Miscellaneous Items.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1601, 6 January 1886, Page 4

Miscellaneous Items.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in holding that a son-in-law has no insuraUl'e interest iu the- life of hi* mother-in-law, has aimed another ylow at this much abuaed class. The Court sneoringly says that he is not a creditor of hers, n»r in any manner legally liable for her support or maintenance, and that he conld not inherit fiom her nor she ,from him; intact, tliat there is no consanguinity between them. The mere fact that he married her daughter gave him no pecuniniary interest in the preservation of her life, and while the Court does not in words 1 Say so the interence is very plain that it means to be understood (.hat in the opinion of the Court the son -in law is so interestd in getting rid of the moth<*r-in-law that to insure her life is a gambling contract of the worst kind. — - 4 Washington Law Reporter.

Wheat growers, who are down in the mouth just now, may extract a crumb of comfort from the following, which appered in the Pall MaW Gazette of September 10th : — "Why the price of wheat should remain so low an it is doe." not appear plain from the facts of the case. The new supplies from the producing countries are, on paper, barely equal to the probable consumption of the world; and before the season now begun has got to its close, the chances are that stock will have been trenched upon in all directions. The actual stocks of wheat and flour in eight chief ports of the United King* dom are returned at 2,560,000 qrs. compared with 2,34-0,000 qrs,u year ago; but oa the other hand the quantity on passage is 1,700,000 qrs, compared with 1,930,000. Ou the whole, therefore, the amount of import wheat in sight does nob keep the price depressed. Home markets lake the lead, and until the forced sal os of impoverished farmers cease the recovery may be delayed.

The city of London is the most wqnderf ul place iu the who! e world, and its frequenters are the most wonderful people. It is the smallest of the cities, but the most valuable. Id lias an area of one square mile, but that one square mile produces a rental of twenty millions per annum, and its inhabit ants pay one-seventh of the general rates of the whole metropolis, which has an area of 120 square miles. Land is now sometimes sold in the country at about £10 per acre, which is equal to a "penny per square yard. It has been sold in the city ab J2650 per square yard, which is eqiial to over £3,000,000 per acre. In other \v-<>rds, : the' price of a square yard of land in Lombard street has realised a sum ' thai would purchase a nice little freehold estate in Berkshire, of, -not .legs than 64* acres/ It is calculated that 10,000 people enter the city daily, Sundays excepted, in hopes of making money without "toiling or spinniug,"

The Wellington Post has ...made the startling discovery that there is nothing in the Regulation of Local Elections Act lo prevent either the Beturning Officer, his, clerks, or the scrutineers from kuowing'for whom the vot of any numbered elector is given. Our contemporary Las devoted a leading article to this important subject. For oiir part we think the matter so serious.bhat a special hession Parliament should be immediately held in order that the defect may be made good, Imagine the feaiful consequences if it became known that John Snooks voted for Robert Tonipkins at the election of a member for the Bunghole Biding of the Tuppenuihapenny Road District. The very Consitution would be ih danger. The pillars of •' the whole system of responsible, representative government even now trehible, in anticipation of the bare possibility of such a dire catastrophe. Why, it might even be found'out who a man vofct-d for at the election of a Brou«h Councillor! or a County Councillor !.' or a member of the House of Representa~ tives I ! ! or a parish constable,' ! ! ! Horrible. — -Bruce Herald.