MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1277, 20 August 1886, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Turning to a Conservative newspaper the other day for the latest information concerning Mr Gladstones failure and Mr Chamberlain’s crimes, there came up a piece of thrilling information s “Her Majesty’s luggage ai rived safely at Windsor this afternoon, having been despatched fiom Balmoral yesterday.” Such enterprise in the purveying of important news should be initiated by other journals. Everybody would like to see in the ‘ Daily News’ that “Prince Henry of Battenburg’s boots, which had been sent by parcels post to be soled and heeled, were received safely by the cobbler yesterday,” and the ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ might inform us that “ The Queen’s cat yesterday gave birth to three fine kittens, which had not been drowned at the time of going to press.”

A Physician’s Confession. Yon frequently see funny expressions in print about doctors killing their patients. Well, the thing is often true. I myself acknowledge to having killed two patients. I killed them outright, and make no bones of confessing the fact. One man I killed by prescribing morphine at a time when his system was not strong enough to stand the drug. Ho left an estate, and there was some excitement about dividing the estate. His wife was charged with having poisoned him, and the remains were exhumed, and there was a great-to-do about the matter, but I pulled through all right. The other man was suffering from a prolonged spree, and I gave him chloral, which killed him. It was an out-and-out murder, but the coroner Held an inquest, and attributed Ms death to jimjams. These two people I know 1 killed, and as I am yet young, and as there are more active poisonous agents than those 1 have so fat experimented with, 1 expect to kill more people before I die. The mend china; Into a solution of gum arabic stir planter of Paris until the mixture assumes the consistency of cream. Apply with a brush to the broken edges of china and join together. In three days the article cannot be broken in the same place. The whiteness of the cement adds to its value.

On tho night of the Tarawera eruption the Hazard family had in their cash-box, among other moneys, a half-soveriega lying on the lop of four half-crowns. During the storm which burst over their devoted residence, the building was struck by lightning. On digging out the effects the working party handed over the cash-box to the friends of the Hazard family. Mr I, B. Morpeth, of Ponsonby, at whose house Mrs Hazard has been staying, has now in his possession the half-sovereign and four half-crowns, which form a perfect curiosity. The lightning appears to have fused the coins’ together, and in some mysterious way though the face of the half-soverign is not defaced, the gold appears to have been driven through the centre of each of the half-crowns, as each in the centre is colored the size of a shilling, as if with gold. As a souvenir of the Tarawera eruption it is (the Herald says) one of the most remarkable that has yet been exhibited.

We (‘ Pall Mall Gazette’) have again to call attention to the emphatic declaration of Mr Justice Hawkins concerning the inadequacy of the law—even after it was amended last year—for the protection of girls. As Mr Justice Hawkins haa himself tried 120 cases within the last six months he speaks as an expert whose authority cannot be gainsaid. It is, indeed, scandalous that a satyr like Gibney, who was sentenced lately to four years’ imprisonment for assaulting 16 girl-children between 8 and 14 years of age, cannot be sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. Penal servitude for life is the sentence for levying blackmail on a man of wealth, penal servitude and the cat o’ nine tails for taking CJ with violence, bat neither penal servitude nor the lash ran be meted out to those who spend their leisure in corrupting the children of tho poor. For them there is only imprisonment, and in the case of Gibney it only extends to two terms of two years each. He ought to have had two years for each case, or 32 years in all,

Fully five years ago a labored suddenly disappeared from the Waimale district (says (he ‘ Lyttleton Times ’) without any apparent cause, leaving behind him a wife and three children without any means of sap port. Up till within sis weeks ago no tidings as to tho whereabouts of the runaway couldf-be found, although the police, under a warrant, made every exertion. His destitute wife, who has till now been residing in Waimato, it appears casually took up a Melbourne newspaper, and there, to her astonishment, saw the name of her husband in tho register of births, Sho at once laid information with tbe police, with the result that the truant husband is nuw in custody in Melbourne. On Wednesday i'.lrs Baird left Waimate, accompanied by two important witnesses, to give evidence at the trial for bigamy, which will take place at Melbourne on July 30.

A good story of juvenile precocity is told by the West Coast cprveapondeut of the ‘Press’ (Christchurch). Attending the stale school of the principal coal port of the Coast were Polly 12 and 10 years reapetftively. During the examination each of (ho scholars had to produce a map of the colony, done at home ; Imt Jeannie lost hers on the way to school. The prospect of losing so many marks drove Jeannie to tears, which were quickly dried when her sister offered to come to the rescue. When the time arrived to produce the maps, Polly sent hers up to the examiner, who awarded eight marks for it. She went back to her seat with it, serai chad out her name with a penknife, and substituted that of her sister; whereupon Jeannie, as innocently os you please, marched up to the examiner’s deck aud laid the map before him as her own production. “ Well done,” was his voraiot, and ho gave her 10 marks for it, as ’ being better work than her sister’s. The.examiner will not hear for a long time the last about his powers of discrimination, [\