MISCELLANEOUS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3256, 13 July 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEOUS.

A railway is about to be constructed in the Isle of Man.

The lato eruption of Vesuvius is the fifth within thirty yenra.

Coal-getting by machinery is becoming very general in England. Brigandage is being carried on to an alarming extent in Spain. The lighting of the ships of tho Royal Navy costa £00,000 a year. A co-operative' coal supply association is being formed in London. Dundee is to have a new water supply from the Loch of Liotrathon. Fires were unusually numerous in England during the month of April. Eight thousand young trout wcro lately turned out into tha Thames. 25,000 drunkards are annually dealt with by tho authorities in Glasgow. M'Donald, the Ben Nevis guide, has ascended that mountain 1162 times. An Oddfellows' Hall is about to bo erected in Forrest Road, Edinburgh. The population of St Petersbm'g, ac cording to the late census, is 067,000. France has the largest number of landed proprietors of any country in tho world. Tho " strike" mania in Dublin is reported to bo assuming serious proportions. Seven Arctic expeditions are being fitted out in different countries of Europe. The Glasgow police are agitating for a reduafcion of the hours they are on duty. The pauperism of Manchester is lower this year than it has been for ten years past. Renter's Telegram Company, Limited, is paying an annual dividend of 10 per cent. Sir Patrick Grant has resigned tho Governorship of Malta, owing to illhealth. Cricket is extending on tho Continont of Europe. A club has been formed at Geneva. A two-headed child was lately borne by the wife of an omnibus conductor in London. Prince Napoleon's art collections havo been sold by auction, in London, for £14,387. A line of railway is about to he constructed which will pass under the London Docks. Foxt to small-pox, hooping-cough has been the most fatal epidemic itl Scotland this soring. At Kirriemuuy a dog found a purso containing money, and wisely carried it to his mistross. A Sheffield scythe-grind^y has been rattened for employing hia son at the grind,u\g-wheel. '- The sewer cleaners in London are reported to be exceptionally free from attacks of fever. The Kidderminster people have resolved to erect a statue of Ilichard Baxter in their town. At Wigan, a man, aged S3, has died from the effect^ of drinking a pjint and a half of saw whisky. A general movement to procu.ro tho release of the Fenian prisoners has been organised in Irolaud. M' Guteot has declared himself in favour of compulsory, but opposed to gratuitous, education. Pitched battles between regiments, of larrikins have, been, frequent in Qlasgo.w lately even on Sundays! Th.c. «. c Woolwich Infants M are about to b.o eclipsed by a iiew gun, three feet longer and a ton heavier. ■ The house of Sir Travers Twiss in Park Lane, London, has been let, and its qo§,V«y contents sold by auction. Among the marriage, prosents received by the M,ar^iUß of Bute and hia bride were four carriage clocks. Seamen are so. scarce in son^e of the. English ports that y^ssefc are frequently detained, for Mfant of crews. At Ogdenburg, Germany, a yaun£f married woman has died in groftt agony from the effects of th.<j bjia of a rat. A new theatre, to hold more than 3000 persons, is being* built opposite the Elephant and Castle, London. The British institution of g^rotting is beginning to be imitated in Paris, where it has hitherto been unknown. • Ths expulsion of the Jesuits from Prussia'has been commenced at Schrinen, -where they had a large college. There are now qbout 30,0(k) agricultural lalwuisewi in union in England, 4000 of ihom being in Warwickshire. The British Goverjimont are considering the question of opting the South Kensington Museum on Sunday. The Bey. Dr Josoph Brown, of Glaagow, was lately knocked down by a oab, but is recovering fron* hia injuries. A society hasTieen proposed in London for the cultivation' of national Jewish musio—music used in the synagogue. The "Peculiar People )T in Englap4 number between .2000 and 3QQQ. T>ey are resident chiefly in Kent and Essex. The snow- on the great Alpine passroads lay. recently, to the unprecedented depth of 40 feew-henco the floods in the ■po.;.,;;; -. '; ; : ~ . ~ ■ ......

' Miss Ijrackcnbury has cuutributod "£IO,OOO to bo devoted to tlie establishment of a school of medicine in Manchester.

