Odds and Ends.

Otago Witness, Issue 1456, 11 October 1879, Page 7

Odds and Ends.

{Compiled for the Otago Witness.)

In America cotton ia no longer king, having been dethroned by wheat. During the eleven months ending May 30th, 1879, the exports of wheat from the United States amounted to $ 192, 000, 000, and those of cotton to $159,000,000.

Professor Masson has at last come to the end of his labours upon the Life and Times of Milton. The sixth and concluding volume o£ this work has now been placed ia the hands of Messrs Macmillan and Co. for publication in the couroe of the year. In England there are thirty-four Catholic peers, twenty-six holding seats in the House of Lords ; and fifty-one Catholic members of the House of Commons. In Great Britain there are eightean archbishops or bishops, 2140 priests and 1348 Catholic places of worship, while the Catholic population remains a little over 2,000,000.

At Gourock, in Scotland, on the 19th vli. a young man who was- about to Btart on a voyage to J»va proposed to his sweetheart, was married before the Sheriff within three hours afterwards, and before another kalfhour expired had started on his voyage. Government House at Simla, bag been laid with gas mado from mineral oil. The ay 'tern has aleo been tried at the Lahore railway station with every success. The death is announced nb Row, Dumbartonshire, ■. f tho another of the late Rev. Norman MaelaocJ, at the venerable age of nine-four.

There are at present only 163 America vessels en<»agod in whale fiuh*>vy, as apuinsl 683 ia 1854. New Bodfrrd, "Masa., .'till loads in the business, 0.0 25 ef Ao vcsjels employed n:>t being from that port. A oonE srence of Trades' delegates was held at Manchester on Go id Friday to consider the advisability of a federation of thn various trades' councils in the United Kingdom, and the principal of sack an organisation was approved,

It is stated that by using petroleum for fuel, not only is coal superseded, but at a comparatively cost there is a heating power which* surpasses anything hitherto known.

A« instancing the effects of the depression at home, it is estimated that between 14,000 and 15,000 fewer persons left Glasgow this yetr during the holidays than in 1877. There were also fewer cases of crime.

A medal struck by order of the Czar of Russia, displaying a red cross surrounded by a silver wreath, has been presented to 18 members of the German central committee of the societies for tending the wounded in tho field, iv recognition of special services rendered during the Russo-Turkish war. Mr Salisbury's petroleum fuel for furnaces is made of the residuum of petroleum and coal tar — a mixture about the consistency of molasses. It io conducted from the barrel to the furnace by mean of a am all pipe, aud is atomised by a current of highly super-heated steam. The atomised fuel shoots in a fierce but delicate spray into the blazing furnace, the brick arches of which are kept at a white heat.

The paintings of Eus^ne Delacroix in the Salle do Trone, at tho Palais Bourbon, Paris, have beovi photographed by electric light. The figures on the ceiling, representing Jusfcioo, War, Manufactures, and Agriculture, are mostly so situate with regard to light tlnfc no good photograph of them had hitherto been obtained.

The Cunard steamer in the beginning of September conveyed 130 practical cutlers and their families from Sheffield for the Frary (\itleiy Co. of Bridgeport, Conn. They speak discouragingly about the outlook at Sheffield, aud say that there are in that place 50,000 men to perform work which 2,000 can do. La,tß in the fall about 500 cutlers from England and Germany will go to New York.

In his address to his constituents at Birmingham, Mr John Bright denounced tho Afghan war as surpa«eing in falseness and dishonour anything ever done by tho East India Company. The present Ministry had, in his opinion, broken faith with the country, and sullied tho mild reign of the Queen by the war. Mr James Mauson, of Sfcrathroy, Ont., lataly sent the Marquis o£ Lome and the Princess Louiso a pair of jouug deer, male ami female, bred by himself, and named "Lome" aud " Louiae." In recognition of the gift, ho received from tho GovernorGeneral a beautiful watch pendant.

It is seated that if Mr Salisbury's petroleum proves to ba as safe as it is uudoubtedly effective, the discovery will lead to great and radical changes in many branches of industry.

