MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1192, 8 November 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The N;nv York Maritime f'egistfir thinks the following account given by Captain J. W. Anderson, of the Kmanuel Swedenborg, barque, of the Jersey mosquito, does credit to the captain's descriptive — they hardly like to say imaginative — powers. " Off Cape May," swears the captain, " my vessel sailed into a vast army of mosquitos ravenous from their long flight, which took complete possession pf the barque and all on board. In five minutes they had drawn as much blood as ever an old-time doctor drew from a fever patient, and within half an hour they had succeeded in boring through my winter overcoat. I was driven almost desperate and climbed up to the maintop, thinking to escape the ferocious animals ; you may guess how glad I was when I found they had not got up so far. The first mate hailed me to know how it was up there ; I told him to come up and bring as many of the men aloft as could be spared. This he did, and there we stayed all night. "When supper time came, our Chinese cook went below ; and filled a basket with cold victuals, j which he hoisted up to our perches in j the shroudes. The men took hour I turns in going down on deck and mana- ! ging the venture on deck. About four o'clock a stiff breeze sprang up, and the mosquitoes began leaving us. Many of them stayed on the boat, however, i until we reached ' elaware. At I the breakwater I attempted to send a despatch to the con- ! signees in Philadelphia, but my hands I were bitteu so badly that I was unable ' to write, and I had to get the telegraph operator to pen the message." The following programme has been decided upoa for their Southern tour iby the Auckland eleven. They leave j Auckland on Thursday the 16th Noi vember, by the Ringaroorna, and ! proceed at once to Dunedin, arriving i on Wednesday, the 22nd. The first item ' on the programme is a two clays' match ! with Dunedin and -Suburban Association, and will be played on Friday and I Saturday, the 24th' and 25th. The team will leave Dunedin on Monday, the 27th, for Oamaru, playing a two days match there on the 27th and 28th ; then leaving for Timaru next morning, and playing thereon the 29th and 30th. They leave for Christchurch on Friday morning, the Ist December, and commence a three days' match against the Canturbury men on Saturday, the 2nd, and continuing on Monday and uesday, the 4th and sth. On ? uesday evening they leave for Wellington arriving there on '-*.' ednesday, the 6th, and playing Wellington a two days ' match on Friday and Saturday, the Bth and 9th. They leave for Nelson on Monday, the 11th, and play there on Wednesday and Thursday, the 14th, leaving for Manakau on the 15th, and arriving home on Sunday, the ! 17th. It is estimated that the Gipsy children of England number fully 30, 000. Mr R.B. Smith has received from the South Australian Parliament a sum of £500 as a prize for the invention of a stumping plough. I insead oil well applied with a white wash brush, has been recommended by a Kentucky fruit grower as a reliable remedy against pear blight. He claims to have effectually cheeked the progress of th disease by its use. General Booth, of the Salvation Army, has purchased the Eagle Tavern and the Grecian Treatre and dancing grounds, in I ondon for £63,000, and is establishing a permanent service in them. An A uckland telegram states, under date October 19, that a party of ten or twelve Australians and Auckland capitalists leave Onehunga for Mokau in a small steamer this week, to inspect the country, with a view to forming a company to work the mines there. Alluding to the Salvation Army, Cannon Farra thus expressed himself : — " U hen I look at the history of many a past -religiousmovement, in every respect as sincere as the ."• alvation Army, and at iirst as successful, I find in every one of them a recurrence of the same genuine fervor, plunging at last into the disaster of dangerous fanaticism. In the Flagellants of the fourteenth century ; iv the victims of many religious epidemics in the Middle Ages ; in the boy crusades and pilgrimages in the Convulsionaries of

France, in the Jurapeis, in the Ranters; in the M ethodists at Redruth, Cornwall ; in the Presbyterians at Cambuslang; in the Revivalists of Mary ville, ennessee, we find the same religious manifestations, the same phrases, the same impulse of imitation, which is so vulnerable a part of human nature; the same over-strained bigotry, the same prominence of women and children, the same hymns and tunes, the same indifference to the regular clergy, and, what is more important, to the sacraments ; the same exaltation of religious feeling ; the same physical excitement ; the same repetitions of sacred words; the same triumphant shouts that they are forgiven ; the same dwelling on the images of fourtains of blood, often ending in disastrous and ultimate collapse. Let every students who may road and study the history of religious enthusiasm only ask whether we or they can afford to despise the solemn warning of history, and whether words of warning, spoken iv perfect kindness, can well afford on their part to be neglected and despised." A strong and durable articlein belting is made at Oakland, California, out of the entrails of sheep. The entrails, which will average about 55 feet in length, are first thoroughly cleaned and then placed in vats of brine, where they remain some days. When thus prepared they are not much thicker than a piece of common cotton twine, and will sustain a weight of about ten pounds. The next stage in the process of manufacture is to wind the prepared material on bobbons, after which the process is the same as in making common rope. This method is used to produce a round belt ; but where a wide flat belt is to be made a loom is employed, and the fine strands are woven together, as in ribbon manufacture. The flat belts are made of any size, and the round of sizes varies from one sixteenth up to one and a half inch in diameter. The round belts are made either in the form of a smooth cord, or as ropes with from three to five large strands. The three-quarter inch rope is said to stand a strain of seven tons, and is gnaranteed to last 10 years.