MISCELLANEOUS.

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

MISCELLANEOUS.

The street mendicant in Sydney who was arrested the other day with a sum of £1,000 in his possession did a great deal of harm to other members of his alrasvseeking fraternity. His case will cause other beggars to be regarded with suspicion as large capitalists in disguise. It may be said that it is very bad management for a beggar to allow it to be known that be habitually carries about with him more loose cash ihan probably the head of the Rothschild's ever had in his pocket in bis life. But it is easy to understand the hoarding instincts of beggar?, from the blind beggar of Bcthnal-Green to the present day. They are compelled by their professional r quireneuts to maintain a necessitous, tatterdemanlion appearance; they cannot well indu'ge in riotous living, nor can bbey conveniently become the ostensible possessors of visible property, or even investors in stocks or shares. They live in places and among eompmy where it would be very dangerous to risk a hiding place for a board. And there* fore they are driven by unavoidable necessity to carry their savings about with them. It is a curious persistency which drives a man to go on begging, often from very poor people, merely to add to a stock of money which he cannot *pend or enjoy in any way save by the secret sense of possession. Le Froy, a newspaper reporter, aged 22, has been arrested in London for the murder recently committed in a railway train from Brighton. Le Froy himself was wounded, and much mystery yet prevails. Lewis Potter, imprisoned for impli* cation in the Glasgow Band frauds, is dead. The New York Herald proposes, for the solution of the Irish problem, the establishment of a Grand Imperial Parliament, including representatives of Australia, Canada, the Cape, Ireland and Scotland. In Con naught and Murster whole villages are depopulated. West Cork to Limerick tells a similar story. Breaches between the Extremists and Land Leaguers are widening daily, and James Stephens is denounced as a Castle spy. The Land Leaguers' treasury is bankrupt. |Two Tichborne claimants have tnrned up in San Francisco, A race, ia the top streak boats, bas been arranged between Hanlan and Wire for a thousand dollars, to come off at Toronto, for five miles. Sir Daniel Cooper, the merchant prince of Sydney, recently gave a grand ball in London, wbicb, even in that city was noticeable for its brilliancy and splendor. The San Francisco correspondent to the Daily Times says that it might not be amiss if some intelligent human being were deputed by the colonies to study the American railroad system,as be fears judging from results, that a great mess has been made of the whole business, both in New Zealand and Australia. Cbas. Gitteaui, who attempted to assassinate President Garfleld. is a disreputable lawyer. Bight years ago be professed to be converted under the auspices of the Young Men's CbnVian Association. Next he made an essay as a journalist, but having neither capital or backers he failed. Owing to rascality en the part of contractor for providing Antic exlor* ing vessel Regers it wss discovered juit | before sailing that ten tons of canned provisions were found unfit for human food. General Valentine Baker, formerly of the tenth Hussars, who felt the regiment and ret:rsd into obscurity owing to charge of indecently a«aulting a female in a railway carriage, has re-appeared iv society, anl has been welcomed to the dinner by the Prince of Wales. Fifty members of the Army and Navy Club lave also signed a paper expressing the opinion that the cause of his gutting the service does not affect bis standing ns a gentleman In one of the Bankruptcy cases heard at Dunedin last week the opposing counsel called attention to tho fact that the advest.jsement convening the meeting of creditors had been attached a notice of the bank* !

rupt's intention to apply for bis dig* charge, and stated thit Mr Justice Williams had held (hat such notice wai not allowable. His Honor the Chief Justice remarked I hat he concurred in the opinion of bis brother Williams that notice of intention to apply for discharge Bhould not be published simultaneously with the advertisement calling a meeting of creditors. A noted explorer in Cairo named Maspero has jmt opened some more pyramiads of the fifth dynasty. The mortuary chapels of each contain about sixty square metres of Hie smallest and most costly written texts, giving precise details of the religious belief of that age. By these discoveries all proyious conceptions are entireley upes\ Scarcely any discovery equals this in scientific value. Th*se pyramids abont sixty in number, will be open to the public at an early date, The Otago Times says :—" An old letter of 1848 informs us that the erv of tho unemployed is not a thing only of recent Hate. Even in the beginning of 185J— 31 years ago —a loud complaint was made that although there was a surplus in (ho Treasury chest, yet the Government would not make use of it to Assist the unemployed. The revenue f>r « j'eir and a-half amounted to £3060 14« 6J, the expenditure to £2481 15* leaving in the chest a balance of £920 19.* SJ. The Press urged ' that this sum, care'ully anl judiciously expended, would employ some of our surplus labor, improve the appearance of our two town? (Dunediu and the port), and would become another tie to bind the hearts of the settlers to the English Government, but the appeal was unsuccessful. In those days I'eef was from 6|d to 7d per 1b; bread, Is per 41b loaf i artizins, wages, 5* to 6< a day ; and laborers, wages, 3s to 4* a day. Laborers' wages for the previous year were from 2s 61 to 3i day. Compare these figures with those of the present time, and say if tho unemployed of tho Present day are worse off thin those of 31 years B£o.

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