MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1291, 31 August 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

In point of intemperance Belgium excels all other countries in Europe. Since 1830 the consumption of spirituous liquors has quintupled, and the annual average per capita of the adult male population is computed at ten and one-half gallons. There are 102, j 000 driukingshops, or one to every twelve persons. The physicians in the Brussels Hospital state that of 100 cases of mortality among their pa-tients 80 were the effects of liquor. The number of suicides in Belgium in 1875 was 352 ; in 1880 it had risen to 581. There are now thrice as many luuatics in Belgium as there was thirty years ago, a fact which the increase of population will not account for. According to recent statistics the French army numbers, on a peace footing, 470,000 men, with 300 generals; that of Germany 427,000 men, with 282, generals ; that of England, 315,000 men, with 179 generals ; that of Italy, 220,000 men with 130 generals ; and Spain 184,742 men, with i 260 generals. These figures show that in England there is one general to every 1759 men, in France to every 1451 men, in Italy, to every 1407 men, and in Spain to every 518 men. Lady Gertrude Douglas, who married a baker last year and set him up in business, has found that there are di*a\v backs to selling bread. She had plenty of business, but the customers failed to settle their bills, apparently thinking that a peer's daughter cannot | want payment for her loaves. As a consequence the business is to be given up, and the bride of 40 will retire to the country and live quietly with her plebean husband of 19, if he can be kept in order. In the Anatomical Department of the Berlin University no fewer than 600 bodies were last year dissected. There is an ultra-royal, colonist somewhere in Taranaki, who writes thus to the papers :— " Our present Governor is the exponentof Imperialism and Jingoism, and I simply detest them both, and regard England — with its two Houses — its Gladstones and its Brights — its cheap money and its millions of paupers — as our most dangerous and deadliest enemy. I could die happy this instant might I but stretch out my hand and cut the painter," A capital story is told of Daniel Webster, who once had the night stage from Baltimore to Washington, with no companion save the driver, and contemplated that worthy's forbidding visage with a very uneasy mind. He had nearly reasoned his suspicious fears away, when they came to the dark woods between Bradensburgh and Washington, when Mr Webster felt his courage oozing out of his finger ends as he thought what a fitting place it was for a murder. Suddenly the driver turned towards him and roughly demanded his name. It was given. Then he wanted to know where he was going. "To Washington. I am a senator," said Daniel, expecting his worst thoughts were near realization. The driver grasped him by the hand, saying : « How glad I am, Mister, to hear that ! I've been properly scared for the last hour, for when I looked at you I felt sure you was a highwayman."

Mother Swan's Worm Syrup.—lnfallible, tasteless, harmless, cathartic ; for feverishness, restlessness, worms, constipation, Is. at druggists. Moses, Moss & Co., Sydney, General Agonls.

