MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 503, 29 May 1850, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Reported Military Changes. — A rumour is current in the mouths of confidential staff-officers about the persons of distinguished generals thai an intention is entertained of abolishing all light and grenadier regiment and companies throughout the service. Epaulettes, it is said, are also to be worn by all officers and men, and a change is really to take place in the head gear. United Service Gazette, The proprietor of one of the Manchester cotton unlit, nor/ a baronet, and who has recently put machinery into a mill which cost £70,050, was formerly a working man, earning his thirty shillings a- week. A Coktrast. — Two or three years since the charge for ferrying across the river Mersey at Liverpool was threepence. The Bridgewater Canal Company are now carrying passengers for tbe same sum from Liverpool to Manchester and vice versa, a distance of forty miles. — Atlas. The Hon. Mr. Stanley in Demerara. — Mr. Stanley, M.P., eldest son of Lord

Stanley, has been extremely we] l received in Demerara. On the 22nd October a public dinner was given by the leading gentlemen of the colony, in compliment to him as .a member of the British House of Commons. In his speech on the occasion, Mr. Stanley said his object in visiting Guiana was to derive information, by actual observation, of the position of the colony. He expressed himself at once delighted and surprised at its grandeur, its seeming fertility, and its almost illimitable capabilities of producing nearly everything that could minister to the comfort and luxury of the human race. He declared that this Imperial jewel, the boundless extent of its almost unoccupied plains, and the variety and value of its great but undeveloped resources, were most inadequately appreciated by the people of great Britain. He promised, however, on his return to Europe to embrace every proper opportunity of disseminating more correct views on the subject. He would not pledge himself to the advocacy of any particular doctrines connected with the colonial policy of the empire ; but on one thing — on one matter of fact of which his own senses had too pa'pable and painful evidence — he would not hesitate to express his immeditae and unqualified opinion ; that was, that the agricultural inter sts of this colony were suffering from the deepest and most wide- spread distress. After various other remarks possessing less political interest, the honorable gentleman concluded a very able and eloquent address amidst the most flattering approbation from every individual of the distinguished com] any by whom he was surrounded.

Flag Making. — One interesting branch of Messrs. Whiteheads manufcictute is the construction of flags. They dye, spin, and weave the bunting, which is cut into proper patterns, and sewn together either in their mill or in the cottages around. The flag make s are exclusively women. Although the industry is one principally carried on in seaport towns — the wives and widows of sailors being frequently the pprsons employed — there is many a yard of bunting manufactured amid the hills of Yorkshire by people who never saw a ship or the ocean. It seemed strange so far inland to come upon a room hung with gaily tinted bunting, the forms and colours of ensigns and union Jacks painted upon the tables, and col'ections of the patterns of national and signal standards displayed upon the walls. The bunting, after being cut into due form is fiimly sewn together. And there is a regular fixed scale of prices pa : d to the workwomen for the different descriptions of flags. For a scarlet ensign, five yards long, with the Jack in the comer, 2s. Id. is paid ; far an ensign of four yards, Is. ] Id. ; for a Union Jack of four yards, 2s. A good sewer can make at this work from Bs. to 10s. a week. They seldom commence operations until eight a.m. The-best workwomen in the Messrs. Whiteheads establishment earned the week before my visit 10s. 10d M and the week before that 12s. 3d. A. great number of the flags are, however, manufactured at the homes of married women, who j.ive part of their time to this species of industry. On referring^ to their books, the Messrs. Whitehead informed me that 3s. might be the average earnings of a workwoman of this class. Selecting at random a name, I found that the owner had in three weeks earned respectively 3s. 10J., 3s. Id., and 3s. 8d. — Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle.

Gotha. — Prince Albert's Law-suit, — We announced some time since, that Prince Albert had instituted legal proceedings, with a view to traveise a resolution passed lately in the Gotha Chamber, which declares certain private domains of his to be the property of the State. A Germau paper states the case as follows: — " In 1836, the reigning Prince, Duke Ernest, who died in 1844, concluded an agreement with the Duke of Nassau, it •hat time the guardian of the Prince Ernest and Albert ; according to which the yearly rent-charge of 50,000 florins (£4160) on the ostensible allodial property decending from the mother to these princes, Princess Louisa of Gotha, was to be paid to the two wards out of the domanial treasury. Payment followed regularly from that period, but the Chamber last year refused to recognise the compact, as the claim upon which it rested did not seem sufficiently well founded. The Chamber, therefore, referred the claimants to a court of lav, as tbemedium of making good their claim. Prince Albert has therefore proceeded at law, with a view to recover his share of the 50,000 florins ; and the public takes all the greater interest in the suit, because very little was previously known of the existence of any such agreement, and because, moreover, aftei the demise of Duke Augustus' maternal grandfather, a cohcursus creditorum had been opened against bis (the grandfather's) estate."

