MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 16 September 1881, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The death of President GarfieU would place the supreme executive power of the Unite i States in the hand* of Vice-president Chester A. Arthur. There have only been three occasions since the Declaration of Independence in which the stateman who was elected to occupy the comparatively unimpor-. tant position of Vice- President and Chairman of the Senate has, through the death of the Chief Magistrate, been called upon to occupy the more im« portant and more elevated position of Chief Magistrate. In 1841 William Henry Harrison was succeeded by John Tyler. In 1819 General Zachary Taylor was followed by Milliru Fill* more ; and after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 Andrew Johnson ruled the United States for four years, * A resident of Sandhurst,' obseryss the Bendigo Independent, received a letter this week from a friend of his who went to the Mount Brown diggings about five months ago. Tho writer says thnt ' the diggings are pretty well played out, if nothing fresh is found. There have been some fair claims, but Bothing to boast of, the best giving only about £120 per man. There are hundreds that hare not paid for the miners' food. This ip, however, principally on account of there being no water within nine miles. It is one of the driest parts of tho colony. You can never depend on rain, eyen in the rainy season from November to August, some time ago the people bad a three years * drought, with not enough rain to make the grass spring. As for sinking for water, the men would have to go 300 feet or 400 feet. It is what I would call a good poor man's diggings if there was plenty of water, the same as there is in Victoria. A poor man would starve here. There is no permanency about the diggings, as the gold is principally got in small ravines or gullies — very shallow —so that a rush does not last above a couple of months, at the ouVide. There is nothing new being found, so crowds will have to return home, for there is nothing to keep them here. The expense of working a quartz reef would, I think, take from 15 oz, to 20 oz. to the ton to pay. There is no timber within from 50 to 100 miles from here, except a little to be found now and again in the creeks. If a battery were erected, the cjst for firewood would be something enormous.' The London ' Standard,' in a leading article, discusses the settlement of the reform question in Victoria, and express the opinion that the compromise is one on the whole creditable to the moderate of both parties. The removal of this cause of political strife is believed to be like'y to promote the prosperity of the colony. "William L. Black, on dyim* in Halifax a year ago left his entire e.itate, worth half a million, to his widow, through it was known that he had intended at one time to cut her off with as little as possible. A person named F. H Baker claims to have effected the change of mind, and he now sues her for £200,000, the sum which he s>avs she agreed to give him for his services if successful. The " Loafer in the Street," ssys :— • There were seme very funny things happened during the generally dreary talking against time on the Representation Bill. The story from the Timaru Herald of Mr Seddon's indignation against the Government for not allowing any adjournment for meals is very droll. 'I ham/ he said, ' hastonished at the hattitnde of the Government, I ham so.' Mr Seddon reminds me of tho following lines written by an ex-superintendent of police in New York :— " Our public schools — may their influence spread. Until statesman use grammar and dunces aro I de;id ; Until no on dare say, in this land of the free, He ' done ' for he ' did, 1 or it's % her ' for it's 1 she,' An English p^prr says: — Sir C. G. Duffy has publicly declared that in his

ou'ni-m fie Irish Land Act, winch lias just received the Kov*l assent, contains Ihe germs of imme-snrable good to Ire* land. He urges bis countrymen to remember thit no flritfsh Parliament had rver before eiven Ireland f?nod of such iratmiiude. The Pull Mall Gazette, commentin? upon tbig address in an article headed ' Timely Words,' rxpresses the opinion that Sir C. U. Daffy has spoken well and opportunely, and eulogises his remarks m admirable. The nrticle concludes by adnuing every householder throughout the kingdom to read bis eloquent appeal. Mr Ashmead-Bnrtlett has the following resolution on the Order Paper of the House of Commons, which he will move when the business of the Honse permits: 1 That in the opinion of this Honse it is desirable for the influence, uaitv, and commercial prosperity of the British Kmpire that there should be an Assembly fnr the whole empire, in which the Colonies and Dependencies should be represented, and that all the dominions of ihe Queen should be bound together themselves in a commercial union of unrestricted trade/