MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 132, 26 March 1879, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Cavill, the long-distance swimmer, who is now exhibiting in Victoria, swims always on bis right side, using Ins left arm with the greatest force. Ho does 25 strokes to the minute. The Queenslanders speak of relieving the depression in the cattle market by_reopening the meat preserving establishments. The depression is partly caused by the falling-off of demand from other colonies. The Melbourne ‘Argus ’ of a late date says—“ The drought and the rust combined have placed great numbers of the selectors in different districts in the colony in a deplorable position.” The newest thing out is manufactured food for dogs. It is made in the form of hard biscuits, which, .it is said, the canines soon take special delight in gnawing as they would a meat bone. A Co-operative Meat Supply Company is about to be formed in Sydney, with a capital of L 20,000. Meat is to be brought from the cool high districts by rail. The Supreme Court of the United States sitting at Washington, has decided the antipolygamy law to be constitutional. This is unfortunate, as there is some danger of its leading to a civii war. It is stated as a remarkable fact that the octoroon wife of Senator Bruce has received many New Year’s calls from the Washington fashionables, thus breaking down the colored liu&, heretofore strictly observed.

Mr Harold W. H. Stephenson, of S} rdney, states that Mr, Bradbuigh and Mrs Besant are about to visit Australia on a lecturing tour. The North Wales Slate quarry men and the North Wales Miners’ Association, offer L 7 to every member who will emigrate to America, and Ll 4 to those who leave for Australia. On a recent voyage of the steamship Colima, from Montreal to Glasgow, 167 cattle and 200 sheep and pigs were thrown overboard to relieve the ship in a storm. Steps are being taken in Dunfermline, Eifeshire, to raise a fund for the relief of the unemployed operatives in the town. The Syracuse University proposes to raise L4o,oooclols. to endow a professorship in the liberal arts to be filled by a woman, who is to be elected by a Board of Trustees. The Canadian Government are engaged in considering a scheme for the establishment of a permanent military force in the Dominion, and for remodelling the local militia, A lady in Sonora, California, planted an orange seed fifteen year’s ago. She now has a tree, twenty feet in height, covered with oranges. Professor Watson has been guaranteed by the citizens of Detroit GO.OOOdols. for the purchase of the largest and most powerful telescope in the world, to be located at Ann Arbor, Michagan. A vessel is to leave San Francisco shortly taking with her a steam lauch und a newly invented rocket for killing whales at thirty fathoms. The steam and powder will no doubt wake up some of the leviathans cf the Arctic. Renton, Dumbartonshire, Penny Savings Bank has now reached its fourteenth year, during which period the sum of L2OOO has been deposited in it. Last year the amount lodged was L 232, and the repayments L 67. It is said that Mr Walter, chief proproprietor of the London ‘Times,’ and (heretofore) liberal M.P., is to be rewarded with a peerage for having deserted the liberal party. If the Corporation Bill, now before Parliament, passes into law, tiie Sydney Corporation will receive an endowment of L 25,090 a year for ten years, but this will not relieve them from their embarassmonts. The latest statistics of the RegistrarGeneral in England prove that there are in tliat connti’y nearly a million more females than males.

There is at this moment lying at the Bank of England the sum of L 20,000, lodged there by some zealous botanist, as a reward to be given to the man or woman who shall produce a blue dahlia. The Karl of Aberdeen has formally opened the Ni r e Elms Coffee and Reading Rooms, London, which have been built at a cost of nearly £SOOO. Three million dollars of the new Jaoanese loan are to be allotted by the Government for opening the mines and establishing factories, mills, &c. The fine new steamer, Arcs Castle, has commenced running between the Clyde and Oban, and the Sound of Mull, Tiree, and Coll. The founders of the National Protectionists’ Association of Queensland at Brisbane, are taking active steps to establish branches of the organisation in other towns of the colony. The ‘ Times ’ states that Mr Stearns has succeeded in applying his duplex system-rf telegraphy to the Anglo-Ameri-can cables. While the Brißgh infantry rifle is sighted up to 1600 yairds. that of Germany 7 is sighted up to 1750, and of France up to 1970. The late Rev. T. Stewart, of Cambusbarron, Stirlingshire, was ordained in New Zealand in 1872, where he ministered, but on his health breaking down lie retired to Scotland. The number of gentlemen enrolled as members of the N.Z. Royal Agricultural Society is 176. When there are 400 members active preparations on the part of the Society will be commenced. Prince Leopold is said to bo an extremely agreeable and refined person, greatly resembling his father in his mental constitution. He is a good musician, and has very High Church views. The Edinburgh School Board is again bringing before the Government the propriety of establishing day industrial schools in the city. As a gun was being lowered into the transport Bemarsund, at Chatham, the tackle broke, and the gun, weighing oversix tons, fell into the hold. The vessel was beached to prevent her sinking. A grand complimentary ball and a number of presents were given to Mr Thomas Walker, at the Manchester Unity Hall, Melbourne, on the attainment of his majority. In England ten thousand men at the present time working at agiiculture are producing as much food as twenty thousand men twenty years ago. Mr John Crawford, Merton, New Zealand—who left Dairy about twenty years ago—has sent the Rev Alex. Paterson £3O to be appropriated to various objects in the parish.

Utah has now more than twice as many people as Colorado had wito. the latter was admitted as a State of the Union, and the only reason why Utah was kept out was the polygamy question. An Electric Light Company has been incorporated in San Francisco. This new company will, said, furnish a better light than gas, at a cost of one • fourth the price charged by the companies. A new synagogue, said to be one of the finest in the world, has been opened in Warsaw. It has cost (the ‘Jewish World’ says) £BO,OOO, exclusive of the cost of site, which was about £IO,OOO. The landed proprietors of Aberdeenshire have voluntarily assessed themselves at .he rate of one-tenth of a penny per £ for assisting a scnool for chemistry and agriculture for the county. The‘Times,’ ha its financial summary for 1878. says :—“ Industries have been disorganised, credit shaken and failures multiplied on every hand. The failures will be nearly five thousand more than last yeai - .”