MISCELLANEOUS.

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

MISCELLANEOUS.

■ ♦ Speaking at Picton recently, Mr E. T. Conoliy said the amount of honorarium paid to members was cX 4 cessive, and he was in fa?or of cutting down one half the present amount. In the House of Representatives, members were original Sy paid a guinea per day amounting to £90 or £ LOO per sessiou. The idea was that members should be allowed their expenses and their expenses only, while serving their country, and he mast say that in those days they had a very superior Housr to the present. The deterioration of the House commenced with the increase of the honorarium. It was said that with the £1 per day there was a temptation to members to spin out the session ; and so, to be delivered from temptation, a fixed Bum of £100 was agreed upon, which he thought was a very fair amount. At the time of abolition there was an exceptionally long session, and the amount was doubled, being raised to 200 guineas per annum ;in fact they had gradually been converting the House into what might be termed a 1 billet.' There were men in the House who could nob have earned £200 in a Whole year, and now got it for four months, having the remaining eight to pick up what they could in. He would let the House be opened to the rich man and the poor m>n alike. Let it be opened to very man of integrity and ability, but do not let it become so reduced as to be looked upon ag a sort of refuge. On the grounds he bad stated be would vote for reducing the amount of the honorarium to the old standard. A touching etory comes from Auckland. On one n : ght last week there were eleven persons in the cells, charged with this ofjence One of the locked up was the drunken wife of a hard-working man who is wholly unable to control her conduct. Last night three of their wretched children — barefooted, poorly clad, and wet — came to the station, the elder one, a girl about ten years, carrying an in. fant child wrapped up in a worn shawl. Her request was that the infant might be given to its mother in the cells, as neither father or children could nourish it m her abseDce. The request was kindly complied with by Mr Pardy, and the two other children then, left for their wrecbhed home. A thunderstorm broke over Naples early on September 17tli. Serious damage is reported from surrounding country, Tbe villages at the foot oM Vesuvius were completely inundated, and the roads were destroyed. At Grume Nevano two houses fell, burying ten people, of whom only two have been saved. The Rothhorc, a mountain in the Orisons is showing symptoms similar to those that preneeded ihs fall of the I'ecbingel, aud threatens with destruction Brienz, a village in tne «ii.<* trict of Albula. Part of the mountain is said to be perceptibly moving, »nd attempts are being make to let out the pent--up. waters, which are believed to be the cause of the mischief. At Plummer's trial at Auckland, an interesting memento of Cyrus Haley was produced in the shape oi a blank

ir.usic! book. Thrf Brst. porii ••n li«Uy !i;»d filled in wish shortiMnd Orel, {•vfrci^pf. and pnrt of an eau.-y on Bunvan. The latter half tvas filled it) by Piummer with tnu^ic. The bonk is supposed to have f.il!en into \m possession when I'siiey wa^sbnt. An English pnper remark^:—Anotbt?r l.indmsirlc is goiiiij. Nnvv^ife Prison is about to disappear, afttr an existence of more thati six centuries and a half. In the earliest year of i lie regin of Henry 111, appeus in bis tory as the phice of captivity for men of b'^h degree. :>ir Kicbar i Wn.ttinytoD, father of the groat Lorn Mayor oruered it to be rebui tin bin will Destroyed by the lire it rose from H s ashes a shame to the humanity of the f ightee:iih ceniury, The present gloomy building, in (rout of which so many suffered the last penalty has no hioConc value. It is oniy twentyfour years of age, can hardly be called an ornament, and Ijhs attached to it the most- inconvenient offices and balls for the transaction of the principal criminal business of the couutry (hat could bierected by tbe ingenuity of man. At a recent review of Use Austrian cavalry by the Emperor and Empress, a a small child ra r i directly in /rout of the horses as some thirty thousand dragoons kwere_jcharjjinn in^ line across thje^jiejd, when a soldier in the front rank, with wondrous presence] of mind, disengage 1 bis foot from the stirrup, clone: to his ; flying horse, end seized the child as he swept by. When the applause had sub« sided, the Emperor took the cross of the Order of Maria Theresa from his own neck and hung it upon that of the rescuer.