Odds and Ends.

Otago Witness, Issue 1489, 29 May 1880, Page 7

Odds and Ends.

[Compiled expressly for the Witness.]

The management of the British Museum have decided to permanently adopt the Siemens electric light for lighting the great reading-room. Mexico probably contains the largest area of rich mining territory of any nation in the world. Yet the whole country exports only about 25,000 000 dollars' worth of bullion, most of it being silver. The King of Slam has sent to Mr Edwin Arnold the Order of the White Elephant, in recognition of his poem of " The Light of Asia."

The Salt Lake Tribune tells of two apostaste Mormons who revealed the secrets of the Endowment House, and then became crazed through fear of the punishment that would be visited upon them for their treachery. The Nonconformist and Independent states that the Rev. D. Allon has been nominated by the Committee of the Congregational Union of England and Wales to fill the office of chairman next year, which will be the jubilee year of the union. Wives are being looked for among the royal families of Europe for Prince William of Prussia, eldest son of the Crown Prince of Germany, and for the Prinoe of Orange, heir to the throne of Holland.

Captain Burton states that the Western Ghats of Arabia are proving rich in precious metals.

Tarkey supplies England with £40,00G worth of hazel nuts annually. Walnut trees are also largely grown, principally for the walnut tree knobs, which are in great demand by the oabinet makers of France. M. Julius Bluthner, Court pianofortemaker, of Leipsic, has recently completed his 15,000fch instrument, and to commemo. rate the event he gave a dinner to the whole of his workpeople. General Loris Melikoff, who, as the military governor of St. Petersburg, ia now the military dictator of Russia, is the son of an American merchant, and began his military career as an officer in a hussar regiment in St. Petersburg. Longfellow's birthday was celebrated on the 27th of January in a somewhat novel fashion by the schools of Cincinnati. By general accord, the exercises on that day consisted mainly of the recitation of extracts from the poet's works, A similar compliment has been paid by the schools to Mr Whittier on his birthday. A grand scheme for the colonisation of Norbhern Mexico is being arranged, which, if consummated, will settle the border question.

Captain Webb, the Pall Mall Gazette states, at half-past 10 o'clock on Wednesday night, March 10th, successfully terminated ,at the Westminster Aquarium a feat of swimming for sixty consecutive hours. Ab the first concession to the Pope, the Bishop of Strasbourg will be permitted to re-open the seminary for the education of persons intending to become priests. Professor Cook believes the Hessian fly will be ultimately exterminated by the parasites preying upon it. He affirms that the potato beetle is being reduced ia numbers from a like cause.

The steamer Calabria sailed from London on the 28th February with the new Manilla oable, whioh will when laid connect Manilla with. Hong Kong. The late Duke of Portland for many years Bpent £1300 a year in newspapers. He subscribed to an immense number of daily and weekly jonrnala, having four complete sets supplied of each— one for each of his Scotch houses, one for Welbeck, and one for Harcourt House.

A large elm tree stood on the spot where a man at Lewis ton, N.Y., decided to build a residence. He did not cut it down, but built around it, and the odd sight is presented of a tree top growing out of the roof of a handsome brick house.

The Electrician states that M. Jousset de Bellune finds that the light from the glowworm is simply due to a general property of protoplasm, whioh consists in the disengagement of phosphoretted hydrogen. New York detectives are again working on an old clue for Charlie Ross, in connection with the Mosher gang. An equestrian statue to the memory of Lord Gough, cast from cannon taken by troops under the command of the great soldier, has been erected in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. The German Government is about to revive its scheme for cutting a canal, navigable for war vessels, between the Baltic Sea and the German Ocean. The scheme is warmly supported in military circles. It is officially reported that the imports into the United States for the last year amounted to 513,745,748 dollars, against 431,812,483 dollars in the previous year. During 1879 the domestio exports reached 754,656,755 dollars against 729,023,238 dollars in 1878.

Judge Edmunds rendered judgment in New York recently in favour of William Hood, and against George F. Walker, for 9,492,968 dollars 65 cents on a promissory note executed on the sth of August. 1854, for 1850 dollarß at 3 per cent, per month, compounding. Herr Yon Ducker, the mining inspector of Germany, reports that there is no longer any doubt that there is an immense subterranean oil basin in Hanover and Brunswick. This huge underground lake of oil is estimated by Dr Duoker to be in some places not less than f w>m six to eigkt German miles in breadth. Two magnifioent silver spikes have been made, with which the first iron rails crossing the line separating Idaho from Montana are to be fastened. They were wrought from the first silver bar produced in the United States Assay Office at Helena. M. Daubourg, a French engineer, claims to have devised a means of transporting large vessels over isthmuses, however steep, and an experiment is shortly to be made at Argenteuil by lifting a 2000 ton ship from the river, and taking it on rails to another point on the river. The Japanese have now a completely organised geological survey, with a full staff of native surveyors, under an American chief, Mr B. S. Lyman,

The Cincinnati Gazette says that several villages in the Western Reserve are now prohibiting drinking and billiard saloons in a new way. They do not in so many words shut them up, but compel them to close for the night at 6 p.m., thus preventing them from doing business during the hours when the great bulk of their custom would come in.

The Sanitary Council of the province of Rome has authorised the erection of a ere« matioa establishment at Campo Verano. Dr Lyon Playfalr has adopted the Jablochkoff system for partially lighting his town residence.

Marshal MaoMahon is said to have spent a great deal of his private income when he was President, and he is now obliged to sell a part of his mansion in Paris. The will (dated November 19fch, 1877) of Mr Henry Urawshay, the Welsh iron king, who died on November 24th last, has been proved, the personal estate, including leaseholds, being sworn under £300,000.

Dr C. Huter, a German savant, of Griefswald, has devised a simple arrangement which demonstrates the circulation of the blood in the human body by making it visible.

Sir Henry Havelock has just inherited a fortune of half a million from a cousin of his father's, named Allen. The bequest is hampered with the condition that for twenty-one years the rent of the estate should, with the exception of some £3000, be appropriated to the purohase of land, and that the legatee should take the name of Allen.

The London Times, in commenting on the Panama Canal project, urges the United States to either let M. de Lesseps do it or charge themselves with the taBK. It says that Europe could not recognise so gratuitous a demand as America now makes over American countries, and might jussly exolaim against the autocracy arrogated by the United States.

Professor Nordenskjold proposes to print an account of his voyage around the north* crn coast of Asia in Swedish, English, French, and German at the same time. The Earl of Jersey is setting apart a portion of his estate at Middleton Stoney, near Bl«ester, for cultivation by the labourers of the parish, in which there are already allotments. The land is let on most advantageous terms in plots of not more than one acre. Copies of instructions of the First Lord Of the Admiralty, respecting flogging in the Navy, have been Issued. They direct that corporal punishment shall in no case amount to more than twenty-five lashes, whether awarded by commander of ship or sentenceof court-martial. The German Government proposes to levy a tax on advertisements in newspapers. In London an interesting work has just been published— the songs of Alfred Tennyson, set to musio by various great composers. Lieutenant Pabnder, of the Swedish, Royal Navy, who has recently received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain, commanded the now celebrated Vega, the exploring vessel ia which Professor Nordenskjold made the> North- East Passage. The small town of Urfa, the Scriptural Urr of the Chaldees, was nearly destroyed by fire in February last. The inhabitants removed their valuables to the house tradi. tionally known as Abraham's birthplaoe, which was uninsured.

In a deep pocket in the ulster of a shop, lifter, who was arrested in Boston recently* were found four silk umbrellas.

A few ladies in Philadelphia, having much leisure time on their hands, have resolved to give practical lessons in housekeeping, gratuitously, to poor girls unable to pay for such training. Two of the daughters of Longfellow, the poet, are pursuing the Harvard oourße of study for women. When, in 1865, the Dutch celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Watertoo, there were no more than four Waterloo mea in the military procession. The last surviving of these, Willem Ketterman, has recently died, aged 84. Pope Leo XIII. completed his 70th year on March 2nd. His Holiness was elected to the Papacy, in succession to Pope Pius IX., on February 20th, 1878, and orowned on March 3rd following. Leo XIII. is the 258 th pontiff of the Church of Rome. Altogether Rubens produced 2719 works of art, among which 228 were sketches and 484 drawings. Of all these works 829 have never been copied, 690 are only known by copy, and 294 seem lost. The New South Wales Government have been informed by Sir Daniel Cooper that he has, on behalf of the colony of New South Wales, presanted Her Majesty the Queen with the first gold, silver, and bronze, medals of the Sydney International Exhibition. According to advices from Cincinnati, the muniolpal authorities of that place have passed a resolution permitting a system of pipes to be laid down in the streets, with » view to warming the houses and pnblio buildings of the city by steam. It is calculated that there are m Queensland 6,000,000 sheep and 2,000,000 cattle, which, after allowing for home consumption, would permit of a weekly export of 2,000 tons of meat. The late Prof Faraday adopted the theory that the natural age of man is 100 year*,, Man being 20 yearß in growing, lives 5 times 20 years— that is 100 ; the oamel is eight years in growing, and lives- 40 years ; and. bo» with other amimals.

In a recent paper read before the American Agricultural Society, Professor Willard stated that the co-operative or factory system in the dairy had made great progress in the United States, there being 1139 establishments aoting on this basis in thet year 1874, while since that period very many others had gives in their adhesion.^ An enormous and yearly increasing amount of cheese ia sent over from Amerioa for English consumption, and during 1878 no» less than 134,000,0001b5. were despatched from Amerioa on English account. In the same year Canada supplied England with 42,000,0001b5. The unarmoured composite sloop Doierell,. six guns, 900 horse-power has been success* fully launched at Chatham. Steel la largely used in her construction.