MISCELANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1411, 9 June 1884, Page 2

MISCELANEOUS.

There are in France 4.f>75 niilfis of navigable i'Jvers. as against 4,190 mites in 1852, mid there are also 2.900 miles of canals, as again3t- 2450 in 1852. This shows an increase of rivers of 385 miles and in canals an increase of 460 miles. Bat the increases were enormously expensive. Betwe^u 1852 and 1878 the total o itlay for them was nearly £14,000, 000 ami siace 187S ;t h:i<. been about £5,000,000, additional. Meanwhile the quantity of freight carried by water Las iucieaseu only 4 ,000,000" tuns. Some of our Hero.nrn? and Southera contemporaries *:•■* uiaking uuerry I over the uui'ua*kiit£ ov a reverend literary lareenist. at Melbourne. It turns out thtit tiie smart articles which for some time past hay* been contrinnt&ii to the columns .if one of the Melbourne dailies are simply paraphrases of tlit- leading matter of the "Saturday Review," ■ from which journal the ideas, tiie phraseology, and •:he quotations are ali " cnbbed." The delinquent bas been gibb^tted in the Press under the pseudonym of the " Rev. Mr Fiicuitt,' a name so very closely resembling his own as to render it easy to fix the responsibility of the plagiarism on the right, shoulders. Before undertaking his clerical duties, the now " revereued" gemleman wasconuected with a labor office in Geelong, and having therefore for a number of years lived ou the work of others, perhaps tiudft himself unable to divest himself of a babit con ii acted in early life. A question of some interest to the general community was raised at a. meeting of creditors at Invercargill on Friday last. This was ibe first meeting in bankruptcy held in that district before tbe Official Assiguee.. The debtor was Heury Peukiert, who has lost heavily in a sawmill speculation. The public took some interest in the proceedings, which were expected to be lively, there being many contending interests. Before the proceedings commenced, the Deputy Assignee iotimated that the meeting would be private, and asked the public to withdraw. One of them, however, quoted a Judge as his authority for Baying the proceedings were open to the public, and as those preseut declined to move, the Court did, adjourning to the office of the Deputy Assignee. The 1 only resolution passed was to ask the J.tMpeclor of the Bank of Australasia i;o a^ree to an offer of 10s in the £, which id likely to be made. Professor Max Mull^r, lecturing the other day ft Birmingham, referred to what he called the eloquent speeches of Henry George on "Progress and Poverty." "It w«s of little usp-.'* be said, "to grow angry about the question of nationalisation of ',he land, or to bandy hard names. Let them study the question historically. Let them see how the various kinds of teuure of laud arose; let thorn dis^ tiuguish, in fact, between them. He had no doubt that history would showthat there were tenures of land to which originally heavy conditions, such as military service, were attached, and that many of those conditions were no longer fulfilled. Even in more recent times history might show that common land was enclosed in defiance of historical rights. Those, therefore, who had any regard for tbe past and for historical rights — the great Couservative party — ought uot to be so angry with Henry George. What, however, he should like to protest against was the outcry that George* theory was ' dangerous.' He did not believe it They all held theories.

"which might be called dangerous, but "which they never thought of carrying out — such for instance as loving their neighbors exactly like themselves. And yet that theory was not considered very dangerous, even though it led some of the early Christians to have *' all things in common.' " Bismarck has a contempt- fo; eloquence. "It is with those eloquent gentlemen," he ia reported to have said, "as with ladies who "have a small foot, weir boots which are much to tight, and always try to show their feet. So if anybody has the misfortune to be eloquent, his speeches are too long and too frequent.' 1 Again, he says, "1 have seen a colleague who sat beside me share the excitement of the whole Assembly to such degree that he shed tears over & speech, and accused me of heartless ness because I rather coldly asked him. the reason of bis tears." The next day the same gentleman could not point out what the speech iiad been about, and it was merely the txpression in the speaker's face, hi£ voice, and his manner which had produced the effect. Public kitchens for London are now suggested.. The Rev. Mr Hewris, "writing on the subject in Home, papp r, says : " Supply central kitchens in the right places, and codk on a large scale. Let these kitchens be fitted •with.-a-row' of windows opening on to a yard or street, at which the housewife can be quickly served w\H\ her cheap cooked ■ food for hume consumption. What she will get will bwholesome, adequate, palatable, conveniently handy,, mid cheap, so thai: her money and her time will be saved, her room spared the fumes, her house the dampness and mess, of cooking, and from 30 to 40 per cent, of her hard earnings preserved, while she and her family will get better food, an'] therefore improve in health, temper, and morale.^ A most painful exhibition of female depravity was given on Monday (say 8 the Wellington Times) at the Police Court, when a girl, who is ta'-.u to be not more than 18 years of age, was charged with having used some abominably bad language on Satnrday •evening last ia Barker street. T-'ie apprehending constable, after giving evidence as to the epithets employed by the prisoner, stated that she appeared like a persou who was suffering from the effects of drink. This portion of the office's evidence was borne out by her conduct while in the dock. The prisoner repled as ifb a swoon, and would have falle-: out for the supporting arm of an officer of police. What made the case the more painful was the fact that the girl (Henrietta Chambers) had up to within the last few lays Va 1 ". ihe standard-bearer of the Salvatioa Amy, and ihat this waa the second occi*. *ion on which she had brought duttreoifc iipon herself and the caose with which has been connected. She was formerly connected with the Salvation A rmy in Dunedin. The Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, addressing a meeting in Edinburgh, Bcot-Ift«d v the other day, stated that the Chun Island Missiou, which was started by himself thi'vy-tive years ago, ifia* no*v 120 missionaries, who have pv-Waed throughout tn*» whole of the forty provinces of the Eiapire. I:• r*i*p.inse j to his appeal, sorae month? a^o, for seventy additional missionaries, up to the present be had procured :.hirty-:6w. The New Yovk prisous lasi;ye<»,r -.ciployeds446 coci. iv. son contract work. Among these were 177G on boots arid shoes; 1146 on stoves ana hollow ■ware ; 858 saddlery and hardware, harness &c. ; 623 on koit goo.is, and 376 on clothing. The annual liteva-y prize of 25,000 f , instituted by theKiag of Belgian?, will for 1885 be granted td the best work on the means of popularisiug t^e study of geography and developing it 'in the different educational establishments. The growth in weal I h of.Rouian Oatholie religious orders in )?ranr9 during the Jast thirty-five years ia something enormous. In 184S their property was estimated at £1,72n,000. .It is now set down at £28,501,440. The Wurtemburg Minis: er of the Interior has issued an ovder iu.stru -ting the police authorities that *nohodv under sixteen is to be allowed to dam-*, in places of public amusement, and toe only exception to this rule is in the •case of wedding fetes, and then oaly when the social position of tVi* givers of the dance offers a " moral guarantee." A notable visitor arrived vx Melbourne by the s.s. Potosi iv tb« persoo of Brigadier General M'lver, wbo bf«ame known to Australian fam«* as the organiser of the expeditiou to New Guinea, which wag snmrna-.iu-squelched by Lord Derby's rbreac to set the British fleet in the Pacifio upon it. General M'lver is a fin* soldierly-looking man, and has, in the fallest sense of the term, been a soldier of fortune, having fought actively in almost every land where opportunity offered for the employment of his services. He has come to Australia on a peaceful errand, bis misyion being to put money in bis puvse by following the successful example of Archibald Forbes on the lectuvjojr platform. In" his own adveuturo-js career he will find the materials fohis discourso, which i<? to ba crive-' Tinder the taking title of " fJodeFourteen Flags." The GeofiTul Las fought in India under the East India Company ; with Garibaldi in liaiy : iv the American Civil War oa Southern side ; with the Cuban insurrecionisrs against the Spandiards ; in the F- ancoPrussian. War against the German ; and he commanded the Servian cavalry in their war against the Turks. Tiien hi lias served also with the Me:;ieaos, Vm Argentine Republic, the Cai-list?, the Greeks, and the Egyptians. The

gallant officer ought, not therefore, ha gravelled for any lack of matter. *n New Guinea M'lvei* declares t/at his dream was to found a new and glorious colony, to secure the advance- ; went of civilisation, and to benefit future generations by opt* .jin o up-ti a new country. Although on business thought inte>it, he is willinr. if the Australian Colonies desire, to lead an exploring party in NeAv (.'tii'^a. Among the new applicatio-i jt coiton is its use, in part, in ilie rov : -tvu>t. :*:i of houses, the material eupiojerf wr this process being the refuse, •wl icij, when ground up witL- aboui ttu e.jul amount of straw and a^.»eslos, und ihis, formed of straw and asbestos, -8 c inverted into apmte, and th..s> is m-ule iv to large filab» or brick*, «^n'cii Acquire, iL is said, the hardness oi stone. a'K. ( funii3b a really valuable oal)<J. . stone. A small piece of resl.it! ipp^r! In .lie water winch is placed io a tess- ' on a stove, say* one wiio knows. v--j.li u^d a peculiar property to tiie al^ios;' 1 sere of the room, wLiicli wi ' zivb greai relief to persons troubled with a cough. i?he heat of the water is tjufficiont to jliro~ off the aroma of iht rnsin, and gives the same relief ihat is afforded !\y a combustion of the rt-.a'w. ii i<- i>«?ierable to combustion, bc-cai)*** the evaporation is more dux-able. The same resin may be used for wtvks. The latest official report on the ';oudiiiuon of the districts ove- wholuieil by the Krakatoa eruption late"- taat -he surviviag inhabitants of »he various villages have reassembled under their ueadtsei«n, and ai*e erectirg sheir Imts. The volcacc ashes did little hmo io tbc soil, tae growing cropfc all presenting a luxuriant appearance. Trees, however, bad *uftereti greatly, &h i'?.,H some -_*f tb.a coffee plantations, i'wo bays, Larapoog, and fev?mengka, which were blocked up by fields of pumice, were free by the middle December. Tbvee interesting libel actions are shortly io engage i lie attention of the ficlorU Law Courts. Mr Poo:ilfWm, Mayor of Sandhiiagf. htti • '^ueO. a f uramons for c/itainal 'iljel a^aiist tae Hon. Jamas Campbell, Po?;t aastertienct'al, for CtuUng h-ai "a < ;ark." The Rfav Mr iiiuuoul, t'ys sjown Presbyterian luiaisierof M^'boavne, .'s defendant in an acfcioa at ihe iu>uincc of a Mr Mountain, a boai o..<?er, whom the Lev. geotl^mau rbar^eii' wittf being the bead of a a organised band of sea robbers, iv o.onsefjjuive of a sealskin jacket which Mrs Hintoul lost overboard when ewbarkv.'^ od bosrd ibe mail sisamer bavi ig been picked up by o^e of bis men Major W. Collard Smith ia also prov/ulii? w-^i iiia action io recover dniiiagc j Tor deSatnutk-a of ihcuiiCtiT xoom the liaJ:.-v.rat 'Si-ar.' 1