Odds and Ends.

Otago Witness, Issue 1341, 11 August 1877, Page 3

Odds and Ends.

Baron yon Muller, of Victoria, says it would be impossible to point to a single plant that he has successfully acclimatised, with the exception of the Cape weed.

Last year the land revenue of New South Wales constituted 32 per C9nt. of the whole of .the revenue ; this year it contributes upwards of 57 per cent. The San Francisco News-Letter says there is now in preparation, and will shortly be published, a volume entitled " The Last Hours of Methuselah."

The impending match between Weston, Crosaland, and Vaughan, for £500 a-side, is likely to* be a'" big" thing, aa Crossland h*s defeated O*Leary in a long walking contest

A young salmon (a grilse), on its first return to fresh- water — which is usually 1h its second year — has been caught in the Dersrent. , n Onrer *i should the match with Gro&diand. and Vaugban not come off, to walk or run any man in England for six days, giving him fifty miles start. Allotments for graves at Ballarat are Bft. by 4ft., and are sold at £4 each. There are 1361 such allotments in an acre, so that the land is sold at the enormous sum of £5444 per acre.

The Melbourne Age says :— " Earthhunger is as strong among the selectors as among the squatters, and all classes go to the limit of the law, and select the largest area that they legally can. The salary of each Methodist Episcopal Bishop, and each book agent and editor ait New York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, has been fixed at $3000. An allowance is also made for house-rent.

Mr Yatabe, of Cornell, recently delivered an address in Japan on " Buddhism, 1 ' in which he ranked Christianity as an inferior religion, and urged upon His hearers a higher and more spiritual religion than any now known. The New York Tribune says, .that if every other nation which General Grant visits emulates England in the warmth of its welcome, he will enjoy a series of honours never before paid to an American.*" ■ Professor Fay is giving performances in Newcastle, assisted by the surviving brother Davenport and . Professor Mitchell.

The editors in Rome have held a meeting,, and rraolved to establish a permanent Jury of Honour for the representatives of the Press.

lathe fine old Scottish version of the 100 th \Psalm, there is not a word of more than two syllables, and scarcely a dozen of these, v:

. A; portion of the roof of the Palmer House— one of the hotels of Chicago — has been covered with a magnificent conservatory. 4 The structure is composed entirely of glass and .iron. The Working of the Victorian Postal Department already involves an annual loss of £100,000.

Walker, the Trance-speaker, lectured in Wellington on Sunday and Monday, the 21st and 22nd, to large audiences, and left for Auckland. ' The Chinese' of Honolulu are chiefly, engaged in trade. The principal street of the city is filled with Chinese stores; in which are sold all kinds of commodities."

The English Wesleyans have been in-creased-by 8000 new members during the past year. This is a larger increase than they have reported, for some years past. The Bheep of the United States number only forty millions against Great Britain's thirty millions ; bat its cattle is estimated atrtWeflty - five millions, whilst Great Britain has only nine millions. MrS. Moriarty, solicitor, of Launceston, is reported to have come into £3000 a year, and some large possessions in Kerry, Ireland, conditionally upon his assuming the name of Crump. The English revisers of the New Testament have reached the 18th chapter of the Book of Revelations.

In lowa there is a new law sign, " Fostet and Foster}" It meant Mr and Mrs Foster; They- attended the same law school, became attached, became partners for life - - *

It is stated that the Government intepd to place a considerable sum upon the Estimates", "tcTbe distributed amongat the Mechanic', Institutes and libraries in the Colony. Concerning * batch' of 'immigrants despatched from Home to Blenheim, the Express saysj^' What is to become of them it js hard to. tell. '^eThear o£ no outcry- for "labourers in any "part of the Province."

The Wellington Post says :— " There are hundreds upon hundreds more clerks m. New Zealand than there is work for, andthe evil is daily becoming worse." , Follow "Munchause'n" with as much good'foith as is possible, and there will still be some passage which the student will find it impossible to digest. The total revenue of the Church of England is said to be £7,000,000. The estimates of the total number of churches Tary from 16,000 to 20,000. J. 4 .v. ve *y interesting International Exhibition was to have been held at Prague *$:?£* M*y. Newspapers and autographs were the only objects to be exhibited.

