MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 17 August 1881, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

♦ A London telegram to the New Fork * World,' dated June 28th, says:— -Now that the land Bill is safe so far as the House of Commons is conerned, and law and order are being restored in Ireland, the Radicals are fuming their attention to the great domestic reforms upon which they have set their hearts. The assimilation of the borough and country franchise will be a comparatively ,easy job. The Tories, who approved of Disraeli's Reform Bill of 1867, caanot logically resist its application to the agricultural laborer ; nor wou^d it be prudent for the Tory chiefs to atte mpt to defeat such measures. The laborers are now bound together in unison, and swayed by a central committee, comprising men like Joseph Arch, who are bo.h wise and vigorous leaders. It is contended that thpy are illiterate, and therefore unfit to exercise the franchise, they may truly answer that fault is not theirs, but the squire's and the parson's. As regards education, however, they are not one whit behind tens of thousands of that •residiura* which Disraeli was not afraid to entrust with power. The most important of the great question of reform will be the redistribution of seats. Fifty years have elapsed since Lord Russell put bis hand to that work, and wiped out some of the anomalies of representation. Boroughs which were given a member under that scheme have meanwhile grown into populous towns. New towm have sprung up which are now wholly unrepresented. The subrubs of London and other cities have themselves become cities in point of population. On the other hand, many of the old boroughs, more especially in Ireland, have sunk into decrepitude and decay, and are no longer worthy of representation. Last Saturday morning two men, named Booth anJ Killeo, met at Handwick racecourse for the purpose of

seeing who *as the best man, fc'veiy preparation was ra:ule beforehand ; seconds and timekeeper being on the spot at the anpointed hour. The fight, according to evidence, lasted 40 minutes. In tho list rouud Kiilen received a hcwy blow, knocking him. down. On getting to his feet a^ain to renew the battle, blood commenced to fliw copiously from his nostrils and raoulb, and before assisance came, he fell to the ground and died almost iin« mediately. The police being observed in the distance, several of the spectators took to their heels ; but four men, including Booth, picked up tho dead man and ran away through the neighboring paddocks. Finding that to escape with the boys was a useless thing to attempt, they threw the corpse iuto a ditch and adapted Napoleon's motto, •• Sauve gui peut." After a hot chase of nearly an hour, the police managed to arrest Booth and three seconds or time keepers, who took part in the affair, The inquest on the body of James Kiilen wis finished oa Wednesday morning, the jury bringing in a virdict of murder against Booth, and against the three other men arrested guilty of aiding and abetting in the commission of the uulawiul act. The Lord Chancellor has introduced a Bill into the House of Lords the ' object of which is to enable offenders • to be arrested in any part of ihe 1 British Dooiiaioas for offences other than felony, which are not comprised in the present Acts. It also enables intercolonial arrangements to be made . whereby persons escaping from one . colony can be followed to an >tber. The French Government, realising the ' national and individual prosperity are • dependent upon the development of : agriculture, have introduced a Bill . into the Senate making it obligatory to teach the elements of agriculture aud j horticulture in the 30,000 pnma y t schools of the nation, Mrs L. S. Iliff, the owner of the 9 largest cattle ranche in the world, has r sold one-half of her herd of 25,000 • cattle to her managers. Her range ' extends from Greely to Julesburg, Co ; orado, embracing a county about 100 miles wide. She has made a round million since the death of her husband, ' the cattle king,' three years a g°The ' Times ' lui3 the following despatch from New York, showing that the Chinese can strike when they find >t suits them, and, be riotous also :— • ' Intelligence from Yale, British Col* urabia, published here May 16tb, states that 2000 Chinese laborers on the Pacific Bailway have struck work for increase of wages, on acccount of the heavy tolls on rice, and have mobbed and destroyed the company's ware* house,' Did you ever hove a sort of cramped feeling in your hands, a weakness at the elbow, a slight touch of lameness in the deltoid muscle, find your clavicle and scapula working with an awful creek, the muscles and cords that brace up your legs a little bit uncertain and tremulous, the perspiration oozing out from every pore, and your lungs all out of ' breathe ?' Never did ? Then you have omitbed to saw half a cord of wood before breakfast. An ingenious method of checkmating the new prohibitory liquor law of Xorth Carolina has (says the St. James* Gazette) been discovered. Brevard township, on the French Board River was made ' dry ' by the act of the Legislature. The township on the opposite side of the river is ' wet.' The latter is situated on a high bluff overtopping the opposite banks. Two ropes have been stretched from the • top of the bluff on the wet side to the lower bank on the dry side. Between these a basket is suspended on ?!iJers, ropes attached to pull it back and forth. When a man on the dry bank wants a drink he goes down to tho river aud blows a horn kept there for purposed. Than the barkeeper hails him from the other side, and asks him what ho wants. The order is given for a whisk? straight,* • corn and rock,' or * cock tail,' as the case may bp. This is put in the basket, which is quickly drawn on the opposite side of the river, where it is taken out and drunk and the price of the drinks put in. The basket is then pulled back to the bluff and hung for a future call. This novel practice is known by the name of ' whisky telegr.ipaine,' aui is found to be a great convenience to the dry township. The Brush elcetric light is now em% ployed in the foreign news pa per* room of the General Post-cffice in London. The temperature and light are said to be both greatly improved, sixteen lamps of 2000---candle power having taken the place Oi the previously used 100 gas jets.