Miscellaneous.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 494, 29 July 1857, Page 5

Miscellaneous.

home time since it was announced that Mr. Labouchere, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, had consented to the creation of a new bishopric in New Zealand, to comprise the Provinces of Wellington and Nelson, and that the Venerable Archdeacon Hadfield had been appointed to the spiritual supervision of the see. Since that time earnest representations have been made to the right hon. gentleman, with a view to induce him to sanction the formation of two sees, so that there may be a bishopric for Nelson as well as for Wellington. In the event of Mr. Labouchere giving his consent to this arrangement, the Rev. Edmund Hobhouse, 8.D., fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and vicar of St. Peter-in-the-Eaet, Oxford, will be put in nomination for the second bishopric.

A deputation to ask for the assistance of Government to enable the operatives recently discharged from their establishments in Woolwich and Plumstead to emigrate had an interview with Viscount Palmerston on Tuesday. The deputation . consisted of Sir William Codrington, X.C.8., Sir W. Fenwick Williams, Bart., the Rev. Henry Brown, Rev. W. Acworth, and Captain Orr. —•' Australian and New Zealand Gazette."

The Geelong and Melbourne Kail--WA.Y.—The opening of the Geelong and Melbourne Railway was to take place on the 25th, and the occasion was to be celebrated in great style. The company was to include the Governor and suite. Members of Ihe Executive Council, Members of the Legislature, the Corporations of Melbourne and Geelong, the Heads of Departments, the Directors and Officers of the Company, and the general public in large numbers. The dejeuner was to be provided for four thousand persons. Sir Henry Barkly left Melbourne for Geelong on the 24th, in the steam-sloop Victoria.

The inhabitants of Avoca were horrorstricken on the 19th instant, by the discovery of a human head hi a waterhole in Paddy's Gully. There was a bullet wound in the forehead, and as no traces of the trunk could be found, there is no doubt whatever of a horrible murder having been committed.

The elective police are still actively engaged in hunting up the burglars who on the sth instant swept the premises of Mr. Dennis, jeweller and watchmaker, of Bourke-street, of more than £300 worth of property. The four prisoners in custody were examined at-the police court on Wednesday, when two were committed for trial. one (a woman) was remanded ; and another, against whom there was not a shadow of a case, was discharged. The whole gang are not yet apprehended, but soon will be; More than half the property has been already recovered. Illegible Manuscript.—What guessers printers must be! A New York editor, in descanting upon the guess-at-half-of-it style of writing in which many articles are sent to be printed, gives the following amusing specimen. A piece of poetry before him, written in what, at a reasonable glance, seemed to be intelligible, when examined a little closer appeared to present the following:— Alone toss'd rolls a tear by Moses, A many things we mourn by day ; Tom and the snouting Indian chorus, And seethe their limbs at play. Knowing, however, that his correspondent was not a fool, he more carefully examined it, and he guesses that the following version is nearer the author's intention: —

I love to stroll in early morn Among the new mown hay; To mai*k the sprouting Indian corn, And see the lambs at play, Mr. Denison is to be the new Speaker of the House of Commons—provided the House does not object to the selection made by Governmeut.

