MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1218, 10 January 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Otago papers state that the total deficiencies of Mr Clark, County clerk of Vincent, amount to £479 16s Bd.

It has been ascertained that one hundred and six thousand children in the Colony of Victoria never enter a Sunday School.

There are three hundred and sixty children under the charge of the Melbourne Orphan Asylum, of whom 216 are boarded out.

The Manchester Unity of Oddfellows now numbers 547,900, and the total capital of the Order is £5,291, 890, nearly £9 15s per member.

Rush and Laycock have to row for the Championship of Australia and £500 a-side, on the Clarence river, New South. Wales, on the 10th of March.

Notwi hstanding she has three hundred thousand-fewer sheep, Victoria had an increase of sixty million pounds of wool for last year. Improving the breeds of her flocks gave the latter satisfactory result.

George Thomas, son of Mr Thomas, who was killed by the Hawthorn railway accident, l'eceived such a shock by his father's death, that inflammation of the brain ensued, and, he has since died in the Melbourne Hospital.

A Young man named Aneurin Jam?s Thomas, has died at Wauganui from lock-jaw. He got two fingers crushed in the cog wheel of a crane. Deceased has his life insured in the Government office for £500.

Prince Bismarck, who has long been one of the most decorated personages in Christendom, has just received an addition to his decorations in the order of the Chrysanthemum, conferred upon him by the Mikado. He has now 45 decorations.

In the United Kingdom there are forty-two boroughs of under 7000 inhabitants, numbering 249,015 in all, returning 42 members of Parliament. On the other hand there are eighteen boroughs, containing a total of 6,472, 530, inhabitants, which only return 41

members.

The Rothschilds are virtual owners of ipne-fifth of the fertile land in the Delta of the Nile. Their share in Egyp tian bonds is popularly estimated at£l2, 000,000. An envious anti-Semite calculates that the income of Baron Wilhelin Eothschilcl is about £28 per hour, or 9s per minute.

Biadlaugh went to the house of Commons on the 13th to try to take his seat. He had a brief personal consultation with the speaker and was informed by him that the order of expulsion was still in force. He then withdrew without making any further effort.

Recent Australian railway accidents have cost the Colonial Government dearly. The cost of the railway accidents at Windsor, and Beaufort was £63,500. The Jolimont disaster cost £40,360, and the Windsor about £15, 000. The late collision on the Hawthorn line will probably cost more than the aggregate amount of those three.

Mr George Haddock, of Leeds, recently exhibited a case of violins by famous makers. First in importance was the violin known as the 'Emperor,' and sometimes as the • Gillot Strad.' The remarkable fiddle was made by ' Antonius Straduarius, the greatest of all violin makers, in the year 1715, at his very best period. Some idea of the value of the instrument may be gathered from the fact that it is insured for 2000 guineas.

A new dynamo-electrical machine has been shown in London which excels anything of the kind yet before the public. It is the invention of Mr J. E. H. Gordon, author of an able work on electrical science. Mr Gordon claims with reason that his machine is the most powerful generator of electricity known as yet. When running at full speed it will maintain from 5000 to 6000 20-candle lights. Mr Gordon also, it is stated, makes the daring proposal to construct a dynamo with an 18ft wheel, which it is computed would steadily maintain 200,000 lamps. !

Among the special features of the Munich Electrical Exhibition is a telephone transmitting thither pieces of music performed at Oberammergau, which is about 63 miles distant ; also a giant telephone, which transmits concert pieces performed in the English Cafe, so as to be audible to the whole of an audience in a large hall at the Palace. A special interest also attaches to the transmission of power by a single wire from the coal-mines of Miesbach, about 37 miles distant, as the possibility of utilising the heat of coal at a distance without transport of the coal is concerned.

There was a ball near Forbes lately, at which one of the company danced till he was « blin ' fu.' Whether the waltzes, or the whisky, or both, where to blame, is not known — but so it was ; and when, early in the morning, he went to saddle his nag for home, nothing went right with him. The brevity of the belly-hand perplexed him ; he knew not what to make of the horse's head over which the bridle would not go ; and when the toil-band came to be adjusted, he roared out to one of his cronies, ' Losh, Jock ! this is no my pony, or the hair has fa'en aff her sin' yestreen !' Jock not quite so far gone as Wully, went to his assistance, and found him saddling the cow.

It has been customary to sneer at windmills as effective laborers for agricultural and domestic purposes, but for some time past ihese weather horses have been advancing in most parts of the world, more especially as recent science and inventions have contrived to extend their field of labor and reduce the prime cost. On the other side of the Atlantic they are now being largely used by agriculturists, and much attention has been bestowed on the subject. At a recent lecture j

was calculated that a windmill 8£ feet in diameter would raise 370 gallons of water 25 feet during 8 hours, developing *04 of one horse power and costing 1\ per horse power per hour, being less than half the cost for similar work of a 25-foot water wheel. The windmill, properly managed, it is argued, is the most economical prime mover in general use.

