MISCELLANEOUS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 289, 27 March 1877, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

WHOLESALE CELIBACY. Mothers with daughters to marry, and young ladies desirous of assuming Hymen's fetters, are pricking wp their ears I at the current rumour that a bachelors* ! club is in the process of formation, the ; ungaltant members of which arc to take of perpetual celibacy, to ensure the keeping of which a vow fine of 50,0001 r. is exacted from anyone breaking it. Jt is said that upwards of 30 young men of family have signed away their j freedom, and renounced their right to bask in the smites of Parisian belles. The next question is, What will be done with the marriageable young ladies J WEATHER WISDOM. 3tr. TJ. H. Scott, Director of the Meteorological Office, gave an interesting lecture at"the London Institution on " Weather Knowledge." After mentioning that individuals greatly dependent on weather ; sometimes appeared to anticipate it by a sort of sixth sense, but were rarely useful out of thetr own districts, he said that the best signs of weather were the clouds, the landscape, and optical phenomena. Cirri, or mare's tail clouds, were a most important sign of bad weather, as was also the "cap " on a low hilt, though the same cap on a high hill is m> index of coming rain. The old saw about " evening red and morning grey " : being a sign of good weather is correct, for the red of evening is produced by the i sun shining through the vapor left by ! clouds disappearing into the wanner strata I near the earth, where they evaporate ; white in the morning, if the air is dry, : the snu's rays are not stopped, and the clouds look grey from the diffused light. We wish Mr. Scott would give another lecture on instrumental observations. What people who do not watch the sky much, want most, is some indication through instruments of the chances of rain for, say the next twelve hours. AN" CLXtTSE FOE DRLN'K. A contemporary- says that a person who was brought op. charged with drunkenness, during the recent inundation in Hawke'a l»ay, pleaded the flooded state of the country as an excuse. This is mentioned by a contemporary as a good joke, and yet it would be ttifticnlt to imagine an esetts.? which would be more entitled to consideration than that advanced. MAMMOTH KtTiUEN". The German Government has built a mammoth kitchen. It is one thousand feet long, and constructed of stone and iron, and is designed to supply food to the army in times of war. Two cighteen-htin-drcd horse-power engines drive its machinery, which is capable of boiling down and condensing for transportation 120 oxen, and witt grind 3."»0 tons of flour, and make 300,000 loaves of bread daily. It can also supply enough preserved oats for one day's feeding of the horse belonging to an army of 280.000 men. THE JEW.4. An English magazine says:—" Scattered about the earth there are supposed to be i 0,000.000 or 11,000,000 Jews alive. Thousands of these persons arc rich, some of them own colossal fortunes. Rothschild could buy up the fee simple of Palestine. fJotdstnid might rebuild the temple of Herod, Montefter has money enough to east a golden statue of King Solomon. Uftt of these wealthy Hebrews not one is wilting to go back. F. 'X*'t,-<<t Vßf.V MR.\S. Could meanness further go I Late on Saturday night a man of middte-age, accompanied by a nuggetty young woman, was oscillating with a terrible swagger out of a pieshop in Princessstreet, when his elbow caught against a valuable crystal show-glass, and the article was demolished- The shopkeeper mildly suggested that he should pay for the damage, but was met with a stout denial, and an equally stubborn refusal. An ap- | peat by his fair partner to his sense of In-nor produced no better result, and the uugaUant smasher having at length been induced to acknowledge that he had accidentally broken the gtas+warc, walked away with the consciousness that he had enjoyed a pit? and coffee, sat out half-a-ero wit's worth of gas. and destroyed 10s. worth of property, all for sixpence.— Otayo rAN" st'cxi Ttn.NVtS RE/ An Adelaide paper of a recent date states that lately a man residing at Oakland. Vorke Peninsula, sent his son, aged about M. down a rather deep well to fetch up a bucket. When the boy had descended, the father, to save himself the trouble of winding him up, ordered the boy to make fast to the rope, which the man attached to the team of bullocks and drove them along, drawing the rope over the windlass. The boy was drawn to the top, both his anus were broken, and he, with the bucket, was then precipitated to the bottom of the well, whence he was taken up dead, with his neck, it is said, broken. He was buried without an iu-*-|ttest or inquiry of any kind. EMPLOYMENT OF PRISON' LABOR. The committee appointed by delegates at the West of England Conference, which recently met in Bristol, held a sitting lately, and arrived at an important decision, which is likely to upset the arrangements of both political parties. The point taken up by the committee is that, as very targe grants are made to reformatory schools, in which prison labor competes with the productions of honest artisans, the opponents of the scheme ought to be represented at the scat where the ratepayers' money is voted. The committee accordingly determined to nominate three candidates to represent their views.