MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1290, 29 August 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Two Austin ladies were conversing about one thing and another, after the manner of women.. 'Mrs Sampleby has not been to see me in a loug time,' remarked one of the ladies. ' She hasn't got time to make calls; she has to take care of and be with her husband all the time.' ' Why, is he laid up wich sickness?' Oh no; on the contrary, he is in the enjoyment rf the best of health ; if he was sick she would not have to watch him.' A London correspondent says Lady Lansdowne is one of the most charming hostesses in society, but she cannot fail to be placed under somewhat of a disadvantage in succeeding the hospitality of the Governor-General's palace. The I rincess Louise gives a formal dinner party every week to Canadian society at Ottawa ; but having, like all the other members of the family, been educated in habits of thrift, a very informal and very merry gathering takes place next day to " eat up the scraps,'' and invitations to the "scraps" dinner are far more highly valued of the two. The Sydney Morning Herald has a leading article on the fact that an iron steamer has been built at Dmiedin for the Port Jackson Steamship Company. It states: — "With engineering workshops in Sydney much larger than are to be found in the New Zealand ports, established long before the younger capital was founded, how then, it may be asked, can the foundries of Dunedin compete successfully with them 1 .Two or three causes have oper^te4 in^Jjjaij!; W W^ouTEside^ompetitor. Among the Scotch colony of Otago are some of those famed Clyde engineers who have made Glasgow the leading shipbuilding port of Great Britain." Patrick' Egan has furnished President Sullivan, of the Irish National League of America, with a detailed statement of the funds subscribed in Ireland for various purposes connected with the land^lgitation. Twenty-seven thousand pounds were subscribed directly to the central funds of the Land League, and in addition the Ladies' Land League received £9000. The considerable sum of £30,000 was subscribed and spent locally in the work of organisation and agitation, and £21,000 was specially collected for the State Defence Fund on the occasion of the abortive trial of Mr Parnell and others. For the sustentation of the suspects imprisoned under Mr Forster's regime £25,000 was collected, and a similar amount was gathered in aid of the Dublin Exhibition of last year. In all, the Irish people themselves subscribed in less than three years a sum of £228, 000 for political purposes, ffhe Irish in America in the same period forwarded to Ireland for similar purposes £157,000, and about £'10,000 was received from Australia, making a total of £367.000 subscribed in aid of the agitation conducted by Mr Parnell. To this total must be added sums contributed to the relief of the United States. This financial Statement was furnished by Mr Egan in order to establish the fact that the greater portion of the money spent in agitation was subscribed by the Irish in Ireland. On the day before the reception tendered her at St. George's, Bermuda, the Princess Louise went oil a sketching expedition along the shore all alone, and after a time becoming thirsty, went for a drink to the cottage of a negro fisherman. No one was there but " auntie," and she was as busy as could be ironing a shirt for her " ole man" to wear at the reception. The Princess asked for a drink, "l'se no bodder getting water fo' you," was the reply ; " I'se fea'ful busy, for I'se bound to see de Queen's chile to morrow." "But if you'll get me a drink I'll iron while you do so," said the thristy Princess. The offer was accepted, the Princess finished the shirt and got he,r drink and then revealed her identity. " Fo' de Lo'd, honey!" exclaimed "auntie," when she recovered from her surprise, " ole man nor no one else ever weal dat shirt again, nohow." — ' New York Times. The Land Nationalisation Society (says a Home paper) has just held its second annual meeting under the presidency of Mr A. 11. Wallace. The report of the Council gave an account of the formation of the. Society, the starting-point of which v/;is; Mr W:il- I lace.':i article in the. Co::!.euiv>or«.iry Ko- i

