Odds and Ends.

Otago Witness, Issue 1422, 22 February 1879, Page 20

Odds and Ends.

(Specially compiled for the Otago Witness.)

Such was the glut of maid servants in Frankfort, Germany, in November last, that they were offering their services at nominal wages in order to secure a home for the winter.

On the 31st October the fust of a series of lectures under the auspices of the Paisley Young Men's Christian Association was delivered by the Earl of Glasgow in Sfc George's Parish Church.

Sir James Fergusson delivered his lecture on ' ' Cyprus and Asia Minor in the Town Hall, Greenock, on the Ist Nov., in inaugurating the winter course of lectures of the Young Men's Christian Association.

William Smyth, distiller, Glasgow, commenced business four years ago, with £2000. He lately broke, holding property worth £323,000, which was bonded to the amount of £239,000.

It was right enough that the English farmers should attack the wages of labour ; but it is shocking now to think that they should ask for a reduction of rent.

PLEURO-pneumonia has been showing itself in the byres in and around Edinburgh in a way that is causing the local authorities no little anxiety.

The damage done to Maynooth College by the recent fire amounts to £30,000. The overheating of some pipes is supposed to have led to the fire.

By a strange coincidence the officer of the County Buildings, into whose charge Mr Lewis Potter was placed, held at one time the position of footman to Mr Potter.

The annual meeting of the Glasgow Sick Children's Hospital showed the capital to be £7765 15b sd.

The Royal Agricultural Society of England has offered this year a prize of 250d01u. for an "efficient milking machine." The remission of duty on Australian wines from four to two shillings a gallon, will be a boon so soon as a difference is made in the retail price.

Mb Barr, who raised himself from the working class by his perseverance and industry, and who has been the only Provost of Ardrossan, Ayrshire, will be a heavy loser by the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank. At the Lockerbie hiring fair held in Dumfrieshire, on tho 30th October, engagements were numerous at the following rates : First horsemen were getting from £i 5 10s to £17 ; second, from £13 10s to £14 10s ; third, from £9 to £11.

The total amount of the £500 call per share made by the liquidators of the City of Glasgow Banlt will amount to Argyle shareholders to the sum of £52,395.

Some years ago the number of masons employed in Glasgow amounted to nearly 2000. but at present there are not more than 1300 working, and trade is very bad.

Since the removal of the tolls on the London bridges the Waterloo Bridge foot passengers have increased from 94,635 to 194,023, and the vehicles from 26,416 to 46,000.

The operative masons in Glasgow and district struck work against the proposed reduction of their wages from 8d to 7d per hour.

It is said that two representatives of the Home Government have been taking very careful notes in the Colony of Victoria of things in general.

Lady Annie Louise Gooch, who was arrested on a charge of attempting to pass off

a spurious child as the heir of her husband,,. Sir Francis Gooch, has been committed for trial.

An appeal for relief of the shareholders oS the City of Glasgow Bank has been issued to Scotchmen abroad, and sent to the principal cities of the United States, Canada, and Australasia.

Much sympathy was felt amongst the numerous friends of Miss Rosina Oaradini in Ballarat, (MrsPaliner) when they learned that two of her children had died very suddenly in Melbourne.

The water-colour drawing by the Princess Royal, representing a dying Grenadier in the--arms of his wife, which was exhibited ia 1855, is to be engraved presently.

During October 13,568 emigrants arrived in New York, an increase of nearly 5000*' over the corresponding month last year.

In Cincinnati, New Orleans, and other American cities, the theatres are open on Sunday evenings, as well as a great number r oi small variety halls in which beverages are sold.

The Edinburgh School Board has given notice that it will prosecute the paiM^of < all children under nine years of age found selling newspapers or other articles.

A match for the championship of New. South Wales has been finally arranged between Rush and Laycock. It will be rowedL on the Parramatta River, on the 12th April 1 , next.

The Spectator estimates the cost of war with. Afghanistan at 24 millions sterling. A protected resistance would bring tha tota£ to a sum much beyond that figure.

Herr Stephan, the German Postmaster* General, is about to submit to the Federal Council a bill for the establishment of post* office saving banks.

