MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 94, 26 March 1877, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

A well-known journalist, writing in the Dunedin Saturday Advertiser, says that the first thins; that strikes a Dunedinite - on his arrival at Christchurch is the peculiarity of the conveyances. Instead V the smart Albert cars which ply through tbe streets of Dunedin, there are numbers of easy going hansoms, with sleepy- looking horses and drowsy drivers. ( There are also several superanuated 'busses rolling along at a quiet jog trot. As Shingles and myself were wnlkirg awtty from the railway platform with our carpet bags, we were accosted by the driver of a hansom, who«e rich, racy, oily Leinster brogue smacked strongly of the Liffey. There could be no mistaking the fact that we had 'lighted on a generous invitation, "Jump up, gintlemin," we seated ourselves in his comfortable trap, and desired him to drive us to Warner's Hotel. On arriving at our destination, I enquired tbe charge of cabby, when the intelligent and discriminating Jehu put on bis most Insinuating smile and replied, " Sure, I'll lave it to yourselves, ver honor, ' " But," remarked Shingles, "surely you have a regular fare." "Ay , eoorse we have, for common people," ] responded cabby, "but whin gintlemen thravel we always thrust to their giner- ] osity." There was no getting ovpr the , compliment — it had strock a tender chord j in the breasts of Shingles and mysejf, \ and we parted with two shillings each , and le f t the Milesian flat catcher in the , best of spirits, , Earnest Hutcheson, aged five years and a few nrntlis, is fie son of Mr. Da*is Hutcheson, of Carlton, and the little feN ; low is (says the Telegraph) undoubtedly a 1 prodigy. The child wns introduced to a . few mnsical people the other day at Mr , Allan's in Collins-ptreet. Perched on his : knees in a chair, he performed the fantasia, by Gantier, from "II Trovatore ;'' ; fantasia, by the same composer, fr >m " Don Giovanni *,"" the Siege of Eochelle," ' by Choteck ; "La Sympathie." by Commettant ; and a number of other difficult selections; and tbe execution, time and expression of the preformances were more than extraordinary. The child had not muscular strength enough to bring out the full tones of the piano where they were required, hut he prored that he knew exactly what should be done though he could not do it. M. Julius Herz tasked him setei'ely by striking chords on the piano when his back was to the instrument but the child named every note in each case without the least hesitation, and never made a mistake. It is ten months since he first touched a piano, and he had no tuition further than what he has received f*om his father, who states that the boy has chiefly taught himself." ie sits down to the piano, and plays sometimes for four hours without stopping, " reading" the most difficult music with ease. M. Herz will probably take charge of the little wonder, and it will be interesting to watch his career. About 220 miles from Los Angelos. on the* Pacific coast, there is a dry bed of a ■ Jake, completely surrounded by very high mountains, the approach to wbich is through a conon or divide in the mountains ; in this bed there is a deposit of carbonate of soda about fire miles in length, and a ridge of common salt eight miles long, and some thousands of acres of this same dry lake is covered with borate of soda and pare borax ; the latter is in a solid mass three feet thick. The lake has the sppearance of an immense mass of snow; it is fearfully hot there, being lOGdeg. to 115deg. in the shade. As evidence of the etiquette insisted upon by tbe Prince Consort, a writer in the Nelson Mail says, within his own knowledge the lady who was under-nurse in the Royal nursery, and had the immediate care and attendance on the Royal children while infants, was forbidden to kiss them. She has stated to the writer that it was one of the greatest trials of her life to have to hold these childen in her arms and yet never to be allowed to embrace them. One of her duties was to attend the Queen and Prince on their evening visit to the nursery, on which occasion she had to walk backwards down a long corrider with a heavy silver can dlestick in each hand. The police of San Francisco have lately j made a raid upon a number of underground drinking dens in San Francisco, which are known as " dives" or " melodeODg,'' These were practically dance bouses built below the street level, but some of them had degenerated into brothels and hotbeds of vice. In three ot them it was found that there were secret chambers, which could be shut off by sliding panels, and there were apartments in which an abominable traffic was car* ried on at night, in spite of the utmost vigilance of tbe police; Jn some of the chambers there were sliding panels, com* munieating with other adjoining chambers. Into these horrible dens men were inveigled by women, then stupefied by drugs, and at a given signal the sliding panels would admit confederates who would rob the helpless victims of their

