MISCELLANEOUS.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 89, 5 November 1879, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Accepting- the Chiltebjt ETitndbkds. — The Ohilrern TTxmdreds are Burnhuni, Desborough, and Stoke, nh estate of the Crown on the chainjof chalk hill that pass from east to vest through the middle of Buckinghamshire, the stewardship whereof is a nominal office, with asftlaryibf £1 conferred on members of the British Parliament, when they ■wish to vacate fihair seats, as by acoepfcingan olßce under the Crowna member becomes disqualified unless be be again returned by his constituents. ' ■ . Q-betna Gkken Makkiages — Run* fcwnr 'marriages were contracted for many years at Gretna Green,. as bj the Scotch law an ookn- wleclgmenfc before witnesses made a legal ma-rige* John "Psi isley, a tobacconist, and terme.l the matrim uiial blacksmith, who officiated from 1760, died m 1814. His! first iresidence was ftfegg's Hill 9.11 the common dr. gr«en between Gretna and Springfielcl, to the «i e tof which viliagea lie r^jnbved m I^B2. A, Jnan, named Elliot, was lately the principal officiating person; The General Assembly m 1826 iii vain at.temptel to suppress this sysieip, Hut an Act. "of Parliament passed m 1865 mide such mnrrinces illegal after that year, unless one of the persons married had lived m Scotland twenty-one days. Mole.— .A French naturalist has experimented with moles to ascertain their true habit*. It lias been found that they will starve m t-je presence of jibundanerv of vegetable looti, rrfiwing to touch it, but. will greedily dovonr earth- worms, mice, and oven small birds. When nearly starving m an unclosed jar, of the birds they devoured only the inside, but they devoured' indiscriminately thiv-own weight each day of snails, insects, larvtß, chrysalides, calerpilkr3, adders, glowworms, hnd lizards. Mr. Carl Vogt.relates an instance where a French" proprietor destrovo 1 everj mole on his estate. The^next Be.is.tii his fields were ravished by cat-worms an I his props destroyed. He then purchased w>lps from his neighbours, stocked. his/fields, anrVafernrard's preserved them as his best frien/Is.' TELEORAPTnNG EXTKAOBDINABY.-^-lhe ci\cu*ustaiiceß under which the. Freeman's Journal sf Wednesday inornirig, was published may fairly f(/»in matter of inCerest to -ilarc-vdars. -It will lijrtye been noticed that a large port ion of (ts spiic© was occupied with .the report of the debate on the Royal Irish Constabulary estimates,' this report al •ne exceeding twelve columns ; aP^al '>oug'i the House of Commons did. hot rise til a quarter to fcrur- m the morning, • o\u l issue was m the hands, of the public at at the-U'ini time- that i< to 'say, within ]\}tfa m .rfi'fhan an hour after the debate hn 'l been closed. Thr- 13 a feat on which we have to congratulate m the first place, our own staff*, tolesraphic and typographic; and m the natt, tie i-xcclleut service of the Postal Telegraphic depirtment. The part which the Telegraph plays m connection with the Press is indeed a notable feat ure of our day. In the isMie of the Freeman under notice* there were '«) fewer than 'twenty four columns of reaiinar-m Uter sent; over the wires during the night. This represents about five thousaiifl.lines m round numbers, or about forty thousand word*. The transmission nnd transcription of this immense body of intelligence, t!;esubse iiient preparation foivpress, andgettingit. put into typo, read, nnd sf^-oory-ps:!, unrler conditions of time which left no "more, than on hour's gap between the Jn«' beat of the operating hammer and the reTflationcf the printing machine, all form an cxa-mple of tapidity of operation and perfection Qf.iirrangment . which could not, we T/nture to say, be surpassed m any city m - the world: [The abore' work was done on the special wire between the' House, 6t Comirions, London, and!, the I Freeman's Journal office, Dublin, m issue of 23rd July, 1879.]