MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 254, 25 December 1873, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

We (Star) have just been shown a very beautiful " Collecting Card " for the use of the little workers for the New Hebrides Mission. As is know nto many of our readers it is intended to replace the late Day Spring, mission schooner, which was lost in January last, and an appeal has been made by the directors of the mission to the children of the Pre3bytermn Churchos of tho colonies, asking a united effort for the object intended We are glad to learn that willing htilo hearts and hands are tremulous with excitement and ernestly waiting for the implements. Tho very prettily ornamented card winch lias just been issued from the press will, Irom its very appearance, tend to part an additional z>>t to the work, and wy have no doubt that ere long another 1 Da^ spring," the property of the children, will bo visiting those tropical isles, bearing light and knowledge and peaca into the habitations of horrid cruelty. f You can always tell a boy whose mother cuts his btif. N,>t because the edges of it look as if it had been chewed off by an absent-minded hor«e, but you.tcjl it by tho way be stops in the street and wriggles hu shoulders. When a fond mother has to cut her boy's hair, she is careful to guard against any annoyance and begins by laying a sheet on the carpet. It hot never occurred to her to set him over a bar© floor and put the sheet around his neck. Then she draws tho front hair over bis eyes and leaves it there while she cuts that which is at the back. The hair which hes.over his eyes appears to be surcharged with electric noedles, and that which is silently dropping down under his shirtband appears to be on fire. She has unconsciously continued to push his head forward u/itil his note presses his breast, and is too busily engaged to notice the snuffling Bound that is becoming alarmingly frequent. In the meantime he is s- lzed with an irresistible desire to blovr his nose, but recollects that his handkerchief is in tha other room. Tlien a fly lights on his nose, and does it so unexpectedly that he involuntarily dodges, and- catches the point of the shears in his left ear. At this he commences to cry and wishes ho was a man. But his mother doesn't, notice him. She merely hits him on tko other car to inspire him with confidence, and goes on with the work. When she is through the holds his jacket-collar back from bis neck, and, with her mouth blows the short bits of hair from the top of his head down his buck. He calls her attention to this fact, but she looks for a new place on his head and hits hi -i there, and asks him why he don't use his handkerchief. Then he takes hjs .awfully disfigured head to tho mirror and looks at it, and, young as he is, shudders as he thinks what the boys in the street will say. The late Lord Mayo, while Governor General of India, offered a reward of £10,000 for a machine to clean and pre pare the valuable rhea iibre for the market. Mr Greig, engineer, Edinburgh, invented and patented an ingenioui machine for that purpose, and about a year ago he proceeded to India in order to compete for the valuable prize. No other compatitors worthy of the name appeared at the trials. Colonel Hyde, the Master of the Mint of India, was appointed by the Government to superintend the trials which took place at the Sahrunpore Botanical Garden. An American machine, belonging to the Government of India, did not compete ; indeed, Mr Greig was, practically, the only competitor. The report by Colonel Hyde upon the trial wu published in a recent number of the Gazette of <In Ha. It is most suggestive, and is almost entirely in favor of Mr Oreig i and the trials of the machine proved to be so hopeful that the Government paid over to Mr Greig forthwith £1600 ofthe premium. The fibrn which was cleaned by the machine has been sent home for report. It has been proved by the experiments that no mechanic can succeed unless he hat fresh rhea stalks bo work upon, so that the fibre is to be sold at cost price to those persons m India who desire to pnter the lists. Mr Greig turned out the fibre at a cost of £13 6s 3d per ton, not including interest on the cost of tho machine. A new jja» apparatus, of which Mr O'Keefe, of Sandhurst, holds the patent for the Australian colonies, has been fixed in the Union hotel, Collini-street, and on Friday evening a trial took place with the most satisfactory rsults. The apparatus employed