It is not a satisfactory thing to know (says the 'Army and Navy Gazette ') that the deaths of many of the officers and men who have succumbed to wounds received in action in Egypt have been due to one cause — starvation. 'In many instances,' writes a medical officer, ' I know that the unfortunate fellows were left in the most helpless state. I endeavored by every means in my power to obtain nourishment for them, but none had been provided — at the front. The system became weakened ; blood poisoning set in ; and the poor fellows' lives have been sacrificed at the shrine of the god, 'Mismanagement.' If ever a Minister had reason to feel thoroughly ashamed of bis administration, that man is the Eight Honorable Hugh Childers, Secretary of State for War. The tales I could tell you after a few week's experiences in Egypt would make the blood of the British taxpayers boil.' The 'Army and Navy Gazette ' adds : — ' We have it on the authority of a cavalry officer now at Cairo that of the horses lost by the British cavalry during the campaign nearly all fell victims to starvation, or exhaustion resulting therefrom.

My anticipations regarding the Fall elections have been more than realised by the event. The Republican party may be said to have sustained a general defeat all along the line. Elections were held in 31 States, and the resufc has been to give the absolute control of the next House of Representatives to the Democratic party. New York, Pennsylvania, and California, which were doubtful before the poll, are doubtful no longer. Cleveland, the Democratic candidate, for Governor of New York, polled 200,000 votes rnoro than Judge Folger, the Republican candidate who, being also Secretary of the Treasury, had the influence of the Administration in his favour. Mr Cleveland was only known as Mayor of the city of Albany, while Folger has a national reputation as a jurist and public man. President Arthur went to New York and exerted himself, but in vain. The Administration was defeated in the person of the most important member of it, and the Democracy triumphed in. the Empire State. Conking refused to take any part in the election, but this does not save him from Democratic and " half-breed" abuse.

A story which reaches the court Circular from India is worth recording. At a recent race meeting up country three horses where entered to start for the principal cup, owned by persons whom we will call A, B, and O. Now, one of the conditions made by the giver of the prize was that not less than three horse should compete for it It appears however, that A had backed Bs horse for a large sum, and B had done the same thing as regards A's animal, while 0 had laid largely against his own mount. On the morning of the race A produced a veterinary certificate to bhe effect that his animal was unfit to run j he however, said that, in order not to deprive his two competitors of the chance of winning the cup, hewould start his horse and pull him up at the end of a hundred yards B determined to wait on A ; but finding this method of no use since the former's horse was brought to a standstill, he caused his own mount to bolt out of the course. Consequently C was bound to ride over anu win against his own interests ; but he was not to be outwitted. In galloping along he surreptitiously exracted and threw away some of his weight Consequently, when he returned to the scale, vehemently asserting that he had been cheated by A and B, he was found to be 71b too light, To this day it is not decided who really won the cup, and consequently all bets made on the event remain unsettled.

The following is from a Home journal on the statistics of New Zealand, and shows what the people of England are expected to swallow about our colony: — "New Zealand covers an area of 105,342 square miles. It has a population of 3,000,000 (?). In thirty years its trade rose from a value of £6,000, 000 to £62, 000,000. In 1871 it was £63,000,000. In 1880 it had risen to £94,000,000. The average trade for every inhabitant is £12 higher than in Great Britain ; five times higher than in Europe as a whole ; and five and a half time higher than in the United States. The gold extracted in thirty years amounted to £292,000,000 (?) In 1870 the wool crop was 194,000,0001 b; in 1879 it was 392,000,0001 b. In 1880

the shipping entered and cleared was 8,500,000 tons (!) The colony has 1,250,000 horses, 8,220 cattle, and 75,000,000 sheep "(!) Mr Herbert Spencer has visited America, and has published his opinions about the great Republic With laudable plainness of speech he calls the attention of the American people to certain dangers of which they are perhaps unconscious. "J have," he says, " been suddenly reminded of the Italian Republics of the middle ages, a whole people gradually losing their freedom amid the growth of great commercial activity, and the development of the arts which rendered them the admiration of Europe. While the American people retain the form of freedom, there has been a considerble loss of the substance. The sovereign people are fast becoming puppets which moves and speaks as the wirepullers determine. America is simply showing on a larger scalo than has ever been shown before that paper Constitutions will not work as intended." He adds, however, that " from biological truths it is to be inferred that the eventual mixture of allied varieties of the Aryan race forming the population will produce a more powerful type more plastic, more adaptable, more capable of undergoing the modifications needful for complete social life. 1 think Americans may reasonably look forward to the time when they will bave produced a civilisation greater than the world has known."