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Star (Christchurch), Issue 3487, 14 June 1879, Page 2

ety PHOTOGRAPHED BY EIBOXBICITr. — A gu- curious circumstance is narrated by the Freeub- mantle Herald of April 26 : — " The boy who T. was unfortunately killed by lightning at the m's Bubiaco Orphanage was found after death to X) 7 have a fig leaf and geranium, which he was — holding in his hand, photographed on his nk- breast. Another boy, who was in the number of those who were stunned but not injured led further, was found, when examined, to have a fig-leaf photographed on his foot, which was Lid at the same time swollen by its contact with the electric fluid." per The Chinese in Kuldja.— The Globe learns from St Petersburg that intelligence has been received from Vernod that the j~T Chinese troop 3 have massacred 1003 people at ( Tash-Balik, near the Kuldja frontier, and at no Oofali, three miles from Kashgar, for assistO n * D g tne insurgents during the recent raids of D £j Khakim Khan. Three thousand Mussulman m refugees have arrived at the Kussian lines ' along the Atbasha, seeking protection from fit the Chinese. An intermittent war between the Chinese and the Kirghis still continues. n« Gas in Pabis.— The Paris Gas Lighting 'J- and Heating Company sold Gas in 1878 to A. the value of £232,776 more than in 1877, its et> total salesof gas alone amounting in that '05 year to £1 ,928,232, and in 1878 to £2,161,008. . In 1855 it sold 40,774,400 cubic metres of gas, ?* in 1877 191,197,228 cubic metres. The dend mai dis still increasing, and so rapidly that , «ach month is in advance of the correspond* io^ ing month in the preceding year oil through 35 , tnafc year. The sale of by-products reach to [ a value of about 40 per cent that of sales of Fa gasill Woman's Fbaimx— The New Zealander ill,' says: — .An amusing incident is said to have cc, occurred in connection with the Maori waris's dance given in the Theatre Royal during L 5, several nights of last week. It appears from 13 tho manager's statement that tho cashier's ,h, wife, unable to resist the temptation thrown nd I in her way by the sight of so much money, / cleared out with the gross takings, leaving the h rest of the tribe in an unpleasant fix. As it =/ happens, the Natives who arranged the whole affair are well able to stand the consequences w . if the money is not recovered, but in the as meantime tho creditors in the concern will in all probability have, td wait a little. n, | Capital Punishment in the Cowmtibs. l<B fl — The Sydney Toion and Country Journal cr jj of a recent date, in an article on the quesI tion of capital punishment, gave the folI lowing table, showing that in the de"M cade from 1864 to 1b74 three-fourths of U those condemned to death in the Australasian m | Colonies received commutations of their 10 I sentences :— Sentenced to death — Tasmania, n 132 ; Victoria, 93 ; Queensland, 21 j New >t- I South Wales, 141 ; South Australia, 13 j H ac I New Zealand, 150. Hanged— Tasmania, 6 ; I } J I Victoria, 38; Queensland, 18; New South I = Wales, 35 ; South Australia, 4 ; New Zea- I land, 22. Eeprieved— Tasmania, 26 ; Vie- I 0 toria, 58 ; Queensland, 3 j New South Wales, I te 106 ; South Australia, 9 : New Zealand, I c, 128. I "_ A Mixed Fa MrLr.— The Silesian Yolks- — zeilung reports that a family is living at Zabrze, in that province, which presents a curious variety in the religious professions of, its members, and a Btrange family history. Two aro • Jews, three Eoman Catholics, and — two are Protestants. The mother was born a ■ Jewess, became a Eoman Catholio, and reverted tj Judaism. She married a Jew, by ~ whom she had the two children who are • Jews. She was divorced, again became a ra Catholic, and married a Protestant husband, 8 > by whom she had five children, three of tl whom (girls) follow tho religious profession n of their mother, while two boys go with their 1 j? father. It is worth noting that all the seven i • children, without distinction, attend the Pro- I !| testant school of the district. < , t A Stimulus to Natal Offioebs.— The < Jj Frenoh Academy devotes a prize of-6000f 1 ( to rewarding progress that is calculated to < ' increase tho efficacy of naval forces. This i year the prize lias been divided between two t persons— one of them Lioutant Baills, for f J his method of determining longitudes by n j observing the occupations of stars by the c moon's disc j the other M. Perroy, a naval r engineer, for his marine distilling apparatus, t The method of Lieutenant Baills is simple, * and of much service to men who are not accus- - tomed to intricate calculations. Tho value |j of M. Perroy's distilling apparatus for use at 5 sea has also been abundantly demonstrated. 1 The water it furnishes is fresh, aerated, inodorous, limpid, and quite potablo. M. | Perroy adopts three types of his apparatus, 1 differing only in size. Tho largest produces i 10,000 litres' of water in 21 hours, the second ■ 6000, and tho third 3500. The system was * ' first tried on board the French frigate La . 1 Gloire, and it has been generally adoptod, " where required, in tho French navy. n ' Ocean Depths.— The untrustworthiness Jj J of the vague and very varying estimates *. [ which aro given in Bchoolbooks for the mean ' depths of the oceans lias induced Dr Olto c i 1 Krummel to make a new and thoroughly careful calculation of tho mean depths of the g. • various ocean bods. Herr Erummel states ' them as follows: — 1, Atlantic Ocean, mean • depth in fathoms, 2013, area in square milos, n i 29,514,275 ; 2, Indian Ocean, 1829, 28,369,595 ; r! 3, Pncific Ocean, 3887, 60,343,690 ; 4, South ;J Ice Sea, 1800, 7,930,000; 5, North Ice Sea, 845, JS i 5,264,600 ; 6, Australasian Archipelago, 487, „ 3,046,600; 7, Mozioan Gulf, 1001, 1,765,910,- 2! 8, Mediterranean Sea, 729, 1,109,230; 9, Baltic Sea, 36, 159,690; 10, Bed Sea, 243, ■» 170,820; 11, Persian Gulf, 20, 90,100 j. 12. " North Sea, 48, 210,505 ; 13, the' Channel. TJ &C, 47, 78,416 ; 14, Gulf of St Lawrence, n * 160, 101,075; 15, East Chinese Sea, 66, SJ 470,210; 16, Japan Sea, 1200,383,205; 17, Tv Okhotsk Sea, 830, 554,080 5 18, Behring Sea. 550, 864,555 ; the three open oceans (1«3), 2026, 118,227,560,. the Mediterranean sens (5-11), 740,. 11,606,950; tho coast seas (12-18) , 386, 2,663,046; tho entire ocean (1-18), 1877 fathoms, 140,427,556 square wi miles. It thus appears that the mean depth „. of the great ocean which everywhere Bur- J! rounds the land is 1877 fathoms, or 11,562 ft, p or about 2.15 mileß. WINB FOBTHE SYDNEY EXHIBITION.— To tho old aphorism that "All is not gold that wi glitters," 'ifc appear«thafcwemaynoH'add anow pr one, namely, " all is not wine that sparkles." on It was pointed out to the Exhibition Commis- £2 Bionera rccontly, in a letter from Mr Morris, nu of Sydney, "that in oxhibiting wines, &c , it isnot neceissary that the trophieß should qonsisfc of.-botllcB filled with, the generous fluid. ;. At Philad.elp.lua tho Frenoh and Germans (B filled their, bottles with water coloured according to the character of the wine desired i to, bo represented, and all nations adopted this Mi practice at tho Paris Exhibition. The display till of- real wines (remarked Mr Morris) is a temp- iu< tfltipn to the guards, which many of them can- £L not resist, as the Australian representatives afc but Philadelphia can bear testimony. Tho trophies , the i ai<o only fluppo? cd . \.o. represent ..the wines Ma .vL.ick.aro intiip ccfyves pi the . Erbibuicn lo P U\ bel rcpoi'ted on by the judges;- Ko object ia Ua j, arrived nt '.by'^oiliibiUng real wines, , becaure f Xh the position in" which they must necessarily m o [bo placed is not conducive^tokeoping them' adj

