MISCELLANEOUS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 336, 22 May 1877, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

FEMALES APPROPRIATING MALE EMPLOYMENT. The Wellington Argus says : —On the West Coast there is a female blacksmith ; in Napier a female auctioneer; Dunedin possesses a female chimney-sweep ; Wellington "was not very long ago blessed with a female "nightman;" but it has been reserved for Auckland to have a female bon' . ;ker. An advertisement appears in an .' uckland paper notifying that "Mrs. McGrath is now carrying on her husband's business as boot and shoe-maker ; orders punctually attended to." Mrs. McGrath's husband -was recently sent to gaol for 12 months for brutally ill-using her, and as she had a knowledge of the shoemaking trade, and could get no other means of support, she determined to carry on her husband's business. Wellington ought to possess a few women of such spirit, as about two husbands a month are sent to gaol here for ill-treating their ■wives. TWO LITTLE NEWSPAPER WOMEN. Mrs. Carrie K". Thomas, editor of the ISTew York Temperance Times, has just been burned out, sued for libel, and held to lOuOdol. bail; but she is "game," as witness this : " Scorced by fire, deluged by water, and indicted by the grand jury, we still live, for we are on the side of God and all right, and it is impossible to crush us. We went to Rochester not worth a penny, and returned worth lOi'Odol. As our fighting editor weighs just 721b., weighed by Mr. Fairbank's scales at the Centennial, and 1000 divided by 72 equals 13.80, we are worth 13.8Cd01. per pound." Mrs. Editor Harrow, of the Efdoralo, Indiana, Herald, undertook to cowhide Bob M'Bride, of the rival Ledger, the other day. Bob took the little woman under one arm, the whip under the other, and marched down the street, to the amusement of an immense crowd. A CHINAMAN LAWYER. It is said that Mr. Ng-Choy, who was recently called to the bar of Lincoln's Inn, is the first Chinese gentleman who has earned this distinction. He was formerly interpreter in Hong Kong, but had left his post in the East in order to study English law, and having successfully passed the necessary examination, has now returned to China. TURNING CATS TO ACCOUNT. The Toronto Free Press states that "'Mansfield Island, in Lake Erie, has been bought by a man who intends to stock it with black cats, and kill their progeny for their fur. He will feed them at first with fish caught off the shore by men who will live on the island; but after the enterprise is well started, he will utilise the meat of the slaughtered cats as food for the living cats." The wise man who said there was nothing new under the sun was unacquainted with the versatility of the American genius. It would seem from the above that the old story of the Kilkenny cats is to be put to practical account. 1