Odds and Ends.

Otago Witness, Issue 1324, 14 April 1877, Page 3

Odds and Ends.

Ten years ago the Catholic Cathedral, Hobartown, was erected at an outlay of £15,000. It was found necessary to pull down the whole edifice and rebuild it,

During the year ended June last no less than seventy-six fresh newspapers and magazines appeared in Japan, of which fifty-five were started at Yeddo. The Cambria Iron Company, at Johnstown, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, is erecting a mill for the manufacture of steel music wire on a new process. The first instalment of colonists from western Massachusetts, numbering twelve families, are about to leave for Berks county, North Carolina, and begin the work of building a village. A lady in Rochester, New York, is a monomaniac on the subject of rats. She was frightened by a rat, and continually insists that it took ref age in her stomach. A rumour is current that Sir Dillon Bell and Mr Pearce are to be called to the Legislative Council. The magistrates of Barrow, England, have refused to grant licences to publicans for music and dancing saloons. - A legacy amounting to between £30,000 and £40,000 has been left to the Edinburgh Free r Church College by the late Mr David Meldrum, Craigfoodie. The Printers Register says that Le Petit Journal, a Paris evening paper, has the largest daily issue in the world, the number of copies printed varying every evening between 450,000 and 500,000. A movement has begun in London for establishing institutes for working lads, where they can in the evenings find comfort, rational amusement, and interesting literature.

Messrs Sampson and Low announce a new monthly entitled "Street Life in London," each part to contain three photographs taken from life. . H.M.S. Sapphire reports that Mr and Mrs Neilson are still at the Auckland Islands. They complain bitterly of neglect on the part of Dr Monckton, and are about to leave.

A canoe of the original Rob Roy model was lately built at Auckland for its purchaser at Taranaki, where it has made several successful trips to sea over the rather treacherous surf.

Several Invercargill gentlemen are about to re-publish Mr Murray's prize essiy on the resources of Southland, illustrated with photographic views. Following the long line of oils, acids, and exquisite colours, discovered in tar, a German chemist has found in it a fragrant substance closely resembling in flavour and odour the well-known vanilla bean.

Gen. Redding of California designs to stock some of lie streams of that State with s few of the choicer varieties of Hawaiian fish, if they are found to do well.

According to the local Argus, there are upwards of 3000 inhabited houses in Wellington, and at least 4000 persons entitled to have their names on the electoral roll

The growing consumption of spirituous liquors in France is one of several signs that her people are losing their old habits of sobriety.

Compressed corned beef is a new article of export from America to England. It is pressed into 2 lb. tins and ia said to be firmer and more palatable than that made up by the ordinary process. Over one hundred splendid Lincoln sheep have been sent to Auckland from F. J. & T. Sutton, Southland. It is proposed to build a railroad from San Francisco through Southern California, Mexico, Central and South America, to Valparaiso, and so on to Buenos Ayres, new the mouth of the La Plata.

Forty lady medical students in all are, it is stated, pursuing their studies in the schools of the faculty, and in the hospitals of Paris, of whom 14 are English. One can now escape from the London Lyceum by eight different exits — viz. : by three doors in Wsllington-street, two in Exeter-street, two in Burleigh-street, and one in the Strand.

A Kentish paper announces the death of the "Swanley Fat Boy," Richard Beenham, in December. He was 12 years old, stood sft. in height, weighed 25 atone (14lb. to the stone). A committee of the Wisconsin teachers recommend the formation of a class in connection with then Uiversity during the Summer vacation, to make an excursion down the Mississippi, studies to consist of geology, zoology, and botany. One of the sisters of the Sultan is dead. When ill, she married her lover that he might become the heir to her £2,000,000 estate. He was willing. Who says there is no romance in Turkey ? The Queen has created four Earldoms within the past twelve months : those of Wharndiff, Northbrook, Beaconsfield, and Redesdale.

Near Bound Brook, N. J., six drunken young men, instigatsdby a jealous married woman, tarred and feathered another married woman of doubtful reputation. The Prince of Orange, son of the Queen of Holland, is sowing wild oats in Paris. The gossips tell some fearful tales of his * * goings on. " He lately gave a supper to the leading actresses.

AChicago milliner advertises a "buggy" hat. We shouldn't suppose any lady would like such a hat as that.

Croizette, the famous French actress, has had to pay £500 for changing her mind after engaging hotel apartments. A new work by the husband of the author of Daniel Deronda—G. H. Lewis is in the press, "The Physical Basis of Mind."

