MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1032, 6 January 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The orginal L 500,000 sterling given by the late Mr Pcabody for the erection of model lodging buildings has now become L 720,000. This large increase in the capital of the trustees is stated by their surveyor, Mr Robert Vigers, to be due to the income from the building. The occupants of rooms are stated to include all grades of the working classes, from the laborer and washerwoman to the skilled artisan. The entire expenses of the management of the trust are, according to the same authority, under LSOO per annum. It is estimated that the pawnbrokers of the United Kingdom — 4,372 in number — take in during a single year no fewer than 200,000,000 of pledges. This calculation is founded upon a curious return made by 713 pawnbrokers in the principal towns in England, whose business during last year was represented by a little over 32,500, 000 pledges. Of these, the, pledges since proved to have been stolen were, we are assured, only one in 14,000. These 32,500.000 transactionsgaveri.se to 1,887 cases in the police courts, involing the giving into custody of 450 persons. The total number of pledges given up was 2,311, valued at LI, OBO. In 703 cases the pawnbrobers had themselves given information which led to detection. A pension of L2OO a-year is received by the composer of the " Watch on the Rhine." — Air-^delaife -telegram to the Argus ' reports a frightful accident at Beltana, the first station on the overland telegraph " route v to Port Darwin. On the morning of December 15 a tent in which a woman named Johnston lived with her four cliildren took fire. One child escaped, but the mothor and the other three were burned to death. The shrieks of the sufferers are described as frightful. The child who escaped was so frightened that she can give no distinct account of how the accident happened. Mr Archibald M 'Arthur, the oldest man in Scotland, has just died in a small cottage at Dunood, Argylshire. He was born in 1 777. He retained his faculties to the last, but his bodily powers were enfeebled a few years ago. When he reached the age of a century he was presented with a sum of money publicly subscribed. The death has just been registered of a centenariad named Sarah White, an inhabitant of West Bronwich, near Birmingham. The deceased was over 106 years of aga Her eldest son, who is still alive, is eighty years old. Of the Melbourne larrikin, a correspondent of the Timaru Herald writes as follows : — ' Another matter that is causing no little anxiety is the growing boldness of larrikin classes. The word " larrikin " is essentially Victorian, and it is difficult for anyone except a Victorian, to understand it. A Victorian larrikin is not a Paris gamin, or a London street Arab. His only confrere is the "hoodlum"' of San Francisco. He is a mixture of rough, garrotter, thief and bully. Fun he does not seem to understand. He will in pure malice, attack the unprotected or the aged. His main occupation, however, consists in watching drcmkcn men and strangers from the country. He lurks at street corners, and when he sees his prey follows up until a dark street is reached, when lie half kills and robs his victim, lie, in eoir.pr.ny, for the larrikins go in packs, being too cowardly to act clone, lurks in dark right of-ways, and Fpringiiu: for the then passer-by, throttles him with the "maginnis,"' or stuns hiri v ith the "neddy." The papers teem ( very dny witli accounts of midnight attacks. Some time they take pla.v in the middle of the day. In B.uirke street west. | at mid-day, the larrikins attacked and stabbed a policeman. It is needles 1 ? +•» give any account in particular. It i tjuite evident that stops must lie take 1 , at an early moment to introduce tlv lash: nothing el*e will stop this dis graceful state of things. The remed\ would hr.ye been ;>!;i.<.ed on the statut. book lon^ ji..;,i, )-.-;t th-r W; art afraid of ;h-j i-tiv:- v :'..>: