MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 10, 2 May 1877, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

A London paper, speaking of tb< Turkish army, siys it is composed ol 702,000 men ; but owing to the em' barrassed state of Turkish finance, thi number of nizams now in the rank! scarcely exceeds 150,000, and the releif; bave not yet been able to complete their military instruction, As to the irregulars tbey can only be considered as a band o fanatics, incapable of resisting a shod from tbe compact; battalions of a wel disciplined army. The best troops consis of six army corps, divided into 414 battalions. 146 squadrons, and 88 batteriesin all 334,000 fighting men, 40,000 horses and 506 pieces of cannon. The armamen of these troops is unquestionably ex cellent, tbe infantry being supplied witl Kemington and Martini rifles English am American manufacture. The artillery i; composed of steel Krapp breech-loaders each of which is drawn by six horses and are all in good condition. Everj battalion of Chasseur? destined to moan tain warfare is provided with tw< mountain guns of Wbitworth metrail fcuges, portable on mule back. An t<

the siege artillery, during 1874-75 500 pieces of large calibre were ordered from Krupp, for the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles, Varna, Sinope, and the Island of Candia, Five hundred more of smaller calibre have been placed in the fortresses of Anatolia and Roumelia. A gift of more thun ordinary interest (says the Otago Guardian) has been made by Dr Wilkins, of Dnnedin, to the Museum, consisting of a number of fossil ; bones found the other day under some fourteen feet of silt in a bank at the baak of the Corporation Offices, Oamaru, Ur Wilkins happened to be on a visit to Oamaru, and hearing of these bones, went to see them. Finding that not much importance was attached to them, and perceiving their probable scientific value, he wisely secured them, and has presented them to the Dunedin Museum, notwithstanding strong inducements to send them to Professor M'foy, in Melbourne. So far as yet detercmined, they consist of the carpal and paddle bones of a whale ; but there are some larger ones which it is extremely difficult to determine, from the thick encrustation of lime from the silt which has aggregated round the bones. Their value geologically is this, that they demonstrate the marine origin of the Oamaru silt which laps over the hills from the Horse Range to the north of Canter* bury, forming one formation. This carries with it, of necessity, that the Canterbury Plains have been submerged since the shingle was brought down from the hills, and have been re-arranged by marine action. This view has always been upheld by Captain Hutton, in opposition to Dr naast and other eminent New Zealand sayan?, who have contended that the existing form of the plains owes its origin entirely to the action of the great rivers. The best thanks of the community are due to Dr Wilkins for his gilt, of which more will yet be heard, we have no doubt, in scientific cirolea. Willie Gill, an actor, writes to tbe Australaßian bemoaning his folly in leaving Australia. He says of Amerioa :— " The whole boast, and its very tall talking, is in a misers able state of poverty. Those who are to do I ' big 1 things in this ' big' country must have a ' big ' specialty which nobody else has. It does not matter whether the bigness consists in a sensational drama, a set of revival sermons, a spotted educated pig, a life-risking trapeze act, an unusual development of leg, a third arm, or the ability to swallow an ounoe of arsenic without injury. So long as it is' something exceptional, however hideous, re* pnlsive, or inartistic, it will pay. If you were to see— whioh I hope for your peace of mind you will not — some of the most successful of the stars here, and listen to the drivel of the pieces upon which they travel, and, by means of which they make money, you would lose faith in your belief in the progress of the dramatio art. Dramatic writers here do not embarrass themselves with such small considerations as .unity, consistency, probability, original character, pointed dialogue, or harmony of construction. They introduce some bits of realism — such as shoeing a horse upon the stage, hanging a man by the neck, bringing on a live snake with which the principal character struggles, dressing some of the females with tbe scantiest regard possible to drapery, and so on.