MISCELANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1346, 9 January 1884, Page 2

MISCELANEOUS.

: * The man named Clark, who has succeeded to some of the duties of the late Johu Brown in Queen Victoria's service, is a nephew of Brown. Nearly or quite all the servants at Balmoral are either Browns or Clarks. In the action for libel, Cook v. Larnach, in Sydney, the plintiff claimed £20,000 damages. The action was brought by the late manager of the Sydney and County Bank against the defendant on account of certain allegation:-, contained in a letter to his brother, Mr John Larnach, the accountant of the same Bank, of which the plaintiff was manager, advising him of certain peculations that he (the defendant) said the plaintiff had been guilty of while manager of a bank in New Zealand, and recom- • mending that they should J*e laid before the directors. This was clone at a board meeting of the directors, wjio, after giving the plaintiff three months to clear himself of the charges, first suspended and then dismissed him. ; Sundry penalities and disabilities I have at various times been imposed upon bachelors, but none of them seems more hard than the disadvantage , at which unmarried naval officers are placed in the American navy. It so • happens that the wiws of the officers [ on the Asiatic station are " all ladies of great personal attractions," and are so well pleasing in the eyes of their \ husbands that there has been " a most : reckless shifting about of officers be- • tween the different ships, so that the [ married men may be with their wives 1 in agreeable places." The real staff 5 is composed, it seems, of the ladies, [ who ship off the bachelors to Corea or . Chefoo, collect their lmsbands together s on the flagship, and then settle down ■ for the season somewhere where it is • always afternoon. The lotus-eaters • ' of the American navy are at any rate faithful to their wedded lives, but such , an excess of the domestic virtues can [ hardly be beneficial to the service. ; Speaking of a Chicago freezing es- | ' tablishment the "Otajjo Times" corresr ' poudent says :— The briskets are salted . and shipped to Europe, and rounds are f made into beef hams for the Scotch 1 market. Armour and Co.'s average kill- • ing is 800 cattle and 3500 pigs per day. F ; The cattle cost from £6 to £62 (?) ' each ; pigs from £2 to £0 10s. In 5 their busiest season they kill 10,000 „ a day, and employ as many as 3500 i bauds. This reported annual turnb' over is quite beyond belief, unless to )-, those who have actually seen this i enormous establishment. A deal of ] the prime beef is placed in refrigerating j I cars and forwarded to New York and , i other places, a distance of nearly 1000 ! miles, and quantities are also sent to 1 England. I called on Mr Libby, head :of the well known firm of Libby, M'Neil, and Armour regarding our » chance of success in the meat preserving ' line. This firm make a rule of never r ' admitting anyone to their works, so to rt a great extent my visit to their esl tablishraent was a waste of time. I have no hesitation in sayiug that J Chicago can preserve meat at 50 per cent, less cost than in any establish- ' : ment I have seen working in New , i Zealand or Australia, and as proof of the superior way in which it is got up, I found in England that Libby, iVI 'Neil, and Libby, and Armour and Co.'s meats could not be purchased for less than 6£ per lb, and if the market was dare the price was . up to 7d at once. Mr Libby assured me that they could not keep pace with their orders, now that cattle were getting scarce. Their plant was equal to putting through 1000 bullocks a day, but during the last few months they had not averaged 900. Amougst the novel features of the Lord Mayor's procession on November 9 was an appropriately decorated car, drawn by four horses, representing the Colonies of Australia, exhibiting bales of wool and other products, also certain distinctive plants and animals, attended by two colonists attired as stockmen. A still more elaborate trophy, borne on a similar car, represented the Empire of India, ornamented with animals, plants, and products distinctive of the country, attended by nativo dignitaries in costume and fol lowed by two Indian elephants. Another interesting feature of the show was a car containing 80 or 40 cai-casses of New Zealand frozen mutton, exhibited by the Smithfield salesmen, Messrs Ward and Stiuison, who have taken so gi eat an interest in the introduction of Colonial meat to the London public. The exhibition