NEWS ITEMS

Colonist, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8244, 10 May 1895, Page 3

NEWS ITEMS

(From oub Latest Exchanges.)

Writing about tho Chinese, a contemporary states : — Most people have a fancy for loose-skinned large oranges. They are not always procurable naturally, but our almond-eyed friend has a very simple method of producing them unnaturally. He simply plunges an ordinary-sized orange in boiling water and taking it out in a minute or bo, the golden fruit quickly swells to about twice its natural size. When displayed in the window there is a rush for these fine oranges, and the buyer congratulates himself or herself upon having obtained such beauties. The Kumara 'Times* gives the following extract from a letter received from Coolgardie. — " The fever is raging, three and four being buried every day — old men and women and little babies. The week before last there were seven hundred cases in Perth alone. . . . We are told the reefs are not permanent, and will be worked out in about twelve months, . . . epeaking of a find of ISOOozs by aparty of men, in2scwtof stone, the writer says : ' They brought the gold down here and got on the spree, shouting champagne at 25s per bottle. One man got the honors and shot himself. They were camped only ten yards from our place. A touching story comss from Tnrin. In a narrow valley, near the celebrated Thermae di Vinadio, there is a little hamlet, whioh every winter, is almost completely separated from the rest of! tbe world by the enow. A few days ago an avalanche rolled into tbe valley and, reaching some of the houses, carried off the roof of one and completely crushed aod buried another, in whioh were two peasants and their ohild. The neighbors immediately proceeded to dig tbem out, making a tunnel through the snow, bnt found the mother and father dead. The baby, however, waß found in its cradle under two tables which had fallen one against the other ; forming a kind of roof. A dog was also in the cradle, with its nose near the faeo of the child. You may trust tbe wily •* heathen Cbinee " for finding out ell tbe tricks of the trade. The development I kave heard of regarding Mongolian cnteness, esys the Wellington correspondent of the Wairarapa ' Times ' is that when dry oocoanms are purchased tbey care'nlly bore a small hole in one of the •• eyes," pour in a little water, stop tbe hole up cleverly again and there you have to all intents a fresh ripe eocoanut filed with delioioosmiik. Everyone baying a coooannt shakes it firet to find oat if thare is any milk in it and if not, as a rale, the nuts are not bought. The ChinamaD, being a keen i observer, has noticed this liking for oocannts containing milk, and tries to m ike up for the deficiency accord" ingly The « Lyttelton Times ' states that the fol'owing is the correct position of affairs in connection with the Cheviot eettlera : — " There are 108 occupants holding between 22,387 aores on lease in perpetuity. Their onrrent halfyear's rent amounts to £3078, and of this sum only £159 remains unpa'd. There are 80 selectors, holding 41,800 acres as grazing runs. Their half-year's rent amounts to £2920, and of thin sum only £580 is still owing. The holders of village homesteads number 80, and of tbeir half-year's rent, amounting to £422 for 2403 aores, only £42 is unpaid. These figures show that of tbe 219 settlers who look np land on the estate 202 have been able to fulfil their engagements, aod that the 17 who are Btill m arrears owe no mora than £781. " The ' Wairarapa Standard * : — On Satarday a native died at Greytown whose history has been more than usaally fall of incident. Te Kooti te Katu was born in the Wairarapa, bat when a child was made a captive by Te Bauparaha in one of that warrior's raids and taken to Porirna. Afterwards he became connected with tbe mission of the Bey. Mr Ironsides, who sent him to the Three Kings College at Auckland, to be trained for the ministry. He was in due time ordained, and for 80 years has been a consistent and respeoted minister of the Wesleyan Cburoh. His first station was the Chatham Islands, and afterwards he was at Baupahi, near Lyttelton. Among the fortunes made by advertising are those of the late Mr Borwick, a baking powder manufacturer, who left £259,740, and Mr Thomas Stone, of Peek, Freau, and Co., wbo built up on the Bermondsey bieouit a fortune of £839,487. Mr William Palmer, of Huntly and Palmer, left £128,000, and Mr Neville, the London baker, £288,000. A stbange story oomeß from Mulhoiro, in Alsace. A chemical operator was blown by an explosion of nitro-benzole in!o a trough of bulphnrio acid, 8 feet deep. His whereabouts were only ascertained through the accidental discovery of two porcelain buttons and an indiarubber mouthpiece in the trough, everything else pertaining to the unlacky man having been dissolved. One day Sir John Adye, G. 0. 8., with other members of the Ordnance Committee, was called upon to test .he proposal of an inventive baing who thought that a horse would be a very efficient gan-oarriage in mountain warfare. So at Woolwioh Arsenal, a light gun was strapped on to a troop horse's baok, the horse's head waß tied up to a post and the gun loaded. As the hotse stood whilst theße oper- j ai^ns were in proces, tbe gun muzzle! was pointing to an earthen mound, and the committee btood in a group at the opposite side. A maloh was applied to the sow burning fuse to fire the piece, and the troop horse, hearing the fizzing, suddenly wheeled right ronnd, bringing the gun muzzle fairly in line with the heads of the committee* men. In a becond evt ry man was flat on his face ; the gun went off, and the shots flying over Woolwioh town fell harmlessly into tie dockyard. Ihe horse was lying on its back, several yards a » ay, when tbe committee recovered their perpendicular, nnnatmed but considerably disturbed in mind, They reported uoanimously againßt the inventive person's suggestion.

