Miscellaneous Items.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1446, 4 September 1885, Page 4

Miscellaneous Items.

Still another wonderful use has been found for electricity. Recently electrodes connected with a dynamo of the power ot forty ordinary Danieli cells were put into "forty-live gallons of fr^sh milk, an I m exactly four and one-half minutes the field was, as dairy mon say, churned and the butter rising on the surface. The quantity obtained was fully equal to that procured m the ordinary way and the perfect. Says the Hamilton Spctator (Victoria) of a recent date: — A singular freak of lightning occurred during the storm of Thursday night, causing a great deal of damage to some property belonging to Mr M'Donald, of the Argyle Arms. A gentleman driving into town kindly informed Mr M'Donald that some of the fencing round his paddock on the road to Dooling Dooling, was down. Thereupon young Mr M'Donald, accompanied by a man, drove out, with the intentmn of doing a little temporary patching-up. On arrival at the scene of the damage, •they soon found to put the matter right, a contract, instead of a job, would he necessary, for six or seven chains of the fence was completely smashed, and thrown entirely out of line, while numbers of the posts were split from top to bottom. The fence was a substantial one consisting of top rail and four wires, but the electric fluid had splintered it up like matchwood, and snapped the wires like bits of string. The damage stopped at a straiaing-post, and here the wires were severed as cleanly as if cut with a file. It has leaked out that M. Jules Ferry's ignominious expulsion from olTico was richly deserved, as he was guilty, it is Hflid,of " converting public (rusts to private uses," much as the Do Morny clique did m the days of the Third Empire. The news of the peace with China wns m the bands of the editor of the . Paris, which is the personal organ of Mr Ferry, 30 hours before it was made public ; and larg.j sums were made on tbo Bourse by all who were m tlv secret. Monsieur <le redacteur en chef, it is confidently as<erted, cleared no less than £40,000 as his share of the operations.