MISCELLANEOUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1148, 29 November 1873, Page 22

MISCELLANEOUS.

A curious strike has occurred at Bruges. The men who work the carillon at the belfry have struck work to obtain higher wages, and the celebrated carillon is now silent.

Some idea may be formed of the terrific violence of the late gale on the North American coast, when it is stated that 50 bodies have been washed ashore at Prince Edward's Island.

Japan has been reforming a little too much, and now find 3 herself at the bottom of her treasure-chest. The Mikado has even had to ask for subscriptions to rebuild his palace, recently burnt down. Some workmen in making a trench for a branch communication in the Montague Saint Gcnevieve, came on 12 coffins in plaster and one in stone at a depth of about GOft. They are all of the Merovingian period.

A fishing match on a gigantic scale took place in Lincolnshire, 420 anglers competing for money prizes, from £30 to 30s, besides premiums in cutlery, plated goods, tackle, &c. The anglers extended over a distance of six mile 3.

At the half-yearly meeting of the Great Southern and Western (Ireland) .Railway Co., the late Mr James Haughton, J.P., strongly advocated the necessity of not allowing the sale of alcoholic drinks on the line, inasmuch as ho could prove by statistics that drink was the caus>e of almost all railway accidents.

At the Prussian siege manoeuvres at Granclunz, experiments were made with the socalled "mile-cannon," the range of which is affirmed to cover a German mile. The gun did good service at 4300 metres distance, and proved true of aim. Experiments were also made on a large scale with dynamite and gave entire satisfaction.

The shipbuilders of Dundee recently memorialised their employers to advance the present rate of pay — 6Ad au hour — to 7d. A mass meeting of the men was held to hear the reply of the masters. It was reported that the employers offered 6^d for work by the piece. Tbe men refused the offer, and resolved to strike at once for the original demand.

A Masonic Club, conducted on first-class principles, is about to be started in Dublin, and from the auspices under which the movement has been inaugurated its success (the Standard says) is certain. The Masonic Order now holds an influential place in Dub. lin, and has been greatly enlarged within the past five years.

According to the annual return of deposits in Irish savings banks for the year ending the 30th June, the total amount in Government and India stocks, in deposits and cash balances in Irish joint- stock banks, and in trustee and Post-office savings banks, amounted to £66,627,000, showing a decrease in the year of £920,000.

The chief constable of Liverpool has reported to the magistrates that since the passing of the Licensing Act there has been an increase in the amount of drunkenness. He accounts for this mainly by the greater amount of money and (the shorter hours of labour enjoyed by the unskilled labouring class. Mr George Hood, who wrote a letter to the papers stating that an office-bearer in the C4ood Templur Lodge of which he was a member, had threatened with expulsion any " brother" who voted for Mr Yeaman in the late Dundee election, has been expelled from the lodge for having "made public its business in the newspapers."

A faint idea of the value of house property in London may be gleaned from the following statement : — Of a block of handsome offices just erected in Leadenhall street, the ground floor of the back block — simply a room under 50 feet by 40 — lets for 1000 guineas a year, on a 21 years' lease, and all the other rooms in proportion.

At the present time, -Liege possesses 98 works, including six active blast furnaces, 55 foundries, 17 ironworks proper, 20 machine and special shops, and three steelworks, altogether employing 10,406 men. The product of the^e works for the year 1872 reached 178,375 tons of pig iron and 103,245 tons of finished iron.

A committee of homoeopathic physicians in Prussia, speaking for their branch of the faculty, have addressed a formal petition to Prince Bismarck, requesting that professorial chairs for homoeopathy may be added to the universities, and that medical inspectors may be appointed to insure proper supervision of the homoeopathic practice.

During the Tichborne trial on a recent morning, while the Court was waiting for one of the jurymen, Mr Hawkins said he had received a letter which raised a very nice point of law, and handed it up to the bench. The Lord Chief Justice said the writer suggested that in the event of a juryman dying, the trial might not be rendered abortive by his being brought into Court screwed down. — (Laughter.) His Lordship then passed the letter to the jury for their perusal.

Four elders have arrived from Utah, having been delegated as a special mission to the Latter Day Saints of the United Kingdom. Their object is to report on the state and prospects of the Mormon " Church " in England, and to revive confidence in their chiefs. They have visited Nottingham, and describe prospects in Utah in the most glowing terms, and bitterly denounce the "persecution" to which "President Young" is subjected at the hands pf the. "Geatilq Press."

