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

The Weßtport Times states the Rev. Father ftfahoney met with a very liberal response in that district to his tppeal on behalf of the fund for restoring the Catholic chapel in Nelson. If many more earthquakes occur in New Zealand we shall just have to stop publishing this paper. We reckon from late experiences that every earthquake costs us just £25, what with telegrams, labor, extra hours, and above all the mental anguish we are made to en* -dure over the business. Over the recent earthquake we calculate that we received one hundred and ninety seven messages from different towns in the Colony, all recording the royal progress, so to speak, of the earthquake. Many of these towns were only a hop-step-and jump opart, but such is local jealousy that no one place would allow another to have a monopoly of the shake. Some places bad no quake at all, but they said they did. In other places where the shock was felt the people limply gloated over it as though it were a home made affair, just as a man telegraphed over the Colony the other day that a comet was seen at Charleston. And then there was such diversity of opinion as to the nature and direction of the movement. Every person of course agreed on one point — that it was accompanied by a "low rumbling noise," but from this point all reports are at variance. "At' 'one place the direction of the wave is given positively at north and south, while at another place, right next door, the movement is as positively given' as east and west, and in a metropolitan shook town where there are three newspapers, each journal had the earthquake going in a different direction. But this'is all preliminary to what we started out to relate. Amongst the many telegrams we received on the subject of the quake was one from a North Wand town conveying the intelligence thut the bhockwas NOT felt there. Funcy what the effect would be if every town in the Colony which had reoeived no earthquake had sent such a message ? Why, our

liabilities wonld exceed the French indemnity. The Sydney Press, and a large portion of the public, are anxious for the abolition of capital punishment, in favour of severe punish* ment, exten3ing over a lengthy period. This Wing lias amen in consequence of the unwillingness of juries to convict now that death is the only penalty. The State of Massa^ chuselts is talking of execu' ing the lost penalty pfthfelaw by means of morphine instead of the gallows. A very humanitarian scheme, but those who Lave given some attention to the subject say that hanging is as easy a death as there c.»n be, if properly done. * Atlas,' in the World, writes : —I hear that one of most remarkable pictures in the coming Academy wiil be the portrait of two sisters by an eminent painter, and that the most notice* able features in the "portrait will be the young ladies hair. It may interest some people to know that these flowing tresses owe their gloss and .beauty to being washed every morning in champagne. At the present price of good brands, this new toilette appliance must be rather costly. But perhaps after the wine has done its duty it is rebottled, to be , again used. The London cottespquieiAtTiaf the N. Y, fWoridi in. telling thretoryVf the gunpowder fin u beneath the Mansion House, London, J hints that it was • a job,' of the London PoMce. He soys : 'The story as told by the police j authorities is doubtless true as fir as it goes ; but the impression among those who know something of the inner workings of the force is that the police themselves • put up thejob.' the public is nervous, and these frequent discoveries of mysterious powder packages lead to a demand for extra detectives, who are drafted out of the regular force. It is much pleasanter to walk about in plain clothes with extra pay than to trudge in uniform on a monotonous beat. Moreover, the finders of these 'infernal machines' are always hand « somely rewarded out of the gratuity fund, and marked for early promotion. What legal gentlemen would call a nice point arose before the Judge in Chambers at Christchurch on Friday last in connection with the Tararua disaster. It was as to which of the adult members of a family died first, as upon this rested the rights of certain relations. H : s Honor, however (says the Press), held wi{h M,r Harper that" the rule of law laid down at Home in such cases was the correct one viz., that it must be taken that the strongest .survived^ the longest in case of a wreck. A giant of world renown has lately been laid low. ' Old Moses,' one of the mightiest sylvan patriarchs ofCalfornia, was mercilessly cut down a few weeks ago, and the greater portion of his venerable remains have already been sold to the timber merchants of San Francisco. This colossal tree, judging by the number of rings contained in a sound section jh\ its trunk, had attained the amazing age of 4841 years, when the fell fiat was issued for its' destruction. The hollow portion of its huge and massive stem afforded standing room for nearly 300 fulNgrown men. It mnst have/^en a ' brays groan tuoau' <*U«n Noah built his ark. It is exactly eighty years (says the Home News) since the first census of Great Britain was taken. Not till ten years after was a similar reckoning attempted in Ireland, and then only with very unsatisfactory results. Yet the census is no modern invention. The office in Craig's Court, which* on April 4lh, was the very life-focus and beartucentre of our great Empire, had its prototype in the villa Publica, the building in the Field of Mars, wherein the Roman Censor more than two thousand years ago anticipated the function of ihe English Registrar-General: The post, however, is easier and less complex under Queen Victoria than it was under the Caesars. it was a startling disclosure of the last census that the United Kingdom contained about 900,000 more women than men, and philosophical statisticians are no doubt impatient to learn whether nature has in the interim adjusted the balance or enlarged the yery remarkable disproportion - A very silly rumour got about to the effect the Queen suddenly changed her mind as to crossing from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight in the Alberta, and went on board the Enchantress instead, because it was reported that a bomb had been secreted in the coalbunkers of the former vessel. To prove the fact the Alberta wan sent on a four hours' trip at sea at full speed to consume all her coal, so that if the bomb had been in the coalbunkers it would have blown up the vessel and all on board. How much better would it have been to have searched for the destructive missile among t the coals, and thus have saved the risk to human life and the cost of the coals as we'l. I thought the cheap trip business was about played out in this locality, but it appears that it is not so. An accommodating Jinan* cial corporation has given an important local body leave to overdraw thpir account to the extent of £4000, and one of the very items of expenditure authorised is a delegation to Wellington, for the purpose of representing certain matters to the Government, whose Parliamentary duties will doubtless prevent them from paying any attention to the deputationiats. The country pays an M.H.B. some two hundred guineas a-year for representing us, and he is not to be allowed to do the work. This delegate business is a fraud, and every honestnthinking ratepayer eays so.— Westport Times.