occupies not more than 15 feet square. It can be mado to supply any number of burners from ten to three hundred. In Mr Duffy's establishment there are upwards of seventy lights in use, yet the whole of the machinery it not larger than an ordinary stove, and is capable of being attached to the cooking range. The coal is retorted in a furnace which is made to do service in the cooking and the economy of tho working is such that the gas can be produced foe about 3s per 1000 feet. Of its purity there can be no doubt, the light being very clear and bright, the general impression being that it 'is equal to that supplied by the ordinary gas companies. The patent is Known as Symes, and is said to have been brought into very general use in England — Telegraph. We have had sent to us by Mr Alfred Smee, writes ' W. G. S. 1 in the Gardeners' Chronicle, a huge fungus, found growing parasitically npon the pitch-pine joists of the Bank of' England, in Threadneedle street. The. entire growth was so large tiiat when packed in a box for transit, it was as much as two strong men could carry. The largest piece was no less than 6 ft. 3 in. in circumferenco, 7 in. thick and weighod 321b.. growing upon, a piece of joist weighing 6k lb. When we first saw, the box our thoughts wandered from ' Bulliard ' to • bullion,' and we were is hopes of a ' Batsch ' of AgarifU< 'aureus;' but the fungus turned out to be | Folyporus nnnosus, Fr., a plant peculiar to the Conifern, and perhaps not uncommon in similar situations beneath floors, &c , as we have already recorded it from the coal mines of Wales. The mycellium had completely destroyed the wood of the pitch pine joists, and in the decayed parts [ we found an abundant crop of young cockroaches, spiders, >nd mite«. The fungus will be shown at the forthcoming Fungus Exhibition of the Royal Horticultural Society on October I. A great sale of short horned cattle took place at Now York Milh, on the l(Jth of h»t September. The fucts of the sale are quite unprecedented. Whether in, the prices obtained, or in the rapidity with which the business was transacted, j nothing like it over happened before on either side of the Atlantic. So rapidly were the animals brought forward and sold, that in 29 minutes more than £50,000, was realised. Twelve cows of tho, Duchess family brought 538,666d015 ; one hull of the same, 12,000dols ; seven bead of Oxfords, all females, 31,600d015. One cow brought 30.000d015, another 35,000du1a, and another tbo astounding sura of 45,600d01., or £8,120 ! It is true thaj; in bidding for this cow the successful com pr til or, buying on English account, got confused in computing the respective value of pounds and dollars, but he was. cl^scjy followed up by an American bidder, w,ho knew quite wejl what he was about, and it it dear that the sale was made at the price named. For a •even year cow, not likely to produce many more calves to inherit her great qualities, this pneo is truly surprising.- — Melbourne Argus. From Nova Scotia we have gloomy tidings of the disaster caused by the succession of heavy gales experienced on ti.at coast during the latter part of August and tho early part of this month. It is estimated that upwards of 30 vessels were lost, with all hand* aboard, in the North. Bny, near Halifax. Severe gales have also visited the great Lakes in the north-west. During the prevalence of one of these storms the Ironsides, one of the largest steamert on the upper lakes, foundered and sank near Grand Huven, Michigan. Kourte«n hvqs were lost. The loss of life on land, as far as ascertained, is 23 women and 14 men, besides a number of children. At Battle Harbour, Capo Charles, Cape Harrison, and Lance-a Loiip, the. destruction of property and the low of hie were also very large. Ihree square rigged vessels were da«hed on the bar or breakers at Cape Harrison, and it is believed that all hands on board of them werp drowned — Argut. Two Milesians were standing at the Fairmount Waterworks, in Philadelphia, watching tho big wheels sploshing th* wat^r in cvevy direction, vhen one of them remarked, ' Mike, isn't this a quare count hry, where they have to grind their water before thry can use it." An old 1-idy said to hor sons — • Boyi, don't you ever spfkerlate or wait for something to turn up. You might as well go and nt on a rock ia. th» middle oi a medder, with. •> pul betwixt your lags, and wait for a cow to baok np to yon *•> b« Tnilw '

OT lj (roro the fwuUj h. d,.pl»J.i m Jg*^ Sl , belike the report ' r