MISCELLANEOUS.

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

MISCELLANEOUS.

+- Tn the Govertn?nt Printm.* Office, wben Bills, Parliamentary papers, <fee, are ' set-up,' they remain in type until, all revisions and alterations have been made. The quantity thus stored away a*, the present time in racki fitted up for tbe purpose represents about 18 tons weight of type. The number of hands employed varies according to the amount of work to be done, being always tbe greatest when Parliament is sitting. In 1880 the largest number (163) was employed in June, and tbe smallest (110) in December, Tbe value of the work done during the year was £25,500, and tbe number of separate copies of various documents printed nearly ten millions and a half. At tbe Supreme Court in Adelaide, a man was sentenced to tbreo months ' imprisonment for disturbing the ser-** vices of the Salvation army. We learn from Australia that in the Albury district eleven acres of land bas produced eight tons of tobacco leaf, valued at £60 a ton, or £700 for tbe crop. The ci'y health offi.er in Melbourne bas reported tbat tbe slums in the Chinese quarter are dreadfully over* crowded, but that the European houses in the same quarter were wrose than the Chinese. Saw dust is now being extensively used as bedding for horses fn town stables and it is said to make very excellent manure. Among tbe English census papers is one in which a man bas stated that he is suffering from the foot and mouth disease namely, nothing to eat, and jolly bad boots. Tbe richest of the mines is that of Kimberley, which has an area, of about seven acres. Its original possessor sold the estate of which it was a small part for £6000, and it soon yielded to its purchasers from £20,000 to £25,000 per annum in rents. The Kimberley mines contains about 400 claims which four years ago were worth three-quarters of a million sterling ; in August last according to Mr Murray they could not be purchased for three and a half millions. There is no means of accurately ascertaining the value of the diamond production of South Africa but the importance of the new industry may be gathered from fche fact that the value of the diamonds sent through the Post Office in 1879 amounted to £3,653,000. Since the finding of the • Star of South Africa ' much larger diamonds have turned up, notably one found in 1572 weighing 288_- carats, from which it is believed that a brilliant weighing half as much again as the Koh-i-noor may be cut, and the still larger one fonnd by Mr Rhodes, recently exhibited fco the Queen. Unfortunately the dia** monds of South Africa are not all of purest water, the majority of them being strain-tinted, and therefore of considerably less value than colourless specimens. From a return recently printed ifc appears that since the session of 1880 nearly 450 Government officials have either retired their services have been dispensed, or have been dismissed ; twenty have been put on half pay ; tbe places of sixteen who have died have not been filled up ; and several are merely holding office temporarily. Wire rope tramways are stated to be quite a distinctive feature no-v****** days in San Francisco. An engineer of the name of Aallide is the patentee. A small tunnel is constructed of iron and wood under the middle of the tramway track, leaving a silt open afc the surface. In tbe tunnel, supported on wheels, runs a wire rope in an endless loop, running down on one track and up on the other, the track being double. The rope passes round a drum from the up track to the dotvn brack, and tbe other end of the loop is carried into the engine Louse, where it passes round tbe otber drum, which is caused to revolve by a system engine of considerable power. All tbat is now required is a means of attaching the cars to the rope, aud letting it go at pleasure whenever the car requiries to be started or stopped. This contrivance is called tbe grip, and is worked by the engineer of tbe dummy by means of levers. An exchange says : — " Sir George's scheme is worth thinking out. If the people were let to govern themselves according to the local necessities of the case, the greatest number would unquestionally bring about the greattest good. W/e believe the day is now far distint wben New Zealand will be a pure Republic, the people governed by tbe people,— the ruling power tbe ballot

A new evening paper is aunouaeed to be called the Evening News . The announcement appeared in the Age. , It states that : * A cable message has been received adviiiog the shipment per steamer of a complete outfit of type and the beat and fastest machinery obtainable; and arrangements ara being made for the purchase or lease of suitably centrally-situated premises, so that everything will be in readiness to start soon after the arrival of the plaDt. Tbe conductors are detirmtDed that tha journal ' shall be worthy of the capital of the principal Colony of the Australian group,' I do not know who the promoters are, but tbe concluding paragraph in the advertisement is as follows:— The proprietora and conductors of tbe venture «re thoroughly conversant with the requisites for the successful carrying on of an evening paper.' The Bishop of London, speaking in tbe Upper House of Convocation of the province of Canterbury, on the 17th May last, said:-' He begged to remind tbe House that no one could at present use the revised version of the New Testament. When the whole work was completed it would go out to the public, and would be before the Church for consideration. It might be years before the pro* posed alterations from the authorised version had so approved themselves to the Church both clergy and laity, that steps could be taken lo give authority for tbe use of the revised version. However, it roust be understood that the revised version could not now be used in the churches.'