MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 35, 29 June 1877, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

A Christchurh draper has been selling vest buttons which are a goad imitation-. of sovereigns. A young lad, Mined Gatclion, got some, carefully filed off -tb» shanks and passed one of the buttons as a sovereign, bufc was caught inmakin^a second attempt. Another boy has since heen arrested for a similar offence. Tbe Rend, censured the draper for offetbg' such a temptation to commit fraud, A boy wa_ lately charge* atthe Dunedm Court with having showa ared light to a train which tbe driver stopped' io consequence, The boy had lit a match,* to give to another person, and ftf-tV covering it with his haud, it had the sm. pearance of a danger signal.' He was cautioned apd discharged. A young g i:l, whose father was a fisherman, was asked if she knew the. names of the seasons of the year, Thp. girl readily replied, " Yes* there are, tour— the mackerel season, the trhitinj? t season, the herring season, and the trawl* iag season.'' ' A book entitled "History of the • Birmaid Industry," which is talked of »_ likely to be published by an enterprising , firm next November, will be looked for- , wird to with much interest. It. seems that tbqre arc upwards of 3(,X.,000 b rmaids in Great flritain, apd that tfcejr „ . ' average earnings are upwards of Sjs a Week each more thau are obtaiaed by* the members of any o.her profession, except that of " companion," to. which women can belong. As is now knowD, the bar* • maid industry his extended into Scotland. ■ and very recently two of tbe employees , ot Messrs Spiers and Pond in tfndinbuigh hare b 'en marrie I— ihe one to a, Dunfriesshire landed proprietor, the other* ' to tho son of one of the. most popular 1 clergymen in.the the Scottish, metorpolis. It i-s startling news, exclaims the Sussex Daily News, wbich Mr Proctor has, jist communicated to us. The earth has not done growing yet, though it is old; enough to have reached its time of stagnation. It feeds on meteors, and these. must, of coarse, at least increase its balk. , Pew people bave imagined tbat the earth is eating every day, and that by. the end of the year it has taken, no less than. 400,000,00J meteors into its constiU-tion. Yet Mr Proctor answers foe this. He says tha 1 . the shooting stars are simply meteoric st >nes falling to the earth at the rato of more timn a million a day. But there arc small M-rn-i of obesi'y in our. " globe as y', berime trifle 4 0 millions- a 'year would need to go on falling for millions of years before another foot can be added to the earth's diameter. By that time, ifc is probable that the earth will have come into collision with one of those blazing suns which now appear periodically in the heavens* and go out suddenly when tbey bave ceased to. combust. This is the way science now arranges, the end of the world. Itis to. be a railway collision and a conflagration on a large scale. From the amall experience we have hitherto "hid'of tbe cablegramajlltat corn* to use from the seMpf war via l-ndon, it would scen^-hat 'ffll information conveyed by this means is likely to be of * confusing and distracting nature. Thii' ia the. opinion of " E," in the Nelson Mail, and* he thinks tbat, judging by the ptet, what we may expect in the future is something in this style;— "London, 31st Jane, 10 a.m,, A terrific engagement took place yesterday afc Scratchempolepol between the Russians and Turks, when tbe later ■were disgracefully defeated witb the loss of 10.350 men. *• Noon.— Ke war telegram, for 'latter' read 'former.'" " 23^ p.m.— Knock off the old 50. Not sure about them." " 4 p.m.— Mistake iv ielegram, Only 10,300, killed aad wounded on both sides." "Later. — Accounts re battle of Scra'chempotepol exaggerated Only 9,000 engaged al* togei her." " The Very latest.— There Was no engagement at all, but battle expected , next week." • A few days (says the Civilian) an engraver, who carries oa his business in Rroadmead, Bristol, happened to look through his shop window, when he observed an elderly gentleman, whom he recognised as an Kxcise officer, attentively scanning the outside of his premises. After satisfying his curiosity, by an outward inspection, he entered the shop, note book an 1 pencil in hand, and opened conversation with the proprietor. " Mr, J. I beiieve." " Tes, I am Mr. J." " Yes., ' Have you a license for that trap ?'. '" No." Down goes an entry of this candid admission in the note book- " Did you' bave a license last year?" " Ko." An* other entry in the book. *' Why did you not take out a license ?" " I did not think !; was Eccc-sary." " How many does your trap hold ?" "Five." Another memorandum. ' how many, wheels hag

t?" " None.' ■' None J" why wbat sort of a trap is it? : A mousetrap is it?" " A mousetrap 'i ablecu : Mr. j. splitting hh sides behind the counter, an elderly f officer rushing out ofthe shop without tht %• customary salutation, or even waiting to |v return the note book to tbe official HL The Wanganui Herald, commenting on «jhe bite piiolic meeting held in New Bp>lymr»iitb. and an article which', appeared Hntho Herald-Ravs— STar-inaki is a place. W which lias all the elements of prosperity, and which we desire to see prosperous ; bufc we cannot refrain from expressing the (opinion that the petty selfishness of her politicians in later times has done as much to retard it as even the Native wars. It i cannot expect that tbe_ cry against the I Government will obtain tlie slightest [ sympathy" from any othei? part ofthe Ih colony. Indeed the Premier could hardly H take a n?oro effective way of increasing fp confidence in himself than by incurring r the wrath of bis constituents, who have to bear tbe opprobrium ot New Plymouth | gelfeseeking. Last session Strang developP ments and plots were seen which filled jtho cup of antipathy to overflowing. The manceuyres of the late Superintendent over the central prison — a question of colonial importance— and then the scanIdalous charge that the same representative Jlad been preferring claims to the colonial bstate amounting to £17.000 "for which Ife was to recoiye^a commssion" did more lb injure the reputation and to prejudice the interests of Taranaki, - than its representatives 'can undo by years of Patriotic conduct, pdrity and self-denial.''