Miss Tennie 0. Claflin lately lectured on " free love " in JSew York. The papers describe her lecture as unfit for publication.

"Tremendous excitement" has been produced in Ireland by Judge Keogh denouncing priestly intujudation at elections.

Captain Bythesea, V.C., for allowing the iron-clad, Lord Clyde, to run aground in the Mediterranean, lias been dismissed the ship. There are now 40,000 hancto -employed regularly in tho London market gardens. These ar& engaged in the cultivation of 18,000 acres.

Marriages by declaration are becoming quito common in Dundee, the parties finding the proclamation of banns too blow a process.

Tho Spectator, writing of tho late Professor Maurice, says that fifty years hence it will bo acknowledged that he rediscovered for us tho Gospel.

Two more planets have been discovered by M. Henry at Paris, and M. Box-clli at Marseilles. This raises the number of known minor planets to 120.

The petitions in favour of Mr Jacob Bright's Women's Disabilities Removal Bill, which the House of Commons has rejected, contained 243,000 signatures.

The Society of Arts has offered three prizes—£00, £20, and £10 —for improved cabs of any description, to be exhibited at thu International Exhibition in 1873.

Mr Butler- Johnstono, the senior member for Canterbury, in addressing his constituents lately, uaid that for twenty-five years there had been no real Conservative party.

An Airdrie collier was lately fined for keeping pigs in his house. It camo out in evidence that their mother having died, he was rearing them with a feedingbottle.

A grand national trophy formed o'» plate won in Ireland at races, regattas, rifle meetings, shows, athletic sports, &c, is to bo erected in the forthcoming Dublin Museum.

During tho war, tho French manufactured cannon from church bells. The Germans are now manufacturing church bells from tho cannon they captured from tho French.

So greatly has tho demand for Irish whisky for exportation increased,'that a new whisky distillery company is projected in Dublin, and its prospectus has been issued.

In the Houso of Commons, Mr Gladstone stated that ho had no decision to announce on tho part of the Government on tho Bubjoct of establishing a Roj'al residence in Ireland.

A report has been published which shows that during the 20 years from 1851 to 1870, both inclusive, 20,644 persons employed in coal mines in Britain met their death by accident. The strength and width of tho Homo Rule feeling in Ireland is shewn by tho fact that almost every new candidate announces that ho is a Home Ruler, and if ho does not ho has a poor chanco of being elected.

In a leading articlo the Times Bays :— " Of the £100,000,000 spent annually in drink, £50.000,000 may bo said to bo misspent, and the fact iB now Btrongly attracting tho notice of statesmen and moralists."

Mr Robertson Gladstone'!* plan of publishing a weekly list of drunkards in Liverpool appears to bo more successful than was expected. The diminution in the number of offenders is said to have been most marked.

In somo of the States of Germany tho law does not allow a man to bo married unless he can read, write, and cast accounts ; and anyone who employs a workman that cannot read and wiito in liable to a heavy penalty.

The Pope was recently frightened uy «• ialf-crazy schoolmaster, who, wishing to speak to him, had concealed himself in the papal bedroom. Pius IX., states the Gi« omalo di Boma, remained for two days afterwards in a "Btate of indescribable agitation."

Tho Manx Sun says >—■" Emigration, chiefly to America, is very aotivo this spring, tho northern parishes of tho Isle of Man as usual furnishing tho largest quota of hardy and promising young farmers well suited to puah their way in a now country."

M. Thiors has ono weakness ; ho does not like to bo reminded of his ago, Ho endeavours to persua.de himself that ho ;ia but 70 yeare old j to his intimate friends ho sometimes acknowledges 72. Ho was born on tho 16th April, 1796, and is consequently 70.

A novel plea was urged by a woman who was taken up the otlher day, in London, as "drunk and incapable, and <?on* veyed to the station on a stretcher. She said she was not drunk, but had b«en " chemicalised from the seiwr." Sho was, how&v-er, fined 2a Cd.

