MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1216, 5 January 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The large electric balloon projected by M. Tissanclier is to have the following dimensions : — The electric machine is to weigh scwt,, and the secondary batteries 17cwt., representing about five horse power. These will be carried by an elliptical balloon of a volume of 106,000 cubic feet. The balloon is to be 131 ft long, and its diameter in the centre 60.7ffc, The ballon would have a lifting power of about 3£ tons, and consequently would be able to support 1-ton weight of passengers, ballast, &c., besides the batteries and niachinery. With the air calm, its speed would be from 12 to 15 miles per hour, which of course, could be maintained only a few hours. M. Tissandier intends constructing such a balloon shortly, and undertaking voyages with it over and round Paris. The problem of aerial navigation can by no means be considered to be solved with the balloon. Even if the first experiments should not give satisfactory results, some advantage will be gained by the general evidence they will supply of the practicability of the idea. — Builder.

Professor Golladon, of Geneva, recently described a curious and littleknown experiment, showing the resistance the air under certain circumstances to the motion of bullets in guns. It resembles a feat that was sometimes performed by soldiers with the old Swiss carbines. M. Colladon fully charged with the compressed air the hollow iron breech of an air

gun, serving as reservoir. Having screwed up the gun, he introduced a round lead ball running freely, but

nearly filling, the bore j then, placing | the gun vertical, he seized the upper | end and placed his thumb vigorously on the mouth. The gun was then ♦ fired ' by an assistant ; the thumb remained in position, and the ball was heard to fall back in the bore. Thereupon, after recharging the breech with the same ball, he shot the lat. ter at the pine board about 4in. thick or pane of glass, and it passed through. The experiment, M. Tolladon says, is without danger if the operator is quite sure of the strength of his thumb, if the gun is not more than 32in. long, and if the ball is spherical and nearly fills the gun, in which it must act like a piston

A billiard match, 500 up, between Weston and Lyons, bookmakers, at Auckland, for £50 to £10, was won by the former by 27

points,

The Paris correspondent of the Melbourne " Argus " writes as follows of the French education system : — One praise cannot, however, be refused to our Goveninient. I mean the zeal — somewhat indiscreet now and then — - with which it watches over the spread of public instruction, and more especially the common school education. The budget of elementary instruction which some 12 or 13 years back, under M Durny, the most liberal of all the Ministers of the Second Empire, barely amounted to 1 1 millions of francs. The number of schools increases like the loaves of the Gospel — not a village, not a hamlet, is without at least two schools, one for boys, and another for girls, maintained at the expense of the State ond of the Commune, besides the free schools held by the friars and sisters, founded or subsidised by private people displeased at a position of she law which has at the same time decreed the obligation and lay character of in-

struction,

The New Zealand Shipping Company are now advertising the first two steamers of their line. The British King is to leave Ly ttelton for London on 31st March, to be followed by the British Queen on 30th April. The voyage will be made via the Straits of Magellan, which is now a safe and pleasent route, and is expected to be accomplished in 45 days.

Sidney Taiwhanga, since his return to Auckland from his Maori embassy to London has been the observed of all observers. Sidney's domestic affairs, however, have not gone so well with him as matters political. He has had a lively time of it at the hands of his European spouse, for in this instance the prophet has no honour where his virtues should be best known. The meeting between the two was characterised by more warmth than politeness. Sidney is highly indignant that she* should have posed as a deserted and destitute wife. He threatened to appeal for a divorce, and this brought the fickle Sarah to her bearing. The last episode in the career of this strangely-assorted couple was their leaving for the North, after a vain appeal on her part to the Maori patriot to pay her passage to her relatives in America. Sidney says that the scandal caused by her indiscretions has tended to mar his chance of a seat in the Assembly at the next general election for the Northern Maori electorate, and he plaintively remarks that he has held visions before her eyes of sharing the honorarium and a trip to Wellington, but all to no avail.

According to the Washington Star : ' A modern version of ' MissKilmansegg and Her Golden 1 eg,' is found in the story of a Kentucky girl, who invariably carries money in her stockings when she travels or when she goes shopping. In the latter case she says she always takes a lady friend with her who engages the attention of the male clerk in tho store or any man who may approach while Miss Kilraansegg extracts the money from the leg of her stockings to pay the bill. She must require a very attractive friend,

Lord Gifford, the Colonial Secretary of Western Australia, has been offered, and has conditionally accepted, the Colonial Secretaryship of Gibraltar. It ir not known when he will leave, and it is considered probable that as his Excellency the Governor and Chief Justice Wrenfordsley, who holds a dormant commission, both leave shortly, he will remain to carry on the government until the arrival of Sir William Robinson's succesor, Mr Napier Broome.

Mr It. W. Fereday writes as follows in the Lyttelton Times : — " It appears to me, upon reading section 9 of ' The Property Assessment Act Amendment, 1881, that the Government notice to furnish statements of property by December 20th is a bad notice, and that unless corrected by a new and proper notice, any assessments under it will be illegal. You will observe that the section provides that the statements shall be furnished every third year, commencing in the year 1883. The question seeme to me a very important one for the country, and I therefore beg to call attention to it."