NEWS OF THE DAY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5578, 25 September 1889, Page 3

NEWS OF THE DAY.

There is nothing in the language o Rowers so eloquent as a pair of presset tulips. "If the devil should lose his tail, when could he get another ?" — "In hotels when bad spirits are retailed !" Queen Victoria is the richest woman ii the British Kingdom. She has accumulated a fortune of L 4,000.000. The Court of Pope Leo comprises 1,16( persons, nearly 500 of whom bear the title of chamberlain. Ho has 20 private secretaries in his employ. A person in receipt of charitable aid actually served on the Grand jury in Auckland the other day! One flaxmilling firm in the Manawatu district last week placed one line of 10(1 tons of fibre, at Ll9 per ton, on the Wellington wharf. There is a time in every man's life when he thinks there is nothing sweeter n the world than somebody's daughter. The success of the parcels post in England is demonstrated by the fact that the inumber of parcels carried has increased from 1,000,000 the first year to 40,000,000 last year. A newspaper prints an advertisement that doserves a response. It reads : "If John Smith, who, twenty years ago, deserted his poor wife and babe, will return, said babe will knock the stuffing out of him." In the town of Bessbrook, Ireland, where .John G. Richardson employs :5,<; M> people in the manufacture of linen, no liquor has been sold for forty years, and as a result there is neither policeman, prison, pawnshop, nor pauper in the town. London lias 7000 miles of streets — and if you walked them at the rate of 20 miles a, day you would have to walk almost a year— and more than a year by nearly 50 days if you should rest on Sundays. And if you were a thirsty sort of traveller, and couldn't pass a public house, don't be alarmed - the 7000 miles have 75 miles of public houses ; so you need not think of thirst. On one of the large runs of the Marlborough province (100,000 acres in extent) HO men were employed for a period of three months, and they distributed during that period 410 bushels of oats and 2781 b of phosphorus. The food consumed by the men was as follows : — Flour 6 tons 370 lbs ; biscuits, ISO lbs ; sugar, 2351) lbs : potatoes, 5 tons 4 cwt ; tea, 1&> lbs ; currants, 20 lbs ; oatmeal, 300 lbs ; curry 35 bottles ; salt, 32(5 lbs ; shalots, s(> lbs : 488 sheep. On hi.s birthday, and on 20 other days in the year, the Sultan of Turkey receives from his mother the present of a beautiful slave, and this lady has to be transferred to his establishment in the capacity of harem dame with a household of her own, consisting of at least four eunuchs and six female servants— to say nothing of horses, carriages, and grooms. Multiply the number of these households by 300, and it ceases to be astonishing that the expenditure of the Sultan's civil listshould amount to £'4,000,000 a year. A London correspondent writes : — The formation of the paper syndicate is now practically assured, and it will shortly be floated. The capital is to be L 1,500,000,, 500,000, nearly the whole of which has been already underwritten. The class of paper to be dealt with by the syndicate is the cheaper quality of news. The immediate effect to the consumer is expected to be an advance of 5 per cent, in price, and no doubt a further rise will take place when the syndicate feels its power. A Wellington paper says that at the next sittings of the Divorce Court, a case Thompson v. Thompson will be tried. This is a case in which Thomas Thompson, hotelkeeper, of Masterton, petitions for a dissolution of his marriage with Elizabeth Louisa Thompson, on the ground of adultery. The respondent, we believe, makes certain allegations of adultery, connivance, juicl condonation. The circumstances of an elopement which caused a good deal of excitement in Masterton about ten years ago are likely to be detailed in connection with the case. In the recent Auckland v. Otago match, Keoyh, the famous half-back, performed a trick well worthy of record. Several of the Aucklauders were sailing down the field on a grand passing rush when Keogh managed to get in front of them. He made a dive at the man on the field of playside of him who had the ball as if to cut off a pass, but as he rushed by the man with the ball he gave the player a smart tap on the wrist which caused him to drop the ball, which Keogh smartly appropriated and kicked into touch. The shortest courtship I ever heard of was that of an eminent jurist. He was on his way to hold court in a town, when he met a young woman returning from market. " How deep is the creek, and what did you get for your butter ?" asked the judge. "Up to the knee and ninepence," was the answer, as the girl walked on. The judge pondered river the sensible brevity of the reply, turned hi.s horse, rode back, and overtook her. " I liked your answer, just now," he said, "and 1 like you. I think you would make a good wife. Will you marry me ?" She looked him over and said '' Yes '' " Then get up behind me, and we will ride to town and be married." She did get up behind, and they rode to the courthouse and were made one. It is recorded that the marriage was a, pre-eminently happy one. — Truth. London Truth does not appear to be keun on teaching all children attending the primary schools to sing, judging by the following : — "Some ingenious person with a turn for statistics has been calculating how many children in elementary schools in Great Britain are nt the present moment learning to sing. He has arrived at the conclusion that there are no fewer than four and a quarter millions, ' two and three quarter millions of whom sing by note, and a million and a half by ear.' This seems to me to be one of the most appalling discoveries of modern times. I simply shudder to think when all these children will be let loose to exercise their vocal talents upon an unoffending public." The experiment of liyhtmg the electric clock at the Melbourne General Post Office was made last week for the first time. There is no proper dial to the clock, but there is a skeleton dial containing the figures. The numerals are all formed of iron, and the skeleton dial, the numerals, and the hands in the daytime will be clearly discernible, owing to the fact that they will be gilded. At night no lettering can be observed, but an electric light is placed in the position of each numeral, and the hands are studded with other electric lights to the number of 23. The length of the long hand is 7ft 3in, and of the short hand 4ft oin, and the diameter of the dial 13ft Oin. The electric power is about 52 volts, each light being equal to ln-candle power. The clock is a decided success, the time being seen clearly from a great distance. Of the celebrated Mount Morgan goldmine it is said that, one way or another, the lawyers have had far the best dividends out of it up to dute. The legal stampers are always at work upon Mount Morgan stuff. The Brisbane courts are now threshing out Myenberg v. Billy Pattison and the Halls, a little LIOO,OOO dispute about part-ownership of the Mountain. Myenberg poses as the father of mining in Queensland, having held the first miner's right, occupied the first prospecting area, and erected the first mining battery in the North. The defendants are among the wealthiest men in Australia — two, if not all four of them, being regular "old man" millionaires. The early history disclosures in the case are turning out 99ozs of greed and crookedness to the ton of mullock fact. But worse is to come ; that mountain will yet produce such a villianous novel as a suffering world, fras not yet seen.

