MISCELLANEOUS

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2559, 3 June 1881, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS

The Melbourne Coffee Palace have been enabled to declare a 12£ per cent, dividend for the year, and are now making extensive additions to their premises, which will provide 120 sleeping apartments for the accommodation of all classes. A Philadelphia paper vouches for the troth of an extraordinary .story. A lady while in a railway car had her attention attracted to a diamond ring on the finger of a gentleman who was silting beside her. On leaving the ear she went to a store and found that her purse had disappeared, but that the diamond ring was in her pocket, it having baen apparently stripped from the finger of the thief. The purse contained 10 dols ; the ring is worth five hundred. Vast efforts were made by the Russian Government last summer to destroy the grasshoppers. The work was carried on for about four months, and occupied in one district, Gori, no fewer than 20,000 people per day. These colossal efforts resulted in cutting down the ratio of crops destroyed to two per cent. While many million roubles’ worth of hay and corn were saved, the enterprise cost the Government 200,000 roubles. Many thousand acres of fields and gardens were neglected by their owners because the extra work offered in the grasshopper district was more remunerative. The question as to the posture in which a man may place himself in his pew has been recently before an American court. An American jury has recently decided that John Dick, of Warshaw, New York, had a right to sit in his pew, in the German Lutheran Church, with his feet elevated upon the back of the scat in front of him. Onida —Woman only runs away to be run after, and if you do not pursue her, she comes back—always. Eochefoncald—We pass often from love to ambition, but we seldom return from ambition to love. Henry Wattersen —Woman is the handorgan of the devil, and man is the monkey that dances to the music. Seneca—The goodness of gold is tried by fire, the goodness of women by gold, and the goodness of men by women. La Itocbefoucaldr—There is but one kind of love, but there are a thousand different copies of it. Josh Billings—Bashfulness iz often like the plating on spoons—wen it wares orf ic shos the brass. A proud but thoughtless father who has a talented son studying for the ministry says that the young man already can preach “ like the very devil himself.” A minister who is poorly paid gets at last £3OO a year, with slippers,boots, &c. thrown in. Young men should tbink of these things before in the precarious profession of journalism—in which there are no slippers, only boots.

A man named Clarke, who was thrown from his horse yesterday, and taken to the Hospital, died there to-day from the effects of his injuries. The Harts will appear at Tcrauka tonight in their popular entertainment of “ Happy Hours.” They have recently been performing at Waimate to crowded houses. Mr Kelly addressed his constituents at New Plymouth last evening. He received a vote of confidence. The Wellington correspondent- of the “Lyttelton Times” telegraphs : —“ Some most important gold discoveries have been made in the immediate vicinity of Wellington. Careful tests afforded gratifying results, but the discoverers consider it advisable not to give the matter much publicity until tests on a larger scale confirm those made on a smaller one. From the Terawhiti diggings most encouraging news has also been received within the past few days. Those in the secret are jubilant that Wellington is on the eve of a great developement of gold-mining industry. When they speak more definitely I shall be able to give you a definite idea of heir chances.” Our musical readers should inspect the orguinettes—beautiful automatic musical instruments now on view at W. Collins and Co’s auction rooms and to be disposed of by art union. Ferricr’s portrait rooms opposite Theatre Royal are now open.