From an inventory of the effects of late Mr John Brown, lodged with the Sheriff-clerk of Aberdeenshire, it appears that at the time of his decease lie was possessed of household furniture, silver plate, &c to the value of £379 ; £1000 Btood to his credit in Jihe Union Bank of Scotland, with £20 added as interest on the principal > £767 was also deposited in the Union Bank's branch office at Ballater, and 1 £3153 represented the deceased's dpposit with interest in the North of Scotland Bank, Ballftter, on November 7 last. The sum of £1185 was found in the deceased's repositories. Pic-ture-books, jewellery at Windsor Castle, - Buckingham Palace, and Osborne House realised on appraisement £208 ; and the proportion of salary and pension due at the time of Mr Brown's death is put down at £101. The total amount of the deceased's personal estate in England and Scotland is £6816 9s lid. Some interesting facts in regard to the Rogus Degree swindle have been brought to light. It appears that the degree-mongers occassionaly vary the name of the institution. They have a choice assortment of Universities on hand. For example, there is the Edinburgh University of St. Louis, which furnishes the diploma of Mus. Doc. Edin., thus enabling the purchaser of a degree to figure as a graduate of Edinburgh University. The Wellington correspondent of the I Dunedin Star says : — A match for i £500 a-side is now being arranged between Elias Laycock, and Hearn, of Wellington. The race is to be rowed in Wellington harbor soinetirao during the next three months, and Laycock is to be allowed, £50 for expenses. It is stated that the stylographio pen yields to the proprietor of the patent no leBS than £20,000 annually. The same revenue is said to be darived from the patent for a pen for shading in various colors. The inventor of the gummed newspaper covers is now a rich man. The screw points at the ends of lead pencils have made the owner of the patent independent. The Abyssinian well is said to have yielded to the origiual inventor, Colonel Green, no less than £600,000. The inventor of the roller skates is reported to have acquired a fortune of £200,000. Even ordinary toys — for instance, the returning ball, with indiarubber coating, and several other amusements for children — have returned from £10,000 to £15,000 each. The toy called the " Cricri " brought the inventor within nine months a sum of £30,000. The Post says that a well-known resident of this city, now on a visit toEngland, sends the following iuteresting particulars as to his Homeward Transatlantic passage: — "We had to wait 15 days at New York before we oould get berths, all the steamers being so full. We came across in the Fulda* a new steamer' belouging to the North German Lloyd's line. She is 6200 tons, 460 feet in length, and consumption of coal about 120 tons for 24 hours. Splendid accommodation for passengers, and an excellent table. A. band of nine performers played every morning for an hour, and during dinner, from 5 to half-past 6. It was very enjoyable. Our lowest day's run was 390 miles, and our twa highest 403 and 400. We reached Southampton, 3,190 miles, in eight days. This is something like travelling, considering that we had very foggy weather after leaving New York,, which necessitated our going slow at times." The following story is told with regard to the recent cyclone in the Southern States of America : — Mr B. F. Jones, of Beauregard, Miss., who, the moment he saw the danger coming, called his wife and little boy into the yard and made them lie flat on the ground and grasp some small shrubs which stood within reach. "I put one arm about my wife," says Jones, " while with my other I clasped a small tree, and made my son lie close up to me,, a,nd then I said to them, Hold on^jjiy^on, for God's sake ! It is for HS|p and theu the wind came* There wajjlijjb whirl and a roar. I was. shaken*,: 'and heard the crash of my falling house. An instant and it was over. I still held my wife in my arms, but she was insensible, and my boy was still nestling close to me, but bruised and bleeding. All three escaped without serious injury, thank* to Mr Jones' presence of mind, and the prompt obedience of his wife ami child. " Who do you think is going to be married to a Manchester manufacfurer ?" (writes a London correspondent to one of our contemporaries). " Well, the very lady whom I told you some months ago would shortly wed Colonel Wellesley and emigrate with him to New Zealand — Miss K. Vaughan. It seems the Duke of Wellington's persuasions were not wholly without effect on the pretty danseuse. Who "paid the piper " and how much the said "piper" cost nobndy kupws, but the love-loin colonel has been jilted, and Kate's marriage lias been publicly announced. • She will- not leave the stage, but secedes from the Gaiety Company for a time. We cull the following paragraph from the Bolton Daily Croniole (County of Kent) of June l 1 :— ' Fifty years ago a Mr Costello left Ireland for Australia, afterward settliug down at Auckland, New Zealand, whero he died recently leaving £100,000 to local charities. His only surviving brothei', who resides at Bolton, is 75 years of age and past work. He is now taking steps to prove his relationship to his brother, with whom lie had no -commuuication since they left Ireland." Yv'e (says the "Tiniaru Herald)" are 1 ?lad to h":ir tJi:v the trip of t V Hip- 1 -

moa to Terawbiti on Saturday was a fiasco, and that only five members of the Legislature were among the excursionists. The whole affair was only got up to advertise a mining speculation, (which we have heard alluded to by a much harder name), aud to put money into the pockets of those who will do anything for it, except work. The Government practically lent the Hiftemoa — which belongs not to them but to the public — to one of their political supporters who happens to be interested in Terawhiti shares, as if to give the " mines " at that spot an air of official credit. A more disreputable use was never made of the Government steamer ; and it is rather comical to remember that the very men Tvho thus employed her, are the same "who were quite overcome with indignation a few years ago, because Sir George Grey travelled in her whilst on a political tour. We should like to know which of the Ministers were specially responsible for this little job. The Hinemoa, we believe, is nominally under the control of the Postmaster General, who, of course, would stick at nothing to gratify the people on the Beach at Wellington, But all the Ministers are eqnally to blame, and it as satisfactory to learn that both sides of the House disapproved of their conduct. ■