t money and valuables, and throw thei t into the street. Any resistance wa promptly stifled by powerful bullies, an murders were not unfrequent. The den 1 were often owned by wealthy persons 1 living in luxury, and occupying inflaentie 1 positions, in fact some of them were regu s lar attendants at Chnrcb, and were ad mired for their seeming piety and philan ' throphy. The number of murders, sui 5 cides, robberies, and miscellaneous crime r wbich were traced to these dens, a . length aroused the apathetic authorities r The police had been m the pay of tb proprietors of these •• dives, and wmkec 3 at their abominations, but at length th« . popular outcry forced them into action. ; The Auckland Herald says :-Ther, , appears to be a very great difference v ,• the skill of telegraph operators, and if we roav jud^e from the following, the officers 1 in New Zealand are not nearly up to thf > European mark. When correspondents . went to Servia to chronicle the progress . of the war between Turkey and Servia, Prince Milan informed them that their * telegrams conld not be sent without being f submitted to the Government, and that restrictions would be placed on tbe trans. ■ mission of news. The correspondents, however, were not to be beaten, and sent 1 their despatches to Semlin, which is in Austro-Hungary, and can be reached by steamer from Belgrade, in a quarter of an hour. In reference to the subject the Times says :— " Semlin itself is a very small town, but its telegraph office is of European reputation. Great was the call made on it throughout the war ; but never in any ore instance did it fail to keep pace with the requirements. Every evening for nearly five months it had to deal with telegrams written in Enqlis'h, French, German, Italian, Russian, Polish and Servisb languages, and the rapidity and accuracy with which those messages were transmitted was simply marvellous. There wag not an operator in the office who understood a word of English, and yet the account of the battle of ' Alexinatz, which appeared in the Times of September 4, and extended to nearly four columns, was transmitted from Semlin without the mistake of a single word. Long telegrams banded in at tbe Semlin office so late as 11 o'clock at night were received by our correspondent at Vienna before midnight, and by our special wires from Vienna to Paris, and from Paris to London, reached the Times office in time for publication in our earliest editions of the following morning." Chief Justice Whiteside, of the IrishCourt of Queen's Bench, died at Brighton on November 25, aged 70. He had been ailing for some months past, but bis death at the last was so sudden that it gave bis friends and admirers a painful shock. It was caused by heart disease. The deceased was a native of the County Wicklow, and was educated at Trinity College. Dublin. He made a great reputation for himself at the Irish Bar, and was engaged to defend O'Connell in 1843, and Smith O'Brien and his fellow-conspira-tors in 1843 In 1862 he still further increased his fame by his splendid speech on behalf of Theresa Longworth. in the celebrated Yelverton case. He held various political appointments under Conservative Governments until 1865, when lie was appointed to the office he held at the time of his death. He was also autbnr of three books on Italian, and two on Irish subjects. His death is looked upon in Ireland as a national loss, and his funeral, whicii took place on December 2nd. was one of the largest ever witnessed in Dublin, being nearly two miles long. The carriages which followed the hearse numbered close upon 300. and their occupants included all the most influential men in Dublin, from the Lord Lieutenant downwards. The body was interred in in Mount Jerome Cemetery The steamer Blackbird arrived at Cooktown, Queensland, on the 3rd instant, and landed three wounded men from the steamer Douglas. The story of the crew and their encounter with the blacks is a most extraordinary one. Tbe Douglas left Cairns last month for Guano Island. On the way she called at an island off Card well and procured three aboriginals. On her arrival at Guano Island, ctwo of the crew and two blacks went ashore, when the latter killed tbe former ; and then swam to the vessel and killed t c mate with an axe. The other sßilors and the captain came up on deck when they were attacked, wounded, and forced to retire into tbe cabin. The cook took refuge in the rigging. Next day tbe cook shot one of the blacks. The crew then armed themselves, and shot another black in the rigging, and afterwards the third, who had jumped overboard.