MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 4, Issue 39, 23 May 1893, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Children in India have to learn the multiplication table up to forty times forty, and this is further complicated by the incroduction of fractional parts. This is nearly as bad as some of the tasks set New Zealand children under the primary school syllabus.] The “ New Zealand Times’' corres* pondent on the West Coast writes One of our West Coast doctors who used to gold mine in his spare .time, and used to make £1 per week, too, threw up his appointment and left the Coast. Recently Van old Forty-niner fossicked about in the doctor’s claim foi an hour, during which he displaced a small boulder underneath which he got a 20-oz nugget of gold, for which ; the Bank gave him £BO. Had the doctor gone one more day to his claim he mnsfe have found the welcome nugget,

The expenditure under the pension system of the United States is now so vast that last year’s payments exceeded £40,000,000. In other words, there was paid to the patriots of the Civil War, or those who pretended to be such, a sum considerably exceeding the whole Army and Navy expedniture of Great Britain. James Marshland, who pleaded guilty to a charge of having harbored J. W. Bennett formerly manager of the English, Scottish, and Australian Chartered Bank, Paddington, has been sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment. Judge Backhouse, in passing sentence, said that no proof had been adduced that the prisoner had received any pecuniay benefit for what he had done, but he was amply satisfied that the prisoner knew whom he was harboring. The bare remark of his when arrested, “ Well, this is what a fellow gets for doing a good turn,” was sufficent in itself to show that the prisoner was well aware of Bennet’s identity. It was a serious matter, and the public would have to understand that they could not help criminals to evade the law in this fashion. Small of stature, bold ot mein, of ' nature pluck to the core, reefing his occupation. For the last half decade be, too, has played what “ eucharists ” call a “ lone hand.” Away up, quite 2,000 ft above sea level, where the flinty lock dips down from beneath the snow cap of Frazer Peak, changeless in its fashion, this herculean pigmy of the age has, unaided, bored I,oooft of rock tunnel, hoping to cut the golden reef throught to be in the heart of this stupendous upheavel of rock, snow, and ice. Last week he was awarded by Intercepting the reef, showing gold at a depth of 500 ft from where it outcrops on the mountain’s flank higher up. T7ia name is Antonio Zala, and his wonderful work —is there another man in New Zealand who would thus work for five years unassisted, no , money, and for food Maori hen, fern | root, water of the mountain rill, with rare bits of butcher-meat, bread, and sups of black tea thrown in!—is reckoned by the applauding diggers (hardy, too, they) all round to open up a permanent quartz field in the solid country at the back of Rosstown. The reef is small but well defined, carries | specimen of gold, and will well-pay j this hero of onr mining world, who ( even now is transporting machinery ] up to that great height. Mr Zala was j the prospector of the Alpine claim at j the Lyell.—New Zealand Times. .