MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1063, 20 March 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

» The Auckland Stud Company have* purchased an estate on tiie Camp road between Otahuhu and extensive stables are to be erected. Sylvia Park is tbe name given to the estate. The ' Observer ' speaks of tiie banquet to Tawhiao at Auckland as "the -worst and most melancholy fiasco ever seen there, the dinner being a meagre, vilelyspread, and indifferently-cooked scramble, which would disgrace thehoepitality of an up-country shanty." The paper asks why "the flounders were "high"* and the poultry deadly tough why therewas no sugar on the table for the sweets ; why the dessert was so meagre ; why there were no ornaments on the table; and why the wine and beer were so poor — so wretchedly poor — in quality 1 A remarkable struggle took place at the Royal Aquarium lately between a negro named Dock Perry, a keeper of wild animals it that establishment^ and the ourang-outang, familiarly known as "The Wild Man ofthe Woods." It appears that tiie animal in question, having been purchased by the proprietor of a menagerie in Paris, it became necessary to take it from its carge in order to send it to its place of destination. The negro entered the cage (which has three compartments) with a cane in liis hand, and having opened one of the slides, which usually admits the keeper, attempted to drive the ourang-outang, in the. cage. The ourang-outang, howevei* showed fight, and closed with the man» clasping his great arms, which are twice the length of those of a man, around the negro. The keeper, who ia a stal4"t*turt fellow, grappled with his opponent mfegFfee neck, and, in the i_g_t. *£* number of spectators, a moat exciting wrestling struggle took place. After about five minutes the ourang-outang was overpowered and driven into th* cage intended for him, and was shortly afterwards despatched from the Aquarium to his destination. The negro was bitten in the left hand during the struggle. Kobert Early, a carpenter resident at New Plymouth, having beenadjudged a person who "by excessive drinking lessens his liquors, mis - spends, wastes, or lessens his health, endangers or interrupts tiie peace and happiness of his family," all hotelkeepers in the country have (under sections 117, Licensing Act) been prohibited from supplying him with liquor." Early's wife who instituted the ease said defendant was married, and had live children; he was a carpenter and builder, and had been in the habit of drinking to excess for the last six years. Prior to his commencing to drink he was the owner of several properties in town, but he haa gone through them all and has since been bankrupt twice. One of the largest sales of station property which has taken place in Australia was made in Sydney recently. A station known as tiie Barrabogie, containing 227,824 acres freehold, stituated on the Murrumbidgee River to which it has a frontage of 25 miles, and stocked with 130,000 sheep, 129 cattle, and 122 horses, has been sold by action for the sum of £440,000. The purchaser of this princely estate was Mr Fitzwilliam Wentworth. Of 300 summonses recently issued in Melbourne against parents for noncompliance with orders made against them for the support of their children in the industrial schools, only 14 could be served. The remaining 285 parents had left the colony. M. Grevy has been the first to inaugurate the theatrical telephone in his household Apparatus communicating with the Opera, Theatre Francais, and Opera Comique, has been set in a drawing room, on the first floor, looking into the garden. The number of recipients is 12 — four for each theatre. The work has been executed by M. Ader, who has introduced great improvements into this marvellous instrument Notwithstanding the distance of 3000 metres between the Klysee and Theatre Francais, the voices of the actors arrive as clear and distinct as in the theatre itseli

■M"i.t ***■■ The excitement consequent on the recent riots in Warsaw still exists, M oney snd food are being distributed to the ! ruined families by the Christian Committees under the supervision oJCdunt Albedyski lhe streets continue to be patrolled by troops. 'I here were about 500 houses, with double that number of shops, wrecked and otherwise destroyed in the riots. The work of restoration will be long and tedious. Several priests in. their ecclesiastical robes were very active in tneir endeavours to restrain the drunken mob, but their efforts were of little avail, because soldiers and policemen were found to be fraternising with the rioters. mmmmmmmmmimmm-mmmmmmmmmmtmmtmatmmtmmmmmm