MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 656, 21 March 1879, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL.

THE QUEEN A GREAT GRANDMOTHER. It will make some middle aged people feel very old to hear that the Princess Royal, who was born within their rememberance, is on the point of becoming a grdudmother. Her daughter, the Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen, is expecting her confinement next month ; so that if all goes well, Her Majesty the Queen will be a great-grandmother before she is sixty. Up to this time no Queen of England has ever lived to see her great-grandchildren ; but Her Majesty may now reasonably hope to be a great-great-grandmother and to see her grandchildren's grandchildren. LORD BEACONSFIELD. Lord Beaconsfield's admirers will rejoice in the reflection that, according to the laws of hereditary longevity, he has still many years of life to look forward to. His father lived to be eighty-two, and his grandfather, Benjamin Disraeli, to be eighty-six. His mother was only seventy-one when she died ; but his father's grandmother, Mrs. Seybroot, lived to the age of ninety. If Mr. Beresford-Hope had known that Isaac Disraeli was the son of a Dutch Jew he might effectively have retorted Lord Beaconsfield sneering allusion to the " Batavian grace " inherent in Dutch blood. KENTISH LABORERS FOR NEW ZEALAND. On January 29th the locked-out Kentish labourers and the families, numbering between 400 and 500, left Maidstone by train on their way to Plymouth, where they will embark for New Zealand. The emigrants were attended to the railway-station by an immense crowd of friends. OREAT FIRE IN BIRMINGHAM. A serious fire occurred on January 29th in Birmingham, at the large lamp works of Messrs .lames Hinks and Sons, of Birmingham and London. An immense quantity of goods, finished, I and unfinished, were destroyed, and 300 workpeople are thrown out of work. The building is a complete ruin. It is [ roughly stated *that the damage will amount to £30,000. The original of the disaster is unknown. SMART BUT CUTTING. I j From the British fleet in Eastern I waters : A young midshipman went out to join his ship, commanded by a gallant officer, otherwise rather a don. He was met on deck by the captain, who said, " Well, younster, so you've come |to join us. I suppose it's the old story — tlie fool of the family, eh 1 Haw, haw !" To which the middy replied, in a squeaky voce, "Oh no, sir ; it's all changed since your day." Exit captain. AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS. Owing to the depression in agriculture the Earl of Beaconsfield has paid the Scliool and Church-rates of the tenants on liis estate at Hughenden, Bucks, for three years, the sum being equivalent to 10 per cent, on the half-year's rent. Sir Harry Verney, of Claydon Park, Winslow, Buckinghamshire* has just returned to his tenants 10 per cent, of their rents, owing to the recent bad times Similar abatements have been made by the Duke of Newcastle, the Earl of Albemarle, Earl Manvers, Mr. F. J. S. Foljambe, M.P., Mr. S. B. Bristowe, M,P„ Earl Cowper, and tho Hon. E. R. Oust. BLESSING THB NEVA. The annual ceremony of 'blessing the Neva was performed on Jan. 18, opposite the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg, in presence of the Emperor and Imperial family. A salute of 101 guns was fired from the fortress. RUSSIAN OPPRESSION. The Roman Catholic journal Germania learns that the forcible conversion of Polish Catholics of the United Greek Church to the Orthodox Russian creed is still being carried on in the same unrelenting and cruel manner which was only recently exposed in an English Blue Book. The Germania expresses great indignation at the conduct of the Russian authorities.

LOSSES IN THE RUSSIAN WAR. ~^F Inquiries made as to the losses*Rstained by, the Russians at .^#Juropean seat'of war have resulted iif^le following particulars :— On the whole 129,471 men lie buried in the Balkan Peninsula, and of the 129,950 men sent back to Russia as sick or wounded, 42,950 died ; the complete number of the dead is 172,400 men, not including those who succumbed in Asia Minor. PREVENTION OF COLLISIONS. The Berlin correspondent of the Mtrning Post says that the negotiations recently entered upon between the principal maritime Powers with a view to devising common regulations to be observed by vessels of all flags for the prevention of collisions at sea have led to a satisfactory result. A set of regulations have been drawn up and approved by most of the Powers interested, and there is a prospect of an international convention being concluded shortly by which those regulations will become effective. t ANNiyERSART OF NAPOLEON 111. The anniversary mass for Napoleon 111. was celebrated on Jan. 13, at St. Augustine's. M. Rouher and all the leading Ronapartists attended, many of them wearing bunches of violets in their buttonholes. A number of people collected outside, but everything passed off quietly.