The ' Examiner,' always spiteful and never silly, observes :—What Baron Wood said of wines is certainly true of Speakers of the House of Commons, namely, that some may be better than others, but that none are bad. In this faith we are quite easy about the choice of the Speaker of the new House. We cannot forget indeed what very inferior men have made good speakers. A shallower man, for example, than Mr. Manners Sutton could hardly be named, but^he acquitted himself sufficiently well in the chair, and was renowned for the tone of voice in which he called "Order." The Speaker is a sort of drum-major. He must be portly and pompous. It should be his endeavour to imitate the look of the mace as much as possible, the sight of which inspires beholders with so much indefinite awe, and all the more because no one can imagine what it is good for, except sometimes to lie on, and sometimes to lie under the table. If a bad speaker could be chosen, which we believe to be utterly impossible, what would happen? Would the new members turn the House out of window ? Would the event be like the disaster which followed Phaeton's trying his hand at driving the chariot of the sun ? We believe not. If the Speaker were remiss, the House would take care of itself, and fill the chair. There are always in it old stagers enough to keep the new ones in check and in order. But there is not the least chance of the choice of a bad Speaker. The candidates are unobjectionable. Mr. Fitzroy is an excellent man, who has done much good service in a quiet, unpretending way; Mr. Baines is thoroughly sound and able; Mr. E. Denison is not bad. The last is preferred. He has not been too good a Reformer or Liberal, not too much in earnest about anything, and, above all, heis of the three the most of a drum-major. He will be awful in a big wig, and will fill young members with a strange awe i when he cries order. What more is wanted in an incarnation of rules ? It was Partridge's not unnatural mistake to suppose that the actor who played the part of king must be the first of I the company, and in every respect very much like the king of a stage troop is the Speaker of i the Commons. He must have a person, a presence, and a big voice for a very few words, a I stock of indifference to persons, and perhaps to things, a good cook, and cellar to match. With these qualifications his election must be conducted as if the working and character pf the representative system all depended on it. Warning to Photographic Artists.— Our photographic] friends will do well to take warning from the following extract taken from a Cape paper, in which.it is stated that Dr. Atherston, an eminent photographer, had nearly poisoned himself:-—lt-.appears that in the removing the stains of nitrate of silver from his hands with that deadly poison cyanide of potassium (the plan comm^yadopetd by. photographers) he suddenly i'elt a glow through his whole frame, accompanied by a tremulous feeling. The thought instantly flashed across his mind that some of the poison had been absorbed by some scratches or cuts on his hands which he had forgotten. He was ill for some hours, with all the symptoms of poisoning. The next day he suffered from great exhaustion. This case shows the necessity of extreme caution on the part of photographers and others in the use of this highly poisonous salt. The following will be found a safe and equally efficacious mode of removing the stains of nitrate of silver from the hands:—Moisten the stain with a saturated solution of iodide of potassium in water, and afterwards with nitric acid diluted with two parts of water.

PAPA, -WHAT IS A NEWSPAPER, AND WHAT DOES IT CONTAIN ? Organs that gentlemen play, my boy, To answer the taste of the day, my boy, Whatever it be, They hit on the key, And pipe in full concert away, my boy, News from all countries and climes, my boy, Advertisements, essays, and.rhymes, my boy, Mixed up with all sorts Of (f) lying reports, And published at regular times, my boy. Articles able and wise, my boy, At least in the editor's eyes, my boy, And logic so grand That few understand To what in the world it applies, my boy. Statistics, reflections, reviews, my boy, Little scraps to instruct and amuse, my boy, And lengthy debate . Upon matters of state, For wise-headed folks to peruse, my boy. The funds as they were and they are, my boy, The quibbles and quirks of the bar, my boy. And every week, A clever criticme On some rising theatrical star, my boy. The age of Jupiter's moons, my boy, The stealing of somebody's spoons, my boy, The state of the crops, The style of the fops, And the wit of the public buffoons, my boyLists of all physical [ills, my boy, Banished by somebody's pills, my boy, Till you ask with surprise Why any one dies, Or what's the disorder that kills, my boy. Who has got married, to whom, mv boy, Who were cut off in their bloom, my boy, Who has had birth On this sorrow-stained earth, And who totters fast to the tomb, my boy. The prices of cattle and grain, my boy, Directions to dig and to drain, my boy, But 'twould take me too long To tell you in song, A quarter of all they contain, my boy.

The king of Prussia, at the intercession of Madame yon Hinckeldey, has remitted four years of the sentence of imprisonment passed on Herr yon Rochow, who killed Herr yon Hinckeldey about this time last year in a duel. When the regiments arrive from England, there will be a force of 10,000 men at HongKong. Tour regiments go from England— those next in rotation for service in India. The command of the force is vested in Major-Gene-ral the Honourable T. Ashburnham, C. 8., who was in the first Sutlej campaign. Major- Generals Garrett and Straubenzee are to have command of Brigades, and Colonels Pakenham and Wetherall respectively fill the'offices of Assistant Adjutant and Assistant Quarter-master General.— United Service Gazette.

The Commissioners sent abroad to examine the_ military institutions of the Continental nations have now made their report. The Commission consisted of an Engineer officer, an Artillery officer, and a civilian practically conversant with education. In carrying out the work intrusted to them, they first examined our own establishments at Woolwich and Chatham, and then visited all the great military schools on the continent except those of Russia. The result of their labours forms a very valuable addition to the history of military education.