MISCELLANEOUS.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume V, Issue 226, 13 June 1885, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Mr Henry Irving hade farewell to the American stride on April 5. • The audience was the largest over known to have assembled in (he Star Theatre, and the enthusiasm was unbounded, fudeed, the general opinion appears to be that it was the greatest reception and farewell ever witnessed in America. The New York press unanimously praise Mr Irving, \Jiss Ellen Terry, and the work they have do if, and give glowing accounts of the oecasio.i of their last appearance on the American stage. At a meeting of ladies, held at Marlborough, under the presidency of Lady Frederick Bruce, it was decided to take all the pauper children fro-n the Wiltshire workhouses, and sen 1 them to Canada. A thousand girls will be first despatched. The Auckland Y.M.C.A. are prospering. Their new premises will cost .£SOOO, including lecture hall, reading library, committee, chess, and social rooms. A novelty will he a mansard roof with a large tennis court. The trial of Richard Short, for stabbing Captain Phelp in o'Donovan Bossa's office in New York, ended on May G, with a verdict of not guilty. The judge's remarks to the jury were: ' Gentlemen, 1 am astonished at your verdict. You ait discharged from all turther attendance on this panel." Ninety-three buihels to the acre is a remarkably good yield. A Mr Dunn, u farmer in the Bruce District, Otago, ha> recently threshed out 1851 bushels of oats grown on 20 acres of his farm. Mr Dunn attributes this large yield to having laid a quantity of lime upon his land last year. The Christchurch " Press" can find no greater fault with the Native Minister than, that he recently witnessed a native dance. According to a Wellington paper, a rumour having feeen spread in Auckland that the dofensive works did not preclude a Eussian cruiser from hiding under the Great Barrier, seizing the San Francisco mail steamer, transferring her armament to her, and thus getting into the Waitemata unsuspected under the British flag, Major Cautley intimated that if any alarm arose on that score he should recommend that the mail steamer should come direct to Wellington, instead of going to Auckland. That settled it. The alarmists retired into obscurity, and nothing more has been heard of that scare. The effrontery of the serious minded English " evangelical" person is notorious but it reached its climax recently when a zealous Mrs Jellaby asked the Mayor of Leicester, England, for a contribution to the funds of a society for Christianising the Jews. u Madam," he replied, " I really must draw the line .somewhere, and I think I cannot do better than draw it at yeur application; and allow me to say that I think if you spent the money and your labor in endeavoring to Christianise some of the Christians your time would be much better employed." Of the Arabs, lfc is computed we have slain 3000 at Teh, 2000 at Tamiu-,2000 at Abulkea, 1300 at Goubat, 1000 at Kirkelian, and 3000 at the recent lights at and about Hasheen, figures which are probably below lather than over the actual number. Ten hundred British soldiers have been killed, wounded and invalided, and the net result is nil. We gaze on a sea of blood in whieh is sunk twenty millions of treasue. To whom this situa- j tion is eminently satisfactory, to Arabs, Egyptians, or to Englishmen, does not exactly appear. I