MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1282, 8 June 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Society in St. Petersburgh is very muck disturbed just now by a little incident that took place at the Grand Duke Vladimir's bai costume. It appears that a cestain Princess, one of the loveliest and fastest women in Northern Venise, had the boldness to grace the scene in the airy costume of a Eussilka, or water-nymph ; yery tight-fitting pink tricot, a few yards of azure gauze picked out with water lilies, and a fan. And when the princess approached with other ladies to do homage to the Empress, that august lady cast a look of disgust and indignation on the fair Naiad, then turned her back on her, and whispered a few words to the Emperor, who was also visibly shocked. A few minutes later the Giand Duke Vaklimir stalked up to the Princess, offered her his arm, and conducted her to her carriage. The i'all Mall Gazette says: — It was the high priest of Nish-hong-wan-ji who was selected by the reforming Japanese Government of IS6B to proceed to London and to report on the influence of the Christian religion on public morals in England. It was the intention of the Japanese Government that if the report were favourable, Christianity should be introduced throughout the country. But after the high priest— a most enlightened and spiritually minded man, of very liberal views— had spent eighteen months in London he reported lo his Government that Christianity was far more powerless than even Shinto or

Buddhism in preventing crime, particularly drunkenness, and it was therefore, resolved to make no change in the public religion of Japan. An application to the Appeal Court byMrE. Shaw to have the rame of Mr W. Staite, formerly of Palmerston North, restored to the roll of barristers and solicitors, was opposed by Mr Chapman,, on bahalf of the Law Society and was refused. Two of the largest auctioneering businesses iu Rangitikei and Wanganui districts were expected tobe amalga mated, and worked in the form of a Joint Stock Company, with a capital of £50,000. The preliminaries were supposed to have been settled, and some applications for shares were made. It has transpired however, that the terms could not be finally settled to the satisfaction of one or other party, and the negotiation is at an end for the present. John Chisholm, who was orginally a sailor, writes as follows to the " Sydney Morning Herald," : He says ' that he became a miner in the early digging days " of Australia, and in December, 1852, was at Golden square, Bendigo, in company with a man named Boxmore. As they passed a ' shanty Boxinore,recogmsed one of the ' inmates, went in, and said to the man ■ " I think I know you — your name is - Tichborne." The man replied, "Yes ; * and I think I know you — your name 3 is Boxmore. There was another man > in the hut, whom Chisholm believed 3 to be Orton, from the likeness to old 3 Orton, whom he had known in Eng--1 land. They remained in the shanty 1 all night, and when they left in the 3 morning Boxmore said to Chisholm . ** That fellow Tichborne was 1 one of s the greatest swells among the girls in. * the West End when I knew him before." Chisholm describes Tichborne as a slim man, with a swarthy complexion and a very gentlemanly demeanor. He told Boxmore that* he had spent all his money, and 1 did not like to write to his friends for* ' more. 1 The widespread alarm created ' throughout England by the exposures of the dynamite conspiracy, so far from being exaggerated, seems quite incom- ' mensurate with the magnitude of the 1 danger undergone. It is difficult to 1 convey an adequate notion of the ruin and devastation that would have oc- * curred if, either by accident or design, the immense quantity of aitro-glycerine seized in the neighbourhood bf the Strand had been exploded in a populous 5 part of London. No such mass of that * compound has ever bean' detonated, > even experimentally, and only those who have a scientific knowledge of the power of explosives can picture to ' themselves the appalling spectacle of ! havoc and confusion that would have * ensued within a vast area. The gas absorbed in the nitro-glycerine expands 1 upon liberation to ten thousand times : the bulk of the liquid itself, driving the r atmosphere before it with such force fc that ib acts with the power of a eolid 1 substance, its destructive capacity ' being infinitely increased by its almost ' incalculable volume. In addition to r this, the suffocating heat of the liberi - " ■ - 1 ated gas would have caused nearly as s great a sacrifice of human life as the = wreck of the surrounding property. It ) is stated that the infernal scheme planned by these miscreants provided for the explosion of great quantities of nitro-glycerine simultaneously in different quarters of the Metropolis, ■f a plot which, if carried out, would . result in universal panic, and an abq solutely inconceivable loss of life. That s the vigilance of the police has sucB cee'ded in preventing this dreadful a calamity fully entitles the force to the (. high compliments bestowed upon it by the Home Secretary, and it may be j fairly presumed that the intense anxiety \ observable on all sides will render it [ impossible for the emissaries of tho , dynamite gospel to perpetrate now the diabolical outrage so happily— .rust-" f rated. The N. Z. Times of Saturday says. — , Sunday-traders were to have met * yesterday, at the Melbourne Hotel, to . hold a council of war. Only three at- * tended, and no formal business was , done. There appear to be bt least twenty shops that usually keep open on Sunday, besides several chemists' - shops which need not be reckoned in . the common category. These score of ; Sunday-traders comprise hair-dressers . fru it-dealers, confectioners, tobac- . conists, and sellers of lollipops. Other i kinds of Sunday-trading might be > added, such as livery-stabling, cab- . hiring, and letting the use of baths. . Assuming however, that at hDast I twenty shops are usually kept open for * Sunday trade, it is practically certain I that some of those will refuse to obey r the police warning, and will defiantly i remain open next Sunday. One rea- ■* son for this protesting attitude is that i* several of thc Sunday traders are * Jews, keeping their seventh-day on

Saturday, and therefore not regarding the Christian Sabbath as holy in the Jewish sense. One Jewish trader declares he will open his shop every Sunday, as long as one person in his line of trade remains open on that day, and that neither fine nor the stocks will frighten him. Another trader claims a special tolerance because with liis hair-dressing business he combines warm baths, and that his baths are med more on Sundays than on all the other days put together. He claims also that hot-bathing is a good work, if not a work of necessity, and pleads that the law should not close his baths on Sunday because " cleanliness is next to godliness." As to some of these traders,, there seems to be an understanding that they shall combine to employ a clever counsel, who will defend them on a test case in Court, if any or all the offenders are summoned after Sunday. We understand that the police on all the beats.; in the city will have to report, as a> matter of duty, all places that may be^ open for business to-morrow. These reports will be referred to the Inspector, and he will direct such action to "be taken as may seem fitting. The highest penalty appears to be a fine of five shillings, with costs added, and this may be repeated time after time. The Christchurch " Star's " London -correspondent learns that the New Zealand milk brought over frozen has proved an entire failure. Everything ■else was perfectly right, but when the milk came to be thawed a thick -creamy deposit was found on the surface, and the rest of the liquid proved mere whey. He tasted the butter and thought it delicious. The most fastidious epicure couldn't find any fault with it