MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 31 October 1881, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

la these dav.s when smallpox is in Sydney and Brisbane the question of yaecination is important. Mr George Lacy, the able author of many reform essays, haa published a pamphlet entitled ' Vaccination in the Light of Modern Enquiry.' Mr Lacy believes that there is not sufficient evidence to phow that vaccination is any help to small-pox. Tie need in Sydney is not vaccination, but airy house* wide streets pure water and good drainage. There are many remarks in Mr Lady's pamphlet well worth considering. We believe thnt half thedeatbs in our cities are preventable Typhoid, diphtheria, scalatina, &c.« carry off our population, and they are bred through our neglect of the laws of nature. There will be a transit; of Ihe planet Mercury across the eun'a disc on the Bth November next at about 10 46 a.m. (New Zealand mean tinu>) terminating at about 4 p.m. The transit of Venus does not take pace till December next y^ar ; but it wiM not happen at an hour of tbe div sg favorable for obsevatnn in New Z j :i---land as that which took place in 1874 After (hat a transit, of V.-nus will not occur aenin till June. 2004. The King and Queen of Denmark are about to visit the Imperial family of Kussia at Peter luff. Tuey are expected to return about the middle of September. It may be no'ed, as showing the perfection to which such things ar^ brought nowadays, that the swintr hridsje forming the entrance to th« new Leith dock was opened by a child of four, the son of the resident engineer. The bridge, which is movpc! by hydraulic po^pr, weighs 400 ton*, and coat £15.000. Notice has also been taken of the f-ict that thp enhre cost of this splendid dock (£400,000) is just the same as was that ot oue of tbe now antiquated men-of-war undt»r the Duke's flag — the Warrior. ?o much costlier and less satisfactory in war then peace. Ex Queen Isabella goes into the whirl of Parishn giiHes with a vengeance At the Grand Prix, she sat by the side of President (irevv and his daughter. One night she wII be at the house of the credit conservative aristocrat in Pans, and the next will be a party in the American quatre. She sometimes goes down fo •he office of Le Figaro, and spend* an afternoon in watching the paper made up. Kom Q celebrated her birthday on April 21, According to the bet*r nuthoritis it is 2934 years since Romulus harnessed a wtntli bull find a white heifer to a plough and turnei that famous furrow round the Palatine Hill. The State of Michigan (U.S) ha* been yisi.ed by fires of that the destruction ha.< been terrible In the northern and north-e;.stern part of the State the ruin is pspfeially wide-spread, The village! 1 of Anderson, Richmond, V>ld, Charleston, and Suntelhc hay;* been w^e-l out- :»n" part o f Hop; , Tyiv, sv,,\ V...,.i.a M 10. and Cadar, in Hu"i»n <'-miry. hwwh"lly iV j)-irli:iily i lIP s-i in- • fae. Many iir« j n wmp .>« :nl m'i'-t stock desiroyt'd R^iief is ii>kv-d in,the destitute communities, Thwy me made up principally of recently-arrived Cauaii ins. Tbe country from Saginaw

to St. Ciair h n desert. Ir is believed tbat nearly 10,000 per^oa^ perhhel i" the flames on September 8 The fires were checked by welcome rain, A few weeks ago a very sod oconrrnco took place in Limerick Mr Hone, of Dublin, a member of a fatni'v well-known, was proceeding;, as one of the e'even of the Nashuld Cricket Club, to play a match asjuinsb a local club, and feeling unwell went into a, chemist's to procure a drattght.Throu^h some mistake he waa given p dose of carbolic acid. After drinking; it be imraedia'ely became ill, Medical as* sistance was at once procured, but U» died the same night. A su'cde of a most determined and horrible character was committed by a woman named Bridget Covne, at Mnseley, Lancashire, the orher day. She first poured the coa 1 eats of a paraffia oil lamp over her head and clothing and applying a lighted match, set fire to herself. She w»s, of course mv mediately enveloped in flames and died ia a few minutes, It is supposed that drink led ♦•olhe commission of the horrible deed. A Germm earner, the * confidant' of the firm of Do ; fu3, Meig & Co, of Hiiblhausan and Paris, has been arrested ou a charge of having em'oezz "d nearly two million of francs (£70,000 ) The prisoner, Btnile D^eer, has twen for nineteen years in ;hesatn<s employ, and the s»:il.iry he received lately hns ennblei him to live in a style which prevented him from being suspected. A watch was set on hi«n, and a detective was placed in the office. The latter soon gainei the confidence of the cashier, and discovered that Doeer indulged in financial speculations, led on by unscrupulous men in whose power he had placed bimae'f. Information w.is given and by thit time about ha! f- a-d< z-n arrest* htVvi been made of persons who have been rhe accomplices of the unfaithful cashier, and who could not help acknowledging were he got his money from, A private letter received in Dunedin stages tbat • Thorpe Tiilhot,' a lady whosepoems and neveltfes have so frequently been well received, ha.s won the first prize of £100 giren by the Melbourna Leader for a Colonial written novel. The fair authoress, we may mention, resides in Ohrisfchurrh.