FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 75, 4 September 1878, Page 2

FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

We have in New Zealand 450 parsons, the numbers being as follows : Church of England, 156 ; Presbyterian, 108 ; Roman Catholic, 57 ; and other denominations, 129— 0 r, about one to every 880 of the population. There are 262 Is wyers, of whom Dunedin claims 51, Auckland 44, Wellington and Christchurch, each 30, the balance being pretty evenly scattered —the proportion being about one to every 1100. The doctors muster 242, and Dunedin has again the lion’s share, 31; Christchurch following with 24, Aucklaid 21, and Wellington with 15 —one to every 1230; while of commission agents (those beings abhorred by lawyers), there are something like 350. A lunatic woman jumped overboard from a vessel lying in the Manawatu River and was drowned. At the inquest a verdict of manslaughter was returned against two persons in charge of her for neglecting to keep a proper watch upon ' her. 3 Dr Somerville, in his farewell address at Auckland, Aug 20. said he had everywhere been received with an affection which touched him deeply, and sometimes overpowered him. He would for ever remember the kindness he had received in these beautiful islands, and the kind friends he had made in them. Diamonds of considerable value have - been found in Tasmania. A wealthy squatter proposes the construction, by private enterprise, of a railway from Port Darwin through Queensland to Now South Wales and Victoria. He will take shares + o the extent of half a million. The Sultan of Zanzibar has invented a new royal sport. He has had a war yatch built, in which, when the weather is fine, he will hunt slavers. Lord Beaconsfield has summed up his view of human existence in a phrase more epigraramatical than a Welsh triad, that youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, and old age is a regret. The average annual value of the musical instruments made in Paris during the last six years has been twenty-three million francs, divided among three hnndred and sixty makers, emploj’ing no fewer than five thousand workmen. Paris turns out every year one million three hundred and twenty thousand franca worth of accordions. Pianos figure for • eleven million four hundred thousand francs ; organs, for nearly five millions and a half : wind, wood, and metal instruments, for nearly four millions, but bowed instruments, for less than half a million. The Assyrian inscriptions reveal the fact that under the Babylonian kings it was common to cast men alive into a burning, fiery furnace, and also into a den of lions. Summer camping parties is the latest American invention in socialities. Up to August 22 the Australians had played 28 matches in England, winning 12, losing 6, and drawing 10 A telephone is in operation between Port Chalmers and Quarantine Island. The authorities of the city of Pesth are sinking an artesian well which, when finished, will be one ol the wonders of the world. It is already 3120 feet deep, and tie water issuing from it has a temperature of 161 degrees Fahrenheit. It is intended to sink until a warmth of 178 degrees is obtained. The well is then expected to supply about 200,000 gallons of nearly boiling water for the use of the city. The * Court Journal’ declares that the wearing of the beard has a tendency to prolong life. Go in for hair-vigorating at once. But is it true ? Did Mathuselah shave, now ? or old Parr ? and can the > rule be applied to women ? Would a r false beard do as well as a natural one ? ‘ Mias Carmichael, who was saved from the Loch Ard, has returned home. A Scotch swindler was nicely bowled out lately at home. He was sueing to recover payment of certain sums alleged to be due since 1866, and produced an account book in which entries were dated so far back, and sworn to have been made at that time. The judge discovered from the water-mark that the paper of which the book was composed \ was made in 1874.