MISCELLANEOUS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2012, 25 February 1890, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

In Iceland there are no prisons and no officers answering to our policemen.

The gross valuation of London is £38,562,493 18s, and the rateable value £31,592,387 2s 6d. The old house in Sandgate street, Ayr, in which Burns received part of his education, has just been demolished.

The Cape Government has decided to adopt Professor Seeley'a proposal for a geological survey under his charge. He believes that other eruptive diamond-bearing tracts like Kimberley exist elsewhere. The Empress of Germany is said to wear on her shoulder at Court fetes a magnificent aigraffe in diamonds, which belonged to Napoleon 1,, and which was attached to his hat at Waterloo. The business of Messrs A. and F. Pears is, it is stated, to be turned into a limited liability company, with a capital of £1,000,000, and the shares will soon be offered to the public It is estimated that, in the case of one of the principal Scottish oil companies, the advance of 10 percent, granted to all empleyes will increase the company's wages bill to the extent of £BOOO.

a writer in the Auckland Star competes for " the kettle " in railway stories asfollowB: The scene ie, say, tbe Grand Hotel, and a traveller comes dashing in at 11 p.m. and demands a bed, as he wishes to retire at once. Asked why he cemes so late, he replies that he ought to have arrived about 6 in the afternoon, but the " infernallv

slow trains delayed him. Stopped everywhere and stopped as long as | they could. If the engineer saw a j dog fight stopped the whole train to look at it. Stopped at big stations and little stations, stopped for drinks, and stopped for nothing at all but pure cussedness. I never saw or heard of anything like it." A little meek

man in the corner suggested that he knew of a slower train. He was immediately jumped at, and blushmgly told of a train from Helensville which a few months back used to stop regularly near Waikomiti to pick up a basket of eggs from an old woman, who sent them to a grocer in town. One day the train stopped as usual, but instead of a dozen the old lady had only eleven. " And what do you think the kind hearted engineer did ?" " Give it up." " Waited till the hen

laid the extra egg. Solid fact." A house, insured for £225, was destroyed by fire in Wellington on Friday evening. A Chinaman suffering from leprosy, who for some years occupied a hut near Eiverton, Southland, has been sent home, thus relieving the local authorities of a considerable item of expenditure.