MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1287, 20 June 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

In the papers by the mail we read of the death of a man who in his time was notorious without being famous. This was Viscount A vonmore, who was but too well lenown some twenty-five years ago as Major Velverton. When a subaltern of Artillery he served in the early New Zealand wars, and lived for several years at Wellington, where he was rather popular, owing to his activity in sporting matters, and his agreeable manners in society. Later on he came unpleasantly before the public at Home as the defendant in that cause celebre, the Yelverton marriage case. What the rights of that case were, it would be very hard now to say ; but it is quite certain that Major Yelverton went through the form of marriage with two ladies of good position and blameless character, each of whom believed she was his lawful wife. Which of them really was his lawful wife, remains to this day a subject of controversy ; but of his villainy in the affair there is not, and never was, any question. The Courts decided that Mrs Forbes was the more lawfully married of the two ladies, and she. is now Viscountess Avonmore, and mother of the present Viscount. Miss Longworth, the other claimant to Major Yelverton 's hand and prospective title, after long years of struggling to get the judgment of the Court reversed, became a lecturer and a wanderer, and died, if we mistake not in the United States.

Mr' Redmond says his mission to Australia has been more successful than he anticipated, both financially and morally- In three months he has sent Home to the National League over £6000, and whenever he has had an opportunity of explaining the objects of the League he has convinced many men differing from him in creed and nationality of the justice of Ireland's claims.

The London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian hears from a trustworthy source that " the Pope has decided that in future no Irish priest who has taken any part in any political agitation shall be named to

the rank of bishop. The conduct of some of the Irish prelates has greatly annoyed Leo XIII. He says that in no country throughout the world do Catholics enjoy the same amount of religious liberty as in Great Britain, and that to turn against the Govern ment of this realm is both contrary to the spirit of the Church and very ungrateful"

A pointsman, Robert Moove, who was said to have been indirectly the cause of the recent collision on therailway at the bottom of the Zfg Zag r near Lithgow (New South- Wales); when the trucks broke away from their' couplings and ran foto a goods train,, causing the death of a fireman,, committed suicide on May 25. ' He was found dead with a bullet wound in his head, a few yards from the ,pla 4 ~ form, near the scene of the accident* For some days past the deceafeeft had been despondent in consequence of having been reproached for his conduct ia connection with the accident, and having been told by naany persons that he might have averted it by turning the trucks on to another .line. ...

The Bey. Charter Strd%, in thecourse of a recent lecture in Victoria r thus delivered himself on the subject of " The Church," by which he meant not any particular denomination, but the whole body of professing Christians : — " Can' we say that the Church's tone is very high, that it is free from bitterness, laziness, small-mindedness ; that it commands the respect and reverence of the community by its learning, thoughtfulness, practical activity, wide interest in and (Qrmpathy with all great movements, its strict morality, zeal, and love ? Can we say that there is much real reverence and love for the spiritual aspects of life, apart from the question of orthodoxy or heterodoxy ? Can we say that we are a spiritual people ? Alas ! I fear our church life is at a low ebb, intellectually and spiritually, and that notwithstanding the absurd number of miserable little churches all over the country, or rather in every township, which the people tax themselves so heavily to maintain. The Church's light is dim in the land ; and if we may judge from statistics as to the proportion of people attending places of worship, the hold of the Church ovel" the country is but feeble compared with what it ought to be. The Church in Victoria is sectarian. It is narrowminded. It is taken up with the struggle "for existence, which means not the struggle of troth And love, but. the struggle^ fat Mofiey. ?Iff iris m ot I mighty power for good. It^ is the slave of tradition, and lags behind, where it ought to be friend, philospher, and guide of the people. Its members are lukewarm, and so torn is it by dissensions that politicians have had to wash their hands of it, glad to get rid of it in connection with any pnblic question." Mary Ulrich, who was sent to the Berks County almshouse a year ago,, conceived an intense affection for a much younger woman, Laura Ulrich, who had been there twenty years. They only knew each other by tlipir first names. They discovered they were mother and daughter, and the mother who had spent many years,, when in better circumstances, in searching for her child, fell dead in the latters arms. In a tug steamboat collision case that went to London for trial some years ago, a barrister who had crossquestioned and browbeaten a witnes9 (the skipper of one of the tugs) a good deal, and was evidently trying to make Geordie contradict himself or tell a fib at last exclaimed, * Can yon not understand what I want you to tell me ? r ' Oh, forst rate,' replied Geordie, • thoo wants me to tell thoo something aadivvent knaa.' { Bismarck's papej, the ftorth Ger-. man Gazette, refers reproachfully to the fact that the North* German Lloyd Company has ordered from a, well-known Clyde firm a couple of steamers, each of 2200 tons burden and 6000 horse power. Suoh conduct, it? suggests, is both unpatriotic and anti-protectionist. • Engineers in Berlin are experimenting in war balloons and photography. It has been found quite practicable to mount to a height out of range, and on the way up to use an electrical apparatus by which a view" i of the underlying country can be taken, in less than a second. There can be no doubt, says theEngineer, that the inventor who could supply in a really portable form amachine or apparatus which would give out two or three horse power fqr a day would reap an enormous fortune. Up to the present time, however, • nothing of the kind has been placed in the market. Gas is laid on to most houses, now, and gas engines are plentiful enough, yet they do not meet the want which a storage battery may be ' made yet, perhaps, to supply. . . .

Our Wakatipu correspondent writes that at the last meeting of the Lake County Council the kea question was considered: Mr H. .Campbell, of Wanaka, who has since 1871 carried on a war of extermination against the pest, showed that as many as 800 of the birds had been destroyed by him in one year, yet they increased to an alarming extent, finding plenty of shelter on adjacent Crown lands, ■were they reared their young, and they descended upon -the flocks of neighbouring sheep-farmers. Under "such circumstances} especially with a vast additional area of unleased runs thrown upon the hands of the (\overn- J ment, the keas threaten to become quite as great a pest as the rabbits. He estimated the loss of sheep through the keas ■at about 17 to 18 per cent., and the yearly loss rather increased than diminished. The Council had asked the t>f the Lake Government, suggesting that £200 be placed at the disposal of the Lake County Council for the destruction o£ the birds. In answer to this request, the Government •stated that they were willing to assist in the extermination by a pound-for-pound subsidy to the extent of £200. After some discussion, it resolved to TequestMrZ Fergus, M.H.K. for the "district, to lay the matter before the ; .