Miscellaneous Extracts.

Hastings Standard, Issue 197, 15 December 1896, Page 4

Miscellaneous Extracts.

A RISE Tx LTFF

There was a pleasant paragraph j, going the round of tho papers a short time ago concerning the rise of a r.ulton errand hoy to a bishopric in Canada. Jt will he now to many, perhaps to learn that there is an equally remarkable instance in England. in the case of no less an individual than the Archbishop of York I'r. Maclagan. In IK-17 a Lieutenant Maclagan joined the Madras division of the Indian Army, and in IH5'2, after applying himself diligently to the duties of his profession, studying languages, and eventually becoming interpreter to his regiment, retired. This Lieutenant Maclagan and the present Archbishop of York are one and the same person, and besides hi.s pension he now draws a salary of £IO,OOO a year. Surely an Archbishop drawing a military pension is unique in the annals of the church '? A NEW FUEL. The Australian Trading World says that a new fuel has been patented by a French chemit. It is briefly described as consisting of solidefied petroleum, i.e., crude petroleum mixed with some solid substance, even ordinary rubbish it is said will do. There is no fear of explosion and the lamps when burning have an incandescent _ appearance, and gives out tluvo times the heat of a like quantity of coal, whilst the storage capacity required for the new fuel is only about one-fourth of that necessary for coal. It is stated that it must ultimately supersede coal as fuel for steamships, and bring purposes where great heat is required. A companv has been formed to bring the matter before the public, and private support to a very large amount has already been secured. THE FOR\Y All I > MAN IEEST<). "The General has decided that you go forth and conquer Melanesia and the whole of the islands in the Eastern Arehiji.'lngo. A vast world for missionary effort is to be handed over to you. ji. t■■rriiorv comprising a population of JO million human souls. The Salvation Army of Australasia is to be a died to give its flesh - ;great laughter)--and blood, also, to the poor black heathen. We want volunteers to go ;U id pivaeh the Go-p-d to the dusky lost one-. Now. sing with me, ' Anywhere for Jesus.' (•Hallelujah.') Some of you had better be careful how you sing this, for it may land you in liorneo. with no better propect than being served up for breakfast. (Laughter.) Those of y;>u who have a taste for botany or /.oology will ha ve opportunity to indulge your taste in this new kingdom of tin- General's. You can, if you like, look on lions and tigers, and on an occasional rhinoceros : and if you have a taste for buffaloes, Java contains two and a half millions of them. There an 1 thousands of ravenous reptiles you can try your hands on, even snakes 20ft. long. (' Praise God for the snakes.') Alligators, too, will cross your path at times. And, oh, the beautiful insect life, and the beetles! Who'll sing, • Anvwhere for Jesus' now? (' Hallelujah.') There are 10 volcanoes in Java. What tine Salvation Army torches they will make ! Think of the prospect of civilising 10 millions of these children of God ! I'm sure if the General had sent me to China I'd have gone, and I'd look uncommonly handsome with a pigtail."—Commandant I Sooth, in Melbourne. KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS. History is not the only thing that repeats itself. Discovery does the same. The Contemporary Review tells us we are not nearly as much ahead of the ancients as it pleases us to believe. Many of our discoveries are but rediscoveries, improved upon, doubtless, but not altered in nature. The ancients knew of the lightning-conductor, or, at all events, the method of attracting the lightning. Celtic soldiers in a storm used to lie on tho ground, first lighting a torch and planting their naked swords in the ground by their side with the points upward. The lightning often struck the point of the sword and passed away without injuring the warrior. The Romans, also, seem to have known the lightning-rod. On the top of the highest tower of the Castle of Dunio, on the Adriatic, there was set, from time immemorial, a long rod of iron. In the stormy weather of summer it served to predict the approach of a tempest. A soldier was always stationed by it when the .sea showed threatening* of a storm. From time to time he put the point of his long javelin close to the rod. Whenever a spark passed between the two pieces of iron he rang a bell to warn the fishermen. Gerbert, in the tenth century, invented a plan for diverting the lightning from fields by planting in them long sticks tipped with very sharp lanceheads. In IGG2 France was already in possession of omnibuses. The Romans sank artesian wells even in the Sahara. In IGNo Fapin published in the Journal des Savants an account of an experiment made by one of his friends, who caused flowers to grow instantaneously. The secret, which was not revealed, lay in the preparation of the ground. Massage is a very ancient practice, and was known to the Romans. Paracelsus speaks of homoppathy, and says that like is cured by like, and not contrary by contrary. The speculum, the probe, the forceps, were known in the year o~>o. Indeed specimens of ! them have been found in the ruins of ; Pompeii. Aristotle noticed that sea I water could be made drinkable by boiling it and collecting the steam. The Greeks had a woollen or linen cuirass so closely woven as to be impenetrable by the sharpest darts. We t have uot found out (be secret of it.

