MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume XI, Issue 1702, 10 May 1886, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Melbourne correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald writes :— " I had a conversation the other evening with a gentleman from Adelaide. He has lived many years in South Australia and expressed the opinion that the Colony is ruined past redemption, and that a blight has fallen upon the colony which cannot be removed. He told me that in the township in which he had lecently been living half the houses wore empty, and that their owners would be glad to let them for nothing to prevent them going to destruction. I have heard in Melbourne corroboration of his statement The other day, for example, a collector was wanted for the Benevolent Asylum in this city, the salary being only £50 a year and a percentage on new sub* soriptions. Seventy persons applied for it, many of them having been Civil servants. In the face of this depression it is not easy to explain why a large theatrical company is being at this present moment organised to go to Adelaide from Melbourne. Perhaps it is thought that as the people are so miserable they will go to the theatre

for comfort, spending their money en amusements instead of food. Theydo this, as we know, in plague-stricken cities, and they did k> in Paris daring tUe reign of terror. So far as this South Australian degression affects us in Melbourne, it is indirectly a cause for satisfaction, for it is causing an exodus hither, which may, haply, dperate on the labour market, by making operatives and labourers more reasonable in their demands.

Dr. Lome, of St Andrew's has lately drawn attention to some of the leading facts connected with the sience of •' weather forecasts," and with the theory of circular ttorma He states that a strict examination of the records of the weather in the Greenwich Obsarvatory has conclusively proved that predictions bared on the moon's changes are delusive. But in the matter of stinkpots the case is different. There is a remarkable concurrence of scientific opinion that the 11 J years cycle of their recurrences leads to increased solar radiation, of which we have our share in the from of increased evaporation and rainfall, and consequent davelopment of cyclonic and magnetic storms. Such a law, if once established, would prove to be an important means of weather forecasting over tang periods, and looking backwards over the more remarkable events of the century, he finds two witnesses equally for its truth and its value. It has been remarked, says Engineering, that a cool winter in Europe often corresponds to a severe one in Asia and America, and that a mild winter in America corresponds to a severe one in Europe. The years 1&1617 were marked in the history of Europe by a general famine anJ distress. The wet was such that the harvests failed entirely. But the southwest wind which blew without cessation over the western part of the continent, and which drenched it in its vapours, did not extend beyond Poland, and it was the South of Russia whose corn supported famished Europe. Again, may persons can still remember the increased impulse given to commerce between Europe and America by the drought of 1846, which damaged the corn crops in Europe, while America had an abundant harvest. Such facts forcibly illustrate the important park played in the life of nations by variations in atmospheric currents, and the examples adduced correspond with the periods of maximum sun spots and minimum sun-spots compiled for the century by Dr. Woolf. According Dr. Louie, we are again approaching just sneh another period of maxim am sun-pots as happened in the year 1846.

In the Melbourne District Court on the 13th inst., Mr. Matthews, circns proprietor, was summoned by a lad named Robert Lee, aged 16, for £6 wages, and foi the illegal detention of some performiug properties, including a globe, and a quantity of knives and balls. A Melbourne paper says . — 'The boy has been in the circns profession ever since lie was fonr years old. He belongs to a family well* kuown throughout the United States and Australia. They came to Melbourne with Signor ChaHni. The father and mother were with them, bat both died, leaving four orphans, three boys and a girl. One of the boys is with Walhalla's Circus. The present plain* tiff was engaged with Matthews Circns at £3 a week, and he now used for two week?' salary. Matthews did not appear. It seems that plaintiff left against the wish of Matthews to join Walhalla's Circus, and Matthews refused to pay him, and kept the properties.' The little boy's business is juggling on horseback and general acrobatism. He maintains a brother and sister in Sydney, paying 7s. ft week for each, besides paying for their clothes, Mr. Fan ton was evidently struck with the intelligence and good conduct of this little fellowfighting his Own way through the world. There being no defence, a verdict was given for plaintiff for the restoration of tie effects, and payment of £6 wages, with £2 2& costs." This lad, by the way, is the "Made* moiselle Victoria " who was the popular attraction at the circus during the recent Tasraaniao tour.

