MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 83, 28 February 1877, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

The mere kit of Centennial awards occupies twenty-eight closely printed columns of the New York Taws. A Yankee ha* ktmfi&t* sleeping cap, which answers the thceefold purpose of keeping oat the coW, o* an air pillow, and of a life preserfef. » JS\ ¥ r Rtchett "^ «Nj QC£ W" .P^rieeTaad a f4 n & o ur iiingbyb^ l es ?S the y f ar . e^ed Jane last no mi ™ B . e^nty- B it fresh newspapers The cotton crop raised in the Sooth this year is the largest since the war, and reaches the encouraging ggare of 4,635,228 bales, me largest crop ever produced was that of 1859-60, which waS *%& bales in excess of this year. A man worth nearly a million of money is under sentence of death in Canada. It was a woman—Priscilla Wakefieia— , who founded the first savings bank « Mr ,J? is^! i ' s "V^™* motto at the Herald s Oo'lege, on his elevation to the peerage, is Forii nihil difficile. 1 A dispensing chemist in Melbourne named Robert Henry Cowl, has been , committed for trial, on ft charge of manslaughter. It appears that a married woman living m Footscray, was being ' attended by Mr Cobb for rheumatic t fever, and he prescribed salicine. Hie i prescription was dispensed by Cowl, who [ made up foor powders, and banded them to deceased's husband. He administered ' one in water as directed, and in a quarter of a hoar the deceased underwent a suri prising change. The pespiration which ; had prevailed suddenly ceased, the head and neck became red. the pupils dilated, and the patient suffered intense pains, 1 Delirium succeeded, and in twelve hours ■ she died. The powders which bad not ; been taken were, by Sir Cobb s instate* , tions, sent back to the chemist, and he returned them to the bottle. After an exhaustive analysis of the deceased's ' stomach, Mr Johnson, the Government ) analytical chemist, discovered evidences . of atropine, a deadly poison, and traces of , the same poison were found in a powder ! subsequently obtained from Cowl, by a 1 constable, as coming from the same bottle i from which Thompson's powders were > taken. , At a meeting of the London AeronautiP eal Society, several schemes were propounded for the construction of flying 1 machines, and one gentleman, who c*> » pressed an opinion that balloon sailing , was a game not worth the candle, announced that he had in preparation a machine, to be worked by a thirty horse power steam engine, which would travel through the air at the rate of twohun* dred miles an hour as safely as a railway 3 train. In some parts of Gtago, owners of orchards bars taken extraordinary precau> tions to preserve their fruit front pickers • and stealer-i. A southern contemporary I says, in some cases a supply of strong • fishhooks have been procured, and will be I so adjusted that the hand tint plucks the fruit will be caught, and should the thief ' get off, he will be identified when he • goes to the doctor to have the hook cut • oui\ In addition t> th>se placed at tiki , fruit to catch the hand, others will be so> laid as to bite the feet and legs. Thesj ' measures may be thought by some to be 1 too severe, but the hooks have been sue* i cessfnliy employed 'to catch garden* > thieves in the Home country, and every , thing else seems to have failed here. A singular accident occurred lately in the family of a gentleman at Ballarat, ■ which might have had muoh moredisastrous results. The inevitable plum pud* , ding was being served at the dinner . table, when, the burning brandy appeared exhausted, the gentleman set to work be* fore the expiring flame flickered out to ' add to the fuel by thoughtlessly pouring some more brandy on the pudding from a bottle, when the whole exploded. ■ Fortunately there was not enough spirit ia the bottle to break it, and by the presence of mind of those at the table there was no harm done beyond the partial burning of the cloth, and the scalding of some of the hands. F. D. Rich, of Bnshby Park, says the Mercury, was charged at the Palmerstoi* Resident Magistrate's Court recently with illegally hunting hares, pleaded guilty,. 1 and argued that under the circumstance* he was perfectly justified in what he had done, equally with the runholders in Southland in their endeavors to ester* minate the rabbit. Hares were becoming so numerous that it was a serious ques» tion, from the grass they consumed, and) the injury they did ; the hares on hi* property would eat as much grass atwould feed a flock of long wool sheep. It was not only the grass they consumed,, but the injury they did to plantations* They had destroyed his plantation last year, and were doing the same this year. It was assuming a very grave position,, and he considered he was perfectly justi* fied in protecting his own property. HisWorship inflicted a nominal penalty, tat if any other person was brought up in thesame way he would not say that he would not inflict a heavier fine. The German Government has built a mammoth kitchen. It is one thousand feet long, and constructed of stone and iron, and is designed to «JPPjy fo°« «*" the army in times of war. Two eighteen) , hundred horse power engines drives its machinery, which is capable of boOiag . down and condensing for transportation one hundred and seventy oxen, and W|H grind three hundred and fifty tons of 1 flour, and make three hundred thousand ■ loaves of bread, daily. It can also sup , ply enough preserved oats for one day a , feeding of the haraes belonging to an army of two hundred and eighty thousand 1 men. .. . . A most extraordinary accident, by , , which a child was boiled ahre » • hot spring, is related by the Bar of Ftenfr ( Times .