The Fresno (California) Republican tells us about a blacksmith near there who performs some wonderful feats of healing. Wens and tumors disappear at his com, mand, and rheumatism in his presence loses all its terrors. In an address at Rochdale, John Bright, after recommending temperance and selfculture as a mean 3of social and physical elevation, expatiated upon the improved condition of the working classes. At Sandhurst it is calculated that Bailey and Cooper's circus must have taken £3,000 on two nights, and at Mary7.ir^ h , the y are saidto have netted over ±,1,000 for one night. The Richmond Christian Advocate states that the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church in Virginia has as many white members as the Baptist, Presbyte"an > and Episcopal Churches combined. Considerably more than half Tasmania is as yet uninhabited, aettlement boin<* confined to its Eastern, Northern, and .North- Western portions. Mackie's steam-driven composing machines are rapidly nearing perfection. One of a number now in the London ofece of the Warrington Guardian sets minion at the rate of 8000 an hour, with only a lad to attend to it. Before George Eliot begins a novel, she so faxes it in her mind that her manuscript is often merely a transcript of her elaborate mental preparation. Slade, the American Spiritualist, sentenced to three months confinement and hard labour, had his sentenced quashed on appeal. He is said to have left for Russia.

la Salem, Oregon, when any person becomes habitually intemperate, a certain number of citizens may petition to have him declared a drunkard, and he cannot then lawfully get drink. T^ c London Athenasum learns that Mark Twain is engaged on a book entitled ' The North Pole, and How We Didn't Get There."

Disraeli is still reported verbatim for the London Times by the scribe who took down his maiden speech forty years ago. A case of dog-shooting, just decided in the lowa Supreme Court, cost $1000. The dog was worth §10. The "Odd Volume Register and Book Exchange" is the name of a new monthly to be issued in London in the interests of the bookworm.

Cardinal McCloskey is going to Rome, it is said in clerical circles, as soon as his health will permit. . The Turkish army, it is reported, is greatly augmented by constant arrivals of Polish and Hungarian volunteers. The Cooktown Courier, referring to the Chinese in Queensland, says "The whites are drowned in a sea of pig-tails, and it is impoasible to exaggerate the blighting inftuenco of this state of affairs." In transmitting a message over the Atlantic cable the first signal is felt in four-tenths of a second, but the following one goe3 through more rapidly. As many as seventeen words have been sent over the Atlantic cable in one minute. The Empress of Brazil has presented the Queen of England with a dress woven of spiders' webs, and is, as may be imagined, a work of art as regards quality and beauty. During the month of October alone not less than two hundred and eleven buildings were demolished in Paris, to make room for new streets.

The United Brethren of America reports, for 1876,4,078 churches, an increase of 68 ; 143,881 members, an increase of 7,805 ; 1,952 ministers, an increase of 15. A large proportion of the choice winter peara consumed in London are obtained from France, Belgium, and the Channel Islands, but samples have been received in good condition from California, and larger consignments are expected. The Empress Eugenic and Prince Louis called on the Pope the other day, and were received with royal honours. No sooner did the widow see the Pope, than she fell upon her kness and wept bitterly. George Eliot is very far from handsome ; she has an intellectual and striking face, too long and angular for symmetry ; soft, abundant hair, a remarkably quiet, somewhat pensive and decidedly winning manner.

It is stated in a late English paper that the Duchess di Gallieri has sent £40,000 to the Pope. Mrs. Lynn Linton is writing another novel. Its title is "The World Well Lost," and the first installment will appear in the January number of Belgravia. The Rome Correspondent of Z' Univers says i'o is believed that the Pope intends to fill all the vacant Cardinalates. A beverage made from the leaves of the coffee shrub, instead of from the berry, has lately been introduced, and is said to be superior to ordinary coffee. The London Daily Telegraph certifies to an average daily circulation between July Ist and Dec. 1, 1876, of 200,317, something unparalleled in newspaper history.

The Cooktown Courier says that 1000 Europeans contribute more to the wealth of the Colony than 10,000 Chinese. Mr Smith, of the Greenfield Station, is sending his crop of wheat— 3o,ooo bushels —to M 'Gill's mill, Tokomairiro, via Waitahuna.

Eighty tons weight of paper were used in the production of the Christmas number of the Illustrated London News. At 4d per lb, the cost under that head would be something like £3000.