view of November, 1880, " How to Nationalise Land," The report also dealt with the growth of the Society up to the present time, and with the marked spread of land nationalisation ideas, not only in this country, but in various parts of the British Empire, New Zealand being the most promin- ! ent; and concluded with an earnest appeal for funds for the purpose of a lecture campaign throughout the kingdom in the coming autumn, the lecturers who had already promised their services being Mr A. R Wallace, Professor F. W. Newman, Miss Helen Taylor, Mr J. A. Parker, and Mr E. D. Girdlestone. The following resolutions were passed. — 1. " That this meeting deeply feeling the necessity of a radical change in our land tenure, and firmly believing that no means will effect it but the nationalisation of the land, pledges itself, by every legitimate and constitutional means, to obthe land for the people." 2. "That this meeting insist on the duty of the Legislature to retain the public lands, and to adopt measures to increase them at every opportunity, especially by taking payment of the succession duties on the land in form of land." Nobody expected Captain Carey to be handled with any severity by the Court of Inquiry ; nobody desired it. Quite the contrary. Public opinion has, in fact, been disposed to award Captain Carey more praise than blame. If he got his ship into a scrape he also got her out again, and the merit of the finale covers a multitude of previous sins. That is one way of putting it, but there is another. The statement may be turned around : If the gallant captain got his ship out of the scrape he first got her in, and the fact that during fine weather so capable a navigator may bring a vessel like the Eotomahana to the verge of destruction is one that the travelling public may very properly contemplate with alarm. The evidence shows that the navigation to the Bluff is a passage between Scylla and Charybdis. On the shore side is the Waipapa reef, its rugged edge undefined on the chart, not suspected of being wrongly laid down ; to seaward lies the submerged Toby rock. Between the dangers is a five-mile passage, at which the Union Company's boats are rushed in the dark night at a speed of ten knots, without preliminary pause to determine the exact position by soundings. What need of headlong hurry ? Since the Bluff is only ten hours distance, why not wait till daylight ? Why this heroic disregard of precautions which are the mere a'phabet of the mariner's art ? The Union Company owe the public some explanation on these points. As their boats are run at present a mail might travel to England* and back with less real risk than he incurs in j the ten hours' passage from Dunedin to the Bluff 'I hese things ought not to be thus, and whilst they continue thus passengers for Melbourne will show discretion if they elect to make .thg .first stage of the tfoyiige vby;. Irain. — Civis. Mr Dargaville (sajstheN.Z. Times) has addressed a remarkable appeal to his constituents of Auckland City West. He is evidently under the impression that the fly on the wheel drives the coach. In an advertisement just published in an Auckland Star, Mr Dargaville cautions and flatters his constituents thus : — " Gentlemen. — I am now engaged in a struggle for freedom of speech in Parliament, and I purity of Governmental administrai tion. Attempts are being made by interested parties to induce you to prejudge my action. Trust me to uphold your rights and my own selfrespect. You and I shall soon meet ; meanwhile, reserve your judgement." The deepest shaft in Victoria at the i end of the year was the Magdala, at | Stawell, which was 2,409 ft deep ; other shafts in the same locality were 1,940 ft 1,830 ft, 1,815 ft, 1,770 ft 1,565 ft and 1,220 ft from the surface. At Sandhurst there wnre shafts I ,Booft, 1,601 ft, and 1,563 ft deep respectively : at Maldon one of 1,220 ft, from the surfacp, and at Clunes are two shafts, 1,214 ft and 1,193 ft deep respectively. A horse belonging to Mr Bryce met with his death in a very painful way on Wednesday morning (says the Oamaru Times). It was being shod at Davis' shoeing forge when it broke away, taking attached to its halter a part of the post to which it was tied. This evidently frightened the animal, which bolted at headlong speed down the adjoining right-of-way; and so great was its impetus that it rushed across Tyne street, and its head went clean through one of the windows in Mr Church's office. Arrested by the shock, the horse drew back and rushed back across the street against Fleming and Hekley's office wall. It then bolted up Itchen street, and turning round Hood's cornel", ranjagainst Clarke and Jamieson'scart, which was standing opposite their store in Tees street. 8o great was the force of the collision that the off shaft ran into the unlucky animal's chest to a depth of between three and four feet. The horse in the cart becoming frightened started oft i and carried the runaway animal, on the point of the shaft against Hood's verandah. Here some by-standers stopped it and drew off the injured horse, which died in a few minutes. A Chinaman made a bet of 3dols. with one of his fellow? that he could swim across the Sacramento, at Redding, aud return. He crossed over, but in coming back sunk in the middle of the stream to rise no more. His opponent, seeing him go down, claped his hands in glee and proceeded to put the stakes in his pocket.