The Romans had better mills than ours for pounding olives. The Chinese had invented iron hon - - as early as 1200. Class houses were found among the I'icts in Scotland and the Celts in Gaul, and many centuries earlier in Siam. Grass cleth was used many centuries ago by the Chinese. FRIGHTFUL DEATH AT A GAS WORK. One of the laborers at the Gaslight and Coke Company's Works, Bow Common Lane, London, whose duty it is to see that the coal runs freely through the automatic coal hoppers into the retorts, had a ghastly experience last week. Oh Wednesday morning he found that the coal would not pass through No. 8 hopper, so he had no alternative but to dig out the coal. This was a long and wearisome job, and not until Thursday morning did he reach the neck of the hopper. Here he found the cause of the block. The body of a dead man lay face downwards in the hopper, and being too big to pass into the retort, had effectually stopped the coal. The body was quite baked and stripped of the skin when taken out, and a doctor on Monday told the jury at the Coroner's Court that the man had died a most horrible ' death from asphyxia. A man named Van torn identified the remains as those of his brother Thomas, who had with him applied for a job at the gasworks on Tuesday morning. He was of opinion that his brother had crawled into the hopper to sleep as he had no home, and that as the coal slipped the deceased was drawn into the neck of the retort. The jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure. DEARTH OF EMPOYMENT AT CAPETOWN. We (Otago Daily Times) have been permitted to make the following extract from a letter written by a young Dunedinite, dated Capetown, (sth November:—" Work is very scarce as there are thousands of passengers arriving weekly, and there are hundreds starving up country at Johannesburg, which is 1100 miles from Capetown. I don't know what all the people are going to do. Those who have money all go back as soon as they see the country and the state it is now in, and those who have no money are just starving or committing crime. Tilings will no doubt improve when the war is over. Food iti Rhodesia i- at famine prices -Cl2 a sack for m li/e, 2s (5d each for eggs, and C2O per month for board and lodging. Most of the potatoes are imported from Sydney, and also the mutton, which is selling a*, (>.Vd here. Rinderpest is killing all the cattle, and we pay 9d per lb for roast beef. Things are awful bad in the country. 1 was never so disappointed in my life as when I landed and found out for myself. A carpenter or a mason gets £1 per day day, but it costs him fc:S weekly to live. There is plenty of money in the country. I intend to write to and see if he will send a small shipment of potatoes, mutton, onions, and produce as a trial." AN AFRICAN MYTH EXPLODED Ebonnel de Mezieres, member fo the Maistre and Attanoux Missions, has, says the Paris correspondent of the London Daily News, expressed his opinion on the future of the Sahara, to the effect that there is no doubt that immense sand ocean will he in time changed into a fruitful territory. He says : •' The Sahara rivers which I have crossed all hide a rich subterranean stratum of water, and form the natural passages to the Soudan, on which, with very little trouble, vegetation can be largely developed. In the south of Temassinin and in the. Tgharghars there are groves of tamarind, gum trees, etc., of two miles long, scarcely separated by grassy and clovercovered plains. The rivers, which in spring are full of water, are from three to ten miles wide. When the water retreats the beds of the rivers are changed into rich meadows. The date seeds planted by Flatters at El-Blod have grown without the least care into fine trees, and the same is the fact also of the seeds planted near the cisterns

of Tebalbalet, in spite of the inconsiderate manner in which the Tuaregs get in the harvest. Trees are not so rare in the Sahara as is supposed. The Tuaregs often assured our expedition that we should have to march for two or three days without finding water, but very soon we found a little out of the path, some filled up or otherwise purposely hidden wells. For the Tuaregs, * who serve as guides to caravans, always choose the most difficult and desolate routes ill order to keep the caravans in a state of dependency. Caravans will become more frequent, travellers will succeed each other, but the secret of the Sahara is well kept, and its reputation of barrenness is still preserved, lor example, Oscar Lenz crossed the Sahara and reached Timbuctoo without seeing anything but desert land, ami yet he mentions that behind a chain of hills which he passed there was a place called by the natives " The Head of the Waters." Dr Borth, who was for months in Tuareg camps, and was the guest and friend of the Sheikh El Bakey, who told innumerable facts about the traditions and manners of the land ; but its geography was hidden from him. When Lieut. Hourst and Lieut. Bluyet explored the region and an arm of the Niger, they found a lake nearly 100 miles long. And when the officers of the Timbuctoo extended their excursions they found that not only one but more than twenty lakes existed all very large, and stretching far to the north into the very heart of the supposed arid Sahara. If there be no water, and, therefore, no vegetation, where does the charcoal come from which is sold by the Tuaregs? Where do they find nourishment for the numerous camels, horses, sheep, asses and goats they possess"?"