MISCELLANEOUS.
Mr Richard Dunn, the bookmaker who was recently prosecuted by the English Anti-Gambling League, had a bod at a school kept by tho Rev. Mr Cornford. When Mr Dunn's case came before the Courts, Mr Cornford expelled the boy from school. To vindicate the boy's character, Mr Dunn brought an action against the master, and this was to have been tried by Mr Baron Pollock on April 12. When the case was called on, it was stated that a settlement had been arranged, the defendant apologising and agreeing to pay all the costs w and give £2O to the East Molesey Hospital. V' Mr Wr«tgge, interviewed in regard to the rise in some wells and rivers in New @gnth Wales, said :—" I can only regard it, speaking with some caution, as due to seismic waves ciused by convulsions or disturbances, most probably in connection with the recent shocks of earthquake in South Australia. It would be interesting could we but know whether Mounts Erebus and Terror, in the Antarctic, were in active eruption at the present time. lam inclined to consider that is probably the case. It appears that shocks of earthquake have been felt at sea. I look with interest to the records of sailing' vessels which may be about to arrive at Australasian ports." There is a Chinese woman in New Zealand who is teaching music. There is one Chinese chemist, one schoolmaster, one dentist, five medical men, only one hairdresser, one draper, one opium-seller, one law clerk, one ship's steward, one baker, one slaughterman, three farmers, twenty-four farm laborers, four carpenters, seven of independent means, 656 market gardeners or assistant gardeners, thirty-two greengrooers, and 2,162 gold miners. An irate husband at Palmerston North recently threw three buckets of water over his mother-in-law for interfering between him and his wife. The experiment cost him 435.
On board the German mail steamer Darmstadt, which left Sydney for Bremen list week, was a shipment of New South Wales timber specially cut for pavement blocking in Antwerp. Speaking with an officer of the Darmstadt as to the prospects of trade in this connection, it was learnt that already some lots had been carried by the German mail steamers home, and I*ad impressed the people most favorably. V A bankrupt in the Sydney Registrar's Court said he owed his baker £97 7s for bread supplied during fifteen years. In the window of a little tumble-down house in a small Canadian town hung the following remarkable sign :—•• Washing and ironing and going out for a dey's work done here."
The new naval barracks which the Government are about to erect at Portsmouth will be the biggest thing of the kind in Europe. The building alone is to cost £600,000. A star sapphire found in Ceylon has been on view in London. It measures Sin round, and is six times the weight of the Koh-i-noor. It is described as a cone-shaped stone of pale b'.ue.
A new company has taken over the steamboat traffic on the Thames. For a penny one will be able to travel from Battersea to London Bridge, five miles, calling at over a dozen piers. A parrot brought from abroad was given to a family in Genoa lately. The bird died from a strange infectious disease, which also caused the death of the husband, wife, daughter, nurse, and washerwoman. la Austria the man who loses both his hands in an accident can claim the whole of his life insurance money, on the ground that he has lost the means of maintaining himself. Loss of the right hand reduces the claim from 70 to 80 per cent, of the total. lb is significant that among the most brutal and distardly villains whose crimes have been unearthed during the last twelve months are three B's—Bosher, Butler, and Beard.
One of the most singular habits of plants is the fact that certain of their number bloom at definite hours in the day or night. From midnight to noon the following named flowers open :—White water-lily, poppy, thistle, garden lettuce, and marigold. During the first twelve hours from midnight to noon the following close:—Scandinavian thistle, evening primrose, and purple bindweed ; from 1 to 12 p.m., the. red pink, dandelion, water-lily, poppy, orange day-lily, convolvulus, cbickweed, and thistle.
*• I once," said the colonel, solemnly, " I once, and only ooce, bad all thirteen trumps dealt me." " Er—l Buppose you were the dealer ?" suggested a candid friend. " No, sir !" roared the colonel " Np, sir, I was not the dealer." "Then, may I ask, what happened to the trump which the dealer turned up ?" A clerk in a certain bank is very musical, and one day was thoughtlessly singing over his work. The manager came up to him and said sternly : " I would have you know that this is not a concert room,, but a bank. young man." " Well, sir, I was issuing a bank note," was the facetidsjF reply. "i wrote to the editor of this paper asking what class of writing paid beßt." " Yes ! And what did he reply ! " " Cheques !" The Middlesex County Council, not content with a law against bad language in the public streets, are now determined to check it indoors. Anyone making use of bad language from a door or window or inside, if it reaches the outside world, would be liable to prosecution. This is aimed at the objectionable language' to be heard from the upper windows in crowded courts, and which could hitherto be uttered with impunity. First Small Boy: "I wish I had that five cents back I spent for candy." Second Small Boy: " What would you do with it ?" First Small Boy : " Bay more candy." Lawsuits relating to bicycles are increasing with Buch rapidity in Melbourne that Judge Gaunt, who is not a wheelman, was recently led to remark that a court presided over by a judge specially trained in cycling matters might well be established: Baron Ferdinand Rothschild possesses an old grandfather's clock' that cost originally over £30,000. The mechanism records the day of the week, month of the year, the phases of the moon, and strikes each honr. The quarters are chimed with a different bell, and (a rare thing with these clocks) it has a second hand. It was originally the property of Louis XVI. A certain farmer, who is by no means noted for his resemblance to Apollo, has a son of seven who possessed more wit than pedigree. One day a stranger came to the farm, and, seeing the lad, asked: " Sonny, where's your father!" "In the pigpen," was the reply. "In the pig pen! Thanks!" And as the man moved in the direction indicated the boy shouted: "I say ! You'll know him, 'cause he's got a hat on !"—«Tid-Bits.' Home cf the Cape Colony Natives.Jaave great ideas as to the baptismal names'- in which their children should be registered. A Port Elizabeth paper states that the other day a Native named Kleinbooi registered his child as "May Rhodes," whilst another child, a male infant, was registered as "Christopher Columbus Gwaxo." It is not so long since an eccentric parent desired to* have his child baptised as " Maher-shi&la? hash-baz." The minister remonstrated. " May I not have my cjrild baptised in any name I like !" asked the angry father. " Oh, csrtainly," replied the minister. " Say the word and I'll baptise him—' Beelzebub' if you wish it."
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Bibliographic details
Dunstan Times, Issue 1819, 18 June 1897, Page 6
Word Count
1,232MISCELLANEOUS. Dunstan Times, Issue 1819, 18 June 1897, Page 6
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