MISCELLANEOUS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 283, 20 March 1877, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

mtrRANCH is ismdox. The valae of insured propeity in London is placed at £540,000,000. NEW GUINEA. Mr. Edward Tnrner, who was surgeon i to the Spencer Expedition to New Guinea, j in 1874, has arrived in Birmingham, and intends to lecture on what he sow in the island which has created so much interest I lately among naturalists and geographers. According to the f-tiropcan Mail, Mr. ! Turner is prepared to throw some light I upon the tails of the Natives, who, he I avers, certainly are possessed of such appendages. EXTRAORDINARY CONTEST. One Sunday two girls, pupils at an Illinois seminary, were about leaving I thtir rooms for church, when a dispute arose as to which had occupied the most | time in dressing. The discussion waxed \ warm, a bet was. made to be decided on i the spot, and three other girls were called in !as judges. The contestants removed their ! ctothtug, and at the call of *'timV sprang Ito the contest. For a few moments the | atr seemed filled with Hying bits of femii nine drapery—shoes, stockings, garters. j &C—and the winner was all " hooked ! up." and her bonnet on in seven minutes ! and thirteen seconds, the other girl ' coming out in less than half a minute behind. A REMARKABLE MARRIAGE. An extraordinary marriage took place j at Jevington, England, the other day, the ceremony being performed by the Very Reverend Archdeacon Philpot, in the : presence of a large congregation. The ! married couple both belong to the parish, of Jevington, but the sirgnlar part is, j that the bride had no arms, and the ring | had to be placed on the third toe of the I left foot. At the conclusion of the mar- ; riage ceremony, she signed the marriage ; registrar, holding the pen with her toes, en a very decent " hand." N£,W INVENTION FOR FEELING BAGS WITH CHAFF. Among the applications lately granted for patents by the Attorney-General of Victoria was one, the Argus states, bv Messrs. Andrews and 3lotlat, of Zetland, for certain improvements in idling bags with ehntf. These are drawn over the month of a vesical cvltnder, down wh : clt the c'laflfis conducted and pressed into the bags by means of a screw. Aronnd the cylinder is a ring suspended by a chain connected with a drum which b to a certain extent prevented from turning by the elastic pressure is overcome of two wo"dtn dishes on a ratchet at one end of the barrel. When this elastic pressure is overcome by the pressure of the screw the hag descends, being tilled, meanwhile, with pressed chaff. (E'Otm-REn MEMREEK IN AMERICA. The coloured members of the House of Representatives d»» not believe in paying for board and lodging. They are supplied by a paternal Government with free passes on the railways, and a correspondent who interviewed a railway guard says that for the past eight y-.-ars they have been using the railway cars as sleeping apartments. During the last session (the correspondent says) this is how they did it:-"They used to take the seven o'clock train from Columbia to i t»o* station, where they met t e train from Charleston, and so returned to Colombia. It was a regular practice. The guard is a very intelligent and apparently respectable man, and, though a democrat, I have no doubt, from his manner and the circumstances he mentioned, that ywt may rely on the truth of the story." How the legislators manage about their toilette and change of linen had better, perhaps, be left to the imagination of our readers. BREAD VERSI\S GLORY. The Edinburgh »S'»fr«s«M opposes any steps upon the part of England that may had the country into war. Looking at the brtad question, it remarks :—" The average price of wheat for the who'e of lS7r» vcas -lis. 2 1., so that the total value of the quantity required for the United Kingdom in that year was a lit le over £&MWO,O©O. T.as year, owing ciieny to fears of war, the price of wheat has gone np, until it is now 48s. Id. per quarter. If that had been the case last year, t:;e country would h.*»ve had to pay about three millions and three-quarters more than it did for bread. Supposing the Russian supply to be lost because of war, and the demand to continue the same, the price must rise at least five or six shillings a quarter, and in all likelihood would rise double that amount. Taking the latter stun as a basis, it would follow that a year of w tr with Russia would add eighteen or twenty ntitlh ns to the cost of the bread supply in 1875. This is not a matter to be overlooked in considering, as Lord Beaconstield said he had to consider, ' the interests' of the country." THE HOLY LAN P. The Sp<stH!tttt»r says that a curious rumour is afloat, for which we do not Vouch, that the Porte, in its eagerness for money, lias offered to sell the Hereditary Pashalis of the Holy Land to any candidate accepted by the Jews, in return for a loan. Tue transaction would be one of the moat singular in history, but it is not beyond the range of possibility. Palestine needs nothing but irrigation and trees, and though the Jews dislike agriculture, fellaheen surticter.t might be attracted from Egypt. The restoration of the Jews, with Lord Beaconstield for first King, would be an incident romantic enough to satisfy even the imagination of the author *' Alroy." If the Jews refuse, the Turks should ask Brigham Young to make a bid. His agents were said, 12 months ago, to be sounding the Porte, and studying the capabilities of the country, and the Mormon leader would glide easily into the position of a Pasha.