There are in Maryland 1872 public scEools, instructing 146,198 pupils, the ajerkge nujbaber in daily attendance being 73,069. There are 2850 teachers employed. ... , y ■£ cbllecfton of extracts from Addison's contributions to the Spectator has been made for the use of schools,

A trade in horses is springing up between California and Japan, the Japanese being anxious to improve the breed of horses in their country. The English Presbyterian Synod held its annual meeting in London on April 23rd.^ About 600 delegates were present. This is the first meeting since the reunion consummated last year. The currajong, a Tasmanian tree, would be worth acclimatising in New Zealand. The root is edible, the bark makes fishing lines, nets, and ropes, and the trunk yields gum.

' The French Government pay a bounty on French sugar, when exported, and thus the foreign maker is able to introduce a cheap article to the British market.

The London Missionary Society (Nonconformist), at its recent anniversary in Exeter Hall, reported an income of £63,664 — a sb'ght increase on the year preceding.

The Admiralty has directed that the Union-jack borne by the party belonging to the late Arctic Expedition, which reached the highest northern latitude, shall be placed in the Painted. Hall at Greenwich Hospital. Thefirst ironclad built in England for •the Japanese Government was recently launched from Messrs Samuda'a yard, at Poplar.

S. Oku, J. Okada, and S. Hasegowa, the three Japanese Commissioners travelling in America, have bought, in the West and South, quantities of fine horses, cattle, and Jh'eep, for exportation to Japan.

Turkey is infinitely better prepared for war than she was in 1828, yet never in the course of her history has she been threatened by a more formidable force. The commerce of Australasia is now valued at nearly ninety millions per. annum.

It is understood that Mr Giffen, the chief of the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade, has been offered the editorship of the London Economist. An illustrated Arabic newspaper has just been published in London, • for circulation where that language is used as ithe vernacular.

Probably no more formidable Russian army ever crossed the frontier than that which is now on the banks of the Danube. J• ' At a meeting of the Church Missionary Society, held in London, Bishop Orowther, a native African, presided. On the day preceding, he preached |in Lincoln Cathedral.

In Victorian social matters there is that the illustrious houses of :O'Shanasßy__and: O'ShanasBy__and Duffy are shortly to be more closely blended by a matrimonial alliance.

On the 30fch June a rather novel contest was held on the football ground, Sandy Bay Road, Hobart Town— viz., a fancy costume football match.

A Chinese lawyer, who recently drew up a petition which contained false statements; was sentenced to transportation into military servitude, to be branded, and to receive 100 blows !

Into general society Dr Pusey goeß seldom or never. He still receives visitors in the noble room which is at once his library and his sanctum.

•The address presented •by English Catholics to the Pope, on the occasion of his episcopal jubilee, contained over 500,000 signatures.

A commencement was made of a very ; desirable street improvement in luvercargill, the first tree having been planted of an avenue to be formed in Clyde street.

The sale of Bibles in Chicago is said to be three times as great as it wa3 a year ago. Mr Moody drew attention to the work, and they think it is a new book. Admiral Semmes, with "a sUm figure, sharp face, long, thin hair, and slightly stooping shoulders," practices law in Mobile.

The 3rd of June was the fiftieth anniversary of the day on which Pius the Ninth was consecrated as a bishop. A Kentucky paper speaks of a man who had a narrow escape from sunstroke, he having stood only 2ft. from a man who was struck. *

The Prince of Wales, while in Paris, presented Marshal M'Mahon with a copy of Dr Russell's description" of His Royal Highness's M Tour in India."

The Unita Oattolicaj the 1 leading organ of the clerical-Press^- declared that there would be 30,000 pilgrims in Rome on the anniversary. Mr Longfellow, the poet, celebrated his 70th .birthday on March 21st, His friends from near and far sent him their congratulations.