MISCELLANEOUS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 290, 28 March 1877, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

rjfCESMAßfcttl AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. '- A man and woman have been condemned to twenty-five and five years penal ; servitude at Winchester for causing a I series of fires in lodgings and houses, the fnmitttre of which they had insured. The male- priioaie*. was connctte.l with thirteen fires. • AN ILLITERATE FAXStH-O. Tito Chairman of the Necdham Market Petty Sessions (the P»ev. F. Steward), in the course of some remarks at Necdham Market reeentlv, stated that no one could be found in WttUsham, near Jpswich, to : occupy the office of churchwarden, sur- : veyor, or overseer; and one who attended ' the petty sessions with the jury lists, was so illiterate that he was obliged to obtain the ; help of the local postman to fill tip the ! notices. It was also stated that there had been no s.H-vtcr in the church, which is very dilapidated, every window being broken for more than two yean*. A VAUWttI.K WIFE. The //"u»"o.-6 Fs-pt>-nf.»r is informed of a woman, the wife of a German farmer, in the township of Cothorne m that comity. wli.t hist Fatt ploughed seventeen acres of land. '1 his s.aaon she mowed with a grass scythe for six day.*: she raked ten acres vt h.iy with a horse-rake, and did the work with a tr old colt which she •• broke in" liers.;tf, she having been tho firs" to put harness on the animal ; she loaded, unloaded, and teamed all the lime and sand rvtpund for a new house 20 x 30 feet : she loaded and unloaded all the grain and bay grown on her husband's farm this season, besides much other similar work. This outdoor work was done in addition to the usual house work, including the milking and caring for the milk of seven cows. AN ANCIENT EBl.tr'. The tftwr.th Time* says :—On Saturday last, after some go->ds had been landed front the steamer, a document was discov\ red laying between two of the cases on the beach, which, on being examtiu'd, turned out to be a visiting Magistrate's report on the Convict department at Fingat. in the Australian Colonics, hearing data a"t far back as Franks. It gives the names of certain men who were to receive certain sentences for various misdemeanors, the ship they came in, &c Perhaps the most curious part in the history of this rAic is the perfect state of preservation it is in, looking as fresh as if it only come out of some departmental pigeon hole. It is quite a mystery as to how it found its way hither, especially laying loosely between two cases. It is at th& present time in the hands of the police for them io solve the problem. HOW TEA»'HE'RS ARE PAID. The Christchurch «#«*>" has the following ;—"Complaints have occasionally been made of the small salaries obtained by many persons engaged in the teaching profession in New Z.-aland. Theremuneration is no doubt on a much lower scale generally—though there are a few prizes than that obtainable in some other professions for which the course of preparation is not more arduous, nor the talent required superior. But New Zealand teachers may consider themselves millioii-airt-S compared with some of their brethren and sisters over the water. The average salaries in Victoria are lower than here, but Tasmania seems entitled to the palm of meannuss in this respect. The Ifo'xtrt | Tumi, Jfiyrunr contains the following adI vertisetwent :— * Wanted, immediately, a Female- Teacher. Salary (paid quarterly), 1 to a person who would conduct the church choir, £4O per annum ; to others, £',i~j per 'annum-.'" „ ~ ..,.,,»,. rt^.. Poyond the fact that yotm :■: ladies occa- ! sionally fish, or are alleged to fish for husbands, there would at first sight appear to be bn-t little connection between fishing and matrimony. lint in some parts of Scotland the herring season is equivalent to the London season as regards matrimonial prospects. Jf the season is a dull one, weddings- are few in number, whereas when the season b brilliant, young couples '"pair off" with comparative briskness. This year the failure in the herring fishery has had, it is stated, a very depressing etfect on the matrimonial market at nearly all the fishing stations. The decrease in the marriages in the three months ending September SOth last is very considerable. In the Island of Lewes, with upwards of 25,000 inhabitants, there were only two marriages, mml in Wick, with a population of 13,Wft, the number of marriages was only* thirteen, being rather more than half the tfcsnal total. Over the whole of Boss and Cromarty, with about 83,000 inhabitants, there wete only thirty marriages. The fishermen, in short, seem to be displaying the same kind of w iluies3 as the herrings.— Patt Mall Gazelle.