MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1337, 17 December 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

•■ It is found that young men from fifteen to twenty years of age marry young women averaging two or three years older than themselves; but if they delay marriage until they are twenty-one or twenty-five years old their spouses average a year younger than themselves, and thenceforward this difference increases, till in extreme old age, on the bridegroom's part, it is apt to be enormous. Again, the husbands of young women aged twenty and under average a little above twenty-five years, and the inequality of age diminishes thenceforward, till, for women who have reached thirtythe respective ages are equal. After thirty-tive years, women, like men, marry those younger than themselves, the disproportion increasing with age, till at fifty-five it averages nine years. —'Tit, Bits.' - — The .Euronean Mail, has the follpwing:—"Large quantities of frozen mutton from New Zealand, amounting altogether to over 8000 carcasses, were on October 6 destroyed by order of the London port sanitary authorities. The meat came by the saling ship Mai aura, and we are informed, on behalf of the Haslam Foundry and Engineering Company, that the cause of the meat turning bad was that it had not been carefully frozen before being packed in the freezing-chamber. The refrigerating apparatus worked well during the voyage, and a portion of the cargo was landed in grod order." The Triumph was built in 1880, by Clayton, Dixon, and Co., on the Tees. Her dimensions are length — 350 ft, beam 85ft 2in, depth of hold 27ft. registered lonnage 1797 tons, but she is capable of carrying 2997 tons. Her engines were manufactured at the workshops of Blair, Stockden-on-Tees and are compound on tho direct action vertical inverted principle. The nominal horse-power is 400, and the actual 2000. Her hull has a full and heavy appearance, she having been built with the main object of being a large cargo carrier. Her saloon accommodation is small. She is schooner rigged with double topsail yards. She is fitted with both hand and steam steering apparatus, is divided into six watertight compartments, arid provision is made for 500 tons of water ballast. There is a large refrigerator aboard. She came out to this colony under charter to Shaw, Savill & Co., and the Albion Company. She finished discharging the Auckland portion of her cargo on Thursday afternoon, and proceeded on her voyage to Wellington, shortly after eight o'clock on Thursday night, with 1200 tons of cargo a boa d. The much travelled Mrs Brookes is a little angry at the notoriety which has been thrust upon her. She writes to the Post as follows : — " Sir — 1 read with surpise and great annoyance the mention of my arrival in Wellington, and being styled the "champion beggar "of the world." What have I had from the benevolent charity of Wellington 1 I received for three weeks three shillingsand sixpence, that is all ; and yet that man Johnson (the Relieving Officer) should dare to call me a beggar. I have met a few kind ladies and gentlemen ; mind, I say gentlemen, for they could enter into my distiess of mind in losing a kind husband and two fine boys. All three left me well in their usual health and I never saw them again. Little wonder I should wander where I thought I might hear something of the lost oues. It was not to beg I wandered about, but to satisfy that longing for my boys which would not be satisfied. I remember Johnson's father's tin-shop on the beach, and himself a boy in it, and yet he dared insult me in this manner ; but 1 suppose the old saving is the true one — you cannot expect anything from a pig but a grunt. ' Hoping, dear sir, you will find space for this in your much read paper. — i am, &c." A total number of 2,200 trains leave London railway stations every twentyfour hours, whilst every hour, between 10 a.m. and 11 p.m., 1,600 trains start for the Metropolitan termini, this being at the rate of two per minute. Of this number 1,750 are suburban trains, the remainder comprising the country and continental service. From Broad street fetation 895 trains daily start, and 312 leave Liverpool street station per diem. Miss Rosalind H. Young is a resident of Pitcairn Island. She is a descendant of one of the mutineers of the British ship Bounty, the crew of which founded a colony on Pitcairn Island in 1790, consisting of nine British sailors, six native Tahitian men, and twelve women, which has since grown into a moderately populous village, • with comfortable cottages, a church, and a schoolhouse. The residents all read, write, and speak the English language.' Miss Young, however, is a prodigy°of scholarship in the colony. Some' two years ' ago she wrote an article descriptive of the island for * Seribner's magazine." A retired sea captain, who visited the island not long ago, draws this picture of Miss Young*: — " Her father is pastor of the Island church and teacher of the school, and she is organist and assistant teacher. She is about twenty six years old, and weighs 200 pounds, never had a shoe on her foot, and, if necessary, could swim off to a ship four miles from the island and back again to shore, and then go into the little church and play the organ nearly as well as any young lady in the States."

