MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 2 December 1881, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Inspector Fitzgerald, who wns sent to make inquires respecting the out* rages by the backs on the north coast of Queensland, reports that he found some dresses and infants 's clothes at a blacks' camp at Murdoch Point. The blacks admitted haying killed and eaten the Chinaman at Messrs Watson and Fuller's beche-de«mer station on Lisard* Island, and also, that they destroyed the station, but they denied all knowledge of Mrs Watson or her child The country bag been thoroughly examined from Murdoch Point southward, but no traces of a white woman have been discovered. It would be interesting (remarks a Home paper) to ask any dozen per<ons one might happen to meet how much they suppose the average daily j net profits of the Bank of England to be. Their answer (says a correspondent would be sure to vary considerable, and a few of them, pro* hably, be anywhere near the mark. We fancy a goad many would say £100; some, might perhaps, think,' £1000 a better guess } few. we imagine would figure, the right answer to the question, as may be seen by a reference to the report of the general court held on the Js>h inst. in the B ink parlor. The net profits for the half-year ended August; Jjl^fc were then stated to be £703 803 lfs 41, that is, rather over £27,000 ncr week, or £4200, per working day. To carry the culculaton a step or two further, and taking the money* making day to consist of six hours the net profits wou'd be, on an average £740 per hour. £\2 \oa per minute, or 4a 2d per second* Failure jf New Rugby. —According to the latest intelligence from the little colony of cultured Englishmen established by Mr Tom Murgleg in Tennessee, there seems little cbance of the snrxiva!. All will regret this failure, for the idea which Iny at the back of the scheme— that of providing young English gentleman with an hauorable career of a new sort — was thoroughly praiseworthy, Wfc (Mail) trust however, that 'Tom Brown ' will not give up the good work ; bis school are not wont to be discouraged by a single disapointmenl, or even by several, Althousjh the new Rugby has proved a delusion and snare, there are other spots in tiie world where the experiment might have succeeded The main causes of failure appear to have been poverty of soil sad unwholesoraeness of climate. Sorely the British Empire contains still unfilled land where those drawbacks, at all events, do not exist. Let Mr Hughes next try Australia ot New Zealand. Mr C. Johnston may be credited, says (he New Zealand Times, with having at a recent meeting enunciated a decidedly new idea concerning utilisation of prision labor. He scouted, and very properly the system now in force of teaching pris« oners trades, which in exercising, brought their lahor into rivarly with that of free men much to the disadvantage of the latter, as exemplified in the printing and bookbinding carried on in the LytteU ton Goal ; and he made a suggestion as to how prison labor could be utilised with profit and without interfering with any existing colonial industry, Mr Johnston's idea is that encouragement might be given to the manufactu'e of paper from native f}ng and other avaliable material if the inimufaeture of p*per bags were made part of prision labor. There is a ver? large quantity of paper bags imported into the colony for use in tnauy branches of retail trade, and the oply obstacle to

tbe manufactory in this colony bas been j tbe cost of labor. Bat if the work is done within our prisons this objection is at once removed and no existing out* side industry will be interfered with. Tbe idea is an excellent one and deserves consideration. The Rer. Charles Fraser, of Chris 4.--ehurcb in a contribution to the Catholic Presbyterian says—lf Scotland is still what it formerly was, there must be many I'onest industrious and intelligent fami'ie* who would find comfort and independence here such as they never reach at home. There are no krawback in climate, soil, wages or land laws ; our chief obsiaeles are sceptism and whisky. The recent census, which by the wav, by the European population to about half a million, returns a surprising large number of sceptics. In Du-iedin, inGdeltty »is more outspoken and rarapait. As to intemperance the mcey spent in intoxieiting liqnurs would support all the churches, all the school? and nil the poor. Still this is a great country with a great future: