MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1415, 11 July 1884, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Neatly 2,000,000 tons less of coal were consumed in London last year than in the year preceding, and this in spite of increase of population and the si:verit3 r of the weather. This great reduction in fuel is ascribed chiefly to the anti-smoke question, which led to the invention and adoption of the best sort of ii replaces. The first line of telegraph was erected less than forty years ago, and at the present time there are more than 1,000, 000 miles in operation. The United States comes first, with 250,000 rnilos, with the immediate probability of addinganother lOO.OOOmiles ; Germany comes next with 1 50,000 miles, ami the Great Chinese Empire last, with 1200 miles. Witnessing prize fights in the States leads a spectator into the risk of incurring considerable personal dangerIt was intended that a fight should take place at Everett, Peun., but when the parties arrived the police and militia were in charge of the ground. The combatants and their friends then chartered a coal tra.vn, and wp.ro taken to Hyndham. In a little argument in the train two men were shot, bnt neither were fatally injiiml. When they got out of the train there was another quarrel, and one man wan shot through the body, and then* was. a general free light as the ropes were being pitched. The fight then took place. There wore fifty eight rounds, and in the last Nickvest one of tho combatants, fell and struck his head upon a stone which had been thrown into the ring. There were crif»3 ot' "Foul," when the referees and umpires jumped into the ring and drew their pistols. After the little affair which ensued was over the casultie* were, found to be — Nickvest dead ; another man shot dead through the body ; three others mortally wounded ; and " half the rest of the crowd badly used up." The spring obituarj' for this year is a heavy one. The literary profession has lost H. J. Byron, dramatist, and Charles Reade, novelist and journalist. Byron's comedies are witty, very pure in tone, and groat favourites witn London playgoers. " Our Boys" ran continuously at the Vauderville for something like two years. Charles Raado's novels are really sermons, and very good sermons. The office of the pulpit is being more and more encroached upon by the daily Press, the novel, and the drama, Reade's sentiments are — honest and hearty, and his style is broadly Saxon, degenerating sometimes into vulgarity. Slang is tolerable while it is new and fashionable, but the old slang of Iteade's earlier novels disgusts like stale tobacco-smoke. Still, anything is better than the namby-pamby style of ordinary fiction. — Sir Michael Costa is among the eminent deceased. He died this week of apoplexy, at the age of 74. Without any great fame as a composer, ho held the first place in England as a musical conductor, and received in 1869 the honour of knighthood in recognition of his services to the musical profession. Sir Michael was born Italian, but became a naturalised British subject — Mr Michael Thomas Bass, who died on Tuesday at the age of 85, deserves to be remembered by thirsty morality. He it was who carried the art of brewing ale to its present perfection. The red pyramid label is better known than the Union Jack. Pale ale was first manufactured exclusively for the Indian market., and we owe to a lurky accident the discovery that the same beverage is not unsuited to the English palate. In 1827 a cargo of India pale ale was wrecked in the Irish Channel, Three hundred barrels were saved and sold in Liverpool for the benefit of the underwriters. Instead of being re-ship-ped the beer was drunk, as one might say, on the premises, and the fame of the new tipple spread like wildfire. Bass' brewery in Burton employs 3000 men and over 80 steam-engines; it consumes annually 2,000,000 bushels of malt and 89,000cwt hops. Mr Bass leaves two sons who are in Parliament, he himself having been member for Derby from 1848 till last year,

If youaresirk, HOP BITTERS will surely aid Nature in making you well nga-n when all else fail*.

The average depth of the ocean is | 13,000 f t; and the average elevation of the land 1000 ft; therefore the total volume of water in the sea is thntysix times that of the land above th« sea. The Thames is about to have a second tunnel. The Severn resents attempts «ta tunnell by periodically flooding out and drowning the operators ; the Mersey tnnnell, is rapidly becoming a fact, and the projectors of tliu Huber tunnel promise success. The following description of a marketable commodity, with the name of which most colonists are familiar, is given by the special correspondent of the Auckland Mar, writing from the Piji 3 : — Beche-de -mer (trip* >g) is a term familiar to all Australian colonists, but ouly a smutl number of men have any idea what it is. The peculiar tastes of the epicures of the Flowery Laud are responsible for the raking of the seas for this singular ■delicacy, as also for the collection of fungus. They use it in soups and stews, the flavour resembling the rind ■of pork, Bache-de-mer formerly termed halthnria looks like an enormous marine slug. It buries its body iv the sand o/ under the shelter of reefs, just leaving the head projecting, exhibiting in this manner most excellent taste, the h.-ad being the only presentable part of the auimal owing to its pretty -feathery looking rosette. The ordinary size of the animal when contracted is about nine inches, but it can stretch its flexible body out to two feet. The mode of preparation for export consists merely in splitting, boiling, and drying, and they then present' the appearance of smoked sausages. In Fiji the export has fallen into a dormant condition ; the natives do not prosecute it, and the •whites hesitate to again embark in the -venture owing to native opposition. The reefs liave had a rest for several years, and the temptation of a good harvest may lead to an early revival of the industry. The export from Fiji last year was only 12 tons, valued at Some idea of the terrible ravages of : small-pox in Madras may be obtained from the fact that during the month of February and the last three weeks of January 1200 deaths occurred within the a>unicipal limits. A destructive fire has occurred at Mandalay, and the great temple 'iaudama has been completely destroyed. All the gold-leaf stack on the , I>rass image of the Gaudama Buddha by successive geuarations of worshipper^ and valued at from eight to ten lacs of rupees, has been melted off by , the hnat Tha result of the lire ! appears to have caused great consternation, being held by the superstitious . to be- a sure sign of the dowu-t'all of the Burmese Empire. "Rough on corns." — Ask for Walls' "Hough on Corns." Quick relief, complete, permanent • cure. Corns, warts, bunions. Keuipthorne, PrnH-3«r & fi.i.. Airents. Christchurch.