A pathetic story comes from Rockford, Illinois. Mr and Mrs Sussmilch, each more thiin 70 years of ago, liave lived happily together for nearly half a century. Recently they have been worrying over the idea that as they were so old death must soon take one or the other of them. They did nol fear death, but they dreaded the separation which death would bring. The loving old couple talked the matter over from time to time, and finally decided to anticipate matters by committing .suicide. On Saturday the old man, having disposed of his property, which was considerable, and the venerable dame having compassed her worldly affairs, the couple walked arm in arm to the Rock river. There the husband clasped his beloved spouse in his arms and jumped into the swollen waters. Both bodies have been recovered, and in accordance with their expressed desire will be buried in one grave. The couple left a written statement explaining that their sole reason fer committing suicide was an ovepowering desire to die as they had lived, together. Mr C. H. Spurgeon's now book, " Satl Cellars," is the first volume of a collection of proverbs, "together with homely notes thereon." Here are a few instances of the " shortness, sense, and salt" which Mr Kpurgeon holds to be the chief points in wise sayings: — "All women are angels, but there are two sorts of angels. " '■(Jet clean money" to which it is pungently added, " Sonic money ought to smell badly. If the conscience had a no.se, and the man had a conscience, he would not be able to live within ten miles of his money. " "All are not saints that go to church." " No," adds the well-known dissenting minister, "nor to chapel cither." "A nice dog can give a nasty bite." " Vury sweet-spoken men can say slanderous things." " A nod from n lord is a breakfast for a fool." '■ Flunkeyism is enough to make one sick ; yet there is plenty of it. I remember a good man who never made a speech without bringing in 'the noble carl.' One gloried that he was once spoken to by a Prince — ' And what did he say C He shouted to me, ' Out of the way there ! ' " Mr Edison is at work trying to still further improve his phonograph. In his invention the cylinders which reproduce the sound are covered with wax specially prepared by being heated at 000 degrees. In sending anywhere the words spoken into the phonograph the whole cylinder has to be forwarded, and this, on being placed in the phonograph of the receiver, reproduced the words, each impression being capable of 5000 reproductions. Mi Edison is now trying to get a Hat piece of wax, which, after being impressed, can be folded up, put in an envelope, and sent to any part of the world, and there reproduced as was done with the tinfoil. The difliculty to be overcome in these will be the creases, but Mr Edison has struck on a tiny platinum ball, which can go over them and yet not lose a single word. When this feature is accomplished, is will probably supersede stenography. The wax impressions are capable of being electrotyed, so that the utterances of great orators and the sweet sounds of famous singers, as well as the inspiring airs of military bands, can be reproduced a countless number of times for the deleetatation of audiences thousands of miles away. Mr Edison is now endeavoring to produce a machine, both perfect and cheap, so that it can be in the hands of everybody for use as a stenographer, and for amuse ment.