MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 585, 14 February 1863, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Turnip Culture. — According to the opinion of tho leading agrieu'tui'ists in Britain and elsewhere, Mr Mec'sic, amongst others, iv Ki;srland, and Mr X "•honbiidge. in Tosmmia, an attention to root crops ought to bs a permanent obiet-t to fa-nier.*, and famous as this colony Ins been for its cereals and potatoes, it may with ordinary care and trouble, become equally celebrated for its turnips, parrots, aud mangold wuizel, the value of which, as winter load for cattle, need no comment. And it is observable that our cultivators are abjuring the old, slovenly, hand-to-mouth, and chance-medley fwtning of former days, for a more judicious, wise, and profitable system, in which, however, there is yet room for improvement. Turnips enn be grown on many of the lands to great perfection, in proof of which we may no;ice a crop at Campania, on the Coal River, the farm of Mr Hollinsdale, of which the loots arc excellent both in bulk and quality. ' There may be seen at our oflice a sample of this produce, namely, a Swede turnip weighing 9 lbs, and a elobe weighing Bij lbs ; we have seen many larsrer, hut none more firm and compact in quality. We may add that Mr Hollinsdale has a large quantity of both kinds, entirely free from the grub.- -Hobart Town Mercury.

Washington's Waggoner in tme War oi? Independence.—A orresp mdenfc of an American paper lias the following :—": — " Seated in Ihe door of an old negro hut, T oiiddenly came upon an ancient slave, familiarly known to the country about as ' Old Dick.' He is a mulatto, and, according to his own account, is ' goin» on two hundred years old, when be liro a mind to.' He is evidently more than one hundred years old His hea 1 !, once covered with olosetwisted y/001, has now a hirsute ornament, stra'ght and trhjie ; his beard, once short, black and crisp, is now Jong, straight, and grfrfcle'l, lie has passe 1 the time of ►econd childhoo 1, for hi 3 memory fails him uppn matters which, in that state, are uppeimost in the mind— the events of early yeai-3. His mother was bousht by General Richard Lee, of revo'utfonavy fame, and Old BHc boasts of never having been sold. He fcfls no reopUeeJion of General Washington or General Lee, bnt when asked if he remembers Massa George Washinton, or Massa Dick Lee, l)is heavy countenance at once brightens up, and he says, ' Yah. ! yah ! I drives de waggon for dem in de war !"

Population and Houses in England. — The revised rensus returns show that, on the Bth April, 1861, the number cf houses inhabited by thepopula tion of JEnpland and Wales was 3,739,505. There wns, therefore, 100 hoiisfcs "to ! every 536 persons, or 536 persons to 100 houses. In 1851 there were 547 persons jfojl oo houses; so that, notwithstanding increased nuiiibti'a, tjbere is rather 'more hou-e-room than there was. In' the metrofd;;;, hpvever, taken a^s a whole, these returns show that the titowtUng'is rather greater than less than it was ; in 1851 there were 772 persons to 100 houses, in 1361 7SO persons. At the date of the census of 1861 there were ii 7,305 houses building in England and Wales, and in the same year the number of children born was 250,232 greater than the number of persons who died. The number of house 3in Rngland and Wales returned as "uninhabited" in 18611s 184,604, an inerep.se of 31,20.0 over 18pl J biit'ilmust not be. supuoied that t'lis means empty houses, it m.ercjy implies that in that numbei' of house* no person bleeps In the city of London, for instance, tho ''taninh'ibited houses" have since lrfol increased fioin 1,059 to 1,5? G. but at least 1,200 or 1,300 of these iire occupied during the day, though left tenantless at night under the leneral surveillance of the police. — Lmo Time*.

