Miscellaneous.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 4980, 12 April 1889, Page 2

Miscellaneous.

One of the most alarming symptoms of the time is the tendency of the French army to take part in the discussion of public affairs, or at least to express an opinion upon them. At Dr Harper’s Christian College in Canton more than fifty have applied for admission, but only half the number can be accommodated without increased endowments. More than half the applicants have been in the Chinese Sunday schools in the United States. J edge M’Farland in sentencing recently a prisoner in Sydney to eight years’ penal servitude and two whippings of 25 lashes each, for garotting, said, " that the time had come when corporal punishment must be given if men, women, and children were to be safe in walking the streets at night. At present no person was safe from the scoundrels who infested the streets for the purpose of robbery and plunder.” In the northern countries of England, where the kindly pastime of pigeon-flying has long been in favour, there must he thousands of persons who would fain go to the approaching Paris Exhibition, were it for nothing else than to see the performances of the carrierpigeons. The Congress of Aeronauts which is to be held is to include pigeon fanciers as well as balloonists; and we see it officially announced that there will be let loose from the grounds of the Exhibition at the same time several balloons and 100,000 pigeons. General Sir F. Fitzwygram, Bart., M.P., ex-Inspector-Qeneral of Cavairy, speaking at a volunteer prize distribution at Gosport, commented somewhat sharply on the system of musketry instruction in the British army. Ho said that when the expenditure of ammunition in our recent engagements was compared with the number of killed and wounded, it would be seen how little effective had been the fire. This was because the men were taught to shoot under conditions which could not possibly occur in war. Mammoth eucalypti trees are growing in the Gippsland district. Girth, 70ft, in some cases over 90ft j height, 500 ft. The most ancient tree in Gippsland has been used as a stable for a team of bullocks. The giant of the forest has its top blown off ; its height is now 466 feet j its girth at base, 114 ft j at four or five feet from the ground, 81ft. A tunnel could be cut through it, and a waggon of wool taken through with the greatest of ease. The skeletons of several as large and larger lie fallen—one especially, a huge monster, showing a clear avenue in the forest for 500 f t; in its side a regiment of soldiers might stand, or two or three Cobb’s coaches run abreast.

Notwithstanding the abundant harvest in South Russia last year, in the interior whole provinces are suffering from a state bordering on famine. The inhabitants of entire districts in tho Government of Orenburg are actually dying of starvation. Four years of bad crops have totally exhausted the poor peasants, so that numbers of villages there have eaten up the last seed corn. The adult population allow themselves the luxury of a piece of bread once in two days, whilst children crying for bread are fed by their mothers several times a day with very small bits of millet cakes, which in ordinary times the poorest peasants would not look at. These cakes, when they are just baked and still warm, look more like cement, and when they become cold are harder, if possible, than stones. Colonel North, the Nitrate King, is accompanied upon his journey to Chili, where he has gone to visit his properties, by Dr Russell, the famous war correspondent of The Times, He is paid £3OOO for his trip, Mr Vizetelly, another journalist who has been to the wars, goes with the North party as the representative of the Financial Times, The colonel is accompanied by his daughter, and has in his train several private secretaries. On the evening of his departure at Liverpool ho made a speech at a banquet given to him by a number of admirers, in which he said some very offensive things of the Financial News, a city journal, which has obtained a good deal of power in financial circles. It is not wise that I should repeat tho colonel’s charge, but he seems to have made it with a view to its being reported. The Financial Times, in the proprietorship of which it is said the colonel is interested, gave a verbatim account of the business, and the next day Mr Marks, the proprietor of the Financial News , issued a writ for libel, and tried to serve it on i Colonel North at sea. Ho sent an officer out on a fast tug boat with the offer of a great reward if he caught the colonel’s steamer,but after a long and weary chase the tug and the process server had to return. An effort, however, is to be made to serve the writ at Lisbon, whore the Colonel will land for a day j but warnings have gone out which will no doubt frustrate the civic attack upon his nitrate majesty. During Colonel North’s absence Lord Randolph Churchill will have" the management of his racing stud; one of his horses, Iddesleigh, is entered for the Derby. It is sxid that in one transaction to which he introduced Lord Randolph, the Liberal Conservative statesman made £14,000 without practically risking sixpence.