GLEANINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1326, 30 December 1880, Page 3

GLEANINGS.

An old woman, who was at the Kelly meeting, made a very happy interjection. Mr. Gaunson was talking about Kolly's mother and sisters, and the sympathy that should be felt for them. " Yes," cried the old ludy, "that's all right, but why haven't you got Mrs Kennedy and her children here?" The larrikins felt the blow, and raised a boohoo to coyer the hit. "Windy "Wellington" still keeps up its reputation. The N. Z. Times of Wednesday has the following: — "One evidence of the force of the gale raging yesterday may be seen at the corner of Willis-street and Ghuznee- street, where a willow tree, which for many years past has grown there and attained large dimensions, is uprooted and its branches torn and twisted as if but mere twiga." j A telegram dated Bth September, from I the officer commanding the naval forces in i the Dutch Indies, announces that the stone lighthouse on First Point, Sanjing, ! Kaelong. west coast of Java, has been thrown down by a violent earthquake. This lighthouse was completed in 1877. The light was of the first olass, and was for tho' guidance of vessels entering Prince's Strait in the Straits of Sunda. Trial of Hornsby's Hedge-Cutting Machine. — A trial of Messrs. Hornsby & Son's two-horse hedge-cutting machine, which will be remembered as one of the novelties of the Paris Exhibition of 1878, was made recently on the farm of E?st Pilton, Ferry road, Edinburgh, in presence of a large number of members of the Scottish Arboricultural Society. This machine i« one that somewhat resembles in appearance an ordinary reaper, the knives being, however, raided at right angles to the ground instead of being carried out "horizontally. Tho work of cutting, for which there is a very ingenious arrangement of machinery, is accomplished by two knives, one in motion and the other fixed, and the mechanism is such that these knives can not only be easily managed so as to avoid coin in jf in contact with trien or any other obstacles there may be along' the hedge side, but can also be adjusted to cut from the top downwards on the opposite side ot the hedge to that on which the horses are travelling. The opinion formed by the practical men who witnessed the experiment was, we believe, that some preparatien might be necessary in ordinary circumstances before the machine could work satisfactorily, but that in the case of well-kept and regular J hedges it might be of decided service. I Another relic of the Spanish Armada has been recently secured at Slams by the offorts of Mr. David Ritchie and the salmon fishermen. It is a large gun raised up out of the place where one of the ships belonging to the Armada was wrecked, and, strange to say, though it has been in the place for upwards of 290 years, yet it seems as good as ever. Some 20,000 sweep books and 50,000 cards were disposed of at the late Flemington Race Meet, and it i8 calculated ths»t £250,000 changed hands in private sweeps on the same occasion.