The following important and satisfactory telegram was received by Mr Munro, M. H.R., in rep ly to communications addressed by him to tho Hon. Mr Eolleston :— " lam Borry my absence from Wellington has caused delay in replying to your letter. Com • plete survey of the Brighton to Seven-teen-mile Beach road will b&inade at once, so that the work maH£ proceeded with. The portion of the Moki-hinui-Kararaea to reefs will also bo completed, and the survey to Wanganui river will be pressed on at once. I hope it is understood that tbe votes do not lapse, and that the Government being limited to a specific borrowing annually, it is necessary to distribute the expenditure so that it does not fall too heavily on any one- financial year. I am endeavoring to deal as fairly as possible with apportionments. — W, H Rolleston." The latter part of this telegram also applies to the LyellI Mokihiniu works, as stated in a later telegram to Munro. — -Westport Times. The craze for actors and actresses in London seems to be growing, -every day. One bears of younger sons of peers and county fatxwiog studying to become professional actors ; and though the daughters have not gone •:> far yet, they make it up by spending moat of their time on amateur theatricals. Actors and-a^tresaw are constantly i\f--be seen as guests at the i>est London honses, and a friend writes to me that there is hardly a drawing-room in London which is not bestrewed with their photographs. This mania, like most, has its good side. It has made a decided improvement in the tone of the stage. There is a sort of feeling about many worthy people that actors and actresses are "past praying for," wicked persons with whom it would be sinful for respectable ladies to associate, and. I cannot say that I myself have conic in contact with any since I have been here. But I really do not see why this shonld be the case, and why actors and actresses who are educated, wellmannered, and respectable should be treated differently from any other class of folk. At present the respectable suffer for the faults of those who are not respectable, and the consequence is that many who, under other circumstances, would have been excellent members of society, think they may as well live in accordance with, their reputation. The " Tablet" states that at the last meeting of the Canterbury Catholic Literary Society Dr Bake well pro posed a resolution censuring the Council of the Society because they let the rooms to a non-Catholic body — the National League — his contention being that the League was condemned by the Holy See, in support of which, statement he read numerous' extracts from English papers and from the Dublin w Mail" and "Express." An animated discussion then ensued, in which Messrs. Corr, Sullivan, O'Connor, and Leahy took part, the result of which was that the motion was lost on the voices, the mover being the only one in support of it. Immediately afterwards Dr Bakewoll handed in bis resignation as & member of the Society. The following paragraph from the Auckland Heralds Wellington correspondent will come with somewhat of v shock to the prejudice of those win; believe that " fair play is bonny play." — "There is likely to be a more than warm disenstion next session upon a scandal which is now being inquired into in the Government Life- Insurance Deportment It seems that.'Mr Black, the Actnary >of the Mutual Provident Society, who is now on a visit to this Colony, complained to the Premier that some official had forged certain forms of the society, and had them printed secretly, for the purpose of inducing insurers to leave that society and join the Government society. The Mutual Provident Society only receive application for surrender upon particular forms printed under their direction, and in a particular fashion. The secretary found other forms about, and report says have eventually traced tho printing of them to Lyttelton Gaol, where a printing press is in use by the prisoners. The forms were an exact copy of the Mutual Provident ones, and rumour asserts that a Government official gave the order for the printing. Whether the strong term applied by Mr Black to snch conduct is legally correct I connot say, but such a method of obtaining business by tbe Government of tbe Colony, will be generally condemned. Neither Major Atkinson nor the commissioner knew of such metholds being employed to get insurance business." Don't me ik the housr — "Rough on Rats" clears out rats* mice, beetits, roaches, bed-bugs* flies, ants, insects, moles, jack-rabbits,, gophers. Moses, Moss & Co., Sydney. General Agents. Remember Hop Bitters nevtr doea harm to the smallest child but good, always and continually. See and read