MISCELLANEA.

Cromwell Argus, Volume II, Issue 102, 24 October 1871, Page 7

MISCELLANEA.

The Bank deposits in Ireland amount to upwards of £00,000,000. At a recent lecture, Archbishop Manning; said that three oitie3 hail been destroyed for their sin 3 : Jerusalem, Rom c, and now Paris. Several lads, for indulging in the Musical pleasures of " tin-kettling," have been each timed ten shillings at O.irhfcahurch, whilst others were dis.nissed with a caution. Organic C.iange3.—The Corporation of Melbourne are importing an organ for the Town Hill, on which, under the new tariff, they will have to pay aboitt £IOO J duty. The Oreti (Southland) Railway Arbitration Case, which costs about £lls per week, will not, it is thought, be finished for many wee!v3 yet to come. The Southern Leayun, of the 13th inst., writing under the head of Local Railways, say 3 up-country agitators are working hard to git a line from Toltotnairiro to Cro.nwell, rJ:t Tuapeka, Teviot, Alexandra, and Clyde. It is stated that by a recent decision of the law courts the Marquis of Bute comes into an additional income of £40,005, together with arrears to the amount of £IOO,OO J. The Marquis' 3 tru3tee3 are about to run a line of I steamers from Cardiff to New York. M°33r3 Burton Brothers, Dunedin, have favoured us (Ecviiaj tfbur) with photographs of the Taieri fasting girl. Tuey are not only interesting on account of the peculiarity of the case, but because they are pleasing pictures. The face is that of a handsome girl, resting on a pillow. There is no appearance of wasting, but, on the contrary, one might imagine she was very plump ; and, from the quiet look of repose, content, cheerful, and happy. The Wellington Eosninj Post says :—Some black sand, sent from the West Coast of the Middle Island, has been tested in Melbourne by Mr Sydney Gibbons, who, in addition to finding magnetic titanic iron ore similar to that at Taranxki, ha 3 discovered gold in the sample sent to him, at the rate of 10jz lodwt 2Jgrto the ton. He says this can be extracted without in the least decree injuring the ore for steel-making purposes. We only hope this report may prove correct. Live stock at the Chatham Islands seem to realise very nominal prices. A correspon-; dent of the Htiolcs's Bvj Herald writes : j "At an auction sale, held at Waitangi, the! property of a gentleman who was leaving for New Zealand was disposed of. Cows were sold at from 10s to 20s ; pig 3, Is ; horses, proportionately low. At a recent sale by auction of sheep, about 11,000 were sold at from 6d to 4s 6d per head." Latest intelligence from Fiji is to the effect that the elections there are nearly all over, and that the permanency of the Government is certain. A Magistrate's Court, with full jurisdiction over both whites and nativos, i 3 sitting at Levukx. Mr Burt, the Premier, j stated in his address that the action of the ' Government had been hastened, because an j envoy of the Hawaiian Government was! seeking the annexation of the group to the [ Sandwich Islands. A Commission on the foreign labour trade has been appointed by ; K.va.% Eoenezer (Cakobau), and is iictively prosecuting an enquiry into the matter. New Zealand and Australia Compared.— ; Mr J. C. Crawford, in a paper read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, contrasted New Zealand with Australia. He said:—"New Zealand is a well watered, Australia is a badly watered, country. In the former country, one can hardly go a few hundred yards without finding a stream, whereas, in the better parts of Australia, the traveller may ride a whole day before reaching a stre.nn or water-whole. Australia has a continental, New Zealand an insular climate. Steady weather is the rule in Australia ; in New Zealand constant change is the fashion. In Australia, the mountain ranges only in one instance exceed 4000 feet in height. In Now Zealand, Mount Cook approaches Mont Blanc in elevation, and heights of 10,000 feet are common. In the North Island are the vol- | qanic cones of Mount Egmont, Rnapeka, and I Tongariro, the two former about 9003 feet in height. The small cones in Victoria are exceeded in height by numerous minor ones j in the Province of Auckland. In fact, the j New Zealand Corderilla is on such a scale of I magnitude that it would well form the baek- | bone of a continent. The rivers of the ProI vinces of Cmterbury and Otago, if united on j lower plains, might make a Ganges or an I Indus ; and the western rivers alone of the ! Province of Wellington migh f ., united, equal the Rhine or the Rhone. Such scenery as the sounds and harbours of the south-west coast of New Zealand—Mdford Haven, Bligh i Sound, Dusky Bav, &c, —is quite unknown in Australia. These deep inlets penetrate into the mountains and cliffs several thousand feet high, looking down into the tiny ship which penetrates into these solitary waters. In fine, geographically-, there are manypoint3 of resemblance between Au3tr-vlia and New Zealand ; while, topographically there is great contrast. The fauna and flora are, on the whole, essentially different." Yesterday (says an Auckland correspondent of a contemporary), for the first tilm, I was made aware of anew "local industry."' Strolling by St. Geoi'gc's Bay, I stopped to ad- ! mini a tine flock of gulls which, fishing, I fringed the blue waters like a broad white ribbon. Prjsently they rose in great commotion, and began circling and screaming round a particular spot on the Peach. Wondering what it was all about-, I made for the i place, and discovered a fine gull caught in a j rat-trap. It did notstrike im that the trap | 'had boon purponoly phood; flild pitying the

