MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1232, 12 February 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

■ An amusing incident is reported fr.oin> Madras in a Bombay paper. Mr Spring Branson, barrister-at-law, wlio ha* hitherto worn a very fine beard, appeared in Court on a recent date clean shaved, and rose to move the Court to take an insolvent out of gaol. Mr Justice Lernara looked at the learned gentleman very hard, and with a smileremarked that he had made a very barefaced motion. The Court was in roars of laughter. A local paper reminds the learned Judge that M Patience " te in active rehearsal l>y the dramaticsociety, and rdmor has it that an alarming sacrifice of beards is to taker place among gentleman qualifying to» be heavy dragoons. Such is the enthusiasm for the drama in Madras ! Recent statistics show that duringthe year ending on the 31st of August last, the State of Texas produced noless than 878,854 balesof cottons valued at over 50,000,000 dol,or £10,000,000. Tt also produced 22,299,000d0l of wool, worth 5, 128,000 dols, and 13,572,0001 b of hides, worth 1,628,009d015 ; besides having cattle of the estimated value- of 16,000,000d015, and over l,ooo,oOOdot* worth of horses and mules. The total product of the state including lumber, Igrain, cotton, seed, sugar, molasses and other articles, was ov«r 97,000,000---dols, or nearly £20,008,000. Within the year also there were completed 1 641 miles of railroad, at an estimated cost' of construction and equipment of 44,525,000d01. The State of Texas, which is by far the largest in the world, now possesses nearly 6000 miles of completed railroads, the cost of tin? construction and equipment, of •, tlv* whole being estimatecf at ,103,806,900---dols, or upwards of L 33,000,000, Commenting on the withdrawal of the State subvention to tke denominational schools of New South Wales, the* Sydney Evening News, in its issu& of the Ist hist., says : — "State aid to> denominational schools has now ceased in New South Wales, never in al! human probability to be resumed. From and after to-day the religious denominations ' chosing to maintain their schools,' which have hitherto received grants of money from the Government, must do su at their own charge arid : expense. Those who are unable of unwilling to do so will have> either to negotiate with the Education Department for the occupation of their school buildings, should they be needed for the public, or find someother mode of utilising the premises. The Roman Catholics have fully determined upon their course. They will neither give nor take quarter. They have been busy for the past year in preparing new schools of their own. and, in constituting councils to organise and regulate their system of education and their plans are well matured, so that the absence of the Archbishop (that determined foe to secularism in every form), who leaves for R>mein April, will not retard the development of the scheme. So far as the public are concerned, however, theRoman Catholic schools will henceforward take rank entirely among theprivate seminaries of the Colony, and! their value will, like other institutions be tested by results. The Church of England authorities seem, with fe.v exceptions, to have accepted the inevitable, and resigned the teaching- of their children to the State. The other religious bodies, if we except the Jews, are already heart and soul with the public school arrangements. Several mysterious paragraphs have lately appeared in English newspapers stating that the sister of a well-known marquis had lately married a man not only much youuger than herself, but also greatly below her in the social scale. The facts of the case are said to be these: The Rev. Lord Archibald Douglas, a brother' of the Marquis of Queensbarry and of LadyFioi ence Dixie, jellied the Church of , Rome some y«ars ago, and after the usual course of study and probation was ordained a priest by Cardinal Manning. Since then he has devoted time and money towards the reclamation of boys, " waifs and strays" from the streets, to whom he gives a home, teaches them useful trades, and then starts them in life— his sister, Lady Grertrudi, Douglas, acting as matron. Some three mo ltlis a«o Lord Avchidald went to Canada, taking with him 40 boys o? th? home for the pui'posw of establishing them as fanners in the Far West. During his absence lie received, aletter-Es-o.n his sistor stating that she was ibout to marry a young man who had I) -f-\ brought up by her brother and who v\ms now asling :i => head balcer of the esj\> lish-ncwfc. His Lordship was greatly jfueu aback by thi nevrs, and oele-

jgifcjpned and wrote from C unda urging nil feister at any rate to delay her int^dftd marriage until his return. But Is was of on avail The happy couple "Were married off-hand in the Roman Catholic Church at Hammersmith, and have gone to reside in that neighbour- j hood, where the husband has opened a ' baker's shop. Lady Gertrude has some little means of her own. Commenting on the alteration reported to have been effected in the status of the'civil service of the United States, the Sydney Evening News observes: — " Here in Sydney our own civil service is certainly far superior in reputation tv that of the American States, yet even with us there, has always been much that called for reprehension. For years past, aud notoriously under the Parkes admininistration, it has been the custom to promote friends of the Ministry over the heads of others, who were both more worthy Uiaa and long senior to themselves. To such an extent, indeed, had this become the case that it was indeed hopeless for any man, however good his work might be, or however long he had been in the service, to look for promotion unless he could bring to bear some political support in favor of his claims. Wire-pulling and political jobbery were in fact the order of the day. The newly appointed Stuart Ministry has therefore taken a wise and honest, though somewhat a bold, step, in using an Executive minute to each of the departments of the civil service, declaring that for the future all promotions shall be regulated by seniority of service, and that, therefore, all officers newly appointed will have to begin at the bottom of the ladder. -Professor Edison must be a truly great man. One of less attainment, but greater pretensions would never have looked at so small a matter as an undergarment with'a view to its improvement and the benefit of mankind. IBat this great soul, " dowered with the *corn of scorn," has turned his Attention to the perfection of that most necessary article which in the States receives the name of «! biled rag," but as better known to English ears as a white shirt. Mr Edifon's shirt, that is the one he has invented — consists of a number of layers of some substance : closely resembling linen. These layers =are stripped off, one each day ; a single garment lasting & whole year through. 1 •'- A truly excellent invention, yet I see a few disadvantages. A shirt. with * =365 layers, though it might suit some people, would hardly do for those V who •*re so 4irty as to need a daily bath. 1 * DouWe then«raber at layers, or at least half as many more would be re'Cfnisite, some to be stripped from the >. outside; : some from tke inside. All ,'■•-; the almanacks of this nature I have -.'*'- -tseen are at the very least one inch "<■■ -thick and a shirt of say 550 layers *bti *rould, 1 fancy,., come very near, two '•'♦*•>* inches.- This might do for the army, '♦ 'ate a protection against bullets, b.ut tomy thinking it would be rather, thick : ior a ball room. There is still hope for / the steam laundry. A story is told of shirts being worn in old days in layers ■which only came off on the severest, application of labour at the Turkish Latk. The attendant at first regarded ■ '■..■ the " scraping" as some extraordinary ; kind of cuticle, but as a futher application produced an ever fresh supply ' he at last discovered that what he was removing was not cuticle, but successive layers of Crimean shirt belooging to successive geological eras? Perhaps Professor Edison has seen that story and improved upon the idea which it suggested.