Frightful Atrocity. — One of the most savage butcheries that has happened for many years occurred at Tipperary on Sunday night. A party of brogue-makers being on the green, kicked up a sort of drunken row. Among the

rest were two brothers of the Pennans, one of whom used his leather knife, maiming and stabbing all who lay in his way. The night being dark, the work of destruction was not obserred except by the persons hurt. At this juncture William Lawler passed, against whom the Pennans had a pique — one of them rushed on him and plunged the knife into bis side, whilst the other beat him with a candlestick, and he expired immediately. The police were on the spot at once, and arrested the two Pennans, under whose bed they found the knife covered with blood, and the candlestick, which is & long rod of iron driven into a lump of heavy wood. There are two others arrested. — Waterford Mail.

Falkland Islands. — A late report from the Governor of the Falkland Islands, the possession of which formed one of the points of our dispute now in course of arrangement with Buenos Ayres, furnishes some interesting details of the capabilities and resources of these almost unknown settlements. Regarding their value to a naval and commercial nation, the Governor points out that their successive occupation by England, France, Spain and Buenos Ayres, at different periods since the year 1764, would seem to imply an early tecognition of .their geographical importance, and he considers that their position in connexion with North and South America makes them to the American continent pretty nearly what the Cape of Good Hope is to the African and Asiatic. For carrying on commercial intercourse with the South Seas, and especially as ports of refuge and refreshment for the vessels engaged in the rapidly increasing trade with our Australian and New Zealand colonies; he believes, therefore, the holding of them to be most desirable. The rearing of cattle and the cultivation of vegetables appear to the Governor to be the natural means for the prosperity of the colony, all kinds of grain being procurable from the United States at much less cost than at which, at all events in the first instance, they could be grown on the spot. In proof of the adaptation of the islands for cattle grazing, it is mentioned that the very few animals landed originally by the Buenos Ayreans and others have gone on increasing in numbers entirely in a state of nature until they are now, according to various estimates, reckoned at from 35,000 to 100,000 or more. The wild horses of the island are highly thought of, and although many of the districts are too moist and swampy for sheep, still there is a sufficient quantity of land oo which flocks could be kept advautageously. The numerous creeks abound at particular seasons with a description of fish resembling grey mullet, weighing 15 1b5., and which are caught in large quantities by the simplest means. With respect to all the useful kind of vegetables, and green crops generally, the results hitherto have been very promising, and no doubt is entertained that shipping may be supplied with these, as well as with fresh and salted meat, butter, cheese, &c, to any extent, while in a very short period a considerable export might be made of hides, tallow, salted fish, &c. Under these circumstances it is considered that emigrants with a little capital and a little knowledge of the management of stock might establish themselves profitably with slight labour or expeuse. In order to facilitate the occupation of lands, a regulation has lately been adopted to allow purchasers of 160 acres, license for depasturing cattle on 6,000 additional acres, at a rent of £10 per annum for 14 years, the leases being renewable in case, at their expiration, the lands should not be required for sale. The soil of the islands, so far as they have been explored, is generally peat, although in some places there are considerable .tracts of dry gravelly land. One peculiar feature is the entire dest'tution of trees, but there are a variety of sweet scented flowers, which in November and December nearly cover the ground. The varied outline of the mountains and the numerous arms of the sea, " which form more excellent harbours in the same space than peihaps are to be found in any country of the world," constitute the principal relief to the general aspect of the scenery. Of the nature of the climate little has been known, but it is believed that it will be found on experience to be much less severe than is generally supposed. Snow rarely exceeds one or two inches, and the temperature in winter is seldom more than two or three degrees below the freezing point. The general character is that of variability. The wind being of a very drying nature, vegetation sometimes suffers from want of moisture, but the chief defect of climate seems to be in the absence of quiet intensity of heat in the summer. No mineral productions have yet been discovered, nor is the guano, which is found in some places, of sufficiently good quality to bear the cost of freight. — Times.

At Home. — " I shall be at home next Sunday night," the young lady remarked, as she followed her beau to the door, who seemed to be somewhat wavering in his attachment. "So shall I," was the reply. — Leeds Mercury.