MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1107, 30 June 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Considering the predilection that her Majesty has always shown for Scotland and Germany, it is somewhat remarkable, says Truth, that a Scotsman should have shot at her with a pistol of German manufacture.

The lot of the London policeman ought not to be an unhappy one. He lives at the station house and has commodious apartments. The kitchen is well supplied, and there are batha and reading roomsjrod libraries. Ho has chess and checker boards and billiard tables. There is a police fund which maintains two orphan sohools, one for boys and one for girls, the children of deceased members of the force.

At Leeds, Jane Johnson, aged over 83 years and who has been convicted over two hundred times for drunkenness, has joined the Salvation army, and when the last English mail

left she was addressing large meetings on her prison and workhouse experiences. The seven wonders of the world in modern times are the printing press, the steam engine, the telegraph, the daguerrotype, the telephone, the phonograph, and the electric light The so-called "seven wonders" of the ancients were mere trifles compared with those of the present time. The Brooklyn Bridge, for example, would make the hanging gardens of Babylon a mere toy, while the whole seven wonders put together would sing into insignificance could the builders have seen a lightning express train at full speed Last week VL Deprez succeeded in transmitting power by means of electricity through resistance, representing fifty miles of ordinary telegraph wire. Hitherto it has been impossible to transmit six or eight horse power for fjtoj^hing or other heavy work more tk&n tapo or three miles. This is bat cefctaipS possibility— to teke^oftly th% ch&ide it foreshadows. Together with the practicability of storing electrical energy to any extent, it opens up a vistas of industrial revolution, before which the boldest may well hold his breath. In the interior of Australia camels | Jiave for some time past been used as beasts of burden. The Australian, however, is not only a man of business but a keen sportsman as well, and especially fond of a race meeting, Thus it came about the other day that ■on the arrival at Thargomindah of a troop of eighteen camels laden with merchandise some of the enterprising townsmen arranged for a race between iive of the fleetest of the " ships of the desert" They were ridden by light weights— -two of them being jockeys well known to the sporting public in the neighboring township of Wilcannia — and the only stipulation made was that tbe prize of £15 should be handed (Over by the winner to the trustees of the fund for fencing the cemetery ! A level start was effected but the camel ridden by one Bond made all the running, and won in a "canter" by four lengths. One of the "ships" is reported to have laid down at the back ot the course, and "his steering gear •out of order," he could not be piloted straight afterward. Thus not only is Thargomindah entitled to the credit) if Any, of having promoted the first camel -race in Australia, but also to the .exceptional credit of having devoted racing stakes to a praiseworthy object —"The Colonies and India. A special telegram from San Francisco states that the mail steamer Australia has on board 4100 centals of wheat and 12,Q00 of flour for Sydney. Two sailing vessels have cleared with €7,200 centals for Sydney, and one vessel for Adeliade with 4 l,6oo centals. The price of Wheat in San Francisco Is Idol 67 cents.