MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 72, 15 October 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

*J CiIiADIUTi DrHAI'PKAUANCK OP TUB Por,A.It.SI!A. — If a writer in the English periodical, Nature is correct, in hi.i views, the open Polar Sea, unless discovered soon, will exist no more. Land, is Buid to bo rising everywhere between the Pole und the fillyBcveulh parallel, and the greatest movement is at the Toll , itself. Home interesting facts are quote! in wtpport of this theory. I'liny says that .Scandinavia is an archipelago, and speaks of bold Heamen who have circumnavigated the group of islands. Ptolemy eon/inns him. Celsius said, in the seventeenth century, that Norway was rising at the rate of forty inch*-* ii Sir Charles Lyall indorses the theory. The water level in the Cull'of Bothnia falls one foot every fifteen, years. jN'ear Crcil'e there are low pastures where old men remember seeing boats alloat. Near (Stockholm, mjverity feet above the sea, the remains of Hhell-iish, identieal with the present eoa.it species, are found. At Kodulcige, ninety feet above high water, there is a l>ed of sand which contains some wrecked Louis and an old anchor. In the interior of .Spitsbergen skeletons of whales, have been unearthed forty fert above sea-level. The fishermen say that the land has risen ho much that the- shallowness of the water has driven away the right whale, which, once abundant, is now rarely seei.'. On the Pacific, the whores around IJeliring's Straits are low and Hat; but a mile or ho back there are ranges of bluffs parallel wii,li the coast, and containing innumerable nhells of littoral species. If the theory is true it oilers us a curious case of compensation. While the ocean is washing away Great Britain, and France, and Holland, and New England, towards the North the continents are encroaching on to the sea. The only pity is that the process cannot be and Neptune enriched at the expense of the frozen North, nnd to the gain of the more habitable South. A Hint to Oa'kijknkkh.—A late Canterbury papes makes the following .suggestion:- -"The large amount of canary Heed annually imported into the colony, and the high price at which it is sold arc deserving the attention of our agriculturists. Canary, hemp, '.lielgiiin millet, uud siinllovver have been successfully grown on a small scale for the last live years in the Acclimatization Canlens, and the plants appear well suited to our climate; in fact the curator reports the produce to be better in quality and quantity, with the exception of one bad season, than the English grown. The 'large colza, rape, and buck-wheat have been also repeatedly grown in the gardens, but not villi the like success. .Seed of the dari or African millet has been obtained by the society from England, and is now ready for distribution to members." Dhatji of a Don intoM. Giirnv.—The dog of the late Michel Carre (author of "Galathee," "Mignon," "Katisl," and other pieces), after ten days of voluntary abstinence, has succumbed to the grief caused by the deal Ii of its master. After having, as it were, guarded the body, exposed according to custom at the door of the deceased's residence, the faithful animal accompanied it to the gate of the church of Argentcuil, and then to the cemetery of the village. On returning home, if refused vvory sort of nourishment, lapping only a i'cw drops of water, and at last expired at the door of its late master's study. During the late war there was a certain Quartermaster who, at a certain recruiting station had charge of the mustering of drafted men and substitutes. Among the ceremonies of mustering-in, he incorporated the following question, which was addressed to each and every recruit: " (Jot a vatch, hay ?" If the man replied that he had, the Quartermaster would exclaim : " Vat you vant vith a vatch, hay ? The versl, fimo- you goes out to fight and gets kilt, vere vill your vV.fch be then, hay? Sergeant, take this man's watch and give him credid for thirty dollars agin his name." If the recruit happened to answer that ho had no watch, our Quartermaster would exclaim: "Vat! no vatch! How you can ever go to ill! front mitout no vatch, hay ? They puts you on guard for two hours, and they keeps you dere four hours, and they takes you o'lf for four hours, and sends you back in two hours. How vil you know about it if you have no vnlel , , hay? Hero, sergeant, gif this man a valch, and charge him sixty dollars agin his name." And so the vatchless man would be presented with a timepiece taken from a recruit who had been nuislered-in before, and on pay-day 1 he little dillc-cuce bet ween the prices charged against, their names compensated the Quartermaster for his (rouble in the premises. A. Waiter at one of the London taverns was sadly given to drink. A party of young men determined In reform him, and one'day read an imaginary paragraph from a paper relating a terrible accident, in which an inebriate in blowing out a candle, was killed bv the flames igniting the alcoholic fumes of his breath. Jerry pricked up his cars at this, and requested that the paragraph might be read to him again, which was done, to the evident horror of the poor man, who immediately went in search of a Bible, jteturning A\ith this, he expessed a desire to take a solemn oath upon it, bemoaning the fact that he had been a sorry tippler and was bringing himself to ruin, and tlien swore that never again, so long as he lived, would he attempt to blow out a candle. Arleuuis Ward, in one of his letters thus gives Ins idea of reorganization : "I never attempted to reorganize niyNvife but once. I shall never attempt to do so nga-in. I'd btvn to a public dinner, and had allowed myself to be betrayed into drinkin' to several people's healths; and wishin' to make 