MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 85, 22 October 1877, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

A most amusing scene occurred recently. The Opposition scouts were out over the •town iooking for a Southland member, who had not been at his lodgings all night, and was seen last night with two of abe" Government party. He was at last traced, in company with these two, to the A siembly buildings and information was^eeeived'that they had half :carri6d,' halff led;bittijU]J:stairs._ A thmsm m#<W was made Tn every room ; and one in a very remote part of the building was found locked. An inspection through the keyhole showed some one asleep there. A strong band of the Opposition assembled in the passage, and began calling on their comrade within. At last he replied, and asked to be let ont, saying tbat he bad been locked up while asleep. One of •the party went to tbe member who had the key, and told him the prisoner was d.scovored, and that if he was not let out they would burst the door in. He would not givo the key, and the door was accordingly burst in and the captive member rescued amidst much rejoicing, and borne in triumph to the Opposition whips' room, where a good dinner and plenty of sodawater was ready as well as kind friends to look after him. Next to libel actions and abduction cases what most fills men's minds just now is the news of tho European War. W'irs and rumours of war. then, I may fairly say, do fill the air. The other day, there was great excitement in Dunedin. Contingent upen the fears of an invasion -come the welcome fact that the first gun ever manufactured in Npw Zealand had been launched. And local Britons who together with Macandrew, have sworn never to be slaves, felt their manly bosoms fill wiih pride and enthusiasm. On more critical examination, however, it turned out that tbe object of all this commotion was a neat piece of ordinance moulded, bored, and mounted at a local foundry, bnt only of a six-pound " power." * The deadly instrument was in due course of time, fixed on board the steamer Taranaki in the place of the one she lost in a recent gale off the West Coast.— New Zealand S-un. With the defeat of the Russian armiies in Europe begins the wailing of the Russian Press. To Entlind's door is laid the cause of all this, and vengeance against her is loudly proclaimed. Thn cloven foot shows itself in all their writings, it is not Constantinople that is so much needed, but Kurdistan and Armenia, with the possesion of tho Parsian Gulf, in order to slrilco at England's H.ssrs ,:oi.r, in the East, It is r n-r. .|,;,f 7' ■'■■> .■''■ ■!•-*'•• i *■ '•' hr < he ne-

to be amongst the first to be attacked. lii their ignorance they fancy those colonies aro governed the samo way as their own country, namely, by soldiers, who bold a discontented populace in subjection. It may be too lato wben they find out their error. Illustrious foreigners who travel through these colonies declare "that England's greatness is only to be perceived after a visit to the Antipodes." . An experiment made last year ny myself may not come amiss at this time with those who grow strawberries. I procured a half hogshead, filled it with rain water, and put it into one quarter pound ammonia aiid ono quarter pound common nitre. When the strawberry plants were blossoming out I gave them a sprinkling of the solution in the evening twice a wrek until the frnit was nearly full size, lhe result was lull double the amount of rruit on those where the liquid was applied compared wiih that obtained where none of the liquid was applied. At Trenton. N. J., says the Boston Journal, the train stopped nnd the first crowd was encountered. Tho train had scarcely come to a stand wh^n a little old lady in black appeared at the door of the President's car, and though 'the attendants were for keeping her out. the Preside it by ii word caused her to be admitted. She walked up to the Chief Executive of the nation, and without thp slightest rmbarassmenfc took him by lhe hand, ani ;wilh the remark, "President, I want to shake hands with you," shook it heartily. . The President very good nafutelly said, " I believe we've seen you be'bre," and pxplained to the bystanders that fell In dy had made her appearance at tbe O uo State building.,at the Centennial rn'i 'day last Fall. , HaVing opened the conversation in this off hand way, the strange visitor ran on : " I have brought you a cake, and I want you to take it and eat it. Here it is (laying a basket containing a large cake on the table), and. you can keep the basket ; and I've brought thirteen fans because I want every one of you to have one. She distributed the fans amongst the laughing spectators, and then in self justification said : " President, I want you to understand these things are the truth ; I don't, want no office. This blunt declaration raised a laugh, and the President remarked that he was glad to bear it, becauso she was different from most people who

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