T-ho Globe's correspondent in Holland says >-r."I noticed m,en smoking in church at Rotterdam on Good Friday morning, and at Amsterdam on Good Friday even. ing. A Dutch lady to whom I mentioned it afterwards, told mo, ' th,ey wi^l smoke anywhere ; I have heard of them doing so at their mother's funeral." '*

M. Qustave Dpr6 is.about to challenge il^o opinion of the world of art on a grand scale. He has just finished a picture, 30 feet long by 20 feet wide, a,t which he km been working pretty constantly for about four years. The subject of this large composition is "Christ loading the Temple," and it containa about 400 figures.^ Among many curious advertisementa ■renioh appear in the. Times, her© Is one of the other day : —" Quarter-day.—'Cruelty to Cats.—The persons w,ho left a cat behind in the. ho.Ujse they vacated, in Halli-ford,-3iyoet, Islington, at tho last Christi ma» quarter, will bo gratified to learn fthe poor creature has died of starvation." The following fact wo (Swias Ti«j«») i commend to the notice of ornitb,ologuits. On felling an old oak in iJut neighb/nirhood of Rappitz tho workmen wero not a. little surprised io find in the hollows of tho fallen tree tliree hundred sleeping swallows. When, however, the workmen brought some of them, into a warm room, they died. In the Scotsman a curioua controversy has been waged on the subject of " Dirty Bank-notes." One side alleges that theso paper trifles are admirable media for the diffusion of small-pox. " Scotch notes," especially» are held to, be so filthy and ■ naafcy that their smell is sickening. The Ojthor side admits the filthiness, but denies tho diseaae-communicfliting danger1. "Tanby," tlie colebratod antelope of the 7th Hussars, has paid the last debt of nature. A post mortem examination revealed the fact that "Tanby" had an ostrich-like capacity for eating singularly indigestible articles. In hia stomach were found several brass knobs, a, sponge, half a, yard of flannel, and isundry othor articles which are not generally recognised as. articles of food—evon far antelopes. A young gentleman, who. is just, out of his minority, has. been made a bankrupt in Loi^don, The. debts are £14,787, and jowellery, millinery, betting, operas, th,efttre^ dinaew, auppewj $n% wvm

I are the principal items. Tho bankrupt 1 said that theatres cost him £0 a week. lAnothor bankruptcy case is* remarkable I for the smallness of tho estate, tho debts being £34,240, and tho assets £17 0s (kL The latest " London improvement" is tho luxury of sea bathing. In a Bill now before Parliament, a company asks for permission to bring sea water pumped from the ocean at Brighton by a series of "lifts" to the summit of tho South Downs, whence it is to gravitate through enamelled pipes, along the turnpike-road, to the West End uf London, at the rato of about half a million of gallons per day, A man at Exeter has, says a local paper (tho Western Times), sold his wife for £50. It appears that tho purchaser was smitten with.the charms of his friend's wife, who did not live on tho best of terms with her husband, having too much "dash" for him ; negotiations wero entered into, an offer of £50 was accepted, and tho man took tho woman to Plymouth, where the couplo aro now resid ing. Lord Shaftesbury, in a reoont speech afc Exeter Hall, alluding to the late eruption of Vesuvius, said it was a popular delusion to think England free from tho probability of these eruptions: tho most eminent geologists had often told him, that England constituted the cover of a subterranean well of fire, and the peoplo of Great Britain are liable at any moment to meet the fate of tho district round Vesuvius.

