MISCELLANEOUS

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 19 September 1881, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS

An action for tbo recovery of £5000 damages for slander has been instituted by a Jewish merchant of Melbourne against another merchant belonging to the snmo denomination. It seems thata false report at a private ball as published in a society paper, and it is alleged that the rlefenJant openly stated that plaintiffs daughters were the authoresses, the result being

that the young ladies were 4 cut ' by nUfty 0? their acquaintances. A rather unexpected objection was raised by a shareholder at a meeting of the Spring Hill Leads C ompany, held, at the Unicorn hotel on Saturday night. The election of directors was the business before the seating, and one sbaroholder moved that the retiring directors be re-elected. Another shareholder (flfr Brittain; took an objection to all of the retiring directors being re-elected, as two of Ihem were j absent. A long discussion took place 1 on the subject, during which Mr Brittain contended that any e harebolder being absent from a melting could not legally be elected a director. The •clause in the deed of the company relating lo the election of directors was then read over, and supported Mr Hrfttain in the objection. It stated that the directors shall be elected * from ' and by the shareholders present, A board of directors was then elected from those present. "A Melbourne paper says :— A great deal of public attention is being paid here just now to mining nutters on the other side of Bass' Straits, two or three new companies having been floated recently. It is scarcely considered a matter for susprise in the face oi rich results obtained from an earlier TastaaniaD yenture of a similar character, and which has enriched a number of persons who not long ago had not a feather to fly with. As a case in point, I may mention that a friend of mine recently received a letter from a brother residing in the 4 tight little island/ who launched into mining speculations there, not many months ago, with a capital of £50, and who now estimates Ihe market value of his various interests at no less a sum than £24,000!

Jem Mace, having retired from ' the ring,' has declined to make t match. It is a woman this time. She insists on J«m paying forfeit, as he refused to come to the scratch. In other words, Jem is to be sued for breach of promise. Jem. who is a publican, wilt be bit own bottfa holder, and a Supreme Court Judge wilt officiate as referee. The girl values him at £500, which is cheap for an «x» champion. After all (writes 'Plccton/ the sporting contributor to the Auckland Herald) Lorillard won nothing on the Derby. He cables the London Sportsman that the result of the race was a surprise to him. He didn't think Iroqnois' good enough— in fact, before the race, he considered Barrett and Passaic (two others of his stable) better,' and on them put his money. He had only £2500 on the winner. England takes 7,000,C00 gallons of wine from France, and 5 250,000 gallons from Spain. Augustus Bruno, an aotor, descended from the stage at Indianapolis, and whipped a man who was ridiculing bis per* formance. : It was reported in New York, on Juno 2, that Mr Sydney Dillon and Jay Gould had bought the Central Railroad of Nevada, extending from Battle Mountain to Austin. Tbe time when a pious editor is ex« disable for knocking splinters from tbe third commandment is when lie jabs tbe wrong end of his penholder in the ink' stand, and hastily shoves it behind his ear without wiping it. It is said that Bismarck, who by the j way, receives £3000 a year as Cbdncellor of the German Empire, is a Czech by descent ; that near the year 1000 an ancestor of the diplomate was a teacber of music ; that a second progenitor was tbe originator of the Czechs' national cos* turn*, and a third compiled the first Czech dictionary. A vendor of secondhand clothes was the ambitious occupation with which Hobart Pacha began his career. He fitted out a chip and interested himself in the coasting trade in the East, in order to sell them, and was made a Turkish Admiral, having secured a little knowledge «f navigation. Late advice* from Fiji show that this, the latest of Great Britain's colonies, has become self-supporting. The total ex* penditure for th# year 1880 appears to have been £152.321 and tbe revenue for same period £169,302, leaving the TreaBurer with a cash balance in hand of £7980. In the expediture, public works figures for the modest sum of £1981, police and armed constabulary £1358. education £887, and eosls £705. The exports for the year 1880 amounted to £229,528, being an increase of £59,489 on the p*rions year ; imports, £185.740 being an increase of £43528, on the previous year Beside the huge dimensions to which the trade of New Zealand li»9 reached, these figures appear very small. They are, however, but the be> ginning of an intended intercolonial trade whose limits are in tbe distant future. It is to be hoped that the proposed steam communication between this Colony and Fiji will be established shortly.