The first of a series of lectures on "Do* mestic Economy, Housekeeping and Thrift, Health and Clothing," has been delivered vas. the New Public Halls, under the auspices of" the Glasgow Association for the Higher' Education of Women.

Seamen are beir<g engaged at Greenock., Scotland, for the West India voyage at £2T 5s a month — an unprecedentedly low figure? for the Clyde.

A new penny satirical paper, called theReferee, is said to be commanding a large sale in London. It hits out right and left at the follies and canards of the day. An Anti-Chinese organisation has been, inaugurated under the auspices of the trades*" societies of Victoria, and about 100 persones have already enrolled themselves as members.

Mr Butt has sent out a letter disowning: any sympathy with the Parnell party and! the principle of indiscriminate obstruction,, and says be would not hold his seat on condition of adopting it.

The expenses of the two candidates who* recently contested the county ot Argyle havebeen made up. Lord Colin Campbell's total is £5700 93 sd, while that of Colonel Malcolm, of Poitalloch is stated at £9700.

The death is announced of Captain Hugh? A, Kennedy, who has been known for forty years as a chess player, and was the authorof a series of humorous sketches in relations to the game.

A stone cist or coffin has bsen found afc the shipbuilding yard, Trench Point, Campbelltown, Scotland, containing a human skull' and several large bone 3.

The returns show that in Argyleshire= there were under cultivation last year four acres of wheat ; 2214 acres of barley ; underoats, 20,777 acres; under rye, 533 acres;-, under beans, 359 acres ; peas, 16 acivs.

Bishop Thornton gave a garden party afr-Bishop-court, Wendouree, on Saturday afternoon, the 11th January, at which about ay hundred ladies and gentlemen were present,. A brass band was in attendance.

On the 28th October, John Elder and Co.. launched from their yard at Go van, H.M.S.. Conquest, being the last of the six steel corvefctes which have recently been cousti noted . by them for the Admiralty. Among fashionable ladie3 in London, tiny porte-bouquets are now all the rag' 2 , each lady having a favourite device. The Princess of Wales selects a dragon-fly with wings Bet", with sapphires. The Maiquis of Lothian, at a mee'ing of" Quarter Session at Jedburgh, said the failure of the Glasgow Bank might be looked upoiu as a great national calamity, and also as a disgrace to the banking system of Scotland.

Me Randolph Haiser is a new and very promising billiard player at Boston. He has--made a run of seven hundred points at the-three-ball game.

The Colonial Committee of the GeneraPAssembly have commissioned the Rev Wm, Fergusson, of the Queen's Park Cburch, Edinburgh, to proceed to Cyprus as thechaplain of the Church of Scotland there.

A correspondent of the Pastoral 1 ime& suggests that the apprehension of the Kelly gang be let by tender, the lowest pri^e, <lfc course, to be the already offered rew.irdsJT with " hunting" expenses added.

At Mounb Vesuvius lava is flowing into the same ravine as was entered by a atreamt of lava during the eruption of 1872. Theeruption is expected to become more violent.

Sir Wilfred Lawson, M.P., has dehvered. au address at a public meeting in the UlstesHall, Belfast, in support of the PerursaiveBill.

Lady Sophia MacNamara, who acicom--panus Princess Louise to Canada asWly inwaiting, is a sister to the Earl of Listowelp, an Irish peer. The number of vessels afc present under construction in the Clyde shipbuilding, yards is 78, compared with IIS in August,* 1877.

The Post-office authorities have sanctioned a Sunday delivery of mails by the LaU<;r-car-riers, in place of delivery to callers ah the-Post-office on Sunday night, in 'the tj.vn oft' Banff, Scotland.

Trinity College, Cambridge, proposes to found two new professorships, of phyrii>logy and history, at salaries of £500 each and fellowship, and to provide endowment for a regius professorship of Greek.

The most unfortunate fact in conrectioc with the season of 1878-9, in Victoria, is the almost entire destruction by I;he rusb diseaseof the wheat crops in the extensive area bounded by the Ovens and Loddon rivers.

Lord Rosebery has disposed of the London Examiner. The new purchassers areMr Ashton Dilke, Lord Stratbenden asub Campbell, and one of the GoldsmidSv