A London paper that describes a meeting of tbe unemployed in London: — A thousand hungry workmen were sitting in Holborn Town Hall, drinking in with eager ears the theories and appeals which shattered a great State into atoms less than a century ago, and less than a hundred miles away. •• Theories" — the reader laughs at the word. So did some of Garlyle^s companions one night, and the sage said : " The French nobles laughed at ''theories," at ;he end of the last century, bat a man came and wrote a little book about -he theory of social contracts— and thrir skins went to bind the second cdi aon of it !" So Citizens Hyndman and Champion and Burns and Fieldi lg have preached their theories often enough before, and nothing has come of it. In the crowded Town Hall there were just three tall hats— all of them at the reporters' table. Bow upon row the nnemploynd sat, packed much closer than their more fortunate fellow creatures would consent to sit, hands in pockets, hats over eyes, and across the faces of many of them, in simple, sober fact, the grisly word v htinger " plainly written. Tiiey seemed mostly, of the better class of unskilled labour* | ers, with a considerable proportion of artisans among them. And thrir behaviour was hungry too. At the beginning of the meeting somebody ventured upon a slight interruption. Instantly the ball rose at him with a howl — no jocular cries of " Tarn him oat I " like the political meetings, but just one inarticulate howl that silenced him as completely as if he had been shot A la lantern ! was what it meant.

Grace Morris was charged at th< Dunedin Police Court with havuig, or the evening of the 6th inst. committee a breach of the peace by shouting anc yelling outside the Qut-en's Theatre Defendant, who was extremely eccentric in her manner, explained that hei conduct was occasioned " By some members of Parliament and ministers worshipping of piece of bine ribbon in the theatre." They had set up this blue ribbon, she said, as a god, and the Bible taught that the only true God was the Loi-d Jesus Christ. Evidence was given by the arresting constablt of the offence, after which the Bench decided to discharge the woman on condition that she made no more noise in the streets. Defendant : Well, I won't promise that your Worships. You see I can't help speaking when it conres into my head. The Bible says "Feed God's lambs," and children are God's lambs.— Sergeant- Major Bevin : Well feed them in the back streets; in the by-ways. — Defendant : Yei? ; all right. Thank you. Good bye all. The subeditor of a Christchurch (N.Z.) morning paper has just relin* quished his position, having obtained admission to the Bar. The Dnuedin E vpning Herald thus remarks thereon ; 11 We can scarcely congratulate Mr Donnelly, formerly a member of the Press gang, going on hi* admission to the Bar of New Zealand. To descend from the ranks of journalism into the fields of the black brigade is, in our opinion, a decided step down hill. The influence of an accomplised journalist is far greater than that of a practitioner in the petty courts of the colony. In the one case the potentiality for good is unlimited. The pen is mighter than the j sword, and far more so than the advocate's wig and gown. Brains are required as an element of success either in journalism or in law. In the arena of journalism the professor as a better prospect, even in a woidly point of view, than in the overdone list of lawyers. Briefless barristers are swarming all round. In Dunedin there are many, in Christchurch still more, and there is scarcely an odd corner in the islands but it is afflicted with two or three. To join them is like stepping into the array of the unemployed. It is likely that the tide will set the other way, and that starving lawyers will be glad to betake themselves to journalism." 11 Buchu-paiba." — Quick, completb cure, * all annoying Kidney, Bladder and Urinary Diseases. At Druggists Kempthorne, Prosser & Co., Agents, Christchurch. ONE BOX OF CL4RKE'S B 41 PI LLS is warranted to core all discharges from the Urinary Organs, in either sex (acquired or constitutional), Grav»l, and Pains in the Back. Guaranteed free from Mercury. Sold in Boxes, 4s 6d each, by all Chemists and Patent Medicine Vendors : Sole Proprietors, The Lincoln and Midland Counties Dhuo Co., Lincoln, England. Wholesale the Wholesale Houses.