—Helen Hinemoa Wilson, aged ' two years and eight months, the TWaf"* > daughter of Mr Isaao Wilson of that township, died from falling into a hole of ? boiling water in her father a garden. It is adduced in evidence that there is a 1 boiling spring at the foot of Mr WUson a 1 garden, and that near it a hole has been i dug, and a barrel put into the ground, into which the boiling water from the

spring is conducted for washing and othei purposes. The spring was protected by a fence, knt there was nothing round the fop of the bole to prevent people from falling in. The poor little child Ml into this hole, and diei half an hour after* Wards, though without suffering any pain after she was taken out of the water. . " Taxthe large estates " is a cry raised 5 * ** ansanui Herald « w h'oh contends that such properties have enormously increased in value through the operation ol tne public works policy, apart frofla anj exertion, skill, or expenditure on the parl of the owners. " Compare." it says, two periods, 1870 and 1876, and it will be found that land at the former period worth £1 an acre, is now worth £3, yet iJ does not carry a single sheep more. But though we believe estates running from "000 to a quarter of a million acres each are blighting the country and may ruin it m the same sense as the big estates rained Italy, yet we have not proposed anything but a fair tax to meet the demands of the present financial crisis." The dyeing of animals is said to be quite common in Paris). A lady in that city recently drove four horses dyed a brilliant magenia. A crushing of 440 tons of stone at No. 8 South Lady Mary claim at Gympie, W. S. W., yielded 156002. of gold. A case of snake-bite recently occurred at Deloraine, Tasmania. It was apparently terminating fatally,, when it was successfully treated by the injection of ammonia. A late telegram says .—Considerable Chinese immigration is setting in, and it is expected that this seasen 10,000 Chinese will com* to Cooktown. The number of newspapers in the United States is 8429. England and Ireland have about 2,000. France, about 1,000, and Germany, about 800. A woman has been arrested in Boston, charged with selling some colored people a Ijqtior warranted to make them white. The news irom the Cape is sot favorable, the victoriet of the Kaffirs against the Transvaal troops matting all natives believe that they can defeat the white man. No threats have yet been directed against the colonists, but plans for organising all the settlers as militia has been seriously disussed. This 'Condition of affairs decidedly promotes Federation, the colonies separately being unable to support an effective militia, as does also tike retirement of Sir Bartle Frere as Governor of the Cape. Sir Bartle Frere as a Governor has always been, more acceptable to his superiors than to the public, his financial capacity being very questionable. ; but he is a man of great tact and management, and has probably been selected for those qualities. A Frenoh Intransigente is good humored by the fide of a discontented Cape politician. A late private telegram from Dunedin states :— " You are under a wrong impression in sapposing the Superintendent has given up possession. No apparent change has occurred, etcept that His Honor does not attend his office as before, but letters now cune to the Superintendent as formerly, which he sends to Wellington, and not to G-eorge M'Lean. Yob will also observe this particularly j he has sot given up possession of anything, nor was be asked ; be holds the keys of his own offices ; has the minute book and other doou* ments of the Executive, and also the safe and its key, containing all the Crown grants and deeds of properties rested in the Superintendent, and which he will not give up without a struggle. A"ludicrcra9 iaeident is reported by the Bristol Boat to have occurred daring Mr and Mm Bandmann's performance of " Hamlet " at the new Theatre Royal. An elderly gen» tleman who bad taken a seat in the dress circle remained a quiet spectator of the piece until the closet scene, in which Hamlet slays Polonious. Seeing thn sword of the Prince plunged through the arras, and the body of the aged courtier fall seemingly dead upon the stage, he jumped up in a state of evident trepidation, and exclaiming, " It is most disgraceful that all these can sit quietly here and ace an aged person deliberately murdered," rushed out of the circle. The box-keepers endeavored to calm his fears and to explain to him that it was all a dramatic illusion, but he refused to bo convinced, and bounced out of the house.