MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3088, 20 May 1881, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

A better gauge of the general improvement in the condition of the people perhaps could not bo furnished than by the atatc of the jewellery trade of Birmingham, because, " the articles manufactured being purely luxuries, this trade is the first to feel bad times and the last to recover from them." It is, therefore, peculiarly gratifying to find " that during the last few months^ there has been a marked increase in the activity of the jewellery trade;" and as an instance Inspector Bowling reports that " silver bracelets are at the present time being turned out in Birmingham at the rate of teu thousand a week."

A Post-mortem Examination Society is the latest Parisian novelty. Tts members pledge themselves to utilise their bodies after death " for the profit of the scientific idea" by leaving them to the anthropological laboratory, to be submitted to a,post-mortem examination or to be made use of for dissection or other purposes, as may seem fit. A proch-verbal of the results of the post-mortem will bo drawn up at the lowest price for the information of the family of the deceased. Kvery member must subscribe at least sf. annually, in return for which his autopsy will be performed free of charge, providing he dies in Park.

Will it be believed that in the diocese of Canterbury, whose head receives £15,000 a year, and has two palaces to live in, an asfistant-curate is to be found who receives the magnificent allowance of £5 yearly and a furnished house ? Of curates in sole charge, one in the diocese of Norwich receives only £20 a year, and one £30 ; three have an income of £40 ; and the numbers x"adually increase from that salary to I"! 50, of which there are 83 lucky recipients it- this richest of all ecclesiastical organisations in the world. There are four assis-Iμnt-curates at 4s a week each, 71 who get lesti than la a week; and in this class, as in the former, the largest number ia found under the amount of £150, namely, 1109, the next sum in favor being £120, of which there are 1014 recipients. M. Bogdanoff, who took part in the Russian North Sea Expedition sent out, during last summer, communicate!, at the general meeting of the St. Petersburg!. Society of Naturalists, his observations on thd influence of whaling on the fishing on the Sormaniiio coast, which illustrates "very well the complicated chain which exists in the animal world. The whale used to be very important to the fisheries, as durin,« the spring it drove to the coast immense shoals of small fishes. Now, whalintr being pursued by means of steamers which übp a bullett instead of the old harpoon, and the annual number of whales killed beint, during the last 17 years, from 50 to 143 the amount of small fishes cominar to th Coast has much diminished. Resides, thf «reat qu«ntities of fat which are thrown into the sea at Varanyer attract sharkand these last destroy cod-fish, so that now the cod-fishing is nearly extinct in the western parts of the Varangerf jord region. The " happiest day in his life " was a sad misfortune for a Derbyshire farmer named Mr Joseph Tym. This gentleman went to Htockport for the purpose of getting married. The wedding took place from the house of the bride's sister, and after the ceremony the latter provided dinner, of which, roasted ducks formed a part, and of this both deceased and his wife partook. After that the married conple left for their honeymoon, and on arriving at their destination both were unwell, and were very sick during the night. This sickness, whioh was accompanied by diarrhoea, increased, but medical aid was not called in until two days after, when it was found that deceased was so exhausted that recovery was improbable, and he died on the following day. The condition of the wifs was also so critical that her depositions ■were taken, but at the time of the inquest it was believed she would recover. The jury returned a verdict of "Death from natural causes, accelerated by eating indigestible food." Dickens nag satirised the costs and delays of the Court ofChancery / but to no purpose. The fees are as high as ever. Anne Eiohardson, a domestic servant, is the latest victim of what English lawyers grimly call equity. She had saved £240., to whif'h her master, Sir George Balfour, added a free gift of £60 lodging the whole with trustees, who were to pay her the interest. After a time, Anne wanted to go to New Zealand, and naturallj desired the possession of her capital. The trustees had no objection, provided they obtained the leave of the Ma>ter of the Rolls. For that purpose a friendly suit was instituted, and the leave ob'ained, buo the costs amounted to £216 ! Thus merely to ask the formal assent of the Court of Chancery to a natural change of thi* kind—nobody opposing and no extraneous interests being involved—swallowed up more than two-thirds of the sum in question. Lord Coleridge, on hearing of the facts, said, " It appears as if Chancery, to prevent anyone from being hurt, sometimes takes care that nobody any good." The one obvious remedy is that the county courts should get equitable jurisdiction up to a certain amount, with no limitation as to unopposed suits.

