MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 24 August 1881, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

It is not often that tbe Chinese go into hotelkeeping, and such a contingency was probably never contemplated by the Legislature, for tb-§ Lin^ens'ng Bill is silent on the matter. One of the Celestia's, named Ly Chong, is reported to have applied to the Magistrate at Riyerton tbe other day, to know wether, in thej event jf his purchasing an hotel in town, his Worship would grant him ft license. Mr M'Gulloch advised the applicant to apply for a license in the usual way at next quarterly meeting of Cotnmis-

sioners.

'The theory that coalbeds are formed simply by ihe action of gre.it pressure upon masses of wood has received a remarkable and unexpected corroboration from a circumstance which happened at a mine in Silesia. A piece of pine wood had lain tor two years under a heavy steam pipe weighing about 12 tons, and a scientist named Gopport, observing that it had been •somewhat rh-nfnikwirii ipnpirnnrn, tested it and fouud that it possessed all the qualities of lignite of the tertiary brown coal formation — in other words, it had been nearly converted into coal. It had parted with almost all its aqueous const tuents, and would no doubt bave become a piece of toler* ably pure carbon in the course of a year or two.

In the cause of civilisation, the Bay of Tunis (according to the World) will be immediately required to hand over to French speculators and contractors — 1, Tbe mines of Tabarca, (described as the richest in the worll) by M. Fucbs, of the Paris School ot Mines. 2. The port of Bizerto, to be tamed into an African Toulon, at the cost of twenty million of francs, according to the estimates of Admiral Clue. 3. The completion of the port of Tunis, the contract being twenty millions of francs, 4. A railway from Tunis to B : zerta. 5 A railway from Tunis to Cabes. 6. The cutting o? the Isthmus of Cabes— a work estimated by M. de Lesseps at twenty millions. These are a few of tbe plums incidental to the ' civilising manners of the French.'

We are all ready for Mr Pitcher an! his transcontinental railway pros" pectus. An evening paper has kindly heralded him witb a flourish of trumpets. It intimates that * capitalists and speculators should keep some ioose casb by them until the arrival of Mr. Pitcher from south Australia,' This gentleman brings with him tbe scheme of a transcontinental railway which is to traverse Australia from Port Augusta to Port Darwin. Tbe capital required is set down at six millions sterling in the first instance, which it is proposed to raise by 12.000 shares of £500 each, wi*-h power to double tbe capital after a certain period. The writer then proceeds in the same lights-hearted fashion to described Mr Pitcher's programme of buildiitg the line in 100-mile section", ano paying each section as he goes on with the landsiles of the preceding section. It his hardly fair to Mr. Pitcher to disclose all tbe fiae things in his prospectus before his arrival, and it is decidedly bad taste to chaff South Australians in terms like these. 1 The population of South Australia,' continues the article, 'at present scarcely exceeds 250,000, but its area is a wig's one, extending across the entire continent, and as will be seen by tbis project, the aspirations of its inhabitants are more in keeping with the extent of their territory than A-ith the density of their population.' In will do Mr Pitcher no barm to be a little chaffed, but I wish him every success in the city, although six millions are not a trifle. — London correal-

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