The four Presbytenau Ohurohesof Canada, now united into one organization, form a strong and efficient body. In Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Sootia, and Prince Edward Island, the Presbyterian Church has a population of about 600,000, as shown by the laat oenous. In the Eden and other rivers connected with the SoWay estuary salmon and trout have been found considerably diseased during the present season. In the same rivers over 1700 diseased fish were buried during last year by the River Eden police. Madrid papers accuse Lord Salbourne aud Lord Granville of unfair opposition to the policy of Spain in regard to Blavery, and very haughtily reject all foreign interference on the question. Herr Bunge, of Hamburg, haa just completed the construction of a standard kilogramme for tho International Commission of Weighcs aud Measures in Paris. It ha 3 occupied him eight months, and ia of such delicacy that the person using it must not approach within two yards, as the warm*h emanating from his body might disturb its action.

Last year there were no loss than 120 Roman Catholic dioceses or districts adminißtered by bishops in the British Empire, the Catholic population of which Is computed at nearly 14,000,000 of people. Tho Qaeensland cedar trade has expanded in a new direction, the ship Deoapolis having early ia Augast. loaded 300,000 ft at Cairns, with which she sailed direct for London. This is the first fall shipment of Qaeensland cedar direct to tho home market.

A sensation has been cre\ted at Hobart Town by the discovery th^t there has been sold a3 waste paper a pile of official records giving all the particulars of persons tried lor offences committed some 45 yeara ago. The numes and particulars are given, so that data are furnished' to the curious purchasers of those records to obtain a knowledge of their neighbours' antecedents. The Statistical Commission on the projected inter-oceanic canal at Panama estimates the goods actually in. transit at 4,830,000 tons, adding however, that an increase of 6 per cent in the navigation would, within ten years of the opening of the canal, raise the tonnage to 7,250,000.

Mr Riberfc Apple, one of the fiist settlers of Oomstock, and who diud in Europe lost year, bsqueathed $10,000 for the erection of a free drinking-fountain in San Francißco, the foundation of which is to consign of 10 tons of refuse qusrfcz from the Gonistock mines.

The Wesleyan Conference^ at Birmingham haa adopted a report in favour of an ecumeaical conference as proposed by the American Wesleyans, and has appointed a committee to arrange for a meeting. Several blocks of atone from the old cathedral at Burton, in England, have been sent totheß-av. Phillips Brooks, of Boston, Mass., and will he placed in his church.

Lord Derby has expressed his opinion that flogging in th-5 army and navy is doomed, but that it would ba useless to press the question in the House of Lords — it must ba left for & new Parliament

Ih Pope Leo's garden, in the middle of a gravelled square, ho has had rex>roduoed by a ensign, ia young boxwood, carefully trimmed, the arms of the P«.-i c. He has ordered ail the tipfialms in tho Vatican to b* placod in chronological oul«r and according to the school* to wfcieh they belong, la many >vays he ahowa taate in .things not ccclosiastic ii.

Russia issued to be making a now effort to add tho cultivation of lea "o her proverbially successful growth of cereals, rfoaie years ago & few enterprising speculators established tea plantations upon the coast of the Black Sea, but the experiment failed,

An epidemic of a typhoid form, directly traced to the sufferers having eaten of the flesh of a diseaied cow, has broken out in Kurzenberg, Canton Borne. A part of the consumptive hospital at Bruinpton, London, is called the Nightingale Wing, having beea buiit from the proceeds of a concert by Jenny Lind. A new wing has just been added on the site of Tom Moore's old homo.

The final decision of the ' German Government on religious question at iasuo with the Vatican, is as follows : —All of the exiled clergy who ask permisdon will bo allowed to return to Germany. The May laws will be tacitly suspended, provided the clergy obey the common iar/, find all fresh nominations are to be submitted to the Government. The Pops ia satisfied with these terms.

The Cashmere famine is seriously occupy* ing the attention of the Indian Administration. Official information says that ifc is impossible to exaggerate the great distress which prevails throughout whole tracts of country.

Official returns show that 400 men died of cholera and other diseases on the return march from the Afghan campaign, while only about 100 men wera killed in action.

The French Chamber of Deputies, by a vote of 249 ayes to 166 noes, has adopted the proposal of M. Proust for tho demolition of the ruins o£ the Tuilleries. The site will ba transformed into a garden.

