MISCELLANEOUS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11689, 24 February 1902, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

News from Tahiti states that a boat and its [ crew, which left the wreck of the Savernake to obtain assistance, and was supposed to have been lost, travelled 300 miles to Aeas, I and was found by a French' gunboat. The crew had fared pretty well on the 'ship's stores. They proceeded to San Francisco. The King has confirmed the authority given by Queen Victoria to the Lords of the Admiralty for the issue of a medal to commemorate the operations in North China in 1900. The medal will be granted to all officers, warrant officers, petty and non - commissioned officers and men of the British, Indian and colonial naval and militay forces who were employed in North China and the Yangtse Valley from June 10th, 1900, tp December 31st, 1900, and to all who embarked in India for service in China in the expedition under the command of General Gaselee.

The Marquis of Anglesey, who recently figured before an \admiringi world as a man wiio took rather less care of £60,000 worth of jewels than the ordinary person takes of nis pence, is now, it- appears, anxious to rival that admirable scion of the nobility, Lord Yarmouth. He recently made-his debut in pantomine, and " scored an enormous success in a butterfly dance." It is true that the peer's appearance was in his own private pantomine at Anglesey Castle, and one does not wish to dictate even to a peer what his amusements at home should be. But it- is not good to read that a- descendant of the field-marshal who commanded the cavalry at) Waterloo is to be seen nightly pirouetting behind the footlights arrayed as a giddy butterfly. Probably the only tree in the world which flourishes with its roots in the air is an apple tree planted 28 years ago by Mr John Mclver, a Milwaukee distiller. It was originally one of twenty-five planted in this undignified position, and all its companions died in mute protest against the indignity. The survivor, howeyer, was made of "sterner stuff." It threw out its roots, twenty of them, in radiation along the horizontal lat-tice-work, which was raised high from the earth on props. The trunk 'has grown downward to a girth of nearly 4ft, and the branches, loaded with fruit, cover a space 100 f- in circumference, and seem as if they could dissociate themselves- from the roots far -above them by striking fresh roots in the ground.

Tile Vienna correspondent of the " Daily Mail" telegraphs :—" An important invention for the prevention of railway accidents \ras experimented with on.' January 2nd at the Austrian Railway Officials' Club by an. electrician, Herr Rudolph Bartelmus. The locomotive was worked automatically by means of a contact rail along the entire distance combined with a dynamo and a steam turbine. In the case of any obstruction on the line, the newly-invented device works as a progressive check. That is to say, it gives notice first at a distance of 2400 yards, then at 1200 yards, and finally, if the previous signals remain unheeded, at 600 yards from the obstruction; the steam, is automatically shut off on the engine, and the brakes work, so that the train comes to a standstill. The invention is thought to be of the highest importance, and is causing general attention. A sensation was caused in Sydney on the evening of January 30th by a stampede of horses belonging to the Federal contingent through the city, ft seems that the horses, which have been without exercise owing to the saddlery not being complete, were turned out near the camp for a stretch. When the time came to get them in they were surrounded, but being frisky they went through the lines iri a body, and about 300 cleared the fence and got into the streets. They went through Darlinghurst at a gallop, scaring people, who scattered in all directions for shelter. Fifty broke off at the top of Willian^.street, and came down King street, bringing- up at the water's edge, where they were secured. A couple of casualties have been reported as a result of the stampede. Trooper Upton, of C Company, was severely injured internally. He was' knocked down in the first rush and trampled upon. Three of the horses ran into the cable tram in the New South Head road, and a passenger, a young woman named Grace Snowden, was taken to the Sydney hospital suffering from bruises and shock. The horses have scattered in all directions. One of them..jeps, found in Bayswater road, Darlinghurst, with a broken leg, and was destroyed.