Miscellaneous,

Otago Witness, Issue 1031, 2 September 1871, Page 20

Miscellaneous,

Alt extellsive railway strike has taken place in Ireland. 200 drunkards were brought before the Liverpool magistrates in one day lately. Germans are returning to Paris, and meet with no manifestations of ill-feeling.

In the University cricket match this year, Oxford won by S wickets. The Passion Play has again been performed tit Oberaininergau, Bavaria. The German Government have ordered two tnofe powerM ironclads. The attendance at the London Exhibition is now only 8000 or 5)000 daily. The Duke of Edinburgh has been on a visit to Germany. A Republican Club lias been established at Newcastle.

The prospects of the Hax crop in Ireland are very good this year. Thoiisands of the tiuest ostates in Virginia are said to be for sale.

The site for the new Mint near Blackfriars, London, will cost £50,000. The subterranean (ire at Sheffield is believed to have been 1 mrning for several years. Great distress prevails among the colliers on strike in South "Wales.

Tho Queen declined to open the Channel Islands Exhibition in Jersey.

The body of a man has been found in the sand at St. Ivos, Cornwall.

Mr Grote, the historian of Greece, was buried in Westminister Abbey. Extensive additional dock accommodation has been completed at Chatham.

It is proposed to construct an aquarium in the West End Park, ( Jlasgow. The Rev. Dr Smart, of Leith, well-known throughout Scotland, is dead. The Bonapartists in France are said to be agitating for a plebiscite. The bad feeling of the Parisians towardb England is daily increasing. 10,000 incendiary borabts were found in the ( 'atacombs of Paris.

Sheffield continues to keep up its evil reputation for trade outrages. The costs of the prosecution alone in the Voysey case were -C 2400. Favourable accounts have been received regarding the Welsh colony in Patagonia. European democracy and socialism are said 'to have shifted their headquarters from Paris •to Rpnjc.

The new jury system in England is said not to be a success. It is still difficult to get jurors.

A large number of female telegraphists are being trained at Glasgow. They get only Bs. a week.

According to Ur Lankester, over 300 children are found m the streets of London every year.

The total debts of Messrs Jeffery & Co, Compton House. Liverpool, are £307,706, and the assets £105,773.

A Manchester policeman has been sentenced to IS months' imprisonment for robbery.

A lucky doctor at Bristol has received a legacy of £20,000 from a deceased lady patient.

Mazzini, in an article in an Italian paper, vehemently condemns the doings of the Commune.

The population of Scotland shows an increase of 29(5,310 since 1SG1 ; that of Ireland a decrease of 39(5,208.

Lady Burdett Coutts, on becoming a baroness, gave £75 to every clerk in Messrs Coutts and Co.'s bank.

Earl Ducie has succeeded Lord Elcho as Chairman of the Council of the National Eille Association. The total number of militia officers in England is shown by a return just issued to be 3180. A sturgeon S feet 3 inches in length, and weighing 2001b&, was caught lately in the Forth, near the Bridge of Allan. Crawford Priory, Cupar-Fife, is being restored by the Earl of Glasgow, who intends to reside there. A central station for the keeping of the keys of offices, shops, &c., has been established in Glasgow. Jn a speech in the National Assembly General Trochu charged the Prussians with acting in concert with the Communists. At Brighton, a child has been poisoned by eating chocolate sweets in which traces of strychnine were found.

A very severe thunderstorm prevailed on June 1 9th all over the "West and South of Scotland.

St. Albans Abbey is to be restored. £10,000 has been subscribed for the purpose. The standard height of recruits in the British army has been raised from oft. 4^in. to .">ft. ohi.

The debts of Switzerland amount to £5,250,000, the annual charge per head being 2s 4d.

A proposal was made, and at one time seriously discussed, to preserve intact the ruin* of the Hotel de Ville in Paris.

The Leeds Town Council have voted over £100.000 for street improvements, including additional market accommodation.

Public opinion in Italy is in favour of the preparation of the army against a probable French attack.

The City of Kngusa, manned by two men and a dog, has started on her return voyage from New York to Liverpool. The supposed waif from the long missing steamer City of Boston turns out to be a hoax.

An extensive fire of esparto grass has taken place at Ncwca&tle-on-Tyne. The damage is estimated at £20,000. Upwards of 2000 of the clergy of the Irish Church have elected to accept a commutation of their incomes.

It is reported that the International Society is about to attempt great strikes in the Belgian coal districts. Crowds of sightseers are going into Paris, but it is nevertheless a curious fact that resident Parisians are emigrating wholesale. "While there is a decrease of 10,000 in the population of Dublin during the decade, that of Belfast has increased 43.41 per cent. A boulevard has been opened at St. Louis, U\S., which is eight miles long and 100 feet wide.

Correspondence from Savoy states that secret societies are fomenting grave political difficulties there.

At Birmingham a tailor named Richardson has been choked by a piece of meat sticking in his throat.

The tax rchirns of Great Britain for the financial year 1870-71, show an increase of about £100,000 m the Probate duty. The Queen has expressed a desire that the Scottish National Memorial to the Prince Consort should be erected in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. At the Oldhain workhouse the horrifying discovery was made that the inmates had fur a week been drinking water in which a dead man was lying. The herring fishery all round the Scotch coast has been very productive this year. In the Hebrides, however, it has been the reverse. At .Richmond, the Earl of Aylesford has been lined 40s, for throwing Hour in a public thoroughfare, to the annoyance of passersby. The Turkish Government are in treaty for the purchase of an American ironclad, said to be by far the most powerful war ship in the world. The Baby Farming Committee of the House of Commons have ascertained that the general death-rate of illegitimate children in Britain is between (50 and !)0 per cent. In Leicestershire a cow was lately killed by lightning, and on examination a meteoric stone was found under the skin below the left eye. A lad in London found and restored to its owners a packet of notes and securities amounting to £,">OOO. He was rewarded with a sixpence. Buenos Ayrea was so depopulated by the late plague, that the troops have been called out to prevent the Indians from attacking the city.

The Spanish Minister for the Colonies declared in the Cortes that Spain will preserve the integrity of Cuba as long as she has arms and men.

A great central metropolitan railway station is to be erected in London between the Holborn Viaduct aud the Farringdon Road station.

At the Edinburgh Rifle Meeting on June 22m1, the Caledonian Challenge Shield was won by Colour-Sergeant Clews, of the 3rd Renfrew Volunteers, with a score of 50.