W.

A cobrbspondent of a London paper" haß toiled through the 500 pages of a Blae Book containing the Civil Service es'imatea for the current year, baa picked out a number of curious items. We learn that the "turncock*' at Buokiagham Palace is paid 28 * a I week, with £8 for acting aa rat catcher while the Windsor Oastlo r^t-catcher receives an honorarium of £10. Tbe payments at Kew Gardens include £30 to experts for naming oryptogamouß plantß, whioh the taxpayer may consider either dirt cheap or extravagant according to the extent of his interest in cryptogams. Warming, lighting, and ventilating ihe Bouse of Com mons costs £16,000 a year, the tack of lighting fires employing two persons by itself, while the task of dusting the books in the Library of the House of Lords is performed by some yonng women fcr £50 a year. Eight of the Queens messengers who go abroad reoeive tho comfortable salary of £400 a year, the ninth, for some reason unexplained, only getting half that amount, They are also given an al lowance of £1 a day while on journeys out of England. The Stationery Office returns the cost of notepaper and envelopes for official use to ba £3,500 and the sarcastic writer is of opinion that those who correspond with friends in the Civil Service will be surprised at tbe smallne-s of this amount. The State encourages horse-breeding to the extent of £3300 a year, but while £1740 is distributed in Queen's premiums at horse shows iv Great Britain Ireland's share of the money, £1550.. ia spent in Queen's Plates run for at Irish races. The « Post' of May 7th states :— Sir George Clifford's threa aores in Eobsou street, whioh were recsnUy offered to the Council for £8000 as a recreation ground, have not waited long to find a purchaser at a substantial advance on the price named to the Council. Mr David Ziman, of Johannesburg, Transvaal, who is on a visit to Wellington, has purohased the property from J. H. Bethune and Co for something over £8500 cash. Mr David Ziman is well-known in the Transvaal as an enterprising capitalist and it is satisfactory to find that he is so impressed with the prospects ot Wellington as to desire to invest in real properly here. The late Mr John Buchanan, C.E., one of the vie ims of the tunnel calamity at Melbourne, was in receipt of a ealary of two thousand pounds a year. He was on'y 38 years of age* Onk for tbe Inspec or. A Southern papsr gives a story of what befall an inspector who entered a certain school aud bounced into the headmaster's room without taking his hat off or knocking, When he asked to be shown another room, the teacher called a small boy, told him oaten'atiously who the visitor was and continued : — " Will you kindly take him to Mr — 'a room, and ba sure to knock at the door and take your hat off before yon go in, because it is an extremely rude, aud ill-bred thing to do otherwise. Fob a long time it has been the very height of humcr in the country to tell a person on horseback who did not appear very comfortable to (t get inside." A little boy in the far north has been the first to think of a suitable retort. He rode a big, half-draught mare into the township, and a wit on the hotel verandah bawled, " You'd have a more comfortable ride if you got inside, sonny." "So I would if her mouth was as big as yours," said the boy. His retort is likely to be the death of the feeble old joke; and the country districts will be drived of much of their gaiety. A quaint custom is Btill observed at the Bishop of London's palace at Fulham. The lodge-keeper each morning knocks the domestics up by tapping at their bedroom windows with a long pole. He not only has to knock, but J is required to continue doing so until they give visible proof that they have i quitted their beds. j A bottiiE 115 ft high will be a feature of the Bordeaux Exhibition about to be opened. It will stand in the grounds, the basement serving as a | refreshment room. The second and third floors will be reached by staircases, a winding staircase leading up the neck of the bottle, a kiosk at the summit being made to represent the cork. " The unprecedented death-rate in England, largely due to influenza, and especially severe upon old people," says the ' Medical News,' " has of late I inLondon reached so high a figure as 88*5, and in Liverpool the frightful rate of 55-5 has been recorded." The Hindoos show singular frankness in making census returns. Among those who were called npon to describe their callings, some designated their means of living as " village thieves," " supported by relatives," or " living on loans." The dog whioh figured iv a pathetic incident at the battle of Port Arthur, is now in New York at the apartments of the war correspondent who firet saw her lying in the arms of her dead master, refusing to desert her post in all the din and confusion of the battle. The boo of a Melbourne clergyman was sect ap to a station to obtain colonial experience, and they found him the very mildest son of clergyman who ever handled a tarpot. On his firet mustering experienoe ha was directed to ride along a fence and drive all the sheep be met to a ceriain point, and there wait till tbe other men joined him. Very soon he was seen tiding rapidly over to the manager, who was abont half a mile distant. When he reached him he asked — *' There is a ewe with a lamb asleep over there, sir ; ah all I wake tbem up ?'' " Certainly, " replied the genial manager. Wake them by all means and bring them along. If the ewe make' any compl&int tell her it was by my orders and that I take all " responsibility." Ah if all managers were like that how much happier would the life of colonial experienoe men be. AcETyLENK, which has an illuminating power of 240 candles, as compare I with London gas, equal to 16---oan^le power, can be produced at 6s 9|d per 1000 cubic feet. It is eaid that acetylene oan be used to enrich ordinary coal gas, and raise its illuminating power to the highett intensity.

