MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1039, 23 January 1882, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

• ■■■■ -♦ The "Otfcgo Daily Times" says the New Zealand Fruit Preserving Company, which has just commenced business in Dunedin,, has already received orders for .£IOOO worth of jams, the first twenty five cases of jam having been ordered by tiie Union S.S Com pany. The plant will be immediately extended, and during the winter season it is proposed to enter npon the production of pickles, tinned fruits and other preserves. Three tons of gooseberries have been received, a ton of tyhich came from one settler at OavershaTn ; and also a ton of black c irrants from another settler at ForiKiry. This fruit would otherwise have probably gone to waste, but the company will for a time be likely to have some difficulty in getting a sufficient supply. Besides the local product, a consignment of raspberries has been received from Tasmania. So long as the leaves of patato vine continue green, they perform their office in feeding the growing tubers ; but as Boon as they die and cease their functions the potatoes may be dug, provided they can be kept dry and cool, and excluded froni light. It is usually best however, not to dig them during the hot weather, for the reason just stated. If the soil is sandy or porous they may remain longer out ; on strong or heavy soils the digging ahould be done before the autumn rains set in, as the rains will cause the mud to adhere to the tubers. We do not think merely remaining in the soil some weeks after growth has ceased would injure their quantity or affect their subsequent growth.— -Country Gentleman. Many of the crops in the North Otago district are fully ripe, and harvesting has begun. The average yield for the district is expected to be Jfrotn 20 to 25 bushels to acre — not a bad yield when the bad season is taken into account The King of Ashantee lately killed 200 young girls, and used their blood to mix mortar for one ofthe state buildings. A daring street robbery is reported from New York. Two of the employers of, a large firm of brewers were carrying notes and specie to the bank, and they were in a vehicle which was run into by another. It was at first thought to be an accidental collision, but this therory was at once dispelled by the men in the second vehicle attacking the men in charge of the money, which, after a desperate struggle, they succeeded in carrying off, the amount stolen being 10,000 dol. A waterspout' which passed over the district of Milan, Algeria, killed sixtyfive people. A San Francisco bootblack is said to have realised a fortune in the South Sea Island by polishing the natives ' feet. They like the sensation caused by the application of " Day and Martin " to their toes and although any garments are held to be unnecessary in warm weather, it is considered quite out of fashion* to take an afternoon stroll after a lunch on " enfant roti " without having a shine. The Catherdal bells in Christchurch seem to be anything but popular, owing to the peculiar hour that the ringers take for practice, which commences at 8 p.m. In an article on this subject, the Lyttelton Times says ; — " Breaking in upon a concert, bells are simple abominable. As an interruption to opera, they are unendurable. As an accompaniment to a dramatic performance, they are vile. As disturbers of music in any shape, they are unpardonable. As assistance forced upon a lecturer, they are galling. About these things there is no manner of doubt There is also no doubt that hours immediately succeeding the hour of 8 p.m. were occupied before the bellringers appeared on the scene, by the practice of music in private houses." Our contemporary hints that an injunction is likely to be applied for. Mr David Buchanan, a N.S.W. member of Parliament thus describes a teetotaller — A lean, emaciated, yel-low-faced creature who has no fear of God, but all sorts of fear of man; a miserable being, whom he could not look upon without feeling an almost irrepressible hankering to take him by the heels and pitch him head for most into a puncheon of rum. All hope of recovering the silver which went down in the Tararua in April last is not yet abandoned (says the Southland News). A correspondent, writing on Dec. 30, informs us that-divers were then waiting for a change in the weather to enable them.