGeneral of England, intends to bring in a Bill at the earliest opportunity- to clip the claws of the mischievous class known as money-lenders. The measure will deal chiefly with two points— firstly, to further protect minors, who are now by some loophole in the 1< w freguenty yictimised by money-lenders who obtain a hold of them daring their minority ; and, secondly, it is intended to fix a limit beyond which it will be impossible to obtain interest on loans. The Glasgow Herald states the BelkColeman Mechanical Refrigerator Company of "West Nile street have recently constructed^ very large rj* frigerator which is on the point of being despatched to Sydney New South Wales. It is fitted with chilling chamber about 80ft long by 1000 r t broad and delivers 200 ft of air per minute at a temperature of 80 degrees below zero (Fabr) ; and if necessary for exportation 20 tons of meat can be froz-n per day. This machine has been ordered by the Government authorities and is intended for calling the meat distributed at almost nominal cost or kept for several days longer than would otherwise be possnlo in so warm a climate. Sherrat's wisdow murdered by Byrne has received a pension of 10d per week from the Government. Mr Swinburne is to write a somewhat elaborate article on Keats for the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. * Have you blasted hopes ?' asked a young lady of a librarian with his handkerchief tied over his jaw ' No, ma'am,' said he ; ' it's only a blasted toothache.' Lord Beaconsfikld.s * Endymion' is sold at fifteen cents by the Harpers of New York, who had a volume reprinted and ready for sale in fifty-five hours. In seeking re election for Northampton Mr Bradlau^h announced that on this occasion he would refrain from entering any protest to the oath to be administered, but would demand to ba sworn in the ordinary uiauner. The American apple harvest for last year reached a point far byond that of any previous year. It is calculated the total turned reached 200,000.000 barrels, furnished by about 125,000, 000 tress. Tho year is known as , The Apple Year.' At the police board recently, Mr Wyatt the magistrate, gave some inter* eating particu'ars as to the ramification of the Kelly family. He stated that to his knowledge there woro seventy* seven blood relations of Lho Eellya

scattered from Dalmone to the >'ew South Wales border. A remarkable discovery has been made by Mr Aiex ; Adam?, one cf the tecnnical officers of the post office and telegraph department, of the existence of electric tides in telegraph circuits. The problem of utilising the heat of the sun for mechanical purposes seems to have a peculiar attraction for French physicists. We have frequently had occasion to mention the experiments of Motis Mouchot in this direction, the latest of which have been conducted in Algeria. Another inventor, Mods, A. Pifr, of Paris, baa now constructed a boiler and reflector with which by maens of the solar rays he can boil water in forty minutes on a clear dny. The municipal council of Toronto haa offered Hanlan, the champion Ca:iadianflculler,tha freedom of the city and the remission of the rent and taxes of his island hotel for life. At the last meeting of the Medical Society of Sltrasburg, reported in the • Medical Gnzette of Strasburg, Dr Jules, Roajkel presented, in the name of M. Sauval, dentist a lady from whom the latter bad extracted a smalt molar tooth for dental caries, with violent pain; and bavfng found it slightly -carious to the bottom of its roof, he sawed off the point of the root, filled it with gold carefully throughont the carious channel, and then re^implanted the tooth. The lad? was free from all her pain ; the tooth re-established itself solidly in the mouth and at the date at which she appeared at the Society (three weeks after the opera* tion) the tooth served for masticating as w?ll as her other teeth. This is certainly a remarkable instance of what is technically described as dental autoprotbesis witb aurification,'—Briish Medical Journal. Boycotting is not a new thing, His* tory repeats itself. Formerly it was practised by Protestants against Catholics. When it vai proposed about 1780 to repeal some of the penal enactments against Catholics, a committee for the Protestant interest, as they styled themse'ves, which sat at Edinburgh, issued an address, widely circulated, io which was the following sentence :— ' Have no dealings with them (they Catholic?) • neither buy from tKem nor "aeir them anything; neither borrow nor lend with them anything ; give them no visits, never receive any from them.' So incited, the mob destroyed by fire, several chapels and houses. Principal Rodertson, the historian, was threatended with assassination. Probably few men in America can boast of a* long a line of distinguished ancestors as General Ben Harrison, the senator from Indiana. It is well known that bis grandfather, General William Henry Harrison was one of the Presidents of the United States But it is not so well known that his great grandfather, Ben Harrison, was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Virginia, in 1774 aud twice re-elected ; was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, aud three times Governor of " Virgina, and that his fnther John S Harrison, was a member of Congress from 1850 to 1 857. Ooe of bis ancestors was the MajorGeneral Harrison who was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Charing Cross London, December 13th,1660, in revenge for the beheading of Charles I. General Harrison had been appointed by Cromwdl in 1649 to convey the King from Windsor to Whitehall and he signed the deabh warrant. (General Harrison's descendants came to America soon after his death, but ihe family was not prominent in public affairs until 1774.