A Coolgardie correspondent writes — On an average cample carry about sswfc. Big bulls wi 1 carry up to 7owll and are wor h not less than £90. Good hack camels are very valuable, and have been cold for £100. They *r j said to be able to travel 100 miles a day wi h a rider for nearly a week without a drink. Ordinary animals Cm be boagh : a"-. Coolgardie from £50 to £80, according to condition. They oan be hired from 20 j to 25s per week but a deposit equal to the value of the animal has to ba put down a 1 " security for its safe retarn. Ons thing the camel has learned in the laod of his adoption, is to go id harness. He will draw on an average half a ton in shafts. The Afghap looks with undisguised contempt on this innovation, 60 contrary to the traditions of his race. In this utilitarian land the traditions of Eastern life are little respected, and all romance departs from the camel when he is put in the shafts of a buggy, for a more incongruous and unromantio equipm nt was never seen, especially when a Western Australian Jehu stirs up the team with language the reverse of Eastern metaphor. The Buenos Ayres correspondent of the ' Australian Pastoralist's Review * gays:—" Mr Daniel Kingsland has shipped for England during the last month 8800 wethers, 1180 steers, and 60 horses. The horses were Clydesdale colts, four-year-olds, handled but not broken, suitable for trams or 'buses and were bought here for £8. Tbey were bred iv the Pampa Central on hard camp. Others of tha same olass sent formerly have realised in England from £22 to £27." An amusing story is told in the * National Observer' of an American gentleman at an English country bouse, who went out rabbit shooting io very extraordinary knickerbockers. At the close of the day one oi his compatriots asked him " where he had those * pants ' out. Qaoth the new arrival, after a pause aad with some hesitation, ' Well, to tell yon the truth, they're not mine at all. My servant had forgotten to pack up my kniokerbockers, so I borrowed these from my wife.* * Erom your wife I* cried tho other. - Yes. they're part of her bicycling costume, and see now handy they've come in.' "

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