MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1246, 16 March 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

.pi The London correspondent of the Wellington Post writes : — " An acrimonious discussion lias been earned on in " The Times " for the past fiye weeks on Sir Dillon Bell's lecture at the Colonial, Institute. The AgentGeneral is accused by eminent statisticians of perverting figures and facts to glorify New Zealand, and sundry very damaging holes are picked in his assertions by Mr Giffen, Mr Mulhall, and others. One correspondent has carefully epitomised the discussion, which originally filled many columns of the leading London journal. The following remarks evidence clearly what his idea of r Dillon Bell's letters id. After detailing the pros and cons of the debate, he says: — "it is impossible not to tell that Sir Dillon Bell has made both himself and the Colony whose merits he so unnecessarily travestied look ridiculous.. The figures were boldly produced at and under the eyes of the Color. ml Institute as facts, and accepted as such by the audience. Instead, however, of being indisputable, it now turns out that in many of the "niosi important instances the statistics were

'•utterly misleading, or purely speculative ; that conclusions wore drawn from false promises, and that quite a number of arguments won't beai analysis. If Sir Dillon Bell were an • emigration agent working on commission, his inaccuracies, though mischievous, would be excusable, and might not matter so much, but thai the accredited representative of New Zealand should be accused by the editor of the ' Times ' of allowing his devotion to the colony to lead him into " romancing," and told in the same journal by an " Eminent Statistical! " that he talks ' manifest nonsence,' is it must be admitted somewhat galling." In the New South Wales Legislative Council, the Hon Charles Campbell has given notice of the following question ; — "To ask tlie representative of the Government whether he is prepared to suggest any process by whibh the Legislative Council may be relieved of the presence of a member, whose perm retaiping his sgat degrades the Chamber in public opinion.*' The effect of electric light on health was (the Lancet says) lately discussed at a meeting of the Hygienic Society of Hamburg, and Dp Kriiss explained his views on the subject at some length. He referred to the influence of the electric light on the human eyesight, and expressed his opinion that it produces no evil effects, the light having a,, violet tinge under most circumstances. He referred to the somewhat exaggerated expectations which had been formed as to the distance ai which the light was visible at sea : but on the whole he considered that the safety of human life at sea had been increased by the use of the electric light in lighthouses. The electric light being free from the disadvantages incidental to the combustion of gas in the consumption of oxygen and the production of carbonic acid, he considered its development as being a hygienic measure of relative importance. . v The Salvation Army isgoing downhill at a very rapid pace indeed. It started — like many better organisations — in struggle and starvation ; it quickly became sleek aud well to do ; and is now waxing fat, and worse than all, mutinous. In those midland counties of England yclept the " Potteries," events have been marching with extreme rapidity, and there is now a regular split in the camp. The disturbance appears to have arisen ■ through the action of a " Captain" Gipsy Smith, who like his leader the General, evin,cecf decided partially for the "bawbeis," but unlike his General, accepted a handsome testimonial from his admirers. The jealous General didn't see it, and cashiered him, eviden tally overlooking tho probable result. The Captain, deprived of his commission, degraded, derides of course to "run" a rebel army on the brordest commercial principles. He raises his standard at Hanley, and is joined by three thousand mutineers prepared .to use, not only the sword of the Spirit, *j^ut .the arms of the flesh if necessary. Under these ticklish pircumstances General Booth, fearing lest lie may be outflanked, marches a strong contingent into the disaffected district, under the command of M.ijor Fawcett and a I female captain. However, neither the fervour of the major nor the sex of the ." female captain," nor even the dread name of General Booth, appears to have carried weight with the mutineers. A blow in the eye, which, from an outsider is merely purifying persecution, is intolerable from one of the elect ; and this truth has come forcibly home to the Marjor and his supporters. These men have patiently endured, and even gloried in, showers of mud, unwholesome eggs, &c. at the hands of the enemy, but the line must be drawn somewhere. " Major Fawcett can stand a certain amount of buffeting and contumely, but he cannot stand being butted in the stomach by the rank and file of the rebel host. A conflict with fleshly weapons ensued, at the conclusion of which the major and his female chief ox the staff were borne from the field incapacitated, leaving, their troops no;, only demoralised, but licked. Now seems the time for General Booth to retire behind his entrenchments and try diplomacy for a season. A contemporary has fcho following description of Paris ; — " The strange aud horrible scenes enacted nightly in some of the ordinai-ily frequented quarters of Paris would make one imagine that the most civilised people of the universe had suddenly become more savage and lawless that the Ku Klux Khan of America. It is not an uncommon thing for a foot passenger returning home from the theatre, to be stayed in his promenade by a human form fl-jnrr £ r !U m uppor window ami falling lif;;] ss at his f<" $.' Ivor is it ror'e to be neeosird by % group of bngands, who pimon t!ioir victiuis !-••»- --hind while the accor. •ices ritf» *•;; pockets. Evea in t' , am^,:ralie streets, it is d;.;u;> re us to veuisrn v:[

