MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 292, 3 October 1874, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Mr. R. J. Creighton, editor and general manager of the ' Otago Guardian,' will be succeeded, a contemporary says, by Mr. R. H. Leary as general manager, and Mr. Vincent Pyke as editor. Some men never lose their presence of mind. In Milwankee a man threw his mother-in-law out of a window in the fifth storey of a burning building and cara feather bed down stairs in his arm?.

Good government, like most other things, can be bought; but it is very seldom that the governed people have been willing to pay the actual money value for good government.. They are parsimonious; in the only which can secure a judicious national pSftijnony. If there was anything to which the common proverb. " Penny wise and pound foolish," may be justly applied, it is in the small savings gained by inadequate payment for ser - vices rendered to the State.—A Helps. The largest gun coil ever constructed was coiled at the Royal Gun Factories, Woolwich, in July, being on.e portion of he monster 80 ton gun, which the Woolwich gunmakers are manufacturing to prove that there is. practically no limit to the magnitude and power of the guns they are prepared to make and oppose to the increasing thickness" of armor plating. This coil weighed 28 tons, and it was not without considerable difficulty that the ordinary machinery of the department was made to turn it out. There is one coil still larger, the weight of which will be nearly 40 tons, required tor. the same gun. The attempt by an Ultramontane fanatic to assassinate Prince Bismarck has immensely increased the Princes popularity. The expression of indignation throughout Germany was unanimous. ! Within three days nearly 1000 congratulations were received by telegraph, from sovereigns and statesmen downwards. The affair will prove a disastrous blow to the Catholic party, whom the public hold responsible for the crime, despite all disavowals. The crime had long been premeditated, and Kullman was a fortnight in Berlin watching for an opportunity. He is twenty-one years old, and had left his home at Magdeburg twelve months ago His. father vends fried eels. His mother has been, for years in an Asylum, and he' has long been a violent member of the Catholic Society at Satzwel. The activity of the police has been quickened, domiciliary visits have bten paid to suspected persons > documents seized, and several Catholic Societies closed. Prince Bismarck continues at Kissiugen, and is gradually recovering from the shock. He frequently appears in public, and is always enthusiastically received. Two slight wounds in tfte arm and hand have been treated with ice. No permanent injury has been sustained. The raising of his hand tc his head at the critical moment probably saved his life. The greatest error that any governing man in high position can makf», whether he be the head of a Government. department, of a merchant's office, or a draper's shop, is the attempt to do too much himself. • This is no new remark. It is one that has been made by scores of shrewd bystanders observing the conduct of business ; but I think it will be new to remark that this great error nearly always proceeds from moral defects—from vanity, conceit, fussiness, and an overweening regard for one's own peculiar way of doing : work. The idea, whether consciously expressed or not, in the man's mind, is'this: " I will show them how I can do it," not " I will teach them how to do it themselves." There is generally an ab - sence of generosity in such men: they do not love the excellence of other men. And again, they are pleased .to forget their own mortality, and to . omit seeing that the. grand thing is to leave behind you those brought up under you who shall be able to clo as well as yourself, or even better. A great administrator, who had ruled over one of the first, departments of the State for maiiy years with much credit, was heard to say, "I never do anything myself." And, indeed, it is often quite enough work for. any .ruling man to see that the wc>r!' he lias to preside over is done 1 , without taking", any intrusively active p'ai.t in it h*mi^l.f.-rA : Helps.

.A young bachelor, vvho had been appointed sheriff, was called upon to serve an attachment against a young widow. He called upon her, and said: " Madam, I have an attachment for you." The widow blushed, and said that his attachment was reciprocated. "You don't understand me; you must proceed to Court." " I know it is leap year, sir, but I prefer you to do the courting." Mrs. P , this is no time for trifling, the justice is waiting." " The justice ! why I prefer a parson." A. nugget of gold weighing 15oz. 4dwt., was picked up in Macarthur street, Ballarat, recently, the fortunate finder being, as is usually the poor working man. The ' Ballarat Star' says that the discovery was rather singular, as the person was wearing a pair of almost soleless boots, and while walking along the street he felt a hard substance pressing against his foot. Looking down to ascertain if the cause was a sharp pointed stone, he saw the point of the nugget sticking out of the ground, and soon unearthed it. The Home papers by the mail contain the official announcement of the knighthood of the Defence Minister. Apropos of the matter, a curious circumstance oc - curred shortly after telegraphic information reached the Colony of the hon. gentleman's elevation. In the House of Representatives and out of it he was at once styled Sir Donald ; but the Speaker (acting, it is said, under instructions from Go vernment House) declined to recognise him as such, contending that official cognisance of the title could not be taken until the patent was received in the Colony, or official notification made of the fact Accordingly Sir Francis gave instructions that in ' Hansard' and the other Parliamentary papers the name of the Defence Minister should continue to appear " Mr. M'Lean," to which Mr. Vogel objected, and as often as the Speaker struck out references to the hon. gentleman's title, reinstated them. The Premier ultimately carried his point.—' Star.' There is scarcely to be found a community in any part of the world without a grievance, and for the continuity of grievances commend me to a goldfields community. The very nature of people's occupation, in searching for gold begets | grievances, and a goldfield governed from a Provincial point is never without a good j substantial grievance, just now the want ; of coal is a real cause of discontent. .Without fuel the batteries can't crush, and if the quartz can't be reduced no gold will be forthcoming. But there is abundance of coal: it. only wants fetching. Where are the vessels to carry coals? Gone, because they haven't a fair, show of getting discharged of their burden when they*-bring it. Grievance then shapes into a crying demand for harbor accommodation, to obwhich the Thames people have sent on a deputationising mission a number of representatives to crave the assistance of the Provincial Government If the deputation should succeed they will surprise everybody, for no one expects the Provincial Government will Jo anything for the much neglected Thames, however urgent the demand that something should be done.-—' Thames Star'