hulple33 prisoner, I released him, but only after some difficulty ; for, misapprehending my motives, he was rather pugnacious. Watching him as In an 1 his frioiuh flew awav seaward, I wai rouied by the approach of a blueeye I ro3.y little fellow, who said, " You might 'a left him, sir, artcr I caught him. Ah ! (with a sigh !) there gojs sixpeiue (looking after the released bird) ; please, you leave my purfession alone, sir, for the future. I done nothhV to you ; that ere trap finds mother and me hart" cmr wittlos ; the gals buy their white breast for their bonnets, arter we preserve 'em with hallum." Poor little fellow ! he was naturally incensed at my untimely interference, bat a trifle made ample amends ; and he being quite loarned in the ways of sea-fo'.vl generally, I derived much curious information about the aquatic feathered race, and another proof of the truth of the saying which delarcs that " one half of the world knows not how the other half lives." At a meeting of the Dundee Republican Club, on the 25th July, a petition to the House of Commons was adopted against the proposed provision for Prince Arthur. The petition sets forth that wide-spread dissatisfaction exists throughout the country at the large amount of money received by the Queen ; that she has hitherto failed to make provision for any member of her family out of her own resources ; that it is every man's duty to provide for his own family, and that a departure from this principle in the case of Royalty is unjust to the poor taxpayers of the country. The result of the Intercolonial Conference recently held at Melbourne is that two postal lines—the one via Suez and the other via San Francisco—will be adopted, at an annual cost of £123,030, which will be distributed between Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania, in proportion to their population. New Zealand will be allowed to join in the agreement, its quota being L.1G,700, in addition to which it would have to provide its own branch service. The mails will be fortnightly. The Australasia,i of the 22nd ult., says : " We are already reaping the advantages of the new tariff. A few days since a gentleman arrived here from New Zealand with commissions to purchase goods f or shipment to that Colony to the extent of L. 10,030 to L. 15,000. He found, however, that the new duties had so greatly enhanced the prices of all goods which he would have to buy from open stocks that he was unable to do any business, and left for Sydnev by the Rangatira. The money which would have been left in Victoria will go to enr oh the sister Colony. This is Mr Berry's idea of developing our resources. Amusing Story of a Countess.—A contemporary, great at Court gossip, relates the following anecdote respecting a noble lady, " who is young, beautiful, and good." During the Army Bill debate her noble husband, who is as proud and fond of her as he should be, was just about to rise and deliver a violent attack upon something or somebodv, when a telegram was put into his hands. He read it, turned pale, and quitted the House ; called a cab, drove to the Charing Cross station, went to Dover, and was no more heard of until the next day, when he returned to his own home, and to his first inquiry was told the Countes3 was in her own room. He hastened to her, and a terrific row ensued, the exact words of which no one knows but themselves. At last, however, he burst out, " Then what did you mean by your teleigram]"—" Mean ! what I said, of course. i What are you talking about ?"— i( Read it for j yourself," returned the still uuappeased hus- ! band. She did read :—" I flee wish Mr ■ [to Dover straight. Pray for me." For a i moment she was startled, but then burst into ia heart/ fit of laughter. "More dreadful I telegraph peoole. No wonder you are out of I your mind. I only telegr iphed—' I tea with Mrs ■ in Dover-street. Stay for inc.'" | His lordship was so savage at the liugh he ! had raised against himself, that he was at i first inclined to make a parliamentary quss> ition of it, but, listening to more judicious j advice, restrained.— European Mail. It is reported from Wagga by the Advertiser ; of the loth ultimo, that a man named Rya", ! who in a fit of delirium tremens had walked I into the river, has made another desperate | attempt to destroy himself. Ryan is a very j powerful man, weighing fully sixteen stone, i and so furious were his struggles that it took | about a dozen men to carry him to the lock-up. Here he was accommodated with a, strait w.aistcoat, and a cell, where, mad and violent as he was, he was locked up and left to his own reflections. Early the following morning, the attention of the keeper of the lock-up was attracted by a thudding sort o: noise as of heavy blows against the door or wall of the cell. Not l-iking to open the cell smgle-handed, he senioff for a constable, on whose arrival the door was opened, when a horrible sight presented itself. The cell was likea slaughter-liou3e, bespattered with blood in every direction, and in a pool of blood near the door lay the wretched lunatic, senseless, and with his head battered almost to a jelly. Ho had crawled, it seems, from his bed to a sitting posture against the wall, and I there hammered the back of bis head against | the wall until he fell, stunned and stupified, | through loss of blood. The doctor was at • once sent for, and Ryan was securely strapped 'down on the bed, where he has remained I ever since, in a state almost of coma. The j unfortunate man's friends at Rebastopol, I where ho has been mining for manv years, j have'."-been communicated with, and subfequently. the Messrs Rich came in and ar- | ranged'for men to w.itch him through the i nydrt. Ho i? in a very preoiiricnia ot.ito.