was . very heartily cheered. The retiring Mayor (Mr J. M. Clark), in leaving office, took occasion to review the remarkable pivgress i which A.uckland had made during his ! three years' term of uffice. The ratej able value of property had risen from j £160,000 to £209,000, (including the J now wards), but the increase in the old wards had been at the rate of 25 1 percent, for the three years, while the j endowment rentals had mounted up from. £5800 to £7000, and would shortly be £10,000 per annum. It had been hoped to have erected the Free Public Library 'and Art Gallery duriug his term of office, but this could not be done.. In addition to the muniiicrtnt gifts lie has already made to the FroH Public Library, he now promises sonif i>si.)U towards fnrnish- { ing and adorning the walls of the Art, \ Gallery when completed. The com-

petitive" plans for the Free Public Library and Art Gallery, aome 25 in number, are now on public view, and present a collection of architectural designs from all parts of the Colony, the merits of which probably exceed anything of the kind before exhibited in Auckland, and the city should have a building for these purposes, worthy of the city and of the objects for which it is to be erected.. Our capitalists, foreseeing that coal will play a leading part in the coming, struggle for manufacturing and commercial supremecy, and that such speculations must in tho very 1 naTflfcer of things prove profitable, owing to the largely-increased yearly demand for the article, are directing their effort* to the acquirement and development of the coal deposits hitherto unutilised.. It is calculated that from the Miranda coalfield, now about to be rn-worked, the coal can be mined and put on board the barges at 2s 6d per ton, including pumping ; that it can be delivered at <■ the railway at 4s per ton, and at Auckland at the total cost of Us 4d per ton. The syndicate of capitalists who have had their attention turned to the Mokau coalfields are at present eunployipg the best scientific and miniftgjtftll available in testing by preliminary exploration the quality and extent of the deposits. Some of the specimen blocks from the outcrop on both banks of the river Mokau, which have arrived in Auckland,, created a very favourable impression and if the report of the experts sent to Mokau prove satisfactory a strong company will be immediately formed for working the Mokau coalfield. The Karno coalfield seems likely to supersede that of the Bay of Islands in supplying the needs of the Union Steam Ship Company at this port, no less than 2000 tons per month being about to be taken under contract. At the burial of Dr Strain, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Edinburgh, a pageant was witnessed such as Scotland had not seen since the Reformation, i here were 150 priests, and the multitude of Franciscans, Benedictines, Redeinptorists, Vincentians, acolytes, and nuns made up a picture that was irresistibly suggestive of somemediaeval days. Speaking ' of melodrama, a Home paper says some hypercritical person has drawn np the following " pet phrases," vhich he thinks should disappear from the. drama: — •• Foiled? Ah ! I see- it all now. Flinty-hearted monster ! Leave me; I would be alone. Another step, and you are lost ! Must we then separate for ever? I will defend my honour with my life. Child, you know notof what 3*oll speak. Baffled '.. and by a boy — a beardless boy. For years I have hugged my awful secret to my breast. My time will come — and then beware ! What is this '* Blood ! There lias been foul work here. Ha ! A knock ! I mus< hide ! But where? Ah, in this recess I will be unob—ifec. Do not trifle with me, girl ? You shall marry Herbert Laucey, or leave my house for ever ! I will go to him — 1 will .fall at his feet — I will entreat him to give us tininto pay the mor.gage. Ere yonder sun. has sunk behind the western hills. How cold it is ! The wind cuts, like a knife. My limbs are failing. 0 God ! must I die here alone ? I am but a poor working girl, my lord ; but, oh, sir I would rather bo that than what your gold would make me." — But if these were all eliminated, what would be left ? A leading Melbourne paper states that " the names of the 15 delegate*, to the Sydney Convention will be held in as much veneration as are the names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence by the Americans.. James Service will be regarded as the Australian George Washington ; Graham Berry will hv> the Hancock of the movement ; and William Bede Dalley its oratorical Patrick Henry. Happy men, who are making history and handing down their names to. immortality !" Some amusement, not unmixed with indignation, has been caused in Sydney by the publication of certain official correspondence which does riot display in his Excellency the Governor that strictly Roman virtue which high dignitaries are presumed to possess. Lord A. Loftus appears not only to have attempted to perpetrate an act of •nepotism, but to have endeavoured to. attain his object by brow-beating and bullying the official who had the courage and fidelity to oppose the effort to foist on the military service of the Colony an incompetent though favoured indiyidual. The Governor was desirous that an assistant aide-de-camp should be provided for by ap~ pointing him to a post in the local forces, notwithstanding that he was unable to. pass the examination. The commandant, sturdily refused to assist in this breach of discipline, and consequently he was no longer allowed to bask in the sunshine of vice-regal favour.. Nay, more,, he was snubbed' so unmercitully that he requested to° be relieved from his command. Then some wicked and radicaL politician got wind of the affair, and moved for the production of papers in Parliament. The Governor now does not feel happy,, and his protege is further off than evor from his coveted billet. The whole number of Popes, from; St. Peter to Leo XIII, is 258. Of these 82 are venerated Saints, 88 have been martyred, 104 have been Romans and natives of other parts of Italy, 15Frenchmen, 9 Greeks, 7 Germans, 5Asiatics, 8 Africans,l Tracian, 1 Dutchman, 1 Portuguese, 1 Candiota, and \ Englishman. " Buchu-paiba." — Quick, complete cure, all annoying Kidney, Bladder and Urinary Diseases. Druggist?. Moses, Moss k Co., Sydney, General Agents,

An American paper states that thi -widow of Lord Frederick Cavendish ' who was murdered in Phoenix Park Dublin, will be married again before the termination of the present year The second marriage, is stated, has th< approval of her late husbands relatives On the goldfields a fair amount o work has been done during the paal fortnight, and the yield of gold u quite up to the past months' averages There has beeti great dissatisfaction over the preliminary battery mulling on the Te Aroha Goldfield, partly owing to the mystery which shrouded the proceedings, and partly that an impression prevailed that the amalgam (which was of less amount than anticipated) had been Wrongly treated Ihe Jesuit was a decided fall in mining stock in the district. T*o or threo things are pretty clearly established by has already taken place at Te Aroha-namoly : that there is an immense reef system there; that the yfold of gold, though not very high, will he remunerative, owing to the ■average auriferous character of the stone ; that there will he nothing in the ghami of "a poor man's diggings the field bointj one in which capital and science will have the running^ The formal opening ofthe great battery, take, place to-day, and all the principal disWies and citizens of Auckland have been united to he present. As * banquet succeeds, it is hoped that some of the soreness at present existing will he smoothed *way by speechmaking, and over » the walnuts and the wine." It is not often that a constable so far forgets himself as to import the colloquial phrases of the barrack-room into the witness-box, but a good deal of amusement was caused hy an incident of this description(writfis theMelbourne Argns) that occurred m that City recently. The sub-inspector had pst read a list of previous convictions recorded against a prisoner who was -abont to be sentenced for vagrancy, -when a voluble constable stepped in to the witness-boi* and began telling the Bench that the Officer's list was not complete. ■«• You see, your Worship," said he, m ouite a familiar strain, " I gave him -six months myself about a year ago, and a year before that I gave him 12 months." The laughter that ensued was intensified when Mr Call, making a polite bow to the judicial constable, quietly asked, " And pray, how much do you intend to give him this time ? ' "the policeman blus!»ed, and in an apologetic tone explained that the phrase was commonly u3?d in the force to imply that an arrestinsr constable had been successful in getting such a sentence passed on a prisoner by the presiding magistrate. "Eougtt on rats."— Clears out rats, mice, roaches, flies, ants, bed-bugs, Leetlaa, insects, skunks, jaclc-r*W>it«i, frophepg. Druggists. Moses, Moss & •C\n Svrlnov dsneral Agents.