Meeting oe Veterans.— Eight okPmrn, alive in Arbroa'h, named Matthew Lyal, aa;ed 84; David Tyrie, 77 ; Wiliiani Walls, ?3 ; John Balfour, 74 ; John Carnegie, 6? ; James Pt'trie, 73 ; David Cratnm&nd,7Bj and John Ilcird, 74) total GOO, met In tiio Xbfcey Tnn. on ,lhe2|th October, 1862. being the day thpir nmars vui'e \)hvl ; fh?)' " vat both eyes" and speui the <;ny cheerfully, talking ove*: thpir exploits. " God pave the Queen." They served in tlie 11 th Forfar ard Kincardine regiment of militia, commanded by the late Lord Poug-ias, Arbroath Guitla.

Longevity. — Hugh White, a veteran sfipsy, died lately in h:s 102 nd year, he was originally a customer veavtr, aud married Molly Burke, about eighty yetifi .i,20. She ),wr> bjrth to sixteen children, of wliom five are stJl living, ulie oldest bcinjr now seventy-seven and the yoUngest fifty yeavs cf ngs. His father, John White, was a soldier 1 \vntlar the Marquis ot lllinfly about the middle ot last century and his descendant* to iho third or fourth generation are now a race of wanderins; Arab<; alias ''Children of the Mist." — JBrtchin Advertiser.

Ira Aldiudge is playing Othellow at Moscow, and is highly piaised by the Moscow Art Journal, which says "Shakspeare himself could not have dcs'.i'pd ••*. more able exponent of his great genius."

• A Lbttrlm fro*a P*»> s dated Friday s'vys : — " It is remarked, that th,<j Motoiteuf, wfcilat notic^np: the arrival of the Prince and ?iincess Itoya(; oi: Pfusifta at Naples, omits all mention of the Prince of Wales." Mr J. WoEL Paton, U.S.A.— The Council of the Royal Manchester lnsttut : on of the Fine Arts has just awarded to Mr Paton's picture of "Luther at iiriuvr," the Hoy wood Gold Medal offered for the best iigure pietur&contributed to tha present Exhibition, and we 'undevsttuid that the Sieiety ot Belgian artists has presented our frilled townsman with their diploma of honorary membership,— Scotsman,