A doctor and a farm servant from Udny were fined, the former £3, and the latter 30s, in the Aberdeen sheriff court, for the parts taken by them in a scene in their parish church on a recent Sunday. During service the ploughman attempted to enter the doctor's pew, and meeting with resistance clambered into it from the back. Here he was grappled with, and the congregation were for some time edified by the sDectacle of a wrestling bout between the pair for possession.

Some spurious sovereigns of a somewhat dangerous character have recently appeared in London. They are made of platinum, gilt, and are almost identical in weight with the genuine coin , and although upon examination they may readily be detected by ringing, and by a general sharp roughness of manufacture, they are calculated to deceive the public when carelessly taken. It is believed they are manufactured abroad.

The Palestine Exploration Expedition appears to be highly successful. 1800 out of the 6,600 square miles to be surveyed have been completed. Several very valuable discoveries of tombs, convents, and an ancient town, have been made. Cassarea has been thoroughly explored, plans made, and the temple identified. Joshua's birthplace, Jiin-nath-Serah, has been identified as Tibney, and plans have been made of Joshua's tomb, as also of those of the Maccabees.

A lad of 19, employed as a clerk, was arrested for robbing his employer of £3000. He had told his sweetheart that his father was very rich, that he had forged his name for the above sum, and threatened to poison himself if she did not marry him. The union took place by special license, and the lad stained his face and strutted about with silver spurs, calling himself an Indian officer, and loaded his wife with gorgeous clothing and a profusion of jewellery.

A curious "revelation" was made in Alsace lately. Some children averred that they had seen a vision of the Madonna clothed in white, and with "the outline of her majestic form traced by a golden shimmer." Great excitement ensued, and pilgrims began to throng to the village, Bailersclorf, when it was discovered that the apparition was nothing more than a wag, who had dressed up in a sheet to frighten the children, and that the "golden shimmer" was caused by some phosphorus with which he had bedaubed his face and hands.

The following are some choice Chinese proverbs:— "The ripest fruit grows on the roughest wall. It is the small wheels of a carriage that come in first. The turtle, though brought in at the back gate, takes the head of the table. Better to be the cat m a philanthropist's family than a mutton pie at a king's banquet. The learned pig don't learn its letters in a day. True merit, like the pearls inside an oyster, is contented to remain quiet till it finds an opening. He who leaves early gets the best hat. Pride sleeps in a gilded crown ; contentment in a cotton nightcap."

Arising out of a conference cf bards at the late National Eisteddfod at Mold, a committee has been formed for the purpose of establishing a National Library, consisting chiefly of rare books and manuscripts in the Welsh language, and in other languages when they relate to Wales or Welshmen. The Aberystwith University authorities have offered to set apart a room in the college where the books may be deposited, and aho to undertake the charge of them, and this offer has been accepted. The committee include the names of the leading Welshmen of the day.

The Graphic mentions that, ou August 24th, the Pope gave an audience to a party of Cook's excursionists, twenty-one in number. He was exceedingly gracious, spoke to each one of the party, and walked about " as actively as I have ever seen him," says an English resident, who accompanied the visitors. After he had spoken to all individually he drew back two or three yards, so as to take in a view of the whole party, and said, "Now I shall bless you all, your families, and all who belong to you. May you return safely to your native country !" Then followed the Apostolic benediction in Latin.

At the Crewe Police Court, three men named Henry Wilkinson, Francis Bradley, and Alfred Wilk?, were charged, under the Vagrancy Act, with sleeping m a brickyard. Wilks and Bradley were committed to gaol for 21 days each, but Wilkinson was dismissed, from the fact that at the time of his apprehension ljd were found on his person. The Act of Parliament referring to these cases states that money, if found on tbe person, will save from conviction. Had Wilkinson been smart enough, and sufficiently well read in the law, he might have saved his companions being incarcerated by giving them id each.

The Grangemouth correspondent of the North British Mail writes: — "An instance of the advancement of our juvenile mining population in fastidiousness and refinement was witnessed a day or two since at the point of the quay. A collier youth, aged 14 or so, had been engaged in a game of bat and ball, and feeling somewhat in need of a little rest and refreshment, he intimated a desire for a smoke. Another boy of the same age (who does not enjoy the advantage of being a miner) tendered his cutty. The young collier, seating himself on a parcel of battens, disdainfully rejected the vulgarity of common clay. 'Ye ken Tamson's, the grocer's?' he asked of the other. '00, ay.' 'Weel, there' thrippence ; awa' an' get me a seegawr. Look an' pick a gude ane, an' there's a penny to yersel' for gaun.' " The Carlists are reported to have trans* ported nine loads of explosive bullets across the French frontier, iot^Spain.