late at night, and the police ar. !» ,0,,i---ingless and less able to comp. ■■■ wii.lt the dangerous organisation of tlii i:\-cp, who usurp the pavement.'* The famous old steamerGreiißritun has been converted by Mesfc-s 0. it !id E. Gray son,, of Liverpool, into; 1 ;j.:!ii.^ . ship and is now classified A \ &'. Lloyd's, She has been thorouglily equipp.. 1, od.-j fitted with all modern improv n; m!;, and sailed in November last ftr ,S :u Francisco with a cargp of Byooo Lj:;:; of coal. Mr Ganfc, Minister of Education in Victoria, stated the other day that during the 18 months he had be. ii in .. office he had been called upon tc <:i:-;-miss 28 teachers — three for druiikonness, eight for gross immorality, ?'\r. for wilful falsification of the rolls, ;uut eleven for other serious offences. The Lyttelion Time?, dev^s "tlift following to Judge (MlesV^lf "' Jmjgt?_. Grulies had taken no notice whatever of the resolutions of the Auckland Law Society he wbtiiafnWreiiMii^a tn^pr^of the situation. It was very kind of him to come down from his estate but Iris kindness has not saved him from a snubbing. The spectacle of a Jiul :;o condescending to explain his conduct or. the bench to any one js rare — rarer still is the kind of explanation into viilcK Judge Gillies condescends to enter. Ho began by denying that he had reflected upon certain lawyers, and apologising to them. He went on to explain tit at his remarks were in reality levelled at the dishonorableness of tho client, and he ended by proving learnedly tha*, when a client makes a dishonorable defence his lawyers deserve as much blame as he does. If a client's defence is "mean, base, and dishonorable," and if no counsel is bound nor is he entitle 1 as an honorable man, gto set up for a client a defrnce which he knows it wbuld hi dishonorable in the client to set up, how in the name of all that is reasonable can it be necessary for Mr Justice GilJies to apologise for hurting the feelings of the counsel who havo brought forward that defence for a client, which he has said to be " dishonorable, base, and mean," Wo hopn that Mr Gillies's law is better than the principles which govern his apologies. It would have been better if the Judge had permitted no review v of his conduct by the Lavr Society. Having determined to allow his conduct to be put on trial, he ou^ht to hav*-«defended his words, and every inference to which they are rightfully open. In that event he would only have lost dignity. By adopting the course he has chosen, he has lost not only dignity but consistency as well — in fact the Judge has lost his head in a manner rather painful to contemplate. Vanity Fair :— "A strange piece of information has reached me from a most authoritative and undoubted source in Egypt. It is this ; That Sultan Pasha, who, as is well-known, occupied a high position in the Egyptian array, was all through in communication with Sir Garnet Wolseley : that he received the sum of £10,000 from the Khedive, and that in consideration of this he, on the night before the action of Tel-el-Kebir, and after Arabi had retired to rest, gave orders that the whole of the outlying pickets of the Egyptian army should be called in ; that they were accordingly called, and that thus, every thing was made easy for the surprise which was effected a few hours after by the English troops." The Australasian Medical Gazette writes : — " In few cities in the world do people lose their teeth at so early an age as in Sydney, notwithstanding that in comparison with other great cities the inhabitants are domesticated and not addicted to excess in eating, though it must be admitted that intemperance in one form prevails to a very lamentable exteut. It is not uncommon for people who aii-ived in this Colony with teeth perfectly sound, or having only a few slightly decayed, to discover themselves, in the course of four or five year 3, wi .h barely a sound tooth in either jaw. This cannot be accounted for in connection with the prevailing diet or habits of the people. In the judgment of the few medical residents of the city who have devoted any consideration to it the cause is to be referred to the very small proportion- of mineral constituents contained in the Botany water. Practically, the Sydney people drink rain water, the watershed consisting for the most part of sandhills. The Nepean water will be very similar in its constituents, as lias been shown by analysis. As soft water it lias its advantages as every laundress knows. If it were made to pass through a filtering bed of limestone before delivery during the last two or three days of the week when it is move required for portable than -for laundry purposes, it could b<> r^iav^ccl with '.I:..- ■<■ L-ii, -^a;iio iiiau-jrj.»i.s ! so -pss^lkl i * ■■■'' • .I :niiiritfciVr:-ico of tH M>:; t ,:,,.- .v ,-f t Le V ' I", W no , •■■■ -<■ ■ r i-i ••• ooth v.']:'.-,- j';p.v, t/!;,-i ?;•., '!:uvm ■>.'., -•■-. „;,(.; -ixnvO. I ."' ■Tliclv,. ■■:.'..-.«.:< -i :■:.. n.ty of Glas8.i1'.- L x. ... ■•■■■ ,-" »./•'>■; i,. i:, -;>-

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cent on the amount which has passed thtqugh the hands of the liquidates. The total is made up of 1i30,000 for salaries and expenses, £138,000 for legal charges, and £92,000 for remuneration of liquidators. There were 1300 shareholders when the bank stopped ; of these 390 were women ; and there -were 174 persons who merely held as trustees or executors. The first call of LSOO per LIOO share produced Half the nominal amount, and entirely ruined one-third of the shareholder?. The next call was for £2250 per share and after it was paid only 175 contributors were left solvent. The accounts •of the bank had been falsified for years, and to such an extent bad liabilities "been under-estimated and the assets ■over-estimated (to say nothing of the -total loss of the reserve fund and original capital) that there was a -deficiency of £5,200,000, which enormous sum had been principally lost "through four accounts, on which £5,790,000 had beon lent in return -for securites worth £1,521,000. It would be difficult, says " Truth to find a parallel for the combined roguery and imbecility which ruined the concern. .