MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1288, 22 June 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The London Engineer says that no combination will enable a man to fly until ho can wield them with as much muscular power to the pound weight as a bird exerts in flying; If a man had in his legs the muscular energy and leaverage of a flea, he could jump a mile in three leaps, and if his arms had, in proportion to his weight, the driving power of a wild pigeon's wing, he would have no use for railways or baloons. The transportation problem would be solved. Moving himself so easily and so swiftly, he would not need to move anything else. The albatross, weighing 28 pounds, can keep its wings, 18 feet from tip to tip, in motion all day, while the strongest man, weighing six to eight times as much, would exhaust all his strength in keeping even an albatross* wings in motion half-an-hour. "We have in the bird," says the Engineer, "a

machine burning concentrated fuel in a large grate at a tremendous rate and developing a very large power in a small space. There is no engine in existence — certainly no steam engine and boiler combined — which weight for weight, gives out anything like the mechanical power exhibited by the albatross." Consequently, no machinery yet devised can operate wings with sufficient power to sustain its own weight in the air, and there is no known machinery by which a man can wield the force necessary to fly like a bird. Kerley's alleged discovery, or some new process of storing and exerting great electric power in apparatus of light weight, might supply the deficiency ; but science has not learned how to develope in inanimate machinery anything like the mighty nervous energy which acts in the bones, sinews, and muscles of a living bird's wing.

Yesterday was the 53rd day since the sailing of the Adieu from this port without anything being heard of her, and it is generally supposed she lias met with a fate similar to that of the Clarinda, that left here over throe months ago. for theManakau and was longago given up. Many another gallant vessel trading in New Zealand waters has also disappeared without leaving a trace behind to enable us to guess at the nature of her fate. —Argus June 4th.

•> The Timaru Herald thinks Mr - Holmes, member for Christchurcb ) South, must be a pleasant sort of E politician. It says r "In the course i of some remarks, that he made at the f close of Mr Montgomery's meeting oc 1 Tuesday night, he said •he ro%ht fee called a firebrand, an- obstructionist, or i a blatant fool I—a1 — a statement which is I reported to have been Railed with ' cheers by the audience. What Mr - Holmes meant by saying such a thing, I we have not the slightest idea. As. life ■ speech is reported, the passage we } have quoted read* exactly as- as- if Mr [ Holmes had merely givea a candid £ description of himself, according to his t own conscientious opinion;, and' if the . meeting had cordially expressed their s concurrence with his views on that 5 interesting subject. We do not sup- . pose that was quite what he or they ? intended, but without any distortion i of the report, that is precisely the 1 impression it conveys. Mr Holmes ir, I we believe, one of those unfortunate ; speakers who never know what the I 1 dickens they will say when-ihey—oaoe— . get on their feet, and feel the exciting r stimulus of the sound of their own voice." s An investigation respecting the i I use of tobacco by boys of Boston, U.S., ' in schools of different grades has led I to the conclusion that the majority of i* boys of 11 years of age and upwards 5 are smokers. Cigarette-smoking is * greatly on the increase also among 3 school-girls. i According to the Frankfurter J Zeitung, a large eagle was shot ou 1 April 15th at Nakkoo, Lapland, which 3 had. around its neck a brass chain with i a tin box attached to it. This btfx b contained a slip of paper ou which f was written in Danish* "Caught in } 1792 by W. and C. Anderson, beoted, [ in Falster, Denmark." i To the memorial wreath laid by • Queen Victoria on John Brown's ? coffin, there was affixed a large mourn- , ing card bearing the following words \ in her own handwriting : ' A tribute > of loving, grateful, and everlasting ; friendship and affection from his truest > best, and most faithful friend, Vicf toria, R.I. It is noted that the [ wreath she sent for Lord Beaconsfield ! bore the words 'A mark of true affeci tion, friendship, and regret' ; that for Dean Stanley, ' A mark of sincere affection and high esteem.' Major Atkinson's first appearance in political life was {says the Lytfcelton Times) as Sir Julius Vogel's enemy, but he only came to the front in the House by taking up the mantle of Abolition when it fell from Sir Julius' shoulders. When that great Hebrew was translated to the London heaven,. Major Atkinson posed as his successor here. Abolition, as canied out by him, has resulted in rnisgovernment, confusion and discontent. He could carry out Sir Julius' plan of destruc tion, but he could initate no plan of re-construction himself. His sole effort in that direction — The Counties Act — has been a bye-word for cumbersome uselessness. To come to later times, who originated the reforms of 79 and '80? Who roused public; opinion to ask for manhood suffrage, triennial Parliaments, and the tteprosentation Act? Every child in the Colony knows that Major Atkinson's Cabinet stole these measures from Sir George Grey. As was said at the time the Hall-Atkinson Cabinet c stole the plate basket, but Sir George Grey's crest remained on every article in it/ The originality displayed in the Public Works schemes of the present Ministry consists solely in the science to which they have reduced legalised bribery. True, here and there they introduced a novelty of their own. Does Major Atkinson deny that when he went -to seek his great scheme of National Insurance (already the laughing stock of the irreverent in New Zealand) he fished in Mr Blackeley's waters ? And to what did his lectures on the Nationalisation of Land amount but to a ' boil-down' of the theories of Messrs Wallace and George ; as for applying these theories, he ventured not a step in that direction. Whose Cabinet fished for ideas upon local Government by means of circulars addressed to unresponsive Road Board and County Councils? Who have habitually shuffled out of answering or deciding all aianner of awkward questions, by referring them | to Eoyal Commissions 1 Was it Major Atkinson or Mr Saunders who moved and carried the ten per cent reductions ? Was it Major Atkinson or Mr Woolcock who first proposed to change th c incidence of taxation in the House of Representatives ! What, in fine, has Major Atkinson ever originated, except the brilliant, but unfounded, notion that he is an originator 1 Hop Bitters gives good digestion, active liver, good circulation and buoyant spirits. Read larger. Don't die in the house. — " Rou«»h on Rats" clears out rats, mice, beetles, roaches, bed-bugs, flies, ants, insects,, moles, jack-rabbits, gophers! 7id. Moses, Moss & Co., Sydney* General Agmit.

Professor Young, of Princetown College, says :— •« Take a railroad from the earth to the sun, -with a train running forty miles an hour without stops, and it would take 2G5 years and a little over to make the journey.* He estimates the fare at a cent a mile, to -lie v' 23o million dollars. These Mil the project Drowsiness, billiousness, pains and aches', ind'ague, Hop Bitters always cur«g., Bead.-i Wiiia' " "Kbt^.w. COKXB."— Ask for Wells* MRougk pa Corns." 7Jd. Quick relief, complete, permanent cure. Corns, warts, bunions. Moses, Moss (k Co., Sydney, General Agents.