At the annual meeting of the Archaeological Society of Berlin, the Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, who has recently returned from Mycenas, gave an interesting account of the work of Dr Schiiemann now in progress at that place,

Anew double-barrelled breech-loadina pistol, Enfield pattern, is about to be issued to Lancer regiments. The Dramatic News says :— " Several visits to see ' Daniel Druce' have convinced us that it will stand for many a year as the best of modern dramatic poems."

The well-known preacher, Rev. Dr Bellows, of New York, preached a sermon treating the fall of Adam and Eve as a mere fable, with no foundation in fact. The schooner Coronet brought from Raratonga to Auckland 21 tons of pearl shell, worth in the Home market from £8 10s to £9 2s 6d per ton. The Italian honey bee has been estab- i lished in California for many years, and is found to be far superior to the ordinary honey bee as a honey gatherer. j The conundrum agitating Philadelphia is—" Will the Government claim the $1,500,000 advanced to the Centennial Exhibition ?" There promises to be a surplus of about that amount. During the last three years there have been constructed on the Clyde over 2200 vessels, of all sizes, and for all kinds of services. The Rev. Father Beechinor has been sent to Queensland by his Bishop, the Most Rev. Dr Murphy, to solicit contributions in aid of the rebuilding of St. Mary's Cathedral, Hobart Town. > Mr Nicholls, who has been editing the Bruce Herald since Mr Perrier's depar- ' ture, has been entertained at a supper on the occasion of his leaving the Tokomairiro paper. The Sydney Exhibition Committee ex- I pect to have exhibits from America, Canada, China, Japan, Fiji, France, and New Caledonia, in addition to those from the neighbouring Colonies. Alexander Bain, the inventor of the automatic method of transmitting telegraphic signals, has died in the Glasgow Home for Incurables. The Crystal Palace is making vigorous efforts to regain lost grouud, abolishing the sixpenny Mondays and restoring the half-crown Saturdays. The Volunteer Army of Great Britain now numbers 168,750 efficient men. At the sides of the main Exhibition Building will be two lighthouses, each 250 feet high, the lanterns of which will be visible from nearly every point in Paris " Uncle Tom!s Cabin" has had a greater circulation than anyother book in existence except the Bible. So says an American paper, but we very much doubt it. What of Shakespeare's plays, and John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress ]" A complete edition of Shakespeare has been sold for one shilling in London for years past ; and a twopenny edition of the "Pilgrim's Progress" has reached a fabulous number. . The butchers ancU .produce men of Washington Market, -New York,' have inBtituted two free lunch houses for the poor. They are most estimable institutions.

In 1875, New Zealand cultivated 2,377,402 acres, fully two-thirds of the aggregate area of the other six Australasian Colonies.

It is now generally conceded that Spinoza holds a place in the history of speculative thought very little, if at all inferior to that of Descartes.

A new bonnet has been invented, which can be turned over and lowered on the back of the head when the wearer is seated in a theatre, leaving an unobstructed view of the stage to persons sitting in the rear.

The Vatican has invited Cathelic countries to take part in the exhibition of ecclesiastical objects on the occasion of the episcopal jubilee of the Pope, which will be celebrated in June next. The Victorian Government has contracted to convey Cooper and Bailey's Circus, and all its belongings, to the various railway towns the company intend visiting, for the neat -little sum of J&800.

The Westport Times speaks highly of the prospects of the Koranui coalfield. The directors are sending an agent to Dunedin and other chi6f towns to float the company. Mr T. L. Shepherd, recently stationed for a short period at Greymouth as Government Insurance Agent, is now located in Wellington in a similar office , rFfe ,? MS - Tanjore, which recently left Melbourne, took 14,3390zs of gold and 261,150 sovereigns, making a total value of gold and specie of £318,506. A Melbourne paper says it is probable that the experiment of employing a number of young ladies in the Post-office Department will soon be commenced. A great number of applications have' been received.

Baron Rothschild, of Paris, has sent 10,000 franca to the Belgian Society for the Exploration and Colonisation of"Central Africa.

A Yass journal makes severe comments on the reckless manner in which the public lands of New South Wales are sold by auction.

According to the Richmond Dispatch the coloured Baptists of that city number 10,000 out of a total coloured population

The land between Orange and Molong New South Wales, along the proposed line of railway, is reported to have been all taken up by farmers. It is stated, in a Melbourne paper, that Mr W. J. Clarke has become the mirchaser of racehorses. His colours will be green and orange.

Nine acres of land at Tower Hill, Belfast, Victoria, realised £70 an acre at auction the other day. This ia the famous potatoe-land gf the west,