SeSious Accident at a Menagerie.— One even* in« !a-t a'eek ai urt oriunate accident occural at the lake a d well appointed English nnd American Hippoibmic Circus, ncently en'cted by Mr Richard Bell, iv ro-, hal ttietif, off Dale street, Liverpool. On that b'veuiiig, whi!« the performance was going on in the dims, a servant named Macavthy, as&wtanfc to Mr Alfred Moff it, was passing tlie cage in which the lions ara confined, and one shutter of which had just bejn removed for ventilation, when a lioness seizett him by tlie a' - m. The unfortunate man s shrieks rang through the building, and no doubt his life would have been sacrificed, but Mr Batty, the intrepid pertonner with the wild beast 5 ) connected with the Hippo Irunie, war fortunately close at hand ; he dashed to tiie rescue of Macavthy, and actually wrenched him f: om the grasp of the lioness. The den of lions was immediately wherled into the centre of the ring, and Mr Batty entering the page, at oncn went through liis ciu:aseous performance with tlu ani-uals, to the astonishment and nnd reassurance of th>; immense audience which had been disturbed by tlie poor man's streams. The man was removed to the northern Hospital, where, in conspqusnee of the severe lacerations inflicted upon the limb, it was found advisable t'» amputate the fore arm. The pationt is now progressing tavorably towards recovery ; and we understand that Mr Bell has male arrangements by which " the poor fellow though thus maimed, will not be pecuuarily a, sufferer by the accident. Intjsdatioxs in Italt, — Distressing accounts' of inundations continue to be received from various parts of Italy. To the disasters caused by the ovei - 11 3 wing of the Art.o we have no>y to a'ld the inundations of the Tuscan Mareinme by the Omborne At Pavia, the Ticino is so swollen ab to cause serious uneasiness to the inhabitants of the Borgo Ticino. A Max Shot by a Soldier. — On Monday " evning, shortly after six o'clock, an accident, which it is feared will be attended with fatal consequences, occurred within a shooting-saloon situated r.t 39 Saltciarkefc, (Glasgow. It appears that three soldiers of the 29th Regiment, accompanied by three civilians, entered the saloon in question for the purpose of hay-» ing a friendly shot. -^3 er several shots had been, tired, a dispute arose^foncerning tlio number of points made, and the result was that two of the soldiers and Wo ot the civilians, one of whom wa3 railed Leonard, went up to the target for the purpose of measuring the spaces between the shots. While they were so engaged, as we have been informed, John Penny, one of the soldiers, took a rifh from the boy, who was in charge of the saloon at the time, - and the boy, who saw the persons standing at the target, endeavored at first to prevent Penny from getting possession of the rifle. The soldier ultimately gut possession of the weapon, which suddenly went off, and the ball took effect on (he back of Leonard's head, and the unfortunate fellow dropped upon tlie ground. The soldier, upon seeing what he bad done, immediately exclaimed — " Good God, I've shot him ;"' and threw down the gun. 4 doctor was at once sent for, aud the wounded man " was taken to the Infirmary, where he now lies in a hopsles-i condition. He is said to have exonerated the soldier from all blamo in the matter. — Glasgow Herald. The Sajtdyford Murder.— The petition to be transmitted to Lord Palmerston, and at present lying in the Koyal Exchange, pi aving that a strict inquiry should be made into tb." circumstances of this case, and that the causes aud the evidence which have led to the result of the prisoner's relief from the capital sentence should be made public, was up to Wednesday night signed by upwards of 1,000 persons. — North British Mail, Dk ath op Mr James Adam "Aberdeen Herald." - -The pres3 of Scotland, the Scottish Liberal party, the cause of free thought aud free speech, and a very 1 vrge circle of private friends, have suffered a severe loss in the death of Mr James Adam, editor of the Aberdeen Herald, which took place at his house in (Md Aberdeen on Monday morning. Our departed Mend, though peculiarly 'indeed recklessly careless of praise ot tame, was one of the ablest men ever connected with the newspaper press, we shall not say of t'ootland merely, but of the United Kii.gdom. His 1 >reception was singularly quick and acute; an^ he wrote a very pure aud vigorous Ungfish, which was all the better that it was in the best sense homely, and feetned designed to conceal rather than display his really thorough knowledge pf Englisli literature. He had also an unusually wide reading in Frenr-h authors, of whose subtleties of thought and refinements of expression he had a high, npp'renation. He had read much and thought more on ejcle-iiistical questions, upon which, especially in their Scottish phases, he wrote with great effect, ) Hiring the controversies preceding 1 the Disruption of 1 843, no pen in Scotland did more or better in exposnn a ' the dangerous nature of the claims urged by the then dominant party in the Church of Scoland. and there hai not been in our time, whether before or after that event, a more tearless and effective exposer of bisotry and intolerance in every form and disguise. Wherever the principles of political und especially of religious liberty were con* earned, he did not know what fear or iiJteresb i> c.int. In p-ivate life, a more disinterested,- gener iv?, and g\ nial man could scarcely have existed— and this announcement of his departure will awaken among many friends jn m.my districts of Scotland memories of mirthful meetings up more' to 'be re* newed. Mr Adam, a native of Paisley, wherj he for some short time was connected with the press an 4 with politics, went to Aberdeen nearly thirty years a;o, and labored rhere in his vocation without inter* raption till the commencement of the illness which has now terminated fatally. He did great work iv bis time according to his opportunities -he i 3 not likely soon to find a &uccessor in his department of public life in the North of Scotlaud, and in the South almost as much as in the North he leave 3 a hopeless void in the hearts of many friends. — Scotsman, Railway Delinquency. — Another terrible catastiophe to the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway has possibly just been avoided by a narrow chance. A pomtauiad at Potmont Stat'otf-vas, on the afternoon of Friday last 'found drunk and incapable at his post at the junction. The "discovery was made by tha st itio n master, who was surprised that' the signal^ were not arranged for the train coming from Edm; burgh for Glasgow and tlie north shortly before $vq o'clock p.m. On proceeding to the junction, he found the pointsman unable to look after himself or to manage the signals. The stationmaster imroedi--ately got assistance in time to prevent a catastrophe. The offender, John Sinclair, who has been for many years in the service of the company, was on Monday brought before Mr Alexander Macfarlane, of Thornbill, J.P., and sentenced to two months' imprisonment with hard labor. He is now in Stirling Jail.— = Scotsman. A Thagtion Engine and thrashing apparatus, says the Southern- importer t was last "Friday being conveyed ro Sheep Farm, ateross a vrooden'b'ridge ore? the Eden Water, near Meilerstain ; and the bridge not being considered very secure, "was being taken across in two parts, the engj(|» precgding the thrashing apparatus. The engine -passed in safety ; but when tl)e fuelling machjne, whic{i wejgh/ abqu|, eight tons, was being drawn across, and come on <.he bridge, the beams gave way, and the machine, with three men who were on it, fell into the Eden Water, about eight or lime feet below. The vrater tank at the bottom of the machine was smashed, but the rest of the gearing was not much destroyed, and the whole apparatus was on Monday got out of the ruins of the bridgo, and safely landed on the bank a little way down the stream. The three men who were on the machine— one ot them, Mr Redrmth, of Dunse, the owner of the engine and apparatus — were riot very seriously injured, although two ■ of .'them could' not attend to their work foT a day or two after the acci-* Ifint,. ' ' • i - . ,

