MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 259, 20 February 1874, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

t The ';%uapeka Times' says:—"The . saloofianof Situated in block! 11. ,-\ Gleri- i koniph district, took place in the Land Office, Lawrence. , Nearly every seat : in the Court-house was occupied by 12 • o'clock, when Mr. Hay, district Government auctißhoer, opened the sale, by offering section I, which was knocked down to Captain Mackenzie at 8s an acre over, the upset price of £I. It was remarked before the sale commenced that the captain intended going in big licks, as he bad filled his capacious wallet with Bank of New Zealand notes of all sorts and sizes, evidently prepared for stormy weather. The sale of the first section was the keynote to the competition which lollowed, as Very few of the sections brought less than .the first one, and many brought a good deal more. The bidding ranged from the upset price to £5 lis. an acre; the latter sum and £4 Is. being obtained respectively for two small allotments. Of the 4,0(57 acres offered for sale, about 3,450 weresold, at an average of about£l 125.6 d. , per acre The* amount realised by , the Government was £5,679 9s. lid." ■.-.•;.; '* Mr. Wm. Paiseley, O.E , has been ap- 1 \ pointed to the office, vacant through the i dexth of the late Mr. Johnston, and has.. { entered on his duties. ' I It used to be a common saying that " France was rich enough to pay for her glory," and in those days she little thought of the cost of adversity. Now the attention of the country i 3 drawn to the following items, which show what a costly . game war sometimes is The war indem -. hity is 5,000,000,000f. ; the interest on . the same for two years, 300,000.000f. ; the maintenance of the German trpops, 273.673,000f ; requisitions, 327,581, OOOf ; value of objects taken with requisition, 254,172,000f. ; war contributions levied on Paris,. 200,000,000f.; and so on till the account forms, a total' of 6,672,811,000f. But this enormous sum , does not include pensions to the army, the damage done to material, nor the expenses of reorganisation, nearly as much again. The average value of a day's . work in Fiance is one franc and a quarter, so it is easily to calculate the amount of labor whieh will be required to repair the folly of u few months of violence and bloodshed. r- c Pall Mall Gazette.' Relics op tiie Franklin Expedition.—The 'New York Herald' of October 11 contains a report of an interview with the captain of the whaler Glacier, who, as we noticed recently, has returned to new Bedford from Hudson's Bay with ■ relics of the Franklin expedition, which he obtained from, the Esquimaux of Repulsp Bay. lie* .was surprised to find that in return for cooking utensils they ottered him silver spoons and forks. Captain Potter showed the correspondent these articles, which consist of table spoons, tea spoons, and a sugar spoon, one of the forks and one of the large spoons having indistinct outlines of Sir John Franklin's coat of arms engraven on" them. The natives stated that after leaving their vessels the survivors of the ■ crews of- the .Erebus and Terror broke up into two parties, one going in the direction of the lied lliver, by the Black River, and the other towards the settlements on Hudson's Bay. Tlioy asserted that all died; from natural f-auses, and Captain Potter said he believe 1 them. '';.'" ' ; * l''eav of his Sovereign "did not damp I lie freedom ofyjiaftesbury's wit. Charles 11, said to him; .".Shaftesbury, I believe, thou art the w,i</keil,ost man in England." ITe bfivml," anri replied, "For a ' subject, sir, perhaps T'lim." A New ComET.tr-A.*,,new comet has b< -, on visible for nights by aid-of the powerful telescope at'the Roman Observatory. < ft' is described as most bril - liant, w|th a tail of extraordinary'splendor, '-'r., ' ;

Forty Million Pounds of Bad Tea.—The London Commissioner's of Sewers, who are entrusted with the administration of the Adulteration Act in the City of London, have decided on udopting,. cf». fective measures for putting an end .to the importation of adulterated tea into the metropolis. At a meeting of this body held on Tuesday, it was stated that there is at present 40,000,000 lb. of tea in bond so grossly adulterated as to be unfit for consumption. The Commissioners have resolved on giving notice to merchants in China that all spurious tea arriving in London will henceforth be destroyed. A gentleman was warmly eulogising the constancy of an absent husband in the • presence of hisjoving wife. " Yes, yes," assented she, "he writes letters full of the agony of affection, but he never remits mo any money." " I can conceive that," said the other, " for I know his love to be unremitting." A farmer, not accustomed to literary composition or letter writing, having lost a new hat at a country meeting,. addressed the following note to its supposed possessor: —" Mr. A. presents his compliments to Mr. B. I have got a hat which is not his ;if he have got a hat which.is not .yours, no doubt they are the missing one."

Among the memoranda of a young man who was recently married, were, these: " Things to be done this afternoon, before the wedding; Get some keys to fit valise; engage carriage for train; get license to many; get shaved and hair trimmed, a little ; sew button on black breeches, and get a pair of suspenders; buy a bottle of perfumery; bo sure to wash feet well." Some people are never contented...After having all their limbs broken, their heads, smashed, and their brains knocked out, they will actually go to law and'try to get further damages.