MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1086, 12 May 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The work of a probationer for the Wesleyan ministry is anything but mild diversipn says the Wairarapa Star. The Rev. J. Dukes the other evening told his congregation that during the past year, besides having frequently to ride twenty-eight miles to Tenui, holding services there, and returning to Masterton next day, sometimes with mud up to the saddle girths, he had to devour theological works daily; and that when he stated he had completed the study of thirty volumes he was informed that he was ten volumes below the average. Referring to the execution of Guiteau, and the fact that upon a Marshal of the United States devolves the hangman's duties, an American paper says : — The office of executioner for capital offences is generally loathed. The hangman is a man who flits about at night making his awful preparations. Nobody knows his name or his home, would suddenly grasp his hand, and women should grow hysterical in his presence. But the business of hanging Guiteau ? The Marshal could recruit a million of assistants each of whom would be anxious to cut the rope. So universally is this bad and miserable assassin despised that pity has no place in and breast for him. Captain Charles E Henry is an f hio man, and served with Gen. Garfield in the late war. From that time to the General's death they were warm personal friends. He was appointed by the late president to the Mai'shalship o* the district. He was a member of the " Chum Cabinet," and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the late President to the fullest extent. During the trial it was often remarked that there was a dangerous glitter in the Captain's eye when Guiteau was near. There is a little doubt that he contemplates the duties of his office with grim satisfaction. The swimming championship of the colonies was decided on April 8, in Sydney, when M'lndoe, of Victoria, beat Caviil, of Sydney, by thirty yards. The stake was £100 a side. A precocious young larrikin was arrested by a constable in Melbourne, and when 1 icing locked up boasted that Ins father had " influence enough with tiie ' beaks : to square it." The " beaks" gave the youth the option of paying lines of £i>o each on two charges or six months' imprisonment. A celebrated lawyer once said that I the. three most troublesome clients he

ever had were a young lady who wanted | to be married, a' woman who wanted to | be divorced, and an old maid who didn't i i know what she wanted.

The Ba^r^TLighT(Feb. 25) says that Ingersoll does not mean that it shall be said after his death that he turned from infidelity on his dying bed. His secretary who writes shorthand, is instructed to write down accurately whatever he may say on that occasion. "There will then be no opportunity," he says, " for any one to put into my mouth utterances contradicting the expressions of my life." When a man was killed at Handwick in a fair fist-fight, coroner's jury said "wilful murder." When at Blayney a farmer and a draper quarrelled in their cups, and former viciously stabbed the latter to the heart with a knife, jury said " manslaughter." It is proposed in Switzerland to pass a federal school law for the government of the schools which are at present under the control of the separate Cantons. One section of this law provides that every youth, after leaving the primary school, shall spend at least two hours every week in a night school Twelve female doctors are now officially engaged in teaching medicine to women in tussia. Twenty-five female doctors who took part in the military operations ot 1877 have been decorated, by order of the Emperor, with the Order of St Stanislas of the third class. 'I he number of female students is steadily increasing. # Recent discoveries of asbestos in Canada are likely to have a considerable bearing on the introduction of this material for rendering our places of public entertainment uninflammable. The newly erected stage at the Crystal Palace has been entirely coated with paint made of this curious mineral, and experiments lately made with it satisfactorily show that no tire has any effect upon wood so protected beyond some slight charring. It is therefore likely that there will soon be a large demand for this new export from the Dominion, a country which is daily developing resources. What constitutes being an "habitual drunkard " in the meaning of the Act, was the ethics of discussion in the Dunedin PolL-e Court recently, Mr Weldon thought simply three con victions within the year was enough, but Mr Carew said as he read the Act there must not only be three convictions within the year, but there must be riotous or indecent behaviour within six months and evidence showing that the culprit got drunk habitually. tt seemed to him a monstrous interpretation that the mere fact of a person being punished three times should constitute a separate punishable offence — should subject a man to an additional punishment because he had already been sentenced thrice. Mr Weldon said the object of the police was only to bow to what ever the Legislature said. Mr Oarew said it was sometimes very difficult, to know what the Legislature did say.