'nil robust as possible, 1 continued drinkin' their health until my cnvn was a licet ed. Consekenee was. I presented myself to LYtsy's bedside late at night with considerable liquor concealed about my person. I had somehow got possession of a hosswhip on my way, and remembering some cranky observation of Mrs Ward's in the mormV, I snapped the whip putty lively, and in a very loud voice I said : ' Betsy, you need organism'. I have come Betsy,' I continued cvackin' the whip over the bed—'l have come to reorganize you.' I dreamed that night that somebody laid a hosswhip across me several times, and when I woke up I found she had. I hain't drank much of any thing since; and if I have another organising job on hand I shall let it out," A home paper says :—" The Coxirt of Queen's Bench was occupied a whole day last week with an application on the part of the Eev Or. B. Keacle, rector of Maghrally, to quash a criminal conviction given against him by the magistrates at Bambridge Petty Sessions under peculiar circumstances. In July last a mob carried by storm the reverend gentleman's church, and hoisted orange flags on the steeple, to which they secured them by ropes. Mr Keade. disapproving'of any such party displays in a place of worship, went at night and removed the obnoxious emblems, cutting the ropes with a billhook. The owner of the ropes, one of the party who hoisted the flags, prosecuted him at the sessions, under Malicious Injuries Act, for their destruction, and he was sentenced to a fine, Avith the alternative of imprisonment, The court unanimously quashed the conviction, and Mr Justice Fitzgerald,' commenting upon the-social state in which such things were possible, said it was deeply to be regretted that those who, by their position, can influence people, do not take as much trouble to promote pence and: harmony as in the assertion of tlieir rights by violent means. An unsophisticated parent in- Portsuumtli, N.H., observed w ; th pain that his first-born had no teeth, and hastened to remedy the " deformity " by purchasing a $15 set of molars, which he handed to the nurse ■with the remark that the baby shouldn't suffer, if he hud to wear only one shirt a week.

A J'kufkct Pakadisk. —Our friend Borrowby, who i:i always Je.ii or more out at elbows is deeply interested in a new work oa "Tne Great Loan Land." and ha.-i serious thoughts of emigrating to so deairable a country, if he can raise the means. SKNrfiil]«3LY Cekvil. —" Wcel, Jenny, havn't I been unco, ceevil ?" suid a Caledonian lover to his sweetheart, alluding to the circumstance that during hid whole courtship he had never even given her a kiss. Her reply wad, "Go ay, mou—senselessly ceevil." A Cleveland modiste ia doing a large business in ladies' dresses made up with an Alexia polonaise, the wuUt of which contains tt bteel trap, concealed by a masked pannier. When a young gentleman calls and, accidentally or otherwise, places his arm around the wearer's waist, he hears a " clink," and finds his arm caught. A big brother and lamp enter, and the victim sorrowfully starts for the jeweller's to examine some wedding rings. A terrible story of child passion and its results. Some children of a woman living in humble life at Coalporl Bridge quarrelled while at play, when one of them, four years old, threw a knife at the other, which penetrated the head and stuck fast. On its removal by a surgeon the child died. The elder brother, so von years old, seized an opportunity of striking the little murderer on the head with stones with such violence that the life of the little sufferer is despaired of. — European Mall. A story is told of a soldier who was frozen in Siberia. His last remark was "Ex—" He then froze as stiff a.-i miirble. in the summer of 1850 some physicians found him, after having lain frozen for 115 years. They gradually thawed him, and upon animation being restored, he concluded his sentence with "cccdingly cold." it is ascertained by actual count that on a recent Sunday one-third of the population of Lowell, Mass, attended church. The other two-thirds were, it was estimated, attending those 300 liquor saloons. Out in the Apache country the Indians are said to have become so peaceable that it is hard to tell a redskin from a white man; the only diU'erence being that the white usually has no scalp, and the Apache lias two or three. A contemporary describing a fashionable party, speaks of a gallant who whispered to a lady "and took her apart." It is not a very difficult feat to " take a I.'idy apart" these times, but there is very little left of her afterwards. An .Illinois postmaster gives notice as follows: — '• Aft/ir this dale everybody must lick their own postage stamps —for my tongue is given out. .Both watermen and Indiana feather llnir skulls. .Hoys and girls seldom cry to go to school, and we are very sure they are not likely to try to climb in at tho window if they find the door locked. Still, it mnv be interesting to them to know that a girl in Lexington, Michigan, tried that trick the other day, and the sash coming down and catching her by t!ic nock, she was hung until she was c'iad. A comparative return of wool exports from New Zealand shows :i grand total for the year ending 30th June last, of 40,G21,2351b5., valued at £2,374,312. During the previous your the exports were 35,961,271 pjii'idn. A Wisconsin editor speaks of a wind which, "justsat on its hind legs and howled." " Playing Texas on 'em " is the Alabama vernacular for tho final disposition of horse thieves. A Yankee journalist who is bald offers a reward of one thousand dollars for a tale that will make Ms hair stand on end. Sunday Out. —Betsy.—"Shall you be agoing out this afternoon mom?" Mistress. —"I think not, Be«.sy." .Betsy. —" Cos yer can if yer like, I don't want to go out."