The trade mottoes of some of the London associations are curiums. The blacksmiths, for instance, have, "By hammer and hand all arts do stand;" the distillers, " Drop as rain, distil as dew j" the founders, " God, the only founder ;" the inkeepera, " Come, ye blessed; when I was harbouriees ye lodged me ;" the joiner?, "join loyalty and liberty;" the saddlers, "Hold fast; sit sure;" and the neodlemakers, "They sawed leaves together aud made themselves aprons."

Atcham Church, near Shrewsbury, was struck by lightning ou July 13th during divine service. Six members of* the choir were seriously injured.

Alter nearly two years spout in its'preparation, a new work on fei-ns, written by Mr James Britten, T.L.S., with facsmile coloured plates painted from nature by Mr D, Blair, JF.L.S., will be published shortly iv monthly parts by Messrs Cassell, Petter, Gilpin and Co., under the title of '• European Ferns."

During the continuance of the Zula war, the London Daily News paid in one day for telegrams from Natal £424 12a, the number of words being 2123. A dramatic poem, eight hundred lines long, believed to have been written by the unfortunate poet Chatfcerton, has been found among a lob of old newspapers Bold as waste in London.

Dr W. H. Russell, it ia echoed, is to have a fee of two thousands guinnas for tb.9 oatnpafgo, as special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, ia Zululand. The culture of rice is increasing largely in Louisiana. It is considered a more certain crop than sugar, and does not command the same constant attention,

In the grounds of South Park, Cmmpbeltown, the residence of Lady Campbell and Sheriff Gardiner, there is at present to be seen in flower a very fine specimen of the New Zealand cabbage tree, or palm. The plant ia fully 11 feet high, and ita Btem ia about 8 Inches in diameter.

It is said that among the merchants spend* ing the summer at Nahant, Mass., wholesalers never associate with retailers, and this unwritten law is carried so far that a ecrtain retail merchant and his family are not welcomed into the circle which his son, a wholesaler, moves, notwithstanding the father furnishes the money with which the son carries on business.

Mapleson's experiment of giving opera in London at reduced prices, and not requiring evening dress or the removal of bonnets in any part of the house, has been highly successful.

The rainy, cold weather that prevailed in Scotland during the greater part of the past season had a most unfavourable effect on ground and winged gam c. Ia the centraldistrictof Fife, and on the Loeionds, the broods of phesanta and partridges have been greatly reduced owing to the cold, and the prospects before sportsmen are extremely unfavourable. Mr James Law, Bo'ness, Scotland, one of the local bird fanciers, h?s a pair of newfledged birds of the Scotch fancy canary breed from one egg. One of them came out alive and fully matured, and th.3 othar, though perfectly formed in every particular, not so far advanced. This is regarded' as a singular case. An Italian paper sneaking of Messrs R. and J. Kennedy, sons of the well-known Scottish vocalist, and at present studying music 1 in Italy, says, " We are assured that the Messrs Kennedy, strangers to our laud and to our sweet language, have sfcadied Italian Opera for but a few months, and, if this ba true, we pay them the sincerest o£ compliments for the progress they have raado, and for that which they most certainly promise for the future."

A London journal congratulates the country that, for the first timo m the history of the nation, a time of general business distress is not made worse by high-priced brea'i. It says : The loaf which, thanks to American corn, the people can put on their tables today, is a bigger and better loaf than they have ever been able to pat on their tables under similar circumatauees before.

During the application iv the Irish Probate Court, on July 28th, of Colonel Clement* for administration to tho late Earl of Leitrira, it was intimated the personal a? seta were fully £200,000, aud the Court was asked to send an officer down to the estates to assist in the reocvei-y of the rents. Judge Warren granted administration, but said he did not like to send an officer of Court.

Taylor, the St Helen's man, -who carried off the Queen's Prize at Wimbledon with such a brilliant pjeote, is only 26 years of age, and is a tiUer engaged at iho Bold Iron Works. His succes-i was a aurpvise to the old stagers at Wimbledon, who scarcely dreamed that the blue riband of tho meeting was to bo tiken "by a man who had never been in camp before. lfe is stated that the poet Longfellow haa received a gift oi: -i pen loade from the iron fetters of Bonivard, the prisoner of Chillon. The socket is made of gold, set with three rare gems, and the haudle is a piece of oak from the old frigate Constitution,