MISCELLANEOUS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1917, 16 July 1889, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The natives of Eanana, up the Wanganui river, are reported to have joined Te Kooti's religion, and have invited him to visit them, which he intends doing. A bush man named Ormoad has been missing from Puketai Bush, in the Tairua (Auckland) district, for more than a week, and is believed to have been drowned. There is an East Indian lady in Paris who can talk in. twelve languages, Fortunately she is not married. A gentleman who was about to marry a plain girl said to his friend : "It is not for her exterior but her inward beauty that I marry her." " Then, for goodness' sake," replied the'friend, "turn her inside out." It is the law of our humanity that man must know good through evil. No .man ever progressed to greatness and goodness but through mistakes. There never was a principle but what triumphed through much evil.—F. W. Eobertsou.

The night air in towns is often the purest. In some country places, as in the fens, there may be malaria, which may cause ague; but in most towns there is no danger in breathing night air from without. The real danger is from the vitiated night air within doors.

The Emperor Sigismund was reproached for rewarding instead of destroying his enemies, as by that means he gave them an opportunity to injure him. " What," said the nobleminded monarch, "do I not destroy my ;enemies when I make them my friends ?"

The " Avenir de la Dordogne" states that the first prize of 150,000 francs in the last drawing of the City of Paris Bonds has been won by a boy of eleven years of age, son of M. Boyer, a Municipal Councillor at Bernerue. v

In Paris recently two sheep were cremated in a ; new crematorium invented by M. Pierre Guichan, a member of the Municipal Council. The peculiarity of the invention is that it is heated'.by gas instead of a wood fire, and the combustion is said to be much more, rapid.

There is good flews from that most unexpected quarter the Desert of Sahara. The 'French colonists have found subterranean water everywhere within an easy distance of the desolate surface, and have created so many artificial oases in one of its worst districts, a narrow tract ef land 120 miles long called the Oued Eip, that the export of dates alone from newlyplanted trees already amounts to £100,000; sterling in annual value. Yet the sandy and rocky surface stratum afforded no apparent sustenance for vegetation, nor had it supported settlement since the days of Xing Solomon until the South Algerian Society took it in hand. There are now 114 French springs, and 495 natural springs have been discovered, cleared and improved. In the neighborhood of furakina an army of caterpillars, hundreds of of thousands strong, was marching across the railway line, bound for a new field of oats, when the train came along. Thousands of the creeping vermin were crushed by the wheels of the engine, and suddenly the train came to a dead stop. On examination it was found than the wheels of the engine had become so greasy that they kept on revolving without ad-vancing-—they could not grip the rails. The guard and the engine-driver procured sand and strewed it on the rails, and the train made a fresh start j but it was found that during the stoppage caterpillars in thousands had crawled all over the engine, and over all the carriages, inside and out.

Prom the Transvaal Advertiser we learn (says the London News) that woman-flogging in the Transvaal is allowed by law. It appears that recently a woman was sentenced to be flogged. She was tied to a post, and on her bare back the executioner inflicted fifteen strokes with the " cat." At the tenth lash the woman fainted. A' little water thrown in her face revived her, and the remaining five lashes were given her, after which she again fainted. Ihis punishment was inflicted because the woman used obscene language in the public streets. If; such sentences were to be imposed in London for similar offences the supply of executioners and gaolers to carry out the sentences would have to be largely increased. A number of rare old Australian stamps were offered for sale at auction at Tokenhouse "Sard by Messrs Ventorn, Bull and Cooper, of Old Jewry. The entire collection comprised about 2000 British and colonial I stamps, and the total sum realised was upwards of £650. Ah unused embossed envelop® ef New South Wales sold for 20gs, and. a couple of embossed wrappers of th® same colony for £23 and £8 respectively. Another New South Wales envelope fetched £9l, an unused orange £B, adhesive stamp, £ls 10s, and a blue 2d stamp £6 10s. Several yellow eightpenny New South Wales stamps sold for about £2 each, but an entire sheet of fifty realised only £54; while a sheet of twenty-five brown unused fetched £26. An unused two-penny Victorian stamp realised £2O; and a twopenny Btamp of Western Australia was sold for sgs. A pair of Mauritius stamps sold for £5 15a, and a penny blue Tssmanian of 1853 issue was sold for £4 10s. A Victorian stamp " fetched 4gs,and others also realised high prices.

Athenams speaks of a celebrated glutton who always came to table with his gloves on his hands that he might be able to handle and eat the meat while hot, and so devour more than the rest of the company. Joseph Sutherland, who was_ a powder-boy on board the res'sel which first brought to England the news of Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, has just attained his 100th year at Milton, Sittingbourne. He has good health and has all his faculties intact.

One ounce of oil of lavender, mixed with one quart of water or alcohol, and sprinkled about a room, will rid it of flies. One who knows says that four applications, at intervals, will be sufficient to drive away a host. The' local sensation of Chicago is a club swinging class for young ladies. The ladies dress like Miss Mary Anderson as Galatea. They could (unkindly remarks a Chicago paper) get the same amount of exercise over a washtub —helping their poor old mothers—but it would be less hightoned.