MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 69, 26 January 1877, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

The Sydney Morning Herald says:-. 1 "To improve the breed of horses fab*, f | lons snms hare been spent in Kuglaal^f I and no trifling amount in India and thC!*?! Colonies. Bat if the accounts of .M#f' Valentine Baker are trustworthy, we haW "'- --all hitherto failed to meet with the finest^ breed of horses in the world. This egoist prodigy is to be found on the PersoTurkoman frontier. It is capable of galloping forty or fifty miles without stopping, and will then amble at the rate of fire miles an hoar for a hundred sloes' more with onlj a few intervals for rest! , In four days it can perform • journey of 550 miles, not as an extraordinary trial of endurance, bat in the regalar course of business. It has a pedigree going back to the days of Tamarlane or Timour, the great model conqueror of the 14th century, whose career is so graphically narrated m « the pages of Gibbon, and who is said to \ have introduced 14,000 of the best Arab mares into this part of his immense do* minions.',' The Darling Downs Gazette (Qaeens* * land) claims to speak with authority on the subject of cricketing, baring had considerable experience. He says :" With regard to batting, oar hits used to be famous. There was one hit on the* knee we got which was enough of itself to eon* fer celebrity on any man. We were » marked cricketer from that day; and with respect to scoring, could we hate J batched off all the dock's eggs we produced, we could hare stocked a poultry farm. They appeared all to be good sitters. As to bowling, there was no man more esteemed among bowlers than oar* , selves. We were invaluable for gif ing a , good analysis. Oar defeace was so ad- J mirsble that it was seldom oar wicket was put down. The usual system adopted was to bowl about two balls at oar legs ' - till we got nervous, and kept dodging about in front of the wicket, when the bowler would send in a straight one and * bit us again, upon which the umpire * would come up. We would welcome him from our writhing place on the ground, under the idea that he- was come - to sympathise; but he would, as arale^ only smile cheerfully, and remark that we ""•% were ' out, leg before wicket.' As a - , fielder, again we excelled. We were- * generally posted at * long off,' and entered into the position heart and soul leafing : nothing undone to be as ' long ' and a* 'off' as possible. Some coolness eosued^^ with the captain, however, owing to that^J authority making an uncalled for remark^H that be preferred having bis fielders where^B he could see them without having to use a> j telescope." *" The Ballarat Courier writes ?— n Mr \i David Kennedy, fun., son of Mr Kennedy the well-knoTD and popular Scotch ", singer, has written a book entitled " A 1 Four Years' Tour through Australia, ». New Zealand, Canada, &c.,~ and a copy || of this work reached us by the last mail., djj Mr David Kennedy, who is quite- a young ™ man, must be warmly complimented upo» M his prod action, which displays consider* a able literary ability, conjoined with keen. | powers of observation. Melbourne, Bal- 1 larat, Sandhurst, Wagga Wagga, Sydney, 1 Brisbane, Gympie, Launeeston, Ade- I laide, Dunedin, Invei oftrgill, Wellington, j Fiji, the Sandwich Islands, San Fran- 1 cisco, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Ontarie> m Nova Scotia, and other places, are most s happily and lucidly described ;, and a I number of sketches are given, and no* a merous incidents related between these- 1 chapters. The book is published by the- ■ Edinburgh Publishing Company, and de» a serv; 1 to enjoy an extensive European and | Australian circulation, owing to the inter* I esting facts it contains, and the excellent j literary style in which erery one of the- § narrations and sketches is written." 1 At the meeting of the Wesleyan Local i Preachers' Association at Adelaide (says 1 the South Australian Advertiser), Mr A. 'I A. Scott said he considered that the gnat I question which was constantly presenting- m itself to the most thoughtful among then* £ 1 was— ls the Pulpit losing its power faJ Many of them probably believed that in ifl measure it was, that preaching was nc*l| what it once was ; and that the preacher I was not the indispensable man he once 1 was, would be admitted by most. It was I considered that the Palptt wat » a nea* 1 sure behind the times. The Press was I now a powerful rival for the position of I public opinion, and the Pulpit was BO> J longer considered the only authority oft ■ religious and moral matters. He thought this result was inevitable, because the- 1 Press was not trammelled by paat tracts^ J I tions and the eonrersation whjch haaW*«*| | pered the Pulpit, but was subjected to a ' | sifting and wholesome criticism Mwhieh ; preaching was not amenable. He hoped. , however, that as a divinely-appointed ordinance, preaching would ever hare • great ud beneficial influence over man,. . from the power of the living roice, and in the contact of the living soot with liriif souls. He sympathised with adraeeed thought, and he believed in the gradual unfolding of truth. Troth was too many* sided, too complex, too infinite, to be reduced to any concrete form, or to begin •ny system of theology. £c had bo sysapathy with the vulgar denunciation of ad» i ranced thinkers as bad men, and of the* 1 works as trash*