MISCELLANEOUS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 923, 26 December 1879, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The New Zealand Hematite Paint Company, in a circular calling the attention of the public and the trade to the article, thus enumerate a few of its claims to superiority: clearly the best that can be applied for rhe preservation of that metal, all others only destroying it through the galvanic action caused by their contact ; indeed, iron coated with this paint is almost imperishable, and is proof against any exposure to salt water and the weather. It is the best that can be applied to wood for priming purposes, and as a foundation for all other colors it has this inestimable advantage that it is comparatively uninflammable, for sparks fall harmlessly upon shingled roofs coated with hematite paint Another very important fact, and no light one in a sanitary point of view, is that water running over it, if at all impregnate 1, is rend--red wholesome by the contact ; while lead or any other metallic paint produces a certain poison. It is also admirably suited for branding sheep, and is now extensively used for that purpose It is cheaper than any other paint, for not only is the price less, hut when taken weight for weight, it covers a much larger surface than any other.” The Nonconformist says “ Much astonishnien has been caused at the War Office by the receipt of an application fur a pension from ADs. Butler, widow of the late K-onau G ' .holic chaplain of rhe forces at Devonport on behalf of herself and two children. As the marriage was legally solemnised, and as neither the law of the laud nor of the service prescribes celibacy, the authorities had no alternative but to grant the pension applied for.”

The Chief Secretary of the Cane colony lately had an interned with King Cetewayo, and inquired whether H.R If’ found himself comfort ddo. and if anything c-mld he done to promote his convenience’ttn ier existing circumstances. The Royal prisoner expressed himself as well satisfl d .with flie treatment accorded him, hut complained that “only four wives" had been permi ted to aec >mpany him to solace his eoptivity. Asked how many more he wished to have, he said “ eight” would do, and furnished the Chief S ■cretary wi hj the names of the required second insta m mt. which has doubtless ere this been supplied' He did not, I believe, ask for any more mothers in-law. —vEdes.

Captain Jackson Berty is organising emigration clubs in the chief centres of o qml i tion in the United Kingdom, and has held successful meetings at Walworth to promote emigration to New* Zealand. A police officer, in giving evi '*olo3 at the Rchttca (Victoria) Police Court lately, drew a pleasant picture of the state of society about Mount Hops. He state 1 tha* in his district there were scores of children running about almost in a state of nit lity, an I that young girls were to bo «een with noth mg but a piece of obi bagging to cover 'ltem. They were compelled to mint cattle and sheep, ami were m -re like savage beasts than anything else. He said that these children were a disgrace ■ 0 the country, anil were "ever sent to school During October, Messrs Menzies and 00,. of Edinburgh, published i pamphlet oti the financial condition of New Zealand, in which Mr Fleming, late selecting ageor/fur Her Majesty’s Colonial La id and Emigration Commissioners at Dundee, denounces the financial condition of a colony, which, he says, has been borrowing so freely during the past fifteen years, that there is now due to bondholders about L 50.000.0 0 (?) Notwithstanding this fact, Mr Fleming predicts that it will shortly be in the market for another L 5,000,000 ; and he wishes to caution intending emigrants against being “decoyedaway to New Zealand by onesided and 'misleading statements, and entrapped into the purchase of land at nunoitsly high prices.” It is a pity (adds the ‘European Mail ')‘h.-.t a man who professes to know all about New Zealand should put forward such nonsense. Messrs Dunville and Co., the celebrated Irish whisky distillers, lodged cheques to the amount of 1.432.000 in the Ulster Bank on September 30th. Several Germans hive late’y been arrested in Paris for making sketches of the

points of the city forts and surrounding country. It is suspected that their business has close reference to the prevailing opinion on the Continent, especially among German military authorities, that Itussia is determined to pick a quarrel at her first favourable oppor unity with Germany, and that already a secret and more serious understanding exists between Russia. Italy, France, and Turkey, as opposed to Germany, Austria, and perhaps bln band. It is believed in political circles that a great war is much nearer than is supposed. An exchange says ‘You may hear twenty men in a day who stutter, but you never heard a woman who had an impediment in her speech.” That may he true where the author of the above lives, but there is a woman in this city who stutters, and when she speaks you would think it was a cl ip of thunder or a charge of heavy artillery.—Albany, R Y., Press and Knickerbocker

A singular story is told by a resident of Dorset county, State of Arkansas. He lias a daughter who suddenly lost her voice and hearing when she was a little girl some 15 years ago. One night recently he was passing his daughter’s room, when he heard a strange voice. Arousing his wife they crept noiselessly in, and with thrills of joy saw that their dumb daughter was talking in her sleep. The mother clasped the girl in her arms, but when awake she again lost her voice Since then she has been heard to talk aloud in her sleep, speaking genor dly of the occurrences in the household of the day before