MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 144, 10 May 1879, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

General Grant is said to have taken, a great fancy to the Prince of Wales, of whom he saw a good deal last summer in Paris. The General and Lord Napier were also great cronies at Gibralter. It is said that never, even under the management of Mr C. Kean, has any play of Shakespeare's been placed upon • the stage with such scrupulous care and such artistic taste as are displayed in the revival of Hamlet in London by Irving. German Socialists are beginning to arrive in London, that refuge for Continental outlaws, and one of them, Herr Most, has started a German paper. A paragraph is going the round of tho papers to the effect that eucalyptus in pots are placed in hospitals in Prussia with a view to ameliorate the air and destroy contagion. Fiji is a Cmwn colony, governed absolutely by a Governor appointed in Great Britain. The inhabitants, both native and European, have no \ oice in political matters.

In the, New York penitentiary there are 27 cleru-vmen, 42 lawyers, IS doctors, and S nri { .,':ers. As usual, the printers are The Quarterly Journal of Science says that Phelps' dunlcx .telephone is as far beyond Bell's ' ' Westlyr "Richard's central fire breech-loader is beyond a Joe Manton. Mrs Anderson's feat of walking 2/00 quarter miles in 2700 quarter hours has been beaten by May Marshall in Wellington, and Mrs La Chappella in Chicago. Engineers of steamships have found that the best lubricants are glycerine for the cylinders and castsr oil for the bearings. When castor oil is used the mam bearings seldom become heated. The°Grand Lodge of Chinese Masons met at Vallejo, California, on the Ist of December, and was attended by many / Chinese dignitaries from various sections. The New York ' Times' employs a lady as live-stock reporter, and this lady, Miss Midy Morgan, has recently sent a description of the Islington Cattle Market to that paper. A grant of £1.500.000 has been made by Parliament for Zulu war expenses, not without some sharp comments fiom the Home Rulers and the Radicals. ' Nature' says that Mr E. A. Cowper, mechanical engineer, has invented an instrument, the marvels of which are quite as startling as those of the telephone. It it a real telegraphic writing machine. It reproduces even the hand writing. , The Bee-keeper's Association of California have offered a prize for the discovery of a method of converting honey into a form of crystalline sugar. The wholesale price of California honey is 3|<i per lb. Two very small children are on exhibition in New York. The larger. General Mite, is 14 years old, and weighs 91bs. The smaller, Mis Lucia Zarate, is 10 years old, but weighs only 4flbs. Dr Talmage, who is considered to be the defender of sensationalism in the pulpit, is under examination as to his sensational style of preaching by a committee of the Brooklyn Presbytery. Arrangements are now in progress for the visit of three separate English cricket teams to America during the coming summer. The first eleven to arrive will be Lord Harris's team lately playing in Australia. The Burgomaster of Vienna urges the Government to. sanction cremation, as a precautionary measure against the plague. A committee consisting of ladies and gentlemen has been elected to carry out a scheme for providing at Oxford a higher education for women.

Lord Beaconsfield, it is reported, is maturing plans, the designs of which will be to make the Duke of Connaught Viceroy of Ireland. A plague of female pedestrianism lias broken out in the States. Fresh candidates were daily making their obeisance to an indulgent and long-suffering public. No country newspaper is worthy of the name, or worthy of existence, which does not largely subordinate all other departments to the news of the locality in which it is published. In Scotland successful effort* have been made for the establishment of Working ruen's Clubs without the sale of intoxicadrinks. Count Mocenigo has, according to La Nature, been applying the microphone to detect earthquake vibrations in the ground. - The American Mail says that when we consider Italy, with 28,090,000 of inhabi. tants, or Russia with 70,000,000, which have nothing to compare with the Australasian newspaper press, we may give the latter great credit. As an instance of Scotch enterprise, it is j mentioned that an under-ground showroom for exhibiting ball dresses by gas light has been opened by Kemp and Sous, in Buchanan street, Glasgow. The oatmeal manufactory of Stuart and Douglas, in cedar Rapids, lowa, is a very large establishment. The building, of stone, is six storeys high, has twelve run •of stones, and produces 600 barrels of meal per diem. They ship large quantities to England. Mr"Moulton, the " Lightning Calculator," and .Mr Voltaire, ventriloquist, have been lately making things lively for Ohristchurch people in the open air. The Australasian says that the Rev Joseph Cook enjoys this advantage over other lecturers, that he knows something about evolution. It adds, however, that as a scholar he falls far below the Eev Mr Martineau. Congress has passed a bill permitting women of the necessary qualifications to practise law in the United States Supreme Court. This is fair. Give the ladies a chance. Sarah D. Wheeler, a wealthy maiden of New York Slate, has been sentenced to the countyjaol until she pays a fine and costs of 150d015., because she wculd not paj 7 her taxes of Godols unless she could vote. The ' Ashlmrton Mail' hopes that the Stad Haarlem affair will be the means of driving a little sense into the Dr.nedin Harbour Board, and induce them to begin their improvements at the right end. A LondoD paper says it is too bad of the Colonies (notably Victoria and Canada) to make the mother country fight for their establishment, and then impose heavy duties on the import of their goods. The January number of tiie Psychological Review, contains interesting articles by Mrs De Morgan, Mr Epes Sargent, John Page Hopps, and Mrs Nosworthy, daughter of the late George Thompson. In the great city of London, as in Dunedin, the producers of poultry withheld their stock at the approach of Christmas until the last moment, and then thei-e was a glut and lower prices than would otherwise have been obtained. The barque Clara-left New York for Australia on the 17th January, fully loaded with sewing machines, express waggons, household furniture, pumps, clocks, stoves, and cutlery. "Hygiene of the Brain" is a curious "work just published in America, bearing upon subjects suggested by the title, in which many distinguished persons describe their physical and intellectual habits. • The boat race for £4OO and the championship of Great Britain, between Higains and Elliott, on Tyne, resulted in a victory for Elliott, who beat Higgins by about three lengths Tlif 'iNeu Ynl lubnne m n iccml nT .+ n 1 t i ? ini non i f th J

So general has the distress become that in Port:uio\vn, County Armagh, Ireland, the Town OoDimissjo'iers have felt it necessary !,';> provide relief works for a large number of the unemployed. Denis Kearney is stumping California, and addressing b.rge audiences, in support of the new State Constitution. The general tendency of this new constitution is in favor of greater freedom, A leader of fashion in San Francisco, Cal., has had her chairs and sofas, and the. cushions of her carriages stuffed with aromatic herbs, in imitation of a practice prevalent among Oriental nations.