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Otago Witness, Issue 1205, 2 January 1875, Page 7

One Thing and Another.

At the Mint last year the " gold sweep " realised £2,995, Bs. Bd.

The price of wheat per quarter is now just £1 less than it was a year ago. " Rev. J. A. Haywood on Hell Fire " is the heading the Chicago Times puts to a sermon.

In Virginia City the jurors in murder cases are allowed to go to the theatre in the evening. A New dock, to cover 3£ acres, and to cost £375,000, is being constructed at Leith.

The Belgian Government has granted to Mdme. Van de Weyer an annual pension of 4,000f. Feminine students arc to be admitted to the medical department of California University.

Mr. Cook, the English champion, has been beaten at billiards in New York by Mr. Rudolphe. A Portrait of the Rev. Mr. Beecher has just been added to Madame Tussaud's Exhibition in London.

Rear-Admiral Chamberlain will probably succeed Sir Houston Stewart as Controller of the Navy. Colonel Fesxino of Ashantee fame, has been appointed to the command of the Royal Artillery at Easter.

A Man has committed suicide at Hull because he was about to be apprehended for not paying hia poor-rates.

Advices from Morocco state that an Imperial decree has been issued prohibiting the export of cereals for three years.

There is an interesting communication in Nature on cockroaches' saliva. It should be read by all cooks and scullerymaids.

An Odessa paper announces that the rinderpest is raging in Sevastopol and the neighbourhood, ami that cattle are falling down dead in the streets.

Dvk ing a severe storm at Nice, fourteen fishermen were struck by lightning. Two of the men were killed on the spot, and the others were injured.

This year's yield of Rhine wines is said to be in quantity and quality equal to the famous and historic vintage of 1811. The year iB generally a good one for wine.

A Nose show lately took place in a little town of Austria. The largest and ugliest got the first prize ! There were three prizes. Eighty noses competed for the prizes. A Clerk in an Erie hotel has a magnificent scheme in view. It is a circular hotel, to work on a pivot, like a locomotive turn-tabte. The object is to give every guest a "front room."

An attempt to blow up one of the Bradford Corporation Gasijrorks was brought to light recently by an offer of a reward of £50 for the conviction of the offender. The matter had hitherto been hushed up.

The French papers state that the benefit of Mdlle. Dejazet yielded nearly 60,000 francs. Some of the boxes were sold for 1000 francs (£4O). The principal actors and actresses of Paris took parb in the representation. Mb. Matthew Noble, the ss^trar, has sustained a sad loss by tlfs. death of his son Charles HarcavuH^Vt the age of 16. He was a yojujth, of great promise, and has, it is. stated, left behind l»m works, ■fclsifl.t would do credit to ■weM-mtin-T#U\ed\ artists.

Thje Roman. Catholic |>i:iests in. Germany have in, se.yer.aJt instances, evacuated churches,, the> joint use of which, aceswds ing to. a practise, wot uncommon, ta that «ow^ry- and- Switzerland* had Tbeein. extended,' by the municipal w other authori-ties-to, th*j Olid Catholics..

The Array ansl Navy Gazette says that therej is. again a difficulty in procuring the rwojaeir Mikl of medical officers for the .Royal Navy, There have been only twelve freph entries dtmxig the present year, and the number of deaths an 4ro tirewwflto h&ve jbeuu vastly in excess,

Don Carlos has just decreed that for the future every person employed on the railway, equally those belonging to the stations as those belonging to -the traffic movement, who shall bo found within one hour's march of the said line, after having received spiritual assistance (the last sacrament) shall be shot.

The Gazette de Cologne saya that the Prince Louis of Hesse performed a great act of gallantry during his sojourn at Ustend. One day, whilst bathing, a lady, finding herself out of her depth, raised, cries for help, and the Prince, greatly at his own risk (not knowing well how to swim), after a desperate struggle saved the lady.

" How to Make 1000 Fi{AN<js."--This headed an advertisement in the French Figaro last week. The answer you received by post, if you sent a stamped envelope, was a circular with testimonials, and added to this a note saying, " 1 give you 1000 francs if the testimonials here enclosed are not true. "—Signed, Router Dumehxil, Flers, Orne.

Sensible to the Last.— A strange legacy of 1000 dollars is left to the Reformed Church at Peapack, Now Jersey, by the will of Jacob J. Tiger, deceased, upon condition that the church grounds be kept free from Canada thistles and wild carrots, and if the growth of such foul weeds is permitted to any extent, then the "legacy is to be forfeited.

Four at a Birth.— The Itev. James Paton, curate in charge of the parish of Cusop, Hay, Herefordshire, writes :— " It may interest some of your readers to know that the above rather unusual incident occurred in my parish on Tuesday last, two of the children being born alive. They, with the mother, are doing wonderfully well." Mr. Paton further , asserts that the father, a toll-keeper in poor circumstances, and who has already four children to provide for, "though naturally a little confused, seems grateful."

Cremation on the Battle-Field. At the recent International Sanitary Congress, Dr. Reclam of Leipsic, gave a minute description of a new burning apparatus, combining efficiency with economy by which a horse, for instance, could be thoroughly consumed in two hours, at a. cost of four shillings' worth of fuel. With this new system, it was contended, the dead left on the battle-field of Gravelotte, men and horses together, might have. been reduced to a harmless heap of wlute ashes in four days.

ROOHEFORT'S SECOND ESCAPE. The Geneva correspondent of the Debats relates a singular adventure which has just happened to Rochefort, and which might have been attended with serious consequences to him :— " Ho had taken a carriage a few days back to Pregny to visit the Villa Rothschild. The driver, not knowing who was his fare, had the ingenious idea of choosing a roatl which passed over part of the French territory. Geneva is, in fact, only a league from the frontier, and Voltaire pretended that. when he shook Ms wig the dust reached all over the canton. The driver having; recognised that his passenger was & Frenchman by his accent, turned l-crancl to him and said—' Now, sir, yein are in your own country.' TJie uneasiness of Rochefort, until he found himself back, on Swiss soil, maybe imagined."

Fight in a Government Office.— Information reaches us of a violent assault; recently committed upon a writer in the Accountant-General's Department of the Admiralty, by one of the junior clerks in the office. These gentlemen were, it appears, speaking to each m reference to an entry in one of the (official ledgers, and some difference of opinion was exprc&secf as to the correctness of the entry, when, without any warning, the clerk l-iiiised the book and struck the writer a severe blow on the back of the head, coaaijplotely stunning him. He became mmconscious, and! medical aid was ajfc, once summoned. After some hours. !aad elapsed, the unfortunate man was conveyed in a cab to- his home, where he has since remained under thq care of a medical man. The story ftirtliGr goes that the clerk has tendered an apology, and that this has so far been, deemed sufficient.