MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Issue 629, 8 February 1867, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

What we want hbbe.— The Bendigo Independent says :— Mr Anderson, a dairyman at the Big Hill, had a field of eight acres ot mangoldwurtzel which was attacked by caterpillars and grubs, and seven acres out of the eight fell a pjrey. A recent heavy fall of rain partially checked *the destruction. This was followed by the appearance of, not a flock, but what our informant called a " clond" of brown birds, about the size and apdearance of the wattle bird. They alighted in the field and in a few hours the ravages were stayed, and a clean sweep was made of the caterpillars — not one was to be seen. Having fulfilled their mission, the birds disappeared as suddenly as they had come. . CUBIOSITIES OP THE TELEGRAPH. — A 8 New York is TBdeg. to the west of Paris, it follows that it is seven o'clock in the evening at New York when it is midnight at Paris. Suppose, then, that a great edifice in Paris — the Opera, for example — : takes fire at a quarter-past twelve at night on the Ist September next, the event is immediately telegraphed from Paris to New York, and is dated "Paris, a quarter-past twelvo at night, Ist September." The news arrives at ' New York, let us say, in two hours. This despatch arrives at New York at a quarter-past nine in the evening of the 31st August ; so that a New York manager could appear on the stage, and after the three customary bows could thus express himself: — "Ladies and Q-endemen, — I am sorry to have to inform you that the Opera at Paris has been destroyed by fire three hours after the present time. Our director has just transmitted to his Paris confrere his condolence on the disaster which is going to happen to him." A Bich CottpliE. — The London correspondent of Sounders' 's Neios Letter says: — The betrothal is just declared of perhaps our very wealthiest marriageable lady (for Miss Burdett Coutts I look upon as already wedded to her good wdris), and Dame Fortune, in her blindest mood, has decreed that she shall find a bridegroom nearly as wealthy as herself. Such will be the case in the marriage of Earl Beauchamp with Miss Dundas-Christopher-Hamilton-Nisbett, in whom each patronymic is understood to imply a fortune. Lord Beauchamp, well known in the House of Commons as the staunch Conservative memberfor Worcestshire, succeeded last year, by the death of his brother, to the title and estates, estimated at over forty thousand a year. But his bride is even more richly endowed, foi it is admitted that she will ultimately succeed to an income of more than sixty thousand a year, to say nothing of an immense and increasing amount of ready money. How came the band of fascinating younger brothers to let slip such a prize ?