MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1237, 23 February 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

An average of sixty miners are killed annually in Victoria. The Egyptian expedition exceeds the sum voted by Parliament by about £1,500,000 — that is to say, amounts: to £4,000,000. It is said that when Mrs Laugtry was told that Miss "Blanche Rosevelt had been mistaken for her she replied, with languid egotism : "Is she really so beautiful ? !' The omission of anti-polygamy measures . from President Arthur's messages cause's great rejoicing among the Mormons, who say,, that God has interposed on then* behalf The lunatic who wrote a threatening letter to the Prince of Wales was sentenced to ten, years' penal servitude by the same judge who gave a man a week's imprisonment for killing his son with a poker. . '.' In New South Wales, 415 persons hold 13,529,056 acres out of .29,489, 038 of the total freeholds of the country from one acre upwards. It is said . that less than 22,000 acres are under cultivation. Surely this is a mistake! Very recently, one solid piece of "ore weighing five tons was taken from the Sierra Grande mine at Lake Valley, New Mexico,, which upon being sampled was found to contain over 60,000 dollars in silver. This is the largest solid piece of ore ever taken from a mine. According to H. C, Hovey, each female oyster is estimated to contain from 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 eggs, of which not a tenth can be said to be vitalised in the course of nature. But he is of opinion that, by a proper system of oyster farming, fully one half of the young may be matured to that stage when they can take care of themselves. Despatches from Montreal, clatod January 4th, mention that in 1877 a clerk named Trotter, in the employ of Riddle and Evans, of that city absconded with about 50,000 dollars belonging to the firm. He went to the Cape of Good Hope, and there entered a firm fis bookkeeper. In a few years be became junior partner, and remitted the amount of his defalcations to a lawyer to las former employers. The money

is now lodged in Court, pending litigation between the dissolved partners, and is now claimed by Trotter's firm, he having been convicted of forgery and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. He robbed his partners and the Banks at the Cape of Good Hope of 130,000 dollars. The Governments of Victoria, South. Australia, and Queensland refused to co-operate with New South Wales in introducing a system of "delayed" telegrams. The latter Colony has established the system within its own borders. Messages handed into auy local office dming business hours will be transmitted, if marked " delayed " by tho sender, at the close of the day's business at half the ordinary rate. Tributes to Louis Blanc filled theLondon press. There was no adequate or very intelligent estimate of his political or literary career, the English always regarding with alarm any Frenchman accused of socialism or of being connected with revolution. But personally, Louis Blanc was better known and more respected and beloved here than any living Frenchman, his long residence in London endearing him to great numbers .of best people in England. His funeral in Paris attracted a great concourse of mourners. He was the darling of tho Parisian poor. An article on the Hon. Mr Rolleston's tour through, Central Otago, in the ' Lyttelton Times,' concludes as follows; — " In New Zealand we are generally supposed to enjoy some measure of local self-government ; but how utter is the dependence of most districts on the Central Government, appears painful from Rolleston's tour. Everything, from the railway costing a million, down to a grant of £20 to a village library, a town pump, or a bridge over some unknown creek, are the business of the General Government, and must be provided by them. Provincialigm was swept away on the pretext that is caused continual scrambling between localities for doles from the Colonial Treasury ; but the day of Provincialism never saw anything so utterly contemptible as this. Cahiuet Ministers were not then transformed into beadles doling out parish relief. Yet Mr Bumble's was an honorable position compared with Mr Rolleston's. Beadles, at least, do not have to buy votes with the funds they distribute. Mr Rolleston has to do so systematically." A French Republican journal draws attention to the fact that the Republic has lately entered on the thirteenth year of his existence — the number thirteen being as every one knows, the most unlucky in the whole arithmetical series. The thirteenth year has been, in fact a more or less fatal epoch in the career of every Government which the present century has witnessed in Frauce. Tt was just thirteen years after his elevation to power tiiat Napoleon entered on the disastrous Russian campaign of 1812, which caused his downfall. Again, in 1827, exactly thirteen years from the Restoration, occurred the first reactionary coup d'etat which latter led to the formation of the Polignac Ministry and the revolution in J uly. The thirteenth year of Louis Philippe's reign, 1842 was marked by the tragic death of the Duke of Orleans, an event hardly less fatal to the dynasty. The thirteenth year of the reign of Napoleon 111 witnessed the unfortunate Mexican expedition, the " beginning of the end " of the Second Empire. As an instance of Chinese perseverance arid strict adherence to the laws of creed, we (• Southern Free Press') note the appearance in the district of a "Chinese resurrection party," consisting of four Chinamen and one European. It would appear that it forms part of their religion that unless a Chinamen is buried in China he goes not to heaven, therefore they have subscribed £30,000 towards this, mission. The party caiuy with them a number of ziiic cases about the size and shape of an ordinary coffin. Two of the Chinamen, acting as gravo diggers, put the bones into .this, and the European solders it up, the other two acting as overseers. The party must be supplied with very minute particulars of the localities of the graves, as in one iustauce they visited a grave eleven miles from the nearest habitation. The Calcutta correspondent of The Times says that the Governor of Madras, Mr Grant Duff, has recently brought himself into collision with the Press. The Madras Times published' a minuterelating to one of the Governor's tours without official authority. . The editor, when questioned as to his reasons, upon the subject, justified his action on the following grounds: — "That lift was unaware of any law of morality, propriety, or courtesy which prevented an editor from presenting to the public a paper which was highly interesting, yet which contained no important State secret, the publication of which was in no way calculated to embarrasa the Government, the contents of which were already widely known among officials, and which certainly ought to have been communicated- to the public,, and a portion of which had already been published by one paper and copied into other journals. "In reply, the Governor ordered the removal of the Madras Times from the list of newspapers to which official papers wore to be supplied, and has directed all heads of departments to abstain for the future from publishiug advertisements in the columns of the ofl'ending journal. The Governor's conduct, has, it is stated, been severely and generally censured by the Indian Press. Tho heathern Chinoe has always been a trouble in colonial lav/ courts. It is not certain that any efficient form of binding his conscience, as a witness, ha? yet been discovered. It is not ev'ca

