Miscellaneous.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 889, 15 March 1889, Page 20

Miscellaneous.

During the Te Kooti scare (says our Westport correspondent) Captain Haselden wired to the defence authorities trusting it was fully understood that the Westport Navals were ready for any service required without a special offer being made in each emergency. Tho Defence Minister now thanks the corps for their offer, and says should circumstances hereafter arise in which their services could be availed of their offer will not be forgotten. One of the most interesting sights now to be seen in St Petersburg is. writes a correspondent, an Ice Palace, built exactly on the lines of that erected by the Empress Catherine in 1740. The Palace contains bed, furniture, ornaments, stoves, &c., all made of ice. Outside the Palace are cannons, statues, and various other forms of ornamentation. At night the structure is particularly striking, as it is illuminated by the electric light. Hitherto little interest has been taken here in the auriferous beaches of Westland ; but on “the Coast,” in Christchurch and Dunedin there are plenty of people fully alive to their value. The consequence is that for 100 miles or so there is no‘. a vacant bit of beach to be taken up. A company formed in Wellington in October last has secured the lease of 100 acres at Paroa, about four mile south of Greymoutb, and is now imDorting specially designed machinery from America to win the gold of which the presence has been proved by many trials. Unlike quartz mining in which the reef may at any moment be lost, the auriferous sand is here in evidence, and a trial washing shows the presence of gold everywhere. Information from Grenoble states that the Pope has sent a delegate to the celebrated Carthusian Monastery urging the General of the Order to accept the offer of 80,000,000 f made by some English bankers for the transfer of all the rights connected with the sale of the world renowned Chartreuse liqueur. Leo XIII. is said to be strongly of opinion that the vast commercial enterprise is scarcely compatible with the duties of the monastic state. It is said that the Congregation of the Religious Orders has advised the Pope that tho great liberty extended to the English Catholics tends to prove that the monopoly of both the green and the yellow Chartreuse ought to be vested as a special right of the English Orders established near Parkminster, Sussex. So far from the manufacture of cordials being out of harmony with a monastic life, it has always been a long-standing tradition not only of the Carthusia s, but also of the Carmelites and Benedictines.

The report of a “ corner ” in cigars, says the London Standard, comes home to every man almost, for if it were successful, in no long time energetic financiers might try their hand at tobacco. One might say in haste that this latter scheme would bo absurd; but we cannot feel so sure. Doubtless tobacco is a world-wide product, raised in every country from pole to pole, excepting the sub-arctic regions. But as a matter of fact the varieties consumed in Europe are grown within an area of the United States comparatively small. Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland supply the greater proportion. To gain command of the bulk would not be beyond the resources of speculative finance probably. Of course, new land would be planted with feverish haste, but tobacco cannot bo produced all the year round like salt or copper. If the syndicate secured twelve months’ monopoly it would do very well. And of course the herb would arrive in floods from every quarter ; but again, smokers oannot reconcile, themselves to a strange quality at short notice. Myriads, accustomed all their lives to American tobacco, would find (it actually impossible to use even the Indian, which is best of those competitors which might be introduced in quantity at a sudden call. The “operation” would be big, no doubt; but those enterprising financiers have long heads and broad views and deep purses. It is pleasant, therefore, to learn that experts do not feel alarm at the prospects of a “corner” in cigars ; but at the same time we cannot forget that their confreres of the salt and sugar business were equally comfortable uuder like circumstances.