ODDS AND ENDS.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 50, 17 May 1884, Page 3

ODDS AND ENDS.

FLOAOTffu Population.— -Sailors. Worse than the potato bn^,— Humbug. Jam is a drug s» the English market. London actors haye 1 seven drabs. Mark Twain is nearly && years old. The latest London crazw is banjo-playing-, Hem to be a man ? The Gtrremov says— " Put money in the Savings Bank," Mr Geo. Htrtchinson intends to con£««4 Wanganui. The Marquis of Bute 5» said to be an accomplished Hebrew scholar. Grapes can be bought in AMcante, Spain, for a half-penny per pound. Germany supplies half the toysr »old in Paris. Gordon Pasha was formerly a military engineer under Sir Wm. Jervois. Frozen mutton, ex lonic, landed in London 5n splendid condition. Favourite philosopher of the clergy — Plate, 0 I 'Frisco mails dated Auckland, April Ist, were delivered in London on May 9th. 11 You'll split my sides," as the oak tree said to the flash of lightning. May a man justly consider his wife poetical when she is a verse to him ? Lord Roseberry is to take the chair at the banquet to Sir Henry Loch in London. Lord Randolph Churchill has become reconciled to his party. Australian meat per Abergeldie has reached London in bad condition. Last winter 2,000,000 cabbages were sent from Denmark to New York. Planting onions among apple trees is said to be a perfect remedy for American blight. Auckland still wants more lunatic accommodation. Last year 163,000,000 tons of coal were put out in England. A cheap edition of Browning's poems is expected to be issued. Josh Pickersgill is in Sydney arranging for the advent of Donald Dinnie. The poet Swinburne goes to America to give readings from his own poems. Edison, the inventor, like Henry George, is a printer by trade. A Canterbury farmer sends his grain to mcirket by a steam road engine in preference to the railway, In the chess match, Wellington v. Canterbury, the former has a slight advantage. The Victorian Government is about to take over the telephonic exchange from a private company. Thames County Council invite tenders for considerable improvements on the Thames-Tauranga Road, via Karangahake. See Mrs Wooldridge in her original part of "Mrs Jarvis " at the Opera House this week. The Mexican Government is importing Flemish people to introduce into that country the cultivation of flax. The Austrian Parliament lately paeeed a measure assuring compensation to persona who may be wrongly convicted. Artificial flowers are now so exquisitely scented that they are mistaken for natural flowers. No Norwegian girl is allowed to have a beau until she can bake bread and knit stockings. Sheep were sold early this month at la per head at Toowoomba, Queensland. Drought the cause. A pleasing Persian astrolo^ist explains that these red sunsets betoken by far the bloodiest war ever known. Lord Chesterfield designates ugly women as the third ?ex ; how shall we place ugly men? Mr H. M. Lyon is appointed Treasurer and Assistant Secretary to Wellington Harbour Board at £300 a year. The Kennedy Family, on their reaching Sydney from Auckland, opened to large and enthusiastic houses. While there is great scarcity of work in Otago, contractors in the Waikato are advertising for scores of labourers at 7s to 8s a day, and cannot get them. There are cases in tenement houses in Birmingham, England, in which two families, including children, occupy one room. Major Kemp and his daughter have been fined in Wanganui Police Court, the latter for being drunk and disorderly, and the former fcr resisting the police. Auckland might with advantage establish a ladies' club on the English model, to supply reading room, cloak and parcel room, refreshments, registry office for servants, and other conveniences of great value. The present condition of Wellington has been thus summarised: — "Weather very windy, cold and wintry; no waterreservoir nearly empty ; Civil Servants trembling with uncertainty ; no money in the place, and the Banks calling in overdrafts ; such is Wellington !" A single Vermin Board in South Australia last year killed 526 dogs, 7,704 kangaroos, 3.03S wallabies, 35,779 rabbits, and 235 eaglehawks. The cost of all this was £1,785 17s 6d. In America there is what is called the garter snake. But a modern girl always blushesand says "limbencircling ophidan." "The only jokes wemen like to read are those which reflect ridicule on men " Yes ; " on taking up a paper a woman invariably turns to the marriage column." The cabmen and 'busmen of London are nearly all Conservatives in politics and members of the Church of England. Some of them are highly educated. Two stacks of oats belonging to Mr Menlove, and the kennels of Mr Sewell, both in Oamaru district, were burned down yeaterday. Evidently there are incendiaries about. In the Sydney Legislature lately Sir John Robertson remarked that— "A Government without money was liky a cat in h without claws." Rather choice Parliamentary language. The editor of a Canadian journal thus advertises: "We hereby notify the public that we will not do any more printing for balls or other questionable entertainments. We have conscientious convictions which we are determined to adhere to strictly, even at the risk of giving offence." According to the " Bay of Plenty Times,' there is no warrant for the statement that Ex-Judge Fenton, in conjunction with Mr Mitchell, has been successful in getting th© Rotorua natives to agree to set apart about 20,000 acres of land a3 a free grant for the railway, &c. The whole idea is wrong ; an attempt to get the natives to adopt such & course is nearer the mark, but the natires refuse to deal in any way except a formal sale to the Government, and the Government then can do as they please in regard to the railway. | |The railway freight charges here are, in some instances, rather astonishing. We are informed that the freight charged for one truck of coal from Taupiri to Otuhuhu is L 2 12s lOd, and from Taupiri to Auckland, a further distance of 9 miles, LI 17s 6d Rather than pay the former rate, one Auckland dealer, when executing orders from Otahuhufor Taupiri coal, hasitfirstdelivered hero at LI 17s 6d per truck, and then foiwards it back by rail to Otahuhu at an additional cost of 11s per truck. Tho total cost of delivery by this roundabeut method is i luti 'oio L 2 8s 6d, but still a saving of 4s 4d yvv track is effected by pursuing, this practice rather than having the coal left at Otahuhu when coming down the lino on the first occasion,