certain that he has any conscience to be bound, still less can it be explained ■what the conection may be between a chinaman's conscience (supposing him to possess one) and the fact of breaking a saucer, blowing out a match, oxcutting off a cock's head. All these mysterious rites have been practiced in police courts, but no one pretends to know their precise effect, It is sometimes doubted whether they are 'not appeals to Joss to assist the witness in telling lies and" cheating the *• outer barbarians." With the Christianised Chinee the case ought to be different Yet even here there are difficulties. In the Ballarat Police Court the other day, a converted Chinaman named Ah Lin presented himself as a witness. He had been baptised, he said, by the Rev. Mr Inglis, and professed his readiness to take the oath like a Christian. What happened is thus described by the local paper: — The oath was administered to him and he was then ordered to " kiss the book." It is well known that European witnesses are very careless in this most important matter, and Ah Kin, in imitation of previous witnesses, xfrew the Bible' across the top of his nose, and Mr Gaunt drew attention to this very irreverent act — through no doubt done in ignorance — and requested the Bench to have him sworn again. r Therewas a very slight improvement Ah Lin this time placed the end of Ithei Bible against his nasal 'organ. Admidst Very great laughter, the Chinese interpreter, Wah Pon, explained the mode of a kiss. Ah Lin then quitely opened his mouth very ■wide, and with a look of intense satisfaction, placed one end of ihe bible in it This aroused still greater laughter, which could not be silenced. The next attempt was successful and quite to the satisfaction of Mr Gaunt, aS Ah Lin kissed the book in a manner which would have put nine out of ten. European witnesses to |the blush. Apparently the Chinese are unacquainted with the art and mystery of kissing. Can any reader of Passing Notes enlighten me on this point? Do celestials kiss? There seems some reason to think that the sacred significance of a kiss — or, in some circumstance, its -delightful wickedness — is a modern development. Kissing itself is as old as the book of Genesis, and the word in almost its English form (kussa), as ■well as the thing, may be found in Homer. Yet till recent times the act •of kissing meant little more than we now mean by hand-shaking. Thus, to take illustrations from Shakespeare, Cassio kisses Emilia in the presence of 3ier husband without offence. In •* King Henry VIII," Sands kisses Anne Bullen in the ball scene sans ceremonie, and when Bluff King Hal, on his introduction to the same lady, leads her to . the dance, he says (suiting, no doubt, . the action to the word) : — . I were unmannerly to take you out And not to kiss you. ' Almost within living memory the same freedom prevailed. Flavourless must have been the kissess, I fancy, that were given and taken under so generons a system ! The medern kiss, as I Lave said, is a development. Savage nations know it not at all. Maoris press •noses; even the Chinese with his millenniums of civilisation behind him, cant't kiss till he is shown the way. Youths and maidens who kiss discreetly, chastely, and when no one is looking, should reflect with joy that they are tasting the sweets of the latest flower of Western refinement