MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 16, 16 May 1877, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

An unseemly disturbance took plac? in. St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Dttndin, on a recent Sunday at the eleven o'clock service. It seems the majority of the congregation wish the introduction i of the English— Presyterian hymn book^ but tbere are som > dissentients, and when service commence J yesterday morning by singing a hymn, P. Miller got on the platform, and thare commenced to read a protest against tha introduction of the. hymn book. Ultimately his voice was. drowned by that of the Minister, and it fell among the congegation. Much in-, dignation is said to be felt with regard to Miller's action. The Wellington Argu,3 says that Auckland has taken a wise precaution against the risk of a visit from an enemy's cruiser. in case of war, by letting the enemy know how well it is prepared to resist attack. Tin's has been done in tbe most ingenious manner. The proprietors of the Illustratrd New Zealand Herald. bate been induced to publish as a supplement to, their valuable paper a bird's eye view of the city of Anckland. In this the frowning walls of Port Britomart forms the most striking and prominent feature, and certainly the look of this splendid fortification would scare almost any. Russian in. the word; an! the Maori war canoe, shiwn in the harbour would frighten t lose even who might be disposed to run the ri^k of Port Bruomart's guns. We never fully undersold wbat was meant bt- a " masked battery " until we saw this picture of Fort Britomirt. A writer in fie Otago Guardian discourses thus on Governor's levees :— As it is not everyone who understands th© modus operandi of a Governor's levee, I wllexp'iin. It is uu illy attended by snobs, G*v7vrnment officials, and barbers'c'erks. Passing n at one door, the attendant presents a ra*i. ha* his n tme mis« pronounced pa s.»< by the Governor, bows at In does not know whom, goes oui at a door at tlie o:her end, where there, ar*' a lot of peopl • Lv :hina at his nervous attempts to.l'-ok*and walk like a gentle-. man,_and the n^xt day he sees his name in the paper. Tins he buys a dozen, copies, and distributes them among bis, friends, wbo. are, as i" duty bound, delighted. Having done this, if he.be married, he goes home and receives the con* gratuJation of his family ; if he be single,, he shakes hand with himself. Professor Barff, Professor of Chemistryat the RoyaL Academy, has made a great ! practical discovery, if we may trust the. Times of Tuesday last. He has discovered, how to treat iron vessels so as to render, them wholly safe from the ten lency to rust, so that hoile s. if the iron of which, they are made had been thus treated, would be safe against thj corrosion caused by the water ; and cooking vessels would no longer need either to be made of copper or furnished with a tin lining; while spades, ani rails, and iron keels, and plates, and the locomotives on our lines, and all the countless iron instruments of our modern life, would be safe against the, most destructive of all the agencies which waste them away. The process is to coat the iron with the mignetic or black oxide of iron, which is not onljr incapablo. of, rust, but harder than the iron itself, and which adheres to. the iron with, a tenacity, greater than that with which the various strata of the iron adhere together. Pro-* fessor Barff subjects the iron to superheated steamfat a temperature of from 500 degrees to 1200 degrees Fahrenheit, and if the exposure is continued for from Eve to seven hours, this coating will be fairly formed, and if the latter temperature be. secured, it will adhere so closely that not even a file will scrape it off. Professor Barff left iron vessel* thus treated out on the lawn for six weeks during the late rainy weather, and when brought in tbey were as bright as before their exposure. The coating dee* not affect the surface, except by turning it black. If the surface were rough before, it will be rough still, and if polished before, it will be polished, still. Nor in case the magnetic oxide is. detached in parts, will the rust which then begins on the exposed iron, spread underneath the magnetic oside. On the contrary, the coat clings so close, that though the rust will eat into the iron at any exposed part, it will not extend laterally to the iron still coated by the magnetic oxide. Say ?— That profound classical scholar, senior wrangler, and s° f o rtb « * ho - w . ear ! out this solitary existence as a shepherd in the Australian bush, and who. forms such a touching item in all books, descriptive of these colonies, turned up at some up-country inquest the other day. His learning was acknowledged by the shepherds and bushmen around, for, when he was drunk, which occurred whenever he got his cheque, he " let out" in an unknown tongue which these simple children of nature put down as Greek;. His cheque had jast been knojked down, and when he woke up next mornin^Ji i his hut his mouth felt like a limekiln, &j

m proceeded to make tea. But the logs were damp if bis throat was dry, «nd the fire would not keep pace with his impatience. So be swore. As tbat did no good he shifted the position of the logs, abusing them the while. And still they wonld not blazj up. Then a happy thought struck him and he reached out his hand for a tin-can that stool in a this and a box of tandstickors wlieh he corner of the hut. '* That's tbe stuff to do it," he said, as he took the cork out of , the kerosene can. "If Abraham had had was going to roast his son, he needn't have made that poor little beggar carry a »fire Bt?ck all the way. If old Socrates could have laid his wife on to such a prime way of lighting a fire, that old rip might have kept a more civil tongue in her head. If Archimedes had been up to this wrinkle, he might have saved a small fortune in burning glasses. These ancients lost a good thing, there's no doubt. I wonder," he went on, as he prepared to pour about half a pint of Kerosene on the fire, " what they would say to this— Ah !" \ They bave probably told him by tb|a> time. / —Insurance Record. .' A question having been asked in the ; House of Commons on February 20th as / to '• Prussia in the Pacific," Mr Hunt, for U. tbe Government, replied : " The honorable and gallant member seems by his question to anticipate an outbreak of war between thia country and Kmsia. Tbis is an anticipation in which I do not share, our relations with that country being of a friendly character. Should, however, British interests be threatened from any quarter in any part of the globe, I hope the House may rely upon Her Majesty s Government taking proper steps to afford them protection." A telegram has appeared in the American journals to the effect that Sigoora Patti, the great prima donna, had eloped with a tenor singer, and that her husband, the Marquis de Caux, had followed her, and intended taking legal proceedings. The elopement has been denied, but the following, telegram appears in the San Francisco papers:— ••New York, 24th Febroary.— A London special denies Patti's elopement, and says the final quarrel with her husband occurred in the opera box at St. Petersburg ; that Patti immediately went to the i 3?*laee, obtained an audience with the ; Emperor, and an order to the police to send the Marquis de Caux promptly out pf the country. On reaching Paris the 1 Marquis was summoned to answw legal , proceedings instituted at Patti's telegraphic orders for a legal sepi ration. It ' is said she offers him 100,000 francs for a < peaceful separation, which he declines unless the terms can be adjusted. On the - following evening at the opera, when ' Patti made her appearance, the ladies manifested their displeasure at the prima donna' 8 conduct in seeking the Marquis's banishment. The ladies occupying the i boxes in many instances went so far as to draw the curtains in the boxes on the first _rjier, in full view of the stage. The ladies ■ Went into the corridor while Patti sang."