MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1295, 10 September 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

A correspondent of the Christchurch Star says : — On Fridaj evening Lotti I Wilmott became possessed of a ticket I for the ladies' gallery in the House. Her debut there ruffled the feathers of the upper crust, and many of them at ! once left. An inquiry was institued as to how she got the ticket, but as yet the problem has not been solved. Last night Lottie in her lecture made a running commentary, conveying her ideas of tiie characteristics of mind of the members she said the two M'Doualds were no politicians, and advised themto seek fresh fields at Salt Lake city. Mr Hurst, she said, had missed his vocation ; he would have made a good artist — a clever painter, especially of pigs. In referring to Mr Allwright, she said no doubt he was a fond husband and kind father, and a thoroughly domesticated man, but he was not at all fit to represent any constituency in Parliament. Sir George Grey was her beau ideal of a politician, and she advised members generally to copy him. A ruturn has been been laid on the table of the House of Representatives, showing the acreage of all reserves or endowments of land in the Middle Island for secondary or university education. Westland has 30 acres with a yearly rental of £15 ; Canterbury, at Ashburton, 1000 acres, with a a rental of £150. The Canterbury I College Board and reserves of 252,426 acres; annual rental £6518. They have sold 54,870 acres for £109,036, the annual income from which amounts to £5078. The University of Otago has 218,850 acres, with an annual income of £6597. They have sold 2150 acres for £2456, the yearly income from which is £135. Secondary schools possess 107,725 acres in the South Island, with an annual income from reserves leased of £5192 ; and have sold 15,175 acres for £46,637, the annual income from which is £485 (?), Comparing the two chiefcitiesinthe Middle Island of New Zealand, " The Vagabond" gives a decided preference to Christchurch and Dunedin in the matter of sociability. Writing of Christchurch he says: — "The people here are spontaneous ; they warm to you, and you warm to them. From Dr Julius von Haast, C.M.G., the Nestor of the Museum ; from clubdom and officialdom ; from the arch and the warriors of the press, I receive big hearty welcomes, all the more striking after the social chillings of Otago. Dunedin is a beautiful city, its people are wide awake and know how to make money, butl would prefer to pass my days in the English city, Christchurch, by the Avon."

The Auckland correspondent of the Otago Daily Times: — In connection with the vicissitudes of gold-raining speculation, it may be noted that a day or two ago Mr W. A Hunt — one of the pioneer discoverers of the Thames goldfields, and a shareholder in the famous Shotover, or Hunt's claim, which yielded nearly a quarter of a million sterling in gold to its four shareholders— filed his schedule. He has latterly beeu prospecting and speculating in the Cororaaudel district, and has been "down on his luck." It is a singular circumstance that not one of the original shareholders was able to stand the sudden access of wealth which was poured into their laps, unasked and almost unsought It was easy come, easy go, and it was believed that, like our first three-mil-lion loan, the perennial golden stream would never cease to flow. Olarkson was not long ago a pitman in a Newcastle colliery (N.S.W.), and Colley and White are both now living in Auckland in a small way, far removed from the palatial style in which they started, after the Shotover yielded up her treasures at their pleasure. The only man who came well out of the affair was a shrewd bank clerk in the Union Bank of Australia, who bought an interest— a small one— from Hunt in his fourth share of the claim. Such are the whirligigs of fortune that today the ex-bank olerk, Joe Howard, is a "bloated" capitalist, while the pioneer gold-finder, on whose face Joe who was wont assiduously to watch the sunshine and the shadow, has — tiled his schedule. But such is life t The long and animated lectures and discussions upon one of the interesting topics of the day — divided skirts — have (says the London correspondent of the Dunedin Star) struck horror and dismay to the hearts of the modest, and inflicted many a severe shock oa refined, sensitive natures. The dignified, courteous men of the old school positively fail to grasp this new andstartling idea, and have conjured up alarming apparitions of " the women of the future." One poor man anxiously demanded "if, when women take to trousers, mon will be condemned to petticoats?" Whioh reminded me of a domestic's quick retort, at the time when the rage for capa first came in ; when matrons wore huge erections on their heads, and even young girls straight from the schoolroom hid their pretty -hair uuder mountains of lace. The aforementioued domestic was sharply reprimanded by her misti'ess for not wearing the customary sign of bondage, "Oh t mum," she innocently replied"! thought when ladies had taken to caps ifc was quite time for servants to leave them off!/ The farm o£ the bite DrH. J. Glenn, in California is thus described by Mr H. K. Dow : — " It has this season out of a total area of 81,000 acres, 35,000 acres of growing crops, and 25,000> acres ploughed up for summer fallow, making 60,000 acres which have been cultivatad since last harvest. Last I season 55,000 acres were under crop* and had the season been favorable Dr | Glenn's ambition to produce 100,0:><) j bushels of grain would have beeu at- ■ tained, but owing to the dry season which was experienced little more than half a million was produced. With the aid of a field glass nearly the= whole of the vast wheat fields can be seen from the top of the water tower. One paddock alone oontains 10,000 acres of grain. A recent event in Pai*is has given rise to a good deal of Boulevard gossip, and may some day afford meterialfor a cause celebre As the. oouk of the Marquis de Tamissier was walking at a late hour through the Bois de Boulogne he was startled by hearing a child cry out. He stopped, and on looking about him. found on the roadside a beautiful cradle, the occupant of which was a fine babygirl wrapped up in the finest lace and cambric, embroidered with a coronet, but with no other crest or mark of any kind. He also discoverd a sum of 50, 000 francs, and a letter entrusting the infant to the care of the finder, and promising him a magnificent rewai'd if she were well brought up an treated with kindness. "As you watch over her so will I watch over you," ran the letter ; •' educate her well, and in addition to the reward which your good action will bring of itself, a handsome fortune shall be yours when the child comes of age ." The cook was not loth to accept the charge on these terms, so he put the gold in his pocket and sent the little stranger to be taken care of by a sister of his living in the country. What ia said to be the largest gas main in Europe, if not in the world, is now being laid down from Charing Cross to Pall Mall and two other places in London. The diameter is four feet, the largest main previously laid in London having not exceeded a diameter of three feet. Over 23 miles of this four-feet main are said to have been already laid, the work having been begun iO years ago. A correspondent of an American paper, writing from Jonhstonville, S. C, incidentally mentions a curious instance in the influence of animals in controlling or preventing forest growths. It appears that the fondness of pigs for the juicy rdbts of young pines leads them to seek them assiduously, so that where theseanimals are allowed to roam, in that region one can hardly find a young-leafed pine in a thousand acres of pine forest There being no young trees to take the place of the old ones used up by the lumbermen, and the procine maurauders, this species of pine is disappearing.