in proper condition for testing, even if any bottles could be removed for thatpurpoee without destroying the effeot of the display. It will be sufficient if the bottles exhibited will be properly labelled wifch all the deßired information." The Commissioners decided to circulate this information in all districts from which wine may be expected, .Bills of Costs.— There was^a dispute about counsel's feea between two members of the Bar in the Nelson Courfc fche ofcher morning, whereupon His Worship took the opportunity of saying that in the matter of costs the profession was most unjustly abused in this Colony, where the members ofthe Bar were nofc sufficiently paid. A gentleman learned in fche law, who was lately on a visit from England to New Zealand, had said that there was not a lawyer in/ the Colony who understood drawing up a bill of costs. Mr Pitt agreed with, what had fallen from fche Bench, and said that he bad been told only the other day thafc it would pay him to make a special trip to England for the sole purpose of learning how to make up a bill of costs. As no laymen were heard on the other sido, the foregoing may be looked upon as purely ex part* statements.— Nelson Mail.

Mdme Etblka Gbbstbb.— Mdme Gerster is credited by a correspondent of The Theatre as saying :— " My father was a carpenter in Kaschau. I used to go to school and work at home. I was always happy and always singing. I sang about my daily work as a bird sings, because my heart waa full of joy and music. Sometimes poorer people stood in front of the window. I thought ifc was a great compliment, and I would sing juat as well as I could. Well, one day when father was out to work and mother was away at the market, I felt very happy. I was juat twelve years old then, was ironing, and wa9 singing with all my might. When I stopped, a man at the window clapped his hands, and said, 'Ah, little girl, you aing hke a bird.' ' And who are you P' I naked. 'Well, I'm Helmesberger. I'm the musical director from Vienna. Fm going to give some concerts here in the villago,and when I get through in Kaschau I'm going back to Vienna ; and if you want togowithme,l'lltakeyou,' he added. 'Then,' said Mdme Gerster, laughing, *I remember how they fixed me up. Father was to pay for my tuition, and mother waß to keep me in clothes. I remember how I cried and laughed and sang all tbe way to Vienna.' "

| Woman's Riohts.— Mr Anthony Trollope, fat a recent meeting in London to consider the | political advancement of women, said that he ; thought the political privileges of the world must go with tho power, of tho world, and the power of the world must go wifch the purse. It seemed to be a rough, perhaps a vulgar, uncouth, and unpalatable doctrine ; but if they looked at things as they found them, ifc would be aeen fchafc ifc alwayß was and always would be thafc fcho power would go with the purse. Tho Chairman told them that women ruled their husbands. No such thing. He did not think there was a woman in tho room who would glory in ruling her husband. They heard a great deal about that sort of thing in norels; But in his own experience he never knew a nice woman who did nofc think ifc proper to look up to her husband and be ruled by him ; and he did not think there was any married woman present who would not be angry if she thought that persons thought so little of her husband as that she ruled him. The master of the house was the master of the house, and he was the master becauße he had got the purse. It was the man's duty to go out and earn wages, on whioh tho household was sustained— on which the household was brought up • and bo lon as the man hud the purse, ao long must political power remain with him. Ho did not think they could get ovor thafc difficulty.