A Relational incident (says the Sydney Evening News) occurred recently on the tr«in from Duhbo to Sydnoy. In a.=econd class carriage wero about a score of passengers, including ?omo of the members of the Austrian Band; and shortly after BowenfelH had bean Herr Kuhr noticed smoke issuing from under one of the aeuts. Considerable alarm was caused. The carriage was soon filled with smoke. Several members of the party climed out through the window and on to the roof of the carriage, where they commenced phoutin;; , at the top of their voices to the driver. One man, named Alfred Burgees, fell off in the attempt to climb on to the roof, and was afterwards picked up unconscious; another, more skilful, managed to get out and nionnt the roof with a portmanteau and cloak in hm hand. Miittera began to be very critical by this time, and the shouts of those on top were redoubled. It was not till after they had spent about twenty minutes in thit way, however, that they were noticed by the driver, and tho train stopped. Meanwhile those left ins;de were half suffocated with the smoke, one lady having fainted, and all being terribly alarmed. As soon as the train wan stopped the passengern wore transferred to another carriage, and the fire whh put out,. Tt, wiiH discovered that a lame hole had been burned in the floor. Riiruoi-s wa* a bluck.-mit.h, resident at BarhnrHt. He waH conveyed to the Sydney Infirmary and died next clay. Kxut-erant animal spirits have seldom proved ho baneful a gift to their poHHenHor as in the case of a young Australian artisan of German extraction, whom patriotic and loyal interest in the marriage of the Heir Presamptive to the German throne prompted to travel all the way from Sydney to Berlin in order to take part in the popular rejoicings with which that auspicious event was celebrated last month. This light-hearted enthusiast, the Daily Telegraph says, was joyfully promenading the Linden Avenue on the Friday afternoon before the wedding, inspecting with lively interest the preparations for Princess Victoria's state entry into the capital, when suddenly he espied a 9-erman maiden of extraordinary beauty tripping towards him with elfln grace. In the fulness of his heart he clapped this type of Teutonic loveliness to his manly bosom, and imprinted a patriotic kiss upon her lips. The blushing maiden instantly gave him in charge, and he was led away to the Molkenmarkt, where, interrogated as to his motive for embracing a daughter of the city without the least provocation, he pleaded that " his joyful impulses had outstepped his discretion, and irrecressibly stimulated him to salute an incorporate ideal of German maidenhood." This extenuating allegation, which might have melted a heart of stone, produced no visible effect upon the Prussian Polizei-Lieutenant, who fortwith sent the youthful Australian to prison for five days. When he was released, all the festivities he had travelled twelve thousand miles to participate in were over and done with. The Lulu, schooner, has gone into dock a

Hiogo for repairs to damage received in the following manner:—She left Hong Kong for Foo Chow on December 10, in a seaworthy condition, and when off the Banshee Islands, on the 20th, sho was obliged to reave-to during a N.E. gale. During the storm the vessel experienced a shock which caused the crew to imagine that she had struck a reef or sunken rock. She was in deep water, with land invisible, and began make water. The impression was that she had sprung a leak in conseqxience of the roughness of the sea. Fortunately the damage did not develop so as to endanger the vessel, nnd she was enabled to reach Foo Chow, Avhere she loaded. She also made her passage here in safety, and when her cargo was discharged she entered the Old Dock to ascertain the cause of the leak. After a careful survey, it was discovered that a swordfish had pierced with its sword the four-inch oak planking of the vessel about 6 feet from the keel and 12 feet from the stem on the starboard side. The sword, which was over two inches in diameter, had been broken off short, having pierced the plank diagonally and left a space an inch wide on each side, through which the water penetrated into the ship.