A most solemn and inipressve requiem mass for the lat« Archbis io ; Vaughan was celebrated at St. Ma v ; f Cathednl, Sydney, on the morning of the 23rd ult., in the presence of an immense crowd. The interior of the building was draped in black, and relieved with festoons of white flowers. In front of the altar was placed a catafalque, which was covered with beautiful flowers. Among those present were the Governor (Lord Augnstua Loftus) Capt. Henderson, ofH,M.S. Nelson. Capt. Watson, of 3LM.S. Miranda, the Attorney-General, Mr Justice Fawcett. Hundreds were ■unable to obtain admission. The Bishops of Maitland (Eight Rev. James Murray), Armidale (Right Rev. Elzhar Torregiani, O S.F.C.), and Goulburn (Eight Eev. William Lanigan), officiated, together with about sixty priests. Mozart's Twelfth Mass was given. A meeting has been held and a memorial to the late Archbishop has been initiated. During the vacancy in the See the Very Rev. Dean Sheridan has charge of the archdiocese. A remarkable fraud by a clerk to a -worsted merchant is being investigated at Bx-adford. The clerk, who is a young married man, had been emyloyed as additional cashier, at a salary of 80s per week. It was part of his duty • to check the accounts of manufacturers, and pay the cheques over : but by a careful manipulation of accounts it is said that he has embezzled money . to- "the extent of between £7000 and :: iB9(i00. In one of the fashionable ' isiibiirbs of the towns he purchased a villa residence, and kept up a good ■ii establishment He also dabbled in shares and stocks, aud-bought three . racehorses, which he kept' in training t „«t Middleham. The employer, who .-.-is^ Pole, has it is stated, determined > 'inot to prosecute the defaulter, but t&ke the horses, the house, and the shares, in order to make the host of the difficulty in which he is placed. In London, according to a contemporary, ho liquor can be procured after 1 2 o'clock a,t night. Every bar, big or little, is closed up. A man's license "would be taken from him immediately, . and without remedy. Persons are not licensed to sell liquor in England. It is the premise's that are licensed. The Board having it in charge license one public-house in a district, basing it «poa the supposed necessity, and those : premises hold this license till deprived by violation of the law. If you desire to sell liquor, you cannot go and rent a room and open your bar ; you are compelled to buy the lease of a place which carries the license with it. Consequently a licensed place is a valuable piece of property. Sunday is. an especially droughty day in Loudon. All the bars are closed till 1 o'clock p.m., and are then opened but an hour. Then they are closed till 6 and ■ are permitted to keep open till 11. And let it be remembered that law in England is : law. You can? A laugh at ffci' as y6u do America. There is no -evasion of this law attempted. The places are required to ba closed, and they are closed. There are no sidedoors. There is no selling on the sly — they are closed. Mrs Laiigtry it seems, has the feminine weakness for bonnets, and purchases a new one whenever she visits a prosperous city, first learning, of course, the houses of the most fashionable milliners. During her stay in Philadelphia she visited several of the most select miliuary establish ments, and as she went about in:off., the fladies in attendance were not all sup- . posed to know her. On one occasion her vanity must have received a terrible blow. She was standing in front of a large mirror, trying on a chef d 'ceuvre of ribbons and laces, and exclaimed, in a dissatisfied tone. " What a foight I am!" " Oh no, madam," the milliner replied, depreciatingly, " we have really worse-looking ladies than you come in here?" The beauty did not purchase a bonnet from that establishment.