iN Irjsii EpjfOß on Tijß Dist;iiijs§.— Mr Holland, eililov'oi t\ie frishwuh in 4 lecture rgcent}4 d.-livered, said he would traoo the career of those. Irish emigrants who fought and obtained a shelter from the American nation when driven forth like blood hounds by the Government of their own country. The olicial famine created in thh CQuntry by the English Government cost the lives of 2,000,(JOO Ii islimen. A f.imine existed now even then he hnd been told the child had been lound dead by the side of its rnotLer. ,Gud forbid Le should exult over the sufferings 'of these'lfoo.r inen'in 'JUanehesior, ,tt(t Ijo. could no{> he]o but look at it as a retribution 'of the. Almighty. If he pitied the poor men of Aianohesfcep and elsewhere, he must believe that a, just retribution hnd fallen upon the land that had destroyed two millions of his tellow-meu. If the artificial famine of 1817 had norapcurred, the natural famine of 1862 would not have o^urred. He could not help siying to England, " Ytfur retribution has come." if there were a Providence- in Heaven thk was a legitimate seqaenee. •Alleged Insum fa the Prknch Flag.— Tfca Paris Patrie alludes to ths alleged illegnl'boai-dibg- of a French 'merchantman, oft'(;he Qoast cjf Africa, by 1-1,8 British war vessel Davt, and says the English Government must give sitisfaotlon. The predictions of AI. MatUiea do la Drome as to the rains and consequent iuundations to be expected in the south of Europe at the commencement of November have been fulfilled both in Franco and in Italy. The ignorant peasantry Iwve been struck with surprise at the fulfilment of the prophecies. A latter from tlje P'trteuSj in the French. Monitour <Iq la [l'lotty says thai the Greeks do not wish a republic,' b.ut that'' the KmUniettfc of the pountiiy; is " profoundly monarchical-" The French", ne say^ are the subject of ovations whenever they appear j and a number of carriages wont a few days ago to the Pitffius, carrying flags, shouting " France fer Ever," and cheering the French sailors. While the station-master of Laissey (Doubs), wat in bis office working the telegiaph. one of the porters named Mathiot stealthily entered and killed him by repeated blows on the head with a hatchet. The anujderei,' immediately afterwards drowned, himself in the wliinh , % supplied the engines. Tlw station-master hacl | on the previous, day-made a notg in the service-book 'complaining of Mathiot's negleetr in? his duties. ' > r

Otic Vienna exhibitor at South Kensington has, it is stated, received orders for upwards of HO,ottO " worth of goods from private persons, though until the Exhibition his very name was uaknown in thja country,