MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1257, 11 April 1883, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

- — . ♦_. The latest census taken in London gives its population as 4,794,812, much greater than the population of the American Colonies before the B3voration._ The city contains double the- number of people in Denmark; three times as many as Greece, and more than Sweden, or Norway or Switzerland. Notwithstanding which one of the principal London papers moans, "And yet this • splendid capital, the most populous and . wealthy -city the ■world has ever seen, is practically ■withdafc a government" ' ; . .. ._ -A mine has been found.in;themoiintaihs near Salsbttfg, Austria, whichgh'es indications- of having been occupied and abandoned at least 2000 . years ago. vltr contains a large and isonfiised mass of timbers which were used for support, arid a number of miners.' implements. The timbers ' were notched and sharpened, but were subject- to an imindation and left in j confused heaps. The implements were mainly wooden shovels, axe-handles, &c. The probabilities are that' the ancient salt-miners were overtaken by the flooding of the mine, as mummified bodies have been discovered also. The find seems to -..have belonged to the pro-Roman times, as the axe-handles were evidently used for bronze axes, specimens of which -have been found upon the surface of the mountain. .. . One of the minor hindrances to the success of- the .great Temperance cause is said to-be the inability of the English language to furnish any single word -which may serve as a descriptive name for a teetotaller. The name '-' teetotaller " itself is objectionable for two reasons. In the first place it is gibberish, and in the next it is said to represent historically the effort made by an early disciple of Father Matthew to explain to the "policeman'/ vy;ho accused Trim of being drunk and"' threatened to run him in, that he was a " t-t-total abstainer.' This term, "total abstainer ," too, has its disadvantages. It is cumbrous, and yet incomplete.' What is it' that the abstainer abstains from 1 and how can a man be ..a total abstainer unless ' he is dead ? Then the name " Good Templar-'' is fanciful and arbitrary;; '• Itechabite •" requii'es a Bible Dictionary to explain it. There is, in short, no word in the language which exactly describes an abstainer from alcoholic beverages, and a correy sponderitfof the London Times recommends that, Jn the interest of the Temperance cause* some, competent " word-buildei* " should be invited to invent one. He himself suggests "hydropot," a Greek compound meaning a " drinker of .water," employed by St Paul in one of'his'Epistles to Timothy. On turning up tbe reference, however, I find that .SL Paul is counselling Timothy not to be a"hydropot"— "Drink rib longer water, but take a little wine. for thy stomach's sake"— which seems a somewhat unfortunate text' for a teetotaller. An equally serious objection occurs to the Times writer himself. "Hydro" represents the Greek word for " water," whence it might happen that if teetotallers called" themselves "hydropots," an unfriendly public might take to calling them " waterpots," — a sarcasm which, there can hardly be .any doubt, • would bo exceedingly disastrous to the interests of temperance. On the whole, therefore, he concludes that " hydropot" isnoi exactly a happy thought/ and asks somebody else, to try. Another correspondent thereupon .. suggests "Methffinist"— sarcastically ', I shoultl imagine, sinee -the word, seems- to be compounded" of methe, di-uukcnucss,