A thoroughly sensational tragedy is reported from Bolton. Two pit sinkers who were hanging on a scaffold half-way down a deep shaft quarrelled, and fought fiercely. One being armed with an iron bar, struck down his companion, and was endeavouring to push him off tho scaffold to the bottom of the shaft, when the unwonted noise induced those above to set tho windlass in motion, and both wero brought to bank—one hx a dying state. The Ancient Order of Foresters, according to the Foresters' Monthly Journal, have increased their numbers by 19,581 during the past year, while tho sum of £96,000 has been added to tho reserve fund of courts and districts. Taking into account the juvenilo societies and the second degree (the Ancient Order of Shepherds), tho members now number more than half a million, having funda invested to the oxtent of £1,527,939, as a provision against sickness and death. Dr George Wyld, in a letter to tho Pall Mall Gazette, records a narrow escape which he had from being killed by lightning during a thunderstorm on May 9th. "As I was walking across Wimble-don-common," ho says, "at twenty minutes past fiyo o'clock, in tho midst of a deluge of rain, I suddenly received an eleotric shock in tho loft temple. I was carrying overhead an umbrella with an iron frame and wooden handle A ring of sparks crackled from the extremities of tho iron spokes, whilo almost instanta, neously there broke immediately abovo a terrific peal of thunder." The German correspondent of tho London Guardian aaya :—"A curious phonomonon is to bo aeon in the north-west and east of Prussia. An emigration mania ia in full progress. In Schloswig-Holstoin it assumes extraordinary dimensions; whole villages are being emptied, tho peoplo aro selling houses and land at ruinous prises, no servants aro to bo had for lovo or money,—thoro h a, wholesale) exodus. Emigration agents aro busy shipping off tho people, the greater'and superior part to America, and tho lessor part to Qneonaland, to which they aro taken at ten shillings a head." During tho representation of tho ballot of " Eliinor " at tho Berlin Opora House, a terrible accident was only prevented by tho merest chance. In tho third act, a carriage drawn by splendid horses comes upon tho stage. One evening tho horses became suddenly restive, and dashed towards tho footlights, dragging the carrigo and its occupants with them. Fortunately one of tho wheels caught in a part of [the scenery, which kept tho carriage, back, until the machinists, who woro attracted by tho cries of tho ladies in it (for the gentlemen had leaped out), woro enabled to master the horses, and pro vend them from springing into tho orchestra, which would have led to a fearful catastrophe.

Deny Castle baa been almost entirely destroyed by fire, which originated in a ilue, and was first discovered about midnight, Two men were killed by tho falling- of a wall, and another man had to have a leg amputated. None of the furniture, books, or pictures wero saved, and the insurance scarcely covered half tho loss. Mr and Mrs Spaight, with tho domestics, were only got out in thoir night-drossofl. The fire ia supposed to have boon the work of an incendiary; same ill-feeling is thought to have arison, towards Mr Spaight about a lawsuit respecting some fishing rights in Limerick. At the inquest, however, the witnesses were of opinion that the fire was puroly accidental

Mr William Chambers, who w oil a Continental tour, writCß in a letter which is publi»hed in tho Scotsman : —"The state of afl'aira in Prance is getting beyond a. joke, AU with whom I conversed spoke des.pondingly of tho future. Tradesmen, an all hands are complaining of the increased taxation, and of tho probable distresses arising from an erroneous commercial policy. Yet France has largo resources, and it may contrive to get through its financial difficulties. At present, I must say, things do not look well in the money way. During my whelo stay 1 encountered only ono gold Napo-^ leon. Circular noteß are cashed in notes o| the Bank of France, and for small change 1 was favoured with notes of from two to five francs."

Archdeacon Denison, at a visitation lunch the other day, referred to his wellknown repugr&nce to Government school inspection.. One of Her Majesty's inspectors proposed to come to his (tho Archdeacon's) school twenty-five years ago. Ho said w> the inspector, " I lovo you very much; you are a very nice man; but as sure as possible if over you como here I'll tell the boys to put you into tho pond." The gentleman aid not go, and was a very wise man for not going. Tho next school inspector who went to tho school asked whether the children sang ", and Mrs Denison, who came up at the timo, told the ohildren to sing "Goouey, goosey, gander," and whether the inspector thought it was a cut at him or not, ho never went again. The total amount realised at tho sal© by auction of the collection of pictures ~ formerly belonging to the late Mr Gfflott, the pen manufacturer, was £74>1G1. Tho London correspondent of a provincial '~■ English paper, commenting on this sale, saya :.-— *♦ It baa been noticed that many-, of the. paintings purchased at tho Gillott; ! Bale have realised from five to eight times their original coat The belief has been growing for some years that good paint- . inga are, perhaps, the.best investment that can bo made, and some of tho wealthiest merchants are beginning "to spend a, large part of. their surplus in-; ■ . comes in the. purchase of art One partner. in a big wholesale drapery establishment has several houses full of pain't'ng^.ftU'i. spendfihia time- in going from :Ixiits& tq lioqse to qnzz upon hia-tymirot'Jl/,,' *^ '.-:.:;£