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Mrs Langtry, in an interview on July 25, before returiug to Europe, said that in her American season sho had cleared 125,000d0l She commences a second American season of 36 weeks on October 29, and then goes to Australia. The new Archbishop of Canterbury does not appear to be a gifted preacher, judging by the following extract from the contribution of " Atlas " to the World on the 28th of March :— " The Chapel Royal in St. James' Palace was crowded in every part at the noon service on Palm Sunday, when the new Primate preached, the largest congregation assembling which has been seen in the chapel since the Bishop of Peterborough preached there in Lent, 1881, on the day of the late Czar's assassination. The only vacant seats Avere, those in the Royal Gallery. The congregation were disappointed, as I ventured to predict, would be the case, for Dr Benson is no orator, and his sermon was as dull and commonplace as if it had been the composition of the Sub Dean or one of the Priests-in-waiting. Mr Gladstone listened very closely for five minutes, and then folded his arms, shut his eyes, and, in an attentive posture, comfortably composed himself to sleep. The Archbishop will not preach again at St. James' till Palm Sunday, 1885. Next year the Archbishop of York will occupy the pulpit on that anniversary." Professor Miller has performed the following feats of strength : — Lifted and elevated a dumb-bell weighing 2051 b. straight, arm above head ; he has also pushed slowly in the same position a dumb-bell weighing 1001 b, 20 times, using only one arm from the shoulder. He has lifted 15501 b. solid iron from the ground. His challenges, to Fellom, of Chiarini's Circus, ami Vincent, known as the Man of Irou, met with no response. He has challenged all athletes in England, America and Australia for the following exercises : — Boxing, wrestling, foil and single stick, fencing, and heavy weight lifting- The Bulletin (Melbourne). Mr Wilfred Powell, who has spent eight years of his life on the coast of New Guinea or the islands around, believes (says the North British Advertiser) that no island in the world is its equal for natural products. Among the productions are tortoise-shells, pearl-shell, ivory nuts, gum, sandalwood, camphor tree, sago, arrowroot* ginger, sugar-cane, cocoa-nuts, ebony,, and birds of paradise plumes, whiletobacco is grown in large quantities. As the island is opened up, minerals he says, will no doubt be found in considerable quantities. Gold is known to exist, and he has swn tine specimens of copper, and black sand that, contained tin, brought from NewGuinea. Although the last to be developed, this island, he belioves, will be found to be the most favoured of the beautiful islands of the Malay Archipelago. Sir.. William Rowan Hamilton, the "famous mathematician, was a precocious child. He was "at three years a superior reader of English," and well up in addition, subtraction, and multiplication " as far as 10"; at four a good geographer, who in familar conversation called his throat his* isthmus, and for whose mind skeleton maps were already deemed too trifling ;; at live able to read and . translate Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and loving to recite Dryden, Collins, Milton, and Homer" ; at eight possessed of Italian and French, and able to astonish, a. pleasure-party by extemporising an address to nature and art in Latin ; and before he was 10 "a student of Arabicand Sanscrit." An almost incredible discovery — that of manufactured water — is reported by M. Pasteur, a nephew of the celebrated chemist of that name. It is a well-known fact that the crossing of the great African desert is accomplished by means of caravans composed of camels, horses, &c, the water for which has to be transported on the backs of the consumers. This lessens to a great degree their freighting capacity. M. Pasteur has established suitable works at tho numerous termini of the routes for separating the water into oxygen and hydrogen. As the latter is 16 times lighter than the former, and is the gass used in balloons, it carries the oxygen and a considerable part of the camel, besides furnishing light on dark nights. He unites the gases by the simple means of explosion when desired for use. The French Government, it is said, has. created M. Pasteur a Commander of the Legion of Honour for this great 83rvice. If he could return to earth (says the "Graphic "), Captain Cook would possibly be surprised to find tho prodigious results of his voyages of exploration. A hundred years ago there was not, it may be presumed, a single white man permanently located in Australasia. Now there are some three millions of them, and they are beginning to make themselves heard. The young lions of the Antipodes arcroaring for prey. Queensland has annexed New Guinea, whereupon Victoria says, " Why should not I annex something too ? " And so sho proposes to take possession of tho Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides. Worried by these, burdened old Mother Country feels inclined to say, "First cultivate your own gardens, my dears ; there's plenty of waste ground there I'm sure." To which her children reply ; " There's a great ugly Frenchman loafing about, and if we don't take these islands he will.*' This is really a very serious matter. The newly-born colonial ambition of France, which had lain dormant since the fall of Quebec and tho death of Duplcix, seems to have come nrarJv a century too late. All the re.'illy colonisablo p.ivi of the earth -that is places wo-c ]i.u'-op«'ivis cvii live, mm

labour, and multiply — are already in the hands of the other nations. These Pacific islands, with their limited area "and damp heat, can never be genuine colonies. But they might be used as penal settlements *, and they might be developed into formidable military and naval stations. Now, to either of these contingencies Australia strongly objects. She knows the virus of convictism only too well, and she does not want to be surrounded by a chain of forts and harbors which, in the «vent of a war between England and Prance, might render the invasion of vasion of her territory, and even the seizure of her chief cities, a probabale -consequence. It is from prudental motives, then, rather than from greed, that she cries for annexation. The •question, in its broadest extent, ought to be seriously considered by our Government without delay, or, while they are deliberating, other people; may be found acting. 3