FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 104, 14 December 1878, Page 2

FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

The Auckland City Council spent £21,000 on street improvements.- last year. '

The Customs revenue for November was £96,667.

The New Zealand National Anthems are ready for distribution. A good deal of the Southminster’s cargo is being saved. The railway traffic returns for the four weeks ending October 19 show the total receipts to have been £47,026. - ’ The Thorndon reclamation, Wellington, was finished on Friday, the 6th instant. The area reclaimed is upwards of fifty acres, -

A prospectus of an “ Otago Slate Company ” has been issued, which proposes to float a company with a capital of LIOO,OOO, in shares of L2 each. The Benevolent Institution, Dunedin, is the fashion just now surely. A 4 calico ’ ball is to be held next Tuesday in aid thereof. A feature of the affair is that the dresses in which ladies and gentlemen a 1 tend are to be given immediately afterwards to the institution.

An exchange contains an account of the application of milk as a substitute'for blood transfusion. The writer claims for it several advantages over blood for the purpose indicated. In many respects children and young folks are not trusted enough. They are “bossed’’too much. The fate of the “lost tribes” cannot remain in obscurity much longer. A society is in course of promotion in Dunedin for the purpose of investigating the matter.

A German who had been trying a. Robinson Crusoe life near Masterton, living on shell-fish and mutton,’ and dressed in sheep-skins, was recently sent to gaol for a month for vagrancy/ : An exchange learns that the Marquis of Normanby will leave this colony at the end of January. If his successor does not arrive here in time to assume the Governorship, the Ciiief Justice of the colony will, no doubt, as usual, fill the position of 1 cting Governor.

There were 585 candidates for matriculation at the October term of the .Melbourne University. Of the above number 121 were ladies.

The Presbyterian fast-days, which havo

been felt to be a nuisance by nonPresbyterians through the suspension of business, are to he abandoned in Dunedin, cxe fe| by the members of the First/ Church. - i

A German paper refers the different and threatening attitude of the German, workmen towards the national Government as compared with the friendly attitude of the British workmen, to their not being permitted io take any active part in legislation, and to special combinations being forbidden.

The following extract from an unpublish ;d work ou the ethnology of the Afghans, by Mr Talboys Wheeler, will be of interest ; —To all appearance the Afghans are of Jewish origin ; not’Mews of the orthodox type, the outcome of Jerusalem and the Temple worship, but Jews of the old, turbulent, stiff-necked type, who revolted at Scliechem against Rehoboam, and set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The Afghans claim to be descendants of Saul, the son of Kish.

They are divided info clans, tribes, and families. They distribute conquered lands by lot, perform the ceremony of the scapegoat, and build shrines on high places. Their features are unmistakably Jewish ; but their language is not Hebrew, nor anything - akin to Hebrew. It is conjectured that they are the descendants of the ten tribes whom the King of Asyrria earned away to the city of the Medes, but the loss of all traces of the Hebrew language militates against this theory, and it is impossible to verify- the identity. In modern times they are Mahommedans of the Sunni religion, .and traditional foes of the Persians or Shiahs.

Their revengeful spirit is a proverb in India. No man is said to be safe from the revenge of an elephant, a cobra, or an Afghan.”

Scarcely a week passes without one hearing of stones or logs laid across one or other railway lines in the North Island. Much more seldom do we hear of such a tiling being done in this island. Why this difference in the development of mischief.

The “Intelligent Vagrant of the ‘Bruce Herald ’ tells the following story:

Some nice milking cattle had a singular and narrow escape lately. Mr A knew that there was an execution out against bis goods, and not wishing to have-his furniture seized, went to Mr B and said ; “There’s aheap of feed in my paddocks just now, old man, put your milch, cows into them ; the deuce is in it if I can’t do an old friend a good turn.” Mr B accepted the offer with thanks. Mr A.then got a mutual friend to lead the bailiff past the paddocks, and to casually mention that those were nice cattle of A’s. About this time, in consequence of information received, B was able to perform that singular physiological feat called “ smelling a rat,” and hastened to drive his cattle put. of A’s paddocks. Just as he got them on the road, the bailiff arrived with the writ, and the cattle, as I have said, had a singular and narrow escape.