MISCELANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1395, 2 May 1884, Page 2

MISCELANEOUS.

The N.Z. Herald winds up a leader on the Salvation Army with th» following words:— Odd it may be in the badges and disciplinary arrangements its leaders have adopted , quaint and even ludicrous in its phraseology, a id its officers, tegular Ishmaelites°in the matter of religious form and decorum, but despite all this, though in reality i i virtue of this, itisdoinggood iii the very direction where it is most i.e.-ded, and in the very quarter where apparently it would not be done. The Hon Mr Bryce has received from Messrs Chambers and Hall, the publishers of Rusdens History of New Zealand, a letter of apology and a statement tba£ all copies of the book will be withdrawn from circnlatio i until the matter complained of is expnnaffd 6r the libel case goes in favor of Mr Butdeti. It wm not Mr Brycp'* intention to proceed against the publishers unless his agents, Messrs Warn* and Co., London, thought it necessary for their client's interest. Mr Bryce hat also been advised that the writ has been served on Mr Busden at Cannes in Prance. The amount of damage* is not known, aa the sum to be fixed is kft in the hands of Messrs Warno and Co. No date is stated for the return of the writ, but it is understood that if necessary, Mr Bryce will go Home. -

j. The following " tall" paragraph appeared in the "American Model ; Printer" for September and October, 1 1883: — "It used to be considered a wonderful thing to engrave the Lord's Prayer on a three cent piece. At the ; last mi etiug of the San Francisco Microsopical Society the president exhibited an engraving upon a glass plate so minutely executed that on the same scale nine copies of the entire Bible could, he produced within the Bpace of a square inch. The Southern Cross (Melbourne) says the commercial world has been startled by the disappearance of a very conspicuous figure, J. W. Greig r was a typical character, and has had a typical earner, though the type lie illustrates is a bad one. In businesshe was a reckless speculator, who scorned the slow forms of -legitimate trading and took short roads to wealth. In private life he was a fast liver, free both in speech and life, a hero of the Club and opera house, of the gambling tables and the race course.- He and the class he represents have nothing but scorn for religion, and the men who acknowledge, the restraints of religion. Mr Greig's oasa, however shows afresh that those who have no, fear of God, have no regard for man. .■ He has had the career of a rogue, and has made the exit of a coward, leaviig not only his creditors to lament lost ■ money, but leaving a helpless wife and , innocent children to bear the burden of his vices. That was a very impressive incident of the Little River collision (Bays tho Australasian) to which deserved pro- • minence was given by the Rev Kobert Scott in his fnneral address over the remains of James Craik the driver of the passenger train. To state it in Mr Scott's t)wn words, "Like the driver of the goods train, who, with the grip of death held in his hand the baton which told that the collison waß not his fault, so. our Sear departed friend, when found, held in his hand the telegram which bore similar testimony," There is something very striking in the circumstance of the two drivers holding thus in their hands to the last the evidence that, whoever had blundered, they were doing their duty at their post in obedience to the official instructions, of which they retained the proof.

The Birmingham School Board, we learn from a London paper, has issued a cii-cular addi'essed to " parents who wish their sons tvained. to become skilled artizans.' It Btates that the Board is anxious to add to the 'instruction already given in its schools praotical training in the use of the ordinary workshop tools and sound elementary instruction in those sciences and arts upon which the trades and manufactures of Birmingham are based. It is proposed to lay down a two years' course of study in these subjects, to he commenced after passing the Sixth Standard, and it is hoped that parents will be willing to keep their sons at school for at least a year after they have passed that standard. The Chairman of the Board (Mr George Dixon) has offered rent free the use of commodious premises, which h« is prepared to adapt to the purposes of a technical shool, at his own cost, provided that a sufficient number of parents will declare their intention of sending their sons for a year at least to such a school. The sohool fee will be 3d per week. All necessary textbooks will be provided by the Board free or cost to parents. It is proposed to open the sohool in May /or June next Skinny Men.— "Wells' "ealth Renewer, " restores health and vigor cures Dyspesia, Impotence, Debility. Moses, Moss &• Co., Sydney, General Agents. Messrs T. S. Weston and Allan Holmes, report favorably to bis Hon, the Acting Chief Justice opon the.

legal attainments of the following candidates for admission to the New Zealand Court* :-Mr F. VV\ Pennefather, Wrister, admitted elsewhere. Messrs Richard Butt and Galbrauh, solictors admitted, elsewhere. Messrs Levi and Buckland (Colonies .students) as barristers, and Messrs Kirk, Gnblemt. Skerrett, Kennery, Haultam, Frank in Moorhouse, Sinclair, Dignan, Doublehay, Halliday, Richmond, Miene, and Stanford, also ..Colonial students as golicitow. " The last two gentleman. who 1 claim to hold the degree of L.L.B. were examined merely in New Zealand law and practice. A representative of the New Zealand Herald interviewed the doctor on board the Tsukuba in Auckland, and obtained a good deal of interesting information from him relative to social and political customs in Japan. It appears that, the land is nationalised in Japan, and (writes the Herald) " we are quite sure that Mrßoileston would receive not a few valuable hints to-. •wards his next Land Bill if he could have an hour's conversation with the surgeon of the Tsukuoa. . The Goverxnent of Japan simply jrives a certificate to occupy land. If that cert'fi nte has been given the land is never taken without compensation. In old times the different districts were held by the -daimois, or nobles, but now the land is all nnder the Emperor. The holders" -of land pay rent which varicsin different -places, the highest being in the middle of the capital, and in thov parts nf ■ "the country where the soil is crood. The land is inspected by G -w. vnent officers, and the rent to -belaid is settled. If the holder sells he sells merely the right to occupy. The right to occupy 19 perpetual so Ions: as the rent is paid to the Government. There is riot at present any limit to the amount of land a man may hold, but Dr Aoki thinks it likely that by-and-hye a limit will he put to the quantity tiny one person may hold.' 1 Another incident in the crimiual history of New York (writes the correspondent of a: contemporary) is the «scape and recapture of the negro Rngg, accused of the murders on Long Island, opposite New York. He feigned epilespy, and so far deceived his gunrdsthat be foundthe opportunity to break from hw cell, knocking down the keeper and one guard, and lpnpincr from a window some 25ft to the ground. He got away into the wooded country near by, and after being hunted by the local police and a corps of several hundred- volunteers, was finally tracked to a chnrch. This was surrounded by his porsners, but no-6ne had the courage to venture it, until a school teacher of the neighbourhood, "happening along," climbed .through a window, found him barricaded in the ■Vflfltry-rooro, broke down the door, followed his flying form through another window, and while the cvowd of policemen and volunteers scatted as before a mad dog, the plucky teaehpr chased the prisoner across the fields and finally seized him as he stumbled and fell, and bronght him back to the police. He is now locked up again, hut ia cured of his epilepsy. The gaolur who allowed his escape is re*en?irig himself by showingbis prisoner ■on Sundays to visitors, who come for miles around to get a glimpse of him. Dr Shapira, whose name will be retnembered in connection with the. offering for sale in England of an alleged manuscript of a portion of the Old Testament, has committed suicide in :Eott a rdam. After the complete exposure of the affair — a brief examination of the manuscript by the authorities of the British Museum having -sufficed to show that the parchment for which Shapira demanded one million pounds .was a clumsy forgery — he came -to Holland, living .successively in Amsterdam and Bloemendal, and finally in Rotterdam^ where he took a room in . a hotel. His dead body was found lying on the floor, beside it being a six-cLambered revolvpr, a shot from which had penetrated his brain. The unfortunate man's conduct had been very strange for some time, and the Schiedam police arrestpd him recently on suspicion of insanity. Shapira was a naturalised German, and had his home, in Jerusalem, where his wife and child are living. The seven portraits in the Queen's new book are John Grant, the Princess •Christian, John Brown, LoH Grey, Jane Churchill, the Princess Beatrice, and the Princess Louise. A singular accident recently occurred •at Manchester. Mr Carruthers, a young surgeon, was called to see- a lady who had been injured by a fallen -chimney, and while attending to her another chimney fell and killed him. It is stated that for every novel printed and published in England ten tkte written and rejected. This makes an average of 8000 novels which are written in that country every year. . The Salvation Army has lately erected an immense hall at Brighton, England, capable of holding 8000 people. Among the names of the gentleman who have successfully passed the. recent examination for admissioi to the New Zealand Bar is that of his Excellency's Private Secretary, MrF. W. Pennefather. Mr Pennefather is already a member of the English bar, and was formerly a leader-writer for the Law^ Times. A contemporary calls a attention -to the statement of the Moniteur de Borne that the Empress Eugenic subscribes £400 annually to Peter's Pence, and the Princess Clotilda Bonaparte JB2OU Russia has 26,000 elementary schools, instructing about one million pupils. The secondary school have on the roll about 200,000. pupils Iv the universities there are about 10,000 students. Germany is going in heavily for beetroot culture-. Ninety new factories

were started last year, and nearly ss many are in course of construction. Since the opening of the Suez Canal tea has, 1879 excepted, declined each year in price. It has never been lower in Kngland than now. Only three capital executions took place in France iv 1883. One one of them was at Rheims, another was at Versailles and the third was at Lyons.

"L'Explosion" is the grim and significant title of a new anarchist journal published in Geneva. It is eighty-one years since the first Sydney newspaper was published. It was thirty-five years later that the first Victoria paper was published.

At an exhibition at Manly, N.S.W, t n- other day; Hanlan preformed the startling feat of walking on the water. This was accomplished by the aid.ot a l>air of large galvanised iron cases for the feet. The grip on the water -for progression was obtained by plates which worked on hinges at the bottom of the cases or shoes. When the shoe is moved forward in the water the plates offer no resistance, but the contray takes place in the step, the plates falling down and offering a large surface of resistance, to the <water, thus enabling the other shoe to be moved forward. The pace is necessarily very .slow, owing partly to the clumsiness of the means aud partly to the difficulty of keeping an upright position on such unstable understandings.

The departmental returns in reference to the Telegraphic Offices will b;ing out very forcibly the feature that the Telegraphic deficit went with the commercial depression. Auckland, which is prosperous just now, showing a good improvement in telegraph receipts, while Wellington, where prosperity is but moderate, is nearly stationary, and both Christchurch and Dunedin exhibit a large falling off, tliose being the main centres of the existing depression.

A new mechanical coal getter is attracting the attention of engineers in Eng and. It is the invention of a Mr Lowe, and its immediate object is to supersede the use of gunpowder in Wreaking down the coal, after it has been under cut. Two great advantages are claimed for the invention, first; there are fewer risks of explosions in fiery mines ; second, there is far less small coal made. No doubt if the invention is what it is represented, it will soon be found iv the coal mines of this Colony.

The Wilmot Extended Company, Gympie (Queensland), has declared a dividend of £1 per share, making a total of £58,000 paid in dividends during the. past seven months. This miue has yielded 18,1420z0f gold since August last, and is sbill crushing.

Most of the New Zealand girls marry in November. The weather bfin«» cold the hrigegroora stays indoors and is much less likely to escape than in the 'balmy summer months.

With reference to the announcement of the arrival of 20,000 sovereigns' from Melbourne by the Sutlej, we (Adelaide paper) understand this shipment came to the Bank of New Zealand and that it is the first of a series which will reach that institution, the gold boing the direct produce of the New Zealand goldfields, the bullion having

een sent f <om New Zealand to Melbourne, where it has been coined and sent on here. '

Flies and Bugs. — Beetles, insects, roaches, ants, bed-bugs, rats, mice, gophers, jack-ra bits, clear.cd out